I Can Control Resources

Although Li Tiannan already suspected the truth, upon confirmation, his brow furrowed deeply.

He didn’t hesitate for a moment.

He dove downward.

If he had any hope left, it was that this newly discovered Demon Abyss was different from the others.

’I hope there’s nothing dangerous down below!’ Li Tiannan prayed inwardly as he descended, hoping against hope that Gao Neng hadn’t gone too deep.

He increased his speed again.

Nine thousand meters.

Ten thousand meters.

It wasn’t long before he noticed something was wrong.

There were signs of a struggle. More than that, a large section of the surrounding cliff face looked like it had been forcefully... gouged, leaving two deep craters.

’What happened here?’ Just as the thought crossed his mind, Li Tiannan suddenly heard a noise nearby. His eyes widened.

He saw the Dark Stone Spiders that had appeared around him.

There were a lot of them.

At least twenty or more.

And among them was an eighth-rank leader.

’It’s over. Dark Stone Spiders!’ he thought. ’That damn kid Gao Neng... Don’t tell me he was eaten by these things, without a single bone left behind?’ Li Tiannan couldn’t imagine Gao Neng breaking through an encirclement of Dark Stone Spiders.

He knew all too well how formidable these things were.

They were incredibly tough.

Aside from being a little slow, they were practically without weakness.

Most importantly, they hunted cooperatively. They were incredibly tenacious; once one of them got a hold of you, escape was nearly impossible.

SWISH!

SWISH! SWISH!

Wads of spider silk shot toward Li Tiannan.

"You bastards! Give me back my disciple!" Unlike Gao Neng, Li Tiannan showed no restraint, charging directly at the leader of the Dark Stone Spiders.

He would offer this Dark Stone Spider’s blood to avenge Gao Neng’s young soul.

BOOM!

A massive explosion erupted.

...

「Demon Abyss. Between 12,000 and 16,000 meters deep.」

Gao Neng had now finished collecting the ore and was once again diving downward.

Trailing behind him was a swarm of Dark Ants.

That’s right.

He was under attack again.

These Dark Ants were far more numerous than the Dark Stone Spiders. There were at least three hundred of them, and each one was a full meter long.

The worst part was, these Dark Ants could fly.

A single Dark Ant was a weak creature, with strength somewhere between the fifth and sixth rank.

But a swarm of ants was quite terrifying.

It wasn’t that Gao Neng didn’t want to fight, but that he really couldn’t win. He could only run, relying on his downward momentum to rapidly evade the Dark Ants’ attacks.

’This Demon Abyss is just too terrifying! How can a place like this even exist?’ Gao Neng found it all truly bizarre.

How many high-rank individuals did the Human Alliance have in total?

Only a few hundred.

But even with just that, humanity was able to establish a foothold in this world.

So, in a sense, one could estimate that a single foreign race would have at most one or two hundred high-ranks.

But inside this Demon Abyss...

How many had Gao Neng seen?

From the moment he entered the Demon Abyss until now, he had already encountered close to seventy high-rank creatures. And that was despite the fact that most of the ants behind him were only fifth or sixth-rank.

But there were high-ranks among them too.

Furthermore, Gao Neng estimated that among these few hundred Dark Ants, the number of high-ranks was at least ten, and possibly even more.

’I’m not even twenty thousand meters down into a single Demon Abyss, and I’ve already run into dozens of high-rank creatures. If I went all the way to the bottom, how many would there be? Could there even be supreme Dark Creatures?’ Gao Neng couldn’t even begin to imagine.

He knew there was danger in the Demon Abyss.

But he had never imagined it would be this dangerous.

In the first eight thousand meters.

He had only encountered a total of twenty to thirty high-ranks.

But in the last few thousand meters alone, he had already seen forty to fifty high-ranks, and they were basically all in groups.

’It seems the region between ten thousand and sixteen thousand meters is where the pack-hunting Dark Creatures live. What’s below sixteen thousand meters, then?’ Gao Neng couldn’t begin to guess.

But there was one thing he was sure of.

Below sixteen thousand meters, it was definitely even more terrifying.

’I hope I don’t run into any ninth-rank Dark Creatures... No, wait... I hope I don’t run into any more eighth-ranks, either. I can’t even beat an eighth-rank!’ Gao Neng gritted his teeth and desperately pushed onward.

Fortunately, while the Dark Ants were numerous, they weren’t particularly fast, so he wasn’t at a complete disadvantage.

Just as he was thinking, there was a sudden movement on the cliff face.

Then, two masses of gray, gas-like things shot out from both sides of the cliff face at the same time.

Gao Neng was startled.

He instinctively dropped lower.

The two gray, gas-like masses grazed past Gao Neng’s scalp and then pounced into the swarm of pursuing Dark Ants behind him.

!!! Gao Neng instinctively glanced back. The sight made his skin crawl. The two gray gas clouds were devouring the Dark Ants.

The Dark Ants let out strange cries.

As if they had been set on fire by something, their bodies continuously sparked, and in just a moment, a full ten Dark Ants had died in mid-air.

The other Dark Ants quickly retreated.

A chill ran down Gao Neng’s back.

Within those two gray gas clouds, he couldn’t see any ’body’ at all; they felt like ghost-like monsters.

"Use I’m Watching You."

...

Name: Devourer.

Rank: No rank.

Characteristics: Mutated Dark Creature species. Has no body, can possess other living beings and devour the energy contained within their bodies until the being dies.

Strengths: Immune to physical attacks.

Weaknesses: Unconscious (but because it is unconscious, it is also immune to Spiritual Power attacks).

"..." Gao Neng.

When he saw "No rank," he was happy.

But when he saw the next two lines, "immune to physical attacks" and "immune to Spiritual Power attacks," he felt like cursing.

How was he supposed to fight this?

No way.

’I have to run!’

Gao Neng didn’t hesitate, immediately accelerating his fall.

But the instant he began to fall, he suddenly sensed a layer of gray mist appear before his eyes, and he had no chance to even dodge.

SWISH! Gao Neng passed through it.

He passed through the gray mist.

But the mist was like it had hooks. The moment he passed through, it attached itself completely to him, forming a gray tail behind him.

’Did I just... run into a Devourer?’ Gao Neng froze for a moment, then looked over at Gao Xiaomeng on his shoulder.

MEOW!!! Gao Xiaomeng waved her paws, continuously swatting at her body, trying to bat away the gray mist clinging to her.

But it had no effect at all.

Gao Neng’s expression stiffened.

The implications were clear.

Not just him, but Gao Xiaomeng as well had been latched onto by this Devourer.

More importantly, the effect was incredibly obvious.

In just a few breaths, Gao Neng could feel a portion of his magnetic core’s energy being consumed. The drain was like an open faucet, completely unstoppable.

’I’m actually possessed by a Devourer! I can’t shake it off!’ Gao Neng tried not to panic, but how could he not in a situation like this?

’I’m going to die!’

’Blades don’t work, and Spiritual Power attacks are useless. This thing is like some new kind of indestructible superglue!’

’What do I do?!’

MEOW MEOW!!!

MEOW!!

Gao Xiaomeng was also clearly getting anxious now.

She started meowing frantically, constantly swatting at her body. Clearly, she could also feel the energy inside her being absorbed by the Devourer.

"Gao Neng, we can’t shake this thing off," Gao Xiaomeng’s voice rang out.

"I know." Of course Gao Neng knew. The system said that once possessed by this thing, it would continue to drain you until you died.

’I’m going to be sucked dry until I die.’

That was not a pleasant way to go.

Gao Neng glanced behind him. The Dark Ants had already fled frantically.

And the two Devourers that had just attacked the Dark Ants, after devouring a dozen or so of them, had once again locked their sights on Gao Neng.

’One is already a death sentence. Two more? How am I supposed to survive this?’