Ch. 138 - Sublimation Catalyst

The raider was shot from behind by Tianyang, and although its chest wasn’t completely blown apart, the engine device was clearly damaged, with sparks constantly sputtering from its surface.

In this situation, it could explode at any moment!

Tianyang struggled to get up, but his limbs trembled uncontrollably, still not recovered from the earlier impact.

Luckily, Cang Du rushed over with his sword. The raider raised its hammer, ready to force him back, when several arrows whizzed through the air, striking the raider’s wrist!

The impact of the arrows knocked the raider’s arm aside, causing its hammer to smash into the ground nearby. Seizing the opportunity, Cang Du raised his sword, ready to strike.

“The engine! Attack the device on its chest!” Tianyang shouted.

Cang Du hesitated for a moment. After all, that thing was glowing brightly, like an unstable bomb. Attacking it rashly might trigger an explosion.

But the raider was already upon him, leaving no time to hesitate. Gritting his teeth, the ponytailed youth lowered his sword, originally aimed at the raider’s head.

Silver light burst from Cang Du’s wrist, illuminating the Springwater Longsword as it slashed downward, piercing into the raider’s chest.

As the blade passed through the engine, black, viscous blood sprayed out from the seemingly mechanical device!

The Springwater Longsword pierced through the raider’s back, with cables, components, and black, sticky blood wrapped around its blade.

Cang Du closed his eyes, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. He cautiously opened them and saw that the light in the device on the raider’s chest had dimmed. It slid out of the body, hanging on his sword.

He had prepared himself to die, but to his surprise, the monster didn’t self-destruct. He breathed a sigh of relief.

As his tension eased, Cang Du’s body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground, unable to even hold onto his sword.

The raider’s body began to disintegrate. The biological tissue on its surface turned into black slime, while the mechanical components inside rapidly rusted and began to oxidize.

In just a few moments, they had deteriorated like the abandoned cars in the Inverse Universe, leaving only a skeletal frame behind.

“That scared the hell out of me.” Only when the raider’s body had completely turned into a pile of metal debris did Ji Yu lower her bow, taking a few steps back to sit against a pillar.

She glanced over at Tianyang and gave him a thumbs-up. “Nice work, Tianyang. You saved us all.”

Tianyang rolled over, raised his hand to wave, and smiled as he let it drop. He didn’t even have the strength to speak, not even a single word.

Yan Bing and several soldiers came over, beginning to clear away the raider’s remains, checking to see if there were any valuable materials left for recovery.

By the time the soldiers had almost finished cleaning up, Tianyang felt his strength gradually returning. He tried to stand up. His body still wasn’t very flexible, but at least he could move.

Suddenly, Cang Du shouted, “Oh my god, I leveled up! I’m now a rank 3 warrior!”

In his excitement, the ponytailed youth acted unusually, laughing and shouting, which made a few soldiers smirk to themselves.

Ji Yu looked at him with disdain and said, “You’re that happy about leveling up? Let me tell you, kid. Rank 3 is just the beginning of the hardship. From now on, every time you want to advance a rank, you’ll need a corresponding sublimation catalyst.”

“Look at Old Xu. He’s been stuck at rank 3 for who knows how long. His sublimation progress has been maxed out for ages, but why hasn’t he advanced? It’s because he hasn’t gathered enough materials for the sublimation catalyst.”

Cang Du wasn’t convinced. “Old Xu is Old Xu, and I’m me! He doesn’t care about advancing. Don’t think I don’t know. He spends all his contribution points on his wife and kids.”

“If it were me, advancing would be my top priority. The higher the rank, the more contribution points you can earn. Forget about high ranks. Even advancing to rank 4 and becoming a squad leader would net you more contribution points than he’ll ever get!”

Ji Yu’s eyelids drooped slightly. “Everyone has their own goals. Maybe that’s the life Old Xu wants.”

“That kind of life sounds boring as hell!” After his excitement subsided, Cang Du took out a handkerchief and began cleaning the Springwater Longsword.

Ji Yu glanced at him but didn’t pursue the topic further. However, Tianyang had taken an interest. He walked over and sat beside Ji Yu.

Ji Yu seemed uncomfortable sitting so close to a member of the opposite sex, even if it was just a young boy. She instinctively scooted a little further away.

“Sister Ji Yu, can I ask you something? What’s a sublimation catalyst?” Tianyang had never heard of it before.

While inspecting her Star Element Bow, Ji Yu casually answered his question. “It’s exactly what it sounds like—a catalyst used to trigger the next stage of our sublimation.”

“For us Ascenders, before rank 4, the sublimation progress will advance on its own. But starting from rank 3, every time you want to level up, you’ll need a sublimation catalyst.”

“The materials required for each rank’s sublimation catalyst are different. And I’ve heard that above rank 7, not only do you need more materials, but they’re also incredibly rare.”

“Some of the materials are even controlled by the fortress. If you want to get them, you either exchange contribution points or participate in missions like this one and earn them as rewards.”

“Of course, you could also buy them on the black market. But the cost…”

At this, Ji Yu glanced at him. “You don’t need to worry about that right now. It’s only guys like Cang Du, who’ve reached rank 3, that need to start stressing over it.”

Cang Du had already cleaned the Springwater Longsword and laughed lightly at the words. “He’s still got a long way to go. It’ll be at least two or three years before he needs to think about that!”

Tianyang was surprised. “Does it really take two or three years to level up from rank 2 to the next rank?”

The atmosphere in the hall suddenly shifted.

Cang Du looked at him as if he had seen a ghost. “Wait a minute, say that again? Don’t tell me you’ve already reached rank 2?”

Tianyang said somewhat shyly, “I leveled up after defeating that Deep Diver. I got so busy with battles after returning that I forgot to report it to the captain.”

“Damn it!” Cang Du jumped up. “It took me almost a year to level up to rank 2, and you did it in, what, two months? How did you level up so fast?”

Tianyang shrugged. The fortress hadn’t announced his rank information yet, so he couldn’t tell Cang Du.

Ji Yu laughed beside them. “Cang Du, it looks like you need to step up your game. Maybe in a few months, this little guy will catch up to you and be rank 3 too.”

As soon as Cang Du heard this, he exploded with anger. “I’m going to the battlefield right now! I don’t believe I can be outdone by a rookie!”

Despite his words, he wasn’t really that impulsive. After the squad rested for a while, Cang Du suggested they search for other firepower points.

Suddenly, a deafening explosion rang out outside the building. Not far from them, a seven or eight-story building was struck by intense shelling. The structure of the building was damaged, and it began to collapse amid the flames and dust from the explosion.

Chunks of the building, as high as two or three stories, fell to the ground, kicking up a towering cloud of dust that was blown toward the building where the Raven Squad was located!

Everyone hurriedly took cover behind a pillar, waiting for the dust and debris to pass through the building before peeking out the window.

After the building in front of them collapsed, they could see the main battlefield a street away. On that battlefield, several Treants appeared. The Raven Squad had encountered these monsters in this town before, but now, the Treants on the battlefield were much smaller.

The tallest among them was just over ten meters high, with most being around seven or eight meters tall.

Even so, these Treants were still a headache. They had high physical resistance, making it difficult for most warriors to deal with them.

As for the Elemental Heart abilities, only the power of fire could threaten them. The elemental throwing spears, frost, and storm powers did little damage to the Treants.

However, the previous reports from the Raven Squad had already indicated the presence of Treants. Therefore, the fortress had devised several plans specifically targeting them for this operation.

Once the Treants entered the battlefield, several sublimators from the Elemental Heart unleashed flames upon them. At the same time, regular troops equipped with flamethrowers launched an assault on the Treants.

Soon, those Treants became moving fireballs. But before they could be completely incinerated, these monsters still inflicted some damage on the fortress' troops.

When only a few Treants remained, all ablaze, a large section of a building suddenly shattered, and a figure burst out from inside.

A tall figure!

Tianyang used the electronic eye function to zoom in on that direction, and a giant appeared in the view of the electronic eye.

The giant was about three meters tall, with its right arm mutated like a strange marksman. However, instead of a skeletal barrel extending from flesh and blood, it was a metal cannon!

The cannon was made up of complex machinery, with several tubes connected to the giant's arm.

The giant's arm was thick and long, looking extremely asymmetrical.

It had various mechanical structures on its body, especially on its back, where a row of long and short jet pipes rose, similar to the raider!

“That’s a level 5 danger [Ravager], the next form in the raider's evolutionary chain!” Ji Yu seemed to have spotted the giant as well and couldn’t help but exclaim.

Even from a distance, Tianyang could feel the wild and brutal aura surrounding the giant known as the Ravager.

One could imagine how much pressure the ordinary soldiers on the battlefield, facing it directly, would be under.

On the road, the Ravager jumped onto a wrecked car, raising the cannon in its right hand. It supported its right hand with its left arm, using it as a temporary simple support.

Black smoke swirled from the jet pipes on the Ravager’s back. The cannon’s muzzle quickly lit up with black light. Although it was black light, for some reason, it felt dazzling.

At the moment the light was brightest, a ring of black energy spread out, most of the energy condensing and surging forward, forming a dark torrent of energy!

Around this torrent, blood-red electric flames danced, and blurry, distorted shadows flickered. It slammed into the fortress' troop positions, where defensive barriers rose one after another.

However, upon contact with the torrent, they disappeared as quickly as bubbles splashing on the surface of a summer sea, but the barriers still consumed some of the torrent’s energy.

Thus, when it hit the positions, it had already been worn down to a thin strip of black light. After the black light dissipated intermittently into the air, fireballs flashing with black and red alternated in the path the torrent had taken.

With their fierce explosions, they conveyed the power of the Ravager’s shot!

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