After carefully reviewing all of the data, Chen Chu’s consciousness sank, shifting over to the Sword Armored Beast.
In the pitch-black cave, a pair of black eyes with golden vertical pupils slowly opened. Due to the lighting conditions, Chen Chu couldn't see the external changes clearly, so he lightly pushed against the wall.
The slope of the riverbank exploded with a roar, and dozens of tons of soil were thrown into the air as if hit by a missile. Dust filled the air as the landing dirt splashed into the river water..
Amid the billowing dust, a fully black mutated beast appeared by the river.
After this evolution, the Sword Beast's figure had become much more coordinated and robust. Its body length had increased from three meters to four meters; the tail, which had originally been shorter compared to the body, was now a meter longer than before, occupying almost half of the total length and tapering down to the end, which bore a ten-centimeter-long black bone spike that resembled a spearhead or sword tip.
Its body was still covered with layers of armor-like exoskeleton, emitting a metallic luster amid the darkness; while it wasn’t as heavy as before, the defense remained unchanged.
The limbs had also become slimmer and stronger, and the muscles in the lower back and hind legs were thicker than the front, indicating an ability to stand up with a little effort.
The row of previously blunt spines on its back were now slender and sharp, extending from behind the head all the way to the tail, resembling black blades over ten centimeters long.
Its head shape was more defined and robust, with protruding eye sockets, and the edges of the upper and lower jaws were marked by black bone armor, resembling a dragon's head.
The three pairs of red feathered horns on both sides had become even brighter, almost looking like blood and even emitting a faint red glow. The pale golden pupils exuded a cold gaze and an inexplicable sense of majesty.
A fierce and ferocious aura emanated from its entire body, as if it was a terrifying beast born solely for slaughter.
The Sword Beast slightly opened its mouth, emitting a low roar that sounded like a mix of a tiger and something else, deep and thick.
The Sword Beast disappeared from the spot in a blur, the earth slightly exploding from under its feet and leaving behind four large pits..
Hundreds of meters away, something crashed into the river’s surface, causing tons of river water to shoot up ten meters like a fountain before slowly falling back down.
Under the river surface, the Sword Beast moved at an astonishing speed like a black shadow.
Many fish couldn’t even react before getting caught in its ferocious jaws, leaving only a tail or half a head floating in the water.
It had taken the armored beast hours to swim from the estuary to the tributary flowing near Chen Chu’s home; this time, the return trip was half an hour at the most. A speed of about 150 kilometers per hour, greater than the fastest non-mutated fish in the ocean.
In addition to the Agility ability, the Sword Beast was now more agile and vigorous in general, without the clumsiness of the heavy armored beast form.
A shadow tore through the junction of saltwater and freshwater, rushing toward the ocean. Although its size hadn't changed much, the Sword Beast was no longer as wary of the ocean as it had been before, going straight for the deep sea.
It was in those deeper waters that the Sword Beast would find more powerful mutated fish, the kind it needed to grow and accumulate points to prepare for the fourth evolution.
After swimming twenty kilometers and diving to a depth of fifty meters, a blurry python-like shadow about ten meters long appeared in front of the Sword Beast. Instantly, its gaze turned cold, and a terrifying power erupted from its body.
The seawater behind it exploded, and the Sword Beast shot out like a black arrow. In the blink of an eye, it pounced on the distant shadow, its claws stretched out.
The mutated eel, covered in yellow scales and resembling a python with a ferocious head, was instantly torn apart by the Sword Beast’s rapid speed and sharp claws.
Like a real python, the eel struggled even in death. Its now headless body, as thick as a water barrel, thrashed wildly as blood gushed out, turning the surrounding sea water red and emitting a strong smell.
Once the eel's body stopped moving, the Sword Beast slowly swam over, grabbing the body with its claws and beginning to devour it like a snack. Thick blood and scraps of flesh overflowed from its sharp teeth, floating on the seawater.
Not a single small fish dared to approach, however, not even after smelling the blood. Although they lacked intelligence, they still possessed biological instincts, which were screaming at them to not approach the menacing aura ahead.
Crunching sounds echoed as the Sword Beast quickly devoured the ten-meter-long eel, which turned out to weigh only a ton. The consumed food was quickly converted into energy, and the Sword Beast's body visibly grew larger, appearing even more powerful.
It only gained 1 evolution point from that; but while that might seem insignificant right now, if the Sword Beast continued to consume at this rate, wouldn't it accumulate dozens of points in just one day?
The Sword Beast flicked its tail slightly, diving to the seabed and grabbing the eel’s head, which was as large as a water bucket.
However, it didn't eat it; instead, it snapped the head open with a crack.
Nothing, yeah? The Sword Beast rummaged through the shattered remnants of the eel's head, but found no Life Crystal.
The Sword Beast only needed the flesh and blood of creatures to convert into energy and accumulate evolution points, but Chen Chu had been wanting to test whether it would be more efficient for the Sword Beast to devour crystals for energy, or for him to convert them into attribute points.
Unfortunately, whether it was due to bad luck or something else, the Sword Beast hadn't found any Life Crystals even after hunting down every single ordinary mutated fish it could find in the river. Compared to the river, however, the ocean teemed with an endless variety of mutated creatures, all the way up to giant beasts that exceeded hundreds of meters.
The areas where those could be found were the Restricted Areas of the deep ocean, which human vessels avoided like the plague. Even fully manned aircraft carriers with a true martial art powerhouse aboard were still at risk of being completely destroyed; there was no doubt that the ocean belonged to those deep-sea giants.
The Sword Beast tossed aside the remains of the eel head, and its fierce figure swam off to find the next target.
The conditions for Life Crystals to spawn were extremely harsh, requiring creatures to be at the peak of their evolutionary stage. Therefore, the Sword Beast didn’t expect it to be that easy. As long as it continued hunting, however, it was bound to find a crystal in some mutated fish eventually.
In such a resource-rich ocean, the Sword Beast hadn't swum more than a few kilometers when a massive shadow appeared in its sight. After several evolutions, the Sword Beast's vision was very sharp. Utilizing the faint moonlight falling on the sea's surface, it looked the potential prey over.
It was a nine-meter-long mutated fish covered in brown scales, with a body over two meters wide at its widest point, as thick as a bus. It had four sharp upper and lower canine teeth peeking out from its slightly open mouth, looking very fierce.
Compared to the slender eel, this fish would be much stronger. Thus, the Sword Beast slowed down, its tail swaying gently as it approached from behind.
The fat fish, however, proved to be very sensitive. When the Sword Beast approached within a dozen meters, it suddenly turned around, and a surge of gray power erupted from its body.
Like an armored tank, the fish exploded through the seawater, charging straight toward the Sword Beast.
The sudden burst of speed surprised even the Sword Beast. Without thinking, it planted its hind legs on the seabed and extended its claws.
Dozens of tons of raging water exploded, lifting all of the sand and mud within a dozen meters around the two. The shockwave surged out far before finally calming down.
But the seemingly slimmed-down beast stood firm, the muscles of its hind legs bulging and sinking into the seabed as it firmly blocked the massive fish’s attack.
This result left the fish, which usually killed its prey by leveraging its ability for short-distance acceleration, bewildered.
The Sword Beast, on the other hand, wasn’t confused at all. As its hind legs prevented the fish from swimming forward any further, its claws muscles swelled, and a terrifying force erupted as it suddenly tore through the fish.
The gray power covering the fish's body was torn apart by the claws, followed by its thick ten-centimeter scales and flesh, revealing the pale skull underneath.
In agony, the fish spewed out water from its mouth, its huge jaws gaping as it tried to bite the Sword Beast on its side...
A shadow darted through the seawater at a near supersonic speed, piercing through the fish's head with a flash of black light.
It was none other than the Sword Beast's tail, which also possessed the ability to build up energy for explosive movement.
Watching the now dead fish, the Sword Beast's cold golden pupils showed no emotion. It withdrew its tail from the fish's head with a bit of effort.
Standing on the seabed on its hind legs, its claws gripping the fish, the Sword Beast resembled a humanoid monster. With its long and sharp tail swaying slightly in the seawater, it appeared extremely ferocious.
At the moment, however, it didn't care about how fierce it looked. It was simply wondering how many evolution points it was going to get from this meal. It should be enough for 4 or 5 points, right?