Chapter 47: Giant Scythe Sheyue

100% fusion success?

Ji Xinghuo was surprised. According to his findings, a higher fusion success rate meant better suitability for him, like a recommendation index from the All-Seeing Star Pupil.

Until now, the highest was the Spinning Magnetic Field at 99%!

After fusing, he found that the Spinning Magnetic Field indeed matched him perfectly.

So, what about a 100% fusion success rate? Could Ether Sensitivity be even more formidable than the Spinning Magnetic Field? It’s just a quality superpower, after all.

Ji Xinghuo was somewhat puzzled.

He thought about it again. Perhaps this Ether Sensitivity had something special?

Its most significant feature is its natural origin. However, various countries and organizations’ superpower research institutes on Earth have conducted countless studies and never mentioned any differences between superpowers from different sources.

Ji Xinghuo noticed the last line of text on the interface.

[Upgradeable: Yes]

He suddenly understood. This Ether Sensitivity could be upgraded!

To his knowledge, the effects of Ether Sensitivity had always been fixed, and no one had yet discovered how to train it. The only way was through mutations triggered by life evolution with a very small probability of advancing to a higher-grade superpower.

Not just Ether Sensitivity, many superpowers could potentially advance during life evolution.

But these were rare events.

A level higher than Ether Sensitivity was “Ether Affinity,” an ultra-limit superpower.

Above Ether Affinity was “Ether Resonance,” a star-falling superpower!

“Maybe I should fuse this Ether Sensitivity and give it a try?”

Ji Xinghuo’s thoughts raced, his face expressionless. He handed the exotic species to Jiangnan Caiyi, who carefully stored it in a specially made exotic species container, saying, “I’m quite interested in this Ether Sensitivity. Don’t sell it just yet after we get back. It might be the next exotic species I fuse.”

Ren Mian was puzzled. “Why would you think of fusing with Ether Sensitivity?”

She remembered that neither the ranger nor the magnetic field freak templates included Ether Sensitivity.

“Just a thought,” Ji Xinghuo casually explained. “I want to increase my strength quickly. If I can get an expansion artifact early on, fusing with Ether Sensitivity is also a great choice.”

Chi Zhonglin suddenly laughed. “Then you’re just like me, a classless exotic!”

Ji Xinghuo was taken aback. “Seems like it.”

If he really fused with Ether Sensitivity, his three superpowers, each from different career templates, would make him a standard classless exotic.

“Being a classless exotic is great!”

Chi Zhonglin warmly draped his arm around Ji Xinghuo’s shoulders. “Free from the constraints of career templates, free to fuse with whatever superpower we want. We brothers can explore the path of life evolution together. Maybe we can even create new career templates.”

Ji Xinghuo had nothing to say; he hadn’t thought about that.

They searched the cave twice, making sure nothing was missed.

Ren Mian walked to the cave entrance, looked outside, and turned back, “It’s getting late. Let’s camp here tonight and head back to Olympia tomorrow.”

The cave floor was dry, free of dirt and weeds, much better than the surface of Peak Valley and also very hidden and safe.

The team members happily agreed.

While everyone was busy setting up tents and arranging plant defenses, Ji Xinghuo climbed back to the mountaintop, shot a few large birds resting in the trees, skillfully removed their feathers and innards, picked up some bundles of firewood, and returned to the cave to hand them to Jiangnan Caiyi for cooking.

After enjoying a roasted bird meal, it had already darkened outside.

It was still early before nightfall. Ji Xinghuo went up to the mountaintop to enjoy the starry night and cool off.

The light of the Silverlode spilled down.

Looking out, under the reflection of the Milky Way, majestic and beautiful peaks were bathed in a soft silver glow mixed with a hint of blue. He felt as if he was standing in the galaxy, with each star in the firmament seemingly winking at him—an unforgettable, dreamlike experience.

Ji Xinghuo lay back on a patch of grass, hands under his head, legs crossed, humming softly, “Twinkle, twinkle, little star, all the skies are filled with pulsars…”

Chi Zhonglin, who just climbed up, heard the lyrics and was speechless.

He came to take pictures.

After taking two shots, he realized they weren’t right. The film camera’s exposure requirements were too high. The visibility during the starry night wasn’t as good as during the day and didn’t capture what he wanted.

Using a disposable flash would be like shouting to the monsters within a few kilometers: I’m right here!

“Forget it.”

Chi Zhonglin walked around the mountaintop and found nothing.

He eventually lay down next to Ji Xinghuo, looking up at the myriad of stars and the galaxy, and suddenly exclaimed, “If the Star Realm was a safe place, how wonderful would that be!”

Ji Xinghuo didn’t turn his head, only responding after a moment, “That would take away a lot of the excitement.”

“True,” Chi Zhonglin nodded. “Without the Star Realm, this miraculous birthplace, we wouldn’t have supernatural powers.”

Then the two fell silent for a while.

“Xinghuo, how many siblings do you have?” Chi Zhonglin asked.

“Four.”

“I have one more than you,” Chi Zhonglin said. “We are six siblings, three boys and three girls. We were very happy as children. Sadly, now that everyone is grown up, things aren’t as simple. Everyone has their own jobs and lives; relationships naturally fade.”

Ji Xinghuo turned to look at him. “You could stay in touch with your family more.”

“It’s no use,” Chi Zhonglin sighed. “Actually, the relationships among the other siblings are quite good.”

“Because you’re an exotic?” Ji Xinghuo guessed.

“Yes.”

Chi Zhonglin’s eyes held resignation. “At first, they were all happy I became an exotic, but as my power grew, they gradually distanced themselves.”

“Social circles are different, the people and things we encounter are different, the experiences are different. Even when I’m with them, I have to be extremely cautious, afraid of accidentally hurting them. Although they don’t say it, I can still feel their fear and pressure…”

He clenched his fist lightly, cracking the air in his palm with a muffled sound.

“It’s like the difference between a hunter and prey.”

“The bigger the power gap between exotics and ordinary people, the harder it is to maintain an equal relationship.”

“After all, we could take their lives with just a flick of a finger, or even a mere thought.”

“This stark contrast between the powerful and the weak overwhelms any other social relationship, even surpassing the chasm between species.”

“Even if we do our best to suppress and contain our power, just that psychological pressure alone makes ordinary people subconsciously avoid exotics.”

Chi Zhonglin looked at Ji Xinghuo. “You’ll understand this feeling soon enough.”

Ji Xinghuo pondered deeply.

This conversation really made him think. His second brother, Zhong Ming, was the first to become an exotic. After joining a league club, he did grow a bit distant from his siblings. Ji had thought it was because he was too busy with daily training and competitions, but now it seemed that wasn’t the only reason.

Right now, everyone was young, either just graduated or still in school, with similar social standings, so there weren’t any issues for the time being.

But in a few years, he might face the same problem as Chi Zhonglin.

“Is there a solution?” Ji Xinghuo asked for advice.

“None.”

Chi Zhonglin spread his hands. “You just have to let things take their course unless you find a way to turn your whole family into exotics. Otherwise, you move on, meet new friends, enter new circles. At first, you may feel bad because people tend to hold on to the past, but time will dilute everything.”

Ji Xinghuo nodded, no longer dwelling on the issue.

“Woo…”

Suddenly, a long howl came from the distance.

“What’s that sound?” Ji Xinghuo sat up, looking in the direction of the howl.

“Sounds like a Giant Stone Sickle’s call,” Chi Zhonglin peered into the distance. “That call is strange, it traveled so far.”

They had often heard the calls of the Giant Stone Sickles these days; they were quite active during the starry nights, occasionally calling out, apparently as a way of marking their territory.

But this call was distinctly different.

They looked at each other, both harboring the same guess.

Ren Mian and Jiangnan Caiyi climbed up from the cave, having heard the howl as well, and asked about the situation.

Ji Xinghuo walked to the edge of the Suspended Mountain, where the view was unobstructed. Even if the visibility during the starry night was not as good as during the day, the All-Seeing Star Pupil could still clearly see up to five kilometers away.

He scanned the area.

Finally, about four kilometers to the left, he spotted something unusual.

It was a large group of Giant Stone Sickles, too many to count. They were running rapidly between the mountains, widespread, seemingly chasing some prey in a chaotic yet orderly manner, forming a huge encirclement.

Boom, boom, boom…

The ground beneath started to tremble as the group of Giant Stone Sickles drew nearer.

“Woo, woo, woo!”

The calls of the Giant Stone Sickles rose and fell.

Moments later, hundreds of different wild animals were driven into a valley—antelopes, ferocious wild boars, dire wolves, giant rock sheep, steel-bristled beasts, and more, all large-bodied animals now huddled together in a frantic stampede.

However, the other end of the valley was a cliff, with a drop of over a hundred meters.

The Giant Stone Sickles blocked the valley’s exit, and others on the cliff sides continued to throw rocks.

“Woo…”

A loud call sounded from behind, as if giving an order.

Instantly, dozens of standard monster-level Giant Stone Sickles lined up and charged from the valley entrance, swinging their scythe-like claws to begin slaughtering the wild animals. The animals in the back pushed those ahead, the space shrinking until they were ultimately driven off the cliff, falling to their deaths.

In less than two minutes, hundreds of wild animals were slaughtered, most killed from the fall.

After killing the wild animals, not a single Giant Stone Sickle fed.

It seemed they were waiting for something.

The valley was about three kilometers from the Suspended Mountain, and Ji Xinghuo had watched the entire process clearly.

He was about to speak when he suddenly saw a huge figure leap into the sky, over a hundred meters from the ground, tracing a parabolic arc before crashing heavily into the valley.

Bang!

The ground trembled slightly, audible even from this distance.

“Giant Stone Sickle!” Ji Xinghuo said softly. “It’s appeared.”

“To actually encounter a Giant Stone Sickle, what a surprise!” Chi Zhonglin was excited.

However, Ren Mian’s face showed no joy, she shook her head solemnly and said slowly, “This is probably not good news. This Giant Stone Sickle isn’t just a super-group monster, it has evolved again and is now likely a ‘deluge’ level monster.”

“What?” Chi Zhonglin turned pale with shock.

“Sister Ren is right,” Ji Xinghuo also nodded. “It has evolved.”

He saw it very clearly.

The Giant Stone Sickle in the valley stood over five meters high, large yet agile, easily leaping over a hundred meters with a single bound. It was covered in a thick layer of rock armor, each of its four arms requiring two people to embrace, with stone claws nearly a meter long, resembling terrifying scythes.

Its tail, like a giant python, ended in a drill-like tip.

The Giant Stone Sickle simply seated itself in the valley, and the thousands of Giant Stone Sickles around it bowed down, daring not to make a sound.

Even from such a distance, Ji Xinghuo felt a palpitation.

This was no mere super-group monster.

It was a calamity-level monster, at least ten times stronger than super-group monsters!

In the Star Realm, a beast’s initial evolution turns it into a monster. As a monster grows in strength, elites emerge within the general population, usually the group leaders.

Elite monsters that evolve again become super-group monsters, awakening more superpowers.

And are able to fuse or consume other species.

Once a super-group monster masters other superpowers and successfully evolves a third time, it has a certain probability of becoming a “calamity” class monster!

Due to differences in species and superpowers, as calamity class monsters, the strength disparity is quite large.

Thus, races are categorized by danger level in more detail.

Calamity class monsters correspond to four natural disasters: floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and meteor strikes, domestically referred to in the Asia-Pacific community as “deluge, blaze, quake, and bane.”

Deluge class monsters cause damages roughly equivalent to a county-level flood disaster;

Blaze class monsters rise a level higher in danger;

Quake class monsters can threaten a medium-sized city;

Bane class monsters have the capability to completely destroy a large city and the surrounding areas, killing everyone within range!

More terrifying than calamity class monsters are star-slaying monsters.

In the era when Star Gates first opened, a star-slaying monster breached Earth’s defenses. Fortunately, countries responded promptly, with dozens of intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads used to kill it.

Ji Xinghuo was too far away to accurately judge which class this Giant Stone Sickle belonged to.

“Like Sister Ren said, it’s probably a Deluge-level!”

“Such a monster requires a legendary extrahuman to kill. If it’s a Blaze-level, even legendary extrahumans would find it challenging and wouldn’t dare to face it lightly.”

“Ooh-woo!”

The Giant Scythe Sheyue roared twice. Then the Sheyue in the valley began to tear apart the bodies of the beasts, using stone claws to slice the meat and feed it to their mouths, creating a bloody scene.

It chose two of the fattest ferocious wild boars to enjoy.

Ren Mian retracted her gaze and said, “The plan remains the same. We’ll head back to Olympia City tomorrow.”

The three had no objections.

If it were just a superior monster, they wouldn’t be afraid and would definitely take action to hunt it.

But facing a Deluge-level monster, they became the prey.

“Damn it!”

Chi Zhonglin started cursing, “Whoever released the information in Olympia is to blame! They knew this Giant Scythe Sheyue was Deluge-level but too cowardly to act, so they deliberately let others come and die. Now they’re probably hiding nearby wanting to reap the benefits.”

“I better not find out who it was, or they’ll regret it!”

He cursed quite a bit, very displeased.

If the Giant Scythe Sheyue was a superior monster, defeating it might allow him to acquire the ‘Earth Pulse’ mutation he had longed for.

Ren Mian had agreed before that if they obtained Earth Pulse, it would be prioritized for him.

Now it’s all fallen through!

More than two hours later, the Sheyue group almost finished gnawing off the corpses of the wild beasts, following their Deluge-level leader out of the valley and disappearing among the vast peaks.

Ji Xinghuo and the others returned to the cave to rest, the night passed uneventfully.

The next day they packed up, left Peak Valley and began their journey back to Olympia.