Void Beetle Evolution Guide

The worst consequence of losing a war is that the throne is smashed and the city walls are toppled, leaving the king to suffer for centuries. But if the void is released, the result is the annihilation of the entire nation in an instant.

The void was released from the military camp inside the city and extended all the way to the battlefield outside the city. Kai'Sa and Katarina walked towards the ruins, wanting to find a high point to observe the situation inside the abyss.

When she and the Wild Hunt tracked the Darkin before, the city had already been occupied by several Darkin. In order to conceal their tracks, Kai'Sa was unable to investigate the Great Rift, which is why this operation took place.

They moved silently through the ruins, when suddenly glancing up, they caught a glimpse of a fire on the city wall. A figure sat cross-legged on a corner of the crumbling ruins, wearing a hood, his deep purple cloak fluttering behind him.

The moment she spotted the other person, Kai'Sa immediately stopped. Katarina, who was following behind her and keeping a close eye on the surroundings, also stopped and looked in the direction of her gaze, where she also saw the mysterious hooded man.

“He’s spotted us,” Katarina warned, noting that the man’s head was completely obscured by a steel mask beneath his hood.

Upon closer inspection, the mask's shape was quite strange, with six small holes distributed on it. These holes, though meant to be eye openings, were actually filled with fluorescent beads, making it seem more like a smokescreen used to deceive opponents.

After confirming each other's identities, the other person suddenly stood up, leaped dozens of meters across the distance, and landed in front of the two of them as if blocking their way. The swift movement did not stir up much dust. Then, he planted a strangely shaped weapon in the ground.

As Kasha got closer, she realized that the man was a muscular, towering giant with arms almost as thick as an adult's waist. His veins were like earthworms coiled under his skin; it was as if a person had grown out of his muscles.

Strangely, his exposed skin was a deep purple color, slightly paler than the skin and armor on Kaisa's body. He also had only three incredibly thick fingers, and there were no signs of surgical removal, suggesting that he was born with them.

This person is definitely not within the realm of normal humans, and may not even be human, Kai'Sa thought to herself, when she heard Wild Hunt whisper a name in her head: "Jax..."

Kai'Sa frowned, seemingly vaguely familiar with the name... Oh right, Wild Hunt had mentioned a flame that could suppress the Void, and its wielder seemed to be named Jax, a weapon master as well.

Weapon Master? Weapon? Kai'Sa silently shifted her gaze from the other person after finding the keywords, and instead looked at the strange weapon held in three fingers.

It was a heavy, long-handled weapon. Each corner of the polygonal metal lamp post was a sharp spike, and the end that was stuck into the ground was shaped like a crescent shovel. Flames burned fiercely inside the lampshade, and tongues of fire occasionally licked the hammer outside the lampshade, leaving mottled black spots of oxidation on it.

"Is this the Eternal Flame? It doesn't look special at all. Its color and shape are just like ordinary flames." Kasha muttered to herself. This strange flame that Wild Hunt had noticed a long time ago was not as special as its container. The only special thing was that she didn't see any flammable material in the lamp post. It was as if the flame had started out of thin air. So this is what "eternal" means.

Just as Kai'Sa hesitated about how to initiate a conversation and figure out a way to get the Eternal Flame back from the other party, Jax suddenly blew a sharp breath at the lamppost. "Are you busy, Mei Yong? Are you free, Lin? Are you free...?"

The injection of oxygen caused the flames in the lamppost to burn fiercely, bursting forth with a bright light. The expanding tongues of fire reached towards Kaisa, whose skin armor felt the strange heat emanating from the flames, causing it to ripple and contract, sending a sharp, stabbing pain through her, making her arm tremble in pain and involuntarily pull back.

"Void?!" Jax cursed upon seeing this, immediately raising his lamppost and adopting an offensive stance as he approached step by step.

Chapter 738 Weapon Master

The piercing, burning pain caused Kai'Sa's armor to emit a piercing noise. Seeing Jax suddenly showing hostility as he pressed closer, she immediately lowered her upper body and hurriedly retreated, her pods bursting open, ready to strike.

"Wait, are you misunderstanding something?!" It's normal to retaliate after being ambushed, but that doesn't mean Kai'Sa wants to fight. It's to ensure she can handle the situation calmly even if the other party is being unreasonable.

The chitinous plates of the helmet flipped back, overlapping each other like an insect tucking its wings into its shell. Kai'Sa revealed her face, but not wanting to be exposed to the high concentration of void energy for too long, she quickly covered it again.

"I hope your mask isn't blocking your eyes. See? I'm a perfectly normal human. I'm here to check the seal here. If you're a normal person, don't bother me." Kai'Sa thought her words were enough to make her stance clear, but Jax had no intention of putting down his weapon. (The rest of the text is nonsensical and likely machine-generated gibberish.)

"I don't care who you are, you're not leaving today without fighting me." A rough voice came from behind the mask, burning with an inexplicable fighting spirit like a lamppost in his hand.

"Why should I? Give me a reason." Kasha had seen many guys who were afraid of her, but this was the first time she had met such an unreasonable madwoman, and her voice couldn't help but carry a hint of anger.

"No reason, I just felt itchy and wanted to spar with someone." Jax swung the lamppost in a flourish, leaving a circular trail of flame in the air. The heat from the firelight made his skin and armor tremble.

"I don't want to fight you. I'm warning you to quit while you're ahead and don't try to test my temper!" If it were just a normal sparring match, Kai'Sa might have agreed.

However, her opponent wielded genuine Eternal Flame, which would cause excruciating pain if accidentally hit, making close combat impossible. But if they avoided close combat, Kai'Sa could easily take Jax down with a few Plasma Cannon shots, which would be pure bullying.

"Wait, let me say a few words to him." At this moment, Katarina stretched out her arm to block Kai'Sa.

What could Katarina possibly say to Jax? She didn't even know him. The one who truly wanted to speak to Jax was Zolane, the woman inside her.

Two distinct voices emanated from Katarina's mouth simultaneously, their layers upon layers creating a deafening roar.

“Seraph Kayu-Rains Kauali Aikason, the weapon master who slew the Celestial Warriors, I’ve heard your reputation… Tell me, how have you survived until now? And what brings you here?” Zorani pressed relentlessly, showing no sign of softening her stance simply because the other was also an Icathian. Even though she was now a prisoner, she still considered herself the strongest among the Darkin.

Kasha was somewhat surprised after hearing this, not only because of the ridiculously long name, but also because the other party had actually killed an Ascended. It's true that you can't judge a book by its cover.

She observed Jax's reaction. The tongue-twisting name seemed to have stirred up his memories. He paused for a moment, then abruptly flung the lamppost away, saying with great displeasure, "That person you're talking about doesn't exist anymore. Now there's only Jax."

Although Jax doesn't admit it, that's his real name, which he has long since abandoned.

According to the naming conventions of Icathia, the characters "Kayu-Rains" in his name represent his parents, while "Aikason" is the name of his blood relative tribe, which has a glorious history and once served the Mage King. "Kauliri" was added last, representing the assassins who served the Icathian Mage King, and is also the code name for every Icathian warrior who participated in the Void War.

Zolani knew the cause and effect of that great war. Icathia had been conquered by Shurima hundreds of years before the war began, and had since lost its autonomy and become a vassal state of the empire.

King Mage fought valiantly against the conquest of Shurima, but he ultimately died on the battlefield. His guards, Kaurri, also followed their king and committed suicide to atone for their sins.

The Shurima emperor at the time tore down the walls of Icathia, forbidding them from rebuilding them. He also exposed the rotting corpses of Kauliri in the streets and nailed the mage king to the city gate until his bones decayed.

This atrocity broke the spirit of the Icathians, but it also sowed the seeds of rebellion, laying the groundwork for future disasters.

When nominations for Ascension were ignored for what seemed like the umpteenth time, the Icathians, who had no Ascended of their own, finally could not bear it any longer and launched a rebellion. One of the most crucial battles in the early stages of the rebellion was fought by Jax.

Jax is not human; he has a lifespan beyond that of ordinary people. His father witnessed the atrocities committed by Shurima during their conquest of Icathia hundreds of years ago and passed on this intense hatred to him through generations.

Filled with hatred, Jax killed a boastful Ascended and proudly watched as people carried its corpse through the streets of the liberated city of Beyzek.

This action prompted Shurima to take the uprising very seriously, and they dispatched a million-strong army led by eight Celestial Warriors to suppress it.

At first, the battle was evenly matched, but once the Celestial Warriors entered the fray, the scene turned into a one-sided massacre, and the defeated Icathian mage then unleashed the Void.

Jax escaped the battle, but Icathia fell in an instant, and there was nothing he could do to save it.

He regretted not stopping the mages who were studying the void, and for allowing the disaster to occur in his quest for revenge. Afterwards, he returned to the battlefield intending to end his own life, but amidst the chaos, he found a torch-staff.

Those were the tools mages used to contain the void, and the eternal flames burning on them could damage the void. This flame ignited a spark in his heart, giving him a glimmer of hope.

So he abandoned his old name and, carrying this "last light of Icathia," became a wanderer.

Of course, this is from the Wild Hunt's perspective. Zolane doesn't know what Jax is thinking; she only knows what role Jax played in that war.

“Sejax, I don’t care if you’ve abandoned your Kaulli identity. But if you’re an Icathian, answer my questions! Tell me how you’ve survived this long? And what are you here for?”

"And who are you? Why should I answer your questions?" Jax, who also had a bad temper, couldn't stand Zolani's aggressive questioning and immediately retorted.

"I am Zolani, an Icathian like you, and a Celestial Warrior in my previous life." Zolani's voice was filled with pride.

However, Jax spat out after hearing this, "Bah! Who do we have here? It's just a traitor. How dare you come back! Since you know I have the lives of Ascended beings on my hands, then don't act so arrogantly in front of me, or I'll kill you too."

It was clear that Jax was truly enraged. If his face hadn't been hidden by the mask, he might have spat right in front of Zolani.

Chapter 739 Sparring

Zolani originally thought that bringing up the name of the Ascended, whom the Icathians loved but could not have, would intimidate Jax, but she did not expect that she would be met with his scorn and even hear the two words she hated most.

Traitor... Why do the Shurimas call her a traitor, and even the Icathians call her a traitor! Whose interests did she betray?!

The posthumous conferment of the title of Ascended Being after the fall of her kingdom was merely a belated attempt to salvage the situation. She had made efforts for peace, but did anyone listen to her advice? Was she really that unpopular? Did she want to become like this?

No! The fault doesn't lie with her, it's with this world! This damn world has driven people to become monsters!

"Arrogant brute, do you know how many Ascended I've killed? Do you know how many Darkin I've killed? You know nothing! You only managed to kill one boastful Ascended by sheer luck, while I faced the siege of all the Celestial Warriors!" Zoranny responded using Katarina's body, retrieving a pair of blood-red scythes from a pool of blood that appeared out of nowhere. The chains rattled, and her hysterical voice showed signs of madness.

"I'll beat you half to death first, then slowly interrogate you."

"Hmph, I couldn't be happier!" Jax snorted coldly, unafraid to accept the challenge; he was itching to fight.

"Go ahead and fight if you want, as long as a fight can solve the problem. Just hold back and don't kill anyone." Kaisa could only step back helplessly as she watched this scene unfold. Both sides were furious, and a fight was the only way to end things.

Zolani rushed forward, her scythe slashing at Jax with lightning speed, aiming straight for his Adam's apple, but at the last moment he blocked it with a lamppost.

She spun around and closed in again, circling Jax as she unleashed a series of crisscrossing slashes, the blood-red light from her strikes enveloping Jax like a cage.

Jax kept circling the lamppost, catching the blades, and amidst the storm of attacks, he found a fleeting opening. He used the iron nails on the lamppost to jam the chain between the two scythes, and twisted it forcefully to entangle them onto the lamppost.

The chains restricted Zoranny's movements, but they also restrained Jax's weapon. Zoranny wrapped her arms around the chains and suddenly exerted force, trying to snatch the lamppost back from Jax's grasp, but he used the momentum to stab her in the abdomen, causing her to stagger backward as if struck by a heavy blow.

The Darkin's resilience was formidable; with a muffled groan, it merged into the blood pool and disappeared.

"Look there!"

Jax's gaze followed the sound to the sky, where Zolani had somehow teleported above using the pool of blood and delivered a powerful whip kick to his head.

He quickly leaped onto the roof of another dilapidated house, and Zoranny slammed her foot down on the spot where Jax had been standing. The city wall, which had stood for thousands of years, finally collapsed under her heavy blow.

Bricks flew everywhere, and dust billowed up. Kai'Sa leaped away from the area shrouded in dust, only to see Zorannie emerge from the smoke and fiercely pursue Jax, launching an aerial attack.

"Take this!" Jax immediately spun the lamp post, not with a flourish, but like a bamboo dragonfly, causing the Darkin chain scythe wrapped around it to swing as well, like sharp fan blades spinning at high speed.

This move was undeniably imaginative and had a wide range, completely blocking the direction Zolani was charging towards. Unable to turn in mid-air, she would have been struck by the scythe first if she had charged straight at her.

However, the Darkin was Zoranny's true form. With just a thought, the scythe turned like a snake and attacked Jax, instantly reversing the offensive.

The scythe was deliberately taken away by Jax by Zolani, and now he not only has to face Zolani's attacks, but also has to guard against the scythe's harassment.

This time, Jax didn't try any tricks. Instead, he used brute force, swinging the lamppost around and using the momentum to forcefully fling the chain sickle towards Zoranny.

Zolani dared not be careless and dodged back into the pool of blood to avoid the attack. The beam cracked under the heavy blow, the entire roof collapsed, and the torrent of rubble engulfed Jax.

A moment later, Zolani reappeared and landed on the wall, gazing at the small mountain of rubble below. She reached out, and a pool of blood appeared out of thin air, returning the scythe to her hand.

Zoranny gripped the chains and swung her scythe, waiting for Jax to reappear. Soon, a lamppost broke through the rubble, and Jax crawled out, brushing the dust off himself.

Zolani swung her scythe, the crimson blade whistling through the air. Jax parried with his torch, the force of the blow causing his knees to buckle and letting out a painful groan.

The lamppost bent, ultimately proving no match for the hardness of the Darkin's weapon.

Jax immediately leaped toward Zolani after discarding his scythe. He knew the principle of "an inch longer, an inch stronger" and that only close combat could allow him to suppress his opponent. Otherwise, with his strange chain scythe and the omnipresent pool of blood, he could easily kill her.

He unleashed a series of lightning-fast slashes, the torch in his hand flashing left and right like a sharp sword, trailing bright, dazzling flames. "You Mei Yong, no time, no business, Lin Zai Zai, no..."

The trail of flames scorched her skin and armor as Zoranny retreated further and further along the narrow wall, trying to dodge Jax's sweeping leg kick.

The blows, some sharp and some blunt, caused Zolani considerable pain. Even when she used the chains to protect her arms, her hands went numb from the impact. But the most pressing issue was the flames emanating from the lamppost, which were her natural enemy, now that the flames had become part of her armor.

A series of lightning-fast flashes of fire came from all directions, mixed with sweeping slashes, lightning-fast thrusts, and high-flying hacks... all of which Zolani parried. In close combat, no weapon is more agile than the hands.

She quickly adapted to Jax's unpredictable attack rhythm and seized his torch, or rather, his lamppost.

Jax tugged at the lamppost, but it didn't budge. Then Zoranny grinned and said, "It's over, Sejax!"

"I don't think so?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Zolani reached out her bloodied hand and grabbed Jax's neck, but he twisted the lamppost violently. Using Zolani's hand as a fulcrum, the lamppost pried open his fingers by pressing against his hand, before Jax regained control of it.

The lamppost kept spinning, encircling Zolani's hand. A normal person would have pulled back and retreated, but Zolani advanced instead, striking Jax in the chest with her palm.

Jax was jolted back a few steps, but then suddenly blew a loud breath at the lamppost. The fire flared up, halting Zolani's pursuit.

The eternal flames burned her arm like a malignant tumor, and no matter how much Zolani shook her hand, she could not extinguish them; instead, they burned even more fiercely.

Left with no other choice, she had to immerse her entire arm in the pool of blood before the fire spread.

"Damn brute, I'll teach you a lesson you won't be Zolani!"

Chapter 740 The Great Rift

"Damn brute, I'll teach you a lesson you won't be Zolani!"

Enraged, Zolani roared, and the pool of blood instantly turned into a flood, engulfing her body from both sides.

As the blood nourished her, Zolani's figure rapidly grew taller, evil magic overflowing within her body, and blood energy flowing through her forked veins. Debris rose into the air from the ruins, swirling around Zolani, while she herself gradually straightened, revealing her true form.

"You barely managed to kill the Ascended with the help of the army, what right do you have to challenge me?!" After transforming into a Darkin Giant, Zorani's voice was thunderous, echoing throughout the entire dead city.

She stood on the ruins, bending down to reach for Jax, who was barely knee-high. Jax still tried to resist, leaping onto her arm, but Zoranny slapped him away.

Jax flew dozens of meters, crashing into several walls before finally coming to a stop, where he was buried under a hail of falling rubble.

Zolani followed quickly, each step covering more than ten meters, and in a few steps she reached Jax's side and pulled him out of the rubble.

Just as she was about to deliver the punch, a sound that did not belong to this world suddenly came from the direction of the ancient battlefield outside the city. It was like the low growl of some kind of giant beast, echoing in the abyss.

"Stop fighting! You've alerted the Great Rift!" Kai'Sa shouted, rushing to the edge of the abyss to check the situation.

The madness in Zolane's eyes vanished, and Katarina regained control of the body. She stared at the blood seeping from beneath Jax's mask, uttering two voices simultaneously.

"You're lucky you escaped with your life." After saying this, she shrunk her body, stood up, and followed Kasha to the Great Rift.

Standing at the edge of the enormous chasm, looking down, one can see a dark, purple abyss.

Layers of intricate filamentous structures formed a vast three-dimensional network, pulling up translucent curtains to create a labyrinth resembling a mirror world, sealing the enormous rift like rotten fruit flesh wrapped in orange pith. Even so, Katarina could see the seal's fragility, for the purple light from the other side of the boundary seeped through the layers of translucent flesh, surging with the ebb and flow of void energy in rhythm with her heartbeat.

Behind the membrane, shadowy figures occasionally appeared. They rolled along the surface of the membrane, seemingly trying to find a way out of this illogical labyrinth. Kasha knew that such a seal couldn't stop these monsters. Once their numbers increased, even if they wandered aimlessly, finding a way out was only a matter of time, and the cocoons scattered all over the ground outside were the best proof of that.

"This seal is practically useless." Kasha doubted that she could blast open these light membranes with her plasma cannon, let alone stop the monsters underground.

“The original seal certainly wasn’t like this. Shurima lost so many Ascended beings and paid an extremely heavy price; they would never take this lightly. It must have been that no Ascended beings came to reinforce the seal for a long time after the fall of the kingdom, and it was constantly eroded by the Void, eventually turning into this riddled-with-holes state.”

Wild Hunt analyzed the scene before him. The great war had occurred approximately 3,500 years ago, and Shurima had been destroyed around 500 years later. For a full three thousand years, no one maintained the seal, so it naturally became unsightly under the dual erosion of time and the void beyond.

In comparison, Lissandra is the epitome of a workaholic. For eight thousand years, she has spent most of her time sleeping on the solid ice floor of the Hall of Nine, dreaming in order to trap the Watcher in a dream forever. Blinded, every year on the day of the Twilight Seal, she would send a small team down to the Howling Abyss to check if the solid ice that serves as her seal showed any signs of melting.

Just as the two were worried about the situation of the seal, Jax also came to the edge of the Great Rift Valley and looked down.

"This place was once an abyss, flowing with purple blood. The light of nightmares, an evil and ugly blue-purple, suffocated the world, pressing down from above while simultaneously blooming upwards from some unknown place below. Grayish-white strands of matter burst from the earth, transforming into swollen limbs that engulfed people, forming cocoons that hatched abominable beasts. The tentacles of evil energy dissolved all life, and even the colossal ascendants could not break free, emitting gurgling and wailing sounds that should not exist in this world. Every crater was a graveyard for countless people..."

Only someone who witnessed that disaster firsthand could recount it so clearly. Jax removed his mask, his eyes filled with the remnants of the nightmare.

The two looked curiously at Jax's face, which was always hidden behind the porous mask—a resolute face with a jagged wound running from above his right eye to his chin, the scar from that great battle.