My Mother Has a System but Won't Use It

167  Snake

The duo entered the next room, and Han Li collected the notebook. Unlike the berries, Notebooks were larger than the maximum size of things he could put into his Empty Space, but he was not too worried about carrying things. His Mother had an enhanced Empty Space at the moment; she could take in a whole human; what was a notebook?

[Devil Fruit Recipe], he read. The book contained all the required materials and the way to cook the fruit that can help a human shapeshift, yet, having read it, his face blanched in disinterest. "Five fucking life-type resources and all of them rare things… I might as well use a temporary face-changing Life Type Resource when it calls for it… this trash," he muttered in irritation, feeling as if he had lost a precious chance to gain a good something from these trials.

Of course, he was just venting; it was not really trash.

He then looked in front of him at a mighty army of Animal Statues, counting in thousands, and couldn't help but feel his heart shake. These statues were not like the dead humanoid statues in the first Trial Room; these statues emitted true, bestial, and alive auras when scanned by Soul Sense. He understood that if he walked closer, the petrification on them would come undone, and they might wake up.

So is killing them this Trial's end goal?

But even monstrous stamina men would run out after such a task. This was a game of endurance; all of these were just normal animals, but the number was humongous. No normal Evolved could last till the end. Especially considering that there was a mix of all sorts of animals here, from fast cheetahs to cunning monkeys. People would be exhausted to death.

Was this petrification a way to let things survive past their lifespan?

He wondered. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The Demon World had been there for millennia, after all. After a lot of time thinking, Han Li could only think of one understandable explanation. If they were to come off of petrification, the time they could last shouldn't be much. They would have an extremely short lifespan. Otherwise, the Sacred Demon's body would have also been preserved like this, but Han li knew that that man's body had already been refined to become the Life Sword and the Lust Sutra Book. He was dead beyond death. "Mom," Han Li patted his Mom's back. "Those statues, go fight them. Take out your knife and attack. Go."

Yue Li hesitated. "I also checked with the soul sense, but Xiao Li, this is too much of an undertaking for me alone. But it should be easy for you… You have thick skin."

Han Li shook his head. "It would be easy—" he stepped forward and stopped his words with a startled expression as a blue flame appeared on top of the nearest statue and spread a blue light all throughout the room. He couldn't help but feel his heart drop.

No wonder the Trial seemed so easy. His stamina was being drained. The flame lasted exactly a minute, but Han Li's expression was ugly. He had lost atleast Ninety percent of his stamina. If this had been before his Organs were transformed, he would have failed right now. A coldness flashed through his gaze. There were at least 5,000 animals here, of many species, and even if he killed one every second, it would take more than an hour; there was no way he could last that long.

At most, he could last half as long.

"It became a thousand times harder…" He muttered, "Yet, not so much for me."

Nevertheless, even though an idea came to his head, he didn't move. Instead, he focused on his hand and tried to use Magic Powers, but nothing worked. The Heavens who bestowed Magic Powers for a cost seemed to be absent here. He tried using his Talents and realized that they still worked.

Yet, now, when he was this close to having no stamina, he could understand that using Talents was sapping his stamina, too. It didn't work without fuel, or it might have worked without fuel in the past when in the presence of Heaven by stealing its energy, but now, his stamina was running out by using it, too. If he used these powers, he could kill some animals easily, but in the end, he would fail.

Looking at the bestial faces of the statue, he calmly smiled. "Mom, flourish your knife and go attack them. They are just beasts that would die soon anyway. Kill them. If you love me as much as you say, don't show mercy. Kill them."

Yue Li took out the Knife Han Li had given her from her Empty Space. Her heart thudded inside her chest, and she walked beside him. Yet, with a squeeze of her buttocks, Han Li pushed her forward. Soon, she was standing in front of a lion statue, and just as Han Li had expected, the outer layers of stone quickly came undone.

The lion breathed out a puff of ancient air. Grrr!

Hungry. It felt so hungry. Two cold eyes looked at Yue Li's trembling body right in front of it; it opened its mouth and went for the bite. Han Li didn't move.

Yue Li trembled.

The beast pounced towards her. As if on instinct, she yelped and moved, her lithe body dunking down and moving under the creature to appear beside it. Feeling her nerves wrack, she ran towards Han Li, only to end up running to another statue, a wolf that made its petrification turn off.

At the same time, a chain reaction seemed to have begun, and hundreds of animalistic growls echoed out. Yue Li felt her hair stand on end. She ran, but soon, her son was nowhere to be found. She was surrounded by things that wanted to kill her and make her prey. Her heart thudded inside her chest. She wanted to cry.

A wolf jumped towards her; she moved aside by an inch's length, and its claw passed by. She couldn't help but yelp in fear and call out for her son's name. "Hrrgh!" The animals seemed as if they couldn't see each other to feast on; all of their attention headed to Yue Li, and thousands of cold gazes focused on her. Suddenly, a cold sensation ran down her spine, and she looked to her side. There was the head of a python on her shoulder. Looking coldly at her.

"Hiss!" it hissed.

Her pupils shrunk.