When the Dust Settled, She Brushed Off Her Clothes and Left

The dim underground space was terrifyingly silent. Annie slowly opened her eyes, and the patterns in the rock came clearly into view.

She felt something cold beneath her, as though there were wet stains.

"Li!"

She called out instinctively, but apart from the echo, there was no other sound.

She tried hard to recall what had happened before she lost consciousness. It seemed that while falling from high above, she had been knocked out directly by some rock.

Why she had ended up here, she had no memory of it at all.

Just then, she sensed something strange. A surge of abundant watery vapor was drawing close to her, while a heavy force in the air seemed to pour into her chest. Once the two forces converged, a familiar scent of mud arose.

Her palm instinctively pressed against the ground, and something bizarre happened.

The hard stone instantly turned into a pool of clear water. After the water churned a few times, it became a patch of mud.

"This..." Annie stared at her palm in shock. When had she gained such an ability? Unconvinced, she touched another stone.

In an instant, the stone turned into mud.

"What's going on?"

Annie hurriedly backed away, but at that moment, countless wisps of dust and watery vapor gathered and all rushed into her chest.

In the blink of an eye, she had grown twice as tall. Her slender back slowly began to bulge, as though something new were about to grow from it. Two streams of air converged above her head and entwined with her snake hair, vaguely forming a crown.

As the crown gradually took shape, she suddenly became sensitive to the watery and earthy vapors around her. Those currents gathered uncontrollably, churned, and poured into every limb and bone. In the blink of an eye, she grew another stretch taller.

"I can absorb watery vapor?"

The moment she murmured those words, she discovered that her mouth was unbearably itchy. Her fully developed teeth had actually started growing again.

They became sharp and hard.

Such an eerie transformation gave Annie a fright. In just this short while, she had grown three times taller and was nearly touching the ceiling of the underground space, yet she was still growing uncontrollably.

Something must have happened while she was unconscious.

She hurriedly surveyed her surroundings. As her body rose higher, her field of vision broadened as well.

She saw a skeleton rack with a belt hanging from it. The belt was tied full of frogs. The frogs croaked wildly and tried to break free, but a red rope had them bound tight as death.

Beside the frogs hung a small bottle filled with scarlet **. Next to that bottle was a parchment letter.

Annie bent down and grabbed the parchment. Neat writing on the cover read: "For adorable Annie!"

Annie was somewhat bewildered. This was handwriting she recognized, from Li Ziran.

She became much more careful, afraid that her huge palm might accidentally tear the letter apart, and slowly opened it.

"Stupid girl, after waking up, do you feel like you've changed a lot? I need to apologize to you. I performed another little operation on your chest without getting your permission."

Annie pulled open her clothes at her chest, revealing a faint, slender knife scar.

"Perhaps you'll look at your wound. Don't worry, when I make a move, I never leave any aftereffects. Oh, I need to tell you something important. Your heart was gone, so I gave you a new one. It should be able to gather swamp elements or something like that. Right, Medusa is hanging from the rope beside you, and the bottle contains my blood. Just dab it on your brow, and she'll basically recover. That's all I can do. Oh, right, you might evolve in the direction of a Swamp Dragon in the future, so you'll need a place rich in water elements. The Wasteland isn't suitable for you. If you wake up, keep heading south. There's a rainforest there, and you'll be able to grow quickly. That way, you might barely be able to protect your tribe. Medusa really makes my mouth water! Oh, and one more most important thing: don't be so foolish around people anymore. It's cute, but you won't live long!"

Annie looked at the end of the letter. She had wanted to read more, but unfortunately, there was only blank parchment left.

She lowered her head to look at the thumb-sized bottle filled with blood, then at the belt full of frogs, and finally at the knife scar on her chest. She murmured, "Am I cute?"

After saying that, the confusion in her eyes had already vanished. She closed her eyes, and the corners of her lips gradually curved into a smug smile. "Heh heh, our spirits have intertwined, Li Ziran. Do you think you can get rid of me?"

Clearly, she had gained an ability Li Ziran had never foreseen.

Her body gave a light shudder. Water and earth elements thundered within her chest, and under that elemental impact, two bony points on her back instantly broke through the restraints of her flesh, turning into two soft green wings.

The instant the wings appeared, countless black-yellow currents rolled around them. In the blink of an eye, the wings hardened and formed intricate patterns. With a gentle flap, they directly raised a black-yellow whirlwind, which scraped against the space and opened crack after crack.

Within those cracks, droplets appeared and soil compacted, actually forming a tiny independent space.

The space gave a faint tremor, and Annie vanished from where she stood. The belt on the skeleton rack and that bottle of blood vanished with her.

At this moment, Li Ziran knew nothing of the changes in the underground space, much less that a derivative space was being born. He was currently resting against a ** Wasteland boulder.

"That girl should survive, right?"

Li Ziran was not entirely certain. Although the Dragon Heart would grant her great power, surviving in this world was not as simple as having strength. A large part of it required brains and luck.

For a fourteen-year-old girl to survive with a group of Medusas—just thinking about it made it no easy matter.

"What a pity."

Li Ziran sighed inwardly. His soul had intertwined with Annie's, and each of them had fused with a portion of the other's soul, invisibly forming an emotional bond. Besides, Annie had a good figure. If properly trained, she might even have become an assistant.

But that thought only flashed through his mind. Compared with an assistant, the Medusas behind her were far more troublesome.

Such slaves, precious beyond measure, made every slave trader drool. With his little bit of ability, he simply could not protect them.

It was just a pity about those forty silver coins. After the operation, he had searched the entire camp, yet he had not found where the treasure vaults of the Cannon Slave Corps and Thornflower Slave-Trading Corps were located.

As for corpses and the like, Karen had almost entirely sacrificed them away.

Even now, he still only had that pitiful single silver coin on hand.

His debt of forty silver coins to Barbarona would have to be delayed for a while. But when Li Ziran looked at the belt full of frogs at his waist, he smiled knowingly again.

Seventy-two Fishmen, sixty Snake Women, thirteen Medusa corpses, and one leader ram.

Heh heh, he had even found the belt he had buried the first time.

Most importantly, there was also a completely demented human fire mage. Hidden inside that man's body was a magic gland worth seven gold coins.

And that was not all. In his underwear pocket was an entire set of Corpse Witch organs. As long as he delivered these things to the Undead Nest, his worth would immediately multiply dozens of times over.

Li Ziran had already made his plans. Not far away was the renowned Madinger Town. This town was controlled by centaurs, connected in all directions, and bustling with trade.

He would rest in town for a day and dispose of all the Snake Women and Fishmen. After earning some money, he would first replenish his supplies, especially his magic potions. Several consecutive large operations had nearly emptied his stock.

Another important matter was upgrading his surgical tools. His spiritual power had advanced by leaps and bounds, allowing him to sense finer details inside living bodies, which meant he could perform more complex operations.

For example, extremely difficult blood replacement, or the more complicated organ fusion techniques of the Witch Doctor system.

All of those required professional equipment. The current set of surgical tools contained too little Mithril and simply could not hold much spiritual power.

Of course, those were merely small potatoes. The final destination of Li Ziran's journey this time was the Undead Nest.

He needed to dispose of the various Corpse Witch organs in his possession, while the thirteen Medusas would yield the greatest profit only in the hands of a Necromancer.

When Karen modified the Corpse Dragon's teeth for him, he had already received undead enlightenment. Strictly speaking, he could now be considered an Undead Apprentice.

It was simply that he had never studied systematically and did not yet understand the various spells.

Li Ziran did not ask for much—just two spells.

The first was how to enter a Corpse Witch's body with his soul, allowing him to use the Corpse Witch to magically modify his own body. The second was how to make the Necromancer's Rope. That had become a knot in his heart; nearly all his gains over the last two years had been fished away by that spell.

"Hey, need a ride?"

An aged shout yanked Li Ziran out of his plans. It was a red-hoofed centaur leading a merchant caravan of around a hundred members. Barrels upon barrels of rum were loaded on the centaurs' backs.

Even through the thick barrels, it seemed possible to smell the high-proof aroma of liquor.

"Of course. Are you headed to Madinger?" Li Ziran smiled broadly as his hand unconsciously touched his waist.

He was full now and did not feel like robbing a merchant caravan. But if they failed to appreciate kindness, Li Ziran would not mind making his purse a little fatter.

Unfortunately, Li Ziran's wishful calculations were wrong. This group of centaurs was honest to the extreme. After collecting the protection fee, they directly settled Li Ziran in the very center of the caravan.

The outer perimeter was entirely entrusted to the sturdy centaur throwers. With such a formation, even on the Wasteland, few dared to charge in.

With no business to do, Li Ziran could only gloomily enjoy the Wasteland scenery.

Along the way, the caravan continuously took in scattered travelers. When these people saw the horse caravan, they showed little wariness at all. Clearly, this was not their first time riding with it.

One truly had to admire Madinger Town. Its ability to gain a foothold in the Wasteland was absolutely inseparable from these rule-abiding centaurs. The leader of this centaur group was certainly no ordinary figure.