Chapter 1127, Searching for a Needle in the Ocean

Translator: Silavin

 

“The characteristics of this Map are truly peculiar. One cannot help but concede that though the Fallen Corpse Ancient God is no admirable entity, the world he constructed truly contains no shortage of fascinating things.” Ouyang Bai Ge said this as she finally rose to her feet.

 

The tiny Space Rift leading to the Void World had not closed. Countless Void Insects poured out from within it, surging towards the Bronze Monsters.

 

Upon hearing Ouyang Bai Ge’s words, Lu Fan too directed his gaze towards the Bronze Trees, and found that indeed, the Bronze Trees were, in silent and imperceptible fashion, peeling away from their trunks downwards, yielding components of all manner of shapes and sizes.

 

Some of these components assembled directly into new Bronze Monsters; others patched the wounds of those already injured.

 

It appeared as though this Bronze Forest had its own unique, self-contained ecological cycle. It was a food chain entirely its own.

 

Yet the moment outsiders intruded, all would band together into a single unified whole, striking out against those who had entered.

 

This Map was genuinely intriguing.

 

Though, this Map was not necessarily something the Fallen Corpse Ancient God had personally designed. It may well have been a peculiar wonder that evolved on its own under the World Principles. But the foundation upon which it existed and arose was still the world constructed by the Fallen Corpse Ancient God. In short, to say it came from the Fallen Corpse Ancient God’s hands was not really accurate.

 

After marvelling a moment, Lu Fan stopped spectating and decided to personally lend his hand to rid the group of the trouble before them, so they could locate the so-called ‘Bronze Qilin’ as swiftly as possible.

 

Lu Fan leapt upward and, with a fluid gesture, traced out a Summoning Array, calling Xiao Ye out.

 

Then Lu Fan mounted Xiao Ye, and the pair surged forward together.

 

Lu Fan thrust out with his spear, with Dragon Fang Strike activated, and a violent surge of energy condensed into a Dragon Head that sent the Bronze Monsters ahead of them blasting apart.

 

Components rained down from the sky.

 

Xiao Ye let out a roar as well, sweeping her Dragon Tail sideways, she similarly cleared out the Monsters ahead.

 

Then Dragon Breath spilled from Xiao Ye’s maw. A torrent of blazing flame intertwined with rolling magma, erupting in a sweeping wave that devoured swathes of Bronze Monsters.

 

In mere moments, under this extreme heat, the Bronze Monsters were buried one after another.

 

The intense temperature melted them directly into molten iron, mingling with the magma, preventing them from resolidifying and merging with other Monsters to reconstitute their forms.

 

Every Monster slain by Xiao Ye lost, without a single exception, all capacity to return to life.

 

At the same moment, Ouyang Bai Ge’s Void Insects had scattered far and wide, surging towards the mass of Bronze Monsters.

 

Those Void Insects looked unremarkable, yet their effectiveness surpassed all expectations.

 

One could only watch as those Void Insects swarmed onto the bodies of one Bronze Monster after another. Then from each afflicted Monster came a wretched metallic shriek. Its Bronze colouration visibly faded away before their eyes, giving way to a spreading blackness. Strangely, rust consumed the Bronze at an amazing speed, until the entire Bronze Monster crumbled away into a heap of decayed fragments in the blink of an eye.

 

It was as though a plague spread through the Bronze Monsters: and any that came into contact with the Void Insect swarm would instantly corrode and die. This was a speed of slaughter not much slower than Xiao Ye’s Dragon Breath.

 

With both Lu Fan and Ouyang Bai Ge lending their strength, the pressure on Jian Ying and the others diminished.

 

Tao Xiaoman and the others exhaled with relief, and drove the Asura King forward, pressing deeper into the Three Star Bronze Forest.

 

Lu Fan and the others had initially expected that the deeper they pushed into the Three Star Bronze Forest, the more numerous their enemies would get.

 

After all, the Bronze Trees ahead soared into the clouds. They were lush and dense, packed at every turn.

 

If the bronze components shed from their trunks became components that assembled into a new Bronze Monster, no one could say how many Bronze Monsters might be produced.

 

Yet when they truly ventured into the deeper reaches of the Bronze Forest, Lu Fan found that reality was nothing of the sort.

 

It appeared as though, having perceived that Lu Fan and the others had genuinely overwhelming strength, the Bronze Monsters no longer behaved as before. They were no longer frenzied. Their reckless assaults ceased, and they rather get away from the group.

 

After the first wave of Monsters was repelled, the Bronze Monsters had learnt of the group’s formidability and would no longer throw themselves forward heedlessly. Instead, they withdrew, avoiding any contact with Lu Fan and the others.

 

And so, the remainder of the route proved, against all of Lu Fan’s expectations, surprisingly easy. All the way through, only the occasional unfortunate Bronze Monster that had no time to flee found itself crossing their path.

 

As for these Bronze Monsters, Lu Fan and the group had also lost any inclination to hunt them down. If the enemy had the sense to run, they could not be bothered to pursue them.

 

But if they were suicidal enough to charge forward seeking death, Lu Fan and the others had no objection to striking them down.

 

These Bronze Monsters, once slain, still had their components scattered across the ground. So long as a nearby Bronze Tree was willing to shed its own components, they could theoretically be restored.

 

But this time, the Bronze Trees made no such move, allowing these Bronze Monsters to simply lie dead where they fell.

 

Though this meant the Experience Points the group gained was considerably less than it might have been, they had not come here to Level Up in the first place.

 

Finding the Bronze Qilin was the only thing that mattered.

 

Deeper within the Bronze Forest, Lu Fan and the others began sweeping the area systematically, searching everywhere for any trace of the so-called Bronze Qilin.

 

Along the way, they encountered all manner of Bronze Monsters. There were even Bronze Flying Dragons that could take to the air, possessing formidably High Attack, Defence, and Health Pool.

 

Yet of the Bronze Qilin they had been told of, there was not so much as a glimpse of it.

 

As they travelled, Lu Fan also noted that Ouyang Bai Ge, at regular intervals, would leave behind clusters of purplish black flying insects, leaving them to drift and circle nearby. They seem to be some form of Void Insects used for scouting and detection.

 

Lu Fan did not ask about it. After all, Ouyang Bai Ge was on their side, and whatever she was doing, she had her reasons for it.

 

Before long, the group had been searching this Bronze Forest for three full days.

 

The Bronze Forest was far more vast than any of them had imagined. Three days of searching had seen them barely complete a single circuit within its boundaries.

 

And the Bronze Qilin? No one had caught even a glimpse of it.

 

In hindsight, it made sense. If their opponent wished to play hide-and-seek in a place this enormous, who could ever locate one Monster whose very appearance remained unknown?

 

Having returned to the spot where they had first entered the Bronze Forest, proof that they had already conducted a full sweep, Tao Xiaoman was the first to lose heart, calling out to the others from within the Asura King. “I don’t think carrying on like this is anymore…. This Map is so big, and our target is a Boss that freely moves about. Trying to find it like this is nothing short of searching for a needle in the ocean. We have to come up with another method, else it’ll be three to five years before we ever find this Bronze Qilin.”