Void Beetle Evolution Guide

"In my opinion, the last sentence is your real purpose, isn't it?" Wild Hunt said with a half-smile.

"I'll take care of everything." Elise didn't deny it, a wicked smile playing on her lips.

"My expectation of Iser is that he be a qualified swordsman. Absolute obedience and understanding are the most basic requirements. As for the rest, just don't go too far."

The Wild Hunt imposed restrictions on Elise's educational approach, and that was the end of it; he wouldn't pursue the matter further.

"Yes... I will definitely treat Iser as my own daughter and raise her to be as outstanding as I am. Then... the two of us will serve the gods together." The restrictions were very lenient, and Iris immediately started to have wicked ideas again, cupping Iser's cheeks and pressing them against hers, looking like she was deeply in love with her child.

"Hmph, I look forward to that day." The Wild Hunt flicked his thumb, swatting away Elise who was clinging to him, and said, "Now, I have important business to attend to and need to take Yser away. Do you have any objections?"

"Please go ahead." Elise naturally had no objections, and even if she did, she knew to remain silent and prioritize the important matters of the Wild Hunt.

She watched as the giant claw, gripping Iser, whose entire body was encased in armor, retreated into the gradually closing spatial rift and finally disappeared completely.

Then she sat in the governor's chair, crossed her legs high, pressed her sharp nails against her bright red lips, and muttered to herself.

"It's been a while since I last saw you, and the deity has come up with even more tricks up his sleeve."

Chapter 319 The Curse of Ruin Reappears

The flails forged from pure ice, accompanied by a biting wind, hurtled towards her, and Ashe leaped backward. Despite her lightning-fast movements, the shards of ice crystals kicked up by the flails still left a slight burning sensation on her cheeks.

Before Ashe could regain her footing, Sejuani swung her flail again, sweeping across the room like a death knell, determined to kill her.

Sejuani closed her eyes in anguish, her arms mechanically repeating the attack motions, as if the guilt surging within her could be slightly alleviated if she didn't look into Ashe's eyes.

Her heart resisted the urge to harm Ashe, yet she bore the responsibility of saving her people. Only one of them could survive, so each strike felt like tearing her own soul apart.

Paradoxically, her blind attacks gave Ashe a chance to breathe. Ashe dodged and weaved through the gaps in the flying flails, her cloak fluttering in the gale.

She refused to retaliate, firmly believing that there was another possibility, an ending that everyone could accept, so she kept delaying.

However, the lightning cage was shrinking at a visible speed, and the biting electric current crackled all around. The agility of the skin armor was constantly being compressed, and Ashe had little room and time left to maneuver.

As the flail's hammerhead grazed past Ashe's ear again, the biting cold air made her ear tips tingle.

She tumbled under the flail, her back slamming heavily against the approaching wall of lightning. An electric current instantly coursed through her body, the intense pain making it nearly impossible for her to hold onto her longbow.

Even so, she did not raise her weapon, but instead gazed with pain and compassion at the war mother who was struggling between duty and conscience.

Sejuani's attacks grew increasingly chaotic, her flail tracing jagged arcs in the air. Ice crystals clung to her eyelashes, yet she dared not open her eyes.

Subconsciously, she was blindly attacking with her eyes closed, hoping that Ashe would find an opening and deliver a fatal blow, ending her already maddened state, and perhaps freeing her from this tormenting choice.

However, Ashe's forbearance only made her more tormented. Every missed attack felt like a torture to her soul: for the sake of the tribe's future, should she really sacrifice her best friend with her own hands?

Finally, the turning point that Ashe had been waiting for arrived.

A void rift suddenly tore open in the battlefield, and the Wild Hunt's claws appeared with a familiar wielding a giant sword.

"Iser, release the undead!"

Urged on by the Wild Hunt, Yser raised the Broken King's Blade, which was as tall as a man, and drove it deep into the rock beneath his feet.

In the middle, the hard obsidian cracked, and the violent tremors affected the entire battlefield.

The barrier between reality and the spirit world collapsed with a deafening roar, and endless black mist surged from the sword, transforming into a symphony of wailing spirits. The thick fog, carrying countless life-devouring vengeful spirits, swept across the land, its churning tentacles ruthlessly assaulting everything in their path.

Under Iser's control, they avoided their own kind, crashing violently against the basin's walls before charging upwards towards the bear-men's ranks. Wherever they went, even the half-bear monsters were drained, leaving only a faint, deathly green glow—the eerie light of the Curse of Ruin.

The black mist coiled around Volibear's mountain-like body like a touch, climbing up the giant bear's lightning-covered fur and gathering in mid-air to form a sky-covering vortex.

This inverted black cloud vortex, hundreds of miles in diameter, forcefully cut off the surging thunderclouds, creating a void in the world that seemed to devour everything, leaving people dazzled and bewildered.

"To dare to resist, what an insult! I am the storm, I am the heart of the tundra, I will make you disappear from this world!" Volibear roared furiously, his sound waves knocking everyone off their feet.

"Dark clouds gather, thunder rumbles. A storm is gathering, lifting me to the clouds!"

The giant bear's body began to disintegrate, its muscles, bones, and fur shattering in the lightning, only to be rewoven by the endless current into an even more ferocious and enormous form. As the incantation burst from its throat, the thunderclouds in the sky surged like molten iron, countless bolts of lightning pointing straight to the ground.

The Blade of the Ruined King shattered the barrier between reality and the spirit world, and also broke the silent blockade of the Bear Spirit.

Suddenly, a cacophony of sounds filled the air: howling winds, exploding thunder, and wailing spirits. To their astonishment, they discovered they could hear sounds other than those of the bear spirit.

"Hurry! Before Volibear can react, let's escape under the cover of the black mist!" Wild Hunt relayed his message to all his familiars, deliberately transmitting it only in their minds to avoid letting the giant bear know their plan.

However, the first to react were not any of the family members, but the practitioners who upheld the precepts.

Nera burst through the mist like a hungry shadow, swinging her water-like whip blade high into the air, which wrapped around the greatsword in Iser's hand, and she tried to snatch it away with a look of wild joy.

Iser, veins bulging, fought with all his might, but even with his armor, he was no match for Nera's demonic brute strength. His legs were pulled and he staggered, his greatsword dragging sparks across the rock face.

"What's wrong with you? We're saving you!" The Wild Hunt's giant claws tore through the air, forcing Nera to loosen her whip. This was the first time she had spoken to someone other than her family from a distance.

"The Curse of Ruin will drive the demon race into a frenzy; it must be eradicated completely!"

"We are the ones who cleared the curse of ruin. Now that the situation is urgent, we're just using it to block it. Why be so petty?"

“So that’s how it is, I misunderstood…” Nera suddenly laughed, but the laughter was somewhat eerie. “You solved the Curse of Ruin but didn’t tell me? I went to Bilgewater specifically for it, not for a few sea serpents.”

"Nila? What are you doing?!" Just then, Kai'Sa rushed over, stood between the two, and unleashed her anger on Nila.

"It's okay, I can control it. Go rescue Ashe, and then we'll leave quickly." Wild Hunt reassured Kai'Sa, calming her down and sending her away.

Then he said to Nera, "You said we stole your prey, but now we've saved your life, so we're even. Don't cause me any more trouble!"

"Saved me?" Nera glanced at the giant bear that was summoning lightning. "I doubt it..."

"Hmph, how about we make a bet? A bet on whether we can leave here alive. If you win, I'll give you the Blade of the Ruined King; if I win—"

“Hey, don’t even think about taking my precious orb.” Nera interrupted Wild Hunt, then thought for a moment, clasped her hands together, and said, “How about this, I don’t want your broken sword either. If you win, I can teach you the spell to subdue the demon. If I win…”

She paused, gently tapped the sphere beside her with her fingertips, and continued with a smile, "If I win, it means I'm already dead, and giving me anything more won't make a difference... I hope you can erect a monument for me, so that Osiris won't erase everything about me."

At this point, the atmosphere suddenly took on a tragic tone. Wild Hunt remained silent for a moment, then clenched his giant claw into a fist and gently touched it with Nila's.

"Deal, I'll remember you."

Chapter 320 The Devil's Liberation

Sejuani descended into utter madness, the flail dancing in her hands like an icy blue afterimage.

Her breathing was rapid and erratic, and the ice crystals that had formed on her eyelashes fell off with each violent movement, but she refused to open her eyes, trying to escape the torment in her heart.

The electric cage continued to shrink, and Ashe had nowhere to retreat but to use her hands to block the hammer blows.

"Hiss—" Aisha gasped as Zhenbing's hammer struck her palm with tremendous force, instantly numbing her entire arm under the chill.

If it weren't for the unfreezing icy blood flowing through her body, coupled with the protection of her Void Armor, this attack would have shattered her arm into ice shards.

The sensation of the hammer striking flesh jolted Sejuani awake. She staggered back half a step and opened her eyes to see Ashe's limp right arm, its bones shattered from the impact.

The image struck her like a hammer blow, instantly bringing her back to her senses.

Just then, Kai'Sa tore through space and burst into the cage. She grabbed Ashe's undamaged arm and pulled her inside before the rift closed. The two then appeared together outside the lightning cage.

"What about Sejuani?" Ai asked, her voice broken with worry as she looked at Sejuani inside the cage.

“Why bother with such a heartless person when she’s about to kill you?” Kai’Sa gave Sejuani a deep look, who froze on the spot as if struck by lightning. Ashe shook her head and struggled: “No, I can’t leave her here to die.”

"She has no skin armor, so even if I wanted to save her, I couldn't take her away. The situation is urgent, there's no time for hesitation."

Volibear's roar shattered the sky, and his lightning-infused body continued to grow larger, with terrifying crimson arcs of electricity erupting from his claws. He tore a huge rift in the curtain of black mist that filled the sky, and half of his body had already leaped above the leaden clouds!

He raised his massive head, resembling a deer skull, and invoked lightning with his arms. Thunder roared incessantly, and bolts of lightning struck down from the heavens, infusing the giant bear's claws with energy. All the evil spirits around him were crushed under the divine pressure.

Seeing Volibear charging up his ultimate attack in full view of everyone, Kai'Sa couldn't afford to linger with Ashe any longer and insisted on taking her away, disregarding her feelings. Ashe still couldn't let go of Sejuani, and kept turning back to look at Kai'Sa as she was being pulled along.

Sejuani stared intently at Ashe, as if bidding farewell to her former best friend. This was the longest eye contact they had shared since their reunion, but sadly, it was their last.

"I can't stand seeing tragedy." Fortunately, there's always a way out, and Nera appeared at the crucial moment. She patted her stomach and said with a smile, "I'm here to help you out, as a way of repaying you for feeding me so much meat soup... I'm so full."

Nera chanted an incantation, and the shimmering water orb at her waist emitted a burst of light, forming a seemingly sturdy water shield. Then, using this shield, she walked straight towards the lightning cage that imprisoned Sejuani.

The magic shield contained Osiris's supreme magical power. Although it couldn't withstand Volibear's full-force attack, it was more than enough to block a small lightning prison.

Sejuani stared blankly as she walked straight through the cage. The crackling electric net twisted and deformed under the pressure of the water shield, and a gap was forced open.

"Just stand there and wait to die? Volibear's promises are less trustworthy than the devil's lies!" Nera Chongser

Jenny shouted, and the latter seemed to wake from a dream, ducked under the water shield, and followed Nera out of the cage.

Seeing that Sejuani had escaped, Ashe was finally relieved and followed Kai'Sa back to the main force.

Lightning passed among the bear people, forming a tall electric fence that no shadow dared to linger in its path, attempting to trap them all.

Waves of lightning surged forward, emitting a blinding light that nearly blinded the eye. The black mist was constantly being pecked away by the frenzied lightning snakes, revealing the grotesque evil spirits hidden within. The cruel lightning purified the abominable magic that had cursed them for years.

The bear-men, controlled by the Bear Spirit, had launched an effective counterattack, and the black mist's destructive power was far less than it had been at the beginning. Seeing this, the Wild Hunt instructed Yser to gather the black mist into a single beam, driving the undead army to break through to the south, away from the giant bear.

Lightning had a remarkable effect on purifying the black mist, but under the relentless onslaught of the undead army, a breach was still forcibly torn open in this wall of muscle and lightning.

Seizing this hard-won opportunity, Sejuani shouted and gathered Steelmane and her few remaining men to break through with the main force.

As the Winter's Claws, bringing up the rear, reached the gap, the bear-men on both sides pounced like madmen. These half-human, half-beast monsters ran wildly on all fours, drool flying from their sharp teeth, completely blocking the only way out.

"Gods be the witness, this is simply paradise!" Olaf stared at the surging enemy, his eyes gleaming with fanaticism, and brandished his double axes, ready to charge forward.

Without a word, Sejuani untied the rope from her waist and wrapped it around his neck like a buffalo, forcing the berserker to fight and retreat: "If you want to die, don't die here. The bear-man won't be your witness."

Udyr did not transform into a bear-man this time. After taking a sip of the meat soup from the large jar, as a beast spirit walker, he keenly sensed a will that others could not perceive.

That was Ornn's divine power, the only demigod who could fight the giant bear without being at a disadvantage.

The gaze of the Ram's spirit emanated from the depths of his soul, and molten blood surged through his veins, forging his steely physique. His red beard and hair grew wildly like wildfire, and scorching flames constantly spewed from his mouth and nose, while his eyes blazed with intense fire.

He transformed into a ram with enormous horns, feeling his legs connected to the earth, unshakable by anything. The spirit of the ram did not devour his will; though intensely hot, his mind was calmer than ever before.

As he charged forward with his head down, ancient runes lit up his massive horns, unleashing a lava-like light that shattered the bear-men's defensive line.

A deafening explosion rang out, molten slag flew everywhere, and the bear-men blocking the way were all blasted away, their charred flesh and fur tracing crooked arcs.

Sejuani's flail whirled through the air, each swing sending countless shards of ice flying. But as soon as she knocked down one bear-man, ten more appeared.

Just as she was beginning to feel her strength waning, an ice arrow pierced through the mist and struck the bear-man ahead with pinpoint accuracy. The explosive chill froze several monsters into ice sculptures, and Sejuani seized the opportunity to smash them to pieces with her shackles.

Immediately afterwards, missiles trailing a ghastly purple light followed like meteors, crashing into the bear-men and exploding into a pile of mangled limbs and flesh. Huge rolling stones relentlessly crushed the bear-men, keeping the passage clear.

Sejuani felt a surge of warmth in her heart. Ashe and the others had helped her despite past grievances, and she could only silently express her gratitude. Then she tightened her grip on Steelmane's belly, urging it to run faster and faster.

Volibear had already said that none of them would be allowed to leave, so why would he let them escape so easily?

"Storm, rage!" The voice of the giant bear, which had endured countless blows, merged with the thunderstorm. When the electrical energy reached its peak, it clenched its claws into fists and slammed them heavily into the ground.

After a moment of weightlessness, thousands of bolts of lightning, carrying the wrath of the gods, poured down, instantly blasting the black mist vortex that clung to the mountaintop into fragments.

The mountain crumbled like a spiderweb, lightning streaked along the cracks in the earth, evaporating the black mist wherever it passed, and the remaining vengeful spirits were pulverized by the electric current. The figures of the fugitives were also exposed in the blinding lightning.

At the critical moment, Nera stepped forward. She activated the magic orb at her waist, unleashing demonic power once again.

In an instant, dazzling light burst forth from the depths of the black mist, and indigo and golden rays cast strange shadows that danced wildly around everyone.

Kasha couldn't make out what those illusory shadows were, but she saw hands—countless slender hands, as far as the eye could see, there were hands everywhere… These phantom hands wove a net of light above everyone's heads, pulling and pushing, blocking the swift lightning and saving them from harm.

This move seemed to have greatly damaged Nira. Kai'Sa went to help her, who was swaying, and saw that blood was flowing from her mouth and nose, but she was trying her best to suppress the smile on her lips. It was a terrifying grin, as if the pleasure of an ancient demon was eroding her mind. The twisted smile looked particularly eerie in the lightning.

Volibear's figure re-formed in the thunderstorm, the fangs on the elk skull dripping with lingering lightning, looking down at the fleeing people on the scorched earth below.

His long-planned attack was unexpectedly neutralized. He landed on all fours in a running posture, and the entire mountain range trembled under his anger, with a deep roar echoing among the mountains.

"Those who dare to challenge the storm will only face annihilation!"

Chapter 321 Ahri's Method

Volibear's four claws were deeply embedded in the scorched earth, his muscular body resembled a volcano about to erupt, and lightning on the elk skull leaped wildly in his eye sockets.

Countless rusty weapons, like thorns, were stuck upside down on his wounded back and shoulders, covered with dark red scabs, crackling with lightning, having long since become one with him.

The legendary giant bear, having endured countless cuts and spears, reveals its form: it is the embodiment of storms, an undying raging thunder.

The very weapons that had once tried to pin him down now became medals of his power, outlining a terrifying totem forged from pain and rage amidst the thunder.

Seeing the giant bear on all fours preparing to charge, everyone felt a chill run down their spines.

The Wild Hunt's familiars can use their Void Armor to increase their speed, and with his infinite teleportation ability, Volibear shouldn't be able to hold them back. However, for Nera and Sejuani to escape would be an insurmountable challenge.

He promised Aisha he would rescue these people, and abandoning them now would be a wasted trip, which was not his style.

Ahri looked at the anxious crowd and suddenly said, "Perhaps... I can make Volibear stop."

"How?" Kasha asked eagerly, "You'd better tell me it's with charm."

"How could that be?" Ahri's face lost all its playfulness, her expression becoming quite solemn: "When the Curse of Ruin descended just now, I had a premonition that the ancestral spirits were stirring behind me, eager to devour my essence..."

"The Curse of Ruin? Come to think of it, Ahri's ancestral spirit also awakened on the Shadow Isles." Wild Hunt realized that it must be because the barrier between the two worlds was forcibly torn apart, which awakened the sleeping ancestral spirit.

In this environment, the physical beings and spirits on both sides of the curtain can see each other directly and even touch each other. This is how Ahri's clansmen found her and condensed the will of the entire clan into an ancestral spirit to protect her.