Chapter 212: 212

A few hundred miles out in the wilderness, a maglev airship was silently floating. There were two people in it, and like Alexis, they were brown-skinned folks. Looking at their clothes, they were obviously Indians.

The Indians often sang and danced, and were very lively, but at this moment, the two of them were very silent.

“Alexis is dead!”

“Who killed him?”

The two clenched their fists tightly. “Before Alexis disappeared, he apparently mentioned something about a Stellar treasure of heaven and earth?”

“He seemed to say that someone had gotten a Stellar-level treasure of heaven and earth, so he went to check it out? In other words, is there really any Stellar treasure of heaven and earth in this dead planet?”

“Since Alexis have heard about it, it must be! Also, that is a Stellar treasure of heaven and earth, and if we can get our hands on one, it’s like hitting the jackpot! So, I’d rather believe it than not!”

“What should we do?”

“Look carefully tomorrow, I don’t believe we can’t find it if others can!

“If we really cannot find it, then spread the news out!”

“Yeah!”

…

“What is that? Scary!”

“I have trypophobia!”

1

Seeing the countless insects rushing in from all directions. Niu Miao screamed as she hid directly behind her brother, but Niu Ben too was frightened.

Too many!

There were just too many bugs!

They were coming all over and in all directions.

Densely packed and swarming.

At first glance, it was nothing but a swarm of black insects as they formed into an endless tide of bugs surrounding them.

While Ling Jiu was surprised, he did not panic as he grabbed his hand out and caught one of the bugs over.

The black bug looked strange. It was about the size of a fist, and it had devilfish-like wings, with dozens of legs under its belly.

The weirdest thing was its mouth. It was similar to a suction cup that was aimed in the direction of the airship. Even when it was caught by Ling Jiu, it continued to aim its mouth at the airship.

“Was this lifeform born on this planet?”

Ling Jiu looked at the bug for a while and then pinched his fingers gently as he tried to squash the bug. Yet it was somehow unscathed.

“Hmmm?”

Ling Jiu frowned as he increased his strength. Yet, the bug remained fine. He then used all of his strength before the sound of a crack rang out and the bug was squashed.

Strangely enough, the moment the bug was squashed, what burst out if its body was not blood but dazzling light, as though…

Light was stored in the bug instead of blood!

“What a weird bug,” Ling Jiu whispered before he heard Bai Ya exclaim, “Honey, have a look at these bugs!”

Ling Jiu turned his head and saw something was happening among the densely packed insects as they were expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye…

From the size of a child’s palm to the size of an adult’s palm.

Then, the size of Yao Ming’s palm.

And then, the size of a junior high textbook.

In just a few breath’s time, the frontmost insects were as big as a grinding plate, and in comparison, the ones at the back were growing a little slower.

“What’s wrong with them?”

“Why is this happening?”

The four looked at each other, startled by the strange scene.

Ling Jiu frowned and mused as he immediately used his Replication Arcana to probe these insect’s information.

Name: Unknown

Species: Unknown

Arcana: Devouring Light ((Awakened, Replicable), Unlimited Growth (Awakened, Replicable), Super Defense (Awakened, Replicable)

1

Looking at the Arcana information that appeared in his mind, and then back at the bugs with their suction cup-like mouth aiming at the airship. Ling Jiu suddenly realized something.

The bugs were not targeting the airship, but rather the lights inside it.

These bugs… were devouring light!

Or rather, they were eating light!

With that thought in mind, Ling Jiu took out the remote control and turned off all of the lights on the airship. Ling Jiu could clearly see that as the light disappeared, all of the bugs closed their mouths and faded away like the tide.

They had no intelligence and only followed the light. Now that the light was gone, they had nothing to feed on, so they would naturally leave.

Ling Jiu pressed the button and turned on the lights. The bugs immediately converged again as they aimed their open suction-cup mouths toward the airship’s lights.

They were… starting to devour light!

“I did not expect such a lifeform to exist. The universe is so vast and amazing!”

Ling Jiu was secretly amazed before placing his attention on the bug’s three different Arcanas. Ling Jiu was not interested in Devouring Light, but what piqued his interests were Unlimited Growth and Super Defense.

First was Unlimited Growth.

Ling Jiu had heard reports like this before talking about how reptiles and fish on Earth constantly grew throughout their lives. In theory, as long as there was no limit to their lifespan, they could grow in size infinitely.

However, Ling Jiu could not ascertain the authenticity of those reports since all animals had a lifespan limit and would die once they reached the end of their lives.

Yet, the bug before him could seemingly grow indefinitely, and Ling Jiu was very interested in this power.

The reason was after replicating the abilities of the Astral Flame Behemoth, the larger his size got, the greater his attribute index.

At 1.8 meters tall, his attribute index was a hundred thousand times.

Now at the height of 50 meters, Ling Jiu had no idea what kind of state the attribute index was in, but he was clear that his attributes were much stronger than before.

So, to him, size represented strength. The larger his size, the stronger he was!

However, as 9527 had said, even behemoths like the Flame Astral Behemoth, whose adult form could span light-years… had restrictions when it came to their body size.

Once it reached its limit, the Flame Astral Behemoth would not continue to grow. This meant that its power had reached its limit, and would stop getting stronger.

Reaching one’s limit…

That was without a doubt something very unpleasant for any lifeforms.

Ling Jiu, who had replicated the physique of the Astral Behemoth would undoubtedly stop growing once his body had reached its growth limit. That was simply off-putting.

So, how would he solve this problem?

The solution was right before him now.

The Unlimited Growth Arcana!

“Should I replicate that?” Ling Jiu muttered to himself.

The second one was Super Defense.

Ling Jiu had witnessed the kind of defensive power that the bug possessed. With the strength he had in his current form, he needed to use all of his might to crush a bug the size of his palm.

How strong was its defense power?

It… simply begged belief!

Ling Jiu was also very interested in its Super Defense, even though his current defense was god-knows how many times stronger than ordinary Level 7 Arcanists.

“Unlimited growth!

“Super defense!

“Which one to replicate first?”

Ling Jiu pondered for a long time before finally making his decision.

“Replicate, Unlimited Growth!”

Replication successful. Assimilate?

“Not yet.”

Ling Jiu shook his head and said to Bai Ya and the others, “These bugs are eating light. They are not harmful to us. Let’s go back.”

“Eating light?”

The three were stunned.

…

After lunch, all four of them took a rest.

Ling Jiu waited for Bai Ya to sleep before quietly sneaking out of the airship and came to the wilderness tens of kilometers away before assimilating the Unlimited Growth Arcana.

“Aaargh!!”

It was another painful ordeal and Ling Jiu saw another black light orb appearing in his Replication Arcana star system, for a total of 15 now.

This light orb represented the Unlimited Growth Arcana.

“Hopefully, after replicating this Arcana, I can really grow without any restrictions.”

This time he slept for almost ten hours, and after a meal, they came to the other half of the planet to search for the red crystals in the magma.

The four seemed to have ran out of luck as after working for 24 hours, they had only found three crystals, far lesser than yesterday’s harvest.

However, even with lesser harvest they still had to rest.

And just as the four was about to leave the magma sea to head back, they heard an earth-shaking roar coming from the distance.

“What’s going on there?”

The four looked at each other.

“Let’s go and have a look!”

Ling Jiu immediately wrapped everyone in the bubble and rushed over. After a while they arrived at the scene and saw a flaming man fighting with a monster.

1

The identity of the flaming man was unclear at the moment.

The monster, on the other hand, was a dragon more than 80 meters in size!

Eighty meters!

This was a terrifying size!

The dragon monster Ling Jiu had fought earlier was only 50 meters along and could take Ling Jiu’s fists without getting hurt.

A dragon that was more than 80 meters long… was definitely stronger.

Amazingly, though, the flaming man seemed to be beating the dragon monster?

The temperature of his flame was higher than the magma’s as giant fireballs slammed onto the dragon monster one after another, scorching it as it roared in fury.

The dragon monster wanted to attack the flaming man, and as soon as its claws struck, the flaming man dispersed before reforming moments later.

The dragon monster’s attack… was ineffective!

“This guy is really strong!”

Ling Jiu slowly said, “Brother Niu, you recognize this person?”

“Fire-Elemental Form!”

Niu Ben solemnly said, “And a Level 9 combat power… Across the entire matriculation camp, there’s only one person I can think of.”

“Who’s that?” Ling Jiu asked.

“Alek Ansel!” Niu Ben slowly uttered a name.

“Both Alek and I joined the camp the same year, and we’ve been in the camp together for almost ten years now. We’re proper old coots! Plus, he’s a typical representation of someone who’s unwilling to leave the camp.”

Ling Jiu nodded. Niu Ben had mentioned earlier that only the camp had the Arcana Tree, and there was no other place one could absorb those arcane energies.

Once they left, they would not be able to draw upon it anymore, and that led to many of the older cadets in the camp being reluctant to leave.

“It’s precisely because he doesn’t want to leave that every time he’s about to break a million points, Alek always consumes a portion of it.”

Niu Ben added, “He doesn’t care about his ranking because he has been number one in the rankings for a long time.”

“There was something like that happening?”

Ling Jiu was stunned.

“It’s true!”

Niu Ben sighed. “He’s really strong, even the second-ranked Qiu Haohao and the third-ranked Toynbee are not necessarily his match! In other words, if Alek wanted to graduate and leave, he would have done so long ago!”

“Seems like a true powerhouse!”

Ling Jiu continued to look at the two embroiled in battle.

By this time, the battle had already came to an end, and under Alek’s immolation, the dragon monster which could swim freely in the magma were at its limits as patches of scorched black marks appeared all across its body as it recoiled and prepared to escape.

“Running away?’

Alek sneered as the flames in his hand transformed into a black flaming blade that burst out and instantly cut the wings of the dragon monster.

Dush!

Following a crisp thud, the black flaming blade instantly ripped through the dragon monster’s right wing and sliced it clean off.

The incision was scorched black, but very smooth. One could imagine how terrifying the power of the black flaming blade was.

One needed to know that earlier on when Ling Jiu used his fist, he was not able to break the skull of that 50-meter-long dragon, but now…

“What kind of flame is that?”

Ling Jiu’s pupils shrank.