Chapter 888: Chapter 888

888: Chapter 874 Calamity 888: Chapter 874 Calamity “Boom!”

The hand grenade that was thrown behind, before reaching its pinnacle, plummeted down with a strange curvature.

The next moment, the designated time for the explosion arrived, the sparks burst forth in a flash in midair…

and then disappeared!

The flames, as if robbed by bandits, vanished straight away while still airborne.

The fragments fell to the ground, and even without creating ripples, they were immediately swallowed by the endless black ocean.

Meow was running in the lead, its four legs almost leaving afterimages as it sprinted, and trailing behind was Xue En…

not because he was genuinely the slowest, but a panda beast-man with a third-level war profession had terrifyingly strong basic attributes.

But the unlucky Panda-man, having stepped into holes twice, slipped twice, and once got sprayed with saliva from the opposite side—and not getting directly devoured—showed just how resilient he was.

A line of people ran frantically, while the black ocean behind them pursued relentlessly; continuing was definitely no good.

“Meow, take it with you.”

Lu Ping’an casually beckoned, summoning Little Flame, and as it appeared, the black ocean behind them sped up a great deal.

Lu Ping’an, you’re heartless, meow!

And I just shared my cookie with you!”

“Who wants to eat your cat food…

Reception Room, dumb cat.”

This time, he was plotting loudly in front of everyone, fortunately, the pursuers behind couldn’t understand.

Small tricks often have limited effects, but if the opponent is a “Beast,” they can often easily achieve miraculous results.

A minute later, using her skills as a Beast Tamer, Meow led Little Flame into a turn, causing the entire black ocean to turn as well.

Yes, the entire ocean.

The logic of “Beasts” is simple and straightforward: they just chase the one with the highest energy, and to them, the high temperature of Little Flame’s fire made it the top-priority prey.

There was no fragmentation and hunting as a normal beast swarm would do, and this scene made Lu Ping’an contemplative.

Clearly, these Energy-devouring Evil Sunflowers were not like normal living beings in terms of intelligence and social structure, nor were they the result of natural evolution in pursuit of efficiency.

They were, more like “machines” with a biological form…

“Meow-wow, it worked!”

Minutes later, Meow brought Little Flame back into Lu Ping’an’s “Courtyard Reception Room,” and Lu Ping’an’s team also took this opportunity to shake off the chase of the Demon sunflower swarm.

They made a large detour to ensure they weren’t followed before returning to the temporary campsite.

“Take a break, meeting in 20 minutes.”

Lu Ping’an glanced over, everyone was in a bit of a mess, so he dismissed them right away.

And with the Hammer-man’s ship there, at least there was a place to bathe and eat.

“Damn…this really is hard to fight.”

“I’ve never fought such a stifling field battle.”

“Is this a field battle?

Isn’t it just them pressing us down and whaling on us?”

And from the dissatisfaction in everyone’s words, their original frivolity and confidence had all but evaporated.

Previously, Lu Ping’an had in some sense instantly taken down the Energy-devouring Evil Sunflower, which inevitably made people somewhat underestimate them, but when they actually fought…

uh, being hailed as a calamity was absolutely reasonable.

“It’s too hard, it’s just too hard to fight, let’s give up.”

After cleaning off some of the mud from his body, Lu Ping’an took a quick shower, walked into the Temporary Meeting Room with instant noodles, and heard the disheartened voices.

He himself was quite calm, but the Hammer-man Captain following him seemed a bit overwhelmed…

He was rubbing his hands with a bit of hope and anxiety, but in the end, he said nothing.

How tricky were the Energy-devouring Evil Sunflowers, did their Arch Enemies not know?

“Meeting time, meeting time, spit it out if you have complaints,” Lu Ping’an said quite nonchalantly, directly finding a chair to sit down.

The others didn’t hold back either, immediately voicing their thoughts:

“I suggest we give up, this thing is just too outrageous…”

Whether they could fight it or not, one fight was enough to tell; clearly, the first encounter had been a bitterly poor experience for the humans.

“…There are two known characteristics, one of which is the ‘energy-neutralizing field’ mentioned in the documents.

As long as one gets within a certain distance of it, whether it’s a flying arrow or flame, they will lose the energy attached to them.”

Lu Ping’an nodded; this was currently the most troublesome aspect of the combat.

The team actually had some expensive Vortex Stone Firearms equipped, but this time, they might as well have been handed out for free.

The ammunition from ordinary fuse guns fell to the ground halfway through their trajectory, while the Vortex Stone heavy weapons were slightly stronger, ending up as stones smashing into them, which only seemed to excite them more.

“The skin is very thick, incredibly thick.”

Hua Xueyi sighed; she was feeling numb, in the physical sense.

Her combat style meant she was destined for 100% close-quarters combat, always engaging in high-speed, high-intensity, all-out attacks.

When she struck with her sword, it almost went from slicing to massaging, and when her Avatar clashed head-on, she almost ended up being air-dropped as food, just like Lu Ping’an.

Eventually, she used an ability she wasn’t yet proficient with to turn herself entirely into a weapon, drilling holes into the Demon Sunflower’s body….

“I probably need some weapon maintenance oil, Zhi Xi lend me some….”

“…There’s not much left, use it sparingly.

Shall we go together to the Knight’s Secret Realm after we get back?”

“Together, together…” While saying this, Hua Xueyi was oiling herself; she recently discovered that these supernatural potions for weapon maintenance from the Knight’s Secret Realm were actually quite suitable for caring for her own skin.

Her skin was now full of cracks; her transformation into the blade was successful, but the reaction force from that hardness nearly shattered her.

From the inside out was one thing, but from the outside in…

the creature’s defense power was quite exaggerated.

However, her “failure” also revealed some thought-provoking information….

“This is bad, frontal combat is unrealistic.”

Actual combat had proven that any long-range attack was ineffective against that swarm.

Light weapons and thunder strikes were devoured, flames would extinguish immediately, and even siege weapons resembling missiles would naturally fall to the ground halfway, then crash into a pile of scrap iron.

“Meow, my claws were ineffective when I struck them…

I also tried ‘Soul Strike,’ meow.”

Upon hearing this, Lu Ping’an became interested.

Soul Strike was a very rare ability, one that directly attacked the soul…

on the precondition that one’s body underwent spiritualization and their spiritual power was projected outward.

A true Soul Strike was a tool for killing beyond one’s level, essentially seen as an ultimate weapon that ignored defenses.

Was the damage sufficient?”

If physical attacks were ineffective, surely attacks on the spirit body should work.

“…Meow, it was as if swiping at air, it just passed right through, do they not have souls?

Or something resembling a soul?”

Life forms without souls?

This left Lu Ping’an somewhat baffled.

Throughout the combat, all attacks were ignored, but when they rushed at you with greedy drooling, it was impossible to ignore…

especially when there were hundreds of them on the opposite side.

The team hadn’t initiated any provocation; in fact, they were just slowly advancing while scouting.

Then, it seemed they stepped on something that triggered one of those things to drill out from the ground.

After a minute of fruitless fighting, it let out a shriek, and a hundred more appeared out of nowhere, nearly taking out the whole team in a single wave.

As the fighting continued, the combat naturally turned into primitive grappling.

And unfortunately, no matter how hard you hit, it didn’t work; once you picked up speed, the kinetic energy was also taken away, turning the assault into mere massaging.

The end result, the most effective method of attack, was to stay in continuous contact with the opponent, turning the fight into a collision of limbs, a tussle, and pulling…

uh, to put it simply, a bare-chested wrestling match between men.

But could you outwrestle those things….

“…This thing seems unsolvable….”

“If it were easy to solve, it wouldn’t be called a calamity.

Reportedly, even if the planet exploded, they wouldn’t be completely wiped out.

The energy from the planet ripping apart would be consumed cleanly by them, and then they would take the opportunity to reproduce en masse.”

“…Really don’t know what the purpose of that Pillar creating these creatures was.

Did it think there were too many beings in the universe or something?”

“Don’t joke, that might indeed be the case…

But under normal circumstances, they are harmless to us ordinary life forms.”

“Harmless to ordinary life forms?

Then why do they attack us?”

“Are we ordinary life forms?

Our biological energy, body heat, special abilities are all their food, right?”

After that explanation, it indeed gave Lu Ping’an some ideas.