"This new world is getting more and more interesting."
Even an item could absorb Elemental Essence.
Su Chen walked over, planted a foot on the Demon Dog’s corpse, and gripped the axe handle with both hands. With a grunt of effort, he wrenched the axe from deep within its skull.
The axe blade was covered in blood, so he casually wiped it clean on the Demon Dog’s fur.
Once the blade was mostly clean, he could see it more clearly. A Fire Element brand was indeed wrapped around the axe head. Not only that, but the rust on its surface had vanished as if purified by fire, and the blade itself was now coated in a reddish sheen.
As for how to draw out its power, Su Chen pondered for a moment. When he held the axe in one hand, the Flame Burst Rune deep in his consciousness began to tremble as if in Resonance.
Thinking it over, it felt more like the Rune was conveying a sense of yearning, as if it wanted to devour the Flame Essence within the axe.
Su Chen figured he’d probably have to shatter the axe head to extract it.
But when his hand touched the brand...
WHOOSH!!
Something unexpected happened.
Perhaps due to the earlier Resonance, a searing flame slowly emerged from the axe head, blazing like a torch.
’This must be a Flame Enchantment.’
Su Chen gave it a casual swing. The flames followed the blade, tracing a crescent arc. With each successive swing, the fire on the axe grew stronger. Then, without warning, a condensed, almost solid, crimson beam shot out from the blade, leaving a deep, charred gash on a thick ancient tree in front of him.
If the Demon Dog could spit Flame Bullets after picking up a Fire Element essence, then this enchanted axe head also had its own offensive properties.
’Gotta say, this is actually useful.’
He’d briefly considered dismantling the axe, but now, he completely abandoned the idea.
He’d keep it. An axe was indispensable for venturing deep into the mountains and old forests.
As for the one Fire Element essence he needed for an upgrade, he would just have to work hard and find it himself.
Before long, the fire on the axe gradually died down. Amidst wisps of smoke, the brand on the red-coated blade faintly glowed. This was clearly its cooled-down, standby state. After a few more practice swings, the flames erupted from the axe once more.
After getting the hang of it, Su Chen had a good grasp of how to operate it.
Now, he gathered his gear, put his baseball bat back into the canvas bag slung over his shoulder, and decided to head deeper into this Mysterious Forest.
The path he’d taken was easy enough to recognize. Just in case, Su Chen had also deliberately carved conspicuous arrow markers on the surrounding trees. But for moving forward, man-made marks wouldn’t be enough.
At the edge of his vision, wisps of grayish-white mist shrouded an area. This environment was far deeper and more dangerous than Ailao Mountain back in the real world—a place where even several professional geologists had tragically died.
Before setting out, Su Chen raised his left hand, activated the professional-grade outdoor watch on his wrist, and pulled up the compass function.
This mysterious world still had a magnetic field.
’Newton wouldn’t have to cry himself to sleep in a bathroom stall. Wait, no... he couldn’t remember who discovered magnetic fields off the top of his head.’
After he turned it on, however, the needle wasn’t very stable. The local geomagnetic field seemed to be in disarray. Su Chen guessed it was either an aftershock from the earlier earthquake or there were strongly magnetic minerals in the ground nearby.
Making a mental note of this, he enabled the watch’s professional "Track Back" feature.
Objectively, the GPS function was long gone, but this digital tracking feature could also rely on dead reckoning, using the built-in gyroscope and accelerometer to generate a simple, relative path of movement.
BEEP!
’Track activated!’
As he stepped forward, a green dotted line slowly extended across the watch’s screen.
Once Su Chen confirmed the feature was working, he began to walk with confidence. The muddy ground was covered in a layer of humus, making it feel like walking on a sponge. The most conspicuous things were the various hoofprints scattered about.
There were differences among them. Some blood-stained tracks clearly belonged to the Demon Dogs that had been feasting on human flesh.
Other claw marks were deeper and obviously didn’t come from any canine species.
Less than a hundred meters in, he even saw a shed snakeskin hanging from the vines of a towering ancient tree, swaying in the wind.
The dangers of this world went far beyond Demon Dogs; many more monsters were waiting to be discovered.
Besides, not every ’monster’ dropped Elemental Essence. Just now, Su Chen had swung his axe, sending an arc of fire flying through the air that sliced a green viper camouflaged among the hanging vines.
The snake’s corpse fell to the ground in two pieces. Its head and tail twitched frantically on the ground, as if they’d been wound up.
He waited patiently for a while, and even after mincing the snake’s head, he still couldn’t find any Elemental Essence inside.
’So there’s nothing, then. It really just looks like a common bamboo pit viper.’ Su Chen sighed internally, realizing that this world wasn’t so crazy as to be filled to the brim with trash mobs.
Still, getting bitten by an ordinary venomous snake would probably be game over.
The miasma and malaria of a primeval forest were also major dangers.
Not to mention the screeches coming from the canopy above, constantly fraying his nerves.
Amidst the rotting vegetation, he would occasionally find shocking animal bones, and even a half-desiccated canine corpse. Judging from the cracks in the bones, most seemed to have suffered fatal injuries.
The perilous environment didn’t deter him. Instead, Su Chen found it gave him a thrill similar to extreme speed skating. Every blood vessel seemed to cheer faintly as dopamine surged through his neural pathways. His consciousness felt as if it were floating above his exhilarated body.
This separation of mind and body is what extreme sports enthusiasts call the ’Heart Stream’—the body is in a state of high arousal while the mind transcends everything, achieving an extraordinary level of focus.
It had to be said, this was far more interesting than the monotonous and boring outdoor expeditions of the real world.
Eight minutes later, after covering some distance, Su Chen stepped onto a patch of light green soil. He poked at the dirt with his axe, confirming it wasn’t just moss on the surface; the soil itself seemed to be contaminated by some Element.
’If Dad were here, he’d probably be able to find minerals.’ Su Chen couldn’t help but think. Typically, the color of the soil was often linked to underground mineral deposits.
Red earth hides iron; green clay hides manganese.
His father was a geologist who, after graduating, had followed his second uncle—who knew a thing or two about feng shui and prospecting—and made a fortune surveying for private mining companies. The technology back then wasn’t as advanced as it is now; they relied purely on risking their lives and a good dose of luck. The work they did was far more dangerous than any outdoor adventurer’s.
As for how to identify mineral veins from soil profiles and rock fragments, Su Chen was clueless.
But one thing was certain: he had pretty good luck.
In a pile of rocks among the trees in the distance, Su Chen vaguely saw greenish crystals exposed on the surface.
And nearby, a Demon Dog with blood streaming from its flank staggered forward. It then collapsed against the surface of the green mineral, rubbing its body all over it.

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