Xu Mu took a deep breath, his muscles tensing. He vanished from his spot and charged towards the altar, as swift as a phantom. Feng Tianzhu crawled desperately on the altar, leaving a long trail of blood on the ground. All he could move were his two arms.
The area around the altar was shrouded in dense darkness, making it impossible to see one's hand in front of one's face. Fortunately, Xu Mu was wearing night-vision goggles.
Feeling the tight frame around his eyes, everything around him turned a grayish-green.
Although not perfectly clear, he could at least see the bloodstains on the ground. Xu Mu followed the trail, looking around, and then spotted Feng Tianzhu, who had managed to crawl to the other end of the altar.
To catch him, Xu Mu would have to cross the center of the altar.
The altar's center was recessed, and at its edge, slender bony hands were constantly emerging. It was clear that a continuous stream of alien creatures was coming out from within.
"You dare to come closer!"
Xu Mu pursued him onto the altar. Feng Tianzhu was shocked and furious. He couldn't believe the other party was so reckless. Didn't he know that the altar was his domain, where he could heal himself?
Leaning against a pillar at the edge of the altar, Feng Tianzhu managed to stand up and then leaned forward.
He clasped his hands together, circulating the elemental energy within him. It surged out along his meridians, mingling with the dense dark matter in the air to form a devastating energy ball.
"Go!"
Feeling the heat within him, Feng Tianzhu pushed forward with his hands, and the concentrated dark matter energy ball shot out like an arrow from a bow.
"Go to hell!"
Xu Mu roared. The instant Feng Tianzhu leaned forward, Xu Mu pulled the trigger of his handgun.
At the same time, Xu Mu pressed his knees down and shifted his upper body backward and downward. Except for the hand holding the gun, his entire body was almost pressed against the ground, allowing him to evade the impact of the dark energy.
*Swish!*
The dark energy ball whizzed over Xu Mu's head and struck a pillar outside the altar. The dark energy exploded, the stone pillar shattered, and the blast wave churned the air. For a moment, the falling rain even seemed to flow backward.
*Boom!*
Xu Mu was thrown several feet by the shockwave of the dark energy. He rolled three times on the ground, inexplicably landing in front of an alien creature.
*Roar!*
The creature's eyes glowed green, and it looked at its rolling meal with excitement. It opened its mouth to swallow Xu Mu. He had no time to dodge, so he could only raise his pistol and shoot it in the head.
After killing the alien creature, Xu Mu stood up and quickly hid behind a stone pillar, wary of Feng Tianzhu attacking him again with his abilities.
"So fast?"
Xu Mu's eyes narrowed. Through his night-vision goggles, he could clearly see that the shot had not hit Feng Tianzhu's heart but his thumb.
His entire body was covered in bullet holes, making him almost crippled.
But the altar was continuously healing him at a visible rate.
"Fifty-three seconds," Charles reminded him in his mind. Xu Mu had wasted half his time, fighting while holding his breath, the difficulty of which was unimaginable.
Xu Mu gritted his teeth. He was running out of time and had to deal with Feng Tianzhu quickly or retreat from the altar.
The next second, Feng Tianzhu leaned forward again. This time, he held two dark energy balls in his hands!
Xu Mu raised his gun and fired, simultaneously rolling to the side of the altar, not daring to charge recklessly.
The dark fog grew thicker, and even with torches around, the altar area was plunged into darkness. Fortunately, Xu Mu was wearing night-vision goggles and could see Feng Tianzhu's movements.
It was precisely because of the night-vision goggles that Xu Mu saw that Feng Tianzhu's severed finger was slowly growing back, and the wound on his chest had also almost completely healed!
"This is impossible for someone at his level to possess," Xu Mu dodged as Feng Tianzhu hurled the energy balls again, then fired another shot at Feng Tianzhu with his backhand.
*Rumble!*
The two energy balls exploded one after another, and the terrifying shockwave sent Xu Mu flying several meters.
*Pfft!* Xu Mu spat blood, feeling a burning pain in his lungs.
He had held his breath for too long in the last attack and inhaled too much dark energy!
His body's functions were beginning to be corroded, and his stamina was greatly diminished!
"You're not an aborigine?" Feng Tianzhu also noticed this. When Xu Mu was near the altar, he couldn't absorb the dark energy here; instead, he kept holding his breath.
It was important to know that this energy flowed into the continent from space after the Apocalypse. Most of the first batch of people to undergo the baptism of dark energy had turned into alien creatures. Later, only one in ten thousand people could wield this power and awaken their aborigine abilities.
Once they became aborigines, they could absorb corresponding elemental energies. However, fundamentally, the more aborigines absorbed dark matter like that in the night of terror, the better it was for their bodies. Therefore, Xu Mu holding his breath was to prevent himself from turning into an alien creature!
Xu Mu endured the pain and quickly hid behind a large tree. His secret of not being an aborigine had been discovered by Feng Tianzhu, and the situation was grim.
"I can feel my body getting weaker and weaker. I need to finish him quickly!"
Xu Mu felt his entire body swelling, as if it were about to mutate, but he was anxious and helpless. Feng Tianzhu's reliance was that strange altar, which gathered a vast amount of dark energy to continuously supply him and heal his injuries, but Xu Mu couldn't do the same.
He couldn't afford a war of attrition.
Seeing more and more alien creatures crawling out from the center of the altar, Feng Tianzhu's smile widened after realizing Xu Mu wasn't an aborigine.
Now, he could kill Xu Mu with peace of mind, and then take the strange equipment in Xu Mu's hands. With that, Vilitan could also be killed!
"Hoo..." Xu Mu exhaled the last breath from his lungs, rage flashing in his eyes.
With his enemy before him, if he couldn't win, could he retreat peacefully?
Seeing the alien creatures crawling out from the altar, he was reminded of Wu Kui, who had bled from all seven orifices that night.
Xu Mu's expression turned fierce. The closest person he had in this world had already become an alien creature, and he wouldn't lose control of his body. What was he afraid of when facing the darkness?
Thinking of Sun Dowager with her long tongue, Xu Mu smiled and shook his head. If he were to become like that, it might not be a bad thing. At least his combat power would increase exponentially, and Feng Tianzhu would surely die.
Of course, as long as he didn't get mistaken for a monster and killed by Yin Shuier after he mutated.
Xu Mu looked at the dark energy filling the sky and at Feng Tianzhu standing in the center of the altar. He forcefully pushed his legs and charged onto the altar again!
This time, his eyes were calm, and he didn't hold his breath.
His thought was simple: since he had two monsters living in his head, and he wouldn't be eroded to the point of losing his mind and becoming a walking corpse, he didn't need to worry.
Therefore, he was going to take a gamble on that one-in-ten-thousand chance and use this dark energy to reach the awakening stage.
*Bang!*
Xu Mu stepped hard onto a step and then leaped upward. In an instant, he was back on the altar.
This time, Xu Mu did not hold his breath.
He faced the darkness head-on!