The Aberrant Feral Beast and the Evolution Cube's Advancement
"Hm?"
Lu Yuan stared at the massive hound, surprised.
*The Evolution Cube just reacted?*
While he was still puzzling over it, a group of armored Guard Corps soldiers crashed into the beast pack.
"Kill!! Wipe them out — not a single one escapes!!"
Battle cries erupted through the forest. Spirit Power surged, and powerful Combat Techniques blazed to life among the trees, raining down on the Feral Beasts.
The beasts, already on the verge of fleeing, let out furious howls.
The dark-red hound watched this development. The pitch-black antennae on its skull twitched, its eyes blazing red, and it released a thunderous, furious roar.
It bolted toward the one side of the encirclement that hadn't closed yet, sending every beast in its path flying.
Lu Yuan tracked the creature's aura and his eyes widened slightly.
*That aura — it's remarkably powerful. Third-rank, low-level Lord Grade.*
A beast that strong, and it hadn't joined the assault against him?
He narrowed his eyes. A massive black metal cylinder, nearly a meter long, materialized in his hand.
Heaven Thunder No. 1 Spirit Cannon (Third-rank 100%) — Lord Grade spirit artifact.
This was the treasure Lu Yuan had retrieved from a ten-thousand-meter skyscraper atop the Central Floating City.
One of the most powerful items he possessed.
He had originally intended to save it for stronger Lord Grade opponents — or even Fourth-rank Feral Beasts. But this creature had managed to hold his attention.
He hefted the Spirit Cannon and flipped the activation switch.
An overwhelming torrent of Spirit Power erupted from the barrel. In the next instant a thunderous crack rang out, and a blue-white beam of psionic energy roughly half a meter across streaked forward.
In virtually no time at all, the beam punched straight through the teeming mass of beasts and appeared at the dark-red hound's flank.
The hound felt the lethal threat. Its blood-red eyes clenched hard, the black antennae on its forehead trembled, and plumes of dark mist began pouring off its body.
"ROAARR!!"
It let out a terrible roar, and a torrent of black mist instantly coalesced in front of it.
**BOOM!!**
The Third-rank Perfect-tier Heaven Thunder Spirit Cannon detonated against the black mist.
The explosion was cataclysmic. Spirit Power ran rampant, lightning crackling through the blast; every Feral Beast within a hundred meters was torn to shreds in an instant. The pressure wave became a gale that swept outward in every direction, and even the earth shook underfoot.
The previously dark sky blazed white — bright as midday.
Deep in the forest some distance away, an ordinary-looking, black-haired man of middle age was leading a detachment of Vanguard soldiers through the beast horde. When he saw the brilliant Spirit Power flash erupting nearby, shock flickered across his face.
*What in the world—?*
An attack that powerful could put even him at genuine risk.
His expression shifted. He turned and charged toward the source of the detonation, every beast in his path helpless to stop him.
The moment the blast dissipated, Lu Yuan's gaze sharpened and he sprinted toward the dark-red hound's last position.
He'd left the cave entrance unguarded — there was no need now. Every beast was in full retreat, not one of them sparing a thought for Groat and the others inside.
Besides, he had already killed nearly every Third-rank beast in the horde. The remaining Second-rank creatures posed no real threat to Groat's group. He didn't need to worry about them.
He reached the blast zone quickly.
The white glow was slowly fading, revealing what lay beneath.
A circular crater nearly fifty meters across opened before him. The opposite edge of the pit backed against the forest — some trees had been reduced to splinters by the shockwave, others farther out stood shattered and leaning, the whole stretch a scene of devastation.
At the bottom of the crater lay a beast, its body ravaged.
Dark red from snout to tail, nearly eight meters in length — a massive hound. A silver unicorn horn had sprouted from its forehead; now it lay snapped clean off. Two black antennae curved from its skull, also broken. Thin wisps of dark mist still drifted from its battered hide.
Compared to moments ago, the creature was barely clinging to life, its aura reduced to a flicker.
Lu Yuan looked down at the ruined thing but didn't descend into the crater.
*Something is off about that black mist.*
It reminded him of the Shadow he had encountered back in Xili City.
*Aberration?*
He raised an eyebrow.
He pulled out a Psionic Bomb and lobbed it in.
**BOOM!!**
A column of flame erupted from below. Something shrieked in a distinctly wrong way, and through the fire Lu Yuan glimpsed threads of black mist writhing and dissolving in the heat.
He narrowed his eyes, a prickling chill running down the back of his neck.
*So there really is something to this.*
Good thing he'd kept his distance.
The flames died down. The beast at the bottom was charred black. Lu Yuan studied the scorched corpse for a moment, then tossed in a second Psionic Bomb.
**BOOM!!**
Fire roared up again.
This time, no dark mist appeared.
While the flames still burned, Lu Yuan's expression shifted slightly.
He felt something — a faint tendril of something — slip into his body. It carried a cool sensation as it entered, drifting inward until it settled inside the Evolution Cube.
He sensed a subtle change in the Evolution Cube — something that hadn't been there before.
*This feeling...*
His eyes stirred.
It reminded him of what had happened in front of the Soul-Devouring Orb — the Evolution Cube had responded the same way then.
He didn't know exactly what it had absorbed. But whatever the Evolution Cube had taken in, the change it produced was moving in a good direction.
His curiosity about the Evolution Cube only deepened. *What exactly does it absorb?*
He gazed at the Deep Blue Cube floating around his Gene Chain. He had the distinct impression that something had been added to it — but he couldn't perceive exactly what.
While Lu Yuan was still turning this over in his mind, the ordinary-looking black-haired man had cut his way through the remnants of the horde and arrived near the cliff face.
When he saw the crater gouged into the earth, something froze behind his eyes.
*That destructive force... it exceeds even what I can produce.*
He glanced across the far rim of the crater, then looked down into it — and found a young man standing at the edge. Handsome, clearly young.
He recognized this face.
Lu Yuan. The prodigy who had undergone an ordinary Awakening yet inscribed Lord Grade genes at Second-rank.
A genius of the Talent Camp.
*Lu Yuan made this crater?*
*How is that possible?*
He stared in disbelief. Lu Yuan was Second-rank — even at Lord Grade, even at Second-rank perfection, this level of destructive output made no sense.
And what was he looking at?
He followed Lu Yuan's gaze down to the crater floor. A few tongues of flame still licked at the bottom, and amid them sat something resembling a lump of charcoal. Whatever it had once been was impossible to determine.
The man's jaw twitched.
He could clearly see that the fire at the bottom and the strike that had gouged out the crater were separate attacks.
Meaning after blowing this pit open, Lu Yuan had *kept going*.
Was he going to grind the beast down to ash? What grudge? What vendetta?
Just then, his expression darkened. His gaze caught the thin thread of black mist seeping from the charred remains, and ice shot through him.
"That's..."
He vanished and reappeared at Lu Yuan's side in an instant.
Lu Yuan had already registered his arrival the moment he moved — his perception was sharp enough for that.
He wasn't concerned, though. He could tell this was a Vanguard soldier.
When the man materialized directly beside him, Lu Yuan finally looked up.
The black-haired man met his gaze and spoke:
"Lu Yuan. I'm Wang Jiashu, 1st Regiment Commander of the Vanguard. I've come under orders to destroy the Beast Tide."
Lu Yuan immediately snapped to attention with a salute.
"Greetings, sir!"
Wang Jiashu gave a short nod, then fixed him with a grave look.
"You did this?"
He meant the crater. Lu Yuan nodded.
"Yes, sir. That was me."
Wang Jiashu held his gaze for a long moment but didn't ask how. He pointed at the charred mass below.
"What is that?"
Lu Yuan considered. "A Feral Beast, sir. Third-rank, low-level Lord Grade."
"Third-rank, low-level Lord Grade..."
Wang Jiashu's eyes tightened slightly. He was quiet for a beat, then:
"Do you know what that black mist was?"
Lu Yuan thought it over. "I believe it may be the Aberration phenomenon, sir."
Wang Jiashu's brow lifted. He stared at Lu Yuan with open surprise.
"You know about the Aberration?"
Lu Yuan smiled slightly. "I've been through it twice already, sir."
Between the original owner's experience and what had happened in Xili City, he'd technically lived through it twice.
Wang Jiashu blinked, studying him — then let out a short laugh.
"Didn't expect you to have that kind of history. And you're still standing. You're a lucky one."
"I've always thought so."
Lu Yuan smiled back — though the original owner hadn't been quite so fortunate.
He paused, then continued: "Sir, if Feral Beasts are carrying the Aberration, does that mean there may be a number of Aberrant Feral Beasts in this Beast Tide? Could that be what's behind all of this?"
Wang Jiashu smiled.
"That's for the higher-ups to sort out. I'd wager they already know. What we need to do is hold our defensive line and not let those creatures set a single paw into imperial territory."
"Yes, sir!"
Wang Jiashu nodded, then his expression grew heavier.
"One more thing — where are your squadmates?"
He'd assumed that with a Beast Tide bearing down on them, Lu Yuan himself might have fared well enough — but the others had likely paid dearly for it.
"They're all in the cave over there," Lu Yuan said with an easy smile.
He pointed toward the far side of the clearing.
Wang Jiashu turned to look.
When he saw the cave entrance — and the carpet of Feral Beast corpses blanketing the ground around it — he went very still.
"All of this... *you* killed all of these?!"
There had to be nearly two thousand carcasses.
*He killed that many?*
*How?*
He also noticed a series of smaller craters scattered across the clearing. Much smaller than the one beside him — roughly ten meters across each. He counted about a dozen.
His jaw twitched again. *He must have just been lobbing bombs the entire time.*
But beyond the craters, Wang Jiashu could see the bodies heaped near the cave entrance — clearly not blast casualties. These had been cut down. Sword marks were still visible on a number of them.
Several hundred at least, just at the entrance alone.
*All of it, Lu Yuan?*
He was beginning to wonder if this kid had quietly broken through to Third-rank without telling anyone.
Lu Yuan had no idea what was running through the man's head. He nodded.
"Yes, sir. I killed them."
Wang Jiashu fell silent.
After a moment: "Come on. Take me to the cave. Your squad spotted this branch of the Beast Tide and held it here — that's a genuine contribution. Now that it's over, my men will take over protection detail. You won't be in danger from here on."
Lu Yuan nodded.
He led Wang Jiashu back to the cave. Groat was already standing outside the entrance, scanning the clearing with alert eyes.
The moment he saw Lu Yuan return, the tension left his shoulders.
But when he spotted Wang Jiashu behind Lu Yuan, Groat and the rest of the squad went rigid in unison — they straightened and snapped off crisp salutes.
"Commander Wang!"
Wang Jiashu gave a nod and an easy smile.
"Good. You're all in one piece. You've done well today."
A flicker of awkwardness passed through the squad. "Not at all, sir!"
They all knew who had actually done the work. Without Lu Yuan, they'd have been beast feed.
"Go on — head back and rest. You've earned it after a fight like this. I'll send another squad to cover your patrol rotation."
The squad nodded, visibly relieved.
They filed out of the cave. Outside, the Guard Corps had been steadily tightening the net, pushing the surviving beasts back toward the edge of the clearing. Cornered and desperate, the remaining Feral Beasts fought back with everything they had.
But against a well-coordinated Guard Corps, desperation alone wasn't enough.
That was the nature of Gene Warriors working in formation — a tightly coordinated team could bring down opponents far above their individual weight.
Within a short time, the last beast fell. The Guard Corps converged on the clearing.
When they took in the scene — craters large and small pocking the ground, beast corpses heaped across the clearing in every direction — they all came to a dead stop, faces blank with bewilderment.
*What... happened here?*
*They'd come to kill beasts. But it looked like someone had already taken care of that.*
Into the stunned silence, Wang Jiashu approached with Lu Yuan and the squad in tow.
He swept his gaze across his baffled soldiers, then cracked a slight grin.
"I know you're confused. Every beast here was killed by Scout Squad 22's Lu Yuan."
Every head in the assembled Vanguard turned toward Lu Yuan, eyes wide.
Most of them had attended the welcome reception. They knew exactly who Lu Yuan was.
They just hadn't imagined he could be *this* strong.
Under so many staring eyes, Lu Yuan was starting to feel a little embarrassed.
Wang Jiashu cleared his throat.
"Alright. The Beast Tide has been eliminated. Let's head back."