Chapter 179 - 178: Making Glass

Chapter 179: Chapter 178: Making Glass

Up close, the massive crater looked even bigger than he’d first estimated, though it also appeared a bit shallower than the original pit.

Lin Fan had just reached the edge of the crater when he nearly fell. After kicking away the ash with his boot, he discovered the ground beneath had completely melted into a glossy, glass-like substance resembling Obsidian.

He had just happened to step on a slightly raised "bubble" that was incredibly smooth, but the rest of the area was covered in pitted gravel and debris, with sharp, jagged protrusions everywhere.

If an ordinary person were walking here, a single slip would probably result in dozens of new cuts just from trying to get back up.

Even with his excellent balance, Lin Fan couldn’t walk with any confidence across this trap-laden, molten wasteland.

Making his way down the slope, he had no choice but to jam the butt of his spear into the Obsidian-like glass of the crater wall, inching his way carefully to the bottom’s edge.

The ash was thicker at the bottom, and so was the heat. The blue light around his feet grew increasingly conspicuous, but his Energy Value wasn’t dropping too fast. This told him that while the ground temperature was high enough to harm him, it hadn’t reached an absurd level.

’Too bad I don’t have a convenient ability to just blow all this ash away.’

Lin Fan had no choice but to try activating the power of the impact crystal on his spear. He let it build up, carefully feeling the energy gather and focusing it on one side of the spear’s blade.

THUMP!

CLANG!

The concussive force erupted from the spearhead in a fan-shaped blast, sending a pocket of air flying. Lin Fan felt immense force travel up the spear’s shaft, and the propulsive force of the blast slammed the spearhead hard against the Obsidian glass behind it. With a sharp crack, a piece of the sharp tip chipped off and went flying...

The violent gust from the blast blew all the black ash at the crater’s bottom into a dark cloud that enveloped a radius of dozens of meters...

The moment the dust flew up, Lin Fan’s heart sank.

This deep pit had been fused into a "glass bowl," growing thicker and a glossy black toward the bottom.

And judging from the damage to his spearhead, this Obsidian was even harder than his spear was without an energy-infused attack.

He held his breath and leaped out of the crater in a single bound, landing back on solid ground. Gazing at the smoke-bomb-like cloud of ash before him, Lin Fan finally reached up to wipe the lenses of his gas mask.

’Well, this is awkward...’

He’d come here for two reasons. First, to check for any unusual activity or signs that the monster was still alive.

But one look told him that even if the "tree" wasn’t dead, it was on its last legs. The zombies in the area were completely out of control; there was no hierarchy to their formation, nor were they milling around the crater.

As for the Mutated Zombies on the original pit’s walls, they were undoubtedly toast. The very earth had been fused into glass. There was no way any of them could have escaped such intense heat.

His second objective was to see if he could recover any of the round crystals. After all, those dozens of zombies with barely any health left represented dozens of round crystals!

Those crystals evaporated over time, which was why Lin Fan had been in such a hurry to come and check.

’But I’ve never seen the aftermath of a high-temperature explosion like this. How was I supposed to know the damn thing would be so powerful? The crater is several times bigger, the walls are fused to glass, the Mutated Zombies are vaporized, and the crystals must have been blown to smithereens or buried deep under all this black glass.’

’Besides, this black glass is incredibly hard. My own spear chipped against it from just a bit of force. If it were Chu Zhaozhao and the others, they’d probably need pickaxes just to make a dent.’

’Assuming the zombies wander far enough away, that is.’

The explosion had utterly transformed the area into a flat plain, devoid of any cover.

As time passed, the ground began to cool, and the surrounding zombies started to slowly encroach on the area.

Lin Fan stood at the edge of the dust cloud, hesitated for a moment, then turned to leave.

’Luckily, those Mutated Zombies gave me a ton of Life Value and dropped high-level materials and potions. If I can’t even recover a single crystal, this whole trip will have been a massive loss.’

’As for the monster... hopefully it’s dead for good.’

Once he was clear of the high-temperature zone, Lin Fan equipped his stealth crystal. With his potion still active, he began to fight his way back the way he came.

He passed the remains of the tentacle and remembered to grab a souvenir for Ye Qingzhou.

Although the tentacle had been held high in the air, it too had caught fire from the massive blaze at its base. It seemed to have burned through completely, leaving it incredibly brittle. A single tap from his spear was enough to shatter a several-meter-long section; it was more fragile than charcoal.

Lin Fan cleared away the nearby zombies, stored his spear, and picked up a large piece of the wreckage. With a two-step running start, he leaped onto a nearby roof and then dropped back down beside Ye Qingzhou.

The entire round trip hadn’t even taken ten minutes. His potion was still active.

"For you..."

Lin Fan held out the watermelon-sized chunk of wreckage to Ye Qingzhou, who was waiting where he’d left her.

"It’s so light... Where’s your spear?"

Ye Qingzhou quickly took the chunk of wreckage, glancing around as she marveled at its weight.

It seemed she lost all sense as soon as she saw a fresh sample, asking the question offhandedly.

Lin Fan knew she must have been watching him the whole time, especially since he’d deactivated the stealth crystal partway through, so he answered nonchalantly,

"...I stored it."

"It’s completely carbonized. Normally, something shouldn’t carbonize this thoroughly even at the epicenter of a fire..."

Ye Qingzhou continued to analyze the sample, not pressing him further about where the spear had gone.

"Besides, based on your description, this was part of one of the two tentacles that were hundreds of meters long. It wasn’t even directly in the fire, and yet it’s still carbonized..."

"What if the fire traveled up from the base?"

Lin Fan theorized.

"Did you pour the gasoline from the top of the tentacle down?"

Ye Qingzhou glanced back at him.

"Otherwise, how would it have burned all the way up? If it were that flammable, you wouldn’t have needed to go to such lengths. A single incendiary would’ve been enough to burn it to a crisp."

"...Why would we rule that out as a possibility?"

Hearing her say that made Lin Fan suddenly feel as if his two tons of fuel had gone to waste, and he couldn’t help but retort.

"We’ve tried. It can’t be killed by fire. Its limbs are coated in a mysterious layer of energy, likely part of its ability. Flames can’t catch hold; it just shakes them off..."

Ye Qingzhou set the sample on the ground. She raised her combat boot and stomped down hard, shattering the watermelon-sized piece of carbonized tentacle into small fragments. Then, she picked them up one by one and placed them in a plastic bag.

"Unless the temperature or the amount of fuel surpasses a certain threshold, making it impossible for it to extinguish the flames. For instance... if several tons of fuel were to suddenly appear right at its base..."

She gathered all the fragments from the ground into the sample bag, sealed it, and placed it inside her canvas bag.

Once she had finished, Ye Qingzhou looked up, her deep-set eyes meeting Lin Fan’s gaze once more.

Lin Fan, out of habit, started to reach his soot-covered hand toward her waist, but he suddenly remembered she wasn’t Chu Zhaozhao. He quickly retracted his hand and began wiping it on his own clothes.

’These clothes are covered in ash anyway. They’ll be a lost cause when I get back.’

But Ye Qingzhou’s stare made him stop wiping his hand. Lin Fan couldn’t see her expression through the gas mask, but the light glinting in her eyes left him slightly mesmerized.

Ye Qingzhou looked at Lin Fan intently and asked:

"Colonel Lin, is your ability to create things out of thin air?"

"...Hah. Wouldn’t that make me a god?"

The question took Lin Fan by surprise, but he quickly understood what she was getting at and replied, half-jokingly:

"No. That falls into the ’can’t talk about it’ category. You’re free to guess, because I haven’t figured it out myself. If I ever learn more or need your help, I’ll be sure to ask..."

At this, Lin Fan pursed his lips beneath his mask. He met Ye Qingzhou’s eyes and continued:

"But for now, there’s nothing I can tell you."