Vegetation Spirits

The beautiful, tranquil primordial forest was utterly silent. There was no birdsong or chirping insects, nor the roars of birds and beasts. The place was so quiet it seemed like a dead zone.

Chen Daolin turned his head and looked at the lake. Not a single lake monster dared come up, either.

No matter how oblivious Chen Daolin was, he knew something was wrong with Lake Heart Island.

"What exactly is here? A King Level Monster?" Chen Daolin frowned in thought, but it did not feel quite right.

Chen Daolin casually found a patch of grass beside the beach and sat cross-legged. He decided to recover his injuries and stamina first. At the same time, he opened the Tactical Watch's communications and reported his safety to Ji Xuan, telling her to leave the mountain range as soon as possible. He did not know when the King Level Monster would return, and the area was no longer safe.

Chen Daolin sat on the grassy beach, far away from the forest, and closed his eyes as his breathing gradually steadied.

In the wilderness, Ji Xuan received the news that Chen Daolin was safe while standing atop a mountain peak. She finally breathed a sigh of relief. After glancing toward the direction in which the King Level Monster and Chen Daolin had disappeared, she leaped several times and soon vanished into the vast mountains.

Splash, splash...

The lake water rippled against the shore, playing a gentle melody. On the tranquil Lake Heart Island, Chen Daolin sat motionless on the grass like a statue.

Suddenly, Chen Daolin opened his eyes and stood up. After stretching his body, he smiled. "My injuries are almost healed. Even if I run into trouble on this Lake Heart Island, I'll at least have the strength to protect myself." A martial artist's physical qualities already far exceeded those of ordinary people. At the God of War level, they were practically superhuman. Even with injured internal organs or broken bones, they could recover quickly.

"This time was dangerous, but I also comprehended the third level of World Destroyer. If I had cultivated quietly on my own, it probably would have taken several years. No wonder people say that strength improves most easily through life-and-death trials." Chen Daolin smiled. "Now that my strength has risen again, I should be capable of fighting that King Level Monster."

The third level of World Destroyer increased his force by a total of twenty-seven tenths, or 3.7 times its original explosive power.

Combined with the fivefold King Kai Fist, that meant an 18.5-fold Strength Amplitude.

If Chen Daolin's strongest burst before had been 2.5 million kilograms, it was now 3.3 million kilograms. His strength had indeed increased greatly.

Even if he could not kill that King Level Monster, protecting himself would pose no problem at all.

Chen Daolin gazed toward the dense, verdant primordial forest, anticipation showing in his eyes.

"Next, let me see what secrets this place is hiding."

At the edge of the white mist surrounding the lakeshore, the enormous Cyan Winged Snake, over two hundred meters long, kept circling nearby. Its eyes held unwillingness, but whenever it looked toward the lake, they filled with fear and apprehension, as if something incredibly terrifying lurked within.

It was waiting—waiting for that human to come out.

It believed that, with that human's strength, he should not die inside so easily.

The Winged Snake King did not dare enter, so it could only guard the outside and wait for the possibility that Chen Daolin would emerge.

On the mysterious Lake Heart Island shrouded in mist.

Chen Daolin proceeded cautiously through the island's mountain forest. The doubt in his eyes deepened. "There are only trees and vegetation here, yet there isn't a single trace of any monster activity. This is too strange." Chen Daolin could see that the trees in the island's forest grew luxuriantly, while vivid flowers and tangled brambles seemed to fill the place with life.

Yet aside from him, he had not seen a single living creature. Although the trees were lush and the grass and flowers grew thickly, the entire place was deathly silent.

As Chen Daolin walked across a meadow covered in dazzling flowers, the ground suddenly rumbled. The entire meadow heaved upward. Soil nearly ten meters across rose high from all directions, like a giant mouth closing toward the center.

"Hm?" A cold glint flashed through Chen Daolin's eyes. He raised the spear in his hand and swept it horizontally. A terrifying sonic boom rang through the air, and the entire patch of earth that was about to close was cleaved into countless pieces, with fragments raining down.

Chen Daolin noticed plant roots resembling veins beneath the torn earth. Some of them were still writhing slightly, as if they were alive. He could not help frowning. "What is this? A plant? No... this seems to be..." A flash of insight passed through his mind, and he recalled the information about Vegetation Spirits that he had found after obtaining the Crystal Vine Fruit in the stadium.

Vegetation Spirits were mysterious and rare plants that had appeared for unknown reasons after humans and Beasts evolved. These Vegetation Spirits already possessed a "spirit," along with rudimentary awareness for attacking and protecting themselves. The more powerful a Vegetation Spirit was, the more precious it became.

After plants transformed into Vegetation Spirits, they posed no threat as long as no one approached them. Moreover, every Vegetation Spirit could be said to contain the essence of Heaven and Earth and possessed special effects.

"That's right. It should be. This is a Vegetation Spirit." Chen Daolin smiled, growing excited.

He searched the ruined ground for a while and dug a green plant roughly ten centimeters in diameter from the soil. Its exterior resembled a cactus, but countless vein-like roots spread around its base like a spiderweb. The moment any living creature stepped inside, the entire patch of ground would close at once and suffocate the prey alive.

"The strength and speed this plant displayed just now barely reached the God of War level. Its roots are numerous and extremely tough. Once an ordinary monster fell inside, it would have a hard time escaping. It really might have succeeded." Chen Daolin shook his head. He peeled open the cactus-like plant and found a tender red, diamond-shaped object inside, about two finger joints long. Waves of strange fragrance drifted from it. After examining it carefully, Chen Daolin put it away and stored it safely.

He looked toward the other parts of Lake Heart Island, and his eyes blazed with excitement.

"This Lake Heart Island is so quiet. There should be Vegetation Spirits in the other areas too, right?"

Every Vegetation Spirit possessed miraculous effects. Some could increase the vitality of human cells, some could improve a person's strength, some could make human skin astonishingly tough, and some could even regenerate severed limbs... Every Vegetation Spirit was incomparably precious and rare. Once one was discovered, it would attract competition from all kinds of forces.

"But right now, I'm the only one who's discovered this place." Chen Daolin's eyes shone. "The Vegetation Spirits I find here will all belong to me."

As for Vegetation Spirits possessing God of War-level strength, he did not care at all.

As long as no Vegetation Spirit on the level of a King Level Monster appeared, every Vegetation Spirit on Lake Heart Island belonged to him.

"Search. Keep searching." Chen Daolin was brimming with enthusiasm as he eagerly searched the vast Lake Heart Island.

In just twenty minutes, he actually found three more Vegetation Spirits. After all, Vegetation Spirits had the trait of automatically attacking creatures that approached them, which exposed their existence on their own.

Chen Daolin only needed to spend some time carefully searching the island once.

After a while, Chen Daolin's eyes lit up when he spotted several willow trees in the distance.

There were nine in total.

Perhaps because no one had visited this place for who knew how long, the willow trees had grown extremely tall and thick. Even the thinnest willow was one meter in diameter and thirty to forty meters tall, while the thickest was three meters in diameter and nearly a hundred meters tall. As the wind blew, countless tender green willow branches swayed, filling the scene with poetic beauty.

Chen Daolin was drawn to them and could not help walking over. At that moment, all the willow branches suddenly seemed to come alive and wrapped toward him in unison. They were dense and overwhelming, and every one of them moved faster than sound.

Chen Daolin stopped, a look of unsurprised understanding appearing on his face. His figure blurred instantly as he retreated rapidly, avoiding the countless willow branches converging on him.

"I knew there was something strange!"

Chen Daolin swept his spear horizontally. Under his powerful burst of strength, countless willow branches were severed. The branches of the other, smaller willows were tough enough to withstand the full-force strikes of Advanced General-Level martial artists' weapons. The pale golden branches of the largest willow, with its three-meter diameter, could even withstand attacks from God of War-level martial artists' weapons. However, against Chen Daolin, a freak capable of fighting a King Level Monster, they were almost pitifully fragile.

After cleaving apart the willow branches that had wrapped around him, Chen Daolin ignored their subsequent attacks. His figure instantly appeared beside the nine enormous willows. Bang, bang, bang... His spear swung countless times in an instant, hacking toward their trunks near the roots. Wood chips flew everywhere as green, dewy sap slowly seeped from the wounds in their trunks. The willows went berserk, countless branches wrapping toward him wildly from all directions. Yet Chen Daolin casually swung his spear a few times, chopping the branches into fragments that scattered everywhere. While blocking the willows' attacks, he still had enough leisure to hack at their trunks. Under Chen Daolin's strength of more than three million kilograms, even the incomparably tough trunks could not withstand the assault. Soon, the nine Vegetation Spirit willows crashed down one after another, and their branches, which had filled the sky, instantly lost their strength and drooped limply.

"This Willow King is probably the most powerful Vegetation Spirit I've ever seen." Chen Daolin looked at the massive trunk of the fallen willow. "The more powerful a Vegetation Spirit is, the more precious it is. Tsk, tsk... I wonder what effect it has." Chen Daolin was filled with anticipation.