There were also some Runes that hadn’t been taken away. It clearly couldn’t just abandon them.
However, just as a tendril extending from underground was about to snatch a Thunder Element Rune buried under a thick layer of dust, an invisible force seized it instead.
"...You’d best start your death countdown. You, and your entire city."
"That day won’t be long in coming."
A fleshy mouthpiece grew from the tendril, emitting a simulated human voice with a grating screech.
"Isn’t our death sentence generous enough to wait until tomorrow? Which day is it, exactly?" Su Chen provoked.
The creature seemed to actually possess the ability to hear, as it fell silent for a moment.
It didn’t respond. After spitting out its threat and delivering its ultimatum, the tendril, being part of the giant creature, was withdrawn as its owner fled.
’All we can do is wait for good news.’ In his heart, Su Chen was directing this thought to the various expedition teams.
He didn’t know the true scale of the massive fungal nest, but the timing of this operation was exquisitely precise, coinciding with the critical moment the Bloodthirsty Fungus was incubating its newest evolved form.
If they could kill a large number of them in the embryonic stage and successfully recover the Runes the creature had plundered, it would undoubtedly be a crippling blow to the enemy.
It would be a lie to say Su Chen felt no pressure.
After all, the physical strength he had always dreamed of had been achieved by the Bloodthirsty Fungus’s bizarre and unpredictable flesh-grafting ability. A human and a wolf, perfectly integrated across species—it was utterly strange and horrifying.
Based on their previous clash, its raw physical stats were definitely superior to his own.
And the mysterious crystal grafted into its body as a power source was undoubtedly a significant, extraordinary asset, granting it at least several mystical properties.
One of them pulsed with vigorous blood energy and possessed immense strength.
The other’s skin and flesh could transform along with metal, as if its very cells had turned into metallic particles.
The latter, in particular, had taken a direct hit from his Sun Flame-infused torrent and survived, and this was despite it being a flawed, premature creation.
’A Level 5 Lightning Shield, huh.’
Su Chen glanced at the Thunder Element Rune he had snatched with his mind, and he roughly understood its origin. It must have belonged to the figure who had been blasted into a bloody mist by his torrent.
Comparing the two, he could also see the difference in strength between a second-stage evolved form and a third-stage integrated form.
The leap in power was not small.
It wasn’t just a matter of being premature; its set of Runes wasn’t even complete. Human Gu-raising was constrained by order and bottlenecked by the availability of Spiritual Materials. It wasn’t easy to create a top-tier combatant in a short time.
But the Bloodthirsty Fungus had none of humanity’s moral baggage. After scalping so many Rune Professionals, it could surely amass resources to rapidly "create gods."
Combined with the physical strength of the human-beast hybrids, they would truly dominate glass cannons like them in every aspect.
Once the enemy achieved a certain scale, no matter how many lives humanity threw at them, it likely wouldn’t be enough.
’I’ll try absorbing this first.’
After putting the Thunder Element Rune back into his canvas bag, Su Chen held the first Crimson Wood Crystal he had obtained in front of him.
It was the size of a fist, its exterior resembling a semi-molten crimson crystal. A scorching heat radiated from its surface, yet inside, tree-like fibrous veins coiled layer upon layer. This vigorous life force seemed to neutralize some of the violent power of the Crimson Flame.
Last night, after converting the Jade Lingzhi, he had also let the Jade Pendant absorb a Soul Sand Ore Crystal after his shower. Half a day later, just moments ago, the conversion had finally completed. The result was still... +2 Intelligence, +3 Perception.
The Soul Sand Ore he could absorb was of even better quality, but as his body’s five-dimensional attributes continued to rise, a single piece of Soul Sand Ore probably wouldn’t be effective anymore.
Moreover, the conversion didn’t seem to feed back to him completely; the Jade Pendant appeared to be siphoning off a small portion.
Su Chen pulled the donut-shaped white jade amulet from under his clothes. It looked smooth and flawless, its shape unchanged, but it had inexplicably gained an indescribable spiritual charm.
This wasn’t an illusion. Under the light, its rich, milky-white luster now held a restrained Spiritual Light.
It was difficult to determine its future changes, but it was most likely evolving in a positive direction. As a family heirloom, he could only believe as much.
BUZZ!
As he brought the Crimson Wood Crystal close to the Jade Pendant, the energy within it was rapidly drained. Its lustrous sheen quickly dimmed, the scorching temperature faded, and the faintly pulsing fibrous veins inside withered.
This lasted for a full half-minute before the entire Wood Crystal was completely inert, turning into a handful of grayish-red powder that dissipated on the wind before him.
Soon, Yan Ruoruo drifted down from the cliff edge to the canyon floor. The two had maintained contact via Mind Transmission the whole time. While Su Chen fought in the valley, she had been targeted by two sentries on the perimeter. Even with two modified creatures attacking her in tandem, it didn’t stop her from finding a moment to fire an Echo Arrow to provide vision support.
After a fierce battle, one of her opponents was dead, and the other had fled.
Her lethality came from the limited-edition Magic Longbow she had acquired through a sacrifice, the Cyan Nether Bow. It came with two activatable properties: Split Arrow and Arrow Acceleration.
Therefore, when enemies came in pairs, dealing damage to both was a simple matter for her.
"The Bloodthirsty Fungus took the werewolf corpses," Su Chen said. Under pressure earlier, he had prioritized the core crystal integrated into the creature’s heart, making the Runes a secondary concern.
It was a bit of a shame, but entirely acceptable.
However, the disemboweled corpse of a headless werewolf had been left behind at the scene.
"They really do evolve fast."
Yan Ruoruo came over specifically to examine it. She performed a simple dissection of the corpse, revealing crisscrossing tendons as tough as rebar and extremely dense muscle fibers.

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