Took the Bait

The deeper Lin Fan went, the thicker the fog on the island became.

Fortunately, though the fog could block his sight, it couldn't block his Spiritual Force.

He had already spread his mental detection into a "net," slowly pushing it forward along the ground and treetops.

It was like having a god's-eye view, covering an area several hundred meters around him.

Behind him, Sky Splitter had broken apart into more than a hundred feather blades, hovering and slowly shifting within three meters of him to guard against any possible danger.

"Beep!"

"Master, a high-energy reaction has erupted three hundred meters ahead."

The communicator in his ear vibrated slightly, and 101's voice came through clearly via bone conduction.

Lin Fan stopped and looked down at the holographic map on his watch. Sure enough, a conspicuous red dot lay not far ahead.

He walked less than a hundred meters farther before an unusually clean clearing opened up before him.

At its center stood a gigantic plant, bloodred from top to bottom, as if carved from the finest red jade. Its outline faintly resembled a human figure.

It stood more than ten meters tall, its branches gnarled and powerful, a faint, eerie red glow flowing across its surface.

Its leaves didn't look fibrous like those of a plant at all. Instead, each one resembled a razor-sharp dagger, its edge glinting with a chilling gleam.

A breeze passed.

Clang.

As the leaves collided, they rang with a metallic tremor.

What made Lin Fan's eyes light up, though, was the plant's entire body radiating a life force so rich it made his mouth water.

"Now this is the real treasure."

Lin Fan grinned. At last, this wasn't another weakling from the outer reaches.

Judging by its aura, it was a plant monster on par with a high-level lord.

Its unusual form of life and body as hard as iron made it even more troublesome—and more deadly—than ordinary monsters.

Without another word, Lin Fan vanished from where he stood, leaving a blurred afterimage in the air.

Almost as if he'd teleported, he appeared at the base of the bloodred plant.

"Mountain Collapse!"

Lin Fan shouted, gripping Calamity in both hands. In that instant, all the power in his body twisted into a single force and erupted from his spine!

He used the first level's Force Application Technique from the Calamity Killing Art, combined with Calamity's terrifying weight and the boost from his Spiritual Force.

Squish!

A muffled sound of steel biting into flesh rang out.

The ginseng-like trunk, hard as iron and tough enough to withstand bombardment by conventional weapons, was as brittle as a white radish before Calamity's keen edge and Lin Fan's monstrous burst of strength.

Crack!

The sturdy main trunk was severed cleanly, leaving a cut as smooth as a mirror.

Crash!

The enormous plant toppled. From the severed trunk, a little ginseng root the size of an infant's head, shaped like a tiny person and seemingly formed from congealed blood marrow, shot out.

Lin Fan reacted instantly. His Spiritual Force swept out and snatched it up.

"Hiss... What an incredibly rich life essence!"

Feeling the warmth in his hand, he breathed in its rich fragrance, which filled his body, and couldn't help letting out a satisfied sigh.

Just one sniff swept away his fatigue, and even his Spiritual Force became more active.

Lin Fan didn't pause. He tossed the treasure into his backpack and disappeared into the mist again.

After venturing farther in, he came across ironwood growing on a cliff face.

The whole tree was emerald green, its crown broad as a canopy, every branch as thick as a green serpent.

Smack!

Smack! Smack!

As its branches, hard as Kro Alloy, lashed out, the air exploded with piercing sonic booms.

If an ordinary War God ran into it, he probably wouldn't even be able to break through its defenses. He'd be whipped around on the ground and forced to flee in a sorry state.

But before Calamity, all that talk of toughness was a joke.

When Lin Fan descended from above, the ironwood went berserk. Thousands of branches whipped wildly, layering over one another to seal off his landing spot and try to crush him on the spot.

Watching the branches come at him, Lin Fan didn't even try to dodge. He simply swung again, plain and simple—

"Mountain Collapse!!"

Boom!

The oncoming branches were severed at once, and the supposedly indestructible trunk exploded on the spot.

Wood chips scattered through the air, and green sap fell like rain.

Lin Fan beckoned with one hand and pulled an emerald-green tree heart from the severed trunk.

"Beep!"

"Master, there's another one not far to your left."

Lin Fan turned to look. It was a giant man-eating flower lurking deep in the swamp.

Even after all the commotion here, it hadn't reacted at all. Clearly, it wasn't capable of moving around much on its own.

The instant Lin Fan approached, the man-eating flower king abruptly opened its huge maw, lined with fangs.

But the next moment—

Countless silver feather blades turned into a meat grinder and poured straight into its gaping mouth, churning wildly through its soft interior.

Squish-squish-squish!

After a flurry of slicing sounds, the man-eating flower king was ground into pieces and reduced to a heap of mush.

Lin Fan used his Spiritual Force to cut out a sticky, fragrant flower-king core, its consistency almost gelatinous, and took it with him.

"Next."

Soon, Lin Fan found an eerie vine sprawled across the ground, its entire body covered in poisonous thorns and resembling an octopus.

Its root mass spread out like a damp, cold blanket of flesh, while dozens of vine-like arms swayed slowly in the mist.

As soon as Lin Fan came within a hundred meters, the vines abruptly sprang to life, firing poisonous thorns at him like a rainstorm.

Whoosh!!

More than a hundred silver feather blades scattered like shards of silver, forming a spinning silver ring that blocked every incoming thorn.

"Go!"

The blades instantly gathered in the air into a silver-white roc. With a beat of its wings, it sliced the vine into "minced meat" in mere moments.

As the roc carved open the vine's root mass, it revealed a green, crystalline spike.

Lin Fan swept it up with his Spiritual Force and put it in his backpack.

In just ten minutes, he'd collected four spirits of vegetation on par with the Ten-Thousand-Year Willow Heart.

"That's enough. All that's left is that one..."

After putting away the spike, Lin Fan began wandering aimlessly through the area he'd already combed over.

His eyes seemed unfocused, like those of a greedy treasure hunter searching for anything he might have missed.

But it was all an act. His true goal was to lull Babata into a false sense of security.

With his current Spiritual Force Amplitude, he might already meet Babata's standards.

Once Babata confirmed his potential was high enough, it would toss out a Wood Bud Crystal as bait to lure him toward the Yunmo Starship.

If he didn't have enough potential... well, never mind.

To make sure he wouldn't miss it if Babata tossed out a Wood Bud Crystal, Lin Fan had spread his Spiritual Force to its maximum.

It formed a search net, covering everything within dozens of meters and even reaching beneath the ground.

Though a Wood Bud Crystal lacked the life aura of these plant monsters, its pure life energy stood out in his Spiritual Force's perception like a candle flame in the dark. There was no way he'd fail to find it.

He wandered aimlessly for almost three minutes.

"Hm?"

Lin Fan raised an eyebrow. He'd suddenly sensed an extremely distinct mass of life energy not far away.

And it was very small.

"Could it be...?"

Lin Fan turned and ran toward it.

As he drew near, he caught the intoxicating scent of rice.

He forced down the corners of his mouth as they threatened to rise, pushed aside the weeds in front of him, and looked ahead.

A completely unremarkable white crystal lay half-buried in the damp earth, giving off an enticing rice fragrance.

"Heh, took the bait."