Chapter 288: Sometimes Heroic, Sometimes Feeble (33)

Storm Continent.

Bang~~~

A incredibly strong truth giant dragon fell heavily to the ground, huffing as it gasped for breath.

This dragon was none other than the Dragon General Olei, who had shown great power on the Thunder Wasteland recently.

After gasping several breaths, he loudly cursed: 'Vile beyond compare, fusion monster, huff~ huff~ huff~~~'

This was not the first time the fusion monster had used poison.

At the start of the battle, those evil things had used a strange meat poison on them, turning many elves into hideous monsters.

Now that they had defenses against the meat poison, this even more hidden and terrifying weakness toxin appeared instead.

At this moment, he felt utterly miserable, as if he would die any second.

If he died, it would be fine—his soul could return to the Tree of Life and he could have a healthy body again, but he simply couldn't die!

Cough~ cough~

Amidst the coughing, a tall truth warrior walked over slowly, leaning on a cane.

His body was clearly very strong, but his face was full of worry.

Such a strong fellow, yet he bent over coughing violently while walking with a cane, giving off a rather absurd dark humor.

"General, how are you?"

"Marshal, I should be asking you that—I feel you're even weaker than I am."

The visitor was none other than the former Legion Marshal, Antaliya.

He was ill and hadn't recovered for a long time; other truth warriors were sick too, but the legion couldn't be without a commander.

So now the commander had been replaced by an ordinary elf warrior.

Without the truth warriors' help, the battle situation stalled again, and the legion's losses increased greatly.

The front's advance became extremely slow, with many areas even being pushed back by the fusion monsters.

Antaliya, who had been full of vigor not long ago, now looked like a despondent old elder.

Ahhh~ cough~

Amidst sighs mixed with coughing, Antaliya threw away his cane and sat down beside Olei.

"Fate is truly mysterious~"

"Who says it isn't?"

Olei sighed along.

I thought gaining a strong body would let me roam freely on the battlefield, but the vigor faded after just two months.

Unwillingly, a hint of resentment toward my master arose, feeling that this new gadget he made was rather unreliable.

Similar phenomena are everywhere among the elf legion.

This weakness toxin is truly sinister, seemingly everywhere, and as if it had eyes, it specifically poisons strong warriors.

Not only did the truth warriors fall, but even the original golden warriors could not escape.

In any case, the legion's sharpest blade has broken.

Mortals were worried, but De Rui Tan was irritable.

At this moment, he was staying in the elves' main base behind the Storm Continent, controlling the body of the female elf Duola, holding a Tree of Life branch, and carefully studying the truth warriors' diseased bodies.

Actually, he would rather control Qiqi to do this.

Because Qiqi is more perfect than Duola, but Qiqi's soul isn't strong enough, so Duola is easier to use.

So he could only temporarily suppress his perfectionism.

What he didn't know was that, whether he used Duola or Qiqi, it would silently transmit information to someone.

Back to the point.

Through the Tree of Life branch, he had already discovered this was not poison, but a disease.

Because once poison enters the body, its amount doesn't increase, but once disease enters, its amount surges quickly and it is highly contagious.

The problem is that the deadly pathogen is so tiny it almost exceeds the perception limit of the Tree of Life branch.

And life's structure is so complex that pulling one thread moves the whole body, making it hard to find a good cure.

But this method must be found, otherwise his war trump card would be gone.

Since the first symptoms appeared until now, he had searched for six days, finding some ways to ease the symptoms, but still no complete cure.

Besides being irritable, De Rui Tan also felt somewhat puzzled.

"Is this disease natural, or did Bake create it?"

It cannot be determined for now.

But he thought that if it were man-made, it was probably not Bake's doing.

If he had the ability to do this, he wouldn't be just a level‑4 great demon.

It is likely that his behind‑the‑scenes devouring great demon Nuoma did it.

After all, Nuoma is a great demon of the Legendary 11 and still has some tricks.

Thinking of the fusion great demon Bake, De Rui Tan's heart filled with strong disgust.

"How could there be something so ugly in the world."

Ugliness aside, it is especially good at hiding.

He searched the void for half a day, several times spotting his traces, but each time that slippery oil‑fish‑like fellow got away.

He simply gave up searching, planning to crush everything with his army in the mortal realm, but then this happened.

What to do?

There's nothing else to do but strive to find a cure.

As a result, this search took him over three months.

By luck and strength combined, he finally found a cure, which he immediately gave to the Truth Warriors.

The effect was very good.

The Truth Warriors immediately rallied, once again storming the Storm Continent, fiercely pushing back the previously stalemated—and even reversed—front lines.

Meanwhile, Luosen kept a close watch on De Rui Tan's movements.

As soon as he saw De Rui Tan had found a solution, he immediately followed up, deploying a new Truth virus.

Thus, before De Rui Tan could even catch his breath, the Truth Warriors fell ill again!

The symptoms were almost identical to last time; the only change was that the medicine he had spent over three months to find was now useless.

De Rui Tan could only once again possess Duola's body, take up a Life Tree branch, and continue his research.

This time around, he felt something was off.

"It's obvious this isn't a natural illness; someone is secretly sabotaging me."

"It definitely isn't a mortal; mortals absolutely don't have this capability!"

"It can only be a void demon, a great demon highly skilled at hiding and extremely treacherous."

"Damn it!"

De Rui Tan's heart burned with anger; he simply stopped researching and instead roamed the Huan Wai Xu Kong corresponding to the Storm Continent, trying to ferret out the demon causing the trouble.

He went round and round, even carefully searching the incomplete magical ring where the moon resides.

He searched for a full half month, and the result was that not even a trace of a minor demon could be found, let alone a major one.

But the Truth Warriors' illness could not be delayed; relying solely on ordinary soldiers, they could only hold the current front line, yet found it hard to advance.

Thus he had no choice but to continue researching a cure.

This time, his luck was poor; it took him over five months to find a treatment.

Thus, the Truth Warriors, who had been withering for nearly half a year, rallied once again.

This time, the number of Truth Warriors also greatly increased, reaching over 2000.

Meanwhile, the output of the Endless Forest's legendary crystals and legendary hats also rose significantly; combined, De Rui Tan obtained over 2000 legendary Truth Warriors.

With the aid of these Truth Warriors, the Elves legion advanced the front lines with an almost irresistible force.

But just three days later, the same weakness disease erupted again on a large scale among the Truth Warrior ranks.

The spread was astonishingly fast; in less than five days, all 2000 legendary Truth Warriors were completely knocked out.

What's worse, the illness wasn't just one kind.

Some suffered severe coughing, some severe fever, some were too weak to stand, and some had diarrhea all day long.

Moreover, the stronger the Truth Warrior, the more violent the symptoms.

The Truth Dragon General Olei, due to an almost flash-flood-like diarrhea, wasted away to skin and bone at a visible speed.

He couldn't even stand, let alone fight.

De Rui Tan was nearly driven mad.

He also grew somewhat paranoid.

"Suddenly so many diseases appeared; it doesn't feel man-made, since even Adela isn't this capable."

"Could it be that there is actually no opponent, but rather the Storm Continent is cursing me?"

"What should we do now?"

De Rui Tan was extremely anxious and also very resentful.

This time his return was meant to regain control of the plane, not to hole up in a lab all day treating a bunch of diarrhea patients.

When he stood among a group of sickly Truth Warriors, a thick stench of feces filled the air, and his ears were filled either with heart-rending violent coughing or with the sound of 'pēi pēi pū pū' diarrhea.

That feeling need not be described—it was utterly awful.

There were many moments when he wished to flee far away from this damned place, but he gritted his teeth and persisted.

Because the Creation Gate of the Fallen Plane could open at any time.

Producing ten outstanding legendary saints would not be difficult, but if other gods learned he lacked the ability to retake the plane—and couldn't even beat a level‑4 minor demon—they'd likely make a laughingstock of him.

Just thinking about being mocked by his peers made De Rui Tan unable to bear it.

"Forget it; the Truth Warriors are temporarily unusable. Though they have strong combat power, they also have major flaws—I need to improve them."

"As for this fusion battlefield, I'll first use ordinary Elves troops and rely on sheer numbers to push forward."

He currently possesses a large number of souls and also controls abundant resources.

Using the Life Tree to transmute all those combat souls into Elves warriors, creating an army of millions of Elves, he didn't believe he could fail to take this damned Fusion Empire!

He thought it, and he did it.

And when he did that, Luosen received the news immediately.

"Mmm~~ You're quitting after just playing a little? How boring."

He still wanted to saw back and forth with the opponent a bit more.

Since the opponent intended to use ordinary Elves troops, Luosen also abandoned his virus tactics.

After all, Elves and mortals are closely related; a disease that spreads among Elves is likely to spread among mortals as well.

One slip and it could easily become the Seven Injuries Fist.

But if he used ordinary Elves troops, the war would drag on much longer—likely taking five or six years to conquer the Fusion Empire.

With bad luck, it could even drag on ten or more years.

As for the Truth Warriors, as long as De Rui Tan uses Duola—or Xixi—as a mortal incarnation, Luosen can guarantee they will keep having diarrhea, all the way until their intestines are pulled out.

So, from now on he can focus on domestic development.

Coincidentally, the verification equipment for the Heart of the Ocean has been completed, and he can now attempt to create a sun in the mortal realm.

(End of Chapter)