svetikya Chapter 28 The Variant Medusa
Chapter 28 The Variant Medusa
A month later.
The Heavenly Soul Empire, a hundred miles east of Heavenly Dou City, lies the Sunset Forest.
The sky was clear and the afternoon sun filtered through the gaps in the tree canopy, casting dappled shadows on the ground.
The forest was lush and green, with tall and dense trees. Occasionally, birds and animals would flit through the branches and leaves, making a few clear calls, which were then drowned out by the rustling of the leaves in the wind.
Jiang Ci'an's figure was hidden among the branches of a large tree.
At this moment, the realm of "indifference" enveloped his entire body, completely obscuring his sense of existence.
At the same time, a concealment spell cast by Electrox using his divine sense covered his body, with gray-white energy patterns flowing gently like ripples on water, concealing his aura, body temperature, and even the sound of his breathing.
With these two enhancements, Jiang Ci'an was like a ghost wandering in the forest, invisible and undetectable to anyone.
He closed his eyes, but the Eye of the Living Being between his brows opened, gleaming with a faint golden light, scanning everything around him with "X-ray vision".
From his perspective, countless life forms were distributed throughout this seemingly peaceful forest. Each life form was clearly outlined in his eyes, each occupying its own territory in an orderly manner, without intruding on the others.
Sunset Forest is not large, far less expansive than Star Dou Great Forest, and therefore the age of the soul beasts within it is generally not high, with the majority of soul beasts having a cultivation level of around a thousand years.
Ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts are already considered rare here, and there are relatively few types.
Therefore, Sunset Forest has always been a popular location for Soul Masters below the Soul King level to obtain their first four Soul Rings.
Jiang Ci'an stared for a long time before the living eye between his brows slowly closed.
He opened his eyes, took out a map from his pocket, spread it on a tree branch, and then drew an X on one of the areas he circled.
He is conducting an investigation.
The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School's internal soul beast encyclopedia contains detailed information on numerous soul beasts, including various attributes and types of soul skills, all categorized and comprehensive.
This is the sect's accumulated foundation over ten thousand years, even if the version Jiang Ci'an purchased is not the complete version, but only the version sold to the public that is relatively internal.
However, the information recorded in it is already quite detailed, far exceeding that of ordinary illustrated guides circulating in the market, and is worth referring to.
In this encyclopedia, the "time" attribute is only listed on a few pages, far fewer than other common elemental attributes. In fact, there are more records of space attribute soul beasts than time attribute soul beasts.
Furthermore, among the few pages of time-attribute soul beasts recorded, the vast majority have become extinct.
Only one type still exists.
That was... Medusa.
Of course, it wasn't an ordinary Medusa.
According to records, ordinary Medusas possessed the abilities of petrification and paralysis, which rendered their prey helpless and turned them into food.
However, some variants of Medusa possess the power to freeze time.
Legend has it that Dugu Bo, the Poison Douluo from ten thousand years ago, obtained his eighth spirit ring from a mutated ten-thousand-year-old Medusa Queen, thus acquiring a powerful spirit skill called "Time Freeze," which can directly freeze time within a certain range, making it extremely powerful.
His primary target on this trip was this variant of Medusa.
Over the past month, based on intelligence he had acquired, he had traveled to several possible habitats of Medusa snakes and successfully located three groups of Medusa.
Unfortunately, none of them contained the variant he wanted.
Jiang Ci'an stood up from the tree branch, his gaze calm.
He was well aware that the chances of finding a variant were slim, so he had no intention of pursuing it relentlessly and prepared a contingency plan.
If you can't find the mutant Medusa, then go to the Demon Forest to find the Evil Eye with the Time Attribute.
If even the Time-attribute Evil Eye cannot be found, then the next best option is to look for the Space-attribute Soul Beast, which is easier to find.
Over the past month, Elder Yi has already calibrated the spatial coordinates of the Demon Forest, and can open the gate to go there at any time.
If he cannot find the mutant Medusa he wants within ten days, then he will head to the Demon Forest instead.
Of course, if he could, he wouldn't want to go to the Demon Forest.
Rare species like the Time-attribute Evil Eye must exist in the core area of the Demon Forest.
There are definitely many evil eyes there, some that are ten thousand years old or even one hundred thousand years old, and he is only level 20 now.
In contrast, Sunset Forest is much safer. Apart from the forbidden area of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, there aren't even many ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts in the core area.
With the aid of "No Concern" and Elder Yi's concealment magic, he could come and go freely throughout the Sunset Forest.
After glancing at the map and confirming the location of the next Medusa snake colony's habitat, Jiang Ci'an vanished silently from the tree branch, activated "X-ray vision," and sped away into the distance.
Soon, we arrived at the location.
Jiang Ci'an hid behind a large tree, closed his eyes, and the Eye of Life between his brows glowed with golden light. His gaze easily penetrated through layers of trees and branches in front of him, landing on a shady boulder in the distance.
There, a group of Medusas were gathered together.
Although Medusa was a half-human, half-snake creature with a human upper body and a snake tail, she was still essentially a snake, preferring shade and disliking heat.
At first glance, dozens of Medusas gathered in the shadow of the boulder, both male and female, with pale faces and gray-black scales covering their faces and bodies. A head of snake hair slowly wriggled on top of their heads, making them look terrifying.
Jiang Ci'an's gaze swept across the snakes, distinguishing them one by one.
For a moment, his gaze paused slightly.
He noticed a Medusa that was different from the others.
Although at first glance the other's scales also appeared gloomy and gray, from the perspective of the Eye of Life, those gray scales faintly shimmered with silver light.
Her pale face and long, soft snake hair made her look malnourished compared to other Medusas, easily overlooked at first glance.
Jiang Ci'an's gaze paused slightly, his eyes confirming.
This is the mutant Medusa!
Jiang Ci'an did not make any rash moves. His gaze remained fixed on Medusa's tail as he continued to try to determine its age.
Medusa's lifespan is mainly determined by the length and thickness of her snake tail; for every thousand years of cultivation she accumulates, her snake tail will grow by one meter.
This one, with its long body and slender tail, appears to be a little over four meters long by the naked eye.
In other words, this is a 4,000-year-old mutant Medusa.
Jiang Ci'an paused, his mind racing for a moment.
Four thousand years is actually a bit too long for him now.
However, with his own level 20 and the blessing of the "Body Tempering Technique", he had no problem absorbing ordinary thousand-year soul rings.
In addition, considering the increased physical endurance after fusing with the Metal of Life and constructing the "Spiritual Aperture," as well as the several pieces of top-grade whale glue consumed before fusing with the Metal of Life to extend the body's lifespan...
It's slightly over the limit, but still within acceptable limits.
The powerful life force brought by the Metal of Life is enough for him to achieve super-limit absorption to a certain extent, at most the process will be a little painful.
This mutant Medusa is extremely rare and hard to come by.
Since that's the case, there's no need to hesitate.