Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1226 - 1219: The Composition of the Beast

Chapter 1226: Chapter 1219: The Composition of the Beast

If there’s anything in the Otherworld comparable to radiation on Earth, it probably would be the evaporation of the Source River. The evaporation of this highly concentrated magic power causes strong magical disturbances, akin to the impact of radiation on the human body.

So, actually, the best method when encountering such a situation should be to avoid it, rather than approach. People on Earth still have lead-lined protective suits to absorb and block radiation, while people in the Otherworld basically have no means at all — they can only continuously maintain magical defense shields to ward off the influence of the magic power disturbances on their bodies.

Noticing the commotion here, the dwarven scientist ran over, urgently advising, "I told you all not to get close to this thing. It’s very dangerous; your Earthling bodies can’t handle it."

He seemed to forget that the entire Advance Team were sub-humans, and the rest were people from the Otherworld — essentially there were no actual Earthlings in the true sense.

Tangmo supported Luo’er, retreating repeatedly. Soon, an invisible yet light-distorting barrier suddenly appeared in front of the two, blocking the evaporation from the Source River. This was Fulajie’er’s masterpiece; otherwise, Luo’er definitely wouldn’t be able to withstand it.

"Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. You go cover Teacher Zhu. Don’t let anything happen to her; her magical aptitude isn’t good," Luo’er gestured as he spoke.

"What time is it, and you’re still concerned about others," Tangmo said with a frown, discontent.

"Ah, I know my own body," Luo’er said anxiously.

"But you never care about your own body," Tangmo said gloomily.

"Teacher Zhu, please calm down," Hu Daoke hugged Zhuyan Yu from behind, then forcefully dragged her backwards.

By now, they all agreed on one thing about the blue stream flowing out of the Scouring Sky Beast: it was dangerous, and one mustn’t get close to it.

Moving a bit away from the Source River, they finally felt much more comfortable in their bodies, not as distressed as before. Luo’er tried to touch the skin of the Scouring Sky Beast. Its skin was made up of neatly arranged scales, each one fitting tightly against the skin and generally about one meter in diameter.

As Luo’er stroked the Scouring Sky Beast’s scales, he could clearly feel the hardness and roughness, almost as if he was touching a stone. The scales of the Scouring Sky Beast were generally grayish-white but could reflect other colors. Thus, the entire beast appeared to have a gray-black back and a gray-white belly.

"This is..." Luo’er touched a scale and immediately felt his hand covered with a layer of granular residue. He rubbed the palm of his hand, feeling the grains were quite coarse, painful to rub vigorously.

"This is crystal powder..." Luo’er mumbled with a furrowed brow.

The components of this giant beast’s scales were neither keratin proteins similar to human structures nor the chitin found in arthropods but more like mineral substances, commonly known as crystals.

In the Otherworld, the most common crystals are Magic Crystals, which after depleting their magic power, turn into a crystal similar to calcite, usually processed as decorations.

However, based on the current market situation, whether on Earth or in the Otherworld, consumers favor crystals that haven’t depleted their magic power. Crystals containing magic will display various hues according to the concentration of the magic power, while those that have exhausted their magic present as semi-transparent and white.

"Did you find something?" Tangmo asked curiously.

"Look, the scales of the Scouring Sky Beast seem to be made of crystal," Luo’er said, extending his hand with a small cluster of residue from the scales in his palm.

Tangmo extended her finger to press on it slightly, feeling a sharp pain as the abrasive residue easily tore through her skin.

Previously, they hadn’t had a chance to get up close to the Scouring Sky Beast and only observed it from a distance, so they mistakenly thought its skin was smooth. Only upon closer inspection did they realize it was made up of individual scales.

"This seems to be a mineral... such an amazing creature," Tangmo said with a furrowed brow.

"The Overturning Beast is an ancient creature after all, it might be a magical beast different from carbon-based life forms," Luo’er pondered aloud.

Traditional biological shells are either composed of protein or chitin. This was their first time encountering a mineral-based biological shell.

"Have you made any discoveries?" Luo’er collected his thoughts, then looked at the accompanying Dwarven scientists and asked.

"We are still investigating, but as you have seen, the evaporation of this behemoth’s body fluids emits strong magical power; we might need to wait for a while until the magic within it has completely evaporated before we can conduct an in-depth investigation. For now, we can only investigate the periphery. Also, let me warn you again, do not get close to the blue streams, it’s really dangerous. We have already had several companions return to the airboat due to feeling unwell," the Dwarven scientist said, while pointing to the sky. Following his direction, the group saw a transport plane ascending to dock with the Helrandum.

"I’m very curious, how did your Magic Crystal cannon kill such a large creature with a single shot?" Cheng Ziang stepped forward and asked.

"Sorry, no comment!" The Dwarven scientist answered cautiously.

"What’s with the no comment? It’s just the theory of binary particle entanglement, which was originally passed on from us anyway," Hu Daoke rolled his eyes, speaking dismissively.

Hearing his words, Luo’er glanced back at him and then looked at the Dwarven scientist again, "If I’m not mistaken, the principle behind your Magic Crystal cannon should be the particle collision theory, right?"

"Uh, cough cough," upon hearing their statements, the Dwarven scientist coughed awkwardly, then nodded and said, "It is indeed the particle collision theory, but we’re also unclear why it can bring down such a huge beast."

"So even you guys don’t know? Was it just blind luck then?" Luo’er was dumbfounded.

"Yes," the Dwarven scientist nodded, then said with a serious face, "In fact, we are also unclear why a particle collider cannon could take down and even kill an Overturning Beast. According to current understanding, since an Overturning Beast itself is an aggregation of magical power, magic shouldn’t work on it in principle."

"The problem might lie in the theory of particle collision," Tangmo tried to guess.

"Regardless, we need to wait for a period until the magic within this giant creature has dissipated enough that it’s no longer dangerous – then we can conduct a deeper investigation."

"If you find anything during the investigation, please notify us immediately," Luo’er requested.

"Of course," the Dwarven scientist nodded in agreement.

While the two were chatting, suddenly, Hu Daoke pointed to somewhere not too far away, exclaiming in surprise, "Wow, look, there are wild animals. What are they doing?"

Following his shout, everyone looked in the direction he was pointing, and saw several unidentified animals that had appeared at the end of the Source river, bowing their heads to lap at the river.

"My goodness, aren’t they afraid of Magic Power Erosion?" Hu Daoke asked, eyes wide with astonishment.

The group remained silent, watching the animals intently. These animals had a medium build and were covered in brown fur. Judging by their appearance, they seemed to be herbivores, and at first glance, they somewhat resembled deer.

Then, another creature jumped out of the jungle. It was a brown animal similar to a leopard with long fangs, clearly a carnivore. Looking at its fangs, it seemed more accurate to say it looked like a Saber-toothed tiger rather than a leopard.

After the appearance of the carnivorous animal, the herbivores panicked visibly, but strangely, they did not flee. Instead, after a brief period of hesitation, they continued to return to the riverbank and resumed licking the Source river.

What was even more surprising was that the carnivorous animal did not attack the herbivores. Instead, it approached them and, also bending down quietly, started to lap at the Source River just like the others.