American variety show world begins with subduing Jason

Chapter 395 Holy Mother Lily, Giant Beast Appears

The withered flowers floated quietly a few centimeters off the ground, seemingly unwilling to be bound by the earth, yet never truly leaving, displaying a sense of aloofness and purity.

A milky-white holy light wafted out, casting a gentle, peaceful glow over the surrounding space.

Zhu Mingyao suddenly looked up, his nostrils flaring slightly.

With so many refugees crammed together, coupled with fighting and unrest, the air quality inside the supermarket was predictably terrible.

However, the sour stench of the monster's bodily fluids, the charred remains of the fire, and the choking dust stirred up by the battle had all vanished without a trace, as if enveloped by an ethereal and secluded power, with a faint, delicate fragrance wafting through the air.

"It's not an illusion, the fragrance of the flowers is real..."

Bai Ziyuan took a few deep breaths, a hint of surprise on his face: "Pure energy distorts reality to form matter, what a powerful technique."

While extraordinary beings can manipulate water and fire and summon wind and thunder out of thin air by harnessing the power of heaven and earth with their spirituality, most of those effects are merely products of the combination of magical power and the primordial energy of all things, and the effects of the spells dissipate as soon as they end.

To realize it in such a semi-permanent way requires a huge price to pay, and it is something that only a person of great ability can do.

Several methods were used to collect the petals, but they were like reflections in a mirror or the moon's reflection in water, leaving no trace.

Zhu Mingyao's mind raced, and a brilliant idea struck him. He pulled out a hexagonal crystal, as clear as glass, which was the very same free gift Grom, the owner of the witchcraft shop, had given him during his Halloween shopping trip in Orleans.

—A white crystal blessed with holy water for exorcising evil spirits.

A dim silver light flashed on the crystal, and the delicate, pure white withered flower trembled slightly, as if it had sensed the faint holy power with a similar aura. Only then did it sway reservedly twice before lazily drifting into it.

Then it suddenly collapsed, transforming from three-dimensional to two-dimensional, becoming a strange, line-drawn mark.

"It's getting more and more confusing." Bai Ziyuan said with a bitter smile, full of complaints: "It seems that finding a botanist is not enough, we also need to add a rune expert."

"Who cares? We'll talk about it later." Zhu Mingyao casually shrugged, not intending to waste any more time on this topic.

Just then, a hesitant voice broke in.

"Gentlemen... excuse me, are you discussing this flower?" David handed his son to his wife, who had regained consciousness, and rubbed his hands together as he approached.

Having just witnessed the harrowing scene, David knew that these two mysterious young men were his family's only hope for escape, so he was deliberately courteous to them.

"Judging from my twenty years of still life painting experience, it should be a... Madonna lily."

He was quite confident in his profession and spoke fluently and confidently:

"Pure white flowers have been regarded as a symbol of purity, loveliness, and majesty since ancient times. Every year during Easter and Christian ceremonies, the Roman Catholic Church uses the lily of Mary as a special decoration to symbolize greatness and holiness. People exchange them to express good wishes, and its most common use is to honor the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus."

David paused for a moment, then added, "In religious studies, the Virgin Mary has another meaning, representing the virtue of purity among the seven virtues."

Church, ritual, holiness... Several seemingly related sensitive words swirled in Zhu Mingyao's mind, but before he could figure it out, his eyebrows suddenly twitched, and an extremely strong pressure rose within his spiritual senses.

The earth trembled almost imperceptibly.

Another click.

The tremors grew closer and stronger, and the old woman's dying ravings flashed through his mind.

"The beast has arrived..."

……

……

"Huh, huh."

A bald man ran madly, with flashing and leaping lightning crisscrossing beneath his feet, cleaving through the air in his path and pushing his speed to the limit.

"Damn it! Didn't those officials guarantee that there were no overly powerful enemies here? That's utter nonsense!"

The wall bricks shattered into crimson fragments, and the man, in a panic, crashed through a house in front of him.

"Cough cough!" Wiping the dust off his face, he was about to raise his eyes to determine the direction when a huge black shadow resembling a stone pillar suddenly fell down. He only had time to let out a hurried curse before disappearing from the spot.

The stone pillar floated away, leaving behind a flat, meaty mess. The bald man, who possessed considerable supernatural abilities, had died without any power to resist.

He casually stepped on a living person and killed him, as if he had crushed an insignificant ant. The dark shadow continued to move, swaying, followed by a mountain-like gloom.

Directly ahead, swarms of flying monsters, such as scorpion-tailed worms, swept across the area like locusts, relentlessly invading human buildings along their path. Screams of agony could be heard from hidden places like basements or attics.

A monster composed entirely of grayish-white fleshy membranes sensed the presence of life. Its flat, kite-like body pried open the glass window and swept towards a shivering elderly couple who were embracing each other.

Just at the critical moment, a golden-red spark, like a miniature meteor, streaked across the sky and blasted it into a fireball.

"This road doesn't work!"

As the words were spoken, a bright light illuminated the white mist, and layers of hazy blue waves appeared out of thin air. Water pipes in front of and behind the surrounding shops and houses burst all at once, and streams of water merged into the waves, making it seem both real and illusory.

Countless monsters resembling insects, pterosaurs, kites, or other forms were instantly frozen solid upon the slightest touch, as if they had fallen into an ice cave. Their bodies were covered in thick frost, and they fell to the ground like stones, shattering into pieces, frozen stiff and brittle.

Zhu Mingyao flipped and leaped onto the tallest rooftop nearby, gazing sternly into the distance. Even with the fog obscuring the view, the opponent's powerful aura still sent shivers down one's spine, suggesting that a direct confrontation would likely have a wide-ranging impact.

So he left Bai Ziyuan to guard the survivors, while he himself chose to take the initiative and stand in front.

As the earth trembled, a sinister and terrifying giant shadow gradually emerged from the thick and hazy fog, becoming clearer and clearer.

The creature was at least nearly a hundred meters tall, its head and upper body half-submerged in the haze, with only a dozen long, fleshy tentacles hanging down from its mouth like a beard.

His massive body was almost like that of an even-toed ungulate, or, if one had to describe it, a combination of a rhinoceros and an elephant. His brownish-gray skin was covered with dense wrinkles and deep, strange lines, like swirling clouds, carrying a sense of both etherealness and solemnity, as if it might collapse at any moment and merge into the vast fog.

Six massive, pillar-like legs supported the deformed body, which was covered with a dense network of honeycomb-like holes, from which numerous worms as thick as arms crawled in and out.

Where the legs meet the chest and abdomen, strings of purple-white ovals of varying sizes hang there, their outer skin shimmering with a thick, oily sheen, just like the abundant harvest of autumn.

A large number of its kin were wiped out in the blink of an eye, and the giant beast cautiously stopped, revealing considerable intelligence.

Ancient and vague spiritual ideas exploded in Zhu Mingyao's mind, turning into a few scattered mutterings.

Get out of my way...give me...meat...die...

Chapter 396 The Lord of the Mist

The chaotic whispers of the mind echoed in his mind like thunder, as if a vast, filthy tide was flowing rampantly. Even with Zhu Mingyao's current resilient soul, he was somewhat shaken.

"A magical beast of at least the [Lord] rank!"

He instantly assessed the opponent's strength, then calmed his mind and cleared his thoughts.

Seemingly annoyed by his delayed response, the cylindrical, gray-white giant hoof irritably pawed at the ground, the thick, cotton-like mist receded to both sides, and a flat head as large as a house drooped down.

On its pale, hard exoskeleton, a pair of dark eyes made of mud-like gel rolled about, radiating the primal, deep malice unique to a predatory creature.

Seeing the small but powerful individual before it, it condescended to acknowledge that it was also a predator, intending only to drive it away. Unexpectedly, the other party was ungrateful.

"Look at your dad... Ugh! Who wants to be your dad?" As if realizing his attempt to take advantage had failed, Zhu Mingyao's lips twitched awkwardly, and he spat at him disdainfully.

A mouthful of saliva tumbled and rolled in the air, flying fast and fast. But halfway through, it suddenly expanded and transformed into a bowl-sized ball of lightning wrapped in black electricity. Together with five streams of smoke of different colors, it suddenly attacked!

Gui Water Divine Thunder, Five Directions Yin Soldiers, Openly Repairing the Plank Road While Secretly Crossing the Chencang Pass!

You're a disgusting beast, not some wild orc girl, gothic vampire loli. Who has the time to waste with you?

"Buzz——."

A long, angry roar resounded, heavy and sharp like a ship's whistle, and a palpable killing intent swept over, instantly enraging the giant beast!

An evil and powerful spiritual force surged out of the void, compressing the air into layers of misaligned ripples that refracted the surrounding scenery into a bizarre and kaleidoscopic spectacle.

The chilling, yin-like lightning suddenly exploded, scattering into countless fine arcs of electricity, flowing like water over the enormous body. The five elemental soldiers, having only flown halfway, were frozen in place by an invisible force, frozen like tiny insects in amber.

Such a powerful attack failed to cause it even the slightest damage.

Deflecting the sudden attack, an invisible force immediately launched a fierce counterattack, creating countless terrifying illusions and grotesque demons, intending to distort the mind and interfere with consciousness.

Not only that, the dense, fleshy pores suddenly contracted and squeezed, and long, worm-like creatures dragging sticky mucus instantly sprouted wings and transformed into scorpion-tailed poisonous flies that buzzed down, just like a thick black cloud rising from the ground.

Inconspicuously, its round follicles quietly roll off its abdomen, its skin swells and bulges, and something is growing inside.

"Good heavens, it really is true that longer is stronger. Although the method of application is a bit crude, just based on its huge, thick-skinned body, the amount of spiritual power it contains is at least several times that of a human superhuman of the same level. Ordinary external spells probably wouldn't be able to break through its defenses..."

Zhu Mingyao's mind raced, and he took a deep breath. His internal energy surged like boiling water, and a dozen faint rays of light emanated from his body, forming a phantom of the Yellow Court Altar behind him. The surging power seemed to blow away all the surrounding mist.

He clasped his hands together in a Tai Chi mudra, and a dazzling light condensed in his palms, from which he drew out a long sword that shimmered with silver light.

"Since you want meat, let's see if you have the ability to take it!" Zhu Mingyao's voice added a chill to the silent night sky. With a swift movement, he dashed across the long street like a shooting star.

The thick, glue-like spiritual barrier opened instantly, and the incomparably refined sword momentum cleaved through the waves, like a comet striking the moon, like a white rainbow piercing the sun, like a hawk striking the palace. No matter what tricks you use, I will go straight for the central palace!

The behemoth seemed intimidated by this imposing aura; its massive, hill-like body trembled slightly, but then it let out a deafening roar. Its six enormous feet stomped down heavily, causing the entire ground to tremble, large sections of the asphalt road cracking and lifting as if about to collapse.

The sword energy, swifter than lightning, carved a tunnel of flesh and blood through the cloud of poisonous insects, instantly reaching the giant beast.

Zhu Mingyao appeared, raising his long sword high, which shone with a dazzling light, and slashed fiercely at the strange, skull-like head.

However, the behemoth seemed to have been prepared. With a deft twist of its flat, locomotive-like mouth, it swung its long, fleshy tentacles, like a monstrous python turning over, and collided with the silver sword without any fancy moves!

"Hiss... Clang—!"

After a sharp, decisive crack, came a trembling sound of metal rubbing together.

Grayish-blue blood splattered everywhere, turning into mist and blending into the environment as soon as it was sprayed.

Even a spent arrow cannot pierce thin silk; the blade, formed from the condensed energy of Geng metal, though capable of cutting through iron like mud, exhausted its potential energy after severing seven or eight tentacles as thick as roof beams.

Before he could change his move, the surrounding fleshy bones and armor suddenly moved, deforming and rolling like putty, tightly restraining this immortal weapon. Moreover, a strong will, carrying an ancient and bizarre charm, locked onto the magical artifact by connecting with its master's aura.

Zhu Mingyao's body sizzled, and foul-smelling blue smoke rose from his body. His smooth skin, which could withstand small-caliber firearms, felt like it was being doused with strong acid. Black blisters swelled and spread, and the intense burning pain stimulated his brain.

With a whoosh, his paper doll scattered into fluttering yellow paper scraps, then slumped down, narrowly avoiding the sweeping tentacles, and landed on the giant beast's leg joint.

He stretched out his hands, and a blazing light burst forth from his palms, instantly igniting a honeycomb-shaped hole in the giant beast's leg.

"At my call, they will gallop like wind and fire!"

During the chanting of the mantra, an octagonal scriptant wrapped in crimson flames burst forth from the hole, leaving nothing but charred remains in its wake, causing the worms to squeak and scream.

The giant beast let out a painful roar, and its knees began to tremble violently.

A dark golden light suddenly leaped out and took the opportunity to punch the source of the rising flames. With a loud crack, the giant beast's leg bone was broken!

The attack was successful, but Zhu Mingyao did not take credit for it. He twisted his waist and abdomen, dispersing into blue smoke, and instantly retreated dozens of meters away.

Sure enough, the space he was in completely vanished the next moment.

A black hole spun aimlessly, its terrifying attraction pulling at swirling air currents, silently devouring everything it touched, even forcibly drawing out and obliterating the raging Bingding True Fire.

Seconds later, the black hole switched from sucking to expelling, and the compressed air and matter turned into a destructive energy storm, which slammed into the Yaksha Ghost General who was holding the cold, axe in his right hand and was about to launch another attack. It was like an iron hammer smashing a nail, forcibly driving it into the ground.