Chapter 21: Mutation and Parting Ways

  Under the bright moonlight, the calm lake surface is rippling with a faint silver glow. The mountain wind blows by, and the lake surface stirs up a faint ripple, with sparkling water waves.

  "Whoosh." A huge ripple appeared in the center of the lake, breaking the calm. A gigantic creature poked out its enormous head, bathing in the lake water, shining with a silver glow under the moonlight, and it was actually an alligator head as big as a person, colored silver.

  Soft moonlight ripples like water waves, making the mountains seem to be shrouded in a thin layer of gauze. On the lake's surface, alligator heads with silver armor are densely packed, their terrifying huge mouths slightly open, and as they close and open, they guide the moonlight to surge towards them.

  By the lake's edge, two figures lurked, secretly gazing at all of this. "Pre-Heaven Early Period." Shi Ningning looked at the giant beast in the lake and softly said.

  "Early innate." Ling Lin repeated slowly beside him, then said, "After it lands later, with the combined strength of us two, it's not difficult to deal with it. Moreover, within a radius of several miles, there is only one early innate beast, this is an excellent opportunity!" Ling Lin's face showed excitement, and he was slightly agitated.

  In the past few days, they had basically figured out the habits of this ferocious beast. After devouring the Moon Flower, it would lie down on the lake shore for a while. That was when it was their best chance to make a move.

  After a while, the ferocious beast's huge mouth suddenly opened wide, and with one gulp, it swallowed all the moonlight around it. Its two lantern-like eyes suddenly lit up, and the giant beast let out a loud roar towards the sky, causing the lake surface to violently churn and boil. Next, the giant beast took a step forward, its enormous body beneath the lake surface cutting through the entire lake like a giant axe, splitting it in half. The water rolled back on both sides, as the ferocious beast strode straight towards the lakeshore.

  "It's coming." As the giant beast broke through the water surface, Ling Lin's entire body tensed up, like a nimble leopard, ready to pounce out and deliver a fatal blow at any moment.

  "Boom." A massive foot emerged from the water's surface, heavily stomping onto the lake shore. Immediately following, the enormous body of the beast appeared entirely before Ling Lin's eyes. Covered in silver scales as large as palms, the ferocious beast's huge alligator mouth was slightly ajar, with rows of sharp teeth resembling swords neatly arranged, its sturdy limbs stepped on the ground, producing "boom boom" sounds like war drums beating, and behind it, a tail like a massive iron whip swished back and forth, tearing through the air, making "whooshing" sounds, occasionally slamming onto the ground, instantly creating deep gashes. This alligator-like ferocious beast was simply a moving fortress. The beast took step after step towards the shore, its sturdy limbs leaving behind giant footprints on the ground.

  "Rift earth." The poet's expression was solemn and stern, with a low shout, the yuan force in his body surged violently.

  "Rumble, rumble." The ground where the crocodile-like ferocious beast was located suddenly rumbled loudly. Underneath the earth, it seemed as if two huge arms were prying open the ground to both sides, and one after another, shocking giant fissures appeared.

  At the same time, Ling Lin shot out like a cannonball, and the Purple Blood Sword shone with a bright purple light under the moonlight. A cold glow flashed by, followed by a piercing metallic scraping sound, and then the fierce beast's angry roar rose up, a huge wound appeared diagonally on its neck, blood gushing out like a spring.

  After landing a hit, Ling Lin swiftly retreated from the beast's side. He knew that the beast would go berserk next. Ling Lin didn't want to face a berserk beast again, and besides, he had already inflicted a massive wound on its neck. The more it went berserk, the more blood it would lose, and he could just wait for it to exhaust itself before finishing it off.

  She turned back, Poetic Condensation made a victorious gesture towards Ling Lin, her face blooming with a smile. From the initial Earth Splitting Technique to Ling Lin's astonishing one sword strike, it all happened within just a few short seconds, perfect coordination condensed an intense battle into a brief moment. A massive wound was opened at the beast's neck, a fatal spot, and once it went berserk, its strength would rapidly decline, making it easy prey later on. For now, they only needed to guard against its final counterattack before dying.

  The lantern-like eyes were bright red like blood, and two white gas jets suddenly sprayed out from the nostrils. The ferocious beast's sturdy limbs trampled heavily on the ground, rushing towards Ling Lin and his companion with a fierce howl, stirring up a violent bloody wind. A Primordial Realm ferocious beast didn't have much wisdom, but after being severely injured, its ferocious nature was triggered, and now it only wanted to slap these two small creatures to death.

  A dark shadow tore through space, bringing with it a shrill breaking wind sound that suddenly attacked. Ling Lin didn't collide with it head-on, his feet tapped once, borrowing the momentum from the trees beside him, like a shooting star chasing the moon, he quickly left the original location. Shi Jingjing was even more relaxed, as if she were a celestial maiden, empty and carefree, seemingly slow but actually fast, in the blink of an eye she disappeared from this place.

  "Crack." The ferocious beast's massive tail swept across, causing a large area of trees to be destroyed, uprooted and snapped in two. The broken branches danced in the air. After rampaging for a while, the beast's breath slowly began to weaken, fresh blood still spewing out, dyeing its enormous body a faint reddish-black color.

  Slowly crouching on the ground, the fierce beast's breath was somewhat weak at this time, and it no longer had the ferocity of just now. A purple lightning bolt with a destructive aura suddenly pierced into the beast's crown from above.

  Ling Lin, who was in mid-air, looked at this scene with a happy smile. This action was unexpectedly smooth and successfully harvested the life of this fierce beast in a short period of time, which could be called perfect! However, the next scene made Ling Lin suddenly shocked.

  "Ah, ah..." Beside her, Shi Congcong, who had just been full of joy, stared at what was happening in front of her eyes with an extremely shocked expression, her eyes somewhat dull and unable to speak.

  Ling Lin followed her gaze... Zi Xue Sword!

  At this time, the purple blood sword inserted into the corpse of the fierce beast was gradually changing. No, to be precise, it was the corpse of the fierce beast that was changing. Was the corpse undergoing a strange transformation? Yes, the originally small mountain-like body of the fierce beast was slowly shrinking, its bright scales gradually dulling, and the flesh and blood under the scales seemed to be evaporating. A faint mist of blood floated out from within the corpse, surging towards the purple blood sword. Under the envelopment of the bloody mist, the purple blood sword flowed with a dark purple glow, appearing exceptionally eerie, like an evil demon that had just crawled up from hell and was reveling in its feast of flesh and blood.

  "How did you get such an evil weapon?!" The joyful mood after killing the fierce beast was instantly dispelled, Shi Ning covered her small mouth with her hand, her pupils shrinking in shock. For the first time, she felt that the person beside her, who had gone through life and death with her, seemed so unfamiliar.

  "I said it was unintentional, do you believe me?" Ling Lin seemed very calm and composed after the initial shock, his tone flat. After a moment's thought, he had more or less analyzed the whole situation. Zilin fell into a deep sleep again due to excessive consumption of soul energy, and now the Purple Blood Sword was completely relying on instinct to devour the beast's flesh and blood, even its soul... As the faint white light floated out from the beast's massive skull, Ling Lin's pupils contracted violently, the longer he touched it, the more he could feel its mystery.

  Ling Lin let out a faint sigh and felt somewhat disheartened, he didn't know if the wonderful friendship between him and Shi Ning could continue after this incident.

  "Do you know the consequences if this is discovered by the sect?" asked Shi Ning with a faint and distant tone.

  "If light, abolish cultivation and expel from the sect; if severe, soul flies and spirit scatters." Ling Lin said quietly.

  "You still want to carry it with you, don't you know it can kill you?!" The voice gradually rose, Shi Ningning looked very agitated, with tears shining in her eyes. She didn't know why, but she was worried about the young man in front of her and didn't even want him to get hurt. Maybe it was because he had saved her before, the girl unknowingly thought so.

  "It's my friend." Ling Lin said without mentioning Zi Lin, and after a pause, he continued: "It saved my life."

  "It's just a sword, isn't it? There are plenty of them in the Qing Yuan Sect. I'll find you an even better one when we get back, why do you have to have this demonic sword?" The voice grew sharper, tears slowly falling down her cheeks as Shi Jing choked back sobs.

  "Sorry." Ling Lin's voice was a little hoarse, looking at Shi Ning who was crying uncontrollably, it felt like something in his heart had shattered, a tearing pain spreading throughout his body, his throat felt blocked by something, even breathing was painful. Feeling the pain of fingernails digging into flesh, Ling Lin took a deep breath and said: "Do you know why I wanted to be your little follower?"

  Every word he spoke, Ling Lin felt like he was holding a knife and cutting his own flesh piece by piece. He was in so much pain that he could hardly breathe, yet he continued to say cruelly: "Actually, I had long thought of leaving the Qingyuan Sect. Your appearance is my greatest opportunity, so..."

  "Haha, haha...” Shi Ningning laughed loudly, but this laughter sounded more like a sorrowful cry. Tears rolled down her face as she laughed. Why, why did her heart hurt so much? Shi Ningning's face was extremely pale, and her body swayed as if it were about to collapse. It turned out that she was so naive.

  Her eyes flashed with a hint of desolation, and her feet burst out with energy, like a white rainbow, disappearing from Linglin's line of sight in the blink of an eye. The deep desolation and sadness in her gaze before she left made Linglin's heart tremble greatly. With great difficulty, he squeezed out a hoarse voice, asking himself if what he had done was right or wrong.

  He deliberately made Poetic Condensation angry, and at this time the sadness in his heart was not one bit less than hers. There was some truth to what he said, that he had been using her, but that was just the beginning. As they slowly interacted over these few days, a rapid change occurred in their relationship, and an inexplicable, strange bond deeply tied the two hearts together. For several days, he had been hesitating about how to tell Poetic Condensation that he wanted to leave. If he simply wanted to leave, Lin could have quietly slipped away without anyone noticing, but he didn't know what was wrong with himself. Several times he thought of taking a step forward, but each time he ultimately didn't take it.

  Today, it's also an opportunity. With a heavy heart, Lin finally left with a sigh. Qing Yuan Sect couldn't accommodate him, and he was destined to leave the sect. But she was the only daughter of the sect leader, and they were destined not to be together. Lingering pain is worse than temporary pain. Enduring the agony in his heart, Lin took a deep breath and tried hard to suppress the sorrow in his heart.