"Let there be light."
As Su Chen wished, a brilliant white radiance bloomed from his left hand.
At first, the glow was warm and gentle. But as he focused his thoughts, the light intensified, emitting a halo that caused the temperature of the surrounding air to climb.
SWOOSH!!
When it reached its peak, a highly concentrated beam of light erupted from his palm, piercing a signpost ten paces away like a javelin.
He hadn’t been concerned about onlookers during this display, but it didn’t attract any attention anyway.
And he wasn’t the only one.
In a street far away, a little girl shrieked with excitement as her right hand spewed flames like a flamethrower, startling her parents into shouting as well.
Su Chen saw this and instantly realized the girl must have accidentally found a Fire Attribute Elemental Essence.
’Did we gain elemental resistance in specific body parts?’
He pondered this. The temperature of the light emanating from his own left hand was definitely high, yet the girl’s right hand showed no signs of discomfort despite wielding such raging flames.
"Holy shit, the base exit is blocked! The highway back to the city has been overrun by the Mysterious Forest!"
A drone pilot, his expression distraught, announced the terrifying news.
HONK HONK!!
Car horns blared continuously in the distance, their piercing, overlapping rhythm setting everyone’s nerves on edge.
The panicked crowd immediately flooded the parking lot, but they hadn’t gotten far from the base before a mist-shrouded forest appeared, blocking the end of the road. The long line of cars came to a standstill, trapped.
"Shit, a giant bird just snatched an old guy!"
The drone pilot was losing his mind. On his controller’s screen, he watched in real-time as a dark shadow with a wingspan of nearly eight meters swooped down. Its steel-hook talons seized an 80-kilogram adult man and, before everyone’s horrified eyes, lifted off into the air.
"It’s over, a lightning bird is attacking... Crap, I lost the drone."
Before he could even adjust the drone’s attitude, the controller’s screen froze on the final image before impact: a massive, lightning-wreathed eagle diving straight at it, its sharp beak glinting coldly in the sun.
The drone’s signal was completely lost.
His friend beside him was stunned speechless. After a long moment, he finally managed to choke out, "Unbelievable. What the hell are these things?!"
There were still some young people lingering around the campground. Hearing this, a chill went down their spines. In addition to the parking lot, a flock of birds was also approaching from the resort area to the north.
From a distance, they looked quite large and were wreathed in arcs of electricity, something truly beyond the realm of reality.
Su Chen silently walked past several large hexagonal canopy tents. He used a discarded barbecue skewer to poke around in a grill, but the smoldering charcoal held no Fire Elemental Essence.
Nothing.
’It seems to be a random occurrence,’ he thought.
He didn’t disturb the occupied tents, instead turning back toward the signpost from earlier.
One side of the sign displayed a complete map of the Qingye Collection campground.
Su Chen took out his phone, photographed the map, and then edited the image to add "Mysterious Forest" labels in three directions based on his observations.
(PS: A rough map to help visualize the layout.)
He had just learned two key pieces of information.
First, the base exit was blocked by the Mysterious Forest.
As things stood, to get back to town, they would have to abandon their vehicles and cross the 190-meter-high Cyan Dragon Ridge to the south.
Second, unknown alien species were invading.
On this point, Su Chen hesitated. He suddenly had a thought: perhaps humans were the real invaders. Based on the current information, it seemed more like Dongfu City had descended into an unknown world of Elements and Magic.
’But...’
’Strictly speaking, it’s not yet certain that the entire city crossed over.’
Su Chen returned to the driver’s seat of his RV. The car radio was still broadcasting an emergency transmission from FM 98.5, the Voice of Dongfu.
He carefully considered his next move.
He had come to the Qingye Collection campground today to meet his uncle’s family for a long-overdue reunion.
According to the plan, his uncle was supposed to pick up his aunt and their two children after getting off work at five and come here to stay for a day and a night.
Since he had nothing to do in the afternoon, he had decided to come early to fish.
The time was now 4:21 PM. If nothing had gone wrong, his uncle’s family should be in the Bright District of Dongfu City, at least 25 kilometers away.
’I need to use the radio to confirm the extent of the city’s displacement.’
Thanks to a national mandate preventing car manufacturers from removing their vehicles’ radio receivers, people could still get official information from their car radios during power outages, internet blackouts, and other major crises.
The host of the Voice of Dongfu, Wenwen, had recovered from her initial panic. Her graceful, pleasant voice now conveyed the calm and clarity of a professional broadcaster.
Emotions are contagious.
Su Chen’s thoughts grew calmer. As he drove slowly, he formulated a plan.
First, he absolutely could not abandon the RV—even if it meant being trapped at the campground on the front lines of a monster invasion.
With that settled, he had to arm himself and protect himself as much as possible.
"Elemental Essence."
Su Chen murmured, his fingertips tapping unconsciously on the steering wheel.
Only by obtaining this extraordinary Elemental Power could he feel truly safe.
The tires crunched over gravel as the four-wheel-drive RV deftly veered left onto a winding downhill path.
He had been fishing in the middle section of the river before, but this time he drove directly downstream.
This area was rich with water. He was convinced this river must have produced more than just one Water Element essence.
Soon.
A river came into view again, but the water quality here was even better. The surface was as smooth as satin, its shimmering ripples reflecting the sky.
"They’re still fishing."
Su Chen rolled down the window and glanced out. There were still people fishing by the riverbank.
He had to admit, fishermen had incredibly steady nerves. Perhaps it was a zen-like mindset forged through years of coming home empty-handed.
Also, his guess had been correct.
The good news was that an aqua-blue essence had indeed appeared downstream.
The bad news was...
"Too late."
Su Chen frowned slightly.
As he watched, a young man with bleached-blond hair, about his own age, waded into the river, bent down, and scooped up a teardrop-shaped, aqua-blue essence.
"A Treasure Pearl!"
The man was ecstatic. He immediately brought the teardrop-shaped pearl right up to his eye to examine it. The misty, fluctuating vapor and the mysterious, rippling patterns on its surface were enough to captivate anyone.
No matter how you looked at it, this was no ordinary, worldly object.
What made Su Chen curious, however, was that even after holding the Water Element essence for a full ten seconds, the man still hadn’t absorbed it.
This was completely unexpected.
’People’s Physiques really are all different,’ Su Chen thought.
Just then, a hound appeared on the opposite bank, beneath a lush jacaranda tree.
To be precise, it wasn’t a hound in any conventional sense.
It was large, even more solidly built than a typical hound, and beneath its dark red fur, lava-like patterns seemed to flow.
As it ambled to the river’s edge, the grass beneath its paws instantly blackened and curled, sending up wisps of white smoke.
A Demon Dog!!
Su Chen’s expression turned grim. His first impression brought to mind the hound of the Baskervilles, but its coat, shimmering with a fiery luster, clearly couldn’t be explained away by a mere coating of phosphorus.
"Whoa, that’s one ugly dog," exclaimed a nearby fisherman.
The blond man, slow on the uptake, only noticed the huge dog on the opposite bank after hearing the shout. A shiver of fear went through him; if not for the ten-meter-wide river separating them, he would have already scrambled back in terror.
The hound on the other side was clearly afraid of water. It pawed restlessly at the ground but didn’t dare to step into the river, its crimson eyes glaring furiously at the human on the opposite bank, looking extremely agitated.
"What a freaky-looking mutt," he muttered. A hint of curiosity mingled with his alarm, and he couldn’t resist pulling out his phone to take a video.
The instant he was distracted, something happened.
The Demon Dog on the opposite bank tensed its entire body, gathering power in silence. Flames brewed and swelled within its snarling maw, and droplets of fiery saliva splattered onto the rocks at the river’s edge.
"Hey, run!!"
At the panicked shouts of the nearby fishermen, the blond man’s heart clenched. He dimly realized the danger and immediately spun around to run.
But it was too late.
A blazing fireball plowed a boiling trail across the river’s surface. The violent impact sent him flying, and he slammed heavily into the muddy ground three meters away.
The blow left the blond man unable to get up. On his back, festering flesh was matted with shredded fabric, and the stark white outline of his spine was faintly visible.
The Water Element essence he had been holding was knocked from his grasp. It rolled forward until it came to a stop at someone’s feet.

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