Lin Shen was experiencing unimaginable pain that felt like his nerves were being torn apart and his marrow shattered. If he could make a sound, his throat might have been shredded by his own screams.
Unfortunately, he couldn't move his lips or even his eyeballs. Forget screaming—he couldn't even blink.
Lin Shen had heard before that the process of Base Mutation was similar to the Butterfly Transformation.
The insect's process of chrysalis-to-butterfly was referred to as complete metamorphosis, where the body's structure goes through a radical transformation, almost like evolving from one lifeform into another.
Some even said that an insect was merely a mobile placenta, and the butterfly growing inside it eventually reaches a point where it dissolves the placenta and absorbs it.
That theory was, of course, baseless. The human Base Mutation process was also a restructuring of the body. The shell of the Base Mutation Egg melts, disintegrates, spins silk, and forms the cocoon, while the mutation liquid merges with the human body to build a new Steel Body.
This process was akin to grinding raw rice to powder and then mixing in other ingredients to make rice flour—it was unbearably painful.
Of course, forming the cocoon didn't literally mean breaking the body apart. However, the process of the mutation liquid merging with the entire body was equally agonizing, a pain that could make one yearn for death.
The higher the quality of the Base Mutation Egg, the more excruciating the process would be.
Lin Shen had only heard that undergoing Base Mutation was painful, but he hadn't imagined it would be this bad.
White threads grew out from within his body, weaving together and gradually forming an oval-shaped white cocoon.
Wei Wufu's expression was complex. Before Lin Shen, every single human who had attempted to use the number fourteen Primeval Egg for Base Mutation had died quickly after swallowing it; none had made it to the cocoon stage.
The fact that Lin Shen had managed to form a cocoon meant that the shell of the Primeval Egg within him had already dissolved and disintegrated, transforming into a new structure. Half of the process could already be considered a success.
What came next depended on whether Lin Shen's body could endure merging with the mutation liquid—or rather, whether his body could coexist with the foreign virus.
Wei Wufu was focused on Lin Shen's cocoon when he suddenly seemed to sense something. He turned toward the restrained mutated creature.
The mutated creature was trembling slightly, causing Wei Wufu to furrow his brows.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Wei Wufu pressed both hands to the ground and surged upward, his body snapping into motion. Unfortunately, anything below his waist flailed lifelessly, entirely unresponsive, significantly hampering his speed.
Wei Wufu lunged at the mutated creature, his fingers deftly stabbing at the indentation in its waist—the exact spot Lin Shen had struck earlier.
Wei Wufu's power was orders of magnitude greater than Lin Shen's; his strike deepened the indentation several more degrees.
However, when Wei Wufu raised his gaze to the mutated creature, he found that its trembling had not ceased.
"What did he do? Why can he manage this, but I can't?" Wei Wufu sighed inwardly, pressing his hands against the ground to leap up again. Then, with a mighty clap of his hands, he shoved the mutated creature forward with force.
The creature rolled dozens of meters across the ground before stopping. The gravity here was immense, meaning pushing it that far was already no small feat.
Wei Wufu was simply trying to buy time. According to the data, humans who underwent Base Mutation with a Primeval Egg would either succeed quickly or die just as fast.
Die fast if they failed, succeed fast if they managed it, all without having to remain in a cocoon for days or months like with regular Base Mutation Eggs.
Most completed the mutation within three to ten minutes after forming the cocoon, breaking free directly thereafter.
Wei Wufu just needed to hold out until Lin Shen broke free from his cocoon. With Lin Shen's miraculous abilities combined with the Steel Body created by the Primeval Egg, defeating the mutated creature might be difficult, but the chances of escaping would increase significantly.
Wei Wufu stared at the mutated creature lying on the ground, trembling more and more violently. He calculated how much time he might be able to buy, should the creature recover its motor functions first.
"Not enough." Wei Wufu muttered to himself, glancing at the watch on his wrist.
The mutated creature's trembling grew more intense; it appeared its recovery was imminent.
Less than a minute had passed since Lin Shen formed his cocoon. Even if Lin Shen were fast, he'd need at least another three minutes.
Wei Wufu pressed his hands to the ground again and crawled toward the mutated creature in the distance.
Reaching the creature's violently trembling body, Wei Wufu pushed it further, continuing to shove it further away.
He hadn't pushed for long when the mutated creature's body suddenly jerked. Its arm rose, and its body began moving stiffly, almost robotically, like a clunky performance of breakdancing.
Wei Wufu wasted no time. He rolled behind the mutated creature, locking his arms around its neck in a rear naked choke.
This move, when used on humans, could press against the neck's arteries, cutting off the brain's blood supply and inducing temporary unconsciousness.
Its effectiveness on mutated creatures was naturally limited. Adding to the difficulty, Wei Wufu's legs couldn't provide the leverage needed to secure the hold, further reducing its impact.
This was a desperate choice. Engaging the mutated creature head-on was suicidal—it would only make him die faster.
At least from behind, it was more difficult for the creature's claws and limbs to reach him. Like humans, it lacked the ability to fully rotate its arms backward.
Wei Wufu was focused only on buying time. As long as Lin Shen broke free, it would all be worth it.
The mutated creature's body rapidly stabilized, regaining normal function. Ignoring Wei Wufu's choke hold, it casually extracted the Leaf Blade embedded in its eye, tossing it aside.
As soon as the blade was removed, the wound in its eye began to heal at a visibly rapid rate. In no time, it was completely restored.
This was precisely why Wei Wufu believed it couldn't be killed. In their battle at sea, he'd inflicted numerous severe injuries on the creature.
Yet the creature always healed faster than it could be permanently damaged, making it virtually unkillable.
In the end, Wei Wufu had to rely on an ultimate survival ability that left the creature's body shattered and nearly torn apart. That rendered its recovery process temporarily ineffective, scaring it off for a time.
But using such a power had come at great personal cost. Wei Wufu's body suffered severe repercussions; after crawling onto the beach, he passed out, and his legs had yet to recover.
The mutated creature reached backward to grab Wei Wufu's head. Its dagger-like nails grazed his cheek and dug into the sand beneath him.
Wei Wufu swayed left and right, dodging the creature's strikes again and again while maintaining his grip on its neck.
Its other hand dropped the fork it had been holding and joined in the effort to grab Wei Wufu.
Seeing that he could no longer avoid its attacks, Wei Wufu had no choice but to release his choke hold. Pressing down hard on the sandy terrain, he rolled away swiftly.
"Come on, kill me." Wei Wufu tried taunting the creature, hoping to draw its attention.
Mutated creatures experienced emotions too; under normal circumstances, Wei Wufu's antics should have made it fixate on killing him first.
But inexplicably, after giving Wei Wufu a brief glance, the creature picked up the red fork from the ground and, without hesitation, turned to rush at Lin Shen's cocoon.
This caught Wei Wufu off guard. His reaction was quick enough—pressing his hands against the ground, he unleashed every ounce of his strength, rocketing like a missile skimming the surface. Catching up to the creature, he wrapped his arms around one of its legs and twisted with all his might, slamming it to the ground.
The creature kicked backward with its other leg. Wei Wufu, unable to move his own legs, couldn't dodge it. He had no choice but to release one hand and grab hold of its other leg.
One might think the creature, already frustrated with Wei Wufu's antics, would fly into a rage and fight him to the death.
But instead, as Wei Wufu clung to both its legs, the creature raised the red fork high. Unexpectedly, it didn't stab at him but instead hurled the fork with all its strength. The fork whistled through the air, aimed squarely at Lin Shen's cocoon.