Chapter 152: Marsh

The Silver Moon Shuttle arced through the sky, leaving a silver trail in its wake. At the end of this silver slash in the sky was a flock of Iron Lion Condors furiosuly flapping their wings, chasing after it.

Su Chen blew through ten or so high-tier Origin Stones before reaching the limits of the shuttle’s speed and finally shaking off the flock of condors. Afterwards, he landed the shuttle in a marshy patch.

“Damn! All I did was take a few strands of your Iron-Threaded Grass. Did you really need to spend that much effort chasing after me for a whole day?” Su Chen complained. If it weren’t for the fact that most of the beasts in this area had left to participate in the Beast Wave, Su Chen wouldn’t have been able to fly through the sky at all.

Iron-Threaded Grass was a kind of spiritual herb that could improve someone’s physical strength.

It wasn’t actually all that rare in the human kingdoms, but ten-thousand-year-old Iron-Threaded Grass definitely was. Actually, to some extent, you could even say that it didn’t exist. For most humans, even ten-year-old Iron-Threaded Grass was effective enough to greatly increase their bone density. Naturally, they wouldn’t leave it lying around just for someone else to pick.

However, the Iron Lion Condors didn’t use the Iron-Threaded Grass for food; instead, they relied on its structural properties to increase the rigidity and strength of their nests. Simply put, the Iron Lion Condors used this grass to build their houses, which was also the origin of their name.

Su Chen’s thievery of this grass was equivalent to tearing down their home, as he had ripped apart all of their nests at once. This was a grave offense, and it was not surprising at all that the Iron Lion Condors weren’t willing to let him off easily.

Su Chen didn’t feel guilty about his thievery at all. Instead, he delighted in his profits — he had just entered the Beast Race’s territory, and he had already obtained some herbs that were priceless by the human realm’s standards. Obviously, he had made the right call in coming to the Beast Race’s territory. Su Chen didn’t care about money at all, but the less he cared about money, the more he became interested in rare resources that money couldn’t buy. These stalks of Iron-Threaded Grass were incredibly precious to him, not at all inferior in value to the Corpse Spirit Flowers from way back then.

Su Chen stepped off of the Silver Moon Shuttle and stowed it away, before carefully advancing on foot.

Even though the Iron Lion Condorshad chased him for over a day, that day hadn’t been a waste. He had been able to explore quite a bit of the Beast Race’s territory, which was quite helpful given that he didn’t have a map. Su Chen could only use this method to get a feeling for where he was, as well as search for any other precious resources he could harvest.

The place that Su Chen had stopped at was one such place, and it was clearly filled with an abundant amount of resources.

While he was flying through the sky earlier, Su Chen had noticed this marsh through the forest. There was a strange kind of fruit growing in this marsh.

Even though he didn’t know what kind of fruit it was, the powerful Origin Energy fluctuations emanating from its skin told Su Chen that there was no way that this fruit was common.

For safety’s sake, Su Chen didn’t land dead center in the marsh. Instead, he touched down at the outskirts of the marsh before entering by foot.

There was no clear path through the marsh, and putrid sludge smothered the ground. A ripe fruit that landed in this putrid sludge had disappeared very quickly, leaving behind just a few bubbles.

Su Chen stepped forward, completely unfazed, and calmly walked atop the surface of the sludge without sinking in.

Compared to before, Su Chen’s strength had once again increased. Now, he only needed to apply a small amount of energy to support himself, and any terrain restrictions became moot.

He casually strolled through the marsh and soon arrived at his target.

His target was a scarlet fruit that emanated strong fluctuations of Origin Energy. The amount of fire-type Origin Energy contained within was enough to ignite the surroundings and cause flames to spontaneously appear in the air.

However, when he got close to the fruit, Su Chen discovered that the temperature near the fruit was actually a few degrees cooler than normal.

So this fruit’s temperature was actually normal; it was just surrounded by a layer of fiery red energy.

Su Chen didn’t continued advancing. Instead, he stood a short distance away from the fruit, carefully inspecting it with his microscopic eye.

The beasts here weren’t the only threat. Although there were countless useful resources scattered across the Primordial Continent,there were just as many dangerous resources. The fruit in front of him had unknown origins, and its function was still unclear. In this scenario, no amount of precaution was too much.

When Su Chen activated his microscopic eye, he discovered that the scarlet fruit’s interior contained a small heart-like organ that seemed to beat every so often.

At that moment......

Su Chen’s wariness peaked as a chill ran up his spine.

He silently retreated a few steps and inspected his surroundings.

The fruit was growing on a thin blue vine, but the fruit itself was almost as big as a human’s head. It was also swaying strangely in the wind. The vine’s lower half was submerged in the opaque marsh, and anything beneath the surface of the murky waters would be impossible to see.

Even though Su Chen hadn’t sensed any lifeforms moving around him, he still retreated a few steps, further widening the distance between him and that fruit.

The scarlet fruit shook along with the wind a few times, glowing with an enticing luster.

When Su Chen saw this, he began to laugh. “The Beast Race’s territory does have large amounts of resources, but these resources exist either because the Beast Race don’t need them or because the Beast Race protects them carefully, like the Iron-Threaded Grass and those condors. However, there are also a few strange plants that don’t rely on a symbiotic relationship with the Beast Race but rather on their own strength. Not only do they not need the Beast Race to protect them, they will even try to attract Beast Race members and swallow them up to increase their strength. I think you belong to this group, no?”

There was no reply.

Su Chen shrugged. “Alright, since you’re pretending to be stupid, then I can only say goodbye to you.”

He turned around and prepared to walk away.

“Hu!”

The wind began to whistle.

Countless vines materialized behind Su Chen, snaking out from the marshy swamp and shooting forward to grab him like tentacles.

Su Chen charged forwards without hesitation as soon as he felt the wind pick up as if he had eyes in the back of his head.

The vines ended up up totally empty-handed — Su Chen’s grasp of the distance between them was too perfect. With a single leap forwards, Su Chen had been able to completely avoid all of the vines’ attacks.

“ROAR!” A violent howl sounded out.

The howl had come from an old tree that was behind the fruit.

A fierce expression appeared on the old tree’s trunk as it howled at Su Chen. At the same time, the scarlet fruit emerged from the sludge and was pulled into the air. At this point, it was obvious that the fruit was connected to the tree behind it.

Countless branches waved in the air, painting quite the creepy picture. However, because of the distance between the tree and Su Chen, there was nothing it could do to him.

Su Chen stood calmly off in the distance and coldly stared at the octopus-like tree. “Are you wondering how I could possibly know how long your reach is? Actually, the method is quite simple; I just relied on those birds.”

There were a few small birds flitting around nearby. Before the tree had attacked, they were on the ground searching for food, but even when the tree attacked, they didn’t fly away in fear. Instead, they continued to chirp brightly, totally unperturbed.

They weren’t Vicious Beasts; rather, they were just average, everyday weak birds.

However, they could survive in this kind of a place because of their ability to avoid danger.

Carefully observing the environment and avoiding needless conflict was an instinct that every lifeform possessed. This shocking tree might be the nemesis of countless Demonic Beasts, but the small birds relied on it for protection. After all, it was because of their habits that Su Chen was able to unravel the dangerous secrets behind this tree.

“ROAR!” the old tree howled angrily.

It seemed as if roaring was all it could do in response to Su Chen’s provocation.

“I know you are very powerful, but it seems as if your weaknesses are too obvious. Your neighbors might be unintentionally exploiting your weaknesses, but unfortunately I am a human, and we particularly enjoy taking advantage of someone’s weak points.”