Evolution Begins with Elemental Domination

Su Chen took stock of his gains.

The two Demon Dogs had yielded a total of three Fire Element Essences, all of which were absorbed by his Flame Burst Rune.

Advancement Requirements: Flame Burst Rune 4/12, Spiritual Dust Sand 0/1.

At the same time, he also found an overturned golf cart outside the front gate. The driver was nowhere to be seen, their fate uncertain.

However, what did catch Su Chen’s attention was the golf club bag in the back and a bag of golf balls spilled all over the ground from a storage basket.

’Golf balls should be good for throwing.’ His eyes lit up.

By now, the bricks and stones Su Chen had been using were long gone. His canvas bag contained only a single small, throwable Flying Knife.

Golf balls weren’t large, but they were heavy. Their surfaces were extremely hard, and since they were perfectly round, their trajectory was relatively stable when thrown.

Su Chen picked one up. After tossing it in his hand to gauge its weight, he suddenly hurled it, striking the leaves of an osmanthus tree thirty meters away.

’The feel for it needs some adjustment.’

He had been aiming for the trunk, so his shot was still off by a fair distance.

Su Chen turned his gaze to a sign fifteen meters away. He threw again, and this time, he hit it precisely.

’Not bad.’

As far as throwing implements went, these were already a pretty good choice.

Previously, when throwing bricks and stones, he had to either let his target get close before making a powerful throw or seize the initiative with a sneak attack to guarantee a hit.

’To extend my attack range and achieve consistent long-distance hits, I’ll need to find some standardized projectiles.’

’I need to find some standard Small Straight Knives.’

For Su Chen, those were the ideal choice.

He had actually practiced with Flying Knives for a while.

In addition, he also needed a new melee weapon. After his axe blade had shattered, even the Alloy Baseball Bat in his hand had acquired several dents from being swung with such force.

The golf clubs in front of him, however, were a decent option.

One shouldn’t underestimate those thin shafts.

A strike to the limbs would cause a deep bruise. If it hit the head or joints, it would cause serious injury and require hospitalization.

As a legal piece of sports equipment, countless drivers kept them in their cars for self-defense; they were also a common weapon in apocalyptic fiction.

Su Chen placed four golf clubs and ten golf balls into his canvas bag. For easier throwing, he also put a golf ball in both his left and right pants pockets.

After gathering his new equipment, he continued heading north.

Before long, he saw villa B14, its back door wide open.

As he drew closer, he saw two barbecue grills in the backyard. A long black table was overturned, the ground was strewn with lavish raw seafood, and an exquisite three-tier birthday cake had been utterly ruined.

There were no signs of casualties inside, not a soul in sight. He presumed the family had been alerted and successfully escaped.

Su Chen picked up a small, elegant folding knife from the ground and also pocketed an unopened bottle of mineral water.

He hadn’t had a single sip of water since the world changed, and he couldn’t help but feel a little thirsty.

GLUG, GLUG, GLUG...

After tilting his head back for three large gulps, Su Chen saw a DJI drone fly overhead. The sky was no longer as azure as it was initially, and the strange new sun was beginning to slant westward.

In perhaps an hour or two, evening would fall.

After dark, if the monsters of this new world also adhered to temporal niches, then the Mysterious Forest was about to get lively again. Nocturnal creatures would take over the shift, and there might even be another massive wave of invading species.

He didn’t linger and pressed onward.

Villa B18, which was coming up on his path, was engulfed in a raging fire.

The interior walls were scorched black, the plaster peeling away. The floor-to-ceiling windows on the first and second floors had shattered from the blazing heat. If the main structure hadn’t been poured concrete, it would have likely collapsed already.

Su Chen avoided the direction the wind was blowing, making a wide detour.

Then he witnessed an interesting sight: a Demon Dog, unable to stand the thick, rolling smoke, tucked its tail and scurried away.

’The damn thing actually hasn’t evolved a specialized respiratory system to cope with this.’

Not only that, but the thick smoke seemed to have masked the keen sense of smell the Demon Dog relied on to survive, preventing it from detecting the dangerous presence. A black-and-red shadow, wrapped in sparks, suddenly leaped from a burning second-floor window.

The Demon Dog barely let out a short whimper before it was pinned down by the Fire Tiger, its neck snapped by a gaping, bloody maw.

This was the first time Su Chen had witnessed monsters killing each other for real.

He couldn’t help but marvel that felines were truly consummate ambushers.

Applied to this tiger-leopard hybrid of a monster, it was basically an assassin with the stats of a heavy Warrior.

The Fire Tiger clearly took pleasure in the hunt. Right after mercilessly executing the canine, as if possessing a powerful hunter’s Perception, its pair of scarlet eyes locked onto the human figure in the distance.

The vicious tiger kicked off with its four legs and charged forward like a flaming war chariot, thundering toward him.

They were fifty meters apart, but Su Chen didn’t dare let his guard down in the slightest.

After all, the fastest tigers and leopards on Earth could easily smoke Usain Bolt in a hundred-meter dash, with recorded times of four or five seconds—a speed that left humans in the dust.

Facing this kind of apex predator, being even half a beat too slow meant being torn to shreds.

"Jingzhe!"

The Rune activated with a deafening roar.

In an instant, Su Chen’s brain seemed to enter an overclocked state.

The world suddenly slowed down.

The Wind blew, the smoke rose—everything was like a scene playing in slow motion.

In this near-bullet-time state, Su Chen’s gaze locked onto the center of its skull. With immense concentration and his right hand at its peak performance, he flicked his wrist, sending a golf ball infused with the Flame Burst Rune hurtling through the air at high speed.

A crimson line of fire tore through the air and struck the beast’s head with unerring accuracy.

Its skull exploded from the impact, sending brain matter and bone fragments spraying in all directions. In an instant, its huge, ferocious head was blown in half.

The creature’s terrifying forward momentum was cut short. Inertia carried its corpse the rest of the way, delivering it right to Su Chen’s feet in a long slide.

Inside the shattered cranial cavity was a gory mess. Two faint glimmers of light slowly appeared. The moment the Fire Element Essences formed, it was as if all conscious Spiritual Light had been drawn out along with them.

That killing blow had highlighted how the Jingzhe Rune, beyond strengthening the body, also provided a supreme enhancement at the mental and sensory level. In the Super Heart Flow State, he could push his actions to the brink of perfection.

’Six more to go.’

After collecting the essences, Su Chen glanced up at the sky. A DJI drone was hovering there, its camera aimed directly at him.

Upon noticing his gaze, the drone’s gimbal moved up and down, making the protruding camera head give him a nod.

’How ridiculous...’

The drone pilot, Qiu Jun, was far in the rear, providing intel over the walkie-talkie for Yan Ziqian and the others up front. From his bird’s-eye view, he could get a general sense of the situation at the resort.

This made it easy to surround and intercept any monster they found.

Just as Qiu Jun had started tracking the Fire Tiger, he had unexpectedly witnessed a tall young man kill it with a stunningly powerful throw.

’Is that a Flame Burst Rune formed from a Triple Flame Essence?’

’You can even use it like that?’

’And that power is a little over the top.’

As Qiu Jun reeled in surprise, the real-time video feed on his remote controller showed a large bird flying toward them.

He jumped in fright. While lowering the drone’s altitude, he immediately notified the team up front.

"Attention, everyone! The fish is about to take the bait. Whether we can land it is all on you. Just don’t shoot my drone," Qiu Jun said urgently.

This was also part of their strategy: the drone in the sky could provide real-time information and Perception to track prey, while also acting as a lure to bait the large bird.

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