Flower Path

"Turns out there were not only failed Fire Seeds, but imperfect Fire Seeds too. If there are imperfect Fire Seeds, does that mean there are Perfect Fire Seeds as well? And what exactly does this 'sacrifice to heaven' mean? Could it be that my own teammates have to die before my strength can increase? That's too vicious. And how exactly are teammates defined? If anyone I consider a teammate counts as a teammate, can I treat all my enemies as teammates? Kill one enemy teammate, and I grow a little stronger..." Lin Shen thought greedily.

He studied it for a while but still could not figure out how this sacrifice to heaven was supposed to work. It did not seem like an ability he could actively use; he could only wait until its effects manifested someday.

For the remaining time, Lin Shen stayed home to treat his injuries, hoping his hands would heal before departure.

He had to change the medicine every twelve hours. Each time, it took five bottles to fully soak both hands, and the medicine alone cost six figures.

Fortunately, the medicine really was potent. Although Lin Shen's hands had not fully healed before they set out, they were no longer a major problem. He could lift heavy objects normally, though intense combat was still out of the question. He feared the bones that had not completely fused might crack again.

Lin Shen carried medicine with him and applied it at intervals. It should only take a few more days for him to make a full recovery.

While recovering, Lin Shen fed some low-level Gene Mutation Eggs to Dead Powder. That thing welcomed all comers and devoured twenty or thirty of Lin Shen's Steel Gene Mutation Eggs.

He had thought that after eating so many Gene Mutation Eggs, it ought to gain another talent somehow. In the end, it did not even let out a fart. Forget talents—even its size did not change in the slightest.

Lin Shen began to wonder whether Dead Powder could only plunder talents by eating Gene Mutation Creatures that carried Fire Seeds.

Before the agreed departure time, Lao Ye brought Lin Shen an Alloy Grade Pet Capsule containing a Platinum Beast.

Platinum Beasts were not particularly rare Alloy Grade pets. Their main advantage was speed, and most were used as mounts.

Many people liked using Platinum Beasts as mounts. Beyond their speed, their appearance was simply exceptional: snow-white all over, with a single horn growing from their heads, like the sacred unicorns of legend. They were the mount of choice for many who prized looks.

Lin Xiangdong himself cared deeply about appearances, and one of his mounts was a Platinum Beast. Lao Ye had found one so Lin Shen could continue posing as Lin Xiangdong.

The two Platinum Beasts looked almost identical, but Lin Xiangdong's was a top-tier specimen with a speed of 20. This one Lao Ye had found had a speed of 18.4. It was somewhat inferior, but more than good enough for an impersonation.

With the Ghost Faced White Beast and chainmail forged from alloy, no one would be able to tell he was not Lin Xiangdong so long as he did not fight.

As the two were about to leave, Wei Wufu followed them. He said nothing, merely trailing silently behind Lin Shen.

Lao Ye glanced at Wei Wufu and seemed about to say something, but Lin Shen stopped him.

The three went together to the appointed gathering place. The Qi Family and Wang Family had already arrived, with Qi Shuheng and Wang Tianer at the lead, speaking with Bai Shenfei.

"Is the Lin Family only sending the three of you?" Wang Tianer frowned at them.

"For a mere Gourd Mountain, are three people not enough?" Lin Shen sat atop the Platinum Beast without the slightest intention of dismounting.

Wang Tianer's expression darkened. He was about to say something, but Qi Shuheng stopped him with a meaningful look.

Qi Shuheng smiled. "Every family has its own circumstances. It does not matter how many people each sends, so long as everyone works together as one."

"Since everyone is here, let's depart." Bai Shenfei glanced at Wei Wufu behind Lin Shen but said nothing.

She raised a hand and tossed out a white Pet Capsule. When it landed on the ground, it transformed into a pet as white as jade, resembling both an ox and a Triceratops.

Everyone's expressions shifted slightly when they saw her mount. It was clearly a Crystal Grade Creature.

As expected of someone from Seahorn Base. Even her mount is Crystal Gene Level, Lin Shen marveled inwardly.

No one said anything more. They each summoned their mounts, and the group departed the base in a mighty procession.

Lin Shen curiously surveyed his surroundings. Since his birth, he had left the base so few times they could be counted on one hand. The outside world was still fresh and fascinating to him.

Most of the land on either side of the road was covered in green vegetation, dotted with flowers of every color. Everywhere stood rolling "hills," but a closer look revealed that these "hills" were not hills at all. They were buildings blanketed in greenery.

More than two hundred years ago, this had been a modern city. Now, its urban face had almost entirely vanished. The occasional exposed roads and structures were all crumbling and ruined, many collapsed and swallowed or buried by vegetation.

Among that greenery, strange plants occasionally appeared, their branches and leaves made of metal.

Lin Shen knew they were not artistic ornaments forged from metal, but genuine metal plants with life of their own.

These metal plants were also a type of Gene Mutation Creature. However, they contained very little Gene Mutation Fluid, and it was difficult to extract. Most were chopped down and used as materials.

No one was in the mood for much conversation. One after another, they urged their mounts onward, following Bai Shenfei as they raced across the green wilderness.

When they encountered some low-level Gene Mutation Creatures along the way, the creatures fled in all directions in fright, and no one could be bothered to chase them.

After twisting and turning for more than half a day, they had only traveled seventy or eighty li by a little past three in the afternoon. Then a colorful road suddenly appeared amid the mountains ahead, and Bai Shenfei stopped before it.

Everyone else stopped as well. Lin Shen examined it closely and realized it was not a colorful road at all, but countless tiny colorful metal flowers growing in a continuous stretch toward the distance. There was no telling how far it extended.

"I came here a few years ago. Back then, these Colored Steel Flowers were scattered sparsely among the greenery, and you could only occasionally spot a few clusters. Who would have thought that in just a few years, they would grow into such a vast expanse, like a long river?" Lao Ye said beside Lin Shen. He was mainly saying it for Lin Shen's benefit, afraid he would expose himself by failing to recognize the Colored Steel Flowers.

"Where there are Colored Steel Flowers, there will certainly be Steel Tail Scorpions. With so many Colored Steel Flowers here, there must be plenty of Steel Tail Scorpions lurking beneath them. We should send someone over to scout first." Wang Tianer looked at Bai Shenfei as he spoke.

"Fine." Bai Shenfei nodded faintly, her expression unchanged.

Wang Tianer seemed eager to show off before Bai Shenfei. Without asking for Qi Shuheng's or Lin Shen's opinion, he sent a Gene Mutator riding a unicorn horse to scout the path.

After undergoing mutation, steel carapace emerged across the man's body. Only then did he cautiously urge his horse forward. The unicorn horse moved very slowly, its hooves stepping upon the Colored Steel Flowers with teeth-grating squeaks that made everyone uncomfortable.

After advancing twenty or thirty meters without seeing a Steel Tail Scorpion, the man grew much bolder and picked up speed.

He ran more than a hundred meters without seeing a Steel Tail Scorpion. Only then did the Gene Mutator stop, turn his horse around, and shout back, "Boss, no Steel Tail Scorpions have been found over here."

"Strange. There are so many Colored Steel Flowers, yet not a single Steel Tail Scorpion. Something is wrong." Wang Tianer pondered.

"Steel Tail Scorpions love the liquid inside Colored Steel Flowers most. It may not be guaranteed that where there are such flowers, there will be Steel Tail Scorpions, but it is true nine times out of ten. Yet there are no Steel Tail Scorpions here. There are only two possibilities. One, these are not Colored Steel Flowers, merely flowers that resemble them. Two, something bizarre has happened here, preventing us from seeing the Steel Tail Scorpions." After speaking, Qi Shuheng looked at Bai Shenfei. "Miss Bai, can we go around this flower path?"

Bai Shenfei took a notebook from her bag, looked through it, and said, "We cannot go around it. We can only enter from here."

Everyone's eyes fixed on the notebook in her hand, including Lin Shen and Lao Ye.

Does she really know the route to Gourd Mountain? Could there be a map to Gourd Mountain inside that notebook? Lin Shen wondered.

"Since we cannot take a detour, we should scout the route more thoroughly." Qi Shuheng looked at Wang Tianer.

Wang Tianer called out to the man on the flower path. The man turned his horse around and continued scouting ahead, soon vanishing into the depths of the flower path.

They waited more than half an hour before the man came galloping back at full speed.

"Second Boss, this flower path is more than ten li long. At the end, it connects to a gorge, and there are no Colored Steel Flowers in the gorge," the man said as he returned to Wang Tianer.

"Did you see any Steel Tail Scorpions?" Wang Tianer asked.

"No." The man shook his head.

Wang Tianer looked to Qi Shuheng, who said to a Gene Mutator beside him, "You scout it as well. Travel along the other side of the flower path."

The Qi Family Gene Mutator also used Gene Shift Power, covering more than half his body with steel carapace. Riding an Iron Horn Horse, he entered the sea of flowers.

Since someone from the Wang Family had already scouted ahead, the Qi Family Gene Mutator moved much faster. He returned in less than half an hour.

"The flower path is more than ten li long. Its end is indeed a gorge, and no Colored Steel Flowers grow within it. I found no Steel Tail Scorpions along the way, nor did I see any other Gene Mutation Creatures," he said bluntly.

"What does Miss Bai think?" Qi Shuheng looked at Bai Shenfei.

"The place we are going is that gorge. We can only proceed this way," Bai Shenfei said.

"Since that is the case, let us reach the gorge first and discuss things there. What do you two think?" Qi Shuheng looked at Wang Tianer and Lin Shen again.

"It can only be this way." Wang Tianer and Lin Shen had no objections.

The group set off again and stepped onto the flower path. Lin Shen studied the flowers beneath them. The Colored Steel Flowers were dazzlingly vivid, each blossom only the size of a fingernail. Their petals were shaped like shells, their edges thin as blades.

Pets with Steel Bodies had no problem stepping on them, but if flesh and blood landed upon them, it would likely be covered in wounds at once.

Everyone raised their vigilance to the utmost, fearing something might go wrong. Fortunately, after traveling seven or eight li, nothing unusual happened. Just as the two scouts had said, there was not a single Steel Tail Scorpion in the flower path, nor any other Gene Mutation Creature.

They could not help accelerating, intending to reach the gorge sooner. Then they suddenly saw the entire flower path begin to sway. Everyone was startled and hurriedly reined in their mounts.

"Steel Tail Scorpions... so many Steel Tail Scorpions..." someone cried out in terror.

Lin Shen focused his gaze and finally saw clearly. It was not the Colored Steel Flowers swaying at all. Countless palm-sized Steel Tail Scorpions were burrowing out from beneath the flowers, densely packed like a river of scorpions. The same was true beneath their feet.