Chapter 449: Chapter 389: Invasion and Evolution_2

Around them was absolute darkness and silence, only the faint sounds of their breathing and heartbeat within the shadow, and below, the increasingly clear, gradually intensifying energy pulses like muffled thunder.

After descending a considerable distance, the cleft widened slightly, but the surroundings remained oppressive.

At this moment, Benjamin, who had maintained high vigilance, suddenly furrowed his brow and gently tapped Anya’s shoulder.

Anya immediately understood, controlling the shadow to stop, hovering in a relatively spacious "node" shadow within the cleft, while looking at Benjamin in confusion.

Benjamin did not speak, instead raising his finger cautiously, pointing towards an extremely concealed horizontal fissure on the rocky wall of the cleft above. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

The fissure was very narrow, pitch-black inside, almost merging seamlessly with its surroundings.

Anya focused her gaze, initially noticing no abnormalities, but when she integrated her life perception with the shadow’s faint visual enhancement to carefully scan the area, her heart couldn’t help but skip a beat.

Deep within the fissure, there was a cluster... of "darkness."

It wasn’t an ordinary shadow or void but a kind of living, conscious "darkness."

Its outline vaguely resembled the irregular spheroid of an elemental creature of light, but there was not the slightest bit of luminescence escaping from it; on the contrary, it absorbed all the already weak surrounding light completely, presenting a pure black deeper than the surrounding rock face, seemingly capable of absorbing gazes.

It remained motionless, perfectly blending with the shadow of the rocks like the most patient hunter.

"They... have actually learned to hide their light? Even actively turning themselves ’black’?" Anya conveyed her incredulous thought through the spiritual link.

This completely subverted the nature of light elemental creatures relying on luminescence for existence and communication.

As she was surprised, Benjamin had already silently retrieved several small, sophisticated detection instruments from his internal space under the shadow’s cover—micro energy spectrometer, spiritual fluctuation capture device, material composition analysis probe.

He manipulated the instruments, focusing the detection beam on the ’darkness’ creature, beginning to collect data while he himself activated the All-Purpose Eye to scan the creature before him.

Soon, the results feedback from the instruments presented in his mind.

Benjamin’s eyes flashed with understanding as he explained to Anya through the spiritual link: "It’s amazing... only a few months? They’ve evolved ’super-sensitive light perception organs.’ This thing’s sensitivity to light is beyond belief; it could probably capture the extremely faint photons reflected by a particle of dust."

"It’s only by relying on this extreme perception that it can perfectly converge all light it produces, including the luminescence of metabolic byproducts, possibly even transforming part of dissipated energy into this ’light-absorbing coating.’

Anya immediately realized the key point: "It’s a sentry! Specially stationed on this vital path, using this unconventional hiding method! Then we..."

"Most likely have already been ’seen,’" Benjamin confirmed Anya’s suspicion, his tone still calm, "Your shadow disguise, though exquisite, can merge into environmental shadows, but before this extremely specialized ’light perception,’ the slight disturbances and absorption differences of light fields our ’shadow’ creates must be as obvious as an ink spot on white paper. However..."

He glanced at another set of data on the instruments: "The good news is, for utmost concealment, this guy seems to have converged and blocked even its own communication-specific frequency band electromagnetic radiation. Its current state is more like a pure ’optical monitor,’ able to see but unable to immediately transmit alarms."

"I guess, its task is to lurk and record, waiting for a shift change or confirmation of intruders deeply advancing before finding an opportunity to relay the information."

"What should we do now?" Anya asked, with a trace of murderous intent in her spiritual fluctuations.

Being inadvertently discovered by a third-level small creature, even if only on an optical level, made her somewhat uncomfortable.

"Of course, we eliminate it," Benjamin said without hesitation, "Since we’ve already been discovered, regardless of whether it can immediately report, clearing this informer is the best choice. Make it quieter. This guy has hidden so deeply and has self-sealed its communication ability, indicating its ’shift period’ might be isolated and unassisted, or transmission of information delayed."

"If we quietly take it out, even if the guys below later discover the sentinel has gone missing, they will only be suspicious and confused, potentially accelerating actions out of nervousness, fitting Lord Starfall’s observation needs better."

Anya nodded, her gaze locked onto that cluster of "darkness" concealed deep within the fissure.

Without further words, she simply raised her palm lightly in that direction, her five fingers slightly curved, making a gripping gesture.

Benjamin immediately sensed a strange and powerful force spreading from Anya.

It wasn’t a violent energy impact but a more profound attraction, directly targeting the essence of life.

In the next instant, he "saw" the life flame and spiritual glow originally stably circulating within the light elemental sentinel disguised as darkness suddenly halted as if encountering an irresistible black hole.

Then, uncontrollably detached from its shell and soul’s restraints, it transformed into countless visually invisible but perceptively dazzling light currents, rushing towards Anya’s hand!

The third-level light elemental creature didn’t even have time to react, didn’t make a single sound or energy or spiritual fluctuation, its existential foundation—life energy, was completely extracted in an instant.

Its dark shell swiftly dimmed, shriveled, crumbled, disintegrating silently into elemental dust within the darkness of the fissure.

The condensed life essence gathered into Anya’s palm then elegantly circulated at her fingertips before quietly merging into her body, as if it had never appeared.

The entire process was fast, silent, and deadly.

Benjamin’s pupils slightly contracted, his heart secretly alarmed.

He saw clearly the principle of this move: Anya, relying on her extreme affinity and control over life energy, had developed this special plundering witchcraft.

In the moment of activation, her "attraction" to life energy surpassed the target’s "retention" of life energy, forcibly severing the connection between life, shell, and soul, completing an instant fatal plunder.

The strength of this move was terrifying.

That light elemental creature just now was the same level as Anya, but faced with this attack, it had no power to resist, dying even without realizing it.

Benjamin quickly assessed in his mind; if not for his cultivation in "Body Refining Technique," with body and soul highly unified, life energy refined like steel, and micro control over himself, encountering this attack unexpectedly would likely leave him severely injured, possibly even lead to his downfall.

Facing such an attack directly disrupting the essence of life, unless possessing a special life form, strong soul protection, or having previously constructed targeted law defenses, survival below the sixth level is exceptionally difficult.

"Is this... the true genius of the tenth-level talent?" Benjamin looked at Anya’s still calm and delicate profile, a hint of admiration flashing deep in his gaze.

Even now, many peers have already shown prominence, but the profound understanding and terrifying application of life force Anya displayed still invokes a sense of fear.

Perhaps, possessing such means to transcend and slay other wizards defines the true benchmark of genius.

Anya didn’t seem to mind her casual extermination of an equal-level existence just now; she retracted her hand, looked at Benjamin, and through the spiritual link sent a calm inquiry: "Obstacle cleared. Continue down?"

Benjamin gathered his thoughts, nodded: "Yes, continue. Be careful, there might be more unexpected ’surprises’ waiting for us below."