Chapter 421 - 418: Deadly Predicament

Chapter 421: Chapter 418: Deadly Predicament

Mo Ling wanted to lock onto the sponge fragments besieging the balloon, but they had already accelerated to their limit, becoming a series of afterimages that circled and weaved around it.

After several attempts, Mo Ling could only teleport a few of the sponge fragments on the periphery. Slaughter didn’t seem to care about the loss of its fragments; in fact, they just kept multiplying, swarming like bees until they completely enveloped the balloon.

Now, Mo Ling no longer dared to teleport, afraid he might accidentally harm the balloon.

’Looks like this is my only option.’

Mo Ling looked at the Purple string bracelet on his wrist.

’I didn’t think I’d have to use it so soon.’

He carefully pulled the knot of the string loose, and the entire bracelet instantly came undone.

The Purple gauze net slowly spread out along his arm, gently caressing it.

However, once the Purple gauze net had fully spread out, it suddenly changed direction and lunged toward the Block on top of Mo Ling’s head.

"Xiaozhi, the enemy is over there..." Before Mo Ling could finish, the Purple net had already wrapped tightly around his Block head.

...

’I knew this would happen.’

Xiaozhi’s primary target was definitely the Block. Mo Ling had realized this long ago. Besides, it didn’t seem to listen to him much.

Right now, Xiaozhi was still contracting, strangling the Block head with no intention of letting go.

However, Mo Ling made an unexpected discovery.

’Are those... hostility lines?’

The Block was wrapped in the thin gauze net. Looking through this thin veil, Mo Ling could actually see threads spreading out everywhere.

’Threads? Hostility lines are also threads?’ A spark of insight ignited in Mo Ling’s mind.

He never thought Xiaozhi would also have the ability to let him see hostility lines.

But that wasn’t what shocked Mo Ling the most.

On the battlefield before him, the balloon’s movements were not at all random.

It was using Slaughter’s hostility toward it to weave a net!

By now, this net already covered the entire battlefield.

’Was this all part of its plan?’

Mo Ling had thought the balloon was truly being beaten so badly it couldn’t fight back. He never expected it was actually laying this net.

’But what good is this net?’

Just as Mo Ling was wondering, the balloon suddenly stopped.

It came to rest right in the middle of the net, like a spider waiting for its prey.

"Die! You have nowhere left to run!"

The swarm of sponge fragments swept forward. The balloon had no room to retreat; Slaughter had completely sealed off every escape route.

This was a deathtrap laid just for it!

However, the balloon, unhurried, gently wrapped the hostility line before it around the center of the large net.

As the swarm of sponges covered the balloon’s body, the hostility lines of the large net suddenly began to tremble.

"The prey has been caught in the net."

A sponge fragment that was launching a piercing attack suddenly struck another fragment next to it.

That other fragment had been about to merge with others to form a fist. Thrown off by the impact, its movement warped, and it crashed into other fragments.

The fist that should have formed could no longer maintain its shape and abruptly burst apart...

The once perfectly coordinated swarm was suddenly disrupted by all sorts of accidents, which then affected the other fragments like a row of dominoes.

Slaughter tried desperately to stop the chaos, but its own actions only sparked new turmoil, making the mess even worse.

The balloon had completely redirected the target of hostility back onto Slaughter itself. The changes in hostility caused turmoil, which in turn created new hostility, snowballing and growing ever larger.

No matter how Slaughter struggled, it could not escape this great net. It could only watch helplessly as its own sponge fragments began to inexplicably destroy each other.

The attacks originally aimed at the balloon now landed haphazardly on other sponge fragments.

Slaughter’s meticulously calculated combat system suddenly collapsed, forcing it to suffer the full brunt of its own carefully planned moves.

"Hostility Fission."

The balloon’s sponge-like threads plucked gently. A distant sponge fragment instantly shattered, triggering countless chain reactions that completely annihilated the surrounding pieces.

Slaughter struggled, trying to escape the influence of this hostility, but the hostility lines wrapped around its body were not so easy to break free from.

Those lines had already wrapped tightly around every single sponge fragment. To move one was to move them all.

If it tried to break free from the hostility on one fragment, it would inevitably disturb the other lines, making the chain reaction even more violent.

Finally, after realizing this, Slaughter stopped resisting and allowed its sponge fragments to be destroyed, piece by piece.

The tables turned in an instant. This was now a deathtrap laid for Slaughter.

"What is your name?"

Slaughter’s voice was no longer wild, but incredibly solemn.

"I have no name," the balloon replied.

"You are the strongest of our kind I have ever met," Slaughter said seriously. "So hostility can be used like this?"

As the raging winds died down, Slaughter’s voice became intermittent, hoarse, and weak.

"I had thought that the pinnacle of the physical form was the pinnacle of our race’s power. I never imagined there was another path..."

"Is this... the pinnacle of hostility?" Slaughter asked, somewhat bewildered.

It tentatively moved a piece of sponge, then watched as it marched step by step toward its own destruction under the influence of the hostility net.

"You used my hostility against me. You were luring me into splitting my body apart the entire time, giving you enough hostility to set your trap. The resulting chain reaction is seamless and impossible to break."

"To hit you, I had to keep splitting my body, which played right into your hands..."

"It wasn’t that you couldn’t dodge. You were just feigning weakness to lure me into a trap. Brilliant."

Slaughter couldn’t help but sigh in admiration.

But Balloon paid it no mind, simply hiding in the center of the great net and continuing to manipulate the hostility.

"Did you figure this out on your own? Why have I never seen you before?" Slaughter pressed on.

"Oh, I almost forgot. You were created by a god. No wonder, no wonder..."

Balloon didn’t respond, so Slaughter continued to mutter to itself.

"I never imagined hostility itself could be used as a weapon. It seems my own development of the physical body is still insufficient..."

As it spoke, the sponge fragments surrounding Balloon grew fewer and fewer.

Slaughter’s voice also grew increasingly faint and weak.

"Hmph. To think a god would create such a powerful enemy."

"Satisfying! So satisfying! I haven’t had such a satisfying battle in a long, long time!"

A gust of wind blew past, and the last two sponge fragments took each other out.

Slaughter’s voice stopped abruptly.

The terrifying hostility on the battlefield vanished without a trace.

’Is it over?’

There was no longer any sign of Slaughter in Mo Ling’s field of vision.

The giant net woven from hostility also began to disintegrate.

However, Balloon remained floating in the air, motionless, gazing into the distance.

Giant seaweed drifted about, having been snapped in two at some unknown point. The transparent reefs were a total wreck. The once crystal-clear world was now shattered into countless pieces of debris—a scene of utter devastation.

Suddenly, a school of fish swam over.

As if they knew no fear, they charged straight into the war-torn battlefield. Immediately after, they began to viciously tear each other apart.

They gnawed on the bodies of their companions, swallowing them into their stomachs, only to then burst from overeating. Their exploded flesh and blood were then devoured by others of their kind.

The cycle repeated. Soon, all that was left of the frenzied school of fish was a pile of mangled limbs.

The still-twitching flesh was an incredibly bizarre sight.

The hostility they generated did not dissipate. Instead, it continued to brew, growing thicker and heavier.

Suddenly, a nearly invisible speck of sponge appeared within that swirling mass of hostility. It then rapidly expanded, sprouting arms and legs, and finally, its massive tail.

Slaughter was being reborn from hostility.

As long as hostility existed, it would never die.

This was the pinnacle of the physical.

Its terrifying single eye snapped open and stared at Balloon, filled with glee.

"I’m back!"

It stretched out a hand, pointing at Balloon. Monstrous hostility erupted from its body once more, gathering behind it and spreading wantonly, like a magnificent cape.

A sky full of threads shot upward, transforming into an all-encompassing dark cloud that blotted out the heavens.

"You! You are an enemy I can finally acknowledge!"

"The battle! Continues!"