Strictly speaking, the Infinite Sea Corpse Vein Dragon did not possess a "core" in the true sense.
One could say its entire body was a core, or that a specific point was the core. The reason a so-called "core" existed now was solely because the dragon was dead.
The immense corpse qi inside required an outlet to vent, and that outlet naturally became a hub of highly concentrated power toward which corpse qi throughout its body flowed.
However, the "slime" had clearly overestimated itself.
It believed it could devour the core power of the Infinite Sea Corpse Vein Dragon, but it was simply too weak, its body far too small.
Although it moved remarkably fast within the dragon's carcass—much faster than Zhang Gangxing devoured its flesh and blood—the moment it approached the power core, its light, tiny body was caught up in the surging torrent of corpse qi and swept rapidly toward the vent.
It was like a child falling into a raging rapid, left with no choice but to drift with the current.
Yu Xian stood beside Zhang Gangxing, acting as his guardian. Suddenly sensing something, he looked toward the geyser of corpse qi erupting from the Infinite Sea Corpse Vein Dragon's back.
The next second, the "slime" was blasted out.
People had once fantasized about being swallowed by a whale, only to be spouted out through its blowhole.
The slime was experiencing something just like that now: swept helplessly along by the corpse qi, it was blasted outside and propelled straight into the sky atop the jet of foul energy.
Zhang Buyao naturally spotted the slime.
While continuing to clear out zombies, she swung her sword, slicing the slime clean in two on the spot.
Her blade was so sharp that even though the slime was split in half, both pieces continued flying upward and vanished from sight in the blink of an eye.
Zhang Buyao wore a cool, aloof expression, but her mind had already wandered off; she was merely slaying zombies on autopilot while zoning out, so she paid the slime's remains no heed. Seeing the slime dealt with, Yu Xian also turned his attention back to Zhang Gangxing.
By now, Zhang Gangxing had dropped onto all fours, his body swelling into a mountain-like form.
Moreover, realizing that his anatomy had to change to accommodate even more power, he actively morphed into a shape resembling a crocodile, though humps sprouted across his back to store the energy absorbed from the Infinite Sea Corpse Vein Dragon.
Currently, Zhang Gangxing's strength had broken through the Dragon-rank to reach the God rank.
Although his strength had hit a bottleneck, he was still growing stronger. His next step would be breaking through to the Star Rank, at which point he would undergo a second metamorphosis.
It had to be said that with ample resources, a zombie's breakthrough speed was astonishing.
Zhang Gangxing had started with an exceptional foundation in particular. His physical body in life had been exceedingly powerful; upon transforming into a zombie after death, even as the lowest-tier zombie, he could have thrashed most Dragon-rank creatures.
Furthermore, each breakthrough effectively added another layer of multiplicative growth to his original base.
Having reached the God rank, he had already become a drought demon zombie. Fortunately, the scorching heat radiating from his body was entirely neutralized by Yu Xian; otherwise, the surrounding area would have long since turned into a sea of lava.
Yu Xian estimated that once Zhang Gangxing broke through to the Star Rank, his absorption speed would accelerate further. In half a month at most, he would be able to completely swallow the Infinite Sea Corpse Vein Dragon, resolving this crisis once and for all.
At the thought of soon possessing a battle pet that could grow stronger indefinitely on its own, Yu Xian felt extraordinarily patient. From now on, any enemy wishing to fight him would first have to get past Zhang Gangxing.
"Yu Xian, come up here and take over! I need a break," Zhang Buyao called out at that moment.
The zombies were practically putting her to sleep.
The endless rain of zombies and her mechanical hacking and slashing were boring her to death.
"All right, come on down. Leave the rest to me."
Yu Xian answered and immediately released the Heavenly Megastar.
The Heavenly Megastar flew into the sky and stationed itself right in front of the rift. All the falling zombies were instantly caught by its gravitational pull and plummeted onto its surface.
Some fell onto the half covered in ice, instantly turning into ice sculptures, while others dropped straight into the molten magma, reduced to ash on the spot.
Zhang Buyao landed on the ground, pulled out a chair, and sat down. Glancing up at the Heavenly Megastar hanging in the sky, she grumbled in annoyance, "If you had something this good, why didn't you bring it out earlier?"
"I thought you were short on footage and wanted to record more," Yu Xian replied innocently, glancing at the recording gem hovering beside her.
He knew Zhang Buyao all too well.
Whenever she looked cool and detached, she was putting on an act. Only when she wore a goofy grin was she in her natural state.
Since she had maintained that haughty expression all this time, he had naturally assumed she was still filming video material.
Zhang Buyao rolled her eyes at him and quickly checked the footage she had captured. Seeing how dashing and heroic she looked in the recording, a goofy smile instantly spread across her face, accompanied by soft chuckles of sheer delight.
After a while, a thought struck Yu Xian, and he couldn't help asking, "Yaoyao, can zombies keep evolving?"
Zhang Buyao looked at Zhang Gangxing and nodded. "Of course. It's basically like vampires. You think Progenitor vampires are the ceiling? If that were true, wouldn't you be unable to grow any stronger right now?"
"That's true. Drought demon is merely the peak of a specific race, not the ceiling of cultivation. Zhang Gangxing can still become a Star Rank zombie, a Li Rank zombie, a System Rank zombie..."
Ultimately, these ranking systems were not particularly rigorous.
Different races and cultivation methods naturally led to vast discrepancies in actual combat power. The countless practitioners across the myriad realms had simply forced an infinite variety of systems into rough categorization frameworks and slapped labels on them.
For most Transcendents, this was both a convenience and an obstacle.
It was very much a case of believing everything in books being worse than having no books at all.
Ranks, realms—taking them as a rough reference was fine, but taking surface metrics as absolute truth would inevitably lead to facing someone with a low realm but terrifying combat prowess, or even someone whose realm and measured stats were both low, yet who fought like a rabid god of war. When that happened, one wouldn't even know how they died.
Yu Xian's horizons had broadened considerably lately. Between raw strength, all sorts of bizarre artifacts, and incomprehensible rule suppressions, far too many variables could dictate the outcome of a battle.
Take himself, for instance: he was currently only at the System Rank, yet even if he encountered a Mighty One, he was confident he could withdraw unscathed.
As for opponents below the level of a Mighty One, he didn't even put them in his eyes anymore.
After all, if Auntie Number Two stepped in, victory was guaranteed.
***
A day and a night slipped by in the blink of an eye.
Zhang Gangxing, whose size had previously reverted to normal thanks to Yu Xian's blood, had now swelled to dimensions dwarfing actual mountain peaks.
His length had stretched past five thousand meters, and his height exceeded two thousand five hundred meters. From afar, his silhouette looked extraordinarily colossal and awe-inspiring.
By comparison, while the Infinite Sea Corpse Vein Dragon was undeniably massive, it was relatively flat, and a large portion of its carcass lay submerged beneath the waves, making it seem less imposing.
Strictly speaking, the Infinite Sea Corpse Vein Dragon was akin to a gigantic starfish.
It was vast in surface area and influence rather than height; viewed from space, it resembled an enormous dog-skin plaster stuck to Earth, constantly leaking corpse qi in every direction.
In fact, had governments worldwide not imposed strict controls prohibiting anyone from taking to the sea, the number of zombies would have multiplied exponentially.
Transcendents fared somewhat better. Those at or above the Dragon-rank could just barely venture out to sea without much trouble, so long as they did not make physical contact with the dragon's carcass.
Transcendents below the Dragon-rank, however, risked zombification simply by coming too close, even without direct touch.
As for ordinary humans, they would likely die within moments of setting out to sea and rise again as zombies.
Every nation was now holding its breath. Satellites in outer space kept their watchful gazes fixed upon Yu Xian. As long as Yu Xian remained unharmed, world leaders could keep their composure and wait for the crisis to pass.
Chapter 371