Earth Vein Spiritual Milk

Those few Earth Crystal Stones, glowing with a warm yellow light, were like beacons in the darkness, firmly locking Li Su's full attention.

Unlike the scattered, tiny ore fragments he had found at the edge of the earth fissure, the stones at the roots of that Purple-Black Strange Plant were larger, purer in luster, and surely contained far more Earth Essence Qi!

If he could obtain them, his accumulation of Evolution Points would accelerate greatly!

However, that Purple-Black Strange Plant was no benevolent creature. It had easily ensnared and killed that small lizard-like beast, and its strength was likely not much weaker than the Evil Energy Centipede in the fissure.

Its root system must be extremely developed. If he recklessly probed his bamboo roots over to snatch the stones, he would likely be discovered, sparking a conflict.

Forcing a fight was definitely not the best move.

Li Su suppressed his restless spiritual sense and began to observe patiently.

He no longer rushed to absorb the scattered Earth Essence Stone fragments at the fissure's edge, instead devoting most of his spiritual sense to monitoring that Purple-Black Strange Plant.

The sun rose and the moon set (though this sky was forever dim), and the evil wind howled.

Most of the time, that strange plant was in a semi-dormant state, its thick, purple-black leaves slightly curled, like a coiled venomous snake.

But the soil around its roots faintly exuded a pulling force, slowly yet steadily draining nutrients from the surrounding earth, even including the faint evil energy and lingering souls drifting by.

It was cultivating too! Though its method was bizarre, it was indeed growing stronger.

Those few Earth Crystal Stones were clearly gathered at its roots deliberately to aid its cultivation!

Observing this, Li Su felt a bit more at ease.

With a goal came a pattern to follow.

He continued to wait. Finally, during a particularly fierce blast of evil wind that whipped up a storm of blood sand and bone fragments, the strange plant moved.

All its leaves suddenly unfurled, and the bud-like structure at the top opened, revealing a ring of fine, sharp teeth dripping with mucus.

It aimed at the direction of the wind and sucked in sharply.

Whoosh—

A small vortex of evil energy was forcibly drawn over, and the fragments of lingering souls and dust-like nutrients mixed within were all devoured.

This process lasted about fifteen minutes. Afterward, it seemed satisfied, its leaves curling back up as it sank into a deeper dormancy, even the pulling force at its roots weakening by more than half.

An opportunity!

Li Su keenly realized this was its digestion period after "feeding," when its vigilance would be at its lowest!

He hesitated no longer. One of his main roots, already prepared, began to advance underground, as covertly and slowly as possible, winding toward the strange plant's roots.

He didn't dare touch those Earth Crystal Stones directly. Instead, he chose to approach stealthily from a lower, lateral angle.

His spiritual sense was highly concentrated, like the most precise scalpel, guiding the bamboo root to avoid the plant's thicker main roots, carefully threading through the gaps in its root network.

Closer, closer...

He could even clearly feel the rich, gentle energy fluctuations radiating from those Earth Crystal Stones.

The largest among them was almost the size of a fist!

But just as his bamboo root was about to touch the smallest Earth Essence Stone on the periphery, a sudden change occurred!

One of the strange plant's fine roots seemed to swing inadvertently, brushing right across the tip of Li Su's bamboo root!

Buzz!

An extremely faint, yet vigilant and ferocious intent shot back along that fine root!

The strange plant's curled leaves trembled violently, showing signs of waking!

Li Su acted decisively, without hesitation severing the spiritual sense connection to a small part of that bamboo root's tip, making it instantly "wither," while his main root retreated sharply backward!

Almost the next second after he pulled back, seven or eight purple-black roots shot out from the soil like venomous snakes, stabbing precisely into the spot where his bamboo root had been! The tips of the roots were sharp, glinting with a sinister light, clearly laced with poison!

The strike missed, and the strange plant's intent grew more agitated and furious. More roots writhed restlessly beneath the soil, seemingly searching for the intruder.

But all it "saw" was a fragment of root that had completely lost its vitality, no different from an ordinary dead twig.

It poked at the fragment with its roots in confusion, found nothing unusual, and finally settled down, though its half-curled leaves didn't fully close, clearly on higher alert.

So close, yet so far!

Li Su's spiritual sense rippled with lingering fear.

Too dangerous! Nothing that survived in the Primordial World was simple! Seemingly dormant, yet hiding deadly traps.

A direct fight wouldn't work, and a stealthy grab had failed.

Should he just give up?

He wasn't willing.

Those Earth Crystal Stones were too important to him.

His spiritual sense swept over the area again, this time observing more carefully.

Suddenly, he noticed a detail: the strange plant's roots mainly occupied the surface and middle layers of soil, barely reaching the deeper earth.

And those Earth Crystal Stones were partially buried in the deep layer.

A bold plan took shape in his mind—feint to the east, attack to the west!

He split off another bamboo root, this time not attempting to approach the strange plant's base. Instead, he carefully tunneled through the deeper soil beneath its root network, slowly digging toward the spot directly below that Earth Essence Stone.

This process was even harder than before.

The deeper soil was more compact, mixed with gravel and hardened clumps of blood, draining the bamboo root heavily.

But he persisted, pushing his spiritual sense's fine control to the limit.

Finally, he managed to dig the bamboo root's tip directly beneath the largest Earth Essence Stone.

Now came the most critical step. He controlled the root like the finest drill, moving from below upward, extremely slowly, bit by bit, to siphon the essence of that Earth Essence Stone!

He dared not absorb too quickly, afraid the energy fluctuation would alert the strange plant above.

He kept the speed even slower than its natural dissipation rate.

[Absorbing Earth Essence Stone energy, Evolution Points +0.05]

[Absorbing Earth Essence Stone energy, Evolution Points +0.05]

Evolution Points began to grow at a steady, faint pace.

At the same time, he was surprised to find that as the energy of this core Earth Essence Stone was slowly drained, the efficiency of the strange plant's roots in absorbing nutrients seemed to be subtly affected, becoming slightly sluggish.

The strange plant's leaves swayed unconsciously, as if mildly uncomfortable, but it didn't detect the source.

It simply instinctively increased its roots' absorption of the surrounding evil energy to compensate for the tiny loss.

Success!

Li Su suppressed his excitement, maintaining this extremely slow "theft."

Meanwhile, his other bamboo roots weren't idle, continuing to absorb scattered evil energy and remnant souls along the edge of the earth fissure and the surrounding area.

Though each source brought minuscule Evolution Points, many drops made a stream.

Evolution Points ticked slowly: 27... 28... 29...

The erasure progress of the "Temporarily Stored Chaotic Will" also trudged forward under the dual effect of evil energy and remnant souls.

Time passed in this silent "theft" and accumulation.

Until one day, his main root, which had been absorbing yin evil along the fissure's edge, encountered a strange sensation again.

This time, it wasn't ore or that terrifying Evil Energy Centipede.

It was... an extremely viscous, bone-piercingly cold liquid, yet containing unimaginably pure energy!

The bamboo root barely touched it, and a surge of pure energy far beyond the Earth Vein Yin Evil came rushing in!

[Detected high-concentration Earth Vein Spiritual Milk (Yin Evil attribute)... Extremely dangerous! Energy purity far exceeds host's current tolerance limit! Immediate cessation of contact recommended!]

[Warning! Forced absorption may lead to body collapse!]

The system's alarm blared sharply!

Li Su was horrified and was about to forcibly sever the connection, but he suddenly realized that the giant beast's chaotic will, temporarily stored in his body and slowly eroding, upon sensing this Earth Vein Spiritual Milk's aura, began to violently fluctuate and dissolve as if it had met its nemesis!

The efficiency was a hundred, a thousand times greater than before!

Opportunity! A heaven-sent opportunity!

But this opportunity came with the immense risk of immediate explosive death!