Chapter 25: A Fifth-Order Abnormality? The Crimson Crystal Ball

"What?!"

Lin Lei's expression suddenly shifted drastically.

One had to know that this was a spiritual light shield that Lin Lei had already "plundered" from Tier 4 red crystal monsters seven times and strengthened multiple times. Even amidst a swarm of abnormalities, facing the simultaneous attacks of dozens of enhanced Tier 2 and Tier 3 abnormalities, it could barely hold out for a while.

Yet, in front of these butterflies, it dissolved instantly.

Swish!

Lin Lei abruptly swung his blade, obliterating the swarm of butterflies that came into contact with his blood shield!

However, the sheer number of butterflies was simply overwhelming.

How could he possibly kill them all?

While the surrounding abnormalities were numerous, they were restricted by their individual sizes, meaning there was a cap to the number of abnormalities Lin Lei could fight simultaneously. These butterflies, on the other hand, were like mist—thousands upon thousands of them—surging in from all directions.

No matter how fast Lin Lei swung his blade, he couldn't possibly slaughter all the butterflies; there were always slips through the net.

And it was precisely these omissions that reduced his spiritual light shield to a mottled, patchy mess in the blink of an eye, shattering it under the slight impact of the surrounding abnormalities.

At the same time, these butterflies slipped through the gaps in the spiritual light shield and surged toward Lin Lei's body.

The moment they made contact, Lin Lei felt an excruciating, bone-deep pain pierce through him, while his incomparably tough skin and flesh began to dissolve...

Even activating the [Demonization] ability was completely unable to stop it!

"Such bizarre things!"

Lin Lei's blade swung continuously. Enduring the agonizing pain, he kept slaughtering the abnormalities and butterflies surging in from all surroundings, and in the blink of an eye, one bloody hole after another appeared on his body.

"Since that's the case..."

His eyes flashed, and his hair suddenly shot out in all directions.

Facing other abnormalities, his hair didn't play a huge role and it was even difficult to pierce through the light shields on other abnormalities, so he hadn't used it until now. But facing these fragile butterflies, the effectiveness of his hair couldn't be better!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

His hair covered his entire body like dense steel needles, sweeping horizontally and blasting apart the approaching butterflies one by one!

In the blink of an eye, large swaths of blood-red butterflies dissipated into the air.

Yet his hair strands were also being corroded and annihilated bit by bit.

His hair certainly wasn't as tough as his sword bones!

Although these butterflies could be easily destroyed, even mere contact inflicted a considerable amount of damage upon Lin Lei.

Generating hair naturally came with a cost for Lin Lei, but this consumption was completely acceptable compared to abilities like [Demonization] and [Boiling Blood]!

At that moment.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Abnormality after abnormality in the surroundings also surged toward Lin Lei.

Lin Lei's eyes flashed, and his body abruptly transformed into a blood mist, passing through the abnormalities and the dense swarm of blood-red butterflies as he floated upward.

To Lin Lei's horror, the moment the blood mist he had transformed into came into contact with these butterflies, the blood mist itself was continuously dissolved by them!

Lin Lei, transformed into blood mist, could also feel that the damage these blood butterflies inflicted upon him had grown even greater!

"This power is too exaggerated!"

Not daring to hesitate, Lin Lei decisively re-condensed into his physical form.

"The [Mist Transformation] ability can immunize against certain physical attacks, but it's not invincible..." Lin Lei's expression was extremely ugly.

The blood mist being depleted by special attacks would directly consume Lin Lei's own blood!

That would have been fine before, as the spread of the blood-red butterflies was limited.

However, as time passed, the entire perimeter of the abnormality swarm was filled with blood-red butterflies. At this moment, if he wanted to continue slaughtering the surrounding abnormalities, it was impossible to avoid these blood butterflies!

"Within the coverage area of the blood butterflies, if I activate [Mist Transformation], my blood will only be consumed faster..."

As Lin Lei's mouth twitched, abnormalities not far away were already charging over.

Abnormalities covered in red light swarmed over amidst the gathering blood butterflies.

"Courting death!"

Murderous intent erupted in Lin Lei's eyes as another red shield materialized around him.

Simultaneously, he let out a forward roar, unleashing [Dragon Might].

Roar!

The charging abnormalities in the surroundings froze in place for a fraction of a second.

Lin Lei swept his dual bone swords horizontally, his long hair intertwining around him as he initiated another round of slaughter.

In the blink of an eye, a massive number of charging abnormalities perished beneath his blade.

However, among the swarm of abnormalities, there were still dozens of Tier 4 abnormalities remaining, and every single one of these fellows was still receiving tremendous enhancements.

Right now, Lin Lei was killing them easily, but once his [Blood Potion] effect wore off, every single one of these abnormalities would become quite difficult to handle.

The more he killed, the uglier Lin Lei's expression became.

Although his speed of killing enemies was fast, within the less than two hours that the [Blood Potion] lasted, it was clearly unrealistic to wipe out all the remaining abnormalities.

"There are too many blood butterflies, and the damage I take from activating [Mist Transformation] is too severe. In my current state, I'm afraid I'll use up all my remaining 'plunder' chances before I can even kill a few Tier 4 abnormalities..."

The blood butterflies dealt devastating damage to his mistified body.

And once mistified, he was unable to activate the effects of his other abilities, leaving him at the mercy of the blood butterflies' erosion.

It might look like Lin Lei had been fighting for a long time and had killed many abnormalities, but the remaining abnormalities were still frighteningly numerous. The Tier 4 abnormalities were all hiding deep in the center of the swarm; if he couldn't transform into blood mist, Lin Lei simply couldn't get close to those fellows.

"This won't do!"

If he wanted to eliminate as many abnormalities as possible, he had to deal with the Tier 4 red crystal monsters first.

And to deal with the Tier 4 red crystal monsters, his [Mist Transformation] was indispensable.

"I must find a way to deal with these blood-red butterflies first!"

Lin Lei hacked down the charging abnormalities, then pressed his feet downward and leaped high into the air.

At the same time, his gaze swept around searchingly.

Utilizing the higher vantage point, his gaze followed the "silken scarves" formed by the flight paths of the blood-red butterflies.

Soon, his gaze narrowed slightly.

The source of the blood-red butterflies was none other than that red crystal ball beneath the cluster of crystal towers in the distance!

Ever since the very beginning, Lin Lei had noticed this red crystal ball.

It was located at the very core of the abnormality swarm, right beneath the tall tower of red crystals.

It sat dead center amidst the densely packed swarm of abnormalities.

"As long as there's a source, it's easy to talk. I just need to destroy their source!" Lin Lei tightened his brow, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes, and once again transformed into a blood mist, plunging into the abnormality swarm.

This time, the blood mist headed straight toward the location of the blood-red crystal ball!

Along the way, the blood mist once again encountered interception from those butterflies, and parts of the blood mist were inevitably dissolved.

However, Lin Lei didn't hesitate in the slightest, because there were simply too many abnormalities along the path; without activating [Mist Transformation], he couldn't possibly charge through.

Arriving before the red crystal ball, Lin Lei didn't rush to re-condense his physical form, instead decisively attempting to trigger "Plunder" on it.

Yet regrettably, the result was that it could not be "plundered"!

One had to know that by this moment, he had likely killed over a thousand various abnormalities, among which dozens were Tier 4 abnormalities. Although he hadn't devoured every single abnormality, Lin Lei's gluttony energy was already approaching ten thousand.

"This thing is very likely a living Tier 5 abnormality! I have to kill it before I can plunder it!"