Novel Full Chapter 1609: Pact Tome
On the ice surface stood rows of black, rod-like objects protruding like flagpoles.
This was a common lifeform in the northern regions, typically growing on frozen bodies of water—lakes or seas.
Their circular roots and magic crystals lay beneath the ice, while their tough, yam-like black stems extended above the surface, densely covered in thorns. Small pores dotted the stems, emitting a peculiar scent to lure land-based mutated creatures.
Once a creature succumbed to the scent and approached, the thorns would pierce its body, instantly draining its energy. These mutated plants, called “Ghost Narcissus,” would simultaneously inject a potent paralyzing toxin, rendering their prey helpless as they were slowly sucked dry.
The scent had no effect on humans, and Ghost Narcissus were easily recognizable. Under normal circumstances, they posed little threat to evolved.
In fact, evolved often welcomed encountering them. As long as they avoided touching the flagpole-like stems, they could chip through the ice to dig out the roots and harvest the demon crystals.
With luck, they might even find high-level Ghost Narcissus.
Of course, breaking the ice would destabilize the entire plant. Since Ghost Narcissus was heavy and lethal to touch, evolved had to dodge carefully. A single misstep could lead to tragedy.
Nevertheless, over the years, Ghost Narcissus had nearly been wiped out in lakes and rivers within human territories. Only in the open sea could such large patches still be found.
Under normal circumstances, evolved would be overjoyed to see these mutated plants—it meant a windfall of magic crystals. The patch before them now numbered at least ten thousand, with some stems towering high enough to suggest level five or six. Harvesting them all would be a massive fortune.But now, these usually lucrative plants filled everyone with a single feeling—despair.
This stretch of Ghost Narcissus blocked their escape route. With time, they could have chopped through the stems to pass. But now, even a second’s delay meant being crushed by the massive icebergs behind them.
Many frantically attacked the plants with skills or ranged abilities, unsure if they could destroy them all. They had no choice—it was all they could do.
Gunfire erupted, and soon the entire fleeing human army was in attack mode.
With so many people and such overwhelming firepower, the above-ice portions of the Ghost Narcissus were shattered. However, without unified coordination and with evolved moving at high speed, many attacks missed or concentrated in one area, leaving some of the giant “yams” still standing in their path.
Everyone’s faces turned ashen.
They had no chance for a second attack—the icebergs were almost upon them.
Turn and attack the icebergs? Some had tried earlier, but to what end? These were the skills of a level-nine lifeform. At their colossal, sky-spanning scale, even the strongest combined attack might break them apart, but could never destroy them completely. The best outcome was fragmentation, but even then, the resulting ice chunks—each the size of a skyscraper—would still crush evolved with the force of a top-tier lifeform.
For the highest-level evolved, it might make a difference. For the majority, it made no difference.
Ye Zhongming tilted his head back and gulped down a high-level mental energy recovery potion, then directly absorbed several level-eight magic crystals, converting them into mental energy through his equipment.
His depleted mental energy, previously at just a quarter, surged slightly—but only to about half its full capacity. He turned, brandished the Soul Shattering Bone Staff, and unleashed an attack at the ice mountain behind Cloud Peak.
In this situation, brute force was his only option.
The Soul Shattering Bone Staff, a soul tool whose power scaled with mental energy expenditure, was perfect for this scenario—attacking a stationary target.
In one-on-one combat, Ye Zhongming rarely used it because opponents wouldn’t just stand there and take it.
But while effective, the staff consumed mental energy voraciously. Ye Zhongming reserved just enough to keep fighting and channeled the rest into the staff. A beam of light shot out, shattering the iceberg directly behind them. Countless fragments flew in all directions, though some still hurtled toward Cloud Peak’s ranks.
Ye Zhongming stowed the staff and joined Cloud Peak’s level-eight lifeforms in intercepting the debris, covering their retreat.
The other teams employed their own methods—some clearing paths ahead, others attacking the pursuing threats.
After the iceberg onslaught, every team had suffered—though in different ways.
For Gyanendra’s team, the losses were those mechanical tools. At the critical moment, their extraterrestrial tech once again proved its marvels. The self-destruction of several machines collapsed a vast section of the ice.
Alamos’ team suffered more in gene-lifeform casualties. Their self-destructing units were less effective against inanimate ice than against living mutants, necessitating a greater number. The crisis also revealed a new gene-lifeform type—human-sized, headless creatures with broad upper bodies and spherical lower halves that rolled across the ground. Their wide torsos emitted beams that could briefly immobilize targets.
Ten of them firing together could stall the largest iceberg for a second or two; only dozens or hundreds working in unison had a meaningful impact.
Alamos’ team and the Crusaders, being the slowest, suffered heavily. Post-crisis, Alamos had lost over two hundred gene warriors.
The Crusaders, though disciplined, could do little against such overwhelming force. Despite a heroic rearguard action sacrificing a thousand, they still took the heaviest losses, around two thousand dead.
The Cannibal Chain also paid a steep price, expending dozens of mysterious high-grade explosives to blast open the thick ice, sinking the icebergs.