CHAPTER 38: CHAPTER 7: EVOLUTION OF THE ABYSS

Yan Luo had never seen such a situation before, and there was no relevant memory in his brain.

From childhood to adulthood, what Yan Luo heard from others were things like ’demon corpses won’t leave behind any material’ or ’you must use the [Collection] engraving at the location of a demon’s death to reap benefits’.

But now, without activating the collector, two frost-emitting horns lay quietly on the ground.

The name ’Frosthorn Sheep’ comes from their two horns, and these demons are best known for their ramming attacks, using their horns to butt their enemies.

The horns of the Frosthorn Sheep have a particularly strong heat absorption ability. Once they touch a body for a while, the body’s heat will be transferred to the Frosthorn Sheep.

Logically, they should be called ’Energy Absorption Sheep’, but judging by appearance, the name ’Frosthorn Sheep’ is more appropriate, more straightforward and understandable.

Yan Luo was in a daze, staring blankly at the two horns lying on the ground.

Soon, the horns stopped emitting cold air.

For the Frosthorn Sheep, the main function of the horns is conduction. The real ’energy absorption’ ability lies within themselves.

Now that the horns have returned to normal temperature, they naturally no longer emit cold air.

Yan Luo bent down to pick up the two horns, silently placing them into his storage box, turning his vehicle around to search for a common-level demon he had previously found traces of but hadn’t dealt with.

He wanted to see whether this bizarre situation appeared only with the Frosthorn Sheep or with all demons.

This phenomenon must be related to the disappearance of all demons in the Iron Remnants Hills yesterday, otherwise, how could such a thing happen for no reason?

When Yan Luo found the common-level demon, the little Echo Cat was hiding peacefully in its burrow, sound asleep.

Unexpectedly, its burrow was suddenly blasted open.

Yan Luo controlled the explosion range, not killing it directly.

The Echo Cat was startled awake, fleeing wildly outside the hole and was immediately caught by Yan Luo.

Yan Luo drew out his hand axe, without hesitation, directly chopping off the Echo Cat’s head, killing it.

The Echo Cat’s body dissipated in Yan Luo’s hand, but a bone fell to the ground, landing by Yan Luo’s feet.

Taking a deep breath to calm his surging emotions, Yan Luo bent down to pick up the bone, bringing it to his eyes for close examination.

The demon he just killed was named the ’Whistle Cat’, a name derived from their ability to emit harmful ultrasonic waves from a specific bone, and now that bone was held in Yan Luo’s hand.

"What on earth is happening in the Abyss?"

Yan Luo murmured incredulously.

Until yesterday, when he killed the Dragon-scaled Python and the Gold-winged Eagle, this phenomenon did not occur.

No collector was needed, killing demons directly yielded some materials—a fact that if spoken aloud, would surely earn him derision for being crazy.

How could such an absurd thing be true?

The problem is, it’s not absurd—it happened right in front of Yan Luo’s eyes.

Why is this happening?

The moment this question appeared in Yan Luo’s mind, an inspiration struck him.

Three months have passed since the failure of the Bright Silver Abyss strategy. Experts from the Abyss Defense Bureau predicted in the news that changes would occur in abyss regions worldwide.

But how could the changes be so drastic?

Inhale—exhale!

Suddenly, Yan Luo took a deep breath.

Then, he calmed down, stored the whistle bone, sat back on his motorcycle, and continued with his previous plan.

Investigating this issue did not conflict with continuing his plan; he could hunt demons while investigating.

At this moment, Yan Luo deeply suspected that this situation was happening throughout the Crimson Abyss.

Every demon would drop a material upon death without needing a collector.

What would happen if a collector was used on top of this?

......

The winter wind raged, stirring the clouds.

Wu Zechuan, who once met Yan Luo in the third-floor hall and invited him to join his battle group, leaned on a metal staff, standing on a cliff shrouded in mist, gazing at the distant higher peaks.

"Captain!"

A subordinate’s voice came from behind, and Wu Zechuan retracted his gaze, turning to look back.

A swordsman in light armor, with a worried expression, reported the situation truthfully to Wu Zechuan: "We tested everything. All demons drop materials after death. We tried using collectors and had collectors personally attempt as well. The result is that collectors fail completely, collectors can still extract material, but the quality of the additional extracted material is much lower."

Wu Zechuan sighed and said softly: "The Abyss has evolved again."

The swordsman remained silent, glancing at the far-off peak of the Crimson Abyss.

Once, they needed collectors to extract the ’symbols’ of demons. Now, without collectors, the symbols directly drop. This indicates that the Abyss is getting closer to reality.

It’s likely that all abysses will undergo such changes.

"Pack up, we are preparing to return to Blue Star."

As he spoke, Wu Zechuan gazed again towards the mountain peak, his voice drifting into the misty sea of clouds.

"The strategy application for the Crimson Abyss Master is temporarily suspended. Ah Shan has been on leave for so long, it’s time he returned. When he comes back, I’ll lead a team to the Bright Silver Abyss. Regardless, even if it’s impossible to curb this change, we must at least strive to weaken the forces of the Bright Silver Abyss..."

"Blue Star can’t withstand several more monster tides..."

......

—The collectors have failed!

This result was within Yan Luo’s expectations.

After all, demon symbols have already formed. Even if the collectors could function, they wouldn’t gather much.

The situation of demons dropping materials directly upon death is a good thing for Hunters.

No need to rent or carry collectors, which saves Hunters a lot of trouble.

After all, if the collector broke, they’d have to compensate.

Yan Luo set up the tent, placed instruments, summarizing the entire day’s harvest.

Regarding the ’material drop’ phenomenon, he devoted a significant portion to documentation.

As Yan Luo hunted demons, enhancing himself, he was also conducting experiments, observing the patterns of material drop.

He found that the materials dropped from the same type of demon were not always the same and might even be rarer materials.

Sometimes, Magic Crystals even dropped.

Overall, it didn’t differ much from the previous method of using collectors to condense a demon’s magic power and then converting it into physical materials, but now it skipped the step of needing a collector.

This occurrence benefits Hunters, but it’s unclear what advantage it holds for the Abyss.

Yan Luo barely pondered it, not delving deeply.

Today he hunted three Dangerous-level Demons, drinking a lot of blood, whereas for common-level demons, he killed more for experimentation, roughly thirty or so.

Calculating this, he can increase his strength to nearly a ton before returning to Blue Star.

Although drinking demon blood decreases in effect and strength becomes harder to improve, any enhancement is beneficial.

For Yan Luo now, the blood of harmless-level demons is useless; only common-level and above demons qualify for him to engage.

After finishing the documentation, Yan Luo checked the campsite again, ensuring no issues, and then began resting.

The Crimson Moon remained hanging in the sky, unchanged.

Under the moonlight, seven hours quietly passed. Rest time ended, and the alarm clock rang.

Yan Luo’s eyes slowly opened, just about to drive the exoskeleton when he felt a sharp pain in his head, involuntarily drawing a breath of cold air.

What was this? A cold?

Yan Luo tried to raise his hand, feeling the numb ache in his arm.

Not just his arm, as his brain slowly became alert, Yan Luo sensed an overwhelming fatigue throughout his body.

"Drunk on Magic..."

After conducting his own diagnostic examination, Yan Luo’s expression became peculiar.

Increased body temperature, overall ache, intermittent brain spasms—no doubt these are symptoms of ’Magic Environment Maladaptation’.

Someone like him with maxed-out magic power resistance, experiencing Drunk on Magic?

Yan Luo could deduce what caused this situation for him.

In simple terms—

—he overindulged.