Chapter 403 The Abyssshade Core
After mocking Aurelion, Zara stopped talking and frowned at the thing invading the room.
Honestly, it posed no real danger to her.
But something about it was strange.
She gathered her vital essence and tried to drag the creature into the open, only to discover that she could not get hold of it at all.
That should have been impossible unless it was stronger than she was.
And Zara was not bragging when she said that nothing stronger than her should have been able to appear here.
So...
There was definitely something wrong with this creature.
The black energy grew thicker.
Adolph and Bruno were nearly overwhelmed by the freezing pressure, their eyes starting to roll back.
Even Aurelion realized something was off. "Why have I never encountered anything like this before?"
Every mystic beast had its own distinct scent, and bloodline pressure existed between different species. A high-ranking mystic beast could usually identify another's race at first contact.
Aurelion could sense the danger, yet he could not determine what species this creature belonged to.
That made no sense.
He had even encountered Abyssshades before. How could there still be a mystic beast he could not recognize?
The creature finally seemed to lose patience.
Once the darkness had fully infiltrated the room, it gathered into a single mass and formed a strange Abyssshade, one far more solid and distinct than the creature Zara had killed earlier.
Then it lunged directly at Adolph and Bruno.
It had chosen the easiest targets in the room.
In the split second that followed, amid Adolph and Bruno's screams, Zara realized she still could not seize the creature's physical form.
She immediately switched tactics and struck with her crescent blade.
The pale crescent-shaped energy sliced through the shadow, tearing it apart the instant they collided. The mass of black energy crackled like live electricity hitting water, and the sharp smell of something burning filled the room.
In less than a second, the vast darkness surrounding the entire room was swallowed by arcs of lightning.
What remained condensed into a single bead and dropped to the floor.
The bead was pure black and no larger than the tip of an ordinary person's pinky. Zara picked it up and examined it. A cloud of darkness still seemed to be swirling inside.
"An Abyssshade core?"
Adolph and Bruno stared at it in shock.
Zara held up the bead. "A core?"
Aurelion immediately raised his head. "Holy crap. How did you manage to force an Abyssshade's core out?"
Bruno looked equally stunned. "A core is the source of a mystic beast's power, but it normally disappears when the creature dies. If Abyssshades truly count as mystic beasts, they should have cores too, but no one has ever been able to deal with them, much less obtain one."
"And if you killed it, why didn't the core disappear?"
Instead, it had remained behind.
Zara was silent for a moment. "I don't think this thing formed naturally."
Bruno froze. "What do you mean?"
"I couldn't grab hold of this Abyssshade's physical form. It was different from the one before. This one seemed to have been altered somehow."
Zara paused, then added, "Of course, I'm only guessing. Whether it was actually modified depends on whoever was behind it."
Adolph's eyes widened. "Someone was behind it?"
Zara explained her reasoning. "You said Abyssshades have no intelligence. Then a second, different one showed up right after the first. This one didn't seem to come here on its own. It felt more like someone sent it to test me."
It had still come to die, though.
The result was no different.
Adolph and Bruno exchanged stunned looks.
Even Aurelion seemed impressed. "I didn't know you were capable of thinking that far ahead."
Zara smacked him across the head.
The dignity of a supreme divine beast vanished on the spot.
Adolph and Bruno fell silent.
Once the danger had passed, Adolph suddenly turned to Zara. "I'm scared. Can you stay with me for the rest of the trip? I'll pay you."
"Another ten million dollars."
Adolph paused. "...Fine."
Zara had become extremely skilled at raising her price on the spot.
Bruno stared at them in disbelief but wisely said nothing.
He could hardly tell Adolph that Zara's original ten-million-dollar protection fee had probably already covered the entire trip.
He had just volunteered to pay an extra ten million for nothing.
Adolph and Bruno refused to leave without Zara. But their managers were looking for them, and they still had filming to do, so Zara had no choice but to accompany them back to their hotel.
She explained the situation to Vivian, who was equally alarmed. Vivian had Cathy rearrange the rooms and switch with Zara so Zara could stay at the same hotel as the rest of them.
Enoch and the veteran actor had been taken to a local hospital, mainly to make sure neither had suffered any serious shock.
The production team did not dare let news of the incident spread. This was only the first official episode, and they had already come dangerously close to a major accident.
Enoch might not have been a celebrity and did not have much of a fan base of his own, but no one wanted to face the wrath of Vivian's fans.
As far as the crew was concerned, it had merely been a bizarre traffic accident.
Only Zara, Adolph, and the others knew the truth.
The next few days passed much more peacefully, and everyone on the production team eventually dismissed the crash as an accident.