Han Wu flew more than a hundred kilometers before finding a place that looked safe enough to rest. Overall, the battle against the Lust Dark Demon Queen and pursuing contestants had ended favorably for him.
When he tallied everything up, he had gained over 10 million energy points and 1.2 million evolution points from the fight. After accounting for his expenses, he still had 2.3 million energy points remaining. More importantly, amid the chaos, he had managed to snatch the special material dropped by the Lust Dark Demon Queen.
[Lust Sin (perfect): A compatible user can undergo Sin Evolution and enter Lust Mode.]
The Lust Dark Demon Queen had also dropped a gemstone.
[Demon Queen Gem: A Digital Sprite that absorbs this gem gains the Black Coffin skill. It can also serve as an evolution material for dark-attribute Digital Sprites’ ultimate evolution.]
[Black Coffin: A Demon Lord’s ultimate technique driven by overwhelming Dark Energy. Any target sealed inside for more than three seconds will suffocate to death.]
Seeing Black Coffin’s description, Han Wu shuddered. He knew that skill all too well. It had trapped him twice during the fight. If the War Angel hadn’t broken the coffin within three seconds both times, he would already be dead. That alone proved how powerful the skill was and how valuable it would be to acquire.
The problem was that, among his ultimate Digital Sprites, only the Greed Neo Vamdemon had any connection to darkness. None of the others possessed dark attributes.
That raised another question. Should he develop a dedicated dark evolution path?
The dark attribute wasn’t unfamiliar to him. He possessed the dark attribute himself and even held a Dark Aspect. Among the core-race units he had raised, the Dark Cursed Bug showed the greatest potential. His divine realm’s development had also depended heavily on its contributions. Given all that, a dark evolution path was clearly necessary.
Han Wu already had the required materials and evolution points, so he moved quickly and made it his first priority. After searching through billions of icons on the Evolution Tree, he settled on a path and invested 800,000 evolution points, along with various special materials, to unlock it completely.
[Locust (juvenile, Common life form) > Dark Cursed Bug (adolescent, Elite life form) > Dark Fairy (mature, Heroic life form) > Witchsprite (perfect, King life form) > Umbral Demoness (ultimate, Heavenrender life form)]
The ultimate Umbral Demoness was the result of Han Wu incorporating the Demon Queen Gem into the evolution line. He spent 2 million energy points and summoned one Umbral Demoness.
The moment he laid eyes on her, he froze. The Umbral Demoness still retained faint traces of her locust origins, but more than ninety percent of her appearance was indistinguishable from that of a human. Her figure was extraordinary, her face stunning, and a seductive fragrance radiated from her without warning.
Caught off guard, Han Wu fell under the Umbral Demoness’ charm in an instant. He snapped out of it quickly, but a cold sweat still broke out across his back.
His soul was exceptionally strong, yet even he had been momentarily ensnared. If someone like him could be affected, what would ordinary life forms do against this? They would be utterly lost.
Han Wu checked the other Digital Sprites. Every single one of them was staring at the Umbral Demoness with glazed expressions, including the Machinedramon, which was made of pure metal. Even an iron machine wasn’t immune.
This wasn’t seduction; it was practically a digital virus.
Han Wu coughed once, and all the Digital Sprites snapped back to attention. The Umbral Demoness merely responded with a small, quiet smile.
He immediately realized that she was a perfect fit for the Lust Sin. He ran a compatibility check between the Lust Sin and the Umbral Demoness, and the result showed very high compatibility. As such, he bestowed the Lust Sin to the Umbral Demoness.
Once she absorbed it, the last faint traces of locust features vanished completely. From the outside, she appeared completely human.
Han Wu quickly checked her stats.
[Lust Umbral Demoness, Sin Lord of Lust (Microcosm rank). Skills: Lethal Attraction, Dark Gem, Black Coffin, Dark Dominator. Description: A powerful humanoid Demon Lord-type Digital Sprite. Irresistibly captivating and desired by all life forms.]
[Lethal Attraction: Has an overwhelming allure over all life forms and non-life forms.]
[Dark Gem: Grants mastery over a wide range of basic dark-attribute skills.]
[Black Coffin: A Demon Lord’s ultimate technique fueled by overwhelming Dark Energy.]
[Dark Dominator: Absorbs negative energy such as Dark Energy, Sin Energy, Evil Energy, and many others from other life forms and converts it for personal use.]
After undergoing Sin Evolution, the Lust Umbral Demoness had grown significantly stronger and was now on par with the recently slain Lust Dark Demon Queen.
With a powerful fighter added to his roster, Han Wu felt more confident about what lay ahead. For now, however, his immediate priority was still accumulating energy and evolution points.
Gu Bei’s group would catch up to him soon, and he needed stronger forces before they did.
***
Elsewhere, Gu Bei’s group regrouped and assessed the damage. Their losses from the battle were severe. Twelve ultimate Digital Sprites had been killed, while the casualties among perfect and mature Digital Sprites were too high to count.
Even that wasn’t the worst of it. Twenty-three contestants had their protective barriers drained to zero and were forcibly teleported out during the battle. Fewer than eighty contestants remained.
The scale of the losses sparked a wave of resentment, and Gu Bei bore the brunt of it. Some contestants blamed him for leading four people and fifteen ultimate units into battle yet still failing to stop Han Wu. In their eyes, that amounted to throwing the match.
Gu Bei found the accusation deeply unfair. It was true that he and three others, along with fifteen ultimate units, had failed to bring Han Wu down, but the entire group hadn’t managed to stop Han Wu either.
Nobody had held back. Han Wu was simply too powerful. His casual summoning of twenty ultimate Nuclear Locusts to stall the pursuit represented an investment of 200,000 Divine Essence.
Gu Bei genuinely believed that with such a resource advantage, he could have matched Han Wu. The problem was that although the Destruction Clan was far from poor, it would never give Gu Bei 200,000 Divine Essence to spend freely.
Almost no family was willing to imitate Han Wu and dump 2 million Divine Essence into a single hunting event, even though they knew that the Giant Crest inside could produce powerful units. Every family feared walking away empty-handed, especially since the conflicts between them could never be fully resolved.
In the end, the coalition of more than eighty contestants fell apart within the ruined city. They split into several smaller squads and fanned out along different routes to continue tracking Han Wu, each hoping to be the one to take the Giant Crest from him.