Iron Boot Town

The Giant Leech was thoroughly enraged. Furious red glinted within its cold, shadowy eyes as its churning flesh-colored body hurled up waves of foul, rotting swamp mud before becoming an afterimage and smashing down at high speed.

Thud!

Chen Yu was struck solidly, his body instantly flattening. Yet all the actual damage was absorbed by his tough slime carapace. The impact transformed into springing force, and the slime gel, compressed to its limit, rebounded into the Giant Leech's head.

Slime Bounce!

Another solid impact rang out.

The Giant Leech was knocked several meters away. At the same time, several venomous spikes pierced the suckers it used to latch onto prey beneath its body, making it twitch and roll on the spot in pain, splashing mud and water everywhere.

"Well, that's what you get for not investing a single point in defense."

Chen Yu went "plop" as he bounced forward and fired another Lesser Arrow Technique.

This time, even its head was blown off, yet the Giant Leech's movements were completely unaffected, and its wound quickly regenerated.

This thing probably had no brain at all—only one enormous nerve cord running through its body. Unless its whole body was blasted apart in one go, it could still think.

Thinking of that gave Chen Yu quite a headache.

What troubled him was not how powerful the Giant Leech was.

It was that this thing apparently could not be hunted dead; it could only be swallowed alive and digested in his stomach.

Imagining that slick thing rolling and struggling around inside his stomach... ugh, disgusting.

He refused to believe it.

He charged forward again and battled the Giant Leech for three hundred rounds.

Acid corrosion, venomous spike piercing, Lesser Arrow Technique explosions... he used every trick he had, successfully blasting the Giant Leech down from its thick, two-meter body to the size of an adult's arm.

The thing simply would not die.

Still, it was not without gains. At the very least, he discovered the Giant Leech's Magic Organ—a lump of flesh growing in the middle of its body, covered in magical patterns and beating constantly like a small heart.

Since Monster Talents came from Magic Organs, couldn't he just swallow the Magic Organ directly? Why did he need to eat something this disgusting?

"Oh, right."

Chen Yu's round eyes began to shine. Catching up to the fleeing Giant Leech, he fired another Lesser Arrow Technique and precisely blasted its magical flesh lump away.

The damaged flesh lump traced a graceful arc through the air and landed on the ground. It wriggled as a little flesh grew back, then dimmed and fell still.

It seemed to have run out of magic power and stopped regenerating.

Chen Yu bounced over and directly swallowed the leech's Magic Organ into his stomach to digest it.

[Devour and Digest Lv.3 triggered—Giant Leech traits recorded. Talent incubating (1/10)]

"Now that's the right way to do it."

"Chew, chew, chew..."

To his surprise, the flesh lump was quite chewy. It could not be crushed no matter how hard he squeezed it, and it carried a distinct fishy stench, as if he had stuffed a huge handful of chopped houttuynia into his stomach.

The taste was unbelievably sharp and sour.

It made all of Chen Yu's gel tremble.

Dealing with the Giant Leech had exhausted him, and his Spiritual Power was nearly depleted. He could only slurp down four Glow Mushroom People to replenish himself before bouncing back to the nest to rest.

Inside the nest beneath the tree, Chen Yu lay comfortably with narrowed eyes, feeling threads of warmth rise from his stomach as his gaze settled on the Little Ones playing and roughhousing in the nest.

Without his noticing, they had grown rounder by another circle. What had not changed was how they still loved to stick close to him in a gooey heap.

Sometimes, they would quietly curl into tiny balls, their translucent bodies rising and falling slightly as they blissfully soaked in the gentle warmth radiating from him while he digested food.

At other times, unable to suppress their lively nature, they would bounce around his soft sides. Their bouncy bodies wobbled and quivered, like restless yet joyful blobs of jelly.

Chen Yu ignored them and soon fell asleep with his eyes half-closed.

Who knew how much time passed? When he woke again, night had already fallen outside. It was pitch-black, with only the nest still bathed in the soft glow of Gray Grit Crystals.

Slime Mother stood quietly at the entrance to the nest. The Little Ones were so sleepy they could barely keep their eyes open, their tiny mung-bean eyes drooping again and again, devoid of their daytime vigor.

Chen Yu shook his gel, his consciousness returning as his attention fell upon the panel.

[Devour and Digest Lv.3 triggered—Glow Mushroom Person traits fully recorded. Obtained talent: Hallucinogenic Factor Lv.1]

--

Race: Hallucinogenic Slime

Level: Black Iron Lv.3 [EXP: 16/30]

Cultivation: Qi Cultivation Lv.3 [Spiritual Power: 27/30]

Life Status: Healthy [HP: 105/105]

Racial Talent: Devour and Digest Lv.3

Other Talents: Acid Secretion Lv.3, Toxin Resistance Lv.3, Tough Carapace Lv.2, Hallucinogenic Factor Lv.1

Skill List: Kaiyuan Scroll Lv.4, Object Manipulation Technique Lv.3, Lesser Arrow Technique Lv.2, Sound Transmission Technique Lv.2, Talisman Drawing Technique Lv.1

Prestige Title: Slime Warrior (A slime just starting out)

Huh?

Only now did he realize that his cultivation had unknowingly reached the verge of a breakthrough.

As far as he knew, the gap between the early, middle, and late realms of Qi Cultivation in Xuxuantian was immense.

Once he broke through to the fourth level, not only would the purity of his Spiritual Power rise by several tiers, but even his meridians and Dantian would be cleansed by Spiritual Power, bringing a cultivator closer to heaven, earth, and nature.

The same Daoist art possessed entirely different power in the hands of an early-stage cultivator and a mid-stage cultivator.

At the thought of breaking through soon, the gel inside his body began bubbling with delighted little blips.

Unlike before, the bubbles that rose carried a faint glow as they drifted down into the nest.

The few mischievous Little Ones who still had energy immediately felt dizzy, toppled headfirst to the ground, and fell into a deep sleep.

"Is this the Glow Mushroom Person's hallucinatory talent?"

"It's pretty fun."

Its level was just a little low, though. It probably would not work on stronger Demonic Beasts.

Having just slept, he was still full of energy. His consciousness returned to Xuxuantian, and he got up in the middle of the night to practice drawing talismans.

Watching the proficiency notifications rise, he became more addicted with every talisman he drew. By the next day, he was heading deeper into the swamp to continue exploring, dark circles under his eyes.

Passing the place where he had fought the Giant Leech yesterday, he found that there were no more obstacles ahead. The mysterious ruins were right before him.

As Chen Yu approached, the soft, rotten mud beneath him gradually gave way to solid, shattered tiles. Darkness as thick as ink swept over him, swallowing all his senses with a suffocating weight.

Silence. An oppressive silence blanketed everything.

There seemed to be something strange within these ruins.

He quietly felt his way through the darkness to a fallen stone pillar, then meekly hid behind it.

Cautious and sneaky—that was the whole point.

As the squelching sounds of the Slime's movement vanished, several pairs of cold eyes abruptly lit up within the dense darkness.

Only after Chen Yu's eyes adjusted to the dark did he see several Swamp Crocodiles lying amid the ruins.

These things were everywhere along the Reed Riverbank. With their Death Roll, even brown bears did not dare provoke them lightly, and they often attacked Demihumans who entered the water to catch fish.

But strangely, they were different from ordinary Swamp Crocodiles.

Their scales were actually gray, just like those Corrupted Lizardfolk.

Chen Yu felt as though he had uncovered some incredible secret.

Iron Boot Town.

Noah leaned against the polished railing of a wooden bridge and looked toward the town at the foot of the mountain—freshly baked bread scented the air, along with the warm smoke of firewood and the freshness of rain-soaked earth.

Low wooden houses lined the path, while in the distance, the lights of the Old Oak Tavern glowed warmly in the dusk.

Yes, he was back.

He had returned to Iron Boot Town alive.

Though his body still ached, the familiar atmosphere loosened something in his heart. It was the peace of returning home.

He pulled his tattered coat tighter around himself, stepped onto the path, avoided the gazes of the crowd, and hurried eagerly toward the inn.

Urgent anticipation tangled in his heart with a trace of shy apprehension at being so close to home.

He had been gone for so many days. He wondered how Laura and the children were doing, whether they had returned.

He hoped everything was well.