Chapter 560: Weakness

Of course, their three heads were not merely for show.

The main head could launch ranged attacks using strange spells similar to those employed by cultivators. These attacks wielded a power that cultivators’ spiritual energy could scarcely resist.

One of the two beast heads could unleash a strange, roaring howl that caused nearby living creatures to become rigid, leaving them helpless as the World Eaters fed on them.

The other beast head could generate a defensive layer even tougher than their own bony hide, extending this protection over themselves, their companions, or even their mother insect.

Behind their three heads were the World Eaters’ four limbs and torso. Although they were large, their bodies were shaped like those of humans. However, instead of having human feet, they had webbed legs. They stood upright and walked like humans, but they could also run through the air as if it were solid ground.

Their legs were thick and powerful. A single kick from one of them could shatter the bones and tear the tendons of even a Nascent Soul cultivator. Their physical strength was tremendous.

Above those powerful legs was a sturdy upper body. From the front, apart from their enormous size and the layer of bony hide covering them, their torsos looked no different from those of ordinary humans.

Their backs, however, were entirely different. From the main head down to the tailbone, their bodies were covered in countless sharp, pointed bone spikes that glowed a ghastly white. Just looking at them was enough to send a chill down one’s spine.

Then there were the World Eaters’ arms, which were even longer than their legs. At first glance, they looked much like ordinary human arms, except that they were longer, thicker, and covered in bony hide. In reality, however, they were quite different.

Aside from their three heads, the World Eaters’ arms were another major source of their offensive power. The bones throughout their arms were shaped like a snake’s skeleton.

No, they were far more formidable than ordinary snake bones. Combined with their immense strength, their arms could bend and coil into any shape at will. They could also produce exceptionally sharp bone spikes from within their bodies whenever they wished. The length of these spikes was controlled by the World Eaters themselves, and it varied considerably with each attack, making it impossible to predict.

On top of that, their arms could extend to ten times their own body height.

As the three flew toward the battlefield, Xiao Shou transmitted all this information to Tushan Shanhe and Fu Young.

The three then launched a dazzling series of attacks.

First, they tried attacking with the special spiritual energy refined through the Ninety Nine Calamities Cycles Art. It was ineffective. They then tried attacks using mistified spiritual energy, but those were ineffective as well.

Next, Xiao Shou and Fu Young joined forces and formed hand seals, unleashing their most powerful spells with their cultivation at the Deity Transformation stage.

Still, their attacks had no effect. Just like everyone else’s attacks, they could not even leave a scratch on the World Eaters’ outer layer of bony hide.

Seeing this, Xiao Shou launched a powerful sword energy attack, but it was equally ineffective.

Only then did he finally understand why, in the storyline of the Mystic Jade Realm Chapter of the system’s cultivation novel, every cultivator except the wielder of the Heavenfall Immortal Sword had struggled so badly against the World Eaters.

These creatures had only just evolved into their mature form. They had not yet fed again to double their size, yet their defenses were already this formidable.

When the disaster struck the Mystic Jade Realm, the cultivators would have to face countless mature World Eaters that had already consumed large amounts of food, along with elite mature specimens and other terrifying variants. If their attacks were rendered ineffective against such enemies, a brutal and bloody battle would be inevitable.

If that was the case, what about the corrosive power of Eternal Darkness?

Thinking this, Xiao Shou gripped the Dark Night Spirit Sword and swung it, sending a sword energy slash infused with the power of Eternal Darkness toward a World Eater.

Yet even this failed.

The variant energy of Eternal Darkness, which could affect even immortals, was completely ineffective against the creature.

How could this be?

Witnessing the scene with his own eyes, Xiao Shou was deeply shocked. His battle honed instincts immediately brought to mind a passage from the original novel describing how the mother insect had survived and drifted through the void.

That was it. The World Eaters were a species capable of surviving while drifting through the void of the Spirit Realm in their physical forms. How could they possibly fear the energy of Eternal Darkness originating from the void of the lower realms?

If Eternal Darkness was useless, what about the Terrestrial Fox’s Black Flame?

Xiao Shou immediately summoned the Terrestrial Fox’s Black Flame, which had already reached the immortal grade, and unleashed it against the World Eaters.

However, even as their ghastly white bodies were engulfed in black flames, the creatures remained completely unharmed.

While Xiao Shou was unleashing one ability after another, Fu Young and Tushan Shanhe were also using nearly all their usual methods. They held back only their trump cards and abilities they were unwilling to reveal in front of outsiders.

Nearby, a dark skinned a x burly man named Mo Han saw that someone had stepped in to intercept the World Eaters. Recognizing them as familiar faces, he hurriedly shouted in alarm, "Be careful! Their physical attacks are far too powerful, and their defenses are even more monstrous than those of demonic beasts!"

As the man spoke, Xiao Shou, Fu Young, and Tushan Shanhe tacitly stopped their ordinary tests and unleashed their more specialized attacks.

Xiao Shou activated his Evil Exterminating Eyes and condensed an Evil Exterminating Arrow. Fu Young caused the roots of the Divine Osmanthus Tree to sprout, making them long, slender, and flexible. Tushan Shanhe, meanwhile, activated his Heavenly Fox bloodline and condensed a vortex of spatial fragments.

All three attacks struck the three World Eaters at the front simultaneously.

The moment they made contact, the World Eater struck by Tushan Shanhe’s vortex of spatial fragments immediately disintegrated into dust. Its remains were swallowed up completely by the vortex, leaving nothing behind.

The World Eater pierced by Fu Young’s osmanthus tree roots also inexplicably broke apart, its remains scattering across the dark greenish black ground below.