Chapter 773: Land Chase
Land Chase
“Let’s see how long you can hold out.”
The bug leaped in front of Lin Ye again, trying to drive its insect leg into his body.
“Who said I need to hold out?”
Lin Ye suddenly shoved his right hand into the bug’s body and yanked out its core part.
“You’re near-god rank too?!”
The bug quickly retreated from Lin Ye, attempting to tear open the World of Ashes and escape from there.
“If I were near-god rank, I wouldn’t have waited until the World of Ashes was completely sealed to make my move.”
Lin Ye appeared in front of the bug and punched it in the head.
On guard now, the bug blocked Lin Ye’s Heavy Strike with its insect leg, but several of those legs snapped from the impact.
“Damn it, you lured me in here!”
The bug realized it couldn’t find the boundaries of the World of Ashes anymore—everywhere around it was filled with perception-blocking mist and swirling ash.
“I never wanted to fight you in the first place. This place doesn’t just have one near-god ranker. If you hadn’t kept crawling out to annoy me, I wouldn’t have bothered with you.”
Lin Ye kept using Red Flash to land Heavy Strikes on the bug’s body. The situation outside was unstable, so he had to resolve this quickly.
“Let me out, and we can team up to take down the other factions first. I’ll even share intel on the experts from those factions. If you force me, I’ll have no choice but to fight to the death. Even if you kill me, other near-god rankers will take you out!”
The bug fended off Lin Ye’s attacks while letting out urgent hisses.
“Your proposal sounds good, but I’m not interested.”
Lin Ye pulled out his Cross-shaped Greatsword and smashed off an entire row of the bug’s insect legs with one swing.
“Why?! We don’t have that big of a conflict. You should be a Survivor of the system—just complete its tasks. There’s no need to fight me to the death!”
The bug kept hissing in fury.
“You never planned to cooperate with me, did you? I think cooperation wouldn’t be a bad thing for you. Why are you so stubborn? Does it have to do with the item you’re all fighting over?”
As they spoke, Lin Ye and the bug engaged in hundreds of close-quarters clashes. Lin Ye was shattered dozens of times, while the bug’s insect legs were nearly all smashed off.
“…You’re going to die here. You’re the common enemy of all the factions. If you kill me now, the other factions will soon learn your true strength. When that happens, you won’t stand a chance.”
The bug rammed into Lin Ye, shattering him, but the Cross-shaped Greatsword also pierced through its body, pinning it to the ground.
“How ridiculous. Don’t tell me you think I’ll let you all go?”
Lin Ye had no intention of letting these enemies escape.
“Just you? Try stopping me first.”
The bug suddenly leaped into the air, the jump seemingly crossing space itself, leaping toward another Plane.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Lin Ye appeared above the bug and kicked it back down.
“Why can’t I jump out?!”
Jumping was the rule power the bug controlled. It could use jumping to traverse different spaces. The reason it hadn’t tried to escape directly earlier was that it wanted to grab the keys and its core part first.
All the conditions it had offered earlier were meant to deceive Lin Ye, to make him lower his guard while gathering information.
“Your body got stabbed by the Cross Scepter that many times, and you still thought you could escape?”
Lin Ye had seen through the bug’s plan long ago. After acquiring the Cross Scripture, the Cross Scepter had gained some of its power, which could suppress rule powers unrelated to the cross rule.
But this effect was limited—only a stronger being could suppress or even destroy a weaker one’s rules. It couldn’t work on an enemy stronger than the user.
“You leave me no choice!”
The bug’s body began expanding rapidly, soon swelling to the size of a city block. It leaped again, trying to escape from this cage to the outside.
But the moment it left the ground, it lost control of its entire body. A thick layer of ash covered its surface, and it began turning to ash. The process was like a chain reaction—accelerating, unstoppable, and irreversible.
In just two seconds, the giant bug had been reduced to a heap of ash, scattering across the World of Ashes.
After dealing with the bug, Lin Ye immediately checked the outside situation. Little Guardian was still controlling the parasitic worm to drift aimlessly, dodging the approaching pieces of land.
A massive landmass with a giant maw was following them, devouring the land pieces in its path.
“This situation is bad. That landmass is getting faster. We’re about to be caught.”
Little Guardian divided her attention to communicate with Lin Ye.
“No problem. We can lead that landmass to devour the experts from other factions.”
Lin Ye extended his mental energy and began taking full control of the Parasitism Network.
“Are you confident you can handle those enemies?”
Little Guardian handed over control of the parasitic worm to Lin Ye.
“Hard to say. At most, I can take out a bug-type near-god ranker like that one. If they’re any stronger, it’s dicey.”
When Lin Ye spread out the Parasitism Network, he realized that the special ability “Big Fish Eats Little Fish” calculated enemies devoured by the network—he didn’t have to eat them personally.
Perhaps because of Little Guardian, the Parasitism Network was tightly connected to Lin Ye. Every time a parasitic organism devoured an enemy, he received a temporary power boost.
Countless parasitic organisms were rampaging across the battlefield, and Lin Ye’s temporary strength kept rising. All he had to do was stall for time, and he’d gain the power to face near-god rankers head-on.
But he couldn’t use this power outside. If the enemy caught on, they’d focus on destroying the Parasitism Network before ganging up on him.
He could return to the Shelter, but the war would end there.
Now that his temporary strength had reached the near-god rank, he could naturally sense the positions of enemies from other factions.
Lin Ye steered the parasitic worm to change its drifting direction, and the massive landmass behind them adjusted course to follow, seemingly fixated on the land piece beneath the worm.
At least three near-god rank enemies were still hiding in this area. Lin Ye guided the worm straight toward the nearest one.
It was a half-human, half-beast biomechanical suit. Lin Ye had no idea what was inside.
Seeing the parasitic worm approach, the biomechanical suit simply shifted a short distance away, as if unwilling to reveal its position yet.
Lin Ye passed by the suit and then began circling ahead of it.
He made sure the biomechanical suit was always positioned between the parasitic worm and the massive landmass.
The biomechanical suit quickly caught on to Lin Ye’s scheme. It stopped hiding and began chasing the worm.
Unfortunately, the suit wasn’t fast in the turbid liquid, and whatever was inside seemed unwilling to make direct contact with the area like the bug had. So it could only trail behind Lin Ye, watching the massive landmass close in.
Lin Ye kept changing directions to ensure the biomechanical suit didn’t veer off course. Before long, that massive landmass would catch up to it.