CHAPTER 264: CHAPTER 264: A POWERFUL WORM, RUINS OF AN ANCIENT BATTLEFIELD

Hiss...

A sharp, low hiss echoed.

Johnnie and the others frowned, tense and ready to fight, staring at the worm-like Demonic Creature that had appeared out of nowhere.

"Wait, it’s hurt!" Maiev warned.

Its voice was full of pain. It wasn’t truly blood-red—its body was stained with fresh blood. It looked like it had just crawled out of an endless prison.

"Blood... fresh blood!" a low murmur rolled through the corridor.

It wasn’t speaking an Earth language, but Johnnie understood exactly what it meant.

Whoosh!

The creature opened its huge maw and sprayed out several tentacles that swept toward them, all covered in slimy muck.

"Careful!" Nalorin Sylvia stepped in front of Johnnie and swung the Stellar Sword at the tentacles.

Squelch!

Blood mist burst out as a few tentacles were cut off.

The monster let out another painful scream, but it didn’t seem badly hurt. Its bloated body shuddered, and more tentacles shot out from its flesh—stronger ones.

Hiss hiss...

Nalorin Sylvia slashed down, but these tentacles didn’t break. Instead, they wrapped tight around her sword.

"Mm!" Her face changed. She let go fast and cried out, "It’s draining my power!"

She then used the Sword-Control Technique, wrested the Stellar Sword free, and kept attacking.

Splat, splat...

Blood flew, but it barely hurt the tentacle beast.

Johnnie and the others didn’t hold back either. They struck at once.

Countless sword lights flashed and poured over it.

Hum...

The air buzzed as the sword lights touched its soft body. Ripples spread, then the lights vanished.

It could absorb energy attacks too—and its wounds were healing fast.

"Master, don’t use energy attacks," Maiev reminded. Steel arrows appeared in her hands and shot toward the worm with tentacles.

Thump, thump...

Blood spattered. The arrows hurt it, but didn’t really threaten it. Instead, they enraged it.

"Die!" a low roar rolled past their ears. More tentacles swept in, covering Johnnie and the others in an instant.

These tentacles were strange. They could devour power. If they wrapped you up, you were in serious danger.

"Benz, snap out of it—move!" Johnnie noticed Benz had been standing there in a daze ever since the monster appeared. His eyes were blank with fear. The tentacles were already reaching him, and he still didn’t react.

With no choice, Johnnie used a space blink, appeared in front of him, and kicked him out of the way.

At the same time, he cast Fire-Control. Endless flames surged up and swallowed the tentacles.

Sizzle...

The flames surged, and the huge tentacle monster trembled—but then it swallowed the fire too.

It could even devour fire-element law power.

"Master, you go first!" Maiev stepped in front of Johnnie. Her Dark-Moon Longbow thrummed, and countless arrows flew, hammering the tentacles.

Hiss...

The worm monster cried out in pain. Its tentacles were packed with arrows, but it didn’t back off. Its attacks only grew fiercer.

Johnnie’s eyes went cold. The Void Sword appeared in his hand. He unleashed the Cosmic Eclipse Blade and slashed at the incoming tentacles.

The poison on the Seven Sword hadn’t been purged yet, so he couldn’t use it. For now, he could only use the Void Sword and the Dragon Patterned Sword.

Squelch!

Several tentacles were cut off.

Johnnie noticed something and shouted, "Artifacts can hurt this thing!"

Maiev and Nalorin Sylvia saw it too. Their bow and sword were both artifacts, and they shredded the attacking tentacles with ease.

But the monster had too many tentacles, and the ones cut off grew back right away.

The corridor was narrow, almost blocked by tentacles. They were forced to fall back again and again.

By now, Benz had snapped out of his panic. He didn’t have an artifact and couldn’t threaten the tentacles, so he could only hide behind the others.

"Benz, do you know this monster’s weakness?" Maiev asked.

From his reaction, he clearly knew this thing.

He nodded quickly. "I do. A deeper power can kill it. I once saw a powerful interstellar drifter butcher these worm raiders like chopping vegetables."

They all frowned. That didn’t help.

The two women were only Half-God level. They had only grasped law power, not any deeper power.

"No—there is a deeper power!" Johnnie suddenly thought of something.

The Skywind Sword that dropped from killing Altair has a 1% chance to trigger Wind’s True Intent.

The Skywind Sword requires mastery of the wind element law to use. After he refined the Elemental Heart, the Dark Golden Golem devoured a lot of Slime mucus and had long since mastered the wind element law.

Whoosh...

A light breeze stirred, and a long, flexible sword appeared in Johnnie’s hand.

He wasn’t used to fighting with a flexible sword. All the sword arts he knew were for heavy blades, not this kind of weapon, so he had to rely on his past battle experience to control it.

Even without a sword art, his strikes still hit hard.

The soft sword howled and flickered like a ghost, slicing the tentacles again and again.

Splat...

Blood sprayed. Johnnie’s attack speed was over forty; he could cut more than forty times per second. That meant every two or three seconds he could trigger an attack boosted by Wind’s True Intent.

The soft sword did hurt the tentacle monster, but it still wasn’t enough.

His attacks didn’t scare it—if anything, they enraged it. Countless tentacles rushed in.

Maiev and Nalorin Sylvia were tangled up, their power getting sucked away.

The little damage the worm had taken was healing fast.

"Damn it, get away!" Johnnie cursed. The soft sword howled, cutting several tentacles and freeing the two women.

"Die!" The worm let out a low roar. Its power rose a bit as it drove more tentacles at them, pushing the group to the brink.

Johnnie’s face turned grim. He swung the Skywind Sword with everything he had. He even thought about using the heavenly tribulation—but he didn’t know if it would work on this thing.

Hum!

Space energy flickered. A giant axe flew out, and Coco’s voice sounded in Johnnie’s mind.

"My lord, use Skye’s axe!"

The axe flew straight into Johnnie’s hand. It was Skye’s giant axe—Skybreaker.

Johnnie’s eyes lit up. Skye’s shield was already that scary; the axe had to be even stronger. And the axe was infused with Skye’s power, so he could use it right away.

He gripped the axe. A terrifying aura burst from him, and his confidence surged.

"Cut!"

He shouted and raised the axe high, then brought it down hard.

The worm seemed to sense danger. Its tentacles pulled back in a panic.

Splat...

Blood flew. The axe swept through and easily chopped off dozens of tentacles.

Hiss!

The worm screamed again in sharp pain. It glanced in fear at the axe in Johnnie’s hand. Its clumsy body writhed as it tried to flee.

"Trying to run now? Too late." Johnnie sneered. Space flashed as he blinked above the worm’s head. With the local law power pressing down, the giant axe fell with even greater force.

Squelch!

Blood and slime sprayed out. The massive worm was split clean down the middle.

Both halves thrashed in pain. Its screams grew weaker and weaker, then stopped for good.

"Is it dead?" Nalorin Sylvia stepped up and carefully poked half of the corpse with her sword. Only after she felt no breath did she exhale in relief.

Johnnie frowned. He didn’t get any system prompt or experience.

It seemed this thing was like The Mechanical Race—life that didn’t belong to the Universe Continent or the land of confusion—so killing it gave no rewards.

But he had the Lucky Master class. Killing The Mechanical Race could still give Mechanical Perception.

Unwilling to give up, Johnnie searched the worm’s body. A small jade-like stone dropped out.

"What’s this?" He checked it.

[God-Tier Skill Stone: special item that can raise the level of Forbidden Spell or higher skills]

"God-Tier Skill Stone!" Johnnie blurted, stunned.

Hum!

A wave of spatial power hit. Johnnie and the others were teleported away and appeared in a desert a second later.

"Huh? Why are we back here?"

He looked at the familiar sands, frowning.

"My lord, enter The Map of Heaven and Earth." Coco’s voice sounded in his mind.

Johnnie didn’t hesitate. With a thought, he led the group into The Map of Heaven and Earth.

"Human, how did you get into the passage to the ancient battlefield ruins?" Skye appeared, his voice heavy.

Johnnie froze. "That corridor was a passage to the ancient battlefield ruins?"

He glanced at Nalorin Sylvia.

Nalorin Sylvia shook her head. She didn’t know where the ruins were.

"Good thing I noticed," Skye went on, "or you would have died there. The ancient battlefield ruins are extremely dangerous. Your current strength is nowhere near enough to explore them."

Johnnie thought of that unicorn. It seemed like it had led them into the quicksand on purpose.

Looked like it wanted them dead.

Thump!

Johnnie was about to ask about those monsters when Benz suddenly dropped to his knees in front of Skye.

"Senior, please teach me how to deal with those monsters," he begged, eyes full of plea.

Johnnie already knew Benz’s homeland had been destroyed by those things.

Skye didn’t agree right away. "They’re not easy to deal with. If you can fuse the Witch Clan bloodline, I can give you some guidance."

"Witch Clan bloodline?" Benz looked confused.

"I have a way," Johnnie said. He thought of The Shadow Abyss in the Demon Lair. There were countless fallen Witch Clan and Demon Clan Seniors there. He could get Witch Clan or Demon Clan bloodlines from it.

Skye added, "Stay with Johnnie for now. That will raise your strength too."

He had a good impression of Benz, and Benz’s cultivation path also matched his somewhat.