Mindset

The last Elite Green Demon fell completely, its body dissolving and dissipating.

A faint light flashed at their feet, and the Victorious Chest, now fully formed, landed silently.

Lu Heng bent down and raised his hand, his movements swift and decisive, directly storing the treasure chest into his Wristband's Storage Space.

After doing all this, he looked up and gazed into the distance.

The entire expanse of Withered Reed Plain was open and unobstructed. Several miles away, the reeds continued to sway violently, and layers upon layers of Green Demon roars grew louder as they approached, densely surrounding the area.

They are numerous and make a great show of force, but have not yet gotten close.

Lu Heng stood firmly on the ground, holding the Goblin Battleaxe, his aura deep and composed.

He did not choose to retreat. Since the commotion had already become too big, there was no point in running away. He simply made up his mind to stand firm on the spot and confront the Green Demon swarm that had come running after hearing the commotion.

The wind howled and swayed the withered reeds, and the distant roars of beasts grew clearer, slowly enveloping the body in a sense of oppression.

Just as Lu Heng was concentrating and preparing for battle, a low, urgent voice suddenly came from deep within the reeds beside him.

"Brother! Come here quick! Over here!"

The sound rang out abruptly, deliberately lowered in volume, revealing extreme panic, as if afraid of attracting the Green Demon wandering in the distance.

Lu Heng's eyes narrowed slightly, and he instantly turned his head to look in the direction of the sound.

It wasn't a beast's roar, it was the sound of humans.

He did not act rashly. He instantly spread his mental energy to investigate and confirmed that the other party had no malicious intent and showed no signs of ambushes or encirclements.

A brief moment of deliberation.

Although the Green Demon was approaching from afar, there was still some buffer distance. This suddenly appearing fellow being was of unknown origin and might hold secrets about this area.

After a moment's thought, Lu Heng followed the sound and stepped closer.

The reeds were constantly parted by the figure, rustling softly. Urgent calls came from afar again.

"Hurry up and keep up! Quick! Don't just stand there!"

Lu Heng followed the sound and quickly traveled dozens of meters before finally stopping in front of a hidden depression.

The pit formed by the ground collapse was hidden under dense reeds, its location concealed and blocking most of the view and sound. At the bottom of the pit, a middle-aged man was curled up, his chest heaving violently, panting heavily, his whole body tense to the extreme, staring intently at the direction from which the roar came from, not daring to breathe too heavily.

Seeing Lu Heng walk to the edge of the pit, the man quickly raised his hand to gesture for him to come down, his tone full of lingering fear and helplessness.

"Dude, you're too reckless and too daring."

"You're really fearless. This Withered Reed Plain is teeming with Green Demon, and you actually dare to start a direct battle here. With such a commotion, you've attracted all the Green Demon wandering around. If you had waited any longer, you wouldn't have had anywhere to run."

Lu Heng took the opportunity to fall into the pit, using the concealed terrain to temporarily dissipate his fighting spirit. He looked at the man in front of him and asked the question that had been bothering him.

"The Green Demon has been rampant in this area for a long time. Don't you local survivors team up and eliminate it in a targeted manner?"

The man was taken aback upon hearing this, quickly looked Lu Heng up and down, and instantly understood.

"No wonder you're so fierce, so you've come from outside."

He took a few deep breaths, his face showing the numbness that the locals were used to, and began to explain in a low voice.

"None of us would do something so foolish. The Withered Reed Plain aren't just teeming with Green Demon, they have even more wild beasts. If we fight them head-on, all the casualties will be on our own side."

"To survive here, you don't rely on fighting, you rely on endurance and waiting."

"That's how we've always lived: we wait for the Green Demon and the wild beasts to fight and wear each other down until they're both severely weakened, then we sneak out and scavenge for the spoils."

"With Green Demon dead, there's Victorious Chest; with Beast dead, there's ready-made prey. We benefit from both sides, so why risk our lives for nothing?"

After hearing these words, Lu Heng felt a sinking feeling in his heart.

He looked at the other person and continued to press for answers.

"Aren't you afraid that if you keep letting this go, the Green Demon will gather more and more, and completely take over the entire Withered Reed Plain?"

The man's face was completely indifferent, his expression nonchalant, revealing extreme opportunism and perfunctoriness.

What are you afraid of?

"Those top-tier individuals are bearing the pressure; it's not our place to worry about it. If the situation really deteriorates completely one day and we can't hold on any longer, we can simply abandon this region and find another place to live. Who would fight to the death over a piece of land?"

Lu Heng stood there, stunned.

At this moment, he finally understood the survival logic of the native survivors of the Withered Reed Plain.

The policy is to neither suppress nor resist, and to remain inactive.

They only pick up bargains, only observe, and only run away.

They survived by fighting with other races and wild beasts, allowing the scourge to grow and spread unchecked, and no one ever thought of eradicating the hidden dangers completely.

Just as Lu Heng was pondering in silence, the man suddenly changed the subject, his attitude straightforward and realistic, without any beating around the bush.

"Alright, that's enough."

"I was the one who told you to take shelter, which saved your life. Brother, let's settle the fee for saving your life. It's not much, just one Black Iron Tier Energy Core."

Lu Heng looked at the person in front of him and was speechless for a moment.

The other party wasn't exactly a bad person; they did proactively warn me and lead me to a hidden spot, thus avoiding the risk of being surrounded by the Green Demon.

But this act of assistance was clearly priced from the beginning; it was purely an exchange of interests, without a trace of goodwill.

I can't tell if it's right or wrong, I just find it absurd.

Lu Heng didn't hesitate, raised his hand, took out a Black Iron Tier Energy Core, and handed it over.

The man took it deftly, put it away casually, and his expression completely relaxed.

Lu Heng had no intention of staying any longer, but before leaving, he couldn't help but ask one more question.

"Do all the survivors on this side of the Withered Reed Plain think like you?"

The man saw through his surprise at a glance and nodded calmly.

The rest are basically the same.

He paused, as if he had long been accustomed to life and death, and added in a calm tone, stating the coldest reality.

"There have been many outsiders before, just like you, daring to fight and kill, thinking of actively clearing out monsters and securing their territory. But the end result was the same: either they died in the endless beast tides, or they saw through the rules here and left the area early."

Lu Heng remained silent.

I've already silently made a mental note of this debt.

In this Withered Reed Plain, the real danger never lies in the Green Demon and strange beasts that roam everywhere.

These opportunistic, profit-driven, and ruthless local survivors, who stand by and watch the calamity grow, are far more elusive and insidious than any monster.

From now on, while slaying monsters here, you must always be wary of your own kind.

This group dared not confront the ferocious beasts head-on; their greatest skill was to spy in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to Black Hand and seize the spoils.

Suppressing his inner turmoil, Lu Heng spoke calmly.

"I'm leaving. The fees have been settled, and I'm making my own departure."

Before the other party could utter another word, Lu Heng leaped out of the pit and, using the dense reeds as cover, his figure flashed rapidly, disappearing into the layers of withered yellow reeds in an instant.

The man in the pit looked up at the empty reeds and the swaying marks, and stared blankly for a moment.

Before he could even ask the stranger's name, the figure had already vanished completely.

After a long while, he gazed at the direction of the beast's roar that was still relentlessly approaching in the distance, and murmured to himself in a low voice, full of vicissitudes.

"Youth... it's all about being too impulsive."

"We work hard to build up our savings, but if we recklessly and recklessly fight for our money, we'll squander it all sooner or later."

Across the wilderness, the Green Demon's roars continued relentlessly, pressing ever closer.

The crisis facing the entire Withered Reed Plain is far from over.