Divine Convenience Store-Chapter 583: Amalgamation

Lin Mo attached the tuning fork to his belt, where it continued to vibrate softly, maintaining the field.

"This is going to be our shield. As long as we stay within this bubble, the Dreilling’s or the Highland Energy’s influence can’t touch us. Let’s move."

They advanced through the tunnels. The path was familiar, yet changed. Although light and neon green colors seemed to start painting the walls, pulsing purple veins crept along them, which seemed to throb in time with a distant heartbeat.

And soon, the Decrint Skirmishers they encountered were different too.

A pack of five scuttled around a corner.

Their eyes, which used to hold a semblance of consciousness and intelligence, were now glowing in violet. Their movements became devoid of the feral jerkiness of their natural state. They became perfectly synchronized.

"Puppets," Lin Mo noted. "Looks like even their slaves failed to escape the fate of being directly controlled by them."

"They look stronger, Boss," Xiaoyu noted, raising her [Stardust Repeater]. The small sparky wolf cub next to her barked at the creatures.

"Mhm. Be careful. Eliminate them efficiently."

Liu Xiaoyu nodded and pulled the trigger without hesitation. Aiming at the skirmishers, her storm qi was infused into the weapon.

Pew! Pew! Pew!

Bolts of golden lightning tore through the gloom. The controlled Decrints reacted with supernatural reflexes, dodging and weaving with a coordination that belonged to a martial artist, not a beast.

One Decrint leaped onto the wall, pushing off to lunge at Lin Mo from above.

Lin Mo furrowed his brows as he raised his hand.

[Qi Solidification].

A spike of solid starlight erupted from the air, impaling the creature mid-leap.

"Looks like the divine-grade artifact does not affect them. Whoever is controlling them has a tight grasp on their minds that the tuning fork cannot dispel." Lin Mo observed as the creature dissolved. "The Dreilling must’ve learned from last time. They enhanced the link. I couldn’t only faintly see them. In any case, we should assume that the Dreilling already knows we’re here."

"Got it, Boss! Let him come!" Liu Xiaoyu finished off the remaining four with a burst of rapid fire.

From there, they pushed deeper, clearing the first area with relative ease thanks to their overwhelming firepower and the protection of the artifact.

However, when they reached the cavern where they had rescued the hostages, the location of the destroyed fleshy heart, they stopped.

The heart was already gone since it was destroyed by Lin Mo’s [Stellar Flare].

But in its place stood something new.

A massive, organic structure that looked like a Chrysalis. It was translucent, filled with swirling violet fluid. And inside...

"Boss... is that...?" Xiaoyu’s voice wavered.

Inside the chrysalis, floating in the fluid, was a massive shape. It had the upper body of a Decrint, but its lower body was fused with the thick, muscular legs of a Cave Bear. Its arms ended in spiky bone-blades.

—

"Vermins have slipped in."

From the deepest area of the Anchor, the Dreilling Zyrith’s eyebrows twitched as he sensed the intrusion.

Somewhere in the Anchor, the Highland Domain had been neutralized. And although he was expecting the chaotic mental noise of the intruders, only silence remained.

The Highland Domain, which he had expanded throughout the first three areas of the Anchor, should act like a spiderweb. Every thought, every flicker of fear, every pulse of spiritual energy from the native creatures and the invading cultivators usually vibrated along his psychic strands.

From there, he could taste their panic, savor their desperation.

But these new arrivals... they suddenly became voids.

A moving spot of absolute nothingness was tearing through his web. He couldn’t hear their thoughts. He couldn’t sense their fear. It was as if they didn’t exist in the mental plane at all.

"A shield?" Zyrith mused as he turned around to focus his senses beyond the core area of the Anchor. "Or a mind so empty it offers no recourse? No. They might be the ones from before. The ’Customer Support’ and his pet assistant."

He remembered the humiliation of having his strings cut and the burning light of that revolver that destroyed the heart in Area 1.

"Xylos," He called out telepathically with his voice dripping with disdain.

From the shadows of the chamber, the hulking Flesh-Shaper stepped forward, his body then slowly returned to normal, becoming something similar to Zyrith’s build. "What is it, Zyrith? Have the natives broken your toys again?"

"No. I think we have guests. The ones who severed my control before. It appears they have found a means to negate my psychic influence. Possibly an artifact of significant power." Zyrith approached him. Despite their differences, they’re still from the same realm. Furthermore, their goal was the same. Even if it was insulting, he needed Xylos’s help to probe these tricky enemies. "Since my mind cannot touch them, perhaps your creations can touch their flesh."

Xylos grunted, a cruel grin splitting his face. "You want to test the prototypes? They are unstable. Vespera said–"

"Vespera is meditating in the Core," Zyrith cut him off. "She does not need to know. Besides, we need to test their combat efficiency against ’abnormal’ targets. Send the Hunter-Killers. The ones fused with the [Shadow-Stalker] biomass. Let us see if their ’convenience’ can save them from being torn limb from limb."

Xylos chuckled, the sound like rocks tumbling in a deep cavern. "With pleasure. But where are they? Didn’t the Amalgamation I’ve improved replace the control node in Area 1? It should be dormant until triggered."

"It was dormant," Zyrith hissed, his mental voice vibrating with malicious anticipation. "But they have just reached it. It’s waking up now. Consider it a greeting. If they survive Subject Alpha, then your Hunter-Killers can have their sport in the corridors of Area 2. Go. Prepare them."

Xylos grinned, his straight rows of teeth suddenly glistened in violet light before they all transformed into sharp maws. "Great. I hope they scream loudly. It’s quite boring that no one’s been entering for the past few days since we’ve arrived."

He turned and lumbered away, his heavy footsteps shaking the ground, leaving Zyrith to watch the intruders through the primitive, non-psychic eyes of a lurking Decrint scout hidden in the shadows of Area 1.

—

Back in the cavern of Area 1, the fluid inside the massive chrysalis began to bubble violently.

"Boss, it’s waking up!" Liu Xiaoyu shouted as she took a combat stance. The golden lightning around her crackled, arcing to the damp ground.

Sparky, the storm-soul wolf, let out a low growl as he sensed the unnatural abomination before them.

Lin Mo stepped back, pulling his revolver out as his eyes locked on the structure.

His [Stillwater Perception] was screaming a warning. The ’Guardian’ of the Area 1 had been replaced with something stronger.

Suddenly, the Anchor’s system pinged in front of them.

[Scan Complete.]

[Entity Identified: Amalgamation - Subject Alpha (Prototype)]

[Composition: Decrint Warrior Base / Cave Bear Muscle Fiber / Volatile Highland Energy Core]

[Threat Level: Level 39 Peak Core Formation / Unstable]

[Status: Awakening. Aggression levels are spiking.]

"It’s called an Amalgamation? Why not Chimera?" Lin Mo clicked his tongue as he read the data. " Are these long-eared species also alchemists? They’re splicing species together. They’re not just great at mind control. They also specialize in creating biological abominations. Xiaoyu, back up first! It’s unstable!"

CRACK! SPLASH!

The chrysalis exploded.

Violet fluid sprayed outwards like shrapnel, sizzling as it hit the stone floor. From the wreckage, the monstrosity roared.

It stood on the massive, hairy hind legs of a bear, but its torso was that of a hulking, green-skinned Decrint, pumped full of so much muscle it looked like it was about to burst.

Its arms were elongated, ending in jagged bone-spurs that dripped with the same violet fluid. Its eyes were gone, replaced by glowing fissures of raw Highland energy.

"ROAARRR!"

The sound that came out was like a distorted mix of a bear’s bellow and a Decrint’s screech.

Lin Mo furrowed his brows as he almost reflexively blocked his ears from it.

Then, with a speed that seemed to defy its current bulky figure, the Amalgamation lunged.

"Shield!" Lin Mo instinctively shouted, weaving his [Qi Solidification] again.

A hexagonal wall made of starlight qi materialized instantly in the creature’s path.

BAM!

The Amalgamation slammed into the barrier with a terrifying impact.

Lin Mo’s solidified qi, which had withstood the strikes of martial masters, cracked instantly under the overwhelming brute force of the beast.

But the creature didn’t stop. It smashed through the shattering light, its bone spur swiping at Lin Mo’s head.

Lin Mo ducked, feeling the wind of the strike ruffle his hair. He rolled to the side, his movement technique leaving a crimson blur before pulling on the trigger of his revolver.

BANG!

The [Stardust Shot] erupted from the barrel, a streak of silver fury aimed directly at the creature’s chest.

However, Subject Alpha didn’t even flinch as it took the full brunt of his starlight qi-infused bullet.