Evolution Begins with Elemental Domination

After the Flame Burst Skill, Su Chen added Jingzhe, Gravity Skill, Holy Light Skill, and Shadow Summoning to his First Authority’s binding sequence.

Just as before, they were all instantly upgraded, gaining all the traits and enhancements of the next level.

Jingzhe unlocked a new major trait: under the effect of a powerful bio-electric stimulus, it removes all negative effects from the user.

It removed crowd control and cleared debuffs, making it an incredibly potent and practical Rune.

The Gravity Skill was a pure numerical enhancement. Whether increasing or decreasing an object’s weight, the force field’s strength was determined by the Spellcaster’s own Strength Attribute, in addition to the target’s base mass.

This made its suppression of heavy units stronger and allowed it to throw light units farther.

The Holy Light Skill gained a new "Divine Impact" trait. The point of impact would now trigger a purifying shockwave with a 10-meter radius.

Simultaneously, channeled by the Divine Energy, the effect of any other attached Rune would spread along with the shockwave.

The main upgrade for Shadow Summoning was to the Phantom Clone. Its duration was extended, and the number of clones increased from two to three.

Additionally, some other Dark Element Skills also received significant boosts.

’This is a massive upgrade.’

As Su Chen familiarized himself with the Lv6 effects of these four Runes, he couldn’t help but marvel at how absurd the Grand Elemental Master’s First Core Authority was. It was like getting a massive pile of upgrade materials for free.

And that wasn’t all.

The value of this Core Authority would become even more apparent as Rune Levels progressed and the thresholds for upgrading grew higher.

It allowed him to completely bypass one insurmountable upgrade bottleneck after another.

If there were any downsides, there were two...

First, the Telekinesis Rune was of the Spirit Element and didn’t meet the Elemental standard, so it couldn’t be upgraded this way.

Second, it took a full day to unbind a Rune from the sequence. This meant he had to wait twenty-four hours after binding a Rune before he could swap it for another.

’Minor issues. I can live with that.’

Su Chen wasn’t too bothered by it.

Also, the small tree rooted in the soil of his consciousness had grown vigorously, putting out a new, smooth, and straight branch. It was bare, awaiting the next stage of its development.

The next Core Authority to be activated, the second one, was grayed out, but its description was already visible.

A single Elemental Rune would gain all the traits and enhancement effects of its next two levels.

Brutally simple!

Of course, this effect couldn’t be stacked with a Rune already bound to the First Authority.

To meet the unlock condition, he would need to legitimately upgrade ten of his own Elemental Runes to Lv6—without using the First Authority’s boost—and then spend three Spirit Marrow Crystals.

That was all a long way off, not something he needed to worry about right now.

’Time to go.’

With this major concern settled, Su Chen had no reason to linger at the trading post.

Besides, ever since the news about the modified Bloodthirsty Fungus bodies went public, people had grown restless. Many had already left Trading Floor No. 2, located in the old factory workshop, leaving only about fifty people behind.

The petite female employee was standing guard near the door. She said, sounding a bit troubled, "There really aren’t any traders who meet your criteria right now. Why don’t you browse the Qixia Night Market for a while? I’ll keep an eye out for you. You can check back in later."

"No problem."

Su Chen only had one Lv4 Rune left on his trade listing, and he’d be happy to get even two portions of Spiritual Dust Sand for it.

After a moment’s thought, he updated his listing with her, adding a Lv4 Water Prison Skill and two Lv4 Earthquake Wave Runes, much to her astonishment. Then, Su Chen tossed her an essence crystal as a tip.

He told her he would return to the exhibition hall at nine that evening and then walked out, leaving her staring blankly in the corridor.

At that moment, the night was dark as ink. The scar-faced man finished his trade and walked out of the factory workshop. He entered a dim alley outside and summoned a Wind Demon Wolf out of thin air.

He held his right hand to the wolf’s nose. The Wind Demon Wolf took a deep sniff, its ears twitched, and a low whine rumbled in its throat—expertly signaling it had locked onto a scent.

At the end of the alley stood a man in a short-sleeved shirt and a baseball cap. He glanced sideways at his companion and knew he had found another target.

Thanks to the Wind Demon Wolf’s incredible sensory Perception, it could perfectly track a target for two kilometers, even in the scent-muddled city. He wondered which poor bastard had been targeted now.

But this target was lucky; they were out of time.

"There’s a murder near the grounds. The boss is calling us in."

Without waiting for a reply, he turned and walked out of the alley.

The scar-faced man was silent for a few seconds before finally striding after him.

The two figures quickly vanished into the crowds leaving the night market.

The crowd’s panic wasn’t just due to the shocking news from the broadcast.

There was another reason: someone had gone missing inside the Creative Park. Normally, someone getting lost in the vast Qixia Night Market wouldn’t be a big deal. But combined with the earlier news and the sight of security guards searching everywhere, it was enough to make anyone’s mind race.

"Why is everyone running? Do we have to split up like in a horror movie? Don’t you get that we should stick together?" someone said, exasperated. He felt the crowd was being completely irrational.

But his comment only earned him the scorn of a bystander.

"And what level of power are you, huh? Those modified Bloodthirsty Fungus things specifically target high-level Spellcasters. You really want to hang around them and get splattered with blood?"

When put that way, it actually made a lot of sense.

The man was speechless for a moment.

With that thought, he swallowed his pride and went along with the crowd.

The news that the Bloodthirsty Fungus possessed a hive mind had long been a hot topic. The intel inevitably brought to mind Earth’s bee swarms and ant colonies, where a queen, workers, and soldiers form a highly organized superorganism.

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