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Chapter 582.5: Polluted Divinity
Yudala took a deep breath and shouted:
"Open the firing slits! Melee team, prepare!"
"Roar...!"
A grotesque maw burst into view through the firing slit.
The shooter froze in fear, paralyzed.
Yudala cursed silently—she'd made a stupid mistake assigning a rookie to that station.
Thankfully, Rika reacted fast. She yanked the rookie away and kicked the trigger.
Bang!
The crossbow's full tension launched the bolt.
The enchanted bolt activated midair, spinning as it flew.
The wyvern hadn't even released its acid spray when the bolt lodged in its mouth.
"Screech...!"
It flew backward, flailing, and crashed into the sea.
And then, little Menglan, who'd been waiting, bit down and dragged it under.
Wiping sweat from her brow and fanning away the stench, Yudala shouted:
"Don't just stand there! Melee squad, move in!"
"Where's the Guardian Golem? Get it over here!"
"Reload now! We have to make reloading faster next time!"
"..."
After two flesh-energy blasts, the wyverns had punched three or four holes into the warship.
They charged in, aiming to widen the breaches and slaughter those inside—but hit solid steel.
Dragoon No. 1 arrived just in time.
Wielding a massive sword, it used its 25 Strength to repel the vicious wyverns.
The soldiers, reoriented under their commander's orders, quickly resumed their counterattack.
Though the wyverns inflicted some damage, once the Bay soldiers stabilized, they were swiftly repelled.
The interconnected magical steel warships left no blind spots defensively.
Especially the ward-shielded watchtowers—despite multiple attacks, they remained intact.
Meanwhile, the dragon hunter ballistas inside seized the moment to shoot the nearby wyverns.
The most chaotic battlefield was on the wide deck of the Big Fish.
Beelzebub and his Thunder Warriors held the line against the charging wyverns.
Behind them, the heavy crossbow formation continued dealing damage.
At this stage of the battle, it all came down to who could kill faster.
Deep in the ship, Liana anxiously watched the magic display full of red dots.
She longed to fight—but knew all too well she wasn't strong enough.
So she forced herself to calm down and think: next time, how could she stop wyverns from getting close?
Watching the dwindling number of wyverns below, Yaya grew thoughtful and asked Matthew:
"Who's commanding these ugly things anyway?"
Matthew narrowed his eyes, turned toward the depths of the Hero Continent, and said firmly:
"They're probably under orders from the broodmother of a wyvern nest."
"These 400 or so mutated wyverns might not be an entire nest's strength—but it's probably most of their active forces..."
Yaya's eyes widened. Seeing that the wyverns below would be wiped out in about 20 minutes, she asked eagerly:
"Then can we launch a sneak attack?!"
Meeting Yaya's hopeful gaze, Matthew gave her a thumbs-up and agreed:
"Shoot the horse before the rider, capture the king before the thieves. Wyvern hunting ranges span hundreds of kilometers—there's likely only one or two nests in this area. Fierce competition."
"If you want to try, let's go see. Maybe we can end the threat in one stroke."
Yaya, who hadn't thought that far ahead, shrank her neck, chuckled, and said:
"Yup! Let's go take a look. If we can win, we fight—if not, we run."
Matthew sent a magical message to Elio, then smiled and gestured for Yaya to begin her adventure.
Determined, Yaya slipped silently into the clouds and flew rapidly in the direction the wyverns had come from.
Meanwhile, she chatted with Matthew, asking about wyvern nests.
Yaya flew fast—at full speed, she hit an incredible 500 km/h.
After about 15 minutes, she had covered nearly 100 km, passed the natural port where Bay Territory planned to build a city, and arrived above a glacial valley.
She didn't act rashly—instead, she observed cautiously, silently tracking the mutated wyverns returning from afar.
"Fifty-two mutated wyverns returned. The rest... didn't, or are gone..."
"Inside the nest, there are about 200 strong life forces—and one especially powerful..."
Matthew watched Yaya analyze and admired her progress.
This really was a golden opportunity. The wyvern broodmother hadn't noticed Bay Territory's arrival.
Most of her strongest wyverns were about to be wiped out, and she didn't have time to replenish them.
Even if she managed to call some back, it would be during their weakest state.
Yaya keenly picked up on this. Now it all depended on her courage.
But Matthew clearly underestimated her bravery.
When she heard that the nest held a massive trove of magical materials, she was already committed to attacking.
Once fully recovered, Yaya swooped through the thick clouds and charged toward the massive wyvern nest atop an icy mountain.
Her tangible dragon might struck first, preventing the wyverns from taking flight.
Then, Yaya unleashed a full-powered breath attack, burning nearly a quarter of the nest.
The mutated wyverns that flew out to stop her were instantly halved.
The remaining twenty-some were quickly overwhelmed by Yaya, strengthened by the power of wealth.
With such a successful strike, Yaya didn't rush to brute force.
She patiently dismantled the upper nest, hunting every hidden wyvern inside.
In doing so, she also witnessed the entire birth process of the mutated wyverns.
Each crimson wyvern egg was placed into a grotesque pool of flesh.
The living, fungal-mat-like tissue wrapped, covered, and seeped into the eggs.
Yaya could clearly feel the twisted flesh slowly corrupting the wyvern embryos inside.
The weaker ones were devoured completely before they could even resist.
Only the strongest embryos could develop awareness in time and fight back against the twisted meat.
But wyvern hatchlings were far too weak...
No matter how much they struggled, they were still overtaken by the twisted flesh.
However, due to the limited amount of twisted flesh,
After invading part of the body, it would lose its ability to continue the assault due to consciousness fading.
In the end, the two fused into one, with a wyvern's body, a mind controlled by twisted flesh, and an extremely deformed tail.
The entire process was filled with cruelty and distortion.
"Roar...!"
A painful wail echoed from within the nest.
Yaya felt the decline of that strong life force but didn't charge in recklessly.
Following her plan, she dug through the wyvern nest layer by layer, eliminating these dangerous twisted monsters one by one.
Most importantly, during the excavation, Yaya discovered a great number of leftover magical materials.
These materials were of extremely high quality—at least extraordinary peak-tier, with two massive legendary-level remains.
These were parts the mutated wyverns couldn't bite through or digest and absorb.
Conveniently durable, they were used to build the nest.
Now, they all became Yaya's spoils of war.
After nearly two hours of digging, Yaya finally reached the deepest part of the wyvern nest and stared in astonishment at what she saw.
A grotesquely large wyvern, bloated and terrifying like a queen ant, lay silently at the bottom.
Its chest was ripped open, and most of its head was torn off—clearly the cause of death.
In front of it lay the shredded corpses of over ten mutated wyverns.
Alongside them, a massive pile of blood-flesh and bone was in the middle of incubation.
Yaya widened her eyes in confusion, scanning the nest's bottom.
What exactly happened here?
Why did the mutated wyverns kill each other?
Yaya snapped her fingers lightly. The surroundings rapidly shifted as the past was replayed through time-reflected imagery.
Time Reversal!
A difficult legendary spell for other casters,
But for Yaya, who had developed her bloodline powers, it was as natural as breathing.
This time, Yaya clearly saw everything that had happened at the bottom of the nest.
The immobile dragon queen, continuously laying eggs, sensed Yaya's attack and immediately ordered all mutated wyverns in the nest to go out and fight.
However, a group of ten or so mutated wyverns unexpectedly stayed behind.
Ignoring the queen's roars and commands, they began destroying the unhatched eggs around the nest.
Whether to protect the eggs or sensing a threat of death,
The queen struck first, tearing apart three or four mutated wyverns with her claws.
But just as she prepared to unleash her breath to kill the remaining ones,
The strongest mutated wyvern suddenly grew massive.
It withstood the queen's breath and strikes, charging to her immobile body.
Crack!
Its distorted claws tore open the queen's chest and tried to crawl inside.
But the grievously wounded queen didn't sit idly by.
She recovered from the gut-wrenching pain and bit down hard on the massive wyvern's head.
Crack!
That twisted wyvern instantly collapsed, its body emitting blue smoke.
Its skin and flesh melted away, leaving behind a pile of blood-red twisted bones.
The surrounding mutated wyverns swarmed in to attack the queen.
After a brutal melee,
The gravely injured queen still managed to survive till the end.
Sadly, she had also reached her limit.
Using her last bit of strength, she moved her body to block a corner of the nest and then perished.
Yaya blinked and, unexpectedly, didn't touch the surrounding corpses.
She gently moved the queen's body aside, revealing over ten red dragon eggs behind her, and sighed in relief.
What surprised Matthew was,
After Yaya did this, the queen's body quickly decayed into a pile of blood-red bones.
The surrounding corpses underwent the same change.
Only heaps of remains were left in the entire nest.
As Matthew watched Yaya collect the red dragon eggs, he pointed toward the grotesque flesh pool exuding an eerie aura.
"It's clear that everything here was likely manmade."
"And the mastermind behind it all is definitely still watching..."
Fury gleamed in Yaya's eyes as she scanned the surroundings carefully, but finding no sign of the enemy, she opened her mouth wide in frustration.
She unleashed a blast of searing dragon breath at the twisted flesh pool.
The destructive flames fell on the mass of writhing flesh,
And tens of thousands of voices echoed throughout the narrow nest.
Like ghosts whispering by the ear, or screams and curses.
"Why are you alive?"
"Die...!"
"Come die with us..."
"Come..."
"Come enjoy it!"
"Hurry up and die!"
"Join us..."
"Pain..."
"..."
But Yaya remained unfazed, spewing flames with even more resolve.
As a true dragon that resisted the Dragon Frenzy Enchantment, these ghostly tricks had zero effect on her.
What surprised both Yaya and Matthew was,
As the twisted flesh pool turned to ash, those eerie voices faded away.
Then, two dark-red divine glows flew toward them.
"Ding! You've obtained 1 point of Divinity (Corrupted)!"
"Ding! Please purify it as soon as possible!"
The dark-red divinity settled into Matthew's body, and soon his ears were filled with curses.
Corrupted Divinity?
Matthew's heart skipped a beat!
He turned to Yaya and saw she had already closed her eyes.
Divinity had bypassed her clone!
Without hesitation, Matthew shifted his consciousness back to the territory.
Yaya opened her eyes, frowning, covering her ears, her body emitting temporal ripples.
Relieved, Matthew said to her:
"Hold on! It'll be over soon!"
Nodding to her, he closed his eyes.
He consumed the billion Destiny Points accumulated over the past days and upgraded his Destiny Power to Level 3!
A torrent of brilliant blue light surged from within.
He could feel waves of energy slowly permeating his body and soul.
The soul, previously burdened from digesting the godhead and its terrifying power, began to lighten and strengthen.
The connection between body and soul grew tighter.
His ever-growing demigod body began to reinforce his soul.
Matthew could feel it clearly.
His mind sped up.
His thoughts became clearer.
His brain processed extremely complex calculations effortlessly.
Even the most intricate arcane models were now quickly "seen through" and understood.
Previously disjointed knowledge, data, and information began to interlink.
Enlightening him and deepening his understanding of the world.
He inhaled deeply, feeling his increasing control over his body, and turned to Yaya with her eyes still shut.
He saw a deep connection between them.
Life, soul, thoughts, talents, feats, skills!
Matthew now had a clearer grasp of what a demigod body truly was.
Godhead, divine power, divinity—all three were essential!
Divine power was the embodiment of collective will, spirit, and thought.
It was the manifested power of desires, greed, and hope!
It was not something a normal body could handle.
Only a body with a godhead could contain it.
And transform it into personal power via divinity.
Simply put—
Absorbing divine power was like eating hotpot.
Divine power was "temporary."
If you didn't eat the hotpot in time, it would spoil.
The godhead was the body capable of eating.
A paramecium can't eat hotpot—it'd get scalded to death.
Only a godhead-bearing body could break it down, absorb, and store it.
But the hotpot had many different ingredients.
Absorbing everything would lead to indigestion and side effects.
One had to extract only the useful nutrients quickly.
Divinity was the method of selective and enhanced absorption.
It represented fat storage, training strength.
It helped the body retain that energy.
Increasing internal energy limits.
Otherwise, once divine power was spent,
It would vanish like persistent enoki mushrooms—gone for good.
Matthew boldly guessed: the Goddess of Magic gave him and Yaya Hydra's divinity for this exact purpose.
Now, as he digested and understood this knowledge,
His control over the demigod body rapidly improved.
The dark-red corrupted divinity inside him emitted twisted light, trying to stain his soul red.
Had it been subtle, it might have succeeded.
But now, Matthew saw it all clearly!
Without hesitation, he used 1 point of divine power to purify the twisted divinity.
The red light dissolved instantly under the holy golden light.
The corrupted divinity reverted to pure gold.
"Ding! You have gained 1 point of Divinity (Pure)."
Relieved, Matthew turned to Yaya and repeated the process.
She too returned to normal and began glowing with golden light.
The knowledge Matthew gained about divine power, godheads, and divinity was now reflected onto Yaya.
She was on the verge of another evolution!
This time, she would gain a demigod body.
And mature from a young dragon to a juvenile dragon!