Evolution Begins with Elemental Domination

Dongfu City’s industrial base was primarily located in the Bright District, while the new industrial park was in the Qixia District.

After being demolished and redeveloped, this part of the city had almost no factories left, which was a bit of a shame.

At that moment, after he had been guarding the South Bridge for only a short while, a piece of prey took the bait.

It wasn’t exactly a successful bridge blockade. Instead, a large, grayish-blue bird circling in the sky had spotted the Shadow Hound on patrol and was diving down from above.

Upon noticing this, Su Chen came up with a counter-strategy.

’If I have Xiaoye turn invisible to dodge, it’ll all be for nothing if this unknown bird has Dark Vision and sees through it.’

’There’s a simpler way.’

’And that is... to unsummon it.’

Soon, an immense pressure of wind swept down. An instant before it landed, the large bird abruptly spread its wings to slow its descent. A torrent of Wind Element energy surged, and from its grayish-blue feathers, it shot out a volley of sharp Wind Blades.

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

A sharp vortex of air scraped violently against the ground, sending dirt flying. But the Shadow Hound that was supposed to be its target had already vanished completely from reality, not leaving a single trace behind.

The large bird was completely baffled.

Meanwhile, Su Chen, who had just stepped out of the driver’s seat, seized the opportunity to finish it off. A golf ball filled with the power of Flame Burst left his hand and struck the giant bird directly in the back.

Flames erupted with a BOOM as a wave of fire surged outward.

In an instant, it wasn’t just the scorching flames bombarding the bird. A terrifying disintegrating power was also at work, accelerating the collapse of its body. Every inch of its flesh and bone, its entire physical structure, was utterly destroyed.

Just like that, the large bird was incinerated into a pile of wreckage.

’This is pretty effective.’

Su Chen was startled as he looked at the patch of charred blackness on the ground. After all, using a golf ball for that attack meant it definitely wasn’t a full-power strike from the Flame Burst Rune.

But the attached disintegration property had still boosted its lethality.

However, the large bird’s bone structure was light and thin, its total weight less than a tenth of a giant bear’s. That’s why the visual effect was a bit exaggerated, with a single hit practically leaving nothing of the body behind.

’A classic glass cannon.’

’You can say Mages are fragile, but you can never question their damage output.’

Su Chen summoned Xiaoye again. The trick he had just used was a decent way to bait a target, and it had thoroughly confused the large bird.

And what dropped from its body was a Wind Element Rune.

’Wind Blade Lv1.’

Su Chen was familiar with this Rune effect. When he was clearing out the garden resort during the day, members of the Jingcheng University Archery Club had used it from a distance. The sound of a highly condensed cutting force was identical to the noise he had just heard.

Looking at its structure, he determined the synthesis formula was: Wind + Wind + Metal = Wind Blade.

He had no intention of absorbing it. He needed to save his Wind Element essence for the Shadow Leap Rune, so that left only one path: enchanting a runic weapon.

Su Chen took a fire axe from his canvas backpack. After it absorbed the Wind Blade Rune, it was as if it had been reforged. The surface of the blade took on a cold, gray-blue metallic sheen, and its silhouette became as sharp and heavy as a battle axe.

When the effect was activated, a layer of translucent, fluctuating Wind Fluff enveloped the axe blade. The air vibrated at high speed, as if being violently compressed and oscillated.

He swung it forward, and the axe blade immediately unleashed a Wind Blade that sliced a thin native tree in half twenty meters away.

’The range and power aren’t bad.’

Su Chen mused that the Wind Blade’s lethality came mainly from its cutting power, and its activation speed was quite fast.

All in all, this would make for a good trail-clearing axe.

It would definitely be useful when he journeyed into the forest tomorrow morning.

For the next while, Su Chen sat comfortably in the driver’s seat, guarding the bridge.

In fact, the campsite on the high slope behind him was practically sending an open invitation to the Mysterious Forest. The continuous noise and broadcast sounds at night were highly likely to attract curious monsters.

The delicious smells were also a major draw.

Just the rich, sweet aroma of cooked food wafting from the barbecue grills at the campsite was enough to make many monsters drool with hunger.

What was rather hellish was that humans, being high-protein, high-fat animals, had undoubtedly been placed on their newest menu.

New and exotic, what monster with any bit of skill wouldn’t want to come have a taste?

Bridge camping definitely made sense.

Before long, he encountered the first wave of monsters trying to cross the bridge.

The first he ran into were two strange moles. He wasn’t sure if they were the ”subway rats” mentioned in the broadcast, but in any case, these fat-headed, rat-like things could dig burrows and were scavengers.

After they tried to eat the corpse of a Demon Dog by the bridge, Xiaoye ambushed them perfectly.

Startled, the strange mole activated an Earth Element protective layer, but it was torn to shreds by the Shadow Hound’s Shadow Claw in a single strike. Then, its neck was snapped in Xiaoye’s jaws.

The remaining one didn’t manage to escape into the ground either. It clearly lacked Dark Vision and had no idea a human figure was hidden in the darkness. It was promptly cleaved in mid-air by the battle axe, which was wreathed in a sharp, windy force.

From this, Su Chen obtained two more Earth Element essences.

In the back of the SUV was half a case of small mineral water bottles. Inside, there was also a thermos and a few half-drunk water bottles. These were all potential containers. He poured out the water and filled them one by one with the essences.

After the appetizers.

Over the next two hours, Su Chen frantically harvested essences and Runes of various Elements.

The group of Night Monkeys that had retreated in disappointment earlier attacked once again. He figured that after being driven back, the more they thought about it, the unhappier they got, so they gathered a troop and charged back menacingly.

One thing was certain, though: their eyeballs were slightly protuberant, and while they might be able to see things in the dark, they definitely hadn’t evolved to the point of seeing invisible beings.

’To be blunt, it was the same old trick, and they still had no way to counter it.’

So one could imagine the tragic scene that followed as the troop of monkeys charged down from the trees and across the bridge. The invisible figure dropped his disguise and launched two Flame Bursts, one after the other. The inherent area-of-effect splash damage engulfed the nearby figures.

With the Shadow Hound circling around to hunt them down as well, the whole operation left a total of eight Night Monkeys dead on the spot.

What horrified them even more was that the bodies hit by the blasts were basically vaporized on the spot.

Two craters and a puddle of carbonized black stains appeared on the bridge’s surface.

The remaining monkeys shrieked and scrambled in terror, fleeing back behind the jacaranda trees without pausing, continuing deep into the forest.

Just like that, Su Chen obtained another 5 Dark Element essences.

「Later...」

A Night Tiger, hidden in the darkness, arrived silently. After a staredown with the invisible figure at the head of the bridge, it smelled danger and instinctively decided to retreat.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Empowered by his Shadow Jumping Skill, Su Chen blinked twice in quick succession and fed a Flame Burst Fireball right into its mouth. In return, the tiger’s magnificent head was blown to smithereens.

After giving chase for a short distance, he simply took Xiaoye to sweep the perimeter. When he returned to the warehouse—which was proving to be a real hot spot for activity—he caught two more strange moles scavenging the corpses.

Then, another Flame Burst conveniently took them out.

With that, Su Chen had nearly used up all his projectiles, leaving only the Small Straight Knife in his backpack. He also took the opportunity to grab a few red bricks from the warehouse.