[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies":3,"chapter-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-382":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Notes on Kraft Anomalous Studies",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2283860,4467,"Chapter 382","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-382",382,"\u003Cp>“You can see it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Maybe?” Yin Feng rubbed his eyes, then realized it wasn’t a vision problem—the thing itself was blurred, like an absurd dream: vivid while experienced, utterly unrecallable in detail afterward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The hovering priest fell to the ground, alive or dead unknown; Benny, who had aimed to trade blows, lunged into empty air, his blade piercing only wind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unrelated nightmares seemed to be seeping into reality, collapsing into a more tangible form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It seemed to sense the change in state; its scales fluttered faster, like a fish stranded on shore opening its gills and flapping its fins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even so, by size and hardened scales alone, it was a creature beyond mortal resistance. It showed no intention of abandoning its nearly caught prey; after a brief circling and observation, it locked onto the only target that had wounded it, and attacked again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Naturally, a normal creature wouldn’t target the smallest figure present, nor notice her quietly picking up a convenient shard of rock.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wings spread, it lunged at Kraft in a low, gliding strike—faster, yet more intuitive, as if a giant bird, several times human size, truly had such a predatory posture.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Both heavy and light, its wing membranes blotted out half the night sky, filling the field of view with unfocused, blurred shapes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Violent winds carried sand, stones, and fallen leaves, forming a churning turbid wave that made it impossible to look directly at the writhing, mirror-like bands within.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft wisely abandoned extraneous thoughts, curling tightly to minimize his exposed surface, diving toward the nearest rock.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A thousand bone-scraping knives, a thousand shattered silver mirrors, screeched with ear-splitting, soul-raking noise; the rock was sheared clean of a layer, stone dust choking their mouths and noses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One couldn’t imagine what the aftermath of a direct hit would be—perhaps you’d need a basket to carry it back, and not one with too large a mesh.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its material influence had sharply intensified—or rather, this was its true power: lifting weights many times that of an adult into the air, moving with ease.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyone facing its might would admit: slaying a dragon was a miracle reserved for those blessed by the Lord. Normally, only a squad armed with several winch-crossbows might pose even a slight threat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Amid the deafening chaos, a piercing whistle passed almost unnoticed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only Benny, on the battlefield’s edge and arriving to reinforce, sensed something—a straight, gray phantom. At its origin, Yin Feng had just finished his throwing stance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the chaotic mess, the existence of a perfect straight line was jarringly unreal. And indeed, it flashed for only the briefest instant before vanishing entirely—so fleeting one could doubt whether it had ever appeared, or was merely a hallucination.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Doubt lasted only half a thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The winding outline formed by reflected light suddenly stiffened; where it connected to the wing, it twisted unnaturally, forming an arc incompatible with its overall motion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then came a horrifying crack, like a ship’s mast snapping—the left wing sagged helplessly, tendons deprived of skeletal support spasmed and contracted on their own, fighting against the damage and worsening it, dragging the mist-like membrane in convulsive thrashes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The chaotic wind pressure was no longer aiding flight—it had become an accomplice to destruction, using the creature’s own momentum to further fracture the wound, sending dull, muffled sounds through the joint cavity as soft tissues were shredded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The thing veered off its flight path and slammed into the ground with no cushioning, writhing as it emitted a scream never heard before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At first barely audible—like snake scales or dry leaves scraping the ground, warm fluid spurting from torn openings—it rapidly layered and stretched, the tone resembling dozens of crawling pupae writhing, entangling and devouring each other, finally merging into an inexplicable vibration.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More than a cry of pain or rage, it resembled boundless language—liquid, pouring into hearing and consciousness, without requiring the listener’s understanding, splitting into hazy, fragmented words and perspectives, describing and praising some existence from angles both imaginable and unimaginable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like a grain of salt describing the ocean, a wisp of wind describing the sky—it was merely a minuscule scale from a vast being, destined, even if temporarily annihilated, to be reborn in the future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even this indirect glimpse of the iceberg revealed a scale beyond the mind’s capacity to bear. Some impossibly long concept, beyond comprehension, slithered into the brain, coiling and pressing reason into cramped, unyielding corners.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft tried to cover his ears, but realized he had forgotten how to move his limbs—he could only slowly, sluggishly issue simple commands: raise the shoulders, bend the arms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet the creature did not seize the chance to attack; instead, it showed clear signs of exhaustion. Its scales closed, its body curled and contracted—as if the previous scream had not come from vocal organs, but from its very substance, like blood or some vital fluid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its manifested form grew blurry once more, like smoke fading from a dying furnace, thinning into insubstantiality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were racing to recover—body against mind, wound against wound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps this was the first time in years the creature had suffered such severe injury; yet, through its inexplicable structure, it slowly recovered, lifting its upper body inch by inch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this was no first time for Kraft to endure such an impact. He rose first, stumbling forward in a charge, swinging his page hammer toward the most obvious target—the arrowhead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The partially ejected arrowhead plunged back into the wing membrane; the furious counterattack came instantly—he didn’t even register how he was struck before his body was hurled into the air, faster than pain could catch up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the goal had been achieved.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He saw Yin Feng rising to one knee, his blacksmith’s hammer gone, and in the air, a perfect circular phantom now hung.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A composite of metal and solid wood, forged for weapons and tools, thus far sturdier and more reliable than ordinary iron.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Due to its center of gravity, its trajectory wasn’t straight like an arrow, but driven by brute force into a violent spin and tumble, flinging alternating flashes of silver threads—yet somehow, impossibly, it felt light, drifting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In terror, Yin Feng had clearly used all his strength. His eyes could barely track the projectile’s path, catching only the flickering near-circular outline—not flying, but tearing, carving a straight channel to its target.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At impact, the scales lost their hardness, rippling like water in concentric circles, trembling outward, then shattering from within outward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shards of light erupted in all directions, dissolving midair like dying sparks, breaking into mist like butterfly scales; phantom images, barely formed, dimmed and vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the creature itself, as it had come, faded from perception—only something fell from midair, rolling to their feet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>White and semi-translucent, similar in texture to the arrowhead, shaped like a butterfly with wings spread, its center hollowed as if designed as an altar for something.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft poked it curiously with the hammer’s shaft, flipped it over—and recognized it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Butterfly bone?”\u003C\u002Fp>",1157,"2026-06-20T02:15:56.940Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","738b37f15637d29e562b37eed2bf856fbe4e57d7407283670965a87fc24c146b","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-383","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-381",406,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fnotes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-cover.jpg"]