Chapter 98

Originally resting on the side, Xiaozi couldn't help but cover her mouth and giggle. In fact, she had just been deceiving Erin. She just wanted to see how this girl, who had been cowering behind Long Yi from start to finish, would react. The result was somewhat surprising. The originally timid Erin, when faced with the danger of Long Yi, could actually burst with such tremendous determination and courage.

"Hehe, we've rested enough, let's quickly end the battle!"

Xiaozi soared high, enveloped in cold air, and joined the battle. For a moment, the monster's body began to shrink and erode!

And what about Long Yi?

He was naturally fine. This was actually one of Long Yi's strategies. He forcefully charged into the monster's body, but finding the crystal core was no easy task. Long Yi's eyes could see the flow of magic, but inside this monster, the magic flowed chaotically. He occasionally caught a glimpse of the crystal core's position, but the core didn't stay in one place waiting for him to grab it.

So he gradually calmed down, trying to deceive the monster into thinking that Long Yi had lost consciousness. He noticed that inside the monster's body, there were many mutated animal bodies and organs. They were not part of the monster's body but were simply being absorbed. Unexpectedly, it actually worked! Several times, Long Yi really saw the crystal core's position, but he didn't rush to act. He discovered that the monster's body contained more than one crystal core!

Just from what he saw, there were at least five of various sizes! Perhaps even more!

But how to capture them was a big problem.

The inside of the monster's body was not static but constantly rotated and shifted as the monster moved. A few times, some small crystal cores slid past Long Yi's hand, but he didn't grab them because such a powerful monster couldn't survive on these small cores.

Long Yi could already feel the monster's body absorbing the energy from his Dragon Breath Armor, trying to digest it. Long Yi continuously injected fighting spirit into the Dragon Breath Armor to counteract the consumed fighting spirit. This armor was made of pure Dragon Breath, even from a young dragon, and it wasn't easy to digest!

The attacks from outside became more intense, and the monster's body shrank. Long Yi could now clearly see the position of each crystal core.

It wasn't five or six! Not eight or nine! But a total of fifteen crystal cores! Among these fifteen, two were the largest, and the rest were relatively smaller. In Long Yi's eyes, these crystal cores intertwined in a strange way, collectively providing energy to the monster. However, that energy ultimately had to pass through the two largest cores to reach the various parts of the body.

The attacks from outside became even more intense, and the monster's counterattacks also intensified. Although Long Yi couldn't see outside, he understood that the two girls must have joined the battle; otherwise, it would be difficult for just Bajie to achieve such an effect.

Now, what Long Yi lacked was just an opportunity.

Under constant attacks, the giant monster's size continuously shrank. The monster no longer had the heart to explode parts of its body but let Bajie's Dragon Breath continuously burn on its body. The various spells Erin cast with her fists and feet left the monster riddled with holes. Xiaozi's ice spells continuously sprayed, making the monster's movements increasingly sluggish. In a blink, the monster was suppressed to the size it was when Long Yi first saw it!

At this moment, the monster's body suddenly emitted a piercing screech, steam enveloped it, and its size gradually shrank. In a moment, it was only a third of its original size, but its body became even tougher. A row of tentacles extended from its body, waving wildly. Bajie, being bulky, was the first to be flung away. Then, a sky full of tentacles rushed towards Xiaozi, who dodged repeatedly but was suddenly pierced in the abdomen by a tentacle. Instantly, Xiaozi's body flickered, and gray-black spots appeared on her abdomen.

Erin dodged left and right, breaking through the tentacles' obstruction, and launched a series of attacks, piercing through the monster's surface with a glowing shield but failing to break its body! The monster had become so tough!

Just as she was stunned, two tentacles swept over like whips. Erin couldn't dodge in time and had to block with both arms. A scream, one tentacle struck her arm, and the other hit her abdomen.

Erin's vision went black from the pain, and she flew backward, landing far away. When she struggled to open her eyes and tried to raise her hand, she found her arm burning with pain, unable to exert any strength. Looking down, her abdomen was only slightly painful, but her two arms had been torn open by the previous strike! That strike seemed to have drained all her strength! And the monster was wriggling towards her!

At this moment, Long Yi, inside the monster's body, was also anxious. The temperature around him suddenly rose, and the monster's internal flow almost completely stopped. As the body shrank, the two large crystal cores were less than a meter away from Long Yi, but that meter seemed impossible to close. At this moment, Long Yi sensed the danger Bajie was in and then seemed to hear Xiaozi and Erin's cries for help.

Alright, bastard, this is on you! You want to absorb my strength? I'll let you have it!

Dragon Fighting Spirit! All out!

Boom!

Long Yi instantly turned into a fireball!

Twenty layers of Dragon Fighting Spirit burst!

Forty layers of Dragon Fighting Spirit! Burst!

The power of two Dragon Marks directly blew away the gelatinous substance around Long Yi, and he charged towards the two crystal cores without hesitation. However, the monster also sensed someone trying to attack its cores from the inside, and its cores began to move wildly. At the same time, countless tentacles tried to interfere with Long Yi from the inside.

"You damn thing, stop right now! If you wait any longer, Bajie will be forced to evolve! Get to me quickly!"

Long Yi cursed and pursued with all his might. The tentacles that appeared around him were immediately scorched and burned to ashes by the flames surrounding Long Yi, unable to get close! The space around him was compressed smaller and smaller, and the two cores had fewer and fewer places to hide! Just as there was no space left, the two cores suddenly burst with brilliant light!

Bastard, you want to self-destruct?

In the official mission guide, there was a clear record of a monster's self-destruction. Some monsters, in a desperate situation, would choose to self-destruct their cores, and the power of such a self-destruction was immense. If possible, one should quickly end the battle and not overly provoke the monster.

From the current situation, "desperation" seemed to be the feeling of having a bad guy inside that couldn't be digested or expelled?

Long Yi had no time to analyze. Seeing the cores flicker, he directly charged out, grabbed them with both hands, and pulled hard. Instantly, the light from the cores dimmed. But in the next moment, a violent explosion swept through everything around.

The explosion didn't come from the cores but from the monster's body. Black gelatinous substance exploded everywhere, turning into white crystal fragments in the sky. Among the fragments, there were some large crystal cores.

Long Yi was thrown into the air and rolled several times, promptly收敛了所有的气息, then landed heavily on the ground.

"Everyone okay?"

Long Yi lay on the ground, panting heavily. He had expended a lot of energy to resist being digested.

"Ow—"

Bajie rubbed his stomach, indicating he was fine. Xiaozi slowly floated over, the blackness on her abdomen gradually fading, looking fine. Only Erin sat there, eyes red, but said nothing.

From her expression, Long Yi knew this little girl was blaming herself. Long Yi was very clear that Erin had always been a very insecure little girl. Although she was a genius, during the age when she most wanted to build confidence, she turned from a genius into a failure.

Timidity and lack of confidence became the biggest obstacles in Erin's life. After meeting Long Yi, Erin had some changes, but these changes were not thorough and were only superficial. She needed more confidence.

Long Yi got up, holding a fist-sized crystal core in each hand, and waved them in front of Erin.

"You did well, thanks to you all." Long Yi said.

Erin pouted, looking at Long Yi, tears welling up in her eyes, but she didn't speak.

"Are you blaming yourself?" Long Yi asked with a smile.

Erin was taken aback, probably not expecting such a direct question, and then nodded slightly.

"I'm not very good at comforting people, but I want to tell you. Everyone has their own choices, and when I make a choice, I prepare accordingly. So, you don't need to think you did anything wrong. In fact, you didn't do anything wrong. On the contrary, your attack helped me a lot. If you had joined the battle earlier, we might all have been killed by the monster's core explosion."

"So, get up, because I'm really out of words."

Long Yi said with a smile.

Erin still shook her head, her face slightly darkening.

"I... can't stand up..."

Erin said weakly.

"She's poisoned!"

Xiaozi floated over, surprised.