Chapter 605 - Replace
Chapter 605: Replace
The Broken Claw Dragon was supposed to be covered in scales, but due to the super high voltage, they had fallen off, revealing the scorched and rotten flesh underneath.
There were two large and horrifying holes on its stomach. Only a thin layer of skin covered them, and the Vortex could see its organs squirming inside.
Its back and tail were bleeding due to broken bones piercing through them. Even its limbs were bent in abnormal angles.
Its worst injury was on its head. The Broken Claw Dragon’s head looked like it had been hit by a main battle tank. Half of its skull was crushed and caved in. One of its eyeballs had popped out, leaving behind a hole filled with a red light that shone with pain and resentment.
Since it was a high-grade Hell Beast, the Broken Claw Dragon’s cell regeneration and regrowth were really fast.
But the prerequisite for that was that it had enough food and spirit energy.
The Vortex saw a lot of bones that were eaten clean around the wounded and dying Broken Claw Dragon.
Based on the size of the bones, they once belonged to other monsters.
The cages were empty, and the shackles in them were bound to nothing. Aside from the holes in the cage that showed they were once there, nothing of those monsters were left.
The Vortex squirmed around as it thought about it.
Soon, it understood what had happened in the cage.
The monsters had to have been captured by Saber Jin Wanhao and brought underground for the purpose of experimenting to elongate his life.
As the Underground Emperor, he definitely had ways to get all sorts of fierce superbeasts, including the Broken Claw Dragon. After all, he had Mutual Gold Coliseum acting as a channel.
However, when Jin Wanhao experienced organ failure and fell into a coma, the monsters that he did not manage to cut into pieces in time for his experiments fell into the difficult situation of having no one taking care of them.
Perhaps in the beginning, the automatic life support system would give them some food, but once the food ran out, all the monsters had to face the crisis of starving to death.
The great hunger and threat of death stirred up the monsters’ brutal nature.
Among them, the strongest and most brutal was the Broken Claw Dragon. It managed to break the bars of its cage and go into the other cages to eat all the other monsters.
However, the metal bars were connected to electricity and released all sorts of offensive spirit energy magnetic fields.
And the monsters qualified to be kept and researched by the Underground Emperor were fearsome existences. They would not allow themselves to be killed by the Broken Claw Dragon without a fight.
As a result, even though the Broken Claw Dragon ate all the monsters, its body was heavily injured by the powerful electricity, offensive spirit energy magnetic fields, and the other monsters’ desperate attacks.
Even though it managed to survive up to that moment, it did not have the strength to break the sturdiest metal bars located at the outermost layer of the prison. It was going to die, trapped.
At that moment, the Vortex came in.
Since it was badly burned by Meng Chao, it no longer had perfect control over its own body. The Vortex could not control its cells, and a small bubble appeared under its thin, liquid body.
The seemingly dying Broken Claw Dragon instantly woke up. Its bloody eye socket released a ruthless light, and the Hell Beast jumped to its feet and charged in the Vortex’s direction.
Bang!
It crashed into the metal bars so hard that they swung a little, even though they were as thick as thighs. A loud, deafening noise rang through the room.
Sizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzleeeeeee!
Then, the runic symbols on the metal bars released a red and white light. More than ten thousand bright electrical arcs crept past the Broken Claw Dragon’s scales.
The Broken Claw Dragon was electrocuted so badly that smoke rose from its body.
Its scales fell off like pouring rain, and a few more white bones jutted out.
The air filled with the smell of burnt protein. It was thick and foul.
The Broken Claw Dragon was sent flying back and landed at the center of its cage.
But it did not stop. It climbed up to its feet and ignored the blood pouring out from its wounds. With greed and ruthlessness, it stared at the Vortex, which was outside. Steaming drool flowed out from its fang-covered mouth.
It was truly a brutal and cunning Hell Beast.
Since it was already discovered, the Vortex decided to stop hiding. It returned from its thin form to its semi-transparent, slug-like, innocent, and even slightly naive form.
It extended a semi-transparent tentacle from its flesh. At the end of the tentacle was a swollen part that looked like a huge, watery eye. It stood up tall and met the Broken Claw Dragon’s gaze.
The Broken Claw Dragon had never seen such a strange monster in the wild nor in the coliseum.
Its dignity as a Hell Beast and the frenzied state it descended into when it was almost dead caused it to not care about the pain brought by the burns. It charged at the Vortex again.
“ROAR!”
But this time, the Vortex unhesitantly tore apart its harmless disguise. The swollen part that looked like a watery eye turned into a mouth that was even bigger than the Broken Claw Dragon’s head.
The brutal presence that came from the mouth was like an invisible hammer that hit the Broken Claw Dragon and made it sprawl on the ground.
This crazed Hell Beast was instantly reduced to a dog with broken legs. It let out a pathetic and panicked whimper and quickly retreated into its cage.
The Vortex giggled.
It pulled back its tentacle and mouth and went further into the lab.
This time, it finally found its target.
It made itself as thin as a cicada’s wing again and seeped through the gap beneath the last door. There was a huge medical cabin that was shaped like a coffin inside.
The room was filled with the fragrance of high-grade gene medicine. The medical appliances and monitors shone with a dark green light that gave the room a mysterious and unfathomable feeling.
There were more mechanical arms here, and they were more advanced than the ones in the dissection room. The ceiling, floor, and walls were covered in intersecting sliders, allowing the dozens of mechanical arms to be able to move freely, thus turning them into a top-grade medical team. They could carry out the most sophisticated surgeries and help the master of the room cultivate.
Unfortunately, the master of the room, the secret lab, and the lair was lying quietly in the medical cabin and looked like an old man sealed in jade. At that moment, he resembled an emancipated skeleton.
His entire body was stuck with IV tubes, electric cables, and crystal cables. Aside from his heart still beating weakly, he showed no signs that he was still alive.
The Underground Emperor’s morally ambiguous soul had already fallen into the depths of the abyss, but he was suspended above hell by the advanced life support system and swaying precariously. It was as if only a fragile spider thread kept him up.
The Vortex quickly scanned the monitor. It showed Saber Jin Wanhao’s physiological parameters.
There was a barely noticeable vitality magnetic field around Jin Wanhao’s tragic, emancipated form.
The Supernatural Entity thought about this quietly and came to a conclusion: Su Lun did not lie to him. Jin Wanhao was really about to die.
It was no wonder then why the Underground Emperor stayed hidden underground despite all the things happening in the lair. He only had one breath left in his body, and his consciousness was already gone.
The Vortex giggled.
It was laughing at the Underground Emperor for resisting death so much. He had spent so much effort building an advanced lab underground and gathered so many valuable treasures, gene medicine, cultivation resources, and Hell Beasts as research subjects, but unfortunately, the struggles of humans were in vain and just ridiculous when hell called for them.
The great Underground Emperor still ended up as a living skeleton that could be manipulated however anyone wanted, and now, this huge treasure belonged to the Vortex.
With this thought in mind, the Vortex did its best to squirm forward.
The medical cabin was airtight and impenetrable, so it would be very difficult for anyone to use external force to break it.
But this was not a problem for the Vortex.
It solidified its tentacle into the shape of a drill and started patiently drilling into an IV tube that led into the medical cabin. Soon, it formed a small hole.
Then, the Vortex started squirming again and became transparent, just like pure water with no impurities. It reached the comatose Saber Jin Wanhao through the hole that was less than 1mm wide.
After that, something really strange happened.
When the Vortex touched Jin Wanhao’s body, it surged into his blood vessels, nerves, and bones through the IV tube.
Jin Wanhao’s reed-like limbs then started swelling up rapidly.
His originally weak heartbeat also gradually became strong and stable.
His skin had had such an ashy parlor to it that no gene medicine could nourish it, but now, red spots appeared. When those red spots were connected together, they showed an abnormal, enchanting shade of red.
With blood nourishing his body again, his skin regained its shine, and he released a powerful presence.
Even his originally emancipated face filled with flesh until it became plump.
The Vortex had been squirming nonstop beside the medical cabin, but very soon, it disappeared.
It was now completely in Jin Wanhao’s body and now occupied the Underground Emperor’s flesh.
The newly born Underground Emperor opened his eyes in the medical cabin, and an evil smirk formed on his lips.
He still could not be considered healthy and strong, but he looked much better than his half-dead, skeletal form just a moment ago.
And once he ate all the treasures and gene medicine stored in the room, he would definitely be even stronger than the real Saber Jin Wanhao.
“Jin Wanhao, from now on, your fate is mine!”
The Vortex was hiding in the body. He touched his face in satisfaction and used Jin Wanhao’s voice to start laughing mockingly and openly.
He opened the medical cabin from within and sat up.
He exercised his limbs with large movements and heard popping sounds from his bones, which made his smile grow wider and he prepared to step out of the medical cabin.
But this smile only lasted for half a second.
He had noticed something and reached out with his hands to touch his face.
After groping around for half a day, he stared at his hands in disbelief before extending a finger to secrete a blob of invisible fluid from his fingertip. It turned into a tentacle. A crystalline “eye” grew out from the end of the tentacle. It did a 180 degree turn and stared at the face of its body.
“This isn’t Jin Wanhao!”
The Vortex let out a puzzled scream filled with despair and fell into the medical cabin again.