Chapter 27

Tang Yu had learned that the Origin Crystal vein was several kilometers from the vacation villa as the crow flies. This placed it somewhere in the forest located behind the castle.

This forest was very large and was brimming with demonized beasts.

A few days ago, he had gone over using the public road that went around the mountain. In the middle here was a part of the mountain that was rather level and that he could use to enter the forest…

But this detour is too far and a waste of time. Moreover, Number One and Number Two have a limited area in which they can operate, and they can’t go very far from the domain. It’s better to just go straight there.

The public road abutted against the side of the mountain forest. It was a steep mountain face that was overgrown with gnarled shrubs and plants. Even an Awakened would need abundant climbing experience to scale this wall.

In his mind…

Tang Yu gave an order to Number One.

In a flash, a web of cracks appeared beneath Number One’s feet, and it shot into the air, ramming a path through the dense shrubbery.

Shattered branches and leaves rained down, crashing into the road.

Tang Yu’s mouth twitched. As he looked at the path cleared for him and the rope hanging down from the top… as expected, violence was truly the ideal method for resolving problems.

…

Outside the forest, the sunlight was swelteringly hot.

Inside the forest, things were different.

The trees had grown vigorously, their roots intertwined. Their canopies were so lush that it felt like one was walking into a primordial forest. With the sunlight blocked out, everything turned dim and gloomy. Even the temperature dropped several degrees.

There was no doubt that this was a transformation that had taken place only after the apocalypse.

The trees had seemingly been fed hormones, and where the trees were more thickly concentrated, Tang Yu could see that the tree trunks intersected, hugging each other as if they were part of the same system!

Even if some sort of plant spirit evolved, Tang Yu wouldn’t be surprised.

It was very quiet in the forest. The only sound was the rustling of the branches blown by the wind.

It was no longer possible to hear the calls of insects and birds. Tang Yu was actually quite curious. It seemed like insects had stopped appearing after the apocalypse. He had at least seen demonized birds that had been affected by the red mist, but he truly hadn’t seen any insects.

These should have been the most commonplace of creatures, but he truly had never heard of insects mutating. Had they been too weak and all been rendered extinct?

Tang Yu didn’t find this possible. The reproductive ability and adaptability of insects was top-class. What he worried about was if insects turned into demonized beasts. Certain mutations would make them even harder to deal with than ordinary demonized beasts.

At this time, Number Two to his right suddenly stepped forward, grabbed a green vine, and twisted.

Pop!

The vine burst apart, splattering a greenish-yellow fluid across the ground.

Tang Yu was dumbstruck.

“This is… a snake?!”

He was scared out of his wits. If he had been alone, he would never have had the guts to venture into the forest.

On the outside, barring a small number of assassin-type demonized beasts, most demonized beasts weren’t difficult to notice. But in a complicated environment like the mountain forest, this snake, which still maintained the same hunting habits from before it was demonized, was even more dangerous.

And this was just a rather weak demonized snake.

“It’s a pity that you can’t eat the meat of a demonized beast, but it would be different if this were a mutated snake.”

As if this had been a prelude…

As he ventured deeper and deeper into the forest, more and more demonized beasts appeared.

The native demonized beasts had maintained their original appearance, but there were also some that had transformed into bizarre and strange beings.

There were demonized rabbits that were larger than tigers, demonized squirrels with three tails, and also otherworldly beings that had crawled out from the abyssal fissures, their appearances never seen before and terrifying to behold.

He felt that if he had a chance in the future, he would assign these demonized beasts numbers and give them names. Running into them like this and not knowing what to call them made him seem very ignorant.

…

The environment in the mountain forest was complicated, and he didn’t know the exact location of the Origin Crystal vein. After walking about for quite some time, he had yet to make any progress.

“Was the report fake? But would Wang Tai be so bold as to give a Lindong boss a fake report?”

Tang Yu pondered.

Whether or not the news was fake, this mountain forest was so dangerous that Han Jing’s team probably wouldn’t have been able to last very long, let alone find that Origin Crystal vein.

Even Wang Tai’s group had apparently only seen it from a distance while they were running away.

He paused.

‘Seen it’?

This mountain forest had a lush canopy that completely blocked out all vision. How was it possible to see it?

He felt that the information was fake!

Suddenly!

Light burst out in front of him, causing Tang Yu to rub his eyes. He was very sure that this was sunlight.

“How could there be sunlight in this forest? Have I already come out? But that’s not possible. It’s not possible to move through this forest very quickly, and this position is still near the edge of the forest, far away from the other side. Then…”

He quickly walked forward. Thudding and banging came from his sides as Number One and Number Two attended to some demonized beasts that had been disturbed.

The area suddenly opened up in front of him.

A pit appeared in his vision, and under the sunlight, he could see flashes of crystal.

This was a giant pit, and at the bottom of the crater were glossy white slabs of stone. This was ore that contained Origin Crystals, crystalline ore.

If his guess was right, this was an exposed ore vein.

From a distance, the Origin Crystal vein was already a stunning sight to behold, particularly the glossy white light reflected by the stone. But Tang Yu’s gaze was drawn to the center of the giant pit.

Standing there was a giant tree.

It fully deserved the title.

The trees of the forest already grew very tall, but they were all inferior to this one.

This giant tree occupied the center of the Origin Crystal vein, its gnarled roots like coiled dragons.

The branches were covered in leaves, but rather than the green of ordinary trees, these leaves were a translucent white.

Tang Yu focused his eyes and seemed to see tiny little veins on these translucent leaves.

This giant tree seemed to belong in a fantasy.

Even the Origin Crystal vein beneath it seemed to dim in comparison.

Tang Yu shook his head, putting aside the question of the giant tree.

There didn’t seem to be anything dangerous about the giant tree. As for how it had mutated, that could be a topic of future research. It wasn’t like the giant tree was going to run away. His first priority was to take away some of the crystalline ore.

He also didn’t want to get too close to the giant tree. He skirted the edge of the pit, seeking out an area where the ore was more abundant.

With Number One and Number Two standing guard at his side, Tang Yu grabbed some spheres from his pocket and threw them out.

Basic warrior automatons, I choose you!

With a soft crack, the ping-pong-sized balls expanded and transformed into spherical and thick-armed automatons.

The moment the automatons hit the ground, Tang Yu had them start mining ore. The basic warrior automatons didn’t have this function, but it was very simple. Just like how they worked stone in the villa, they simply swung their swords without any need to worry about damaging anything. Crystalline ore flew into the air together with ordinary rock.

The crystalline ore chunks were each about the size of a head, but they didn’t contain many Origin Crystals. If using an ordinary backpack, one wouldn’t be able to get a lot, but Tang Yu had spatial backpacks.

Chunks of ore were placed in the backpack.

The commotion the automatons created with their work was the equivalent of kicking a beehive.

Countless demonized beasts surged out from beneath the gnarled roots of the giant tree.

It was a dense and ferocious flood.

Tang Yu frowned. “It’s quite a lot. Fortunately, I don’t need to defeat these demonized beasts, only hold out for a while.

Leaving Number Two to guard the area, Number One shot into the pack of demonized beasts like a bolt of lightning.

The silver spear in its hand danced like a dragon. Number One had no need to thrust. With simple smashing and swinging, it either left demonized beasts as badly wounded humps of flesh or simply turned their bodies into clouds of blood.

None of them could last even a single round.

This was the power of an upgraded automaton guard.

Each time the domain leveled up, the two automaton guards would also receive a massive upgrade.

In terms of strength, they had surpassed the Body-Molding-level Roger. If not for the somewhat limited operational range of the two automatons, Tang Yu would have been so bold as to take them to Lindong to face down the boss.

It was somewhat of a pity.

As the demonized beasts died, their Soul Energy incessantly flowed into Tang Yu’s body.

A single demonized beast’s Soul Energy was like a trickling brook, but this was like a raging river.

Even though he had yet to refine this energy, he felt like he was full of vigor and energy.

There were simply too many demonized beasts!

If he had to hunt them himself, even though he now had the strength of a Tier 2 Awakened, he would still need to be cautious when facing a Tier 1 demonized beast. And after fighting each demonized beast, he would have to rest for a while, and this wasn’t even considering any other dangers he faced in the meantime.

He now somewhat understood why people felt that the Awakened had not gotten much stronger. It wasn’t that they weren’t trying, it was just that… they couldn’t beat demonized beasts!

Tang Yu smiled.

When leveling up, you had to cheat.

As expected, this was the true purpose of the automaton guards.