81: Chapter 81 Gene Fusion Bottleneck and Andra's Tracking Missiles
Divine Domain, deep within the Iron Hive.
The slaughter data from the Prism Mantis legion's first battle transformed into a torrent of billions of information streams, surging through the massive Nid Hive Network, and finally converging into the psionic energy-shrouded overlords throne.
Su Chen sat cross-legged upon it, withdrawing his consciousness from the fortress battlefield that had been reduced to ashes. The blazing light in his eyes slowly faded, returning to a state of depth and coldness.
An insignificant victory, one that could not even stir a ripple in the lake of his heart.
His attention had long since turned to another, more important matter.
In his palm, two completely different divine sparks were suspended, distinct from each other, yet forcibly pulled together by an invisible force, attempting to fuse.
One emitted a dark green aura of calamity; merely gazing at it felt like witnessing a doomsday scene where the Plague spread and all things withered.
The other pulsed with a moist and pure blue halo; it was the core authority of the [Rain divine portfolio], representing nourishment and rebirth.
"The 'Acid Rain authority' that corrodes all things..."
Su Chen's divine sense sank into them, attempting to use his powerful will as a furnace to forcibly twist and reform these two diametrically opposed laws into a brand-new form.
Once combined, the withering power of calamity and the permeating power of rain would transform into a law of destruction that was all-pervasive and unstoppable.
However, the process of fusion was far more violent than imagined.
Hum!
The moment the dark green and deep blue lights touched, they did not merge but violently repelled and clashed. The two divine portfolios were like two enraged primordial beasts, crazily tearing at each other in his palm.
The chaotic energy storm instantly spiraled out of control!
Crack—
A crisp sound, not from the divine sparks, but from Su Chen's own divine body.
A fine crack appeared on the back of his hand, and golden divine blood seeped out, only to be repaired by his powerful self-healing ability in the next instant.
But this was only the beginning.
Crack! Crack, crack!
More cracks spread from his palm toward his arm, shoulder, and even his entire divine body. The surface of his body seemed to have become a piece of porcelain about to shatter, undergoing a destructive cycle between fracturing and healing.
Every fracture was accompanied by the excruciating pain of laws tearing at his soul.
[System Notification: Warning! Law conflict intensity detected exceeding carrier limits.]
[Your divine body strength (Fourth-Rank Silver Tier) is insufficient to support the simultaneous genetic mutation of three laws (Zerg Swarm Ruler, Calamity, Rain).]
[Suggestion: Ascend to Seventh-Rank Demigod and construct a demigod body before attempting again.]
The cold system notification sounded in the depths of his consciousness, pronouncing the failure of this attempt.
"Seventh-Rank, huh..."
Su Chen frowned slightly, ultimately releasing his suppression of the two divine sparks.
He sighed helplessly, watching the cracks on the surface of his divine body slowly disappear under the soothing influence of his divine power.
He had been too hasty after all.
The path of a deity is perilous at every step, and foundations are particularly important. His current strength was at its limit merely by wielding the dual laws of the Zerg Swarm Ruler and Calamity; forcibly integrating a third was tantamount to destroying his own foundation.
Su Chen waved his hand, and the two divine spark fragments were resealed and cast into the depths of the warehouse.
Resources must not be wasted.
Since he could not use them for the time being, they should be converted into the most direct combat power for the Zerg Swarm.
His gaze pierced through the heavy barriers of the temple and landed on an inconspicuous corner of the warehouse. There, a golden divine spark fragment lay quietly; it was the core divine portfolio stripped from that "god of archers".
It exuded an aura of sharpness and precision.
For Su Chen himself, this kind of purely physical-side divine portfolio was useless, but for a certain unit in the Zerg Swarm, it was a dream evolutionary ladder.
"Andra."
A cold divine thought, like an invisible sharp sword, instantly crossed the vast space and precisely pierced into the command center of the Silver-Winged Archer legion.
A moment later.
Whoosh—
The sound of a strong air current rang out outside the temple, and a silver figure tore through the air, flying in rapidly.
The figure stopped abruptly in front of the overlords throne, the wind it brought stirring the swirling psionic energy mist.
The newly promoted Saint, commander of the Silver-Winged Archer legion, Andra, knelt on one knee.
The pair of metallic silver wings behind him folded elegantly behind his back, his head bowed low, his voice filled with fanaticism and absolute loyalty.
"Overlord, your blade awaits your command."
Su Chen's gaze fell on him indifferently.
Andra's form was the perfect creation of Zerg genes fused with an Elven archer. He retained the elegant physique of an elf, but his entire body was covered in silver-white biological carapace, and his arms had evolved into ferocious yet precise biological bone cannons.
"This is what you deserve."
Su Chen flicked his finger.
That golden [Archer divine portfolio] fragment transformed into a brilliant stream of light, ignoring the distance of space, and shot out instantly.
Pfft!
The stream of light plunged accurately into the center of Andra's forehead.
"Boom!"
An indescribable, terrifying energy exploded within Andra's body.
"Ugh, aaaaah—!"
He let out an uncontrollable roar, the sound mixed with extreme pain and the excitement of being completed at the genetic level.
divine portfolio integrated!
The laws belonging to the "god of archers" began to crazily infect his every cell.
But the next second, an even more domineering power awakened from the depths of his genes.
It was the Zerg's unreasonable power of assimilation and devouring!
Under the domineering distortion of the Zerg genes, this archer divine portfolio, which originally only purely increased range, precision, and armor-piercing capabilities, began to undergo a strange and terrifying mutation.
Sizzle... sizzle...
Andra's arms emitted a teeth-grinding sound of bone friction, and he painfully raised his arms, watching with his own eyes as the two ferocious biological bone cannons underwent violent reconstruction.
Silver-white bone proliferated, piercing through flesh and being wrapped by new fascia.
On the originally smooth cannon barrels, flesh squirmed, and layer after layer of dense, tiny biological sensing crystals, similar to insect compound eyes, grew out.
Each sensing crystal, connected by the nervous system, extended invisible tentacles, no longer sensing light and distance, but directly connecting into the void, to those invisible, intangible, yet real... causal lines!
[Genetic mutation successful!]
[Hero unit 'Andra' has gained a special evolution!]
[Obtained special organ: Biological Homing Missile Launcher (Hero-grade)]
[Organ trait: Sure-hit! Attacks will be granted the 'Causal Lock' rule! Once fired, the bone spikes will ignore spatial, energy, and physical obstacles, automatically tracking the target until they hit!]
[Note: This trait consumes the hero unit's additional mental energy and divine portfolio energy, making unlimited attacks impossible.]
Relentless!
On Su Chen's retina, Andra's brand-new data panel appeared.
A satisfied arc curled at the corner of his mouth.
The direction of the mutation was even more perfect than he had anticipated.
"Go test it."
Su Chen gave the order indifferently.
The painful transformation was still continuing, but Andra's movements did not hesitate in the slightest. He rose abruptly, his silver wings flapping, and turned into a silver lightning bolt, rushing out of the temple.
He hovered at an altitude of ten thousand meters above the Iron Hive.
The strong wind blew his silver hair, and he slowly raised his right arm, which had completely mutated and become terrifying.
Around the cannon muzzle, that circle of newly grown compound eye sensors lit up with a faint red glow simultaneously.
His vision changed instantly.
The whole world faded of color, turning into a black and white world composed of countless lines. And in his perception, at the edge of the Divine Domain, a mutant bird flying at high speed had an incredibly clear red line wrapped around it.
That was its "line of existence," or rather, "line of fate."
Distance: 15,000 meters.
Target: Third-Rank mutant creature "Wind-Splitting Sparrow," known for its supersonic flight ability and evasion capabilities.
"Die."
Andra spat out a cold syllable.
He didn't even perform any aiming action; he just pointed his arm in the general direction and then, with a thought, drove it.
The trigger was pulled!
"Shoo—!"
There was no earth-shattering roar, only a piercingly sharp whistle.
A spiral bone spike, only the thickness of a finger, completely silver-white, but with its surface engraved with countless divine portfolio runes, shot out from the cannon muzzle!
The moment it left the muzzle, it disappeared from the physical world.
Far away, 15,000 meters away, the Wind-Splitting Sparrow, which was flying happily in the clouds, suddenly had all its feathers stand on end.
A deadly sense of crisis stemming from the depths of its soul, of being targeted by a natural predator, made it emit a terrified screech.
It flapped its wings desperately, its body tracing a Z-shaped trajectory in the air, attempting to shake off that non-existent lock.
It dove, it climbed, it even dived headfirst into the thick thundercloud layer capable of interfering with most energy detection.
However, everything was in vain.
In another dimension, that silver bone spike, like a grim reaper's scythe with eyes, ignored all physical rules.
It traced strange arcs in the air that mortals could not understand, and every turn pointed precisely to the position where the Wind-Splitting Sparrow would appear in the next second.
It was not tracking the Wind-Splitting Sparrow's body, but the end of its "line of fate"!
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
"Bang!"
A spray of blood blossomed abruptly in the thundercloud layer at an altitude of ten thousand meters.
That poor Wind-Splitting Sparrow didn't even know where the attack came from until it died; its body was pierced from the inside by a bone spike that appeared out of thin air while flying at high speed, instantly exploding into a mist of blood.
"Sure-hit rule, causal lock."
On the overlords throne, Su Chen watched the final scene transmitted back by the data link and nodded with satisfaction.
With this, in the future when facing those enemies who like to play with space, master teleportation, or excel in stealthy assassinations, Andra and his Silver-Winged Archer legion will become a death warrant they can never escape.
In the Zerg Swarm's arsenal, there was another nightmare-level trump card capable of making any enemy despair.