Star Dou Forest, core region. Lake of Life.
This place had originally been the continent's most upscale "villa district," with the best air and highest greenery coverage. Its residents were all ancient monsters with at least several hundred thousand years under their belts.
Normally, forget humans—even a mosquito would have to pay two mouthfuls of blood as a toll before flying in.
But today, this place was noisier than a marketplace.
"Rumble rumble—chug chug—"
Without seeing it, one might have thought someone was carrying out illegal renovations.
Beside the Lake of Life, three outrageously gaudy—one could even say slapdash—machines were operating at full tilt.
Rather than some high-tech nanotechnology, these machines were filled with Grey Wolf's "junkyard" mix-and-match aesthetic—patches layered over patches, exhaust pipes belching black smoke, and springs occasionally popping out.
Grey Wolf wore a battered yellow hard hat, with several half-eaten sheep bones even dangling from its brim.
Clutching a huge wrench that was both rusty and chipped, he stood atop the driver's seat of the machine called the "Super Invincible Automatic Hole-Digging Machine 2.0," stomping his feet.
"Easy! Idiots! Easy!"
Grey Wolf slammed his wrench against the control lever and roared at the machine, "This is the transmission belt my wife stayed up all night sewing yesterday! If you break it, I'll get hit with the Frying Pan again when I get back!"
The machine seemed to understand, letting out a wronged "creak" as it slowed its digging slightly. Yet its enormous bucket still mercilessly drove down at the roots of an ancient tree that had stood there for who knew how many years.
"Crack!"
The Lake of Life, once brimming with spiritual energy, now had its spiritual energy concentration reduced directly into the negatives by this violent excavation.
Qin Feng sat on a large rock nearby,