The sound of something heavy being dragged through the woods was especially grating.
"Clang, clang."
It was Thunder Tyrannosaurus's head banging against the rocks.
Grey Wolf drove the smoking Scrap King No. 2, dragging the thousand-year Soul Beast like a dead dog.
Following behind him were Hu Liena, trussed up like a dumpling in an electromagnetic net, and the unwilling Xiao Wu, the hooligan rabbit, who occasionally kicked at rocks.
Qin Feng walked at the front, holding the radar that was still beeping.
"It's just ahead."
He pushed aside the last patch of brush, and the view opened up before them.
They were in a sheltered mountain hollow, where a strange, sweet-and-fetid smell hung in the air.
Seven or eight senior students from Notting Academy stood in a circle, each with a hand on a weapon as they tensely watched the center.
Tang San sat cross-legged in the middle.
His current appearance could only be described as "absolutely hideous."
His whole face was swollen to a liver-red hue, and the veins in his neck writhed like earthworms. Sweat had soaked his clothes, plastering them tightly to his body.
Above his head, a purple-black vine about as thick as an arm, with several barbs growing from it, swayed weakly.
It was a Ghost Vine.
And judging by the color of its leaves, it was at most three hundred and fifty years old—and a malnourished one at that.
"Who's there?!"
Xiao Chenyu, who was on guard, heard the noise and whipped around.
When he saw Qin Feng's face, the long sword in his hand clattered to the ground.
Then his gaze passed over Qin Feng and landed on the Thunder Tyrannosaurus behind him, which was as big as a hill, as well as the Spirit Hall Saintess bound hand and foot.
Xiao Chenyu's knees went weak.
"Thump."
Without the slightest hesitation, the young lord of the city dropped to his knees in one smooth motion, his form so perfect it looked as though he'd rehearsed it countless times.
"B-Brother Feng! You're here!"
Xiao Chenyu forced a smile that looked even worse than crying. His expression changed faster than a Sichuan opera master's.
The few lackeys around him had been about to draw their swords, but when they saw their boss on his knees—and the Tyrannosaurus still crackling with electricity—they dropped to their knees too, not daring to raise their heads.
Qin Feng didn't even spare them a glance. He walked straight over to Tang San and nudged the dirt with his toe.
"So this is what they call a genius absorbing a Soul Ring? You look constipated."
As soon as he finished speaking,
Tang San's eyes flew open.
A flash of purple light passed through them, a sign that his Purple Demon Eye had advanced.
"Phew—"
He let out a long breath of foul air and sprang to his feet.
Though he looked a mess, Tang San couldn't hide the excitement in his eyes. He could feel the surging Soul Power within him—the exhilaration of breaking through a bottleneck.
"Teacher! I did it!"
Tang San instinctively looked to the side, only to find Yu Xiaogang standing behind Qin Feng, watching him with a complicated expression.
"Xiao San..." Yu Xiaogang opened his mouth as if to say something, then swallowed his words.
Only then did Tang San notice what was going on around him.
Xiao Chenyu and the others were kneeling on the ground, Hu Liena was tied up, and then there was... that enormous Thunder Tyrannosaurus, its body covered in tubes.
His pupils contracted sharply.
Qin Feng?
What was he doing here? And what was with all this...?
"Oh, you're awake?"
Qin Feng crossed his arms, looking amused. "I heard you found yourself a treasure of a Soul Ring. Let's see it."
Tang San gritted his teeth, a shadow passing through his eyes.
If he couldn't avoid a fight, he'd fight!
He'd been wanting to test the power of this first Soul Skill anyway!
"First Soul Skill—Bind!"
Tang San shouted. The hundred-year Soul Ring at his feet lit up.
The Blue Silver Grass on the ground instantly grew at a furious pace, turning into purple-black Ghost Vines. Their sharp barbs made them look like venomous snakes as they lashed toward Qin Feng's legs.
The speed was decent, and the display... was nothing special.
Qin Feng stood still, without moving an inch.
Just as the vines were about to touch the hem of his pants,
"Snip."
Grey Wolf had somehow come over with a huge pair of garden shears in his hands.
He gave them a casual snip.
The menacing Ghost Vines were cut as easily as noodles. Purple sap seeped from the cut ends and dripped onto the ground with a sizzling, corrosive hiss.
"That's it?"
Grey Wolf tossed the cut vines aside in disgust and stepped on them.
"Not enough tensile strength, too much water, and the toxicity's only on the level of pyrethrin."
"This junk's so prickly, I wouldn't even wipe my ass with it."
Tang San's face turned liver-red.
He'd risked his life to absorb that hundred-year Soul Ring! It was a fusion of a Datura Snake and a Ghost Vine! How could it be worthless in this wolf's mouth?
"What would you know?!"
Tang San roared. "This is a control-type Soul Skill! The point is the poison and paralysis!"
"Poison?"
Qin Feng laughed—a loud, hearty laugh.
He pulled a glass bottle filled with green liquid from his pocket.
"Brother Wolf, show this 'control-type grandmaster' what real botany looks like."
"Sure thing!"
Grey Wolf took the bottle and walked over to an inconspicuous clump of foxtail grass.
"Super Strong Growth Hormone Type X. Just one drop can make plant cells divide ten thousand times faster and break the Gene Lock, triggering uncontrolled mutations."
As he explained, Grey Wolf carefully dropped a single bead of green liquid onto the foxtail grass.
The next second,
the ground began to shake violently.
The foxtail grass, which had barely reached their ankles, suddenly swelled at a furious pace as if it had been inflated.
"Creeeak—creeeak—"
Amid the teeth-grating sound of growth, its leaves thickened until they were like steel plates, with serrated edges. Its stalk grew thicker than a barrel, and a dark-green, horny layer covered its surface.
In just three seconds,
a five-meter-tall Man-eating Foxtail Grass towered before them.
Its enormous seed head had become a Venus flytrap-like cage filled with fangs, and sticky fluid dripped from it.
"Go on, shake hands."
Grey Wolf pointed at Tang San.
The mutated foxtail grass seemed to understand the command. Its enormous leaf suddenly swung down.
"Smack!"
The Ghost Vines Tang San had summoned were as fragile as paper beneath the monster's blow. They shattered in an instant.
The powerful gust of wind sent Tang San flying. He tumbled across the ground several times before stopping, his mouth full of dirt.
The entire place fell silent.
Kneeling on the ground, Xiao Chenyu's jaw nearly dropped off.
Was that thing really foxtail grass?
If they planted it in front of the City Lord's Mansion, even an army wouldn't be able to break through!
"W-what kind of Soul Skill is that?" Tang San scrambled to his feet and stared at the still-thrashing monster, his eyes filled with shock.
That vitality, that strength... Could it be a ten-thousand-year Plant-type Soul Beast?
"Soul Skill?"
Qin Feng walked over to the weird plant and patted its rock-hard stalk.
"Student Tang San, you should read more."
"This is chemistry."
"Cytokinins, gibberellins, auxins, plus a few gene fragments extracted from radiation-mutated organisms."
"As long as I have the formula, I can mass-produce these 'Guardian No. 1s.'"
Qin Feng gestured toward the weeds covering the mountain.
"As long as I have enough solution, every blade of grass in this forest can become part of my army."
"And you're still congratulating yourself over a lousy thorny vine?"
That was a devastating blow.
Tang San looked at the grass covering the mountains, then at the snapped strand of Blue Silver Grass in his palm. A sense of defeat unlike anything he'd ever felt surged through him.
His Mysterious Heaven Skill and Tang Sect Secret Arts seemed like outdated tricks in this man's presence.
"This solution..."
Hu Liena, who had been silent until then, suddenly spoke.
Though she was still tied up, her alluring eyes were fixed on the bottle in Grey Wolf's hand, a shrewd gleam in them.
"How long does it last? What are the side effects?"
As the Spirit Hall Saintess, she immediately grasped its strategic value.
On a battlefield, they could scatter a handful of seeds, add the solution, and instantly create a defensive barrier of plants!
It was faster and stronger than the defenses of any earth-type Soul Master!
"Three hours. After that, the plants wither because their cellular telomeres are depleted."
Qin Feng turned to look at Hu Liena, the corner of his mouth curling into a playful smile.
"What? Interested, Saintess?"
"Name your price." Hu Liena took a deep breath, trying to sound confident. "The Spirit Hall will take either the formula or the finished product."
"No!"
Before Qin Feng could reply, Xiao Wu suddenly jumped in.
She grabbed Qin Feng's arm and glared fiercely at Hu Liena.
"You're not allowed to sell it to her! She's a bad person!"
Xiao Wu disliked Qin Feng for dissecting Soul Beasts, but she disliked the smell of the Spirit Hall even more.
Besides...
Seeing Qin Feng and Hu Liena exchanging glances made her feel inexplicably uncomfortable.
"The solution's poisonous! It'll make your hands rot if you use it!" Xiao Wu started making things up.
Qin Feng irritably pulled his arm out of Xiao Wu's embrace.
"Go play somewhere else. Adults are doing business. Children shouldn't butt in."
He looked at Hu Liena and held up three fingers.
"Three million Gold Soul Coins a bottle."
"The formula's not for sale."
"Also, I want a complete inventory of all the rare metals in the Spirit Hall branch in Gengxin City."
Hu Liena gritted her teeth.
Three million? That was highway robbery!
But looking at the mutated foxtail grass still strutting around, she knew it was worth the price.
"Deal."
"But I don't have that much money on me right now..."
"No problem." Qin Feng pulled a crumpled piece of paper and a pen from his robes. "Write an IOU. Put your fingerprint on it. Interest is calculated at nine out, thirteen back."
Just as Qin Feng was forcing the Spirit Hall Saintess to sign a loan shark's IOU,
a voice suddenly sounded in his mind.
[Beep!]
[Detected: Host's actions are an exceptional match for the "Mad Scientist" persona!]
[Using chemical agents to crush the protagonist of a fantasy world, causing a severe collapse of the world's worldview!]
[Shock value has exceeded the threshold!]
[Special achievement unlocked: Profaner of Science.]
[Reward: A second summon permit for "Scientist of Ten Thousand Worlds"!]
Before you continue