Chapter 241. Harvesting at touchdown

"Since we were all technically meant to die in this expedition anyway, killing these professors to absorb their blood essence when we land before I initiate my plan is not a bad idea," Aiden thought with clinical, calm indifference. This was an efficient method to absorb blood essence, and there wouldn’t be any political and institutional repercussions.

His crimson eyes narrowed towards the horizon in the clouds and peered downwards.

His enhanced sight, hearing, and smell spread towards the ruined city ahead.

Currently, the aircraft was only a couple of distances away from the ruined city.

Large, overgrown trees peered upwards.

Lightning streaks snaked upwards along the trees into the clouds.

Aiden’s vision spread through the ruined city.

There were moss- and vine-covered vehicles and buildings.

The region was full of occasional blizzards of lightning and wind naturally sweeping across the place.

Aiden surmised that the pocket world incident which led to the devastation of the city in the past naturally amounted to this environmental phenomenon. Even though the gate had been closed, the environmental phenomenon which spewed from the pocket world had lingered in the environment. In addition to years of accumulation of worldly energy, this outcome of wind and thunderstorms sweeping through the place had developed.

Large Rank 3 chaotic beasts roamed through the streets.

Some of them were so large that they could yank tree trunks with their bare hands.

Those who were not so fortunate were crushed into the wind and lightning storms. The wind sliced across their bodies and the lightning paralysed them, turning them into charred corpses.

Some of the chaotic beasts which met this fate were even legendary Rank 3 chaotic beasts.

"It looks like I need to be extremely careful. My enhanced vision, smell, and hearing should be on full throttle, else I will die before I know how. Also, the number of Rank 3 chaotic beasts here are staggering," Aiden thought.

The beasts numbered thousands.

"This is indeed a death trap," Aiden thought.

"It looks like I won’t even have to kill these professors myself. The environment will do it for me," Aiden thought.

He continued monitoring the ruined city as they neared the place.

He spotted areas with environmental hazards, and more dangerous chaotic beasts.

Aiden divided the dangerous parts of the ruined city into five zones.

The first zone contained beginner Rank 3 chaotic beasts. The second zone contained intermediate Rank 3 chaotic beasts. The third zone contained advanced Rank 3 chaotic beasts. The fourth zone contained expert Rank 3 chaotic beasts. The fifth zone contained legendary Rank 3 chaotic beasts.

The deeper one went, the more one left a less dangerous zone into a more dangerous zone.

This was the natural ecology of the ruined, forest-overgrown, lightning wind storm city.

However, Aiden noted that this did not necessarily mean stronger chaotic beasts could not spill out of their zones into weaker zones. Stronger Rank 3 chaotic beasts ventured into weaker zones to hunt weaker creatures occasionally.

Aiden also discovered the energy core vein.

The place was naturally full of a very high concentration of worldly energy.

The energy cores were scattered across the place and glowed with azure light.

Sleeping below them were extremely large legendary Rank 3 leviathans. They were as large as skyscrapers. The creatures looked like dragons, but they didn’t have wings.

"Mutated draconic snakes," Aiden thought. "Whoever encounters these creatures is screwed. But, this is a good opportunity for me. More deaths mean more blood essence to absorb. I can set the perfect traps to bait these creatures out of hiding and cause massacres after I leak the information and hordes of people from the organisations in the state arrive," Aiden thought.

"I need to stay in the first zone though, when I arrive, and hunt for some chaotic beasts and absorb their blood essence," Aiden thought.

As the chopper descended and neared the surface of the ruined city forest canopy below, Aiden suddenly leaped out of it.

A wind lightning storm, naturally erupting from the ruined city, crashed into it and engulfed it. Lightning streaks flashed through and around the storm.

Several screams erupted from the chopper.

"You bastard..."

"You didn’t warn us there was a threat ahead..."

"Shit.. augghhhh!"

The curses and screams of the professors died down.

Aiden quickly absorbed the blood essence of the dead professors.

After that, crimson wings formed from blobs of blood which appeared on Aiden’s back.

More blobs of blood appeared before him and formed crimson armor, covering his whole body.

Some of the blobs of blood transformed into a large crimson hammer. Aiden held it, and flapped his wings.

The wind storm followed him.

Aiden moved through the rainy skies with uncanny precision and speed. Because of his enhanced vision, smell, and sight, coupled with his monstrous combat instincts honed through countless life-and-death situations, he was narrowly able to evade the storm of wind and lightning following him by a hair’s breadth.

He had turned into a crimson streak of light.

Aiden dived downwards like a crimson meteor, hammer in hand.

The green forest trees of the ruined city were just below him.

Aiden’s vision narrowed towards a tree. A beginner Rank 3 chaotic beast, an eagle, was watching over her eggs.

"Shelter."

The hammer left Aiden’s hand and streaked down, arcing downwards and spinning.

The eagle realized it was someone’s prey too late.

All it saw was a red silhouette in its line of vision.

Extreme pain tore through its head as it tried to activate a lightning shield to protect itself and its eggs.

The hammer bludgeoned through its skull and crushed the head of the eagle into smithereens. Blood splintered across the tree.

The lightning shield of the eagle disappeared. The shockwaves from the attack blew its eggs apart and destroyed them.

The eagle’s headless body fell from the tree. It fell down a long, narrow, kilometer-spanning distance beneath the tree.

Aiden absorbed the blood essence of the falling corpse as he landed on the thick tree branch as large as a bridge.

He held his hammer and sat down on the tree.

By now, the lightning wind storm that had been previously following him had disappeared.

He had finally arrived here.

Now, it was time to initiate his plan.