"BOOM!!"
The explosion roared like a giant, reverberating drum.
Forelimbs, tens of meters tall, descended vertically like pillars supporting the sky.
The impact kicked up a sky-blotting sandstorm, and more than half of a sand dune collapsed directly from this single stomp.
This was the [Heavy Strike] from a "Honkai Crush (Chariot-class Honkai Beast Variant)."
This move possessed the terrifying force to flatten a main battle tank in one blow.
But it missed.
No matter how powerful a move was, if it didn't connect, it was meaningless. The seemingly terrifying attack was no faster than a toddler taking its first steps in Lu Xing's eyes.
Even though its level wasn't low.
Race: Honkai Crush
Level: 40
Abilities: Roar, Pounce, Heavy Strike
Attack: 60
Speed: 25
Constitution: 60
"Swoosh!"
The whipped-up wind and sand might cause a stinging pain if it hit a human.
But for Lu Xing, it didn't even count as a tickle. After a simple back-jump to avoid the Chariot-class's attack, the Knight Captain stomped hard on the ground beneath him and, with a presence no less imposing than his opponent's, charged straight towards the Chariot-class's massive head.
That was where its Honkai Core was concentrated.
"Clang!"
"BOOM!!"
A silver light streaked through the air.
The Chariot-class's enormous body directly disintegrated into scattered, light purple particles; the Honkai Core belonging to the Honkai Crush, however, transformed into countless slender tendrils of light, surging towards the halo above Lu Xing's head like a whale devouring krill.
"Thump."
When the very last bit of Honkai energy was consumed.
This battle, which had lasted 15 seconds, finally reached its end.
"Whew."
Lu Xing controlled his body and let out a long sigh.
Two weeks had passed since the end of that battle.
Lu Xing advanced slowly but steadily towards the direction of the rising sun. He didn't know what lay ahead, but to the west, from where he came, there was surely nothing left.
Sssshhhla!
He formed a blade with his hand.
A slender rift, cut open at his side, became a blade-sheath for storing his weapon.
With his increasing familiarity with [Space-Time Rend], Lu Xing could now achieve this with an extremely small amount of Honkai energy, performing it with ease.
The consumption was less than even 3%.
"Didn't level up, huh..."
The Chariot-class just now wasn't low-level, but the battle with it didn't seem to provide Lu Xing with much experience. He didn't know if it was because it was harder to level up at higher levels, or if creatures like this, without affixes in their names, gave too little experience.
In these two weeks.
The number of Honkai Beasts Lu Xing had taken down was definitely not small.
On the road eastward, the Honkai Beasts encountered along the way became progressively higher-level. In the last two days, creatures like the Honkai Crush, with levels as high as Lv.40, had appeared.
But to be honest.
For Lu Xing, who had experienced the battle with the Knight Captain, they really weren't much to look at.
Their tactics were direct, skills simple, and flaws obvious.
If compared to food, they could only be considered plentiful and filling, but utterly lacking in color, aroma, or taste.
However, because these Honkai Beasts weren't low-level.
They still allowed Lu Xing, who had basically been killing his way along, to level up once more, reaching Lv.37—a significant portion of this experience was built upon human kills.
But if he wanted to continue leveling up.
These "wild" Honkai Beasts were clearly not a good choice.
Lu Xing donned a cloak that matched the hue of the sand dunes. Apart from constantly searching for experience points, he had only done two things in over half a month:
Firstly, controlling his body.
The clothing (exoskeleton) covering his body was quite sturdy.
However, the "human body" part only had half the strength of the exoskeleton—in exchange for extremely considerable flexibility and extensibility.
Of course, it was still very tough.
The tubular Honkai energy transport network within his body, similar to muscles and sinews, allowed him to perform various high-difficulty movements; it even enabled him to slightly reshape the interior of his body without altering the main structure—basic maneuvers like turning his head 180 degrees, the kind you'd see in horror stories, were trivial.
After completely familiarizing himself with combat needs.
Lu Xing began trying to make sounds with his throat—this way, when using the cloak to cover his body, he could better disguise himself as a human.
Not too much.
Just a few simple syllables would do.
Disguising himself as prey, in this continuously desertifying wasteland, was the best means of concealment.
However, this task was clearly not something that could be completed in a short time.
Lu Xing could indeed make sounds with his throat now, but they were more like the sharp and rough roars of a wild beast.
Incidentally.
A Knight-class's mouth originally had nothing in it, but under Lu Xing's training, this small difficulty was successfully overcome—otherwise, he wouldn't be able to make a "roaring" motion. The oral cavity, due to specialized reinforcement, had successfully grown a row of fine, shark-like teeth.
He had no other thoughts.
As innate weapons of mammals, sharp teeth and claws were very necessary things—similarly, at the tips of his fingers, which previously lacked any detail, Lu Xing had stubbornly constructed complete nail structures for himself.
The former made it easier to tear targets apart.
The latter allowed him to perform simple corpse processing work without using weapons.
As for the second thing, it was the cloak Lu Xing wore.
Name: Ravenwing
Type: Armor
Grade: Hardware (Blue, Elite)
Effects: Aura Concealment (Strong), Environmental Mimicry (Weak).
The main body of this item.
Was a loose, black, hooded cloak.
Lu Xing hadn't tested the Aura Concealment effect, but the Environmental Mimicry that followed was quite useful.
Although there was a "Weak" in the annotation, the [Ravenwing], when worn, could very noticeably change its color to perfectly blend in with the surrounding environment. As Lu Xing walked along the border between the desert and the wasteland, the [Ravenwing] he wore automatically changed to a gradient of brown-yellow and pale yellow.
Of course, there were problems too.
The "Armor" in its type wasn't reliable. The defense of [Ravenwing]... might be effective if worn by a human, but for Lu Xing, a Honkai Beast, it wasn't even half as high as his "human body's" defense.
Moreover, because Lu Xing had two horns on his head, the cloak couldn't completely cover him. It was fine during the day... yes, it wasn't very noticeable during the day. But at night, this pair of slender, gradient-colored horns would always leak excess Honkai energy.
The Honkai Energy Halo, however, didn't have this issue—when not channeling energy, i.e., in a non-combat state, the halo would automatically hide itself.
To solve this problem.
Lu Xing, who had not yet mastered the ability of "horn retraction," could only keep his Honkai energy reserves at around 90%. Through experiments, he found that when his internal Honkai energy was below 90%, these horns wouldn't glow.
All that remained.
Was to hope that he could successfully master this ability before advancing to "Temple-class"... If he didn't master it, he wouldn't have a chance to use it later.