Published: February 10, 2025
Looking at the needle birds on the ground that had once again fallen into a lethargic state, Zhang Xintai and the other two trembled slightly.
Today, they had witnessed too many unbelievable things.
First, a four-star evolver possessed a piece of spatial equipment that contained gear up to blue level. Next, this four-star evolver showcased his craftsman profession, turning waste into treasure. If they could accept these, then the fact that someone who should be treated as a treasure by any organization was thrown into this dark and dreary mine was itself incomprehensible.
Moreover, they thought they were facing certain death today, only to have this person effortlessly resolve the situation, making them feel that this man, who was younger than them, might not just be a four-star evolver. His entry into this world became even more astonishing.
But what truly frightened them were the four mutated creatures.
When they first appeared, they were only at level two, not much of a threat to them. However, after consuming some meat, they had evolved to level three, and now they were on the brink of level four!
The three had never seen anything like this; although their bodies weren’t small, how could they swallow a person whole?
It truly was one gulp, and more than a hundred pounds, nearly two hundred pounds of a four-star evolver was swallowed into their bellies. Then, within just a few minutes, they entered a state of evolution again.
At one moment, the three even had an illusion that perhaps they had been away from the surface for too long, unable to keep up with the normal pace of things.
Ye Zhongming focused on his four needle birds, for he noticed that this time their evolution was somewhat different from before.
First, the size of the needle birds had increased again. Now, as they crouched on the ground, the queen bee was already about as tall as Ye Zhongming, while the other three male needle birds, though slightly shorter, had more streamlined and robust physiques, and the weapons located all over their bodies, such as their hard beaks, backward hooks, wings, and sharp claws, had all become sharper.
Secondly, new features had emerged on their bodies. Where their heads and bodies connected, there were organs resembling gills, but no matter how Ye Zhongming looked at it, these organs didn't seem to be for breathing; rather, they appeared to be for... storing weapons.
The gill structures were made up of bone-like spikes about twenty centimeters long.
Was this to protect their necks from harm? Ye Zhongming felt it couldn't be that simple, but exactly what they were for could only be ascertained after the needle birds woke up, through mental communication.
Finally, and most noticeably, a layer of gray-brown fuzz had grown all over the needle birds.
This change puzzled Ye Zhongming; he was unsure of the purpose of this fuzz, and couldn’t even tell whether this appearance was merely a side effect of evolution or if it served some other functional purpose.
The time taken to evolve from level three to level four was noticeably longer than the time taken to evolve from level two to level three. After waiting for nearly ten minutes, the four needle birds finally began to wake up one after another.
As they opened their eyes, their ferocity was immediately evident. When their compound eyes locked onto him, the icy coldness made it feel as though they were about to attack at any moment, which was quite unsettling. Ye Zhongming, as their master, felt nothing too alarming, but for Zhang Xintai and his companions, it was another story. Even though they were now at the same evolution level as the four needle birds, it felt as though they were being stared at by a powerful beast, forcing them to endure the psychological discomfort.
Ye Zhongming silently communicated with his battle beasts on a mental level, and finally learned the information he wanted.
Those bone-like gills were indeed weapons—regeneratable and capable of launching bone spurs.
This undoubtedly compensated for the needle birds' long-range attack power.