After Chen Bugu finished listening, he subconsciously sniffed the air, but aside from charcoal and dust, he could hardly smell anything unusual.
However, Lai Yinghuan’s expression was terrified, clearly having truly smelled the scent of that “demon seed.”
If the “demon seed” was not completely annihilated, the spatial anchor point would not disappear, and Copper State would still be the location where the teleportation portal opened.
“In that case, let’s quickly leave this place.”
No sooner had Chen Bugu’s voice faded than he suddenly felt a vibration in his pocket, followed by a piercing alarm.
“Beep, beep, beep…”
“The scent is condensing; that guy found us.”
Lai Yinghuan turned his head to look at a certain spot behind him, where tendrils of black smoke were slowly emerging from the air, like silk being unraveled. These tendrils converged, gradually forming a shape.
After looking at the radar in his hand, Chen Bugu looked in the direction Lai Yinghuan was gazing.
Through the shattered French windows, moonlight streamed in, revealing the worm-like “demon seed” before them.
Its form resembled a giant bamboo worm, but its entire body was covered in layers of black armor.
As it wriggled, the black armor plates also opened one by one.
Chen Bugu activated “Bullet Time,” drew his longbow, and shot out a dozen water arrows, then he rapidly retreated, preparing to escape from the area.
On the rooftop, they had witnessed this “demon seed” endure countless lightning strikes from Bai Ting.
If the agile lightning truly transformed from a “Thunder Sprite,” then Bai Ting in this secret realm was at least a Gold One-star Awakened.
Since even he couldn’t completely kill the “demon seed,” Chen Bugu naturally had no intention of sacrificing himself.
Run! Must run!
Chen Bugu no longer cared about Lai Yinghuan; not only were they not close, but this guy was also just a fictional character in the secret realm.
Chen Bugu didn’t care whether the black water arrows successfully hit the “demon seed”; under the enhancement of “Bullet Time,” he had already left the building.
The moment Chen Bugu reached the street, he saw tendrils of black smoke also emerging at the end of the street, immediately converging into a worm-like “demon seed.”
“What a persistent pain.”
Chen Bugu cursed under his breath, ready to turn and run in the opposite direction.
Just then, a very faint energy flowed into his body, then naturally overflowed.
Had it not been for his “container” being unable to hold more power, he might not have even noticed this trace of energy flowing in.
A moment of doubt flashed, followed by a strange idea forming in Chen Bugu’s mind.
This made Chen Bugu stop. He didn’t continue to flee; instead, he hid behind a discarded truck by the roadside.
After concealing himself, Chen Bugu quietly observed the worm-like “demon seed” at the intersection.
Time passed minute by minute, but the “demon seed” remained motionless in place, like a statue, showing no intention of taking any action.
Chen Bugu also took the opportunity to observe this guy carefully.
From its appearance alone, this thing was an enlarged, plump bamboo worm, with a thick center and gradually narrowing sides, making it impossible to distinguish its head from its tail.
The black armor on its body seemed to conform to its ring-like bodily structure, also segmented, and black mist continuously seeped out from the gaps between each segment.
In the “Weakness Detection” vision, the worm-like “demon seed” appeared to have weaknesses almost everywhere on its body, as if it could be easily destroyed.
However, even after being pierced by the “Lightning Trident” that illuminated the heavens, this guy did not completely die.
A centipede dies but never falls, perhaps this is the best description of this guy.
After another ten-odd seconds, Chen Bugu tentatively emerged from behind the truck, maintaining “Bullet Time,” ready to accelerate and escape immediately if anything seemed amiss.
At this point, he was only sixty or seventy meters away from the “demon seed,” but the other party seemed to still ignore him.
To confirm that strange hypothesis, Chen Bugu turned around and returned directly to the floor where Lai Yinghuan was.
Sure enough, when he returned to the office building, the worm-like “demon seed” had already been frozen in black ice, making no struggle, while Lai Yinghuan stood to one side, carefully observing it.
“Ah, you’re back. I saw you shoot it dead with an arrow and then rush out. Did you find anything new?”
Seeing Chen Bugu return, Lai Yinghuan turned to him and asked, as if he had misunderstood something.
“Is it dead?”
“Yes, it’s dead. I can’t smell a trace of life from it. I didn’t expect you to have ice-type abilities. Thanks to you, this is my first time observing the corpses of these guys up close.”
Chen Bugu initially couldn’t understand what “thanks to you” meant until he dispelled the black ice.
After the black ice dissipated, the dead “demon seed” immediately turned into dust and vanished, leaving behind a bright silver crystal the size of a fingernail.
Only then did Chen Bugu realize.
That’s right, he was in a secret realm, and unlike reality, the life forms constructed within the secret realm were not real; their bodies would turn to dust and dissipate after death.
Therefore, Lai Yinghuan said that thanks to the ice-type ability, he saw the corpses of these guys for the first time.
“After observing, did you find anything?”
“Not really a discovery, after all, this is clearly not the main body. What about you? Did you find anything outside just now?”
“Hmm, an identical ‘demon seed’ also appeared on the street, but it has remained in place without moving since it appeared. Currently, I can’t discern its purpose.”
Chen Bugu continued Lai Yinghuan’s words, as if he had truly gone out to explore because he had discovered an anomaly.
“Yes, the surrounding scent is still very strong, but the scent here has faded a lot.”
“The scent here has faded a lot?”
“Yes, the smell of the ‘demon seed’ here is not as pungent as it was just now.”
“So, that guy wasn’t coming for us? It just happened to appear here?”
“Perhaps.”
Chen Bugu seemed to understand. The powerful investigative demon seed had not died; its body had been disintegrated by lightning, but its aura had spread with the shockwave to every corner of Tongzhou City.
These auras, when gathered, could re-form into smaller “demon seed” avatars. The strength of these avatars was far less than that of the main body. The avatar Chen Bugu killed was even only at the Black Iron five or six-star level, which is why the energy it provided was so faint.
The combat power of the avatars was clearly insufficient, but did they make up for it in quantity?
Thinking of this, Chen Bugu adjusted the radar in his hand, sacrificing precision to expand the detection range to five kilometers around.
As he expected, light red dots appeared in all directions, and their number was still slowly increasing.
Now, at a glance, there were at least several hundred demon seeds within five kilometers, and the closest one was the one Chen Bugu saw at the street corner.
Chen Bugu picked up the fallen bright silver crystal, and suddenly remembering something, he quickly looked at Lai Yinghuan.
“Wait, you just said that this ‘demon seed’ is merely a tool for anchoring spatial nodes, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then these avatars, can they also serve that purpose?”
“Ye—yes…”
Lai Yinghuan seemed to understand what Chen Bugu was trying to say.
“If we don’t kill all these avatars, the teleportation portal will still open. But if we have to kill them all, how many avatars of this guy do you think there will be in the entire Tongzhou City?”
Lai Yinghuan did not respond; they both knew the answer was self-evident.
Thousands!