On the truck, under Zhao Zhilong's interrogation, the severely injured rebel honestly confessed all of the information he knew.
Just as Yuan Chenghuang had speculated, this elite rebel squad hadn’t dared to show their faces after the main force had been defeated, instead hiding in nearby villages. When the plane had glided overhead, someone had speculated that it was a new batch of high school geniuses coming as support.
On a whim, they had set up an ambush and chosen the stretch of hard-packed soil road outside the small town, intending to bomb some geniuses in retaliation against the Federation. They had hidden underneath pre-dug piles of bricks, both to stay out of sight and to defend themselves in case the explosions failed..
Little had they known that they would encounter Chen Chu, a monster who could perceive even hidden enemy positions solely with his eyes.
The hotel base became much livelier with the addition of thirty new students.
After experiencing the ambush and witnessing the formidable fighting style of their seniors, many of the new students lost their arrogance, instead displaying remarkable humility. Under Liu Feixu’s arrangement, they accompanied Liu Feng and the others on their daily ventures.
Some of the new students had even modified their battle armor already, reinforcing it further, welding on wings, or equipping four spider-like folding mechanical arms. The trial scene in Leisteru City became increasingly bizarre as a result.
With the improvement of the intelligence system, whenever a homicide occurred in Leisteru City, someone went missing in the surrounding villages, or a civilian reported traces of rebels, it would be reported back to the mission counter.
The counter would then assign the resulting tasks to Chen Chu and the others, who would swiftly move to the scene to investigate, bypassing many tedious processes in between each step. As a result, the Blood Cultists and rebels hiding in Leisteru City were repeatedly exposed, and their number of hiding spots grew increasingly limited.
Although some trial participants were injured, there had been no more fatalities so far. Through continuous combat training and resource exchanges, everyone was making great progress. This atmosphere was exactly what a trial should be like.
But having too many people wasn't ideal either; often, there weren't enough tasks to go around, and for days on end, there would be no reports. Realizing this, Chen Chu decided to focus all of his energy on the armored beast instead.
On November 25th, a mutated beast, measuring 2.95 meters in length, slowly roamed within the deep waters. Its body was covered in thick, black armor, as faint golden vertical pupils scanned its surroundings.
After hunting so much here, the armored beast had become the absolute ruler of this vast estuary. Even mutated fish that measured five or six meters in length would either flee on sight or become its next meal.
With a snack over a meter long in its mouth, the beast chewed in a thoughtful manner, gazing in the direction of the sea as it contemplated whether to venture out.
Within the dozens of kilometers of the estuary, the beast had already devoured almost any mutated fish larger than one and a half meters. After half an hour of patrol today, it hadn’t found a single big fish, which left Chen Chu feeling a bit frustrated.
Eventually, the beast swung its tail with force, a mixture of nervousness and anticipation running through its massive body as it started to swim towards the sea.
Originally, it had planned to only enter the ocean after its third evolution, which would have been safer. But now, with the scarcity of food and its surging strength, Chen Chu decided to take a risk.
The beast passed through the waves of the junction where freshwater and seawater mixed, only to feel an immediate discomfort in its lungs.
A string of bubbles escaped as it shook its head slightly. It paused to give its body time to adjust to the seawater, only then starting to move.
In contrast to the river mouth, which reached depths of twenty to thirty meters, prolonged silt build-up made the estuary relatively shallower, with depths of only around ten meters. The water was murky, filled with countless small fish and shrimp.
After swimming outward for about fifteen kilometers[1], the depth gradually increased to around thirty to forty meters. Not far away, a massive dark shadow slowly swam along the seabed. As it passed, all of the fish scattered in panic.
It was a mutated stingray, eight meters long with a tail seven meters in length and fins spanning ten meters when extended. Its elongated body, covered in scales, glided gracefully through the water. What caught the most attention was its tail tip, which bore a sharp black bone spike, measuring a meter long and likely highly venomous.
The stingray was currently feeding, its massive mouth emitting a powerful suction force that swept up all of the fish, shrimp, and soft-bodied creatures below like a vacuum cleaner.
The seawater was filtered through the stingray's gills and sprayed out from its sides devoid of fish, creating a roaring sound as it churned up massive currents.
Seeing such a large mutated fish, the beast, which hadn't eaten for a long time, became visibly excited, its eyes reddening. With a wag of its tail, it eagerly charged forward.
As the beast approached, the stingray emitted warning sounds. With a sudden flick of its ten-meter-wide body, it unleashed a torrent of raging water.
The force of the water, capable of lifting a car, crashed into the beast's body, exploding like waves hitting against rocks, yet unable to budge it even an inch.
The beast swayed its tail, twisting its body to dodge the massive fins of the stingray. Then, with a burst of speed, it landed on the stingray’s back, its claws descending fiercely.
Under the terrifying force of the beast's full-strength attack, the stingray crashed onto the seabed with a resounding thud, stirring up a large amount of mud and sand as it let out pitiful screams.
Just as the beast was about to crush the stingray's head, the water behind it exploded, and the stingray’s bone spike, as thick as an arm, shot out like a heavy cannon shell. The full-force attack reached almost supersonic speeds, leaving the beast with no time to evade; or, perhaps, it simply chose not to. The spike hit it directly on its back, where its armor was thickest.
The force of the bone spike striking the beast's back armor created a shockwave that erupted into a transparent bubble, bursting out more than ten meters.
The surface layer of the beast’s one-centimeter-thick black keratin split open, as the ferocious impact forcefully smashed it onto the stingray's body. This was the first time the beast's outer armor had ever been shattered, especially jarring considering that its armor had become increasingly harder as its body continued to grow.
Having even a portion of its outer armor damaged so badly was a testament to just how powerful the stingray's strike had been... but its bone spike had also snapped due to the intense collision.
The beast took advantage of the momentum from the impact to slam forcefully onto the stingray's body. Gripping on with all four claws, it lunged towards the stingray's head, sinking its teeth in for a bite.
It directly punctured the stingray’s hindbrain, crushing the skull beneath and leaving a bloody hole. However, due to the stingray’s massive size, the beast's attack didn't reach the whole brain. The stingray thrashed wildly in pain and panic, its fins churning up violent water currents and swirling up mud and sand.
But it couldn't shake off the beast.
The beast's left claw extended, its thick and powerful talons digging into the bite wound. With a swift tug, the stingray's body stiffened abruptly.
After killing its prey, the beast crouched on the stingray’s back and tore into it with its formidable jaws, ripping off hundreds of catties of flesh with each bite.
A torrent of blood gushed out from the wound, staining the surrounding seawater red. Countless small fish were drawn in by the scent, but when they got within a range of ten meters, they all came to a sudden halt. They didn’t dare to venture any closer to the ferocious aura that pervaded the growing cloud of blood..
Two seven-meter-long gray sharks slowly appeared, becoming excited by the scent of blood.
Suddenly, the feeding beast whipped its head around. Its golden vertical pupils, now tinged with a layer of crimson, emitted a chilling and ferocious aura.
It only took a moment for both sharks to turn around and hastily swim away.
With that, the beast slowly turned its head back and continued feeding. Its body was stained red by the stingray’s blood, making it appear even more ferocious.
1. The original novel uses "ten miles"; this was approximately converted for standardization ☜