The Ultimate Evolution

Ronnie knew that Sheyan’s words contained traps, so he snorted and replied, “What does that have to do with this? Potions are potions; equipments are equipments. The two aren’t comparable.”

Sheyan ignored Ronnie’s words and kept mocking him. “With your IQ, I find it very difficult to communicate with you. But please use your brain a little, however challenging you may find that to be. Do you think the raw materials for a mix that can provide such an amazing buff are free? I’ve willingly provided the team with the group-buffing mixes all this while without any complaints, even though it has cost me tens of thousands of utility points so far. If I supply the mixes individually to everyone, I’ll go bankrupt.”

When the group heard what Sheyan had to say, they could only nod politely regardless of whether they really accepted his explanation.

But then Ronnie went over to Sheyan while visibly suppressing his anger, and said with a frown, “I’ll pay for the materials. What excuse do you have now?”

Sheyan immediately smiled.

“Why, thank you for the business. Of course that’s all right.”

Ronnie’s facial muscles twitched a few times, his heart apparently lamenting the price he was about to pay. But he still threw the Pi crystal he had just extracted to Sheyan.

“This thing should be enough for five of your mixes?”

Sheyan’s mixing materials were actually prepared in the real world by himself. Although the process was somewhat tedious, the most difficult step was to obtain the parts of various animals. Presently, with the support of both Zi and Reef, that step was not a problem for Sheyan at all. All he had to do was work hard in the laboratory. Besides the labour cost, the rest of the cost amounted to almost zero.

It was amazing that Ronnie was willing to trade his purified Pi crystal for the mixes. Sheyan took out three of the highest quality mixes he had on him and threw them to Ronnie. He then shrugged and said, “Currently, I only have three finished products. Our priority now should be to trace the whereabouts of the survivors as soon as possible, so I’ll make the rest when we get to a safe place later.”

With everyone there witnessing the exchange, Ronnie had no fear of Sheyan going back on his words. He snorted and actually gave one of the mixes to Hedi Curry, and one to Azsa.

Witnessing his actions, Sheyan found that although Ronnie had a mean mouth and a mean personality, he had a simple mentality of obeying the strong like the Japanese in olden times. As long as one’s strength was recognised by him, he would become very honest. Sheyan could make use of this point if a suitable chance presented itself in the future.

The group rapidly followed the track left by Mr. Daniel. About seven or eight hundred meters later, a sparkling view abruptly appeared in front of them. There was a vast body of water somewhat like a lake burning red under the setting suns. Together with the purple reeds and green bamboos swaying slightly in the wind, as well as the water lilies floating on the lake, it formed a spectacular scenery.

The body of water actually did not quite qualify as a lake, because the deepest part of the water was no more than a meter deep. It was precisely because of this that there were many small islands formed from tall, lush aquatic plants in the middle of the “lake”. Not far away, at the lakeshore, lived several groups of unique water birds which looked a little similar to the flamingos on earth. Their feathers were red all over except for two trails of white along the edge on their wings, giving them a distinctive look.

Dozens of the nearer water birds flapped their wings and flew away, presumably due to the arrival of the contestants. The white lines on a bright red background were dazzling under the blue sky and white clouds. The birds looked like dots of red paint that were splashed on the sky. It was a magnificent view.

“These water birds should be their hunting targets,” said Hedi Curry, “This place doesn’t seem that dangerous.”

Ronnie was currently exploring the path ahead, searching for any suspicious trace. He suddenly shouted, “Over here!”

The others immediately rushed over. They saw that there was a piece of high ground there filled with purple-spiked reeds, but an area dozens of square meters wide had been trampled into a mess; the reeds there had completely fallen down.

They could basically conclude that the three men had lay in ambush here in order to catch the birds, but unbeknownst to them, some other creatures had had theirs eyes set on them. The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind, and they were the mantis.

After a careful inspection, the contestants found that the footprints left in the swamp were a bit odd; they were very messy and were only the size of a baby’s foot. The contestants inferred that the creatures were a kind of multi-legged monster with relatively small bodies. They seemed to be able to move very swiftly in the muddy swamp without being affected by the harsh terrain in the slightest.

They also undoubtedly possessed a very strong venom.

In addition, from the broken wooden spears found on the scene, these creatures were probably covered by a hard shell too.

There were no corpses nor blood stains left on the scene – and it was not because the blood had been wiped away, because even blood stains that had been licked clean would not escape Ramtas’ nose. This was actually something that the contestants were glad to see. It meant that the two remaining unfortunate survivors had likely been captured alive to be stocked up as fresh food.

At that moment, Sheyan’s eyes flashed with a strange emotion, seemingly having thought of something, but he ended up forcing the words back down his throat. Despite his face that was still as calm as before, his eyes were a lot more vigilant.

Ronnie spent about fifteen minutes making sure there was nothing out of the ordinary in the surrounding area. There were no visible footprints belonging to the two prisoners leaving the area, so they must have either been taken away by air, or carried away on the monsters.

The team of contestants considered all the clues and came to a decision to rush over to save the people overnight. After all, the two people were likely to still be alive, and the high-purity Pi ore Ronnie found earlier had flamed everyone’s greed like hot charcoal. In addition, they were now acting in a group, and they were launching a surprise attack, so almost everyone thought the job would be a piece of cake.

***

The wetland became neither charming nor beautiful after nightfall.

The cold water soaked directly through their boots, caressing their skin like the chilly fingers of the dead. The fallen purple reeds floated on the muddy water. The path may look like a flat road, but when they stepped on it, their feet would sink down into the mud up to their knees. It took twice the effort to pull their feet back out.

Some angry mumblings escaped Hedi Curry’s mouth. He spat into the water. Ripples instantly rose and spread into the distance on the sparkling water surface that was reflecting the light off the Uplos asteroid belts.

Sheyan had an uneasy feeling. His memory had always been excellent, so although he had only caught a glance of the simple map drawn by the survivors while pretending to be uninterested, he could remember it vividly.

After such a long journey, those with a poor sense of direction would have long lost track of their current location, but Sheyan was not one of them. A sense of crisis assaulted him.

That was because, according to the map drawn by the survivors, they had actually gone past the area marked with the words “food/birds” and had entered the area marked by the red skull!!

Sheyan had no idea what kind of monsters awaited them, but he did know that the monsters would be much harder to deal with than the Slaadi. At least, that was what the survivors believed, and Sheyan chose to trust their judgment.

The ground underneath them started to get drier and the mud had turned shallower, going up to their ankles now instead of their knees, but the ominous feeling in Sheyan heart only grew stronger. He narrowed his eyes slightly and suddenly shouted towards the other contestants, “Can everyone stop for a moment? I have something I’d like to say.”

Sheyan’s words immediately stopped everyone in their tracks. They turned to look at him in doubt. Sheyan shrugged and said with a smile, “Although I know what I’m going to say next will probably be futile, I’d still like to remind you guys that it’s a little rash for us to rush in like this. We’re facing completely unfamiliar enemies in a completely unfamiliar terrain on a completely unfamiliar planet…. It’s really not a smart thing to do to rush head first into the fight without knowing anything. We should put our own safety first, not the safety of the two who were taken away, even if they may have information on Pi veins.”

Some in the team hesitated after hearing what Sheyan said, obviously feeling that Sheyan’s words were reasonable. Azsa thus suggested, “Maybe we can divide the team into two groups? Hedi and I will each lead a group. This way, we can cover for each other.”

But Hedi Curry strongly opposed the idea for a very simple reason: in their earlier battle with the One-Horned Flying Ants at the mushroom rock, they had lost so badly precisely because they were short on personnel. That was why the two MTs had lost so much authority in the team! Why would they make the same mistake? Right now, he urgently needed a glorious victory to consolidate his position in the team, and this was undoubtedly the best opportunity!

Most of the others also supported the MTs’ idea of keeping their strength concentrated, so Sheyan’s words were ignored in the end.