Chapter 104: Final Form (Part 1)

  Feeling the icy water of the underground river rushing backwards, Li Ling secretly congratulated himself on getting cellular enhancement, allowing him to go without breathing oxygen for a long time. Otherwise, in this underground river, even if there were no monsters, he would have been dead long ago.

  Li Lingmiao recited the Jade Void Returning to Qi mouth formula, guiding his mind to gradually calm down, his thoughts slowing down, keeping his heart rate at sixty beats per minute, so that he could feel the flow of time.

  Li Ling's brow furrowed slightly as he suddenly thought of something. Since they were in an underground river in the desert, following the flow of water should lead them to a high probability of reaching the surface river. Who knows, maybe the surroundings of the surface river would be the same oasis they had passed through before.

  In this way, Li Ling can walk through the road he has walked again.

  Of course, Li Ling didn't have a watch at this moment. In order to accurately calculate the elapsed time, he calmed his mind and used his heart rate to remember how much time had passed.

  Although this method may produce a certain degree of error, at present, it is also the only way to calculate time.

  If within a day and a half, they can smoothly reach the oasis near the underground river, with Li Ling's cell-enhanced speed, even if it's hundreds of miles away from the spaceship, there's no worry about not being able to lead the food into the spaceship.

  However, it's possible that they might encounter travelers in the desert along the way, which could bring some disturbance. But thinking about it, there's no need to worry too much. After all, Li Ling and Tianyi's speed is extremely fast, so even if someone sees them, they probably won't be able to see their shadows clearly.

  With a resolute decision, Li Ling took advantage of the rapid water flow around him, sliding his palms through the water, turning his body, and speeding downstream at an incredible pace. Given that Li Ling's swimming speed was already extremely fast, he was now moving with the current, making his speed in the water even faster than a flash of lightning. In just one breath, he had already covered over 100 meters, a speed that no submarine could match.

  The giant turtle was still devouring the underwater rocks, when it suddenly turned its head and was astonished to find that Li Ling had already gone thousands of meters downstream. In a fit of shock and anger, it slapped its massive paws on the water, stirring up a thousand layers of bubbles, then shook its wings and chased after Li Ling.

  Li Ling knew that the pursuer was catching up from behind, and he felt a thrill of excitement and fighting spirit. However, Li Ling had managed to gain an advantage by going with the flow and created some distance between himself and the pursuer, but in an instant, the pursuer caught up again, closely following him just over a hundred meters away in the water flow.

  A few seconds later, the giant fish was still ten zhang away from Li Ling's back when it suddenly flapped its fins violently in the water, creating a burst of bubbles and waves that shot up into the air. Three water swords were stirred up, shooting towards Li Ling with a whooshing sound.

  Li Ling felt a surge of water pressure behind him, and as he turned his head to look, three water swords suddenly attacked, causing his heart to skip a beat. He quickly shifted his body to the side, using his agile movements to dodge the attack. The three water swords whizzed past, one grazing Li Ling's abdomen with a loud whooshing sound, while the other two passed close to his back and waist. The narrow escape left Li Ling on the verge of crying out in alarm. The three water swords that had barely missed Li Ling then crashed into the stone wall in front of him, producing a deafening crash as they pierced through the rock with a force even more powerful than a torpedo.

  "My god, that was close." Li Ling almost broke a sweat underwater.

  To avoid being caught by the giant catfish, Li Ling had to take it with him as he left the underground river. He continuously used his excellent swimming skills, constantly turning left and right, floating up and down, using the flexibility of his muscles to create a distance between himself and the catfish.

  After all, the body of a squid is huge and stiff as iron, and in the water it relies entirely on the two black wings at the back to propel itself forward. Therefore, every time it moves, it is extremely straight and almost has no other trajectory, so avoiding a squid is just like avoiding a bullet.

  Seizing the weakness of the gluttonous swimming, Li Ling took advantage of it and swam left and right, up and down, but not following the normal route. The glutton was furious, roaring and slapping its paws in the water, constantly swallowing rocks and colliding with the rocky layers.

  For a moment, the glutton who had just taken the upper hand in the water now seemed to be led by the nose by Li Ling.

  Li Ling found a way to deal with the underwater attacks, and as he used it more and more, he became increasingly agile, almost completely avoiding each of the underwater charges. He could now temporarily lead the enemy in circles in the underground river without directly confronting them.

  Thus, Li Ling Shun flowed left and right, shaking the double wings back and forth, stirring up the entire underground river, with waves crashing against the sky, making a huge noise.

  After a long time, Li Ling and Jiao's rotation became more intense, but in front of them, a faint light finally appeared, and a thread of light shone through the water. Although the light was extremely weak, it proved that there was sunlight ahead, which meant they were about to reach land.

  "From the moment I entered this underground river, my heart has beaten 110,100 times. At a rate of 60 beats per second, that means I've been in the river for 30 hours." Li Ling calculated the time based on his extraordinary true energy and felt relieved at heart, because the bright light ahead signified the exit from the underground river to the river above ground.

  Having escaped, I can bring back the delicacies and see the daylight again.

  At the same time, a terrible thing happened. The giant fish that had been chasing Li Ling from behind suddenly stopped flapping its fins to splash water at him and stood still at the bottom of the river.

  Li Ling floated in the water, fixed in the middle of the river, and faintly felt that something was wrong. This glutton suddenly stopped attacking, what was it doing? Moreover, if the glutton didn't follow him, Li Ling couldn't leave alone either, taking the glutton back to the Violet Fire spaceship was the main purpose of the mission.

  Both of them paused, and Li Ling quietly observed every move of the glutton at this moment.

  The creature's body at the bottom of the river began to shrink back into itself. The surrounding water seemed to thicken, its flow slowing down as a strange dark power emanated from the creature's body, enveloping it as it continued to contract.

  That dark power was like a black electric snake, hissing and crackling as it surrounded the water, producing strange bubbles that shot up like raindrops, bursting through the surface with a boiling motion.

  "What is this?" Li Ling's eyes gleamed with a hint of sharpness, gazing in surprise at the strange black electric arcs surrounding the gluttonous body below.

  Those black electric arcs had an impact that even Li Ling, who was hundreds of meters away from the explosion, could feel the change in viscosity of the surrounding water. The water really became sticky with a strong numbing effect, as if it had been electrified.

  Li Ling's body, although slightly numb from the electric current, was still not paralyzed by the weak electricity due to his strengthened cells. However, what kind of power did these black electric snakes that were jumping around him possess? What was the purpose of Li releasing these black electric snakes?

  A very ominous omen suddenly flashed through Li Ling's mind, as if a great disaster was about to befall him at any moment.

  This glutton... could it be... is going to evolve again?

  It can't be like this. Li Ling was secretly shocked, if it's really like this, then at this moment, the already evolved Gluttony, after evolving again, will become even stronger than the current Gluttony. At that time, let alone whether Li Ling can hold on to Gluttony until half a day later, even Gluttony's own power after its second evolution is enough to destroy Li Ling.

  "No way, can't let Gluttony evolve successfully. Otherwise, I'm really done for." Li Ling's unease grew stronger, his eyes filled with worry, after all, Gluttony's strength was indeed heart-pounding, and a second evolution would be beyond description.

  Once the second evolution of the glutton is successful, even if it's a cell-enhanced Li Ling, the outcome will still be one of being abused.

  It's also because of the gluttony that the flow rate of the surrounding water is getting slower and slower, and the power of those dark electric snakes has already affected the entire underground river from a small range.

  My god, what kind of terrible power is this?

  Li Ling clenched his fists, the blue veins on his arms bulging out, his mind unsettled, and he could only concentrate all his strength in his right arm, preparing to deliver the most powerful blow to Gluttony at the critical moment of its second evolution.

  This move truly has the risk of either succeeding or dying a martyr.

  Taotie seemed to have also sensed the unusual movement of Li Ling above, as well as the power fluctuations preparing for an attack, but Taotie simply curled up and remained still, focusing on its own second evolution.

  Li Ling knew that time was tight, and with a swift motion, he swung his fists back to his waist, his body undulating like a snake. His legs moved rapidly up and down, churning the water against the current, shooting downwards like an arrow leaving its bowstring, towards the gluttonous fish below. But the closer he got to the bottom-dwelling gluttony, the more he felt the crushing pressure of the surrounding water.

  No wonder the water flow around the whirlpool becomes thick and slow, how can the speed of the water flow be fast under such pressure.

  Just as Li Ling approached within ten meters of the riverbed, the powerful electric arc generated by the black electric eels surrounding the water flow suddenly paralyzed Li Ling's entire nervous system. Even with cellular enhancement, Li Ling instantly lost his ability to move, and his body stopped swimming, with enhanced buoyancy propelling him upwards.

  Li Ling opened his eyes wide, secretly shocked in his heart. However, it wasn't until he floated tens of meters away that the numbness around his body slightly improved, and he regained some mobility. Li Ling flipped over and swam downwards while thinking to himself: The black electric snakes generated by this gluttonous beast's surroundings must be incredibly powerful, probably even more so than lightning!

  This time, Li Ling approached the gluttony again. Ten meters away from the river bottom, that super-paralyzing feeling struck again, and the black electric snake paralyzed all of Li Ling's muscle nerves. Li Ling gritted his teeth in secret, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes, and he broke through the obstacle of his own muscular paralysis, continuing to dive down.