Chapter 561 Fourth Evolution and Elite Template

Xia Nan and the others had already discussed how to distribute this mass of life energy long before arriving here.

Sarissa's stance went without saying. Her goal was to stop "Algae Scale" Dodd's ritual from succeeding. Having discovered she could sense the other adventurers' locations and feed that information to Xia Nan, she had long since decided to funnel all the life energy they could gather in the Secret Realm to him, since he could use combat techniques.

As for the Tabaxi Sasha, after exchanging intelligence with them along the way and gaining a general understanding of the ritual's mechanics, he quite wisely made the same decision.

Furthermore, having observed that adventurers who died in the Secret Realm merely entered a weakened state in the real world, he had taken the initiative on their way here to tell Xia Nan that if they encountered an exceptionally urgent and unforeseen crisis, he would willingly sacrifice the life energy within his own body.

Xia Nan was somewhat surprised by this, but he felt things wouldn't devolve to such a dire state.

Although he didn't know what state "Algae Scale" Dodd was currently in, the existence of his Attribute Panel meant he could not only use combat techniques, but also freely choose his evolutionary path. With Sarissa's help, he had even secured a method for high-speed evolution.

Taking all this into account, his advantage over the other adventurers had likely accumulated to a massive degree after he reached the Third Evolution.

The real world was another matter, but here in the Secret Realm, Xia Nan felt that even against "Algae Scale" Dodd, the architect of the ritual, he wasn't completely without the power to fight.

These thoughts flashed through his mind, but his body didn't stop moving.

Just as planned, he approached the mass of fluorescent blue light that had fallen into the forest, now freed from its restraints and returned to an absorbable state.

Hum—as if sensing Xia Nan's presence, the blue, mist-like light suddenly roiled before converging into his body.

It had only been a few short minutes since Xia Nan arrived.

The lynx adventurer, the gorilla adventurer who had killed his teammate in battle, and now the "airdrop"—an unprecedented, massive amount of life energy converged within his body one after another.

From Xia Nan's perspective, what he felt was a warm current surging through his limbs and bones, as if he were bathing in a hot spring, along with translucent characters cascading across his vision.

"Proficiency +10"

"[Gravity Control] lv1 (56/100) → [Gravity Control] lv1 (66/100)"

"Proficiency +18"

"[Ember Echoes] lv2 (40/100) → [Ember Echoes] lv2 (58/100)"

"Proficiency +60"

"[Heavy Tide] lv3 (41/100) → [Heavy Tide] lv4 (1/100)"

'How much?!'

It was difficult to describe Xia Nan's feelings at this moment.

He had previously opened the [Dream Weaving Corridor], so this wasn't his first time gaining a massive amount of proficiency so quickly.

But—

[Ember Echoes] and [Heavy Tide] were one thing.

But when he factored in [Gravity Control]—which had previously required over ten days of bitter training just to painstakingly and stingily grant him a single, incredibly precious point of proficiency...

This sudden double-digit increase right before his eyes...

It was no different from a lost traveler in the desert stumbling upon an oasis on the verge of dying from dehydration, or a starving wanderer encountering a grand feast just as they were seeing stars from hunger.

The second he saw that number, Xia Nan even wondered if he had read it wrong. His gaze swept back and forth, confirming it over and over again, examining every single character on the proficiency progress bar carefully before finally being certain.

Before he had time to deeply comprehend the changes, driven by the massive amount of life energy pouring into his body, Xia Nan—who had only recently completed his Third Evolution—once again broke past the limits of his internal accumulation, meeting the conditions to continue advancing.

Moreover, perhaps due to the special nature of the "airdropped" fluorescent blue light mass, the warm current inside Xia Nan's body didn't solidify and stall under the Attribute Panel during this evolution to wait for him to choose an advancement path before flowing again.

Instead, it was guided by some invisible force, surging purposefully toward a few specific parts of his body.

Reflected on the Attribute Panel, it appeared as a crisp line flashing past his eyes.

"Ding!"

"Conditions for evolution met!"

"Automatically retrieving evolutionary paths—"

1. [Steel Skeleton·Ridgeblade Wolf (Elite)]

Compatibility: 93.6%

Description:

An extremely rare elite mutant subspecies of the Cord-Spine Blade Wolf. Such individuals are often born in the aftermath of massive wars involving millions. Victors view them as a symbol of glory, while the defeated see them as the embodiment of "Calamity."

These powerful lupine creatures are completely covered in a dense layer of Fine metal armor. While possessing formidable defensive capabilities, they also retain a considerable degree of flexibility.

They no longer need to collect the weapons of intelligent creatures to fight. The Gold-Bone Sword Blades growing naturally from their shoulders boast a strength comparable to high-quality weapons forged by dwarven master smiths.

"Screech—"

The teeth-setting sound of metal grinding against metal echoed through the forest.

Xia Nan, whose body already far exceeded the size of an ordinary wolf after his Third Evolution, began to expand once again.

His cyan-gray fur moved without any wind. As its color deepened, the surface shimmered with a cold, hard metallic luster. The fur on multiple vital spots—such as his chest, neck, and flanks—was compressed downward, transforming into silver-black metal plating that clung tightly to his flesh with distinct, flowing lines.

At his Wolf Head, a seemingly custom-made, perfectly natural helmet crest replaced his original fluffy mane. It extended smoothly from the top of his skull to both sides, covering the area above his Wolf's Maw and interlocking with the armor spreading upward from his neck. It was as if he had donned a metal helmet in the shape of a Wolf Head, revealing only his profound gray wolf eyes through the slits.

The sword-horn obtained from the beetle had fallen to the ground at some unknown point.

Meanwhile, from the fleshy crevices of his original side scabbards, a silver-gray bone-iron longsword emerged. Its form was much more slender, and its surface was densely covered in patterns resembling nerve veins.

The sword hilt, covered in textures that facilitated a solid grip, protruded from his shoulder at the optimal length and angle to be bitten by his Wolf's Maw. A bone-white chain, resembling a medal lanyard, hung down across his chest; its two ends connected the sword hilt and his other shoulder to secure it in place.

He was a cold machine of war, forged from the union of metal and flesh.

Often, when encountering a monster with such an appearance, even an adventurer who knew absolutely nothing about its identity could intuitively sense its exaggerated combat power with just a single glance.

To put it simply: a monster that looked like this could not possibly be weak!

And indeed, that was the truth.

As the one actually experiencing the evolution, Xia Nan could clearly feel the massive changes originating from every part of his body.

Longer and deeper breaths, sharper senses, and boundless Strength surging through his body like a tidal wave—

Compared to the Cord-Spine Blade Wolf of the Third Evolution, its elite form was a massive, all-around enhancement.

As for why he wasn't given two other path options like during his previous evolutions, Xia Nan guessed that this was likely one of the mechanics of the ritual's so-called "airdrop."

While granting a boost far exceeding what a normal evolution could provide, it forced one to continue deeper along their original evolutionary path.

If any other adventurer in the Secret Realm had absorbed this mass of life energy, it would likely have locked them into their current advancement route. They would no longer need to face the risk of random evolution, instead advancing straight up a fixed path.

Of course, for those unlucky adventurers who had already strayed onto a crooked path during their successive evolutions, this wouldn't be a very good experience.

But for Xia Nan—who possessed the Attribute Panel and had chosen the optimal option for every single evolution—it was a massive, risk-free reinforcement.

He had already intended to use this wolf body to further study and refine the combination of [Fang Hunt] and [Spinning Slash]. Now that he had evolved into an elite Cord-Spine Blade Wolf, his body structure and combat style retained their original type, perfectly suiting his needs.

Just as he was feeling the changes in his body, reviewing the sword strike he had just executed in battle, and carefully trying to capture the source of that silky smoothness when using [Fang Hunt] and [Spinning Slash] in a wolf's body...

As if noticing something, Xia Nan's attention suddenly returned from the Secret Realm to reality.

In his human perspective suspended above the sea, he saw that among the two teams of adventurers confronting each other on the shore, three adventurers from the "Windforged" side lost their blue light envelopes one after another. They landed slowly on the ground with weakened expressions, clearly having died in the ritual.

Among them was the captain of the "Windforged," the pure-blood Elf, Zephyr.

As he pondered this, the sparrow Sarissa and the black bear Sasha, who had been waiting on the sidelines, approached him upon seeing the battle conclude.

[How do you feel?]

Sarissa scratched into the dirt with her slender bird claws.

On one side was a powerful monster that had already reached the Fourth Evolution; on the other was just the most ordinary, common little sparrow.

One could see that even though Xia Nan hadn't done anything, Sarissa's palm-sized body was still trembling slightly due to the sheer gap in their life tiers.

Noticing her reaction, Xia Nan restrained his aura and nodded to the two of them with his newly evolved iron-clad head, which looked as though it were wearing a wolf-shaped helmet.

"Not bad. I'm much stronger than before."

As he spoke, his wolf eyes, hidden deep within the slits of his helmet crest, looked toward the black bear Sasha beside him, whose body was covered in injuries from his battle with the lynx.

"What about you? How are your injuries? Do you need to find a place to rest for a while?" he asked.

According to the plan they had formulated earlier, they had originally intended for Sasha to act as bait to test the three "Windforged" members, who had most likely arrived at the airdrop location ahead of time. The appearance of the lynx adventurer was completely unexpected.

Fortunately, the final outcome hadn't changed much, and the life energy left behind by the lynx adventurer had conveniently contributed to Xia Nan's evolution.

At Xia Nan's inquiry, Sasha decisively shook his head in refusal and wrote on the ground with his front paw:

[These are all minor injuries. They won't affect my movement.]

[Let's hurry up and find the other adventurers. Don't waste this opportunity.]

Now that Xia Nan had completed the Fourth Evolution, although they didn't know the progress of the other adventurers in the Secret Realm, it was highly unlikely that the vast majority of them could match Xia Nan's pace without an informant like Sarissa who could sense their locations.

If they wanted to rapidly harvest life energy to ultimately stop the progression of "Algae Scale" Dodd's ritual, right now was their best opportunity.

Seeing his persistent attitude, Xia Nan didn't say anything more.

Standing in place, he stretched his front limbs outward and pressed his body down, performing a common quadrupedal stretch to adapt to his newly reinforced body.

At the same time, he looked toward the sparrow Sarissa beside him.

"Then we won't rest for now. Let's see where there are adventurers nearby," he said.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the Secret Realm, deep within the desert.

"Algae Scale" Dodd, who had been slumbering in a sand cave, was jolted awake by the gradually shrinking boundary of the Secret Realm.

Like a slowly moving invisible wall, he felt his body, which was lying in its nest, being pushed forward by the stagnant air.

Having clearly never experienced such a long slumber before, his vertical lizard pupils were filled with the groggy confusion of someone who had just woken up.

His translucent, nearly two-meter-long body instinctively stretched inside the cave.

Then, as if suddenly realizing something, his entire body stiffened violently, his pupils shrinking slightly.

"Wait!"

"How long have I been asleep?"

Although he possessed dragonborn blood in reality, Dodd had never experienced this kind of dormancy before, causing him to wake up much later than he had anticipated.

If the boundary of the Secret Realm hadn't just happened to shrink to the location of his nest, there was a good chance he would have kept sleeping.

The good news was that after this nap, the injuries he had sustained in his previous battles had fully healed, restoring him to his peak condition.

The bad news was that this unexpected oversleep had completely shattered his original plans—one could even call it a massive blunder.

Being in the Secret Realm without clocks or calendars to confirm the date, Dodd didn't know how many days he had missed. He could only focus his mind, sensing the locations and numbers of the adventurers scattered across the Secret Realm, and judge the severity of his mistake by comparing them to how they were before he fell asleep.

With his attention highly concentrated, his mind swept over the adventurers one by one through his perception.

Dodd's lizard face first turned gloomy, then slowly released a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, it wasn't as severe as he had imagined. Judging by the number of remaining adventurers, he shouldn't have missed too much. His species level at the Third Evolution was highly likely still sitting at the very peak of the first tier.

'I can catch up!'

However, as time passed and the map of the Secret Realm gradually shrank, the adventurers swept into the ritual had basically all figured out the mechanics of the Secret Realm.

He could see within his perception that a significant portion of the motes of light representing adventurers had clustered together in groups, indicating they had found teammates to cooperate with.

There were also a small number of light motes with obvious blank zones surrounding them. He guessed that these people must have realized they could evolve their species by killing other adventurers and had actively begun hunting the participants around them.

Suddenly, as if noticing something, Dodd's attention fell on the other end of the Secret Realm within his perception.

He saw that over there, three light motes representing adventurers were clustered so closely they were nearly overlapping. They had clearly finished forming a team.

And around them lay a massive, exaggeratedly large blank zone.

Obviously, the surrounding adventurers had all been cleared out by this group.

Dodd estimated that the leader of this small adventurer gang had to have reached at least the Second Evolution; it was even possible they had reached the Third Evolution.

A surge of urgency rose within him.

"Judging by the time, the airdropped life energy should be refreshing soon. I need to hurry up and get ready," he muttered.

"I wonder how things are going on Flynn's side. If his development has gone smoothly, he can help me make up for the progress I've lost during this time when we meet."