A violent, unidirectional explosion.
The target was the Nine-Winged Crow.
After the explosion, the shadow disappeared without a trace. In the sky, the Nine-Winged Crow uttered its most piercing cry since the battle began and ascended higher into the sky.
On the ground, the Armor King, which had been fighting for some time, had already been completely suppressed. The veteran level-nine lifeform of the secret realm was far more powerful. Additionally, since the Armor King wasn’t a flying creature, it was disadvantaged against the Blue Secret Realm’s strongest mutated lifeform.
It was already injured, but its fierce fighting spirit and bloodlust kept it from retreating.
However, this didn’t mean it thought it was stronger than its opponent.
When the shadow appeared, the Armor King almost attacked, as it smelled the scent of the Nine-Winged Crow on the shadow. But it also detected the scent of an evolved from Earth, one it particularly disliked.
In that instant, it instinctively realized that the shadow’s target wasn’t itself but the Nine-Winged Crow.
The Armor King was known for its recklessness, ferocity, aggression, and bloodlust, but that didn’t mean it lacked intelligence. On the contrary, as a level-nine lifeform, it possessed all the necessary traits of a high-level being.
It didn’t act, and neither did the Nine-Winged Crow. Although it smelled the scent of humans, it also detected the scent of “itself.”
Yes, it was the scent of its six-winged clone that had entered the other world.
At that moment, the Nine-Winged Crow thought its clone had returned, carrying the scent of other lifeforms, perhaps from consuming different prey over time.
Upon detecting the shadow, the Nine-Winged Crow and the Armor King initially believed it was to their advantage. As it turned out, the Armor King was right, and the Nine-Winged Crow was wrong.
Of course, if the Nine-Winged Crow had been given even a second or two more, it could have discerned the true nature of the shadow. But it was amid a battle with a being of equal strength, and its attention couldn’t be fully diverted. Thus, the shadow—referred to as “Shadow” by Ye Zhongming—succeeded in its sneak attack.
It was a self-destruction.
Shadow had originally been a warrior of Cloud Peak. After being severely injured in battle, he lost his limbs and his eyes.
His evolved constitution allowed him to survive, but he became a cripple.
He believed Cloud Peak and Boss Ye would continue to support him. There was a dedicated area within the mountain villa for people like him to recuperate. But he couldn’t accept living as a cripple, needing help even to use the bathroom.
So he requested to see the boss and Sister Hong. When they arrived, he volunteered to become an experimental subject.
In Cloud Peak, this wasn’t unusual. Many severely disabled individuals chose this path to either extend or end their lives.
He had no attachments left in this world. His only wish was to live normally, even for a day, rather than lying in bed every day.
He didn’t know what experiments Liu Zhenghong performed on him. At first, he gained legs—though they didn’t feel human, they allowed him to walk. Later, he received arms, which were also non-human but functional. Finally, he regained his sight with a pair of yellowish-brown eyes.
He saw Liu Zhenghong, who greeted him with respect. He also saw Guancheng Chun with his four legs, and the many researchers who served him.
When the boss appeared and presented him with an optional mission, he agreed without hesitation.
He chose the latter: a dim, uneventful life versus a glorious moment.
So he studied a strange card the boss provided, which allowed him to transform into a shadow with incredible speed. However, it could only be used once, after which all abilities would vanish. He also became a living bomb, with Liu Zhenghong and Le Dayuan implanting a bomb in his body that combined demon crystals and nuclear energy and was also powered by life force.
This was said to be Cloud Peak’s pinnacle of technology.
Soon, his mission was assigned.
The boss brought him into Cloud Peak’s legendary dark organization, Chameleon, and made him the first head of a highly specialized department composed entirely of suicide operatives. The department was small but terrifying.
This department was called Shadow, and its head was also called Shadow. He was the first-generation Shadow.
The boss said that each generation of Shadow could only execute one mission—a mission that guaranteed death.
He wasn’t afraid. Instead, he felt honored.
His name might rank in the top five on the Monument of Heroes.
Helping Cloud Peak and the boss kill a level-nine lifeform—what an incredible feat.
When he detonated himself, Shadow completed the most glorious sacrifice of his life.
This self-destructing bomb, carrying the scent of the Nine-Winged Crow’s clone, naturally couldn’t kill the Nine-Winged Crow. Ye Zhongming’s goal was simply to injure it, bringing its strength down to a level the Armor King could handle.
This was achieved through Shadow, who was fanatically loyal to Cloud Peak and the boss.
The Nine-Winged Crow was injured, and the Armor King shot into the sky like a cannonball, using some ability to briefly hover and engage the Nine-Winged Crow, preventing it from retreating to recover.
The two god-like beings fought fiercely, turning the sky and earth upside down.
At this point, Cloud Peak had done all it could and succeeded. The rest depended on the battle’s outcome between the two level-nine lifeforms.
While the battle here climaxed, Cloud Peak’s main forces faced their greatest crisis since the war began.
The demon monster’s Sky Cavaliers broke through to Cloud Peak’s airspace.
Composed of flying monsters carrying land-based monsters on their backs, they flew over the Cloud Peak formation and dropped their riders.
At the same time, some of the unique species among the monsters began to unleash their power. The first to act were the Earth-Walking Monsters, which burrowed underground to the Cloud Peak formation, frantically expanding tunnels to create new attack routes for their comrades!