Evolution Begins with Elemental Domination

After the conversion was complete, the Jade Pendant reverted to a piece of warm, flawless white jade.

He decided to press on.

From his canvas backpack, Su Chen took out a glass bottle that held a Wood Element essence.

As he poured it out into his hand, the Jade Pendant began to grow warm and tremble slightly.

Without a second thought, Su Chen brought it close to feed the pendant. The verdant sphere of light, as if pulled by an invisible force, transformed into a streak of emerald light and was instantly sucked inside.

The Jade Pendant continued to tremble slightly, its surface now covered in intricate, leaf-like veins.

However...

After a few minutes, the transformation had slowed to a crawl. It was nothing like the intense, swift reaction from absorbing the Plant and Mineral Crystals.

Back then, it had taken only a few seconds to become a piece of Imperial Green Jadeite.

’Not enough Plant Energy.’

Su Chen sighed softly. ’Just as I thought. A single Wood Element essence isn’t nearly enough to generate the same mysterious symbol that enhances one’s Physique.’

He simply took the dozen or so Plant and Mineral Crystal fragments from his canvas bag and touched them to the pendant. They disintegrated one after another, transforming into streaks of cyan light that all surged into the jade body.

This time, the milky-white color faded quickly, but the green that replaced it wasn’t nearly rich enough to be called jadeite.

’This thing is a bit of a resource black hole.’

’But it’s completely acceptable.’

’This is a one-of-a-kind Element converter—a rare treasure others can only dream of.’

After studying it on the sofa for a while, Su Chen tucked the Jade Pendant back inside his shirt. After a few sips of water, he headed out of the villa.

In the time he’d been inside, the new sun in the sky had sunk further west, casting a bewitchingly brilliant, pale golden halo.

This gradient dyeing the dome of the sky was something one would have been hard-pressed to witness even once on the old Earth.

It was almost dusk...

Feeling a whim, Su Chen even took out his phone to capture the scene.

He didn’t walk much farther before reaching the northernmost end of the resort. A river barred his path. This was the upstream section, and as he gazed into the distance, he saw that the golf course from the original map had vanished.

The boundary between the two worlds was a broken asphalt road, creating a clear dividing line. On the other side of the road, the landscape of the distant Mysterious Forest began abruptly.

Interestingly, as the sunset colors truly set in, two tiger-leopards abandoned their hunt and headed together into the depths of the forest from another direction.

’Wind Attribute? Or Water Attribute?’

As Su Chen observed them carefully, he noticed that the color of these tiger-leopards was different from the ones he had seen before. Their fur was a pale cyan, and as they ran, cyclones of air or wisps of water vapor swirled around their bodies.

’These Exotic Tiger and Leopards really do come in a wide variety of attributes.’

Also, the water level of the river in front of him had dropped significantly. The surging torrent caused by the earlier elemental incursion had long since subsided, and the water level was now even lower than it had been originally.

’This is perfectly normal.’

’The source upstream has disappeared, and the water downstream is probably draining away rapidly. Before long, this river will be completely dry.’

’So much for the idea of it serving as a moat.’

”Those tiger-and-leopard-like Magic animals are probably afraid of nightfall. Maybe they’re wary of some nocturnal creatures.”

”Or they could just be diurnal, clocking out and heading home before dark.”

The sound of a conversation drifted over from not far away.

Su Chen had already noticed a group of figures to his right, standing by the river and gazing toward the forest.

”Let’s go back and sort our supplies. We can’t take any more risks,” Yan Ziqian said with great seriousness to a cold-looking young woman beside him.

”That’s right. We need to hurry back and get ready for tonight.”

A few others chimed in, seemingly trying to head off any dangerous ideas she might have.

In fact, a heavy weight pressed down on Yan Ziqian’s heart.

He was worried about his sister’s mental state. When they were first attacked, she had taken a heavy blow to the forehead. Her speech had been clear and her consciousness stable at the time, but now that he thought about it, she had probably forced herself to stay lucid. She’d used her healing ability on a critically injured friend, missing her own optimal window for Recovery.

Brain cells are incredibly delicate. If their blood supply is cut off for more than five minutes, irreversible cell death occurs.

They hadn’t acquired the Healing Skill Rune back then, and a single Wood Element essence likely wasn’t enough to bring dead brain cells back to life.

Yan Ziqian glanced at his sister’s blood-stained bangs. Underneath them was the damaged part of her frontal lobe—the area that governed emotion.

Now, Ruoruo had completely lost her capacity for empathy.

The two team members who had been injured were now healed, but they were still tormented by occasional phantom pain. Their stamina was low, and they were emotionally opposed to any more proactive risk-taking.

After all, just two hours ago, they had been nothing more than top students who were good with a bow. They had zero wilderness hunting experience. The only one among them who had ever even ”drawn blood” had done so by killing a chicken.

Yan Ruoruo, on the other hand, seemed to have been stripped of all emotion. Her already cold demeanor was now as if steeped in frost, and she had lost all her inner sensitivity. After convincing them to come here, she had simply assigned drone-watch duty to the friends who couldn’t make it.

Judging by the results, coming to the resort to kill monsters and level up had been the absolutely correct decision.

But the process had involved forcing people’s hands.

Yan Ruoruo didn’t respond right away. Her expression remained unchanged, her icy eyes fixed on the distant forest as if she were mentally calculating the gains and losses.

Just then, Pang Peng, dressed in a red shirt, broke the stalemate. He waved to Su Chen, who was off to their left, and called out an enthusiastic greeting. Only then did Yan Ziqian and the others notice his presence.

”Is that the highly skilled lone wolf you guys were talking about? He doesn’t look very old,” Cheng Rongxuan asked curiously.

”He looks like a college student. You don’t think he’s a model, do you?” another girl on the team—one who clearly judged by appearances—blurted out, making a wild guess based on his build.

’Calling him an assassin would be more believable than a model,’ one of the more cautious members thought. ’From a logical standpoint, it’s hard to let your guard down around a lone wolf who’s thriving in this apocalypse like a fish in water.’

Everyone looked over, intensely curious. He did look very young—about the same age as them, give or take. Of course, that was excluding their team’s resident civil engineering workhorse, who had already been in the workforce for two years.

It was worth noting that their eight-person group from the Jingcheng University archery club was not entirely composed of current students. It included three master’s candidates, three undergraduates, and two graduates who were already in the workforce.

Only five of them had been competing in today’s National Collegiate Championship. Seeing that the event was being held at a scenic campground, the rest had tagged along for a club outing. Fortunately, for various reasons, several other members hadn’t been able to come.

In response to the greeting, Su Chen gave a polite nod. He had no intention of getting involved in other people’s business. After taking a few pictures of the forest with his phone, he turned around and started back.

His priority before nightfall was to return to the RV and launch his drone. With the large birds gone from the skies, he wanted to map as much of the nearby Mysterious Forest as he could.

He especially wanted to map the location of the Crystals in the eastern part of the forest, as he was determined to make another trip there first thing in the morning.

Besides, he had clearly heard the sound of a rushing river over there. Water was the source of life, so it was bound to be a gathering place for monsters.

To upgrade his Water Mirror Refraction Rune, Su Chen had to find a Water Element essence. As for how to get his hands on a Light Element essence, he’d have to cross that bridge when he came to it.

”Fine. Let’s go back.”

Yan Ruoruo’s gaze followed the departing figure. After watching in silence for several seconds, she finally agreed to turn back.