Chapter 763: Chapter 761: Curse of the Shattered (20)_1 Chapter 763: Chapter 761: Curse of the Shattered (20)_1 “`
Clang!
At almost the same moment, Chang Mo, who had been watching with vigilance, drew her sword.
Her previous encounter with the Crystal Worm had left her more wary of the creature, and even without it showing hostility, she remained on high alert.
Knowing well the strength of the creature, her sword strike was without reservation, a full-powered attack.
However, this swift, precise, and fierce strike was once again ineffective.
The Crystallized Arm, now combined in an even more compact manner, exhibited exaggerated strength, showing not a single mark after being hit by the sword.
“I’m fine.”
As the person involved, Ah Kai realized immediately that the grip on his wrist was surprisingly strong, and after witnessing Chang Mo’s sharp but futile strike, he made a decisive decision on the spot.
With a strange sound, his twisted and deformed hand gradually withdrew from beneath the torn glove.
Wearing gloves was obviously not intended for escaping the bind, but at that moment they proved useful, although the marks they left were shocking.
Despite this, the hand still did not want to let go of him.
Almost as soon as Ah Kai had freed himself, the arm stretched out quickly, attempting to grab him again and drag him into the pool.
Clang!
The second sound of a sword ringing out came not from Chang Mo, but from Jian Jingzheng, who reacted a split second slower.
Confronting the pursuit of the crystalline hand, he raised his sword to meet the attack, not aiming to injure, just to block for a moment.
But even with such modest hopes, he still did not succeed.
Under the powerful recoil, Jian Jingzheng’s palm went numb. Yet, without leaving a mark or even slowing the motion, the Crystallized Arm was unstoppable.
Just as it was a hair’s breadth from Ah Kai’s neck, in the next instant his body suddenly accelerated, narrowly avoiding the strike.
It was President Cass, who had been observing silently, who timely intervened, pulling him away from behind.
After casually tossing Ah Kai aside, President Cass faced the still relentless Crystallized Arm–and in the next moment, a grey-black, destruction-imbued Black Flame Spear materialized out of nowhere and slammed solidly against it.
In a muffled detonation, the dense, ink-like flames flashed and vanished.
For the President of Heaven’s Commencement Institute, it was not for nothing that he was of Demigod Level; under his attack, the Crystallized Arm finally underwent a change.
After a brief moment of stillness, it began to disintegrate bit by bit, turning into tiny crystal fragments that fell like raindrops into the pool below.
This shape looks familiar!
A series of exchanges occurred in the blink of an eye, and facing the sudden transformation, Fu Qian was focused on another detail.
The Crystallized Arm that had tried to drag Ah Kai into it shared a striking resemblance to the corpse above.
While one was pitch black and the other dazzling to the eye, they could be compared to the difference between graphite and a diamond.
Could there be some connection between the two?
As for why he hadn’t intervened before?
If a place not even considered a Forbidden Area could result in casualties while the Demigod level leaders from the Academy were fishing for answers, President Cass would have no need to keep his position.
Moreover, he was, after all, just a guest speaker.
Of course, there were those who seemed not to take action but did, in reality.
Take Ni Huayuan, for instance, who despite his pale face and maintaining his stance, had attempted to act, albeit ineffectively.
As a practitioner of psychic powers, he found himself somewhat helpless facing an existence that might not even qualify as a living entity.
…
“My gloves…”
Ah Kai, having escaped the bind, looked at his gloves falling into the Crystal Pool and made a gesture of despair.
It was clear that the item was precious to him.
“What in the world is this thing?”
At that moment, Ni Huayuan finally broke free from his feeling of powerlessness and exclaimed instinctively.
Before his words died away, another strange development occurred.
As the bizarre hand was crushed, the irregular pulsation of the Crystal Pool began to slow.
In its place, more tentacles slowly rose from within the pool.
Amidst shimmering lights, all of these tentacles began to transform.
But this time, they didn’t form hands, but rather translucent, crystal-clear spears.
The group instinctively looked towards President Cass, as these objects bore a striking resemblance to the Black Flame Spear he had just used.
“`
“Let’s back out first.”
Cass had also realized this point, swiftly condensing dozens of slightly smaller Black Flame Spears in the air, which confronted the Crystal Needles aimed this way from a distance, while signaling the others to head out first.
It seemed that the more this entity was startled, the greater its reaction.
Neither the members of the Academy nor the Kamakura Family could hide their intimidation in the face of this entity’s characteristics, and they cooperated by returning the way they had come without delay.
…
“We should go.”
Ni Huayuan’s gaze scanned each person’s face as soon as they had retreated into the corridor, his tone resolute.
“This thing is indeed peculiar, but it seems difficult to find a way to deal with it in the short term, and we don’t have that much time left.”
“Or do you think that this might be our target?”
As strange as this entity was, the people from the Academy were interested, but they were not about to talk nonsense.
This thing had probably existed here for thousands, if not hundreds, of years.
From its previous reactions, if it wasn’t provoked, it most likely would continue to remain quiet.
“Shall we wait for President Cass to come out first?”
Ah Kai, having painfully lost his gloves, clearly did not want to leave just like that and made a tactful suggestion after a slight hesitation.
Muffled sounds were coming from within the door at that moment, obviously, Cass was dealing with that thing.
Moments later, a figure flashed, and Cass emerged, looking somewhat disheveled.
“It’s a bit troublesome.”
Although he bore no visible injuries, he honestly summed up the encounter inside.
“So should we leave now?”
Ni Huayuan didn’t exchange pleasantries but directly brought up the earlier discussion.
“I think this thing has nothing to do with our investigation.”
“Don’t tell me what you think.”
However, to his surprise, his assertive statement was directly rejected by Cass.
“In my opinion, this thing is quite important for the investigation.”
The flat and firm tone of the other party left him somewhat baffled for a moment.
“So you mean that you can handle that thing?”
But after snapping out of it, he pressed on with a grind of his teeth.
“I don’t have a good solution at the moment.”
Cass shook his head, then looked toward Fu Qian.
“What about Mr. Yun?”
“Same here, that thing is very special.”
Fu Qian’s answer was also straightforward.
Of course, having no good solution didn’t mean there were no solutions at all.
With the abilities of the Original Sin Sage, Fu Qian had never encountered anything he couldn’t cut through.
The question was, what to do after cutting it?
If he had simply wanted to cut a piece of it to study, he would have done so already.
The task was to find out why the divine seals had stopped working.
For himself, conducting some tests on this thing was far more meaningful than turning it into a pulverizer with his mighty avatar.
“So both Demigods are out of options?”
Fu Qian being so candid, Ni Huayuan couldn’t help but feel a bit surprised.
“So how does President Cass plan to investigate?”
“Don’t rush.”
At that point, it was Fu Qian who spoke again.
“There’s someone who hasn’t taken action yet.”
As he spoke, he turned his gaze toward Kamakura Si.