Otherworldly Affairs Office

To verify his own ideas, Pei Yan even deliberately slowed his pace, allowing the Enslavers to devour the corpses of the dead swarm. Half an hour later, as they continued to throw themselves at him, falling at his feet, he used a long knife to lift the corpses for Suzi to examine. Observing the identical body structures as before, it was clear these swarms could not adapt to his attacks.

By now, Pei Yan had gathered all the information about the Enslavers. Seeing no further benefit in continuing the fight, he quickened his pace, determined to end the battle swiftly.

As he grew more adept at controlling his gas abilities, the demise of the swarms accelerated. In less than fifteen minutes, he left a field of swarm carcasses behind. After breaking through layers of corrosive mist, he finally saw the mother entities Bailang had mentioned.

If the Enslavers looked like oversized scale-armored maggots, then the three mother entities before him could be described as gigantic maggots. Each mother entity was the size of a small mountain, over twenty stories tall. They lacked the scale armor of the Enslavers, having only bare, somewhat tender, and heavily wrinkled skin. With each contraction and stretch, they moved forward, spewing hundreds of newly born Enslavers encased in pus from their rear, like a rain shower.

"Ugh, ugh!" Even though he couldn't smell the outside, just the sight of the giant floral-like openings of the mother entities spewing Enslavers made Pei Yan retch. He finally understood why the Enslavers could reproduce endlessly. In just a short time, the three mother entities had spawned over a thousand Enslavers.

Evidently, these mother entities also sensed Pei Yan's threat. While continuously producing Enslavers, their massive, bloated bodies awkwardly retreated. However, their movement was so slow that, in Pei Yan's eyes, it was a futile effort.

Seemingly aware that their mother entities were doomed, the newly born Enslavers didn't even have time to form Armored Units. The moment they hit the ground, they recklessly charged at Pei Yan, fearless of death. Unfortunately, their actions did not alter their fate of annihilation. Pei Yan simply leaped over the swarm, directly flying to the mother entities to eliminate the source and end the battle.

As the oxygen levels in the air rapidly decreased, the mother entities, larger than the Enslavers and more dependent on oxygen, were significantly affected and quickly reacted. Their tender skin turned bright red, then rapidly dulled. Soon, struggling for breath, one mother entity launched abundant pus at Pei Yan in the air, which he easily evaded. After that, its body deflated like a punctured balloon, the skin turning dark gray, and the forward-moving body gradually ceased. With a thunderous crash, the ground trembled, and the three mother entities collapsed, unable to move again.

After annihilating the remaining Enslavers on the battlefield, Pei Yan stood behind a mother entity, suppressing nausea, and spread his arms. Countless Nanomechanical Insects were released. As these Nanomechanical Insects entered the mother entities, information about their internal structures continuously surged into Pei Yan's mind.

"Is it done?" Pei Yan, arms akimbo with curiosity, knocked on his temple after staring into the giant floral-like opening of a mother entity for a long time.

"All body structure information has been received, you can call it a conclusion!" Suzi's voice responded in his mind.

Hearing this, Pei Yan let out a long breath, feeling that his preliminary intelligence work should be completed. These materials should be very useful in the living world. He looked up at the sky, still an oppressive dark red. According to Bailang, the Red Calamity would last seven days. Now, less than two days had passed, and this battle should be over.

As the saying goes, "a centipede dies but never ceases to wriggle." Although the three mother entities could no longer produce new Enslavers after becoming immobile, their massive bodies continued to twitch. It seemed a lack of oxygen couldn't kill them completely in a short time. Pei Yan, unwilling to use one of his trump cards, reluctantly flew into the air, summoned dozens of mechanical clones, and bombarded the three mother entities extensively. After their bodies, with blood and flesh battered and full of pits, let out a mournful cry to the sky, they completely lost vital signs.

At the same time, three streams of energy floated from their bodies into the air. After being intercepted and absorbed by Pei Yan, a voice suddenly emerged in his mind, followed by an uncontrollable outpouring of enormous energy.

"Congratulations on breaking through to the fifth phase of awakening!" As Pei Yan savored the euphoria brought by his awakening, Lin Junzhao's half-teasing congratulation rang at an inopportune moment.

"It's all thanks to your teachings!" Pei Yan responded with insincere flattery.

"This is your last hurdle. From now on, every advancement will be increasingly difficult, especially since you relied too much on external forces before. Moving forward, my help to you will be limited, and you'll have to rely on your own effort in this world," Lin Junzhao replied thoughtfully after a pause.

"Understood!" Pei Yan replied crisply. At the moment of breaking through to the fifth phase of awakening, he felt the gigantic pressure from the heavens. If the primal source in the first four phases flowed freely within him like water, entering the fifth phase condensed the source into a mountainous form, continuously supplied to his entire body. Yet, every additional ounce of strength added to this mountain required enormous effort.

Scanning the surroundings, he found no sign of the possible reinforcements Sifuer had mentioned. Pei Yan decided not to stay there long and wasn't planning to go to the sanctuary immediately either. He had some matters to attend to. Having made up his mind, he departed without further delay, flying towards the distance.

Inside the sanctuary, Raphael, who had witnessed Pei Yan's entire battle, watched with a fervent and greed-filled gaze as Pei Yan summoned the Steel Puppet to finally deal with the mother entities. Yet, Raphael also felt anxious inside. Turning back to glance at his trusted subordinates, he noticed the same worried expressions on their faces.

Raphael wished to seize Pei Yan's puppet forcefully. However, seeing its performance on the battlefield, he felt deeply shaken, realizing it was nearly impossible to capture it unharmed. Lacking a better strategy, he concluded that he needed to prepare multiple plans to achieve maximum benefits with minimal cost.

Just as malicious strategies spawned in Raphael's mind, Sifuer's voice suddenly interrupted, heard quietly as she gazed at the light screen, "The direction you're heading is wrong; that is not the direction to the sanctuary?"

Startled, Raphael immediately raised his head to look at the light screen, noticing Pei Yan's course was contrary to the direction of the sanctuary. He immediately grew nervous. Had the boy noticed something? Or had Sifuer's group secretly informed him of Raphael's sinister intentions? With these thoughts, he cast a cold, sullen look at Bailang and the others.