To speed up his descent, he wrapped himself in Wind Fluff, shooting straight into the pit like a cannonball.
A huge swarm of winged insects flew straight at him. He hurled two Sun Flame spears, woven with Telekinesis, straight ahead.
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH!
The two detonations were nearly simultaneous. A blazing white light erupted, its unique splash effect instantly turning the surrounding insects into a mist of blood. Charred remains scattered everywhere.
Despite such devastating power, the swarm of insects, which looked like a surging black fog, continued to charge, ignoring the casualties. They senselessly flew through the flames, trying to slow Su Chen down at any cost.
Su Chen paid them no mind.
After two max-range shadow jumps, he passed through a dry underground riverbed and appeared in the flesh-and-blood cavern. A scarlet fungal carpet, strewn with severed limbs and body parts, billowed with a strange mist. Of the four hatching chambers originally located in the rock stratum, apart from the prematurely born one, the other three had all disintegrated. Their outer membranes had ruptured, spilling amniotic mucus all over the ground. Three twisted human figures were rapidly shriveling up on the floor, their life force completely drained.
Gaping holes were torn open in their skulls, hearts, and lower abdomens. Three core nuclei, having sprouted numerous slender yet tough mycelial threads, were carrying their inherent Runes and biological information as they pierced deep into the earth.
Once the bizarre fungus’s hive mind realized its forcibly matured creations were no match, it immediately cut its losses.
’You have to leave something behind.’
Su Chen focused his mind, and information began to surge from the pulse of the earth.
The geological structure beneath his feet gradually formed in his Sea of Consciousness. Between the intersecting rock layers, a warm wave of geothermal heat was slowly rising. This place had undoubtedly been chosen as a perfect incubation site.
In less than a breath, he had scanned and located five nuclei burrowing deeper into the rock.
One of the nuclei pulsed with a powerful Spiritual Fluctuation.
Nearby, another nucleus, wreathed in Fire Element energy, was melting its way downward, and there was also a mycelial thread crackling with electricity.
He didn’t hesitate. ’Rarity makes for value. Go for the big fish, let the small ones go.’
With a burst from his Weightless Gravity Field, the rock layer below was freed from gravity. Boulders floated into the air, transforming into Flying Rocks that bombarded the Parasite Bodies trying to block his path.
A massive, invisible, sharp blade of force slammed down, ripping up a huge slab of rock and soil.
The vast network of mycelial threads was severed. The spiritual nucleus was still struggling, but it was already locked in a vice of Telekinesis and forcefully ripped from the earth.
With one secured, he changed his target.
Su Chen sent out another wave of weightlessness, making large amounts of dirt float up toward the stalactites on the ceiling. Large sections of the rock layer peeled away as he chased after the Fire Element nucleus melting its way downward.
After considerable effort, which included ignoring a nucleus of another element, Su Chen finally dug a pit over twenty meters deep and managed to immobilize the Fire Element nucleus with a pulse of Strong Will.
In that same instant, countless hair-thin, purple-black mycelial threads shot out from all corners of the cave, lashing toward him like a thousand vipers.
SHIMMER!
A thin, shimmering film of water materialized around Su Chen. When the threads struck the barrier, they not only failed to penetrate but were deflected with perfect accuracy.
But that wasn’t all. He was testing a simple two-in-one woven Technique, and he infused the barrier with Dark Red True Flame.
The intense heat from the Flame Burst Skill was refracted and accelerated by the curved surface of the water mirror, erupting into spiraling waves of fire that swept back out, incinerating all the fungal tentacles.
’...You just wait. Sooner or later, I’ll slaughter you...’
Just then, a fleshy, toothed maw grew out of the captured nucleus. It roared furiously, "...You beastly ape! I’ll eat you alive!"
They say the first step to learning a language is starting with profanity.
After just a short while, the hive mind once again demonstrated its terrifying capacity for evolution—or perhaps it was just so utterly enraged that it suddenly blurted out a coherent sentence.
"I’ll beat you every single time I see you."
Su Chen smiled. Not caring whether it could understand him, he tossed out his reply and couldn’t be bothered to communicate further. He simply crushed the nucleus in his hand, releasing the four Fire Element essences within.
They were all Lv. 4.
Flame Burst Skill, Fire Wall Skill, Fire Shield, and Fireball Technique.
After absorbing the Lv. 4 Flame Burst Skill...
Upgrade Requirements: Flame Burst Rune 27/32, Spiritual Dust Sand 8/8, Spirit Marrow Crystal 3/3
’So close, just one last step,’ Su Chen sighed inwardly. Haste makes waste, so he suppressed the flicker of excitement in his heart.
Just then, Xiaoye and Xiaolin burst into the underground cavern together. The Ice Feather Frost Bird, flying through the cramped space, paid no mind to the restrictions. Eager to protect its master, it unleashed an Ice Storm at the many Parasite Bodies in the depths of the cave.
Fungal spores were intolerant of extreme temperatures. A tide of white frost, riding the hurricane-force winds, swept through the depths of the cave. Everything in its path was frozen solid, and large swaths of the exposed fungal carpet were rapidly neutralized.
Even Xiaoye had to retreat from the area-of-effect damage.
The surrounding temperature plummeted. But after a significant increase in his Physique attribute, Su Chen’s tolerance for environmental temperatures had risen dramatically.
In addition, his Elemental Mastery trait also granted him a high resistance bonus to All Elements.
Taking advantage of the lull in the attacks, he crushed the other nucleus.
Jackpot.

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