Evolution Begins with Elemental Domination

It really was the Spiritual Dust Sand required for the upgrade.

As Su Chen touched the shimmering, star-like specks, a devouring force from his palm absorbed them completely. An invisible bridge silently formed, channeling them to the Flame Burst Rune in his Sea of Consciousness.

The Spiritual Dust Sand flowed like fireflies returning to their nest.

Wisp after wisp, they silently vanished into the depths of the Rune.

With each bit it absorbed, the Flame Burst Rune gained a peculiar luster, and its patterns grew more intricate. After feeding it a Fire Element Essence as well, the upgrade information changed.

Upgrade Requirement: Fire (7/12) + Spiritual Dust Sand (1/1).

’Just five more Fire Element Essences to go.’

Su Chen couldn’t help but marvel. The Night Tiger, which had posed a fatal threat to him, had truly delivered a grand prize.

If the previous ones were just small-fry, this Night Tiger was at least a boss or elite-level monster.

Thinking it over, if no one had been able to counter its Shadow Jumping Skill, it probably would have caused a bloodbath at the campsite. They would have had to just wait for it to eat its fill and leave, or simply get bored.

’This guy certainly ate his fill.’

Some of the survivors had, of course, witnessed the entire process of Su Chen retrieving loot from the tiger’s corpse.

Never mind the Dark Element Rune.

A sharp-eyed Archer also saw some tiny, floating, glowing particles, which were also absorbed by him.

’What was that stuff?’

He didn’t dare to ask.

Aside from coming forward to help the wounded, no one else dared to approach the tall young man.

After witnessing him drive away the pack of monkeys and then obliterate a teleporting Night Tiger, no one understood his power better than they did.

What was even more intimidating was that his shirt and face were splattered with blood, which made his already stern demeanor seem like that of a cold-blooded killer.

Soon, a small incident nearby shifted everyone’s attention.

"He was my relative! What’s wrong with me taking it?" one person roared.

"How do we know they’re your relative? Show us some ID to prove it first."

A dispute broke out among the rescue party.

The reason was simple: Elemental Essences had emerged from the bodies of two of the dead, and a fierce conflict had erupted when someone tried to snatch them.

Seeing this, Su Chen’s heart sank slightly.

Everything was heading toward the least favorable outcome he had imagined.

Elemental Essences and Runes could attach themselves to an organic life form, an item, or even an inorganic object, but they could also drop from them.

Humans were clearly no exception.

Upon death, it seemed they would drop all the Runes they possessed.

This was even more simple and brutal than robbing a rich man of his fortune.

It was not yet clear whether there was any loss when the process of absorbing and dropping was repeated multiple times.

If some god or creator was behind all this, their intentions seemed full of malice, as if they feared the world wasn’t chaotic enough and were determined to screen for a single Poison King.

And their existence was like that of a container, or perhaps a courier, helping to highly concentrate Elemental Energy, waiting for the final winner to claim the grand prize.

If powers like Elemental Essences and Runes were compared to a game account, it was as if everyone had only been granted the right to use the account, but not its ownership.

’It’s a rather unpleasant thought.’

But his musings stopped there.

Su Chen didn’t really care. Deep down, he might even welcome the potential challenges. Whether order collapsed or not, he would seize as much power as he could.

His gaze then shifted to the downhill road. Under the limited light of the glow sticks along the way, he could see a trail of intermittent blood drops.

Invisibility could certainly hide its form, but the blood seeping from its wounds wouldn’t just disappear.

’I can’t let this one get away...’ Su Chen wasn’t about to miss this opportunity.

The next second, his figure silently vanished on the spot.

Amid the noisy argument over the ownership of the dead men’s Essences, few people even noticed that the man beside them had disappeared.

...

SWISH!

SWISH!

After two consecutive Shadow Leaps.

Su Chen’s figure appeared at a bend in the downhill road. A fading black ripple, like smoke or mist, swirled around him before slowly dissipating into the night.

He took a moment to experience the sensation. It felt good.

The marvelous experience of a point-to-point teleportation jump was indeed pleasant.

The response time was fast.

It took only about a second to complete the teleportation process.

As for discomfort, there was only a slight dizziness. However, his personal Physique might not be the same as others’, so it wasn’t a universal reference.

After successfully spotting the Night Tiger’s figure, he didn’t linger.

SWISH!

Activating the Shadow Jumping Skill once more, the black ripple wrapped around him like a light veil, and he instantly leaped into the distance.

Just then, the female tiger up ahead sensed the disturbance behind her. Her own impressive Dark Vision allowed her to recognize the distant figure as the one who had killed her mate.

But her injured body, combined with the immense sense of power emanating from her pursuer, made the now-calmer tiger lose all will to fight back.

Without even a warning roar, the Night Tiger vanished again, enduring the severe pain in its side as it fled forward.

But the constantly dripping trail of blood exposed its location again and again.

In fact, after being pierced through the chest by that high-carbon steel arrow, all that awaited it was to bleed to death.

Although it wasn’t a professional hunting arrowhead and couldn’t cause massive, instant blood loss, the Night Tiger had no way to stop the bleeding. In fact, running only worsened the injury, and the continuous blood loss meant it wouldn’t even last until dawn.

This is why wild animals often assess the risks of their actions, wondering if they might get injured.

They can’t bandage their own wounds, and the period of weakness during Recovery would also put them in a dangerous situation.

"HAA... HAA..."

By the time the Night Tiger reached the end of the downhill road, it was panting heavily, unable to even maintain its invisibility.

As the hunter with victory already in hand, Su Chen was full of patience, following unhurriedly from behind. Along the way, he didn’t forget to shine his flashlight into the dense woods beside the slope.

As he walked down the slope, he also discovered a field of bodies near the bridge in the distance.

As the "Cleaner Fish" who had personally swept the eastern Riverfront Area, Su Chen compared it with his memory and somewhat understood that this group of people had come down to block the bridge and kill monsters.

One of the electric cars had its battery pack detonated and was now burning fiercely, illuminating the surroundings.

The massacre here was undoubtedly the work of this pair of Night Tigers.

Generally, tigers and leopards tend to be solitary. When they appear in numbers, it’s either a mother with her cubs, or a male and female pair.

As the old saying goes, one mountain cannot tolerate two tigers, unless one is male and the other female.

In a Night Tiger’s hunting grounds, its scent alone would drive away most potential demonic beasts. The packs of Night Monkeys, however, were an exception, likely taking advantage of the fact that the tigers couldn’t climb the large trees as well as they could.

Combining all this information, and now armed with the new Shadow Jumping Skill, it would be unreasonable for Su Chen not to go down the slope and finish off this Night Tiger.

After confirming the surrounding area was safe, he finally looked at the Night Tiger at the bottom of the slope, which was hissing and roaring madly at him. Once the golf ball clenched in his hand began to emit a scorching heat, he threw it straight at the creature’s figure.

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