A Huge Haul!

Xu Feng immediately understood. Bata had started playing tricks.

"That Bata can't leave his ship, so he's resorting to this kind of mystification..." Mentally prepared, Xu Feng naturally would not be easily influenced by Bata's psychological suggestions. On the surface, however, he pretended to be lured in and slowly made his way deeper underground.

Inside the ship's hall, Bata watched this scene expectantly.

He smacked his lips.

"What a greedy little fellow. He's coming over. Hehe." Bata smiled smugly. "How could a little Earth native like you possibly escape the grasp of the great Bata?"

Meanwhile, Xu Feng, pretending to know nothing, happily collected the Wood Essence Crystals he had "unexpectedly" discovered along the way.

As if Bata was worried the bait was not enticing enough, he had scattered more Wood Essence Crystals along Xu Feng's route.

"That's already twenty-seven. Bata really is generous." Xu Feng felt deeply satisfied by his gains.

But the real prize was still ahead!

"Hm? Where's that Crimson Chaos Copper Mother Fragment?" Xu Feng glanced around, then stamped his foot against the ground a few times.

"This Bata really looks down on people." Chaos Copper Mother Fragments were incomparably sharp and could serve as devastating weapons. They were not all that useful to Luo Feng, so Xu Feng would not have minded taking one for himself.

Unfortunately, Bata might not have considered that and had not put one out.

That left Xu Feng somewhat annoyed.

After a while, when Xu Feng "picked up" the thirty-second Wood Essence Crystal, his throwing knife suddenly struck an incomparably hard metal surface within the thick rock wall some distance away.

"We're here?" Xu Feng's heart stirred. Looking over, he could vaguely see metal within a narrow crevice beside it.

"The Meteor Star Ship!" Xu Feng understood that he had reached his destination.

Outwardly, however, Xu Feng still revealed expressions of delight, surprise, and shock.

Bata, who had been watching Xu Feng from inside the ship, was naturally pleased to see this.

"The fish has taken the bait." Both of them thought the same thing.

Xu Feng did not hesitate. He directly controlled his throwing knife to clear away the rocks around the metal, opening a passage wide enough to pass through. Ahead stood a strange "door" made of dusty silvery-white metal. This "door," resembling the hatch of an intelligent fighter jet, was currently half-closed.

Xu Feng blinked.

He slowly walked over as his Mental Power spread inside.

Very soon, Xu Feng saw exactly what he wanted to see—on the ground of the passage leading in through the hatch, crystal after crystal with faint white halos had all been gathered together. Ten, twenty, thirty... They were packed densely together, at least two or three hundred of them!

Even though he had already expected it, Xu Feng's eyes instantly turned red.

"So many..." Xu Feng's nostrils flared, his face flushed, and his gaze burned with desire.

Like a lecherous wolf who had been single for decades suddenly catching sight of a peerless beauty without a stitch of clothing.

Instinctively glancing around, Xu Feng then realized that he was alone underground—perhaps with one more Bata lurking somewhere and spying on him.

"Heh... They're all mine." Xu Feng grinned. Without the slightest hesitation, he darted into the ship's entrance passage, completely unconcerned about encountering danger.

The entire ship was actually under the surveillance of the Intelligent Life Bata. Since Bata had used so many precious Wood Essence Crystals to lure him here, he naturally would not harm him so easily.

Harming Xu Feng had no meaning at all to Bata.

Intelligent Life was still intelligent. It had its own logic and would not be easily swayed by emotions into doing meaningless things.

"One hundred and twenty-five... one hundred and seventy-one..." Like a tiger unleashed from its cage, Xu Feng moved with incredible speed, sweeping up every white translucent crystal near the entrance to the passage.

Only then did he rise reluctantly. "Three hundred and fifteen..."

Including the Wood Essence Crystals he had obtained outside, that made 348 in total!

Every Wood Essence Crystal could allow an eighth- or ninth-rank apprentice to break through to the Planetary level within a month!

How many Planetary-level fighters were there on Earth right now?

This was an immense fortune. Even Hong and Thunder God would be jealous.

Therefore, before he became sufficiently powerful, Xu Feng absolutely could not reveal that he possessed Wood Essence Crystals.

Otherwise, the consequences would be extremely serious.

Xu Feng was not afraid, but what about the people around him?

If even one was exposed, others would definitely suspect that he had more hidden away. The ensuing trouble would be endless. That was human nature; explanations would be useless.

Xu Feng had no intention of making trouble for himself.

Truthfully, Xu Feng would be lying if he said he was not tempted by Hu Yanbo's inheritance.

However, he worried that if he accepted that inheritance and changed the plot, how would things develop afterward? Would it trigger a series of unfavorable butterfly effects for himself?

Besides, Luo Feng was his brother. If Xu Feng snatched away an opportunity that should have belonged to him, Xu Feng did not think he could ever get past that in his own heart.

He continued collecting the Wood Essence Crystals!

Xu Feng lifted his foot, about to continue downward.

"Wait!"

Suddenly, Xu Feng stopped again.

In the central control room of the Meteor Star Ship, Bata watched the black-haired youth in the holographic projection, who had stopped moving and stood there for a long time. He was starting to lose his composure as well.

"Why isn't he coming in yet?"

"Come in! There aren't any traps here!"

"There are even more treasures inside. The great Bata isn't going to eat you."

As though he had heard Bata's inner thoughts,

"A gentleman does not stand beneath a crumbling wall. It's better not to enter carelessly..."

After saying that, Xu Feng turned and left in the direction he had come from.

Under Bata's dumbfounded gaze, Xu Feng simply walked away.

"?????"

Bata's blood-red eyes widened as he watched the future successor of Meteor Tear—the one he had chosen with such difficulty—vanish right before his eyes.

Bata was left utterly bewildered.

"You!"

"**!"

"You just ran away!?"

Bata was not stupid. He immediately realized that he had been played and roared like thunder!

A string of furious Universal Language curses spewed wildly from Bata's mouth.

Then he switched to dialects from hundreds of different regions of the universe.

The great Lord Bata, the "Demon Bata" who had once roamed countless starfields and left behind terrifying legends, had actually been toyed with by a little Earth native who still smelled of milk and had not even grown all his hair yet!

It was simply the greatest humiliation!

"Ah!"

"Bastard! One day, I'll make you learn how formidable I, Bata, am!"

Bata's furious roar echoed through the ship for a long time.

Elsewhere, Xu Feng sped through the hard rock like an arrowfish, rushing at top speed to a place dozens of kilometers away and continuing farther still.

"This time, the harvest was pretty good!" Xu Feng happily hummed a tune.

As for Bata, whom he had angered... that fellow could not come out anyway, so Xu Feng was not worried that Bata would cause him trouble now.

Besides, he and Luo Feng were friends. Even if Bata came out later and wanted to make a move against him, Luo Feng would not agree.

Perfect!

Xu Feng looked radiant and invigorated.

This trip to Mist Island had truly yielded a full harvest. His physical fitness had reached the limit of a War God, he had obtained a large number of Wood Essence Crystals, and he had also acquired some Spirit of Plants...

Once he used the Wood Essence Crystals, he could directly break through to the Planetary level in the shortest possible time, then continue growing stronger!

"There's no longer any meaning in staying at the training camp." Xu Feng's gaze was profound.

"But I still can't expose myself yet!"

In May, Xu Feng had not even passed the Quasi-Warrior assessment. By August, he had already become an expert surpassing War Gods... If word got out, the entire world would probably go mad.

Just imagining that scene made Xu Feng's scalp tingle.