Chapter 611: An Unbelievable Sense of Power
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Han Sen wanted to jump into the sea, but the blood crystal wasp prevented him from getting close enough. He had to dodge in according to the wasp's attacks, so he wasn't able to go where he wanted to.
It did not matter what skills Han Sen used or how wickedly fast they were; the wasp only had to flap its wings to destroy any plan Han Sen devised.
Han Sen hadn't been stung yet, despite how long the wasp had been nipping at his heels. This surprised Queen.
Queen, putting herself in his boots, believed she would have been stung a long time ago.
Queen didn't think it was only his skills that let him dodge the attacks. It was more like Han Sen had the ability to predict whatever his enemies were planning. Before the blood crystal wasp showed any indication of where and when it would strike, Han Sen was already moving to dodge it.
If he was being purely reactionary, he wouldn't have had the time to dodge no matter how quick he was. Instead, it was more like he had incredible foresight.
Also, he wasn't casting any skills to do this. It was as if this was purely an inherent talent of his.
Her guesses weren't far off the mark. Although Han Sen hadn't totally unlocked his seventh sense, the powers of his other senses were already far better than they should have been. And just as she thought, the reason Han Sen dodged so well was because he could read the wasp's mind and dodge before it started to strike.
If it was anyone else, even if their speed and skills were superior to Han Sen's, they would not have been able to dodge such ferocious attacks.
Queen was aiming her throwing knife from afar and had been doing so for quite some time. Similarly to the silver fox, she just couldn't find the right opportunity to attack. She gritted her teeth, summoned a sacred-blood shield, and went towards Han Sen.
"Don't come!" Han Sen noticed Queen approaching, which surprised him. Although her Heavenly Go was a tremendous thing, it would still be futile against the speed of these wasps.
Queen did not heed his command, and instead continued her approach. After a while, she threw the shield out of her hand and yelled, "Run!"
Han Sen saw where the shield was headed, and that it was on a collision course with exactly where the wasp was attacking. He was taken aback at the realization of how well she could predict the movement of the wasp.
"You really are a queen." Han Sen's heart was glad. He used the opening Queen and her shield had provided and dove into the sea.
Dong!
But the wasp's attacks were like bullets, and it pierced right through the shield. Despite the sturdiness of her metal aegis, the wasp had not lost any momentum, and it still had Han Sen in its sights.
Pang!
At that moment, Queen's other hand let fly a throwing knife. It smacked against the wasp's head.
The throwing knife shattered into little more than cold, hard glitter. The strike had taken the wasp in the exact center of its head, but again, it did not slow down. It avoided the belt of shiny knife-shards and continued its pursuit of Han Sen.
Using the time Queen had bought him, Han Sen ran ten meters. But as he marked his tenth, the wasp had already caught up again. Han Sen noticed something, though. Although the wasp could spike itself through the shield, and was somehow unaffected by a throwing knife to its head, it did seem keen on avoiding the airborne remnants of the knife.
That didn't mean it was afraid of those shards. Some pieces did hit the creature, and they did not harm it. But there were some pieces it avoided. That suggested the wasp had some sort of weakness.
Even though Han Sen was not facing the wasp, he could analyze every last detail of what occurred behind him through the power of his senses.
Han Sen saw that it only avoided the splinters around its waist.
It was the area that connected the abdomen with the thorax. It was like a woman's waist where it was slimmest. When the shattered pieces neared that point, the wasp carefully swerved out of the way.
The wasp did not care about any of the others and let them bounce off of itself.
"This is it!" A strange look streaked through Han Sen's eyes. Under the buffs imparted by Snow Lady, his body started to release an air that purified Han Sen's mind, clearing it like a virgin crystal. With the absence of human emotions, he had become fearless.
All of a sudden, Han Sen stopped moving and looked at the wasp that hunted him.
"What are you doing?" Queen was surprised. The wasp was frighteningly powerful, and it looked like Han Sen was preparing to fight it. Did he have a death wish?
But what happened next made Queen's pupils shrink.
The wasp flashed in front of Han Sen. Queen didn't see where it tried to sting, but Han Sen's hand was moving.
It was unbelievable. His hand moved like a blade, with the speed of lightning. Han Sen swung his hand horizontally, slicing the wasp's waist as it came for him.
Her one-time use sacred-blood weapon did not phase the wasp in the slightest, but the wasp swerved to dodge Han Sen's attack.
Han Sen missed his strike, but it confirmed that the wasp's waist must indeed have been its weak spot. There was no need for him to dodge and be afraid any more.
While Han Sen was falling back, he kept trying to stop the wasp. The maniacal little creature did its best to keep dodging Han Sen's flurry of attacks, but so quick and fast did they come, it was never provided the opportunity to counter them.
Han Sen had given himself the chance to breathe, and he continued his retreat towards the sea.
Queen was already in the water, however. She only kept her head above the surface to watch Han Sen, who was still engaged with the wasp.
The speed of Han Sen's attacks couldn't quite match the speed of the wasp, but Queen was still fascinated by the spectacle.
He wasn't using any sort of formation. He was employing a high-tier prediction ability. As Queen watched the battle between Han Sen and the wasp, she felt something in her heart. She couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, but it felt like an itch.
Splash!
Han Sen was finally able to jump into the sea. The wasp was more afraid of the water than the White Tiger had been, and without similar abilities, it couldn't do anything to Han Sen once he was under the surface. Not wanting to follow Han Sen in, it flew around the shore in circles for a brief while, and then buzzed on back to the deeper recesses of the island, chasing after creatures that hadn't returned to the sea yet.
"You hid it well." After they escaped their dangerous predicament, Queen confronted Han Sen with frosty eyes.
Cough. "Oh, I only just unlocked the gene lock. I was forced to use it, due to it being a life or death moment. Desperate times call for desperate measures." Han Sen laughed after his explanation, realizing that he couldn't hide his unlocked gene lock from Queen any longer.
Queen rolled her eyes, unable to muster the strength needed to argue with him. She summoned her whale and climbed aboard.
"Thanks!" Han Sen thanked her with sincerity, jumping onto the whale with the silver fox in hand.
If it wasn't for Queen's attack, which revealed the wasp's weak spot, he didn't think he'd be where he was right now..Chapter 612: Obtaining the Treasure
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
"This blood-scale armor is mine, okay? Now we are even." Queen frowned, looking back at the island. There was no more screaming or squealing to be heard, and with the rest of the creatures having either escaped or been killed, the island was quiet.
It still looked like hell, though. Bodies and blood were everywhere, and just looking at it made their skin crawl.
"Do you think you might be able to take down those wasps?" Queen asked Han Sen.
Han Sen knew what she meant, but he shook his head and told her, "My speed is still a little too slow to go up against those wasps. I may know its weak spot, but what's the point if I cannot hit it? Besides..."
"Besides what?" Queen looked at Han Sen.
"There is no guarantee I can kill it, even if I hit there. For all I know, I might only inflict a minor amount of damage." Han Sen did not overestimate his talents.
When he fought Golden Growler, he couldn't even break its eyes. The wasp's waist may have been its weak spot, but it couldn't be weaker than those eyes.
A weak spot was just a place on a monster that was weaker. But the overall fitness of a super creature was just too high, and so the fact that it had a weak spot didn't mean much for Han Sen.
Queen sighed. She understood how he was feeling. There were eighteen of those wasps, and they had a lot of trouble escaping just one. It would be impossible to survive an encounter with any more, not to mention if all eighteen came after them.
Few people could dodge their attacks like Han Sen had. Even Queen wasn't entirely sure whether or not she'd be able to keep up and evade such quick attacks.
The island was dead. They watched it for a while but knew that there was no hope of returning there. They readied themselves to leave and take to the seas on the whale again.
But then the silver fox jumped out of Han Sen's arms. It became a silver light and ran back to the island.
"Silver fox?! What are you doing?" Han Sen was startled. It hadn't been easy to escape the island, so why was the fox now deciding to return?
"Stop! The eighteen wasps must be together by now. If we get in trouble with all of them, we'll never make it out again," Queen said.
"You wait here. I'll go back and get him."
Han Sen rushed back ashore without hesitation. He wasn't planning to risk his life for the silver fox, but he understood the silver fox well. He knew that it wouldn't want to risk its own life, either.
Otherwise, when Han Sen was battling the wasps, the silver fox wouldn't have jumped into his arms to escape. It wouldn't have waited this long to come back, if it had no regard for its life. Something must have changed on the island, then.
Han Sen chased after the silver fox, and noticed he was being led back to the lotus. Still, he did not hesitate and quickly continued his pursuit.
Han Sen, using his senses, noticed there were no longer any wasps on the island.
"Did those wasps leave the island?" Han Sen asked himself, looking puzzled.
But Han Sen was still curious. If the wasps had left the island, then that meant the lotus plant was nothing special, and it had just been used to host a number of wasp eggs. If there was nothing extraordinary about the plant, why were they returning?
"Is there something the silver fox wants from the body of a deceased creature?" Han Sen wondered, having now reached the lotus hill with the silver fox.
The scenery was marred with great horrors. Uncaring for the bodies that littered the once-fertile green, Han Sen hastily climbed up to the lotus.
Perhaps it was because of the strength of their toxins, but after the wasps were born, the seven remaining lotus petals had wilted. All that remained was a sole lotus cup.
Without a moment's pause, the silver fox ran up to it and munched it all down in one bite.
The crystal-clear lotus cup was chewed to pieces by the fox.
"Save me some! Save me some!" Han Sen grabbed the silver fox as he tried to pry open its mouth. Alas, the silver fox had already swallowed it all.
"Damn it, you mutt. You are too cruel. I just saved your life earlier! You little selfish bastard, you didn't even save me a bite!" Han Sen yelled at the silver fox.
The silver fox, however, ignored its master. Elegantly, it sniffed around on the ground, and after a while of doing so, began digging into the rocky ground with its two front paws.
The rock surface was like tofu under the power of its paws and claws, and it wasn't long before it had managed to dig a two-meter-deep hole.
"Is there something down there?" Han Sen quelled his rage, and his eyes lit up with inquisitiveness. He saw that there was something connected with the stalk of the lotus plant. As the silver fox continued to dig, Han Sen noticed the unearthing of something white in color.
"Whatever it is, you've done your bit. You've earned yourself a rest; let me take over." Han Sen quickly jumped into the hole and placed the silver fox on his shoulder. He rabidly started digging with his own two hands.
He was afraid the silver fox would dig out some more food and gobble it all up without giving him a chance to even look at it. He didn't want a repeat of what had just happened.
Han Sen did not dig for long because he had soon excavated three lotus roots. They were like the arms of a baby, and they were each about a dozen centimeters long.
Although they were underground, they still shone like white crystals. It was as if they were made from virgin snow. They smelled very good, too.
Han Sen picked up the three lotus roots to take a closer look, but before he could, the silver fox on his shoulder jumped down and grabbed one of the three. Immediately, it began to ravenously chew the root.
"How could I forget about this guy? This thing is a sneaky manipulator. I really do keep forgetting." Han Sen's heart was bleeding. He didn't even know what treasure he had unearthed, and a third of it was already munched on by the silver fox.
"What's left is mine. You've already had your fill." Seeing the silver fox stare at the lotus roots intently, Han Sen clutched the remaining two tightly.
The silver fox went near Han Sen's foot and began rubbing its head against him.
"Don't even bother trying to act cute. This thing is mine; end of story." Han Sen quickly put away the lotus roots and picked the silver fox back up.
Queen had now come ashore and was nearing the hill. Han Sen quickly ran back down to meet her, with the silver fox in hand. He didn't want her to learn anything about what he had just found.
"I don't know where the wasps went, but it looks like they have all gone," Han Sen said, as he stood in front of Queen.
"What did it find?" Queen asked, seeing right through Han Sen's deception.
"It was the lotus cup. But, by the time I caught up to the fiend, it had already eaten everything. He didn't save me any, so I have no idea what benefits it could have provided us. His selfishness hurts!" Han Sen hoped to squeeze out a few tears, but he couldn't.
Queen's eyes were untrusting, but she didn't voice her concern. Shortly after, they returned to the oceanside.
The two people and the fox began their journey once more. They hoped they'd soon be able to find land but after another five days travel, they had yet to see anything. There weren't even any islands around.
Suddenly, a strange sound could be heard in the distance. Han Sen and Queen were familiar with the sound, and so their faces changed.