Babata's Dilemma

The Ape Mountain Range.

Inside a cave, Luo Feng sat cross-legged, absorbing cosmic energy and directing it into his injured right hand.

"So there really is a mountain range like that. But what did he mean by an island in the middle of a lake, shrouded in mist?"

Opening his eyes, Luo Feng began sorting through his backpack.

Earlier, he had encountered large groups of Great Strength Demon Apes and King Kong Apes on this mountain range, including some Lord Level ones.

He had packed the materials from the Lord Level beasts he killed into his backpack. As for the Beast General Level beasts, their materials took up too much space, so he had left them behind.

It was precisely because there were so many apes here that he had named it the Ape Mountain Range.

While resting, he suddenly remembered Dongguan's request and sent him a message.

He should be here soon, Luo Feng thought.

After his physical fitness reached the Intermediate War General Level, he had used Dragon Blood and reached the threshold of the Advanced Warlord. As a result, his Spiritual Force had also barely reached the intermediate War God level.

He could easily exceed the speed of sound, and Dongguan, as a Planetary Grade Psychic, could only be faster.

To some extent, the speed of sound was the dividing line between War Gods and warrior generals.

Both War God Level warriors and War God Level Psychics could exceed the speed of sound in a burst.

"Skree!" An eagle's cry came from outside.

"A bird monster?" Luo Feng quietly approached the cave entrance and poked his head out.

He saw an azure bird circling above the mountain range, provoking furious cries from the apes below.

Streaks of silver light flew from the bird's back and descended.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The apes' cries gradually changed from anger to fear.

The apes scrambled into hiding all around.

"A Psychic."

As a Psychic himself, Luo Feng naturally recognized a Psychic's methods.

"Controlling ten throwing knives at once."

He could control multiple throwing knives too, of course.

But he usually controlled six, which allowed him to exert the greatest power. Controlling more would only waste his attention, aside from providing distractions.

A Psychic stronger than himself-he immediately realized that Dongguan had arrived.

But calling out in the Wilderness Zone was hardly wise, so he controlled a throwing knife to reflect sunlight toward the bird monster.

Sure enough, the bird monster flew down.

As it approached, Luo Feng's Spiritual Force sensed a more powerful Spiritual Force carrying a certain aura of light.

"Luo Feng."

The bird landed, and Dongguan waved to him from its back.

Luo Feng immediately flew over.

"Get on."

Hearing Dongguan's words, Luo Feng promptly climbed onto the bird's back.

"Take off." At Dongguan's command, the bird monster took flight.

"This is an Azure-Feathered Eagle, right? Dongguan, did you tame it?" Looking at the monster beneath his feet, Luo Feng began considering the possibilities.

When he had seen fighter aircraft before, he had thought they were fast, stylish, and impressive. Now, looking at this monster, he felt that taming a flying monster as a mount would be pretty good too.

"Of course. Pretty nice, right?" Dongguan stroked the feathers on the bird's neck. "I call it Little Blue."

Clearly, he had only just come up with that name.

"Little Blue?" Luo Feng sighed inwardly. Dongguan struggled with names too, giving an Azure-Feathered Eagle a name like that.

Still, he remembered that Azure-Feathered Eagles had gray eyes, whereas Little Blue's eyes were scarlet.

"Want one?" Dongguan asked, already knowing the answer from Luo Feng's somewhat envious expression.

"Of course, but I've heard that taming beasts is very difficult." Luo Feng looked a little troubled.

Although there were few actual Psychics, plenty of people discussed them on the Warrior Forum.

Psychics had three paths: Controller, Illusionist, and Beast Tamer.

When someone awakened their Spiritual Force, their inclination could already be discerned. Luo Feng leaned toward the Controller path.

Although it was possible to master the other two paths through study, doing so would undoubtedly take more time and effort.

Compared with Controllers and Illusionists, even fewer people pursued the Beast Tamer path, and all of them practiced it alongside another path.

Among the known examples of Beast Tamers, many had pets from before the Great Nirvana that willingly continued following their owners, or had raised their beasts from infancy.

"Forget it. Beast taming probably isn't for me." Luo Feng shook his head.

Compared with taming beasts, buying a fighter aircraft seemed more realistic. At least aircraft had clearly marked prices.

"Actually, it isn't impossible," Dongguan mused. "It's just somewhat difficult."

Once he finished researching that Beast Taming Secret Art, he did not intend to keep it to himself. Whether it was Luo Feng, Ister, or Catlan, he did not mind who learned it, as long as they could.

Of course, obtaining the Beast Taming Secret Art would come at a price, just like the Ninefold Thunder Blade and 《World Destruction》.

And that price would certainly be rather high.

After all, while Psychics were few in number, they were wealthier than warriors of the same level, given how efficiently they could harvest materials.

Besides, buying the secret art did not necessarily mean someone could learn it.

He had created this secret art himself based on Secret Patterns, so it naturally suited him. That would not necessarily be true for others.

"Dongguan, why were you looking for this Ape Mountain Range?" From the Azure-Feathered Eagle's back, Luo Feng looked down as they climbed higher and higher.

"Look around for rivers or lakes, and see whether there's an island in the middle of a lake covered in mist." Dongguan scanned the surroundings.

"Over there." Luo Feng pointed. There was indeed a river not far away.

"Head over there." Dongguan directed his mount toward it.

Following the river, they soon found a lake.

In the center of the lake stood a small island blanketed in mist.

They had reached Fog Island!

Beneath Fog Island, within a thick layer of rock.

An enormous spaceship rested there.

The Yunmo Star Ship, the vessel of Hu Yanbo, a Marquis Immortal who had fallen fifty thousand years ago.

The entire ship was dark red, constructed from Crimson Chaos Copper mother metal, an F9-grade metal. Its value was unimaginable to present-day Earthlings-a vast fortune measured in Hunyuan Units.

Inside the spaceship, light and shadow gathered into a small figure resembling a child in black robes, pacing among the enormous corpses of Immortals.

Babata was troubled.

"One Earthling with a Brain Domain Width of 21, and another with an even higher Brain Domain Width who's already at the Planetary Grade, but isn't an Earthling."

According to the requirements for inheriting Hu Yanbo's legacy, the more talented the successor, the better. To a certain extent, a Psychic's talent could be judged simply by their Brain Domain Width.

In principle, with Dongguan present, there should have been no need to hesitate.

Yet detecting Dongguan's Third Eye had left Babata puzzled.

It was not prejudice. Hu Yanbo himself had not been an Earthling.

It was just that Dongguan's uncertain origins left Babata wary of a possible connection to Hu Yanbo's enemies.

Although the Demon Hand King had single-handedly caused Meteorite Star's destruction, plenty of scavengers had picked over the remains afterward. After all, the Demon Hand King had no interest in certain scraps.

"Forget it. I'll follow the original plan, draw all Earth's powerful people here, and then examine their brain domains. Maybe someone will have an even higher one?"

Babata still held out hope.

But Babata also knew how poor the Earthlings' bloodline was. The emergence of a genius with Luo Feng's brain domain strength was already incredibly fortunate. Dongguan, meanwhile, was a complete anomaly.

On the island, trees flourished and flowers and grasses grew thickly. It seemed full of life, yet there were no animals at all.

Having no monsters around was good, but this was not normal.

"Found it." Dongguan looked delighted.

Although the spirits of plants and trees here would no longer do much for him, the best ones, such as the Ten-Thousand-Year Willow Heart, would still offer a little benefit.

More importantly, once he harvested these spirits of plants and trees, he could not only help his friends and acquaintances, but also have the leverage to negotiate exchanges with various factions.

According to Babata in the original story, those pieces of "junk" were not worth much, and Earth's factions could not touch the few truly valuable items.

But Babata had said that while sitting on Hu Yanbo's inheritance. For Dongguan, there might well be something useful among them.

"What?" Seeing Dongguan's expression, Luo Feng felt puzzled and a little wary.

They had clearly found treasure here, even if he did not yet know what kind.

Dongguan had treated him quite well, but appearances could be deceiving. Even brothers could turn against one another over enormous profits, let alone two people whose relationship was half teacher and student, half friends.

"You know how so many animals around the world mutated during the Great Nirvana? What about plants, then?"

To Luo Feng's slight relief, Dongguan did not attack him, but began explaining instead.

"Plants? Man-Eating Flowers?" Luo Feng's attention shifted to Dongguan's words.

As far as he remembered, plants had not mutated, apart from Man-Eating Flowers.

"Plants naturally mutate too. After absorbing cosmic energy, other plants change as well, not just Man-Eating Flowers."

Dongguan casually summoned his throwing knives and shredded the Man-Eating Flowers in front of them that were trying to devour them.

"These willows ahead, for example."

As they continued forward, nine exceptionally thick willow trees appeared before them. Even the smallest was a meter in diameter, and the largest measured a full three meters.

His throwing knives pierced forward while Dongguan drew his long blade.

Streaks of white light wound around the blade, while ten throwing knives circled him like streaks of light as he charged toward the willows.

His long blade slashed and his throwing knives howled. Light swept past like lasers, knocking down and shredding the willows' branches.

Although the willows struggled, they could not resist at all. Unable to move, they could only endure the attacks.

Dongguan dug the Willow Tree Hearts out of their trunks one by one, and the willows lost their vitality.

"These are spirits of plants and trees." As he spoke, Dongguan selected one and tossed it to Luo Feng.

Luo Feng hurriedly caught it. His dazed expression cleared, and he looked over in puzzlement.

Dongguan's attack had stunned him. This was his first time seeing someone at the Planetary Grade in action.

He controlled light like a god.

"Spirits of plants and trees are treasures more precious than Dragon Blood. Dragon Blood can be produced as long as you have the materials, but spirits of plants and trees..." Dongguan paused. "In theory, they can be produced too, but hardly anyone does it."

"Why?" Luo Feng asked in confusion. If they were so precious, why did nobody produce them?

"Perhaps it's a matter of cost. Plants need time to absorb cosmic energy too. Maybe someone really is doing it, but the lack of public sales means production is insufficient. They don't even have enough for their own use."

Luo Feng nodded in understanding.

Dragon Blood was publicly available because it could be mass-produced, and Hong no longer had any use for it himself.

Water of Life was publicly available because it could also be mass-produced, and it healed injuries rather than increasing strength.

Other treasures had their own reasons as well, but all were only released after there was more than enough for personal use.

Then he looked at the crystal-core-like Willow Heart in his hand.

"Break open the shell and drink the liquid inside. Once you've absorbed it, your physical fitness will improve by several grades," Dongguan said, glancing at Luo Feng.

Perhaps because the threat posed by Li Yao was absent, this Luo Feng seemed somewhat lacking in motivation. His physical fitness should originally have been at the Low-Level War God level, but now it was only at the Advanced Warlord level.

"Oh." Luo Feng immediately prepared to use it.

Dongguan stopped him.

"Find somewhere safe. Absorbing it will take a while. I'll look around for more and share them with you when I return." With that, Dongguan rode the large blue bird deeper into Fog Island.

Luo Feng wanted to search too, but then considered his strength. Right now, he could not even defeat that Ten-Thousand-Year Willow King. There might be even stronger things deeper on the island.

"Only by seizing what I have now can I gain more." Looking at the spirit of plants and trees in his hand, he decided to improve his strength first. That little bit of time would not matter.