Chapter 34: Sudden Mutation, An Old Acquaintance Among the Scavengers!

Wang Chen took a Dark Heart from his storage ring and hesitated before the stone altar.
“How am I supposed to use this? Na’er didn’t give me any instructions—no magic incantation or anything.”
Relying solely on his intuition, he held the Dark Heart toward the swirling black mist.
The moment the Dark Heart touched the black mist, it was as if he’d turned on a range hood while cooking—waves of black mist rushed into the Dark Heart.
Its size gradually increased; if it were a sponge, it was now madly absorbing water.
Wang Chen felt it in his palm: the Dark Heart was pulsing gently, as if alive.
He shuddered. “If this Dark Heart absorbs the black mist, it won’t spawn some monster, will it?”
He surveyed his surroundings and breathed a sigh of relief. “No severed limbs here. Shouldn’t be that bad.”
Before long, the Dark Heart was like a sponge full to bursting, unable to draw in any more black mist.
Wang Chen gripped it awkwardly, unsure whether to toss it or keep it.
“Maybe I should put it back in the ring. The space inside seems frozen in time—when I took out the Dark Guardian’s remains earlier, they were just as fresh as when I stored them.”
He reasoned, “If I place the Dark Heart inside, even if something happens to it, it won’t have a chance to catalyze for now.”
With a flick of his fingers, Wang Chen placed the saturated Dark Heart into his ring and drew out another to continue absorbing the mist.
As the Dark Hearts absorbed more, Wang Chen observed the black mist around the altar thinning.
Another Dark Heart was nearly full—he replaced it with a fresh one.
Once this Dark Heart reached capacity, the mist would likely vanish, and the seal would be broken.
But as he held the Dark Heart out toward the mist, a sudden change occurred!
First, the ground trembled faintly, shaking the dust loose.
The vibrations intensified!
A thunderous rumble!
Soon, the entire temple seemed to quiver!
Wang Chen was alert the moment the tremors began, quickly distancing himself from the altar.
As the shaking worsened, he leapt off the dais and hurried to the temple’s center, closer to the exit.
He realized the disturbance began only after he absorbed the mist, making him its likely cause.
If some unknown danger was about to manifest, it would surely target him.
He readied himself to flee… or rather, to execute a strategic retreat.

Suddenly, the floor of the altar convulsed violently. Massive marble tiles bulged upward, as if some colossal creature beneath was about to break through!
Tile after tile was flung aside, surging toward Wang Chen!
“Is there an earth dragon hidden down there?” Wang Chen wondered as he saw the tiles rise.
He turned and bolted for the temple exit.
But whatever lurked below was faster than he could run, arriving beneath him in a blink and thrusting upward!
Wang Chen was sent flying, tumbling backward.
He scrambled to adjust his posture midair, landing without crashing hard onto the marble tiles.
“Burrowing so fast underground—this isn’t a dragon, it’s more like Earth Walker!”
He got up and brushed the dust from his clothes.
The figure blocking his path to the exit heaved upward, sending heavy marble tiles flying as it broke through the earth!
Dust billowed!
He saw—
A massive shadow loomed within the haze.
“Something’s definitely gone wrong!”
Seeing this, Wang Chen’s expression grew grim. He hurriedly tore a magic scroll.
“Fountain Guard—Silver Grade!”
A steady wave of water enveloped him, shielding his body.
…
“Did that kid go inside?”
The crew-cut man eyed the imposing temple nearby.
The unlucky fellow beside him nodded, hugging himself and shivering.
“Let’s go in too—it’ll be warmer than out here.”
The unlucky one sneezed.
The temperature wasn’t high or low, but in the eerie, shifting climate of the dark plateau, the extremes made things unbearable.
Especially since the unlucky fellow wore only trousers.
Fu Yunsheng examined the faded murals on the temple walls.
“What is this place? Would anyone build structures in a cursed wasteland like this?”

They’d never ventured so deep before, and thus never seen an ancient Elven temple.
“Maybe… it wasn’t built by humans,” the crew-cut man said in the tone of a ghost story.
Fu Yunsheng slapped him. “Don’t give me that nonsense. If humans didn’t build it, was it ghosts?”
“That’s not what I meant!” The crew-cut man rubbed his head. “I mean, maybe another race built it. Look—those murals are full of pointy-eared figures.”
“That’s possible,” Fu Yunsheng mused. “Why would that kid go through all this trouble to reach the heartland and seek out a building made by some other race?”
The unlucky fellow sniffed. “Maybe he’s treasure hunting. Isn’t that how it goes in movies? Discovering lost relics and hidden treasures.”
The group fell silent, then their eyes gleamed with greed.
“That’s very possible,” Fu Yunsheng said. “Even if it isn’t money, it could be rare equipment. Either way, it’s got to be worth more than the magic scrolls he spent—otherwise he’d be at a loss.”
Fu Yunsheng reasoned from a practical standpoint, but he hadn’t considered that some things couldn’t be measured by profit alone—like class advancement quests.
The Fountain of Life was invaluable to the elves, or to Wang Chen who needed it for his quest.
But for the scavengers, it might mean nothing.
“Later, pick two sharp brothers to go in and see what that kid’s doing. Find out what he relies on besides magic scrolls.”
Fu Yunsheng thought.
His mood grew tense; he even hoped Wang Chen would have a decent main combat class, just to prove his own stubborn decision was right.
As he prepared to instruct his men, two figures hurried toward them from a distance.
The unlucky fellow, warming himself with a slow pace, spotted them first.
“It’s Brother Huang!” he announced.
“Hm?” Fu Yunsheng turned and saw that the figure was indeed Huang Ba, the man who’d gone to town for supplies.
A laborer laden with bags followed behind him.
“Old Huang, what brings you here?” Fu Yunsheng was puzzled inside, but outwardly smiled. “Something wrong at camp?”
“No, not at all. I just thought you might not have enough supplies, so I brought some along to catch up with you.”
Huang Ba raised his hand. “Everyone, help yourselves to the supplies!”
Fu Yunsheng cursed the old fox inwardly. Huang Ba must have heard they were after a fat sheep, and came specifically for his share.
Among scavengers, it was an unwritten rule: though valuable loot was sold in town collectively, anyone who joined the mission got a bigger cut of the proceeds.
Huang Ba’s offer of supplies was just an excuse; his real aim was to claim a portion of the spoils!