Chapter Ninety-Seven: Successive Breakthroughs

Lin Xingyun looked at the energy extractor, a hot gleam flashing in his eyes, and was about to open it at once.

But at that very moment, he suddenly heard movement from the passageway nearby. He turned sharply, and in an instant, his whole body went rigid.

"Gu... Gu Sha..."

Terrified, Lin Xingyun stumbled backward, swallowing hard as he stammered, "Gu Sha, I... I..."

The next instant, he swung his sword straight at the energy extractor.

However, just as he struck, his body was suddenly bound by a vast, invisible force and could no longer move.

In that instant, Lin Xingyun turned deathly pale with fear. From that high-ranking zombie he had already learned that Gu Sha was a king-rank powerhouse, beyond the level of a ninth-tier warrior, and possessed the king-rank ability to project energy outward.

He had meant to smash the energy extractor and buy himself time to flee. He had never imagined fighting Gu Sha, nor had he assumed Gu Sha would spare any thought for his life. But he had not expected the power of a king-rank expert to be so terrifying. The two were more than ten meters apart, and yet he had been controlled so effortlessly.

"Gu Sha, I..."

The moment Lin Xingyun opened his mouth, a terrifying force yanked him straight toward Gu Sha, whereupon Gu Sha seized him by the throat.

With a crisp crack, Lin Xingyun's neck shattered, and his corpse was tossed to the ground.

Gu Sha then walked toward the energy extractor and opened it directly. Several human-sized pods appeared, and at once a dense, terrifying wave of source energy surged wildly out.

Gu Sha glanced at Mad Blade and said, "How much you can absorb depends on your own ability."

Mad Blade trembled with excitement all over.

Gu Sha's peripheral vision then caught sight of an unidentified crystal on a table nearby, sealed inside a glass cover like a crystal sphere.

Silently, Gu Sha activated his time ability, instantly enveloping a radius of ten meters. Time within that area slowed by many times over, and Gu Sha swung the King Bone, smashing it straight toward the crystal sphere.

"Roar..."

The crystal sphere shattered at once. From within came a heaven-shaking roar, and a strand of mental will rapidly gathered, vaguely forming the shape of a human figure. It screamed in utter frenzy, "Stop! I am..."

Gu Sha reached out instantly.

With a massive surge of runic power, he drew upon source energy to bind that thread of mental will, then clenched his hand. With a thunderous boom, the will was instantly reduced to nothing.

Mad Blade was stunned by the scene, and cried in horror, "L-Lord, i-is that a ghost?"

"Ghost my ass. Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand."

Gu Sha muttered a complaint, then quickly stepped into one of the pods. He closed it and began to cultivate cross-legged.

Mad Blade followed suit and entered another pod.

Inside the pod, Gu Sha extended his senses to the limit. Through the energy chamber, he could sense that deep beneath the mountain there was abundant source energy, but the source stones were scattered everywhere.

He immediately understood why the zombie race did not directly mine the source veins, but instead used such high-tech equipment to extract source energy. It allowed systematic mining and made far better use of the energy.

Gu Sha at once activated his Qi-Absorption Art.

The Qi-Absorption Art he possessed was currently the most advanced on Earth, and after consuming so many source orbs, his talent was already beyond compare.

In the past, his cultivation had not fully revealed how extraordinary that talent was. But now, after entering this source-energy pod, it was displayed all at once, especially with Mad Blade there to provide a sharp contrast.

On Gu Sha's side, the absorption of source energy was like a river pouring into the sea, astonishingly fast and in great quantity. The pod remained in a state of constant influx, taking in every bit of energy that came.

On Mad Blade's side, however, the source energy inside his pod stayed packed to the brim. It was as though there were only a tiny hole opened in a huge reservoir, from which the water dripped out little by little.

Of course, if Mad Blade could absorb source energy as crazily as Gu Sha did, Gu Sha would not have brought him along in the first place. Gu Sha knew Mad Blade could not absorb too much, and this source mine was not small. He himself would not be able to finish it all anyway, so bringing one Mad Blade along would not affect him at all.

The energy of the source began to crash wildly against the genetic locks.

One hour.

Two hours.

...

Second-tier Battle King.

Third-tier Battle King.

...

However, after Gu Sha broke through to the third tier, the speed became slower and slower, because the useful source stones in the mine had already been nearly exhausted by him. What remained were mostly scraps, and the rate and amount of extraction had both fallen off a cliff.

After a very long time, just as he was about to push toward the fourth tier Battle King, Gu Sha suddenly opened his eyes.

Time was up.

More than ten hours had already passed, and the opening time of the spatial pod was about to expire.

Gu Sha did not hesitate and decisively stopped.

He knew very well that if he kept absorbing at this rate, even after all the energy was drained, he still might not be able to break through to the fourth tier. The key problem was that it would take far too long.

At the king-rank, every single realm required an enormous amount of energy. It could even be said that the total energy needed to open all nine genetic locks together did not compare to the energy required for a Battle King to break through even one tier. The further one went, the greater the energy demand became.

"Let's go."

Gu Sha was not the indecisive sort. This small pocket world might well have some connection to the Tianyuan Realm side. Staying here too long would only invite trouble. And if they missed the time when the spatial pod opened, getting back next time would be troublesome indeed.

Gu Sha pulled Mad Blade out of the energy pod.

Mad Blade had gained quite a lot as well, advancing directly from the sixth transcendental tier to the eighth.

With this one wave, he would be enough to enter the global top ten.

Mad Blade was extremely excited, but he also knew time was running out. Without hesitation, he followed Gu Sha out.

Soon after, the two rushed back while cutting down zombies along the way, and finally made it before the spatial pod opened.

They did not have to wait long before the spatial rift opened.

Gu Sha and Mad Blade entered quickly, and after a violent wave of turbulence, they emerged on Earth, leaping out from the rift in the spatial pod.

Many soldiers at the fortress, along with the researchers, were watching.

However, only Gu Sha and Mad Blade came out.

"Where are the others?" asked Academician Chen anxiously.

Gu Sha waved a hand and said, "Notify the fortress right away: send the most powerful bombs you have. If you can get nuclear weapons, even better. As for the reason, Mad Blade will explain it to you. I'm busy right now, so don't let anyone disturb me!"

With that, Gu Sha ran straight to a room in the temporary base.

Although he had not had enough time in that other-dimensional space to break through to the fourth tier, he still had a huge sack of zombie cores, and quite a few of them were high-tier.

Under normal circumstances, that sack of cores would not have been enough for him to break through to the first realm of Battle King. But now he was already only one step away from the fourth-tier Battle King.

This sack of high-tier zombie cores was enough.

He did not include any chapter marker or closing note in the final output.