Chapter 1463: Chapter 1463

1463: Chapter 1459: Hunting Season 1463: Chapter 1459: Hunting Season The colossal Three-Headed Dragon spewed forth the power of the Elements, with lightning on one side, freezing ice on another, and a side of corrosive Poison Fog.

Its massive form was incomparable in size, and just a rough estimate put it over a hundred meters…

Even among giant life forms, this was exceedingly rare, almost like the super Godzilla from old movies.

Multiple elements coated its body, with thunder and Poison Fog erupting intermittently, while a closer approach would bring an icy chill capable of freezing the air itself.

When it erupted with its full strength, the professionals attempting to surround and kill it could no longer approach and were forced to fall back step by step.

Even with the advantage, the dragon still slowly submerged into the deep sea…

As a “Beast,” it perfectly controlled its beastly nature and unhesitatingly chose the most logical path.

As it dove deeper, the hunters hesitated.

For such an Element Manipulator, environmental factors were important variables that increased or decreased its abilities.

Merely stepping halfway into the water made the lightning and frost particularly troublesome to deal with, the icy tides and water mines causing the hunters considerable pain.

Now entering the deep sea, facing this clear aquatic Sea Dragon enjoying the benefits of underwater ice and electric shocks, was truly difficult.

And in their moment of hesitation, the Sea Dragon underwater eerily disappeared…

It seemed to possess some Extraordinary Trait.

“…As expected, it’s gotten away again.”

When the message spread through the Contact Board, Lu Ping’an was not surprised in the slightest.

This was not the first hunt to end in failure.

Apart from the first surprise attack that succeeded, all other attempts to encircle the Ancient Divine Beasts had failed.

These Divine Beasts seemed to have some sort of connection; after one was attacked, the others began to flee.

Without any hesitation, they abandoned their activities and hid away in the deep seas or among the mountains.

And this reality confirmed the initial speculation.

“Indeed, they possess ‘Its’ will.”

“This is an unexploded bomb, a dangerous button that could utterly destroy this world.

We must eliminate them.”

“Apart from those few…

I suggest we eliminate all the Ancient Divine Beasts.

We cannot be certain if they also harbor ‘Its’ will.

So, let none escape!”

The sudden incident disrupted all plans.

That day, Elder Liu sacrificed the majority of his existence, the price for falling from a Deity back to a Mortal, assimilating the “Personality Fragments” of this world’s will, and dragging them into a long slumber with him.

This allowed a world filled with malice to revert to a fundamentally normal consciousness, giving its life forms the possibility of a reprieve and continuation.

However, ‘It’ did not honestly fall into a deep sleep at that time…

‘It’ tore through the world’s Core, casting fragments of its consciousness along with shards of the World Keystone down, in an attempt to seize an opportunity for a counterattack.

The people of the Eastern Country naturally would not let these fragments slip away…

Without those World Fragments, Lu Ping’an would not have grown so quickly; several of his core abilities were gifts from this world.

But ultimately, ‘It’ had paid such a high price only to awaken itself again, and those “Personality Fragments” thus mingled with the Mortal World.

Most of the hosts, either died naturally or were killed by the hands of the Easterners, as the initial chase was intensely fierce.

“Clearly, we’ve been duped.

These Ancient Divine Beasts have always been ‘Its’ collectibles, and to control them, it probably laid down fallbacks long ago.

The Personality Fragments that fell originally were already floating around them.”

“Heh, turns out those human hosts cast away were just Smoke Bombs…”

‘Its’ Personality Fragments are sources of Radiation, and the Divine Beasts themselves are already “strong sources of Radiation.” In a sense, they were once comrades fighting against the Foreign Invaders, and when mixed together, it’s very difficult to detect them even with specialized detection abilities.

So why have they now emerged?

“They wanted to ascend to godhood, becoming Deities to link with the world, and awaken Its slumbering larger portion of Personality Fragments.”

Such an act, all life forms in this world, including the invaders from the Exotic Realms, would never accept it.

Merely toying with at least eight epochs to death and treating past “heroes” as treasure collections, any Informed-person would refuse to let such riffraff join their side, let alone become their direct superior.

“We must hunt them down…

no, hunt down all the Ancient Divine Beasts.”

These Ancient Divine Beasts were also relics of history, treasures of It.

Initially awakened to defend against invasions from the Exotic Realm, later, as the World’s Will fell into slumber, these creatures also gained freedom, either choosing to recluse and sleep on their own or becoming natural disasters insurmountable by Mortals.

In the midst of the Plane War, Easterners and the Salvation Army wouldn’t provoke these troublesome beings, as long as they didn’t actively rampage through the cities, no high-tier combat power would clash with them to the death.

“Looking back now, it’s still surprising to see how rational they were.

Despite many vicious Beasts among them, they caused surprisingly few catastrophes.

Now I realize, we’ve actually been deceived by a bunch of Beasts…”

At the moment, Lu Ping’an sat atop a massive “Big Dog,” whose once pristine white fur was now scorched black.

This Divine Beast, capable of summoning ice, had met its most challenging opponent.

“Turn over its corpse to me, my factory can completely digest it, later, I’ll give you guys Dividends…”

The other two eighth-tier professionals nodded, strength being the basis for their easygoing agreement.

This time, the main force of the hunt was Lu Ping’an.

His reputation was quite good, and he was a Professional in logistics, indeed the most suitable person for distributing combat trophies.

But in the eyes of the other hunters, Lu Ping’an, this “seventh-tier newcomer,” spoke with more authority than those of the eighth-tier, and he did it with an air of natural entitlement.

Indeed, the outrageous stories of ‘Peace Road’ are not merely legends.”

The name precedes the person; Lu Ping’an must also build a bit more of a reputation in this world…

From what it looked like, no one at the High level of the Eastern Country would really treat him as a typical seventh-tier.

But now, touching the fur beneath him, Lu seemed a bit disgruntled.

He knew more than those warriors around him, eagerly awaiting their share of money, and naturally, he was more troubled.

The Big Dog he had just hunted was a standard Divine Beast with formidable strength but insufficient intelligence, becoming more ferocious as the fight progressed, stubbornly fighting to the death…

which made it easier to handle.

However, it was an epoch of killing without mercy, and from the looks of it, they had probably made a mistake this time too.

But Eastern Country People couldn’t afford to gamble.

Even if only six Divine Beasts were overtly trying to achieve Ascension, it was expected that the others would meet the same fatal end.

“That Phoenix is going to be tricky.”

That so-called “Phoenix,” or rather, the red bird that resembled a Phoenix but Mimicked the Sun, was one of the six confirmed main troubles, which Lu Ping’an had personally attempted to capture, with rather subtle results.

It was already bad enough that the creature flew extremely fast; it was also an Elemental Creature of Flame, rendering many of Lu Ping’an’s abilities completely useless.

Worse, that creature had already reached into Lu Ping’an’s Territory, and for various reasons, it seemed best for Lu himself to regain face.

“It’s too fast to catch, fire-resistant, and it’s a Life form with the ability to ‘command’ life forms of a lower order…”

The more he assessed the situation, the more Lu Ping’an felt it would be tough to deal with; if the opponent didn’t stubbornly fight to the bitter end, he probably couldn’t capture it.

But now, what troubled Lu Ping’an wasn’t just the difficulty of his adversaries.

“Ancient Heroes like Mudar will likely be considered key suspects…

Although I don’t hope for a tragedy to occur, the current trend of development makes it very likely we could be entering a new ‘Witch Hunt Era.'”