Chapter 1491: Do It by Yourself
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Han Sen looked around him, and he was able to understand why there were no other creatures around. They must have vacated the area in fear of the big purple crab. Watching the big purple crab use its shell to block the king spirits' attack was enough for Han Sen to tell how strong it was.
While the crab was occupied by the king spirits, Han Sen took the time to examine it. Its shell was black and purplish, like obsidian. Its entire body was like that, and you couldn't see a single gap or crevice in its form. It was like it had been wholly forged from steel.
Its body was a little bigger than an excavator, but it moved frighteningly quickly. It was more akin to a spider than a crab.
The six king spirits surrounded the fiend, but they were unable to damage it. They seemed to be at an impasse. Han Sen stopped running and watched until the six king spirits ended up getting chased away by the crab, which was a fearless monster.
It just let their super geno cores bang against its shell, all the while it suffered no damage. Between the crab and the corpse of the shell king, there was very little room in the tunnel.
"Me and Ghost Shadow will keep this guy busy. You go after the human and kill him!" one king spirit shouted.
"This monster is extremely strong. I'm not sure you two can hold it by yourselves. I'll stay. Let Ghost Claw and the other two deal with the human," another king spirit said.
"Okay." The other king spirits agreed, and the six of them split into two equal-numbered teams. One group would remain with the crab, while the other went over the shell to resume their chase of Han Sen.
Han Sen rolled his eyes. Instead of running, he simply flapped his wings to meet with the three king spirits that were coming for him.
The king spirits were happy about this. The Underworld was not their territory. They were worried they might not be able to catch Han Sen there, but now it seemed their need to pursue him had ended; he was coming straight to them. This was good.
But Han Sen did not want to spend time with them exclusively. After he dodged them a few times, he flew right by them and landed on the shell near the crab.
The crab saw Han Sen and tried to attack him with its pincer. He dodged the pincer, and then the crab saw the three spirits that were directly behind Han Sen. It quickly moved to attack them.
The scene suddenly became weird. Considering Han Sen's reaction and judgment skills, the king spirits were far worse off than he was. He fought the king spirits near the crab so smoothly that it almost looked like he was co-operating with the shelled-fiend.
In truth, the crab was trying to attack Han Sen, too. But with his movement and ability of prediction, he was able to lead the crab into actually attacking the king spirits.
The crab was incredibly powerful. Its body was tough and lethally fast. But even after all that time, Han Sen had yet to learn what its geno core was. Whatever it was, if the creature used it, it'd undoubtedly be a scary item.
The king spirits were feeling the heat of defeat, and they were struggling to understand whether or not the crab was neutral. It attacked them every time, and Han Sen was benefitting from each and every move it made.
The king spirits didn't want to go back empty-handed. They couldn't report back if they didn't kill Han Sen. Furthermore, they couldn't deal with the humiliation of finding themselves being manipulated and toyed with by a human, either.
"You guys stay here, don't let him run! Let me use my cauldron to take out the monster. Then, kill the human," said the king spirit with the bronze cauldron. He had noticed they'd be unable to kill Han Sen without first removing the crab from the field of play.
"Okay." A few of the spirits agreed. They split up and blocked all the routes that Han Sen might use to escape.
The king spirit with the cauldron gripped the item, making it glow with Elysium power. He opened the cauldron, and something green emerged from it. It was headed for the crab.
The crab was big, but it was soon covered by that green light. It was then pulled into the bronze cauldron. The king spirit immediately closed the lid of the cauldron, and you could see a flame flicker around the rim. The crab was being refined on the inside.
The bronze cauldron began to rattle and shake, prompting the king spirit to try his hardest to calm it down. The crab was raging like mad on the inside, wishing nothing more than to break free.
"Kill the human, quick! This beast is too strong, and my cauldron cannot hold it for long," the king spirit shouted as he clutched the cauldron tight.
The other king spirits did not say anything; they simply folded in on Han Sen. They were angry, and their desire to crush Han Sen was high.
Han Sen saw there were no escape routes, but he wasn't planning on leaving. He could tell the Elysium Cauldron was far weaker than the Elysian Umbrella. It wouldn't keep the crab down for long. Han Sen just had to hold on until the crab got free. Once it was, the spirits would be done for.
Han Sen's movements and sword skills were firing on all cylinders, but he was still on the losing side. He was up against five, after all.
"Dad, you can do it! Dad, you can do it!" Bao'er was on Han Sen's back. She shouted support as she clung to his neck.
Han Sen's arm was nicked by a sword, and so he asked, "Bao'er, your gourd absorbed their mist. Can you use it to grab their weapons?"
"Yes," Bao'er said straightforwardly.
Han Sen glanced at her in surprise, and he almost got hit again. He'd asked the question casually, not expecting Bao'er to actually be able to do this.
"Why don't you use the gourd to take their weapons away, then?" Han Sen asked as he dodged another weapon.
Bao'er lowered her head and said, "You said you would keep teaching me to do things on my own. I need to grow up and be independent to be useful."
Han Sen almost coughed up some blood. He always wondered why the gourd only worked sometimes and not all the time. It did work, she just never planned to make use of it.
But right now, Han Sen couldn't ask Bao'er for help. If he did, he'd be going against his own word.
"I can bleed, but I sure can't afford to embarrass myself." Han Sen gritted his teeth, realizing he couldn't ask Bao'er for help anymore.
"Dad, you can do it! Dad, you can do it!" Bao'er chanted her support for Han Sen again, but he wasn't really fond of it.
"Hurry up! I'm not going to last." A number of green vines were wreathing around the king spirit that was holding the cauldron. His entire body smoked and trembled as he clutched the cauldron. He was at the end of his rope.
Chapter 1492: Gold-Patterned Crab
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The five spirits that were closing in on Han Sen were in a hurry. Under the buffs of the Butterfly geno core, Han Sen's speed and power made him just as strong as them. His movement was strange, and when the five of them surrounded him, they felt that their powers were suppressed and unusable.
Many times they thought they were going to hit Han Sen, but their strikes would end up being deflected by an attack coming from one of their own. Try as they might, they couldn't hit him.
Pang!
There was an explosion. The Elysium Cauldron blew up, and the king spirit holding it was sent flying away, spewing blood.
The big crab leaped after the spirit through the subsiding fires. It snapped one of its pincers closed on the spirit, immediately cutting him in half.
"It's out!" Han Sen was so happy.
The faces of the five Elysium spirits changed. Before they could react any further, the crab was rushing over to them with a gold word emblazoned across its back.
Han Sen was shocked. The word written on the dark purple shell was from an ancient language, and it gleamed as if it had been stitched onto the shell with gold. Han Sen had studied ancient texts before, so he quickly remembered that the word meant "overbearing."
"Where did that word come from? Is that the crab's geno core?" As Han Sen pondered its nature, the crab moved forward to attack one of the king spirits.
That king spirit had been holding a sword geno core, and with Elysium power, he repeatedly whacked the incoming pincer.
Katcha!
With his last hit, the king spirit broke his geno core across the pincer. Blood flew from his mouth right before he fell into the grasp of the crab's pincers. He too was snapped in half.
The crab inscribed with the word overbearing really was overbearing. The king spirit's geno core, and his armor, had been cut in half easily. It was scary.
Han Sen didn't dare watch, as it was too frightening for him to see. If the crab could so easily sunder super geno cores, it had to be a berserk super creature.
Han Sen grabbed Bao'er and ran, but the other king spirits were running too. Shortly after, the crab's kill-tally had mounted to four, and only two spirits were still trying to scramble away.
But the big crab did not go after those remaining king spirits; it had instead chosen to go after Han Sen.
"Sh*t! Why are you going for me and not them?" Han Sen felt depressed.
Han Sen thought he could pick up a few easy kills, but that idea was now out the window. All he wanted to do at this point was run.
The crab was faster than the king spirits were, and with its claws dragging across the rocks, it caught up to Han Sen with ease. Han Sen realized he had lost the king spirits, but this threat was an even greater trouble.
"Daddy, you can do it!" Bao'er continued to support Han Sen.
Han Sen wanted to cry as he ran, and he said, "You are my good daughter."
The human and the crab ran the length of the Underworld, and no matter how he tried, Han Sen couldn't shake off his tail. He tried using the labyrinthic passages and complex routes to escape the crab.
Eventually, Han Sen proceeded through a tunnel that was too small for the crab. But that didn't keep him safe for long, for when the crab came through, it brought down the walls to get to him. The few-meter walls were torn down as if they were paper.
Han Sen kept running, but he eventually found himself at a dead-end. There was a wall up ahead that was sealing the cave. Han Sen gritted his teeth and used Taia to slash. He wanted to be like the crab and bring the wall down so he could proceed.
With the God geno core's buff, Han Sen's sword glowed red. His strike managed to create a cleft in the stone that was a few meters deep. But Han Sen was disheartened. His strike hadn't gotten to the other side of the wall, and how thick that wall might have been, he did not know.
Han Sen stood in front of the wall as the crab behind him bulldozed through stone. The two-meter cave had doubled. As the walls behind him were turned into rubble, the crab was only twenty meters away from him.
Han Sen clenched his jaw and swung his sword at the same spot he had previously. He managed to go a few meters deeper this time, but he was still striking stone.
"Sh*t! Is this entirely solid? Is there nothing behind this?" Han Sen was getting frustrated. The big crab was already behind him, and its pincers were swinging wildly around. Their length covered the extent of the tunnel, robbing Han Sen of the ability to dodge.
"It looks like I'll have to just take a chance." There was no turning back right now, and so Han Sen summoned a beast soul.
The beast soul was like a scaleless snake. Its body was very strange. It was the super beast soul Han Sen had received from Alien Beast.
Super Alien Beast beast soul: Shapeshift Type
After the Alien Beast combined with Han Sen, Han Sen became a white, scaleless snake. He slithered like an eel.
The Butterfly geno core was pocketed for the time being, and Han Sen used his Alien Beast form to writhe around the cave until he became paper-thin. Then, he moved against the wall and slithered straight past the pincers.
Alien Beast had low defense and not much power, but its body could take on a bunch of different shapes. That made it quite useful.
Han Sen, with Bao'er, evaded the pincer. The Alien Beast beast soul had thinned, squeezing through the minor gap.
But the crab was difficult to deal with. The sharp pincers were still taking aim at Han Sen. He had to change direction, and he missed the chance to escape.
The crab moved its pincers and claws and continued to attack Han Sen. He used Alien Beast to become thin and short to dodge it. But this couldn't go on for long, and if he got hit once, he'd undoubtedly die. He had to find a way out of this predicament and escape.
Han Sen looked at the big crab and decided he'd go under it. The mass of its body had blocked the exit, but there was a minor gap directly below the crab's belly.
Unfortunately, the belly was the crab's strongest point, and its claws could easily reach there. But still, he went for the gap. The claws responded quickly, blocking his escape from that direction, and he lurched back.
Han Sen bit down on his teeth and jumped up. He became a thin, paper-like figure that stuck itself to the crab's belly like a sticker.
The crab was incredibly smart, though. It brought its own belly down on the ground, trying to crush Han Sen and Bao'er against the floor of the cave.
The thin, snake-like body crawled across the crab, and when the crab's belly whacked the ground, Han Sen had already brought Bao'er to its back. He was on top of where the gold overbearing word had appeared.
Chapter 1493: A Cruel Crab
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The crab swung its claws, but they couldn't reach Han Sen and Bao'er who were now on its back. After a while, the crab gave up trying to kill Han Sen. Instead, it just started to go back the way it had come.
The gold word upon its back, overbearing, eventually dissipated as well. Han Sen became human again, holding Bao'er as he stood on the back of the crab. They weren't sure what to do.
The crab ignored his presence there, but who knew what would happen if Han Sen decided to leap off. So, Han Sen remained there and did not yet dare to jump.
The crab waddled its way through the cave systems, but eventually, Han Sen realized it was not returning to where the shell king had been. He had no idea which way it was going.
Not long after, Han Sen heard a roaring sound in the distance. His face changed when he realized it was the sound of a waterfall.
"Does the crab want to dive into the water and try to drown us?" Han Sen frowned. He could breathe underwater, but it was not like he could spend the rest of his days submerged in water. And what's more, he didn't know if Bao'er would fare as well as he would. He didn't know if she could breathe underwater or not.
An underground river eventually appeared in front of them. The crab jumped into the river and dived below the surface.
Han Sen and Bao'er stayed with it. Fortunately, Han Sen was able to breathe underwater, and he was unaffected. He looked over to Bao'er and noticed she was entirely fine, as well. She was playing in the water, and it brought him some peace of mind.
The underground river was deeper than Han Sen believed it to be, though. The giant, gold pattern crab was firmly inside it. It had dived deeper into the stream.
The crab seemed to be swimming downstream, too. Han Sen held onto Bao'er as he looked around. He saw a number of underwater creatures that all fled upon seeing the crab. They all made sure to stay out of its way.
The crab remained underwater for an hour. Han Sen thought that the crab might have forgotten about him and Bao'er's presence on its back, and he considered ways in which he might be able to sneak away.
But as soon as Han Sen left its back, the pincers quickly approached. He hastily used Alien Beast to dodge the claw and return to its back.
It seemed as if the crab was clearly aware that Han Sen was still there. The crab remained intent on trying to kill him.
Han Sen sat on the crab's back and tried to think of a way in which he might escape. Bao'er looked happy, swinging her arms against the water's resistance. She always loved water.
The crab did not stop traveling. It followed the stream for a few days, and they had no idea how long that river might have been. It seemed endless.
But whenever there was a cave, Han Sen could see parts of the Holy Vine wreathing its way across the ceilings. The vine was huge, and it supposedly held up the entire Underworld.
"This vine is much bigger than the one that gave birth to Bao'er. I wonder what will reside in the gourd on this Holy Vine; will it be another being similar to Bao'er?" Han Sen wondered to himself.
Han Sen was unable to think of a way to get out of his current situation. He followed the crab through the water for an additional two days. He eventually noticed the waters had become wider and even deeper.
It was like they had come to a bottomless ocean.
The crab continued swimming through the wider expanse of water, diving deeper and deeper. This place was far deeper than the river, and not long after, they were submerged a few hundred meters deep underwater.
Some underwater creatures were moving around, Han Sen could see. They were not afraid of the crab like the others. But still, the crab raised its pincers and grabbed a few of the creatures to munch on.
Han Sen opened his Bulwark Umbrella for respite from the water. He brought out some food and water of his own that he could share with Bao'er.
Not long after, Han Sen saw some sort of blue light flash in the distance. It looked like a thunderstorm, but without the sound. The crab was heading in the direction of that thunder, but what its aim was, Han Sen had no idea.
The thunderstorm flickered between dark and bright, and once the crab had gotten closer, Han Sen noticed it wasn't a thunderstorm. It was a giant eel that was like a diamond.
The eel had some blue lightning coursing around it. It was like a living storm, and it was rather beautiful.
"That eel can't be the crab's mate, can it? Is it going to ask the eel to eat us off its back?" Han Sen's face looked ill as he thought about this.
Han Sen saw the eel and how scary it looked. If the two really were related in some way, Han Sen didn't fancy his chances. The fact that he would have to deal with both the crab and the eel dropped his survival rate by a significant margin.
"Bao'er, can you absorb the crab and eel into the gourd?" Han Sen asked Bao'er. If this would work, Han Sen wouldn't mind sacrificing his pride by getting Bao'er to solve the problem for him.
Bao'er shook her head and said, "They are too strong. The gourd can't do it."
Han Sen felt depressed. Nothing was working out for him this time.
The eel noticed the crab coming closer, and it became alert. It stared at the crab, and its translucent diamond body, which channeled and coursed with lightning, became stronger. The increased volume of lightning was like a warning for the crab not to come any closer.
Han Sen was very happy seeing this, and he thought to himself, "They aren't together after all. That's great!"
But when Han Sen thought some more, his face fell. The crab was provoking the eel. If the eel released lightning and attacked the crab with it, Han Sen and Bao'er would obviously be caught in the cross-fire.
The crab's shell was very strong, so it could take a lightning strike just fine. Han Sen was afraid the reason the crab had gone there was to get the eel to kill them on its behalf.
The crab raised its pincers to provoke the eel, and then the eel went mad. The blue lightning around it rose in volume. Its entire body was consumed by blue lightning, making it look like some sort of thunder dragon.
Boom!
A bolt of blue lightning was launched from the eel's body, and it covered the entirety of the crab. The crab hadn't dodged, and it simply accepted the blue lightning. It showered itself in it. There were no injuries, and only a number of bubbles rose around the creature.
Han Sen felt terrible. When the blue lightning rained down, the umbrella took a powerful hit. It already seemed likely to break.
"D*mn crab! You are mean. But electrifying us won't be that easy." Han Sen tightened his jaw and looked around, trying to find a means of escape.