There were countless parasites emerging from underneath the Xia Temple as they moved along. They then headed towards the south gate of the Xia Temple’s ruins and drifted away towards Xiaoxia City.

Leech pods dispersed in the air resembled purple clouds beneath the sunlight.

Those at the Xia Palace Ruins did not find this phenomenon peculiar. Instead, they opened the camera page on the Heart Network to capture this breathtaking scene but strange things began to happen. The leech pods began targeting the crowd as their hosts.

Only a small number of people noticed this and started running away.

The Life Light in the host bodies were quickly consumed and they fainted.

However, this was just the beginning. More and more leech pods drifted away from the Xia Palace Ruins towards Xiaoxia City and spread to larger areas...

Beneath the Xia Palace Ruins, the battle between Charcoal and blood-colored vine had intensified.

Charcoal eventually gave up the ranged attack using dragonflames and moved closer to the blood-colored vine after noticing the increasingly powerful aura of the blood-colored vine. Soon, they became tangled with one another.

Charcoal had a very sharp mouth claw enabling it to directly tear off a section of the blood-colored vine.

It was even more powerful when it used its dragonflame within such a short distance.

Charcoal launched consecutive attacks and caused the blood-colored vine to growl in pain; all counterattacks were useless because of Charcoal’s strong defense.

Charcoal was finally showing the immense power of the dragonkin in battle.

Its sharp claws looked like pliers made of steel. Each time Charcoal stabbed the blood-colored vine using its claws, deep gashes would be formed. Its teeth were so terrifying that whenever Charcoal bit it, the blood-colored vine’s body felt like it was being ripped into pieces.

Charcoal was a natural combat machine. It had wicked wings on its back that could cut and kill in a flash.

The blood-colored vine almost collapsed when Charcoal engaged in close combat with it. It tried to tie Charcoal with its vines but Charcoal was too powerful and broke free.

It indeed had amazing healing abilities as it healed each and every wound on its own almost instantly. As its aura grew stronger, its body gradually gave off a faint silver glow.

"We’re in trouble now. It has upgraded to silver-level..."

Lin Huang panicked when the blood-colored vine upgraded to silver-level because its abilities would become significantly stronger and Lin Huang had no idea if Charcoal could stop it.

"Xiao Hei, any idea how we can kill this parasite?" Lin Huang was worried because unless his combat ability was stronger than Charcoal’s, there would be no way to kill it.

"The cards you have now cannot solve this problem."

"What about in the card pieces mall?" Lin Huang asked.

"The most effective card right now would be the Primary Kill Card. It can kill any creature with combat abilities below that of a transcendent."

"Redeeming one for the first time will require one million card pieces. You do not have enough card pieces."

"Other than that, are there any other solutions?"

"The Primary Kill Card would be your best choice. The rest would require even more card pieces and you can’t use them anyway."

Lin Huang frowned after listening to Xiao Hei’s explanation.

"Perhaps we should retreat and come back when Charcoal and I are stronger?"

Xiao Hei heard Lin Huang mumbling and gave him a new reminder.

"This would be the best time to kill the parasites or else, you may not have a chance to kill it again."

"How could it be? I’ve been upgrading very quickly and perhaps I can upgrade to a transcendent in a year. Charcoal could probably upgrade once too..."

Before Lin Huang could finish his sentence, Xiao Hei interrupted...

"The growth of a parasite is faster than other creatures because it feeds off of the energy of the host. Based on a research on the life cycle of a parasite, it takes them less than 20 days to grow to its current form and it needs at most two months to upgrade to a transcendent. Even after that, there’s a chance of a third of mutation."

"It has achieved bronze-level rank-3 in less than 20 days and had been mutated twice..." Lin Huang never thought the parasite would grow this rapidly since they lived underground.

"The residual energy of the mutated species is magnificently powerful. Could it be because Xia Hao’s Goldfinger is stronger than Xiao Hei?" Lin Huang could not understand how because Xiao Hei was a complete Goldfinger and should be stronger than the residual energy from Xia Hao’s Goldfinger.

"The functions of all Goldfingers are strictly limited by rules and the host has to obey the rules as well. However, this residual energy has left its Goldfinger and existed on its own. It is no longer restricted by any rules and therefore, it had no qualms about supporting the growth of the parasite."

Lin Huang sighed. He was a little envious.

"If its power growth is unfettered, it would eventually self-destruct. This was the first message I got when I first became independent ."

Xiao Hei sighed with emotion and Lin Huang was stunned. He then recovered from his miserable thoughts and started thinking of ways to overcome this.

"The most troublesome part about this parasite was that it has great healing abilities." Lin Huang had changed his way of thinking and asked, "Xiao Hei, are there any cards that could suppress its healing powers?"

"No. The recovery ability did not come from its own. It gets its energy from the energy sphere. If you want to cut off its recovery ability, let me first complete engulfing the energy from the energy sphere."

"How does it work? How long does it take?"

"I need you to push against the energy sphere for at least three minutes."

"If I go near the energy sphere, it would kill me several times over in those three minutes..." Lin Huang lowered his head and looked at his body. He was in the form of a ghost and his physical defense power was weaker than Lin Huang’s. He would die if his Life Power was attacked.

Lin Huang eyes brightened when he glanced at it.

The base of the energy sphere was in contact with the ground.

"Can the energy sphere move?" Lin Huang asked Xiao Hei.

"No, there are only two ways to move it. The first way would be when it’s attacked by something with immense power and the second way would be if a new Goldfinger absorbs it and brings it away."

Lin Huang was happy and quickly shared, "I have an idea. I’ll hide under the energy sphere so that I am able to touch its base from the bottom."

Lin Huang did what he said by melding into the ground and moved towards the direction of the energy sphere.

As he got closer to the energy sphere when Xiao Hei said "It’s too near, he caught me."

Lin Huang did not bother and continued moving forward.

The blood-colored vine was getting agitated and angry because it sensed Lin Huang and Xiao Hei below it. It began hitting the ground. Lin Huang could feel the ground trembling but continued to move towards the base of the energy sphere.

The collapse of the underground soil would not harm it because as long as his Life Power was not attacked, he would not be injured in ghost form.

Lin Huang reached the bottom of the energy sphere and gradually moved up, having his hands touch the energy sphere above of him.

Just as he touched a warm object with his palm, Xiao Hei’s shouted, "You may need to touch it for at least three minutes."

"Alright." Lin Huang was focused.

On the ground, the blood-colored vine predicted Lin Huang’s intentions and began attacking the ground instead of Charcoal.

Thankfully, Lin Huang was hiding directly below the energy sphere and it was unable to attack Lin Huang because of the way he was hiding and also because the ground above him was incredibly thick.

The situation got worst. The silver glow on the blood-colored vine’s body spread out all of a sudden and it was triggered, increasing its speed of upgrading to silver-level because it knew Lin Huang wanted to take the energy sphere from it.

Its abilities were enhanced and the ground collapsed due to its attack. It was now able to launch a frontal attack on Charcoal.

The number of purple flowers on its body increased after the upgrade. It seemed to have noticed that it was about to lose the energy sphere and it released all the newly grown flowers on its body so that it could increase the rate it absorbed Life Light.

At Xiaoxia City, more than 10,000 hosts were infected. The parasites absorbed their Life Light. One after another were infected, causing fear and panic in the entire foothold.

At the same time, the ground below the Xia Palace Ruins saw the upgraded blood-colored vine hoarding the Life Light, unwilling to let it go.

Lin Huang’s field of view was blocked by the energy sphere since he was beneath it. He could not see what was happening out there.

Charcoal was pressured as well it sensed its opponent growing stronger...