Wasteland: My items are infinitely upgraded.

Chapter 141 The non-existent pure third-order source essence?

Lin Feng fired several more armor-piercing cannons to ensure that this third-order deformed form was completely killed.

Faced with a powerful enemy two levels higher than oneself, one has to be extremely vigilant.

Finally, after Bai Ye waved to the back, Lin Feng received the signal and ended this devastating blow.

When the smoke from the artillery fire cleared, the horde of deformed monsters that had gathered nearby also disappeared without a trace.

Once the third-order distortion king died, they returned to their former timidity and caution, no longer as crazy as before.

In fact, this is the normal state of the deformity.

Just like when Lin Feng and his companions first entered, they were not attacked by any aberrations along the way to the upper three floors. Even when they finally entered the negative fourth floor, they only encountered a sneak attack from a second-level aberration after they went deeper into it.

With the blessing of the power of the Holy Spring, or the flames released by the flamethrower to disperse, the first-order mutants did not dare to get too close. The instinctive fear from the deformed cells in their bodies kept them away from danger.

This is the instinct of life.

Only under the call of the third-level distortion king, the distorted cells in these guys' bodies no longer fear the danger of death and attack humans uncontrollably.

Now that everything is settled...

Without the leadership of the third-level distortion king and the second-level corruptor, the tide of distortion monsters would naturally be defeated.

Everyone also slowly retracted their formation and took a break.

Under the protection of several people, Lin Feng came behind the leader of the Salvation Army, Bai Ye. Not far ahead was the ruins where the third-level mutant died.

After approaching it, the whispers that had not appeared for a long time sounded in my ears and mind again.

Even with the illumination of the scorching sun, as a third-order distortion, it still emits strong spiritual pollution.

For safety reasons, Lin Feng did not step forward, but just looked at the woman with short silver hair in front of him.

She looks like a young girl, but her actual age is old enough to be Lin Feng's great-grandmother or even older.

After all, in ancient times, a feudal dynasty had a history and lifespan of at most two or three hundred years. Nowadays, even a first-level evolver can live to this age.

For a second-level evolver, a few hundred years is equivalent to the period of just reaching adulthood in the entire life stage.

Coupled with the incorruptible cellular characteristics of the human body, this "old woman" who is hundreds of years old still has the fair skin and beautiful appearance of a twenty-year-old.

But Lin Feng didn't pay much attention to her appearance.

What Lin Feng cared about was her recent battle with the third-order distortion king. She was able to release the power of space and float up, with blue light appearing in her eyes, as if she were in a godly state.

In that state, the aura emanating from Bai Ye was already comparable to that of a third-order distortion king.

This also means that the opponent's true strength level is likely only one step away from the third stage.

The evolution level has reached the upper limit of twenty-nine.

At the same time, the supernatural powers in the body can directly interfere with reality and even distort space, which is completely beyond normal cognition and cannot be measured by common sense.

Similarly, Bai Ye was also surprised and curious about the strength displayed by Lin Feng.

Normally, the strength of an ordinary first-stage late-evolved firearms ability user is less than half of what Lin Feng showed.

What's more, it is obvious that he has not yet demonstrated his true strength.

Because Lin Feng had not encountered any life-and-death crisis during the clearing battle on the negative third level, he must have at least one trump card in his hand to deal with unexpected situations.

But just looking at the powerful firepower Lin Feng displayed at the moment, even Bai Ye, who was in the late second stage, was not sure he could dodge it.

The space shock can only pull the distance of ten meters at most, but the killing range of each shell fired in succession can cover a radius of more than ten meters.

Bai Ye could dodge the first few shells, but the subsequent continuous firing and saturation attacks were something no flesh and blood could withstand.

Unless she advances to the third stage and possesses powers and cellular strength beyond cognition, human heavy firepower weapons will still pose a threat.

Lin Feng's strength, at level 19 in the late first stage, could threaten himself in the late second stage. If he were to advance to the second stage, his ability would be awakened a second time...

Bai Ye estimated that he could pose a real threat to any existence below level three.

Of course, there is only the possibility of serious injury or death.

A late-stage second-level evolver like Bai Ye can resist more than 80% of artillery damage as long as he wears power armor or biological armor.

In this case, Lin Feng's advantage as a firearms ability evolver will be reduced by half.

Spear and shield have always been the idea behind human weapons research and development.

But nowadays spears are becoming increasingly rare, while reusable shields are becoming more and more common.

So just like how he killed the third-level Deformation King, fierce and powerful long-range firepower is the ultimate nemesis of these deformed monsters when dealing with unarmored flesh and blood bodies.

"It's dead?"

When Bai Ye was still thinking about whether to put on the power armor before handing the Rockhorn Horse's second-stage evolution essence to Lin Feng...

The man behind him asked slowly.

Bai Ye came back to his senses and nodded:
"Yes, there's only a pile of flesh and blood containing third-order distorted cells, buried in the rubble."

Lin Feng frowned slightly and asked the question in his mind:
"If I absorb the third-level evolutionary meat and filter out the essence, can I be promoted to the third-level king like the first and second levels before?"

Bai Ye was stunned, obviously not expecting the other party to ask such a question.

After killing the monster boss, shouldn't a normal person breathe a sigh of relief, sigh a little, and then continue to move forward to look for the treasure in the military factory?
Lin Feng neither asked about the reward for the second-level evolution essence, nor did he talk about continuing to move forward and search for the essence crystal of the steppe wolf...

Then, out of the blue, a question popped up about being promoted to the third-level king.

You have to know that he started thinking about the next stage of evolution before he even achieved the second level of evolution.

If someone else asked about this, Bai Ye would definitely laugh in his heart at someone who was overestimating their own abilities and aiming too high...

But the person who asked the question now was Lin Feng, an evolver with the strongest firearm ability, who could kill a third-level distortion king in the late first level.

It's a pity that if he hadn't taken the evolutionary path of the Rockhorn Horse, his future would have been limitless, and he would even be ranked higher than himself in the strength ranking of second-level evolvers.

But precisely because of this, Bai Ye could cooperate with him with confidence, and even intended to support him with some investments.

She could see that Lin Feng was very ambitious.

But ambition must be maintained with strength.

If you don’t reach the third level to become a king, you will not be able to resist the erosion of time and years.

No matter how strong you are, you will eventually turn to dust.

Thinking of this, Bai Ye's mouth corners slightly raised:

"You can, but you'll also have to endure endless gossip and pollution until you fall into madness."

"Countless late-stage second-stage evolvers who are stuck at the threshold of the third stage have also tried to absorb the third-stage cells from other third-stage kings and force their way to the next stage."

"But without exception, none of them could even survive a thousand years. They either turned into a mad king or their physical bodies collapsed."

"The strength is also much weaker than that of a normal third-level king, but slightly stronger than a deformed one."

"Anyway, if you force a fusion, one of the body and spirit will definitely be damaged. It's also possible that both will be contaminated by radiation, and they will explode and die within a hundred years."

Lin Feng frowned slightly. He knew all of this, but the prerequisite for falling to this point was the pollution caused by absorbing the third-level source material containing impurity genes.

If I could absorb pure third-order life essence...

Wouldn't that allow us to achieve the third stage of pure evolution?
Seeing Lin Feng's pensive look, Bai Ye smiled knowingly and then said:

"Are you saying that if we can filter out the genetic impurities contained in the third-level evolutionary meat and obtain pure third-level life essence, wouldn't we be able to achieve a safe and stable third-level evolution?"

Lin Feng nodded:
"With Chief Bai's special ability, he should be able to do it, right?"

Bai Ye shook his head and admitted generously:

"If I could do that, do you think I'd still be alive? In the eyes of those top powers, what's the difference between me and a pure source material production and filtration machine?"

"At least before I'm promoted to a third-level king, I have no solution for the genes and essence that blend together in third-level flesh and blood."

"Alright, now that the threat has been resolved, everyone should go upstairs and rest for a while. Staying near a pollution source for a long time is not good for your health."

Lin Feng nodded and asked before leaving:
"What about the other aberrations on the negative third floor?"

Bai Ye smiled:
"Without the call of the third-level aberration king, the rest of the lower-level aberrations are nothing more than a mob."

Then he added:
"Don't worry, I promised you a lot of Chieftain-level Rockhorn Beetle Life Essence. Once I'm done clearing this negative third floor, I'll go back and give it to you personally."

"This is only the negative third floor. There are still three floors to go. Who knows if there are other third-order aberrations? Captain Lin will need to escort us all the way."

"I hope that after evolving to the second level, Captain Lin will be able to easily suppress the third-level aberration."

Lin Feng shook the armor-piercing cannon in his hand:
"Maybe. If it weren't for Chief Bai's restraint and guidance, I wouldn't have found such a good opportunity to attack."

"Then we'll see you on the surface."

As he spoke, Lin Feng took one last look at the body of the third-order distorted king buried under the ruins, then turned around and left with Chen Shanshan and Shen Yue.

After the three of them left the underground third floor, Bai Ye put away the smile on his face and turned to walk towards the bombed ruins.

Watching the flesh, blood, tissue and organs slowly wriggling out from the gap.

The third-level cells inside are struggling to escape from burial and trying to find a way to survive.

As if sensing the presence of nearby life, these clusters of third-level cells crawled towards Bai Ye like slug worms accelerated a hundred times.

The woman pulled out the remaining thermos cup from her waist.

Slowly unscrew the stainless steel thermos, and a thick white scent is immediately released from it.

Where the cup mouth was pointed, the temperature nearby dropped sharply to dozens of degrees below zero.

This is the liquid gas in the expanded space. After vaporization, it absorbs a large amount of heat, causing the temperature to drop.

Liquid nitrogen is a famous freezing fluid.

The temperature can drop to minus 100 degrees in an instant, and even metal can be frozen into brittle paper.

Therefore, this kind of low temperature is naturally not something that the third-level distorted flesh and blood can withstand.

Bai Ye then used a thermos to collect the frozen deformed flesh and blood at his feet.

These pieces of flesh that were able to struggle to crawl out were the deformed cell aggregates that had evolved to the third stage on the body of this deformed king, and they were also the only valuable things.

After collecting, screw the cap back on.

After doing all this, Bai Ye waved his hand and ordered his flamethrower army to move forward and burn the ruins where the third-order aberrations were buried. "Burn for about half an hour or more, and turn the concrete inside into charcoal and quicklime..."

"It won't end until there's no more whispering."

After the leader finished giving the instructions, the team leaders in the late first stage nodded.

Then the burning to ash operation began.

Half an hour later, after seeing with his own eyes that the third-level pollution source was completely cleared, Bai Ye ordered everyone to continue clearing out the remaining deformed monsters on the negative third floor.

Then turn around and walk towards the exit, returning to the surface.

In this battle with the third-order aberration, her condition deteriorated the most, especially the consumption of her supernatural powers, which was almost reaching a critical level.

Fortunately, Lin Feng did not let her down in the end.

…………

After returning to the surface, Lin Feng and the other two first took a walk outside to bask in the sun and kill the deformed flesh and blood on their bodies to avoid genetic contamination.

Then he took off his armor and returned to the cave.

Waiting for the return of Bai Ye, the leader of the Salvation Army.

Lisa, who was doing research on rock wildebeests, entertained Lin Feng and the other two.

Chen Shanshan watched her record the habits of the wildebeest and research their food ratios, then spoke:

"Ding Yi also has related research. You two can discuss it when you have time."

Lisa's eyes lit up:
"Really? Then I'll go later."

Shen Yue came in from outside and handed the things in the cloth bag to Lin Feng.

Taking the heavy cloth bag, Lin Feng opened it and saw nine high-energy batteries inside.

It is specially used to power power armor and is a relic from the prehistoric Old Earth.

As for the nine pieces now, they were the only valuable equipment stripped from the second-stage late-stage Corruptor that Chen Shanshan had shot in the head with the Holy Flame of Demon Repulsion.

The durability of that exoskeleton power armor had dropped to about five points due to the wear and tear of the Corruptor.

After Chen Shanshan shot him in the head twice with the Holy Flame of Demon Repelling, he was completely destroyed.

Root damage cannot be restored to its original state by consuming health points through upgrading the system.

Fortunately, the high-energy battery behind the power armor was just a little low on power and could still be used.

Moreover, the power armor worn by this former one-star hunter, a second-stage early evolver, is also universal, and the battery is the same model as that in the hands of Lin Feng's team.

So Lin Feng asked Shen Yue to remove the armored battery behind the headless corpse in advance and collect it as a trophy.

Under the coercion and inducement of Lin Feng's promise of two kilograms of mid-stage evolutionary meat, Shen Yue endured the nausea of ​​having her hands covered in mucus, collected the nine high-energy batteries, and took them outside to expose them to the sun for a while to remove the mucus and distortion pollution.

After all, among all the people present, she was the only one who possessed the power of the Holy Spring. She absorbed a large amount of Holy Spring water to complete her evolution, and rich Holy Spring blood flowed in her body.

As long as it is not seriously contaminated, normal skin contact will not cause any major problems, not to mention the protection of a layer of gloves.

Now that he had nine high-energy batteries, Lin Feng took them out one by one to check their quality and condition.

The good news is that all nine batteries are not scrapped. The bad news is that the durability of all of them has dropped below six degrees, and it takes nine health points to repair them.

After restoring the durability of the batteries one by one, Lin Feng put away the batteries and waited for Bai Ye to return.

Soon, a slender woman walked out of the underground shelter entrance not far away.

Bai Ye finally appeared, and under the sunlight, a trace of fatigue appeared on her face.

Fighting against the third-order mutant was not an easy task for her, especially since her awakened space control ability was not of the combat type, and her actual combat ability was much weaker.

After returning to the camp, Bai Ye asked Lin Feng and others to stay calm for a while while she went to wash up and come back.

After walking into a large RV, about ten minutes later, Bai Ye, who looked refreshed, changed into a loose short-sleeved shirt with long pants, a pair of slippers, and a lazy casual outfit.

However, the belt filled with thermos cups was always on her body and she carried it with her.

Bai Ye walked to the tent where everyone was, took out a thermos from his waist and handed it to Lin Feng.

Looking at their slightly frightened and confused expressions, Bai Ye smiled and spoke slowly:
"You're worried. There's no liquid hydrogen in it. It's just a normal thermos. But it contains the second-level life essence of a patriarch-level rockhorn beetle that I promised Captain Lin."

Lin Feng raised his eyebrows, picked up the thermos on the table, scanned it to make sure there was no problem, and then opened it to take a look.

The extremely rich source energy inside rushed towards him, like a punch directly to Lin Feng's face.

The vastness of the second-level life essence far exceeds the concentration during the first-level evolution.

There is a difference in the level of life between the two.

The moment he closed the cup lid, Lin Feng could even vaguely hear the source essence in the cup and the majestic roar of the patriarch-level rock hornbill wafting out, which contained the power of the rock hornbill's tenacious life.

After confirming that everything was fine, Lin Feng immediately asked the beautiful and lazy woman in front of him about the doubts buried in his heart:

"If Chief Bai can evolve to the third stage and become a third-stage king, can he then use his spatial abilities to filter out the essence from the third-stage evolved meat?"

Bai Ye knew that the other party would continue to worry about the issue of third-level evolution, so he was prepared.

Although Lin Feng has embarked on the evolutionary path of the Rockhorn Horse, the upper limit of his evolution in this life is only the late second stage.

But this is only the current upper limit of the Rockhorn Horse clan.

Because the third-level king of Rockhorn Horse has not yet been born.

Although Lin Feng was unable to absorb the essence of other third-level wild beasts to achieve third-level evolution, he still had another way, a way out with almost zero hope.

By evolving to the third level, he became the first third level king of the Rockhorn Horse.

Although it is difficult, it is not impossible.

The key lies in how to obtain pure third-level life source, a substance that can upgrade and transform any second-level cell into a third-level one.

Thinking of this, Bai Ye said in a low voice:

"Instead of asking whether I can filter out pure third-order Essence, it's better to change the question: Does this world have pure third-order Essence of Life?"

Lin Feng narrowed his eyes. It was obvious that these things had touched upon the deep level of evolutionary theory.

Even now, humans have not analyzed the internal principles of different third-order evolutions and come up with a formally effective third-order evolution theory.

Lin Feng then stated his reasoning:
"Among the three major evolutionary methods currently in use, heterogeneous evolution and fusion evolution are actually absorbing the life essence that overflows from the bodies of higher-evolved life forms."

"So these two types of evolution actually share the same underlying logic as the aberrations in the restricted area of ​​the ruins. They both utilize proven evolutionary pathways to elevate their own life levels..."

"It's just that one is an active, controllable, slight fusion, and the other is a distorted monster that passively endures genetic radiation and contamination."

"To evolve to the third stage, they only need to follow the path verified by their predecessors and absorb the existing third-stage essence."

"The only path that truly creates third-order Essence is Immaculate Evolution. It represents infinite possibilities. By embarking on a new and viable evolutionary path, the third-order Essence of Life that is condensed is also unique."

"So, doesn't the path to the third stage of Wuqi's evolution rely on pure third-stage life essence?"

Bai Ye nodded and sighed softly.

Lin Feng has made a very thorough analysis, but he doesn't seem to understand the background of the evolutionary frenzy back then.

So he began to explain:

"You're right, but to understand the answer to this question, we have to go back to the old Earth, before all the evolution and mutation began."

"I think everyone knows more or less about the origin of evolution. We also knew about it back then. It was a meteor shower that fell into the Pacific Ocean."

"The meteorites from that meteor shower carried the original source of life, and it was they who triggered the catastrophic frenzy."

"Allow me to call it a catastrophe, not an evolution."

"Because in the beginning, mutations swept across the globe, causing heavy losses to human civilization. It wasn't until firepower was used to suppress the mutated behemoths that appeared everywhere that humanity was able to secure its position at the top of the food chain."

"It was only through analysis and research that this great era of universal evolution began."

“I was also part of the evolutionary research at the time.”

"Relying on the advanced technology of the time, after killing the third-level desolate beast, the technicians risked being contaminated by radiation to collect, decompose and filter the evolved flesh from the third-level body..."

"In the end, they did manage to research the pure third-order life essence."

"However, this pure third-level life essence can never be used."

Lin Feng frowned slightly:

"Why? Is there something wrong with the life essence?"

Bai Ye shook his head:
"There's nothing wrong with the source essence. Otherwise, how could it have triggered a wave of catastrophes and accelerated the evolution of life around the world?"

"So the problem isn't the Sephiroth, it's us, us humans and the Earth itself."

Seeing that Lin Feng was puzzled, Bai Ye immediately asked:
"What do you think is the greatest characteristic of a third-level king?"

Lin Feng thought for a few seconds:
"By integrating themselves into their genetic sequences, they can truly achieve immortality. They no longer need to adapt to the environment, because the environment around them will become adapted to them."

"So the greatest characteristic of a third-order king is their own genetic radiation, which affects the surrounding environment. This includes distorting the genetic sequences of all lower-level life forms, turning them into continuations of their own bloodline, or even clones!"

As Lin Feng analyzed and reasoned, the azure pupils in Bai Ye's eyes became brighter and brighter:

"Indeed, the defining characteristic of a third-order life form is that it is powerful enough to influence its environment, rather than being restricted or influenced by it."

"So the pure third-order life essence..."

"It is the purest substance in the world."

"If it gets even the slightest bit of pheromone, even just a small fragment of chromosome base pairs, it will completely contaminate it, rapidly multiplying and replicating the source of contamination."

"How do you absorb and utilize such a substance?"

"Since its birth, it cannot be preserved in any other environment except a barren land where no life has ever existed, or outer space."

"Even when you get close to it, when you drink it and it's not absorbed by your cells, it's already heavily contaminated."

“It is an accelerator of the evolution of all life, but it is not a booster of individual evolution.”

"Pure third-order source essence cannot exist on Earth!"

(End of this chapter)