Chapter 71: Mutated Python
“Hold!”
Chu Yang barked a sharp command, his right hand thrusting forward and closing into a fist. As if yanking on an invisible net, he pulled sharply toward the cluster of charging zombies!
An invisible, crushing force field slammed down. The zombies’ movements instantly bogged down, their limbs turning sluggish as though they had waded into deep, invisible mud.
The spatial containment lasted only a fleeting fraction of a second, but for Jiang Jue, it was more than enough.
Tilting his head just a hair, he narrowly dodged a rotting leg swinging toward his face, the foul-smelling wind whipping his black hair across his cheek.
Simultaneously, a highly condensed cluster of purple lightning sparked to life at the tips of his left fingers. With pinpoint precision, he drove the strike straight into the zombie’s exposed chest!
Sizzle!
The penetrating power of the lightning was devastating, instantly boring deep into the creature’s core! The zombie let out a shrill, mangled howl as blue smoke billowed from its flesh, its limbs twisting into grotesque shapes.
Jiang Jue didn’t pause for a breath. With his right hand, he whipped his long blade backward, carving a flawless, sweeping arc from bottom to top. The steel edge sliced effortlessly up through the zombie’s jaw, bursting out the back of its skull.
The howling stopped abruptly.
The creature convulsed once and slammed heavily onto the floor tiles, the murky energy field surrounding its body dissipating completely like a receding tide.
Chu Yang let out a long breath and crouched down. Drawing a dagger, he skillfully cracked open the skull and rummaged through the viscous gray matter for a moment.
“Pure white… pushing close to Tier 3. Looks like this one had a Psychic-type ability.” Wiping the gore from the core, Chu Yang handed it to Jiang Jue, who stepped up beside him. “Neither of us has this affinity, so the absorption rate will drop, but the energy itself is incredibly pure. We should keep it for trading or use it as a backup.”
Jiang Jue took the crystal core, turning it over briefly before raising his dark eyes to Chu Yang. His gaze swept over the younger man in a quick, assessing glance. Confirming there were no new wounds, he let out a quiet breath, the rigid tension in his shoulders softening slightly.
“Mm,” he replied simply, tucking the core away.
“That guy was surprisingly tough,” Chu Yang muttered, rotating his aching wrist. The mental strain from casting the containment field left his fingertips trembling faintly. “Let’s head back downstairs and regroup before the others start worrying.”
The two had just turned toward the stairwell when a sudden, terrifying shift occurred in the air!
Without a shred of warning, Chu Yang’s heart gave a violent lurch, and a chilling sense of lethal danger slithered up his spine like an ice-cold viper.
Moving purely on raw instinct, he twisted sideways, grabbed Jiang Jue by the arm, and hauled them both into a dive behind an overturned metal desk!
Whoosh—!
A hair-thin, near-invisible arc of energy whipped past the exact spot Jiang Jue had been standing, striking the concrete floor with a heavy crack!
In the dense shadows of the fifth-floor landing above them, two golden, reptilian pupils suddenly flared open with cold, cruel malice.
A second later, a massive serpentine head emerged from the gloom. Thick as a grown man’s thigh and covered in bizarre, dark blue scales, its jaws parted slightly. As its forked tongue flicked the air, tiny, crackling sparks of blue-white electricity danced between its fangs.
“Peak Tier 2… and it’s a Lightning element, no less.” Jiang Jue slowly rose from behind the desk, holding his long blade horizontally before him. The polished steel reflected the snake’s golden eyes. His voice was heavy, as though quenched in ice.
His own Lightning ability leaned heavily toward pure destruction, but facing a creature heavily armored in thick scales naturally put him at a disadvantage—especially against a beast wielding the exact same element.
Chu Yang stood up beside him, licking his dry lips. But the battle intent in his eyes only burned brighter, laced with a thrill of excitement at facing a formidable opponent.
“Tsk, we really kicked the hornet’s nest today… We just dropped a Psychic-type zombie, and now a Lightning-type giant python drops by to say hello. Brother Jiang, looks like we have to get serious.”
Jiang Jue gave a sharp nod. His grip tightened around the hilt of his blade, adjusting his angle by a fraction of an inch. The purple lightning coiled within the steel surged to life, emitting a low, aggressive hum that warped the surrounding air with heavy ionization.
The Mutated Thunder Python seemed enraged by the rival elemental energy crackling below. Its massive upper body lunged from the shadows, moving as fast as blue lightning itself! It didn’t strike with its fangs; instead, it threw its jaws wide—
BOOM!
A chain of blue-white lightning as thick as a man’s arm tore through the dim corridor with an ear-splitting crack, blasting directly toward the spot where the two men stood!
“Scatter!” Jiang Jue barked. Dodging sharply to the side, he swung his blade forcefully upward!
The highly condensed purple lightning coating his blade flared into a solid, crescent-shaped wave of energy, slashing violently into the incoming bolt!
CRACKLE—!!!
The purple lightning arc and the blue-white bolt collided head-on in mid-air! The impact erupted with a blinding flash brighter than the midday sun, sending thousands of erratic sparks showering in all directions. Sizzling bolts struck the walls, the floor, and the shattered furniture, blasting open charred craters. The air instantly filled with the sharp, suffocating stench of ozone and scorched ozone.
At the exact moment Jiang Jue shouted, Chu Yang had vaulted behind a concrete load-bearing pillar.
Even with the cover, the stray, splashing sparks still grazed his arm, searing him with a sharp, burning pain.
At the epicenter of the blast, Jiang Jue let out a muffled grunt, the sheer concussive force driving him half a step backward. His sword arm trembled slightly. The webbing between his thumb and index finger split open under the strain, bright crimson blood tracing down the hilt to drip onto the scorched floor tiles.
The sheer voltage of the Thunder Python’s attack was far greater than anticipated!
Having missed its primary strike, the Thunder Python flew into a violent frenzy. Its massive, armored body slithered rapidly down from the fifth floor. Whipping its thick tail forward like a steel cable backed by ten thousand tons of force, it swept toward Jiang Jue before he could fully regain his footing.
The wind shrieked as the tail swung in!
Jiang Jue’s eyes sharpened into icy slits. Gripping his weapon with both hands, he hoisted the blade high above his head, the tip pointing straight toward the ceiling, as every ounce of his electrical energy surged frantically into the steel point!
The long blade transformed into a blinding purple pillar of pure, destructive energy. He didn’t swing; instead, he thrust the weapon straight forward, intending to pierce clean through the sweeping tail!
It was a desperation strike, condensing maximum speed and pinpoint lethality into a single blow!
Squelch— BOOM!
The brilliant blade edge punched flawlessly into the sweeping tail. The very instant the steel bit into the flesh, the violent lightning energy detonated inside the python’s body!
A sickening spray of gore erupted, accompanied by the python’s agonized, ear-piercing hiss. A massive chunk of its tail was blown into a mangled, bloody mess, exposing shattered white bone beneath the scales.
The blue-white electricity native to the beast clashed violently with Jiang Jue’s purple lightning at the wound, releasing a chaotic cascade of sparks. Thrashing in unimaginable agony, the monster’s colossal body twisted and rolled, smashing heavily through a nearby partition wall and bringing several thin drywall panels crashing down.
Yet it was, after all, a beast on the verge of Tier 3; its vitality was terrifyingly resilient.
The agonizing pain only ignited its primal fury. Ignoring the gaping crater in its tail, it suddenly whipped its upper body around and threw its bloody jaws open once more. This time, it didn’t unleash a scattered chain of electricity. Instead, it generated a highly compressed, fist-sized orb of blue-white plasma, crackling violently from within and radiating an aura of pure, unadulterated destruction!
It was aimed dead center at Jiang Jue!
At that critical, breathless moment—
Chu Yang’s figure blurred, materializing directly in front of Jiang Jue. His left hand clamped tightly around Jiang Jue’s wrist.
Teleportation.
