The Ultimate Evolution
chapter-902

Driven by the 'Stairway of the Sun', Sheyan broke out with great power. His left hand struck the clone's chest at a fierce speed.

The chest was also the place where the 'Stairway of the Sun' resided!

In an instant which might have lasted for a second or for a year, the blackish-green colour on the surface of Sheyan's left arm changed rapidly. It grouped together as if it was alive, turning into a ferocious beast. The beast released a hoarse roar and pounced into the clone's chest.

At the same time, the 'Stairway of the Sun' in Sheyan's body flipped and slithered like snakes as if it was injected with a stimulant. It forcefully severed the tendrils from the other 'Stairway of the Sun'!! Sheyan could even hear a sharp scream from the inside the body of the clone. The enlarged blood vessels on the clone's forehead and arms ruptured. The blood-red tendrils of the 'Stairway of the Sun' spasmed and straightened, tremoring desperately towards the sky!

'Beast of Corrosion'!!!

Sheyan's most powerful attack finally showed itself in this desperate moment!

The 'Beast of Corrosion' had two parts to its attack. The first part had a fixed attack power of 300, but the attack power of the second part was 10% of the target maximum HP!! The HP of the clone was as high as 30,000+, so the total attack power of this 'Beast of Corrosion' was at least 3,500!

The clone had only mutated when he had about 5,000 HP left. In addition, when he was mixing, he was in a state of no defense, and took a lot of damage. The 'Beast of Corrosion' was like the straw that broke the camel's back, giving him a tragic ending!

After the hit connected, Sheyan hastily retreated to avoid being hit by the counterattack before the enemy's death.

The clone released a miserable cry. His flesh and blood quickly dried up, turning him into a dry, shrivelled corpse. From the corpse, the completely out-of-control 'Stairway of the Sun' broke out and grew to about four meters in height, flinging bones and bodily fluids everywhere!

Sheyan couldn't help but grieve at the death of the clone. Even the 'Stairway of the Sun' in him was restless.

The body of the clone was soon completely absorbed. The out-of-control 'Stairway of the Sun', being a parasite, naturally could not survive without its host. Its seven or so tendril-like branches pointed straight at the sky, convulsing painfully. Then, it fell to the ground weakly, occasionally twitching.

The 'Stairway of the Sun' in Sheyan's body suddenly stirred excitedly. Sheyan felt the blood vessel on his wrist slightly tighten, and the two main tendrils of the 'Stairway of the Sun' reached out. It flew straight towards its dying counterpart and grabbed it tightly. From the tendrils grew numerous suction cups with sharp teeth that would go on to violently devour the dying 'Stairway of the Sun'.

This was the cruel nature of the 'Stairway of the Sun'. As the saying goes, two tigers could not coexist on the same mountain. This concept was perfectly demonstrated by them. Not only did they kill among their own kind, even siblings had to start devouring each other the moment they were born. The most shocking thing was that, unless there was a suitable environment, the mother would also swallow the children!

Driven by such instinct, the cannibalistic action of the 'Stairway of the Sun' right now was understandable. More importantly, if it wasn't for this breakthrough challenge, it would be hard pressed to find another of its kind already residing in a contestant's body. This was a major reward outside the expectation of Sheyan and the realm.

After the 'Stairway of the Sun' finished its meal, Sheyan stood quietly on the spot. It did not take long for the nightmare imprint on his chest to start heating up. It formed into an image of a shield. On the shield was a strong-looking, tightly-clenched fist!

Sheyan took a deep breath. Obviously, the shield symbolized his Physique specialty, while the fist symbolized his Strength specialty. Next came the notifications:

[Contestant No. 1018, congratulations on passing the dual-attribute boundary breakthrough trial.]

Sheyan could feel a huge burden being lifted off his shoulders upon reading this sentence. He felt like he was dreaming. He couldn't believe that the problem was resolved!

Honestly, Sheyan didn't believe Reef was any weaker than himself, and yet he was stuck at this stage for a really long time. It even cost him the lives of his entire party. It was therefore understandable for Sheyan to feel this way.

[You obtain the general Growth-Hunter reward: 'Foundation'.]

[You have skillfully applied your talent and wisdom to successfully challenge yourself. Only now do you possess the rough outline of a good warrior. You have also determined the direction of your growth. Therefore, you shall receive a generous reward that will make you an even better warrior.]

[Reward!!!! All your pure attributes (without equipments) x2 !]

With the triggering of this reward, a heat spread through Sheyan's body. He felt as if every tendon in his body was growing, every muscle fiber was splitting, every bone was burning. He could feel it with every strand of his nerve.

"AAAAARRRGGHHH!" Sheyan couldn't help but scream. The feeling was really hard to describe. Pain, fatigue, comfort, and other sensations all blended into one. It felt good but it also felt bad at the same time. He fell down on his knees, while his sweat gathered into a pool on the ground.

'Just as I thought,' Sheyan gasped and muttered to himself when the strange feeling in his body subsided:

'Those guys kept emphasizing on the importance of foundations! When I fought against some Growth-Hunters, I felt like their HP was higher than expected. It seems that their fundamentals were quite solid, so they got pretty generous rewards.'

The nightmare imprint probably knew that he would be lost in his own excitement after receiving the Foundation reward, so it only continued after a while:

[In view of the huge difference in power between Rank I contestants who were new to the realm and the Growth-Hunters, when Growth-Hunters or higher class warriors attack Rank I contestants, the attack will be weakened to a certain degree. The extent of the weakening will be decided by military rank, personal strength (pure attributes), the number worlds experienced, and various other factors.]

Sheyan recalled that when he was attacked as a Rank I contestant, the enemy's attacks did undergo some surprising weakening. It should be related to this rule.

[Next is the special reward. You have passed the dual-attribute boundary breakthrough trial. You obtain an additional 15 free attribute points. Please invest them in your base attributes within 10 seconds. The free attribute points will disappear after 10 seconds.]

The first thing that came to Sheyan's mind after getting 15 free attribute points was the damn basketball teen, Hakeem. His current Perceptive Sense had reached an astonishing 46 points, so Sheyan invested 5 points to make it reach 51! It also broke through the boundary of 50 points in pure attribute, but Sheyan's identity at the moment was a reserve-duty Growth-Hunter, so there was no amazing reward for 50-point boundary breakthrough like when he was a Rank I contestant.

Three choices appeared in the reward section of the 50-point pure attribute breakthrough.

[A. You can sense the emotions and moods of living creatures, thus further understanding their thoughts.]

[B. You can perceive the enemy's weakness, thus greatly increasing your explosive hit rate.]

[C. Your willpower becomes stronger and more tenacious. You will not be easily confused by illusions. You will also easily find the flaws in your enemy's attacks, thus achieving a successful dodge.]

Among the three options, A was obviously for summoners and B was for snipers to help them go for sure kills. Only C was suitable for MTs. Sheyan's team had already begun to take shape and had passed the point where he had to do everything on his own, so he chose C. For future endeavors, and also for dealing with the potential ambush of Hakeem who may still be waiting.

As for the remaining 10 points, Sheyan added them all to Agility after giving it some thought. Sheyan's pure Agility was 17 points, but it reached 34 points after being doubled. Taking into account the 10 free attribute points and the buff from the gene-mix, he could easily reach above 50 points. Although he couldn't get the 50-point pure attribute reward this way, it should be difficult for Sheyan to encounter cases where he couldn't even fight back in terms of speed now.

Reaching 20 points of Agility should also come with a reward. However, Sheyan had reached that before and lowered the attribute again, but the reward had remained. So this time, when his Agility reached 20 points again, he did not get a reward.

Next, the nightmare imprint announced that Sheyan had successfully passed the dual-attribute boundary breakthrough trial. His designated main attributes were Physique and Strength. Sheyan's breakthrough reward had already been issued together with his 50-point pure Physique reward, so this time only a series of rewards for breaking through the Strength boundary was announced.

First was the reward for reaching 50 points of Strength. Most contestants would have obtained this reward when they became reserve-duty Growth Hunters, but Sheyan broke through Physique back then, so it was delayed.