The First Rainstorm

Whoosh—!

The three Moss Monsters near the swamp had yet to realize danger was upon them when the Stinger Swords pierced their bodies one after another. They became food and entered Chen Yu's gelatinous belly.

Sizzle... sizzle...

Accompanied by faint yet efficient dissolving sounds, the Moss Monsters were almost instantly engulfed and broken down by the powerful acid.

Chen Yu could feel them rapidly transforming into a stream of warm, pure energy that merged into his gelatinous body.

With "Acid Secretion," his digestive efficiency was far greater than before!

[Proficiency +1]

[Proficiency +1]

A transparent screen flashed past. The acid within him seemed to have deepened in color slightly, though it was not very obvious.

Over the course of the morning, Chen Yu went on to hunt more than a dozen Moss Monsters.

Previously, he had needed to beware of the acid sprayed by the Moss Monsters and could only hunt them one by one in secret, making his efficiency extremely low.

Now that he had three Stinger Swords, he was unafraid even if the Moss Monsters came in swarms.

The times had changed. When even the wolf picked up a hunting rifle, the sheep in the pen were left only to be slaughtered, and even the farmer guarding the pen would fear it by three parts.

He began sweeping through the breeding ground beneath the trees, and this quickly enraged the Stinger Bee swarm above. Four Stinger Bees flew down from the tree.

But Chen Yu had come prepared this time. The moment he saw the Stinger Bees descend, he immediately jumped into the swamp mud, causing the poisonous stingers shot at him to miss entirely.

The Stinger Bees were so furious that they circled above the swamp, yet they could do nothing to him.

"Can't hit me, can you?"

After toying with those Stinger Bees for quite a while, he found it rather boring to keep competing with these Demonic Beasts. Since he could not get up to the surface anyway, he burrowed back into his nest to rest.

Inside the thatched hut in the Green Bamboo Forest, after breakfast, Chen Yu arranged the porcelain bottles one by one on the table. Pressing his fingers against the lines in his palm, he secreted Slime Acid, which slid down from his fingertips.

Before long, the acid filled exactly five bottles.

His face also turned somewhat pale from it. He hurriedly drank a bowl of plain congee, and only then did his vitality gradually recover.

Secreting acid consumed "Mana," as well as stamina and nutrients. Five bottles a day was more or less his limit. Any more, and there truly would be none left.

Replenishing stamina and nutrients was fairly simple, but there was no other way to restore "Mana." He could only wait slowly.

Five bottles of Slime Acid were worth 125 Spirit Shards, which converted to one Spirit Stone, plus another 25 Spirit Shards.

After deducting his daily meals, he made a net profit of 75 Spirit Shards a day—no different from the reward for completing an ordinary sect mission.

Its advantage lay in being efficient and easy.

After a few more days, once he had saved enough Spirit Stones, he could go buy new Dao techniques.

He looked forward to it.

At noon, he made a trip to Nanqiao Market and saw Shao Qingsong already waiting by Qiaopai Gate, leaning against it.

When he saw Chen Yu approaching, he waved, afraid Chen Yu would not recognize him.

"Junior Brother, it's me, Shao Qingsong."

"Why did you come so early?"

Shao Qingsong replied politely, "I had nothing to do, so I came to Nanqiao Market early to take a look."

How could he not come early? Where else could he find such a sure-profit, no-loss business? Of course he had to be more attentive.

It was only because he was not a woman that he had no looks to sell.

Otherwise, he would have followed Chen Yu back long ago, wagging his tail and trotting after him.

Chen Yu gave him a strange look. He always felt that behind this senior brother's gloomy gaze lurked ill intent.

Shao Qingsong lowered his voice. "Junior Brother Chen, that Corpse Dissolving Water of yours really works well. How much stock do you have now? I'll take it all."

"Senior Brother, you misunderstand. This is medicinal liquid, truly not some Corpse Dissolving Water."

"Yes, yes, it was this senior brother who forgot again." Shao Qingsong chuckled.

When Chen Yu took out five bottles of Slime Acid and handed them over, a flash of delight crossed the man's face. He then carefully took out one intact Spirit Stone and a small handful of Spirit Shards, completing the transaction with him.

Before parting, the two agreed on the time for their next trade.

From then on, Chen Yu's life fell into a fixed rhythm: when the sun had just risen, he hunted in the Swamp Forest; when the sun tilted westward, he went to Nanqiao Market on time to trade with Shao Qingsong.

The days flowed onward like swamp water running through the forest, calm and regular.

In the blink of an eye, half a month passed.

After Chen Yu finished a delicious breakfast in the Swamp Forest, subtle changes quietly appeared in his body.

[Proficiency +1]

[Acid Secretion Lv.1 → Acid Secretion Lv.2]

--

Other Talents: Acid Secretion Lv.2

Skill List: Kaiyuan Scroll Lv.4, Object Manipulation Technique Lv.3

--

After this period of hunting, his Slime body had swollen to the size of two cupped palms. Within his transparent body, darker acid swayed along with his hops.

The corrosiveness of Lv.2 Slime Acid was now little different from Moss Monster acid, and it could be sold for a higher price.

Moreover, due to his frequent hunting over this period, Object Manipulation Technique had also risen to Lv.3.

The range of Object Manipulation Technique was still half a meter, but the intervals for controlling the Stinger Swords had shortened. He could fire four Stinger Swords in one breath without any problem.

He had practically become a walking land-bound sword immortal. With every step, an insect died. Whenever the Moss Monsters beneath the Twisted Oak saw something green emerge from the swamp, they would be so frightened that they shrank into the gaps between the tree roots.

Their simple neural centers could not understand how their former prey had become so terrifying, but instinct had already recorded their fear of Slimes.

From then on, the status of Slimes in the Swamp Forest would rise another notch.

Mm... at the very least, they had gone from weak food to food with a little ability to resist.

That afternoon, Chen Yu went to Nanqiao Market as usual to trade and purchase supplies...

Feeling the twelve Spirit Stones he had saved up over these days in his pocket, he got a taste of what it felt like to be wealthy.

Though he did not earn much, it was a steady trickle that became a river, far better than suffering through training excursions and missions.

But today, he always felt that the flow of energy through his body was obstructed. At first, he thought he had grown rich lately and was simply too full from eating well. Only afterward did he realize that his cultivation was about to break through.

So he did not linger long in Nanqiao Market. He returned to the thatched hut, ate dinner early, then lay back on the hardwood bed to meditate and regulate his breathing, seeking an opportunity for breakthrough.

Breaking through did not require much effort, but over in the Swamp Forest, it seemed that the first rainstorm since spring was about to fall.

Zeyarila.

Lead-gray clouds hung low in the sky, layer upon layer, as though they were about to crush everything beneath them.

The forest below had already been swallowed by thick darkness. The air among the trees was stagnant, sultry, and sticky, without even a trace of wind.

Plop, plop...

Chen Yu swallowed the last Moss Monster and, before night arrived, hopped back to the swamp to take shelter from the rain.

The Swamp Forest at night was far more terrifying than during the day. Even Chen Yu did not dare remain on the surface.

The predators here were not limited to Stinger Bees. Demonic Beasts with "Dark Vision" generally emerged at night, waiting for chances to prey on their quarry.

After jumping into the swamp, he left only his little head and a pair of mung-bean eyes above the swamp pool, observing the movements in the darkness.

After an unknown amount of time passed, he saw the unremarkable dark-green moss of daytime begin to emit a faint glow at night, slightly dispersing the gloom before the storm.

Some lurking Demonic Beasts also began their nighttime activities.

Huge Leeches, like pythons, slithered through the shadowy swamp as though avoiding something. Blue Frogs covered in fluorescence ignored the mosquitoes above their heads as they hurriedly searched for somewhere to shelter from the rain...

There were also Glow Mushrooms glowing with a ghostly blue light, pulling themselves from the ground and hopping through the forest on a pair of little legs.

These Glow Mushroom People looked delicious, but the fluorescent powder they scattered behind them had an extremely powerful hallucinogenic effect.

If a Demonic Beast accidentally came into contact with it, it would fall into an illusion. Then the mushroom people would forcibly bury it in the soil and suck it dry as nourishment.

Chen Yu had once seen a beetle fly past, become tainted with fluorescent powder, and wobble to the ground. A Glow Mushroom Person pinned it beneath its body, and it never got back up.

Though he craved a bite of them, he did not dare provoke these mushroom people carelessly.

However, not many Demonic Beasts had come out tonight. Normally, he could still hear chilling howls from the depths of the swamp, but now they had all vanished. It seemed that the Demonic Beasts deeper within had sensed the approaching rainstorm in advance and gone into hiding.

A nameless restlessness and oppression rose within Chen Yu. It was as though he yearned for something.

Looking up into the air, he saw gray mist that had unknowingly spread throughout the entire forest.

The forest was already very dark, yet his pair of mung-bean eyes could indeed see this gray mist.

A word suddenly sprang into his mind.

Mana.

This did not feel like an ordinary rainstorm. It felt more like an approaching carnival of Mana.

No matter what,

Tonight was destined to be anything but peaceful.