Night passed.
The sunlight of early morning peeked across the horizon and caused faint shadows to appear behind the granite boulders.
The exploration team members were already awake.
They were roused awake by the eating scorpion group.
Presently, Zhen Jin did not display the slightest bit of happiness or anger, his face was tranquil. But his heart found it hard to escape despair.
Despite his expectations, the sun rose as it did every day and reality remained just as callous as ever.
The lizard lounge did not arrive.
Whether because their silver level leader was lost, or because they had been slaughtered by the scorpion group during the last confrontation, the lizards became terrified and lost their will to fight, not daring to come here again.
The entire scorpion group was eating.
Zhen Jin had described it to Cang Xu before, but this was the first time he had seen it personally. The old scholar could not help but gasp: “Nature really is grand to create such a miraculous animal. The spear scorpions feeding on these stones are actually eating metal. Their digestive system is very formidable and unusual, they can actually consume these metals and add them to their carapaces. That is the reason why their carapaces are so tenacious.”
“Wait a moment.” An exploration team member had a question. “Isn’t there a powerful magician on this island? Weren’t all these strange monsters created by that magician?”
Cang Xu smiled and shook his head: “That is impossible. Even if the island master is powerful, they still have to draw from natural life and then assemble them together. It is like magicians making golems, they use metal to make the body of the golem, they take souls and instill it into the golem to give it intelligence. It is like cutting pictures apart and then putting the pieces together.”
After a brief pause, Cang Xu continued: “If the island master could really make such things, he(she) would be a supreme god of creation and would be above all monarchs and dukes in the world. As far as I know, there are many living gods like Great Emperor Shen Ming, the dukes of the human race, the tribal chiefs and great shamans of the beastmen, and so on. None of them can directly create life.”
Zi Di visibly agreed with Cang Xu’s words.
She also spoke: “Although the lifeforms on this island are very dangerous and bizzare, they are actually very flawed. They cannot coordinate their internal magic power. If the island master was able to create them, they could stabilize and coordinate their internal magic power. Strictly speaking, the gold level beasts on this island can only be considered quasi gold and are not comparable to genuine gold level magic beasts. They do not have a gold level magic beast’s quasi-spells.”
No one objected.
Magic beasts usually had quasi-spells.
But none of the magic beasts they had seen on this island had quasi-spells.
The flying squirrel had an electrical discharge because its body composition was similar to an electric eel’s.
The lizards could spray acid because they had an acid gland. Vipers could spray venom because they had a venom gland in their heads.
The essence of quasi-spells came from magic beasts using their magic crystal to create something out of nothing, to ignore and rise above a lifeform’s body structure. Like battle qi and magic, it could allow one’s body to exceed the limit of their species and individuality.
But silence did not persist for long.
An exploration team member mumbled to himself: “Even if these monsters cannot coordinate their magic power, they are still very strong. If we can’t think of a way to break away from this scorpion group, we are all going to die at the hands of this scorpion group. Even if these scorpions do not eat meat, they will still grind us into mincemeat. I curse the island master! Regardless of how powerful they are!”
“To have created such things, they must surely be malicious and dangerous. These scorpion tails were made to be as sharp as spears. The lizard’s acid can even corrode steel.”
“No matter how famous they are or what research they are doing, if I die here, I will become a vengeful ghost and seize him so he can taste the pain I felt when alive.”
When Cang Xu heard this, he suddenly sighed and turned to face Zi Di: “Miss Zi Di, I now approve of your previous conjecture.”
Everyone was puzzled.
But Zi Di understood what Cang Xu had said and smiled: “You mean, you now also believe that the island master is trying to create living weapons?”
“Yes.” Cang Xu was still squatting on the ground, he nodded slightly and swept his eyes over everyone and the surroundings. “Based on the many artificial vestiges, we guessed before that the island master is most likely a magician. I had previously believed that he(she) made these monsters to research some magical research. Perhaps they are searching for the profound meaning of life so they can facilitate some kind of breakthrough.”
“But after going through so much, and seeing so many magic beasts, I am more inclined towards Miss Zi Di’s conjecture.”
“If they are researching a certain magic domain and looking for the meaning of life, they should have made the artificial lifeforms more stable. But the artificial lifeforms here are fierce and battle hardened. The scorpions are the size of warhorses and the scorpion tails have been remodeled into spear tips. The lizards spit acid that can corrode swords. The flying squirrels can discharge a strong electric current as if they were deliberately made to target metal armor.”
“The organisms here are made in pursuit of combat strength. Lord Zhen Jin, I remembered what you said about when you encountered the blade-legged spiders, the single horned black leopards, the brown bear that could heal itself by devouring ore, and even the crafty blue wolf that had human-like intelligence. Rather than saying these ferocious beasts were made as part of research, it would be better to say they are special weapons made as a result.”
Zhen Jin reflected on this: “Don’t forget that we have not only encountered ferocious beasts, we also encountered that flock of goats. Those goats are very weak.”
Cang Xu shook his head and persisted in his opinion: “Although the flocks of goats were weak and were slaughtered by us, the proportion of creatures like those goats are too low.”
“A more important point I believe is——those flocks of goats are more powerful than most magic beasts!”
Cang Xu’s opinion made everyone feel doubtful.
Cang Xu continued to explain: “The island master wants to make the strongest living weapons, but his(her) technology isn’t developed enough. The biggest defect is that these remolded lifeforms cannot coordinate their magic power and form a magic crystal. Therefore, the island master changed the environment to suppress the elements and magic. As long as we stay here, we cannot use battle qi and magic.”
“From this point, one can make out how tremendous these goats are.”
“The internal magic power of other magic beasts are in chaos and will rapidly dissipate after death. But the internal magic power of the goats trended towards stability. Although when the temperature rose, the magic power would still become chaotic and quickly dissipate. But in low temperatures, the internal magic power would converge and be hidden, making even us unaware of it.”
Because they were not able to detect it, the previous poisoning incident occurred in the exploration team.
“From this we can see that the island master is thinking of every method possible to make a magic crystal. Although he(she) cannot directly make one, it seems they can make use of the natural food chain to indirectly produce a magic crystal.”
“In order to produce a magic crystal as quickly as possible as well as test and train the fighting strength of these living weapons, the island master arranged a teleportation magic formation. Every so often, the magic formation would activate and the magic beasts will be teleported and fight each other endlessly with the victor being a qualified living weapon.”
Of course, Cang Xu knew the goat’s internal magic power actually came from the grass they ate. But this had to be still kept a secret, facing everyone currently, he said this deliberately.
So it would not hinder his expressed conjecture.
To be frank, Zhen Jin was immediately frightened by this conjecture.
“My heart has a magic crystal.”
“How can a human have a magic crystal? It is very possible that the magic crystal was unexpectedly produced by Zi Di when she imbued my body with bear blood in the monkey bear’s cave in order to save my life.”
“So…am I the solution to the island master’s difficult research problem?”
“Is the magic crystal in my heart actually an artificial magic crystal indirectly made by the island master’s power?”
“What will happen to me if the island master finds me?”
Cang Xu’s guesses also made the others take in a breath of cold air.
“What should we do?”
“Maybe the island master has already found us and is only letting us struggle here.”
“Yeah, perhaps he(she) is looking at us and is using us to test the power of their creations.”
“Aren’t we gonna die anyway? Why bother struggling?”
“Surrender? Right, we can surrender!”
“Alright.” Zhen Jin suddenly spoke with a strong calmness and a solemn look. “It is too early to say anything as they are all guesses. We should set off now.”
Everyone still looked panicked and at a loss.
Zhen Jin sighed: “Have you guys seen the island master? Do you have any evidence to prove Cang Xu’s conjectures?”
“If you guys want to give up, believe you are screwed, or want to surrender, then go and do it!”
“But if you guys want to still follow me, then you should start walking.”
This time, no one hesitated as they chose to follow behind Zhen Jin.
Notes
One of the classic excuses given in life is “the devil made me do it.” Due to the enormity of the universe and the finite perception of humans, many of us want to attribute things that don’t make sense to a higher power. This relieves one of responsibility and gives and out when things go wrong or fail. But in the end those are excuses, the only ones who can make choices and differences are those present in life.