Digimon: I really didn't want to be the Digimon Emperor!

That's not seaweed at all! That's clearly the hair-like tentacles on the head of some huge creature!

Suddenly, the water surface at the base of the tentacles bulged upwards, and murky mud cascaded down the enormous creature like a waterfall.

A huge, dark red body slowly rose from the swamp!

It was the size of a small house, covered in dark red, unsettling bumps and wrinkles, its skin slippery and sticky, reflecting a faint, mucus-like sheen.

A pair of dull, lifeless, yet enormous frog eyes slowly opened...

【The Strange Frog King】

[Complete Form, Amphibian Type, Virus Species]

【Special Moves: Rhapsody, Final Waltz】

[Introduction: The king of the Frogmon, a Perfect-level Digimon. The sound it produces with the enormous horns on its shoulders is said to drive those who hear it mad. Although a Perfect-level Digimon, it is not very intelligent and its movements are somewhat slow.]

Complete body!

Why did a fully evolved form suddenly appear here?!

There's absolutely no record of it in the intelligence! The register at the Shanghai outpost also doesn't show any activity by fully-formed individuals in this area!

Could it be a newly evolved creature? Or has it just migrated from deeper in the swamp?

This monstrous frog king seemed to have just been awakened from its slumber, its mind still somewhat foggy. It shook its enormous head, emitting a muffled, thunderous croak: "Coo...croak..."

"It says it's hungry," the goat-beast translated calmly, a hint of seriousness in its voice.

As it spoke, its long, slimy tentacles lashed out like giant whips, precisely grabbing several monstrous frog-like beasts and tadpole-like beasts that had been stunned by the sonic boom and hadn't had time to escape, stuffing them into its gaping maw, which resembled a cavern.

A series of teeth-grinding chewing and swallowing sounds rang out, accompanied by faint, chilling moans.

"Not enough... I'm hungry..." The Frog King's blank gaze swept around, and he found that the snacks that could be easily caught were gone.

It turned its gaze to the large creatures at the entrance of the ruins, whose energy fluctuations made it feel even hungrier.

It took heavy steps, each step causing the swamp ground to tremble violently and the mud to churn, like a moving mountain of flesh approaching the group.

"This is troublesome!" Zhao Gang's face turned pale, and cold sweat instantly broke out.

The complete form! This is something their student team simply cannot handle!

"Rapid attack! Harass it! Stop it from getting closer!" Zhao Gang shouted hoarsely, trying to make a last-ditch effort.

Running Beast's heartbeat pulse, Wind Lion Beast's scorching light arrow [Sun Arrow], Goat Beast's holy light bullet, Baron Beast's white energy beam [White Spell]... all sorts of ranged skills rained down on the Frog King.

However, these attacks, when they hit the thick layer of mucus on the surface of the Frog King's body, only caused a ripple-like ripple before being easily neutralized and deflected, causing almost no real damage!

Only the goat beast's Holy Light Bullet, containing sacred energy that counters the virus species, a scorching property, and a tracking function, stuck directly to its skin mucus, causing a stinging sensation on its skin.

The Frog King impatiently swatted out the Holy Light Ball with its giant webbed feet and let out an even more agitated and hungry roar!

"Roar—!!!"

The roar, combined with the deep rumble spontaneously generated by the two huge horns on its shoulders, created a terrifying sound wave that could be seen distorting the air!

Rhapsody!

A tremendous roar, like a tsunami, crashed over us!

The first few Digimon to be hit were unable to withstand the terrifying sonic shockwave and were thrown away, crashing heavily onto the stone walls of the ruins or into the mud!

A sharp pain shot through me, and I instantly lost my hearing. The whole world turned into a silent, dizzying, roaring arena!

Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to do?

The Frog King seemed to find the surrounding small animals too agile and fast, making them troublesome to eat. Its dull gaze finally locked onto the few beast tamers at the entrance of the ruins who seemed unable to move.

Compared to Digimon, the tamer's flesh and blood seemed to be more appetizing to it.

It seems that these flesh and blood contain even richer data.

“This is troublesome…” Cheng Yuan looked at the moving figure.

It strode in with heavy steps, rumbling and thundering, each step causing the earth to tremble.

The Digimon tried their best to stop it from advancing, but neither biting, scratching, nor energy attacks could truly break through its defenses; they could only slightly slow its progress.

Although it's not a fully evolved form of a dominant race, it is still a fully evolved form! The huge difference in level and data volume, as well as the added advantage of this swampy environment, made the attempts of several Champion-level Digimon to stop it seem so futile.

It's already quite difficult to hold it off for even a moment.

"Senior Guan Yan! Has the gate to the ruins been cracked yet?!" Cheng Yuan shouted anxiously, his voice sounding somewhat distorted against the backdrop of tinnitus.

Give me two more minutes!

Guan Yan's fingers flew across the laptop screen, her forehead beaded with sweat.

Why don't you just sing it out loud!

Cheng Yuan watched in despair as the Frog King seemed to be enraged by the constant harassment. It stopped walking slowly and began to clumsily but with a noticeably increased speed as it charged toward the entrance of the ruins! Its momentum was like that of a runaway heavy tank!

The grizzly bear roared and tried to grab its leg, but was easily thrown away, its fur covered in a sticky substance containing paralyzing poison.

The Wind Lion Beast's "Stone Guardian" was crushed by the Monster Frog King's two giant webbed feet.

The running beast used its heartbeat pulse energy blade, but it was repeatedly deflected.

The powerful Angora Beast unleashed its [Breaking Dance Tornado], creating a massive tornado in an attempt to entangle it and slow it down.

Unexpectedly, the Frog King grabbed the tornado with one hand, and the powerful Angora Beast in the middle was firmly wrapped by its sticky webbed feet. The tornado was instantly scattered, and no matter how it struggled and bit, it could not break free. It was about to be stuffed into that blood-red maw!

"Angora beast!" Liu Li screamed!

"Goat Beast, degenerate!" Cheng Yuan shouted in a moment of inspiration.

"Gitomon, Holy Flame! Aim at its webbed hands!" Cheng Yuan shouted, pointing at the giant webbed hands that were grabbing the running beast, and used the even hotter Holy Flame to evaporate the slime on its webbed hands!

"Meow!" Gatomon stepped out of the data ball, its eyes sharp. It slapped its earring with its little paw, and its attribute energy fused together, instantly unleashing a burst of blazing white flames!

A holy flame, far larger and more condensed than the one used against the Rotten Wood Beast, roared out with a white tail and struck the Frog King's webbed hand precisely!

laugh--! ! !

Like a red-hot iron being branded with grease, violent white steam billowed up!

The slime on the frog king's webbed hands evaporated instantly, exposing the relatively fragile skin underneath. The intense burning pain from the flames caused it to let out a painful howl!

"Now! Attack its webbed hands!" Zhao Gang shouted, seizing the opportunity.

The other Digimon seized the opportunity and unleashed all their attacks—Solar Arrow, Bear Paw, Energy Blade, White Beam—on the injured webbed hand!

"Croak!!!" The Frog King cried out in pain and instinctively released its giant webbed feet.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, the powerful Angora beast broke free and fled back to Liu Li's side in a sorry state, covered in disgusting slime and still in shock.

"It's open! The door's open!" Guan Yan shouted with ecstatic joy!

The heavy, ancient stone door, covered in intricate patterns, creaked and groaned as it slowly opened, revealing a deep, dark passage behind it.

"Go in quickly!" Zhao Gang shouted hoarsely.

The group scrambled and stumbled as they desperately rushed toward the ruins, while the Digimon fought a last stand, retreating as they fought.

The Frog King seemed to realize its prey was about to escape, and became even more frenzied. It took a big stride and stomped hard towards the doorway! The huge shadow loomed over the Gatomon below!

"Gatomon!" Cheng Yuan had one foot inside the door when he suddenly turned around to wait for Gatomon. He already had the Dark Warrior's Soul in his hand, ready to step in at any moment.

He would never leave Gatomon alone to cover the rear.

Gatomon looked at the giant webbed feet falling from above, as if the sky were collapsing. Instead of running away immediately, it made a bold move.

The energies of light and darkness were forcibly extracted and combined into an extremely unstable, rotating golden-purple energy sphere!

The End of Light and Darkness!

"Meow!!!"

With all its might, Gatomon pushed the extremely unstable, chaotic energy ball upwards to meet the giant webbed foot that was about to fall!

At the same time, its small body rebounded against Cheng Yuan's chest with the force of the impact, knocking Cheng Yuan down and falling into the closing stone gate of the ruins together!

The golden-purple orb of light collided head-on with the giant webbed feet of the Frog King!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a strange "humming" sound, as if space itself was being torn apart, that violently vibrated in the air!

The space at the point of contact seemed to distort for a moment, like a piece of paper crumpled by an invisible hand, forming a brief, small energy vortex!

The giant webbed feet of the Frog King were completely hindered, and even half of its arm was caught in and torn apart by the twisting vortex!

It felt some indescribable pain and threat, and let out a howl of terror and anger!

It struggled backward desperately, even severing a small portion of its webbed paw, before finally escaping from that strange energy vortex.

The golden-purple orb of light, having exhausted its momentum, gradually dissipated into the air after the energy conflict reached its limit.

The Strange Frog King stared blankly at its severed, rapidly regenerating webbed hand, then at the tightly closed, sealed stone gate of the ruins, still muttering to itself:

"Hungry……"

Chapter 176 Stealing the Relics

The heavy stone gate of the ruins slammed shut behind us, completely swallowing up the last ray of light from the outside world. Only the echo of the door hinges turning reverberated in the vast darkness, gradually subsiding after a long while.

Dead silence.

The heavy breathing of everyone and the Digimon was particularly clear, and the stale smell made one's nose itch.

"Cough cough...cough..." Lin Yu was the first to cough, breaking the suffocating silence. "Oh my god...I almost...I almost turned into a giant toad snack..."

"Who...who has light? Quick...get some light! I can't see anything!" Li Yunjin groped around in the dark.

"Don't panic!" Zhao Gang's voice was a little hoarse, but he still tried his best to remain calm. "Wind Lion Beast, [Arrow of Light]!"

With a low growl, an arrow composed purely of light energy condensed and shot out from the mouth of the Wind Lion Beast, streaking across the darkness like a meteor and instantly illuminating the scene ahead.

It was a downward-sloping passageway, wide but covered with rubble, with what seemed to be carved on the stone walls on both sides.

But the arrow of light could not hover. After flying a distance, it crashed into the stone wall at the corner with a "poof," exploding into a cloud of light fragments that quickly vanished, and darkness greedily devoured everything once again.

“No, the duration is too short and the energy consumption is too high.” Zhao Gang frowned.

"I'll do it," Cheng Yuan said. "Gitomon, Holy Light Bullet."

"Meow!" Gatomon jumped out of his arms. Although he was a little tired, he still cheered up. Two fist-sized holy light bullets, emitting a soft white light, slowly condensed and floated in front and behind the team like two small lanterns, dispelling the darkness within a radius of more than ten meters.

By the light of the holy light orb, everyone could barely make out each other's disheveled appearance.

Except for Guan Yan, everyone else was covered in mud, with disheveled hair, pale faces, and ringing ears.

The Digimon were all injured to varying degrees and looked listless, especially the Energiamon, whose body was still covered in the disgusting slime of the Frogmon, which Liu Li was wiping away with heartache.

Guan Yan leaned against the cold stone wall, panting heavily, the screen of her portable computer shattered.

She put it away with a wry smile: "The decoding program forced its way through at the last moment, and the computer burned out... Fortunately, the door was opened."

Cheng Yuan held the Dilu Beast in his arms and gave it an energy drink.

The little guy was also a bit tired, so Cheng Yuan added some points to Gatomon's Light and Holy attributes. The increased attribute values ​​would help speed up recovery.

"What...what was that thing just now?" Liu Li asked, her voice still trembling with fear.

"A fully-formed monster frog king? In the digital space of the Forest of Ten Thousand Beasts, why has a new fully-formed creature appeared without anyone noticing? Is the monitoring system at the outpost just for show?"

“I don’t know.” Zhao Gang shook his head gravely. “There’s never been a record of it. It could be a recently evolved, fully-formed being, or… it might have crossed over from another, more dangerous digital space. We must report this immediately when we get back!”

"Report it? We're not even sure if we'll get out of here alive!" Lin Yu cried, his face contorted with despair. "There's a fully formed monster blocking the way outside, and it's pitch black in here. Who knows what kind of monster might be lurking in there..."

His words reignited the tension that had just eased. Yes, they had simply escaped from one dangerous place to another unknown land.

"Since we're here, let's make the best of it," Cheng Yuan said, gently placing Gatomon on his shoulder. "That big guy outside probably won't leave anytime soon, so we can't just sit here and wait. Since Sister Guan Yan went to so much trouble to open this ruin, wouldn't it be a huge waste not to go in and take a look?"

His words carried a calmness and... a sense of eagerness? which left the others speechless, yet inexplicably inspired by him, giving them a sliver of courage.

“Junior Cheng Yuan is right.” Zhao Gang took a deep breath and rallied his spirits.

"We are animal trainers. Exploring the unknown and facing danger is our duty and destiny. Senior Guan Yan, do you know anything about the internal structure of this ruin?"

Guan Yan took out several spare glow sticks from her backpack and distributed them to everyone for use. While recalling the information, she said, "According to the fragmented information I brought back from Huangquan, combined with the records of the first exploration, this site seems to be an outpost of an ancient digital civilization. The structure should not be too complicated."

They were currently on what appeared to be a buffer platform at an entrance, with polished stone slabs under their feet and a deep, dark passageway leading downwards in front of them.

The stone walls on both sides of the passageway are covered with blurry murals and undecipherable ancient digital characters, exuding the atmosphere of time.

"Stay vigilant, maintain formation, and advance slowly," Zhao Gang ordered, then mounted his Wind Lion Beast again and took the lead.