Elemental Bugs

Call out!

A bronze tongue sliced through the sky over the Wasteland, snatched up three galloping Savage Bull, swallowed them whole, and chewed them a few times.

Puff!

Three completely unconscious Savage Bull, covered in saliva, were spat out by Frog and landed right on the red sand.

At this moment, the small beach was neatly filled with unconscious creatures: Red-Beaked Winged Man, Snow Goat of the Icefields, Savage Bull, and Desert Snake-Man Warrior.

The protagonist of this grand event stood on the beach, intently watching a caravan of Alpaca Orc approaching from a great distance.

This is because among this Orc are two Giant Alpaca.

The milk from Giant Alpaca allows Anfuni to develop rapidly.

His focused expression resembled that of a lurking hunter.

Why!

Li Ziran sighed inwardly. This woman seemed to have excess energy and began to hunt down every giant creature she could see.

Unfortunately, disaster struck.

Any creature that was even slightly larger would have its tongue flicked back by the Copper-Yellow Frog, which would then chuckle and ask, "How's his milk?"

"Is there any milk?" Li Ziran would always roll his eyes.

He couldn't figure out if this Elves was actually a woman. Didn't she know that, apart from the few races of the Bool (cows), the rest only produce milk during their lactation period?

Besides, he wanted a behemoth, not just a large one; there's a fundamental difference between the two.

This woman is completely abnormal; perhaps during the possession, a part of her brain circuitry was severed.

If that were the case, Li Ziran wouldn't say anything. But this woman seemed to be trying to please Li Ziran, always offering inappropriate little compliments.

The flattery was a bit excessive.

After the two set off together, Li Ziran continued to wait by the roadside for passing caravans, following his usual survival habits. He was currently located in the northeast of the Wasteland, while the Undead Nest was in the south of the Wasteland, which meant he had to cross a small part of the Wasteland, which would take about five days.

Following a caravan is definitely a wise move.

Just as dawn broke over the Wasteland, an alpaca caravan took them in. Li Ziran stayed quietly in the caravan, hoping to reach Mading'er as far as possible before entering the Undead Nest.

But this Alpaca Orc's bad habit resurfaced. Seeing Li Ziran dressed in rags and accompanied by an Elves child, greed took hold.

The Elven Pilgrimage has just ended, and although there are more Elves slaves on the market now, these fresh and young women are still extremely popular.

Driven by greed, these people began to turn against Li Ziran.

How could they let such a golden opportunity slip by? Besides, after this ordeal, they still had far too few corpses at their disposal.

He acted decisively, transforming himself into a small snake with Transformation Array, then Devouring Curse to consume the souls, snapping the snakes' necks, turning them into corpses that wrapped around his waist.

This scene particularly excited Anfuni, who believed that Li Ziran was the hunter, and therefore she wanted to repay Li Ziran.

Soon, disaster struck the Wasteland creatures. Before they even got close to the caravan, Anfuni would chuckle wickedly, and then the Frog would flick its tongue and easily finish the job.

"What, no milk? Never mind, you can have it," Anfuni asked with concern.

Li Ziran shook his head, but the goods were not bad, and there was also a Yellow-Tailed Marten that had been left in the Wasteland. Such slaves were worth 1.2 silver coins, and alive ones were even more valuable, especially the Tail, which was a special Magic Organ that could absorb elements to form flames. A single Tail could sell for 40 copper coins.

But Li Ziran was not happy at all.

These people didn't attack him; many didn't even know he existed before Anfuni captured him.

This feeling... is really unpleasant!

"It's alright!" Li Ziran replied casually, casting Transformation Spell that turned them into Frog one by one, and then took out a red rope and hung it on his lower back.

He didn't devour these creatures' souls, feeling it was unnecessary, but placing them on the sand pile would be a waste of resources.

Li Ziran chose a compromise: he would sell them at a slave market later, make some money, and these creatures could live on.

I suppose that's a blessing.

"Anfuni, don't do anything reckless. I'll find a way to produce the breast milk you need." Seeing that Anfuni was about to start another hunt, Li Ziran quickly warned her.

He wasn't some heinous Slave-Catching Group. With Anfuni's current strength, she could easily sweep across the entire Wasteland. Besides, she didn't befriend Anfuni for such a small number of slaves.

"Why isn't the Sacrificial Art you taught me working!" Li Ziran complained. He wasn't trying to distract Anfuni; he was genuinely confused.

[Offering Grass]

This was Anfuni's reward for possessing the Elves; the spell successfully helped Li Ziran regrow his severed hand.

By Sacrifice the Life Force of green grass, one can gain the healing ability to quickly restore the body—this is an absolutely unique Healing Spell.

From the Despair Forest onwards, Li Ziran had been using Ritual Art incessantly, even cutting his fingers with a scalpel, but each time the healing process was pitifully slow.

It's not that there's no reaction, it's just that the speed is too slow, not even as good as diluted Revival Potion, let alone the potent Sacred Potion.

"Is it a problem with the technique?" Anfuni finally suppressed her hunting excitement and asked with a frown.

Li Ziran slowly mobilized his spiritual power, first outlining the shape of the Ritual Art, then strictly dividing it into seven equal parts according to the specifications of the 'Grass Sacrifice,' and then filling in the squares with standard Grass Script.

As the Grass Script was completed, several bluish-green specks of light rose from the ground, entered Li Ziran's body, and disappeared.

But his cut showed no signs of healing at all.

"No problem!" Anfuni said with a smile. "It's even more standard than mine. Hey, Li Ziran, what can I say about yours? Actually, it doesn't need to be so neat. This is a Sacrifice array. You just need to complete the steps of the Sacrifice array. It's not a calligraphy competition. The most important thing about this Sacrificial Art is communicating with the Elves insects that breed from flesh and blood. Can you sense them?"

Li Ziran shook his head. Along the way, Anfuni explained a lot about the principles of Elemental Tide to him.

According to the Elves' classification, the Elemental Tide is composed of different kinds of elements, among which the Six Elements of earth, water, wind, fire, light, and darkness are the Basic Elements. These elements are abundant within the Elemental Tide and together they constitute this colorful world.

However, in addition to the Basic Elements, there are also many Trace Elements in the Elemental Tide, also known as Rare Elements. They are so few that they can be almost ignored in the face of the vast Elemental Tide.

Yet they are an integral part of the Elemental Tide.

Mage needs to do is to constantly sense the elements in the Elemental Tide, manipulate the elements, and form magic.

Those who cultivate based on the six Basic Elements are called mainstream mages, while those who cultivate based on Rare Elements are called Wandering Mage, or Wild Mage.

Both are equally good, but the Wandering Mage element is more popular on the Red Soil Continent due to its rarity.

The elements within the Elemental Tide are also known as Natural Elements. However, for races like Elves, humans, and Demon who dominate the continent, a single element alone is simply not enough to make them powerful.

Therefore, in addition to Natural Elements, there are even rarer Recombined Elements.

Elves can pulverize Basic Elements and Rare Elements and then fuse them into unique elements, known as Mixed Elements.

As for humans, they do not possess the complex and diverse Magic Organ Elves, but their self-evolved Magic Gland can fuse the same elements to produce a more refined single -Elemental Body.

For example, the fusion of two Water Element can form a unique Heavy Water Element, and if two Heavy Water Element can be fused together, Fourfold Water Element comparable to that of Magister can be formed.

The extreme recombination of a single element is often more powerful than the combination of different elements; this is the key to humanity's powerful rise.

As for Demon, they are the most special. Legend has it that they possess the most unique Magic Organ, the Soul Eye, which can capture the Soul Element that make up the soul from the Elemental Tide, and then fuse them with the Basic Elements to generate unique Demonic Arcana.

No matter how much they cultivate, Mage still face the elements themselves.

But the ritual is completely different. The ritual completely abandons the most basic elements and instead targets the Elemental Bug that are free among the elements.

These are tiny creatures that are almost imperceptible even to spiritual power. To be precise, they are not even considered living beings. Legend has it that they are low-dimensional beings formed by the mutation of elements themselves.

They lack intelligence and merely follow the flow of Elemental Tide instinctively.

However, these earliest organisms, having become particles, possessed different properties.

For example, the sacrificial array that Li Ziran just composed guides a kind of Grass-Spirit Elemental Bug. This Elemental Bug instinctively absorbs the life of the transformed grass, thus feeding back a healing ability that can restore the body.

Curses and divination are both targeted at specific Elemental Bug.

In Anfuni's view, all these methods of communicating with the Elemental Bug are the extraordinary power circulating on the Red Soil Continent.

To truly achieve the ability to instantly grow a hand, one must gather as many of these Grass-Spirit Elemental Bug as possible.

According to Anfuni, besides the magic circle and vegetables, the most important thing in gathering the Grass-Spirit Elemental Bug Elemental Bug actually sensing their presence.

The highest-ranking priests of the Elven Race can summon Elemental Bug using their spiritual power without even needing a magic array.

Sensing is the foundation of ritual practice and the source of all extraordinary power.

In their eyes, someone who only knows how to use magic arrays to gather Elemental Bug is definitely a novice.

Li Ziran smiled wryly; he was currently at the novice level!