Li Su's consciousness awakened, and he was horrified to discover that he had become a green bamboo stalk growing beside a mountain of corpses and a sea of bones. Baleful energy surged around him, Fierce Beasts roamed freely, and just as he had timidly absorbed lingering souls to cultivate spiritual awareness, the sky suddenly darkened. A massive Fierce Beast crashed down, its blood drenching his bamboo body—and he awakened the Devouring Evolution System!
Consciousness was a faint glimmer of light, struggling to rise from boundless chaos and darkness.
Cold. Stinging pain. A suffocating sensation of being pinned beneath something heavy, nearly crushed into nothing.
Who am I?
The remnants of his thoughts flickered like a candle in the wind, ready to go out at any moment. His memories were scattered fragments, unable to piece together a complete past. There was only a vague symbol—Li Su. Yes, that seemed to be his name.
And then?
His senses stretched outward with difficulty, trying to touch the boundaries of "self." There were no limbs, no torso, no heartbeat or breath—only the stagnant feeling of being completely fixed in place, deeply rooted somewhere. As though... as though he had become a piece of wood, a plant?
Before panic could fully spread, an even greater, more turbulent torrent of sensation forcefully washed away his newborn confusion.
The stench of blood! It was so thick it made him want to vomit, nearly congealing into something tangible. Mixed within it was an indescribable foul odor of rot and violent malice, seeping into every crevice of that faint consciousness.
All around his "self" was a terrifying sense of pressure. It did not come from the soil, but from... countless cold, rigid obstacles filled with the hopeless aura of death. His consciousness trembled as it "looked"—they were piles of white bones! Enormous beast skeletons beyond imagination, jagged and grotesque, stacked atop one another to form corpse mountains that chilled the soul. Some bones still clung to darkened scraps of flesh, giving off an even stronger scent of decay.
And "he" was growing at the foot of this mountain built from death. His roots could even clearly sense the sticky blood-mud and shattered bone fragments seeping through the depths of the soil.
As far as he could see, the land was dark red, as though it had been soaked in endless blood for countless years. Baleful energy hung like mist, gray-black currents swirling and howling across the ground. At times, they condensed into vague, twisted faces screaming in agony; at others, they were torn apart by some unknown force. The distant sky was forever dim, lead-gray clouds pressing low overhead without allowing even the slightest warmth of "sunlight" through.
Deathly silence. Not because there was no sound, but because there was no sound belonging to "life." Only the wails of baleful wind passing through gaps in the bones, like the endless cries of dead souls.
What kind of hell is this?
Li Su's consciousness trembled violently. In such an utterly horrifying environment, that newborn spiritual spark seemed as though it would be scattered and assimilated at any moment, becoming another ignorant wisp of resentment in this land of death.
He instinctively wanted to curl up, but there was nowhere to hide. He was this bamboo. This bamboo was him.
Just then, muffled thunder rolled across the distant horizon, and the earth began to quake violently. Li Su "saw" two colossal creatures locked in a frenzied battle. One resembled a giant lion, except it had three tails, each tipped with a bone spike glowing with eerie light. The other looked like a grotesque beetle enlarged tens of thousands of times. Its mandibles opened and closed, tearing through the air with the piercing screech of clashing metal.
Their battle was simple, savage, and brutally bloody. Claws tore flesh, carapaces cracked, and dark beast blood splashed down like a torrential rain. Every collision made the earth groan. Tangible vicious energy coiled around them, stirring up and devouring even the gray-black baleful mist wherever they passed.
Before long, the three-tailed lion bit through the grotesque beetle's neck and let out a deafening roar. The victor began devouring the loser's corpse, the crunching of shattering bones making Li Su's teeth ache.
Li Su's consciousness nearly froze at the sight. Was this this world's daily life? Was this the "starter village" where he had ended up?
Despair washed over him like an icy tide.
He was just a bamboo stalk! A bamboo stalk growing beside a heap of corpses! He could not move and was utterly fragile. Any small Fierce Beast passing by, or even a flying stone kicked up by the battle between those two giant beasts, could destroy him with ease.
He did not even qualify to be an ant. He was simply a... plant on a chopping block? Or perhaps decoration beside someone else's plate?
Time lost all meaning in this bloody land. Perhaps it was an instant, perhaps ten thousand years. Under the constant threat of death and the erosion of baleful energy, Li Su's faint consciousness was instead tempered into something slightly more resilient. His instinct to survive overwhelmed everything else.
He could not die! At the very least, he could not die here for no reason at all!
Like a drowning man clutching at his final straw, he began desperately sensing his surroundings. Besides blood and baleful energy, he sensed something else—extremely faint, shattered thoughts filled with pain and chaos, drifting from the piles of bones and newly dead beast corpses.
They were fragments of lingering souls.
They drifted about unconsciously. Most were quickly torn apart and assimilated by the violent baleful energy, while a small number slowly faded away.
A vague thought entered Li Su's consciousness: Perhaps... these things could be... absorbed?
The thought carried an instinctive temptation. He tried to focus all his mind and draw in the nearest faint glimmer—that seemed to be a fragment of soul left behind by a small Fierce Beast after death.
The process was clumsy and difficult. He failed countless times, and countless times the soul fragment was blown away by the baleful wind. But Li Su did not give up. This was the only way he could think of to "cultivate."
Finally, just as his consciousness was nearly exhausted and about to sink into silence, that faint glimmer trembled as it touched his bamboo body.
In an instant, an icy, chaotic trickle mingled with scattered memories of beastly roars flowed into his consciousness.
It worked!
Though the process was painful, like swallowing a shard of ice whole, that tiny, insignificant replenishment was incomparably clear!
The flame of hope was lit.
Li Su began trying even more frantically. He was no longer picky. Whether it was the stronger lingering souls shed by powerful Fierce Beasts or the shattered thoughts of the weakest creatures, as long as he could reach them, he painstakingly drew them in and absorbed them.
His consciousness slowly grew through this painful accumulation. From being on the verge of extinguishing at any moment, it gradually became capable of barely maintaining stability amid the baleful wind. From sensing only a small area around his bamboo body, he gradually became able to "see" farther.
He "saw" more bloody slaughter, "saw" strange plants devouring weak insects and beasts that passed by, and "saw" terrifying figures occasionally sweeping across the sky, blotting out the heavens.
He remained terrified, treading on thin ice, not daring to make any significant move for fear of attracting anyone's attention. He was only an ordinary bamboo stalk growing beside a heap of corpses.
Absorb, refine, grow stronger... over and over again.
No one knew how much time passed before his consciousness finally solidified enough for him to examine himself from within. He "saw" himself—a bamboo stalk roughly thirty feet tall, emerald green from top to bottom, yet extraordinarily tough in texture. Faint, incredibly fine black patterns traced across its body, naturally formed after he had absorbed vast quantities of lingering souls and baleful energy.
He had developed complete spiritual awareness. He was no longer a mere point of light, but a spirit with clear self-awareness.
Yet before he could savor that joy, a devastating calamity suddenly descended!
The sky darkened without warning.
It was not because storm clouds had gathered, but because a colossal Fierce Beast too massive to describe was falling from the sky!
Its form was indescribable, resembling a bull but not quite. Its body was covered in pitch-black scales that reflected a cold metallic gleam. Countless twisted, broken bone spines grew from its back, some of them even writhing. It had clearly endured an unimaginably brutal battle. Half its skull had collapsed, one enormous eye had become a bloody black hollow, and within its remaining pupil was frozen boundless fury and unwillingness.
It was too huge. The shadow cast by its falling body alone covered the entire sky within Li Su's field of vision! A terrifying pressure crashed down like a tangible tsunami!
Li Su's spiritual awareness shook violently and was nearly scattered at once beneath that savage, tyrannical pressure! He could only watch in despair as that enormous body drew ever closer, carrying an aura that would destroy everything as it crashed down!
BOOM!!!
Heaven and earth shook violently! A terrifying shockwave swept outward in a wild ring, carrying mud and shattered bones as it flattened and crushed everything within a hundred miles!
The mountain of corpses and sea of bones where Li Su stood turned to dust in the first instant.
He thought he was doomed.
Yet the colossal Fierce Beast's corpse landed less than three hundred feet in front of him. Before the destructive shockwave arrived, dark blood poured from the beast's wounds like a waterfall and washed over him first!
Scorching! Blazing! As though lava had been poured over him!
The Fierce Beast's blood, filled with terrifying energy and a violent will, instantly submerged Li Su's bamboo body. His spiritual awareness let out a soundless shriek beneath the extreme heat and impact of energy. His consciousness was immediately torn into fragments and plunged into endless darkness.
In the final instant before his consciousness completely sank, he seemed to hear an extremely faint yet incomparably clear chime.
Then, a cold, mechanical, emotionless voice resounded directly within the depths of his fading spiritual awareness:
[High-density evolutionary energy infusion detected... Requirements met...] [Devouring Evolution System... Binding...] [Binding successful!]
Darkness became the only prevailing note.
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