Holding little to no expectations, Long Hua stores Shui Yue away, and opens the treasure chest—inside, he finds a single item.
"…Hm?"
Holding a pale blue bottle by its neck, Long Hua pops the cap open, and takes a sniff of the content.
[Merely a body strengthening elixir. Simply drink it to experience its effect.]
As the dark clouds part, the colossal white serpent rears its head closer to the island.
"…"
Staring into the white serpent's azure-colored eyes, which are behind a layer of dark clouds, Long Hua asks—
"…This is it? After all that?"
(*-laoban…)
Seeing the attitude that Long Hua is taking with the unpleasant individual, the Tai Xuan Emperor turns nervous.
Not minding Long Hua's tone, the unpleasant individual answers—
[I do not consider Hai Zang to have been able to pose much of a challenge; hence, I find this elixir to be more than appropriate enough to serve as a reward. Do you know why I consider Hai Zang a failure?]
"…"
Although Hai Zang looks intimidating at first glance, Long Hua—who is reviewing the battle in his head, is quick to realize its major flaw.
"It doesn't possess a powerful main body. The moment its outer shell is destroyed, it becomes something that anyone can squeeze like a soft persimmon."
[Indeed. Not only that, but it must also reconstruct its vessel every time it finds new materials that can be used. At the same time, the entirety of the reconstruction process can take up to a year at a minimum. Possessing such an obvious weakness, a creature of that nature cannot possibly be considered the ultimate lifeform.]
"…"
Blinking his eyes, Long Hua summons the phantom maw of a serpent, and tosses the body strengthening elixir into it.
Snapping its lips shut, the maw swallows the elixir, along with the bottle.
Following this, Long Hua immediately feels an itch throughout his body, and looking down at his hands, he sees his skin drying up and cracking.
Rubbing his hands together, the dried skin chips right off and breaks into dust.
"…Hmm. Should have used this while I'm in the shower."
Not willing to deal with this discomfort, Long Hua draws a large quantity of water from the air, and basks himself inside a rotating pillar of water.
This bathing experience is probably akin to how articles of clothing would feel inside an active washing machine.
"…"
Leaving Long Hua to his own devices, Tian Cheng retrieves the combat bodies, along with the Machina Frame and its weapon.
...…
Emerging from the water pillar, Long Hua feels much more refreshed, as he forms a fist with his right hand.
And feeling a clear increase in his physical strength, the urge to test it manifests in Long Hua's heart, causing him to ask—
"So, where is the entrance into the next zone?"
Towards Long Hua's question, a simplistic magic array—consisting of only three white rings, manifests in the island's center.
[This teleportation magic array will take you to the second zone. However, be warned that Shā Chén, the ruler of the zone isn't as easy to deal with.]
Not knowing what to make of these broad words, Long Hua frowns before making his way over to the teleportation magic array with Tian Cheng.
"…"
"…"
Stepping onto the magic array, the two are teleported in the next instance, and—
...…
Upon regaining his awareness, Long Hua remarks—
"…Places like this brings up unpleasant memories."
Teleported into a vast desert, Long Hua is reminded of the first ruins, to which, Tian Cheng replies—
"I do not believe that place was that bad compared to the one we're in now."
Different from the first ruins that they had been to, the sand here is made up of two different colors, black and gold.
"…"
And even without using his divine senses, Long Hua can see numerous tornadoes moving about in the distance.
"Uh?"
Just as Long Hua takes one step forward, he looks down at the cuff of his dress shirt.
"…?"
Seeing three unusual tears on the sleeve, Long Hua narrows his eyes.
Beneath these tears, he also sees scratches on his skin; however, due to the effects of the body strengthening elixir, the scratches close within the blink of an eye.
"…"
As soon as a wild thought crosses his mind, Long Hua turns to Tian Cheng.
"…?"
*…! …! …!* looking down at her clothes, which have numerous rips and tears appearing at random, Tian Cheng frowns.
Considering how Tian Cheng's clothes are a part of her combat body, for it to be damaged by the drifting sands with such ease—
(*-laoban, this is…?)
Before the Tai Xuan Emperor can say anything, Long Hua stores Tian Cheng into his storage pouch, prior to taking out a single bullet.
*Ping! Ping! Ping!* seeing the bullet's body being chipped away at, Long Hua clicks his tongue and tosses it forward.
Even before the bullet can travel for five meters, it is thoroughly mangled out of shape, as it plops onto the sands, and vanishes from sight.
"I think, I understand what that unpleasant bastard had meant…"
*Sha! Sha! Sha!* as soon as Long Hua had said this, bulges appeared throughout the desert, and as these bulges rose in height, they gradually assumed a humanoid form.
"This…?"
Finding this situation to be nothing but odd, cold sweat rolls down the side of Long Hua's head.
In the first zone, all the creatures there had unique appearances, but the ones here, they all seem to possess a uniformed appearance—being humanoids formed of black and gold sand.
(Don't tell me…? That Sha Chen he mentioned, is it the only creature in this zone?)
Thinking of this, and drawing out Shui Yue, Long Hua decides to test this theory, as he takes a quick glance at the evolution interface, which currently shows the EXP bar at—
(142 out of 4,000.)
Keeping this number in mind, and taking a single step forward, numerous tears appear on Long Hua's clothes, as grains of drifting sand brushes pass them.
(Dammit, this environment is completely against me!)
Realizing that he cannot possibly hope to do battle in this environment for prolonged periods of time, Long Hua clicks his tongue, as he approaches one of the sand puppets.
Slashing with Shui Yue, Long Hua cuts through the sand puppet's body with effortless ease, but the moment it breaks apart, a powerful wind would howl—throwing a massive pile of sand towards himself.
"…!"
Widening his eyes, Long Hua immediately steps backwards, but a quarter of the sand still manages to touch his feet—shredding his boots, along with a portion of his trousers!
"…"
Distancing himself, and staring down at his shredded skin, which is being mended at a visible rate, Long Hua heaves a heavy sigh as his shoulders drop.
Even after killing one of the sand puppets, the EXP bar's 142 remains unchanging—proving his theory that all these puppets are being controlled by a single entity.
"Screw this."
Deciding to exit the hunting grounds, Long Hua's figure vanishes from sight.
"…"
Dressed in a white bathrobe, Long Hua sits on top of the bed with a deep frown, as he contemplates a strategy to deal with Sha Chen.
Sitting to the side, Tian Cheng says—
"Seems like master will have to deal with this Sha Chen alone."
Heaving a sigh, Long Hua replies—
"Seems like it. Hmm."
(The Machina Frame should still be usable to some degree, but…)
Knowing what the Tai Xuan Emperor intends to bring up, Long Hua says—
"I didn't even manage to catch a glimpse of this Sha Chen… At least the first time I returned from the hunting grounds, I got to see Hai Zang before leaving, so I knew what to expect. But this Sha Chen...…"
Turning his thoughts around, Long Hua begins to think about why Sha Chen might have been considered a failure by the unpleasant individual.
"…Hai Zang is an aquatic monster, but it shouldn't be limited to the seas alone when it has those fins. Sha Chen… Maybe it's a creature that thrives in the desert? But it's unable to function well outside of that environment?"
Tilting her head, Tian Cheng asks—
"Doesn't that mean that master would need to change the entire environment into something else to even stand a chance?"
"…"
Knowing how unpleasant that individual is, this might actually just be the case, causing Long Hua's expression to darken, as he replies—
"…Something like that would require me to be well pass the Nascent Soul realm. Hmm, maybe I can try again after I acquire mastery over the earth element?"
Bringing up the evolution interface, Long Hua begins to look through the abilities that he can purchase—to make this fight against Sha Chen easier.
"Strength enhancement, speed enhancement, high-speed regeneration, stamina recovery speed, these are all safe bets and no-brainers to take."
Without any hesitation, Long Hua purchases these abilities, bringing his total mutation points down to thirty-two, and with it—
"Hm?"
A series of notifications followed, informing him that all the purchased abilities had been automatically upgraded to the next level—being two.
(These are all basic abilities… Is it because I used the body strengthening elixir beforehand?)
Scrolling further down the interface, Long Hua sees the upgraded versions of these same abilities, which had an "III" label attached to them.
As for the other abilities, almost all of them are currently blacked out—to say that they are unavailable to him.
"Hmm."
Going further down, Long Hua looks to the actual evolution options, which are also currently blacked out. And tapping onto one of the darkened options—
"…Unlocking conditions?"
Looking at the unlocking conditions for each evolution, Long Hua sees one requiring strength to be at a certain level, another demands a certain level of speed, while a third requires him to specialize himself with damage recovery.
"…"
Continuing to look through the options—with some of them being more focused on the manipulation of very specific natural energy of Heaven and Earth, the paths that could be taken seemed endless, causing Long Hua to feel a headache.
"This is…?"
Scrolling down a bit more, Long Hua sees all the evolution options converging into a single option that is labeled with three question marks.
"…"
Seeing this, Long Hua thought—
(Is this perhaps…? The evolution that possesses all the other paths' traits combined into one? Wouldn't this be the most obvious "ultimate lifeform," but then…? Whose definition of the ultimate lifeform is this unknown option based off of—mine or his?)
Looking at the evolution option that is labeled as "???," uncertainty fills Long Hua's heart.
"…"
Mulling over his uncertainties, Long Hua decides to upgrade his four basic abilities to level three—reducing his total mutation points down to sixteen.
And with these basic abilities upgraded once more, more ability options unveiled themselves.
"…"
Blinking his eyes, Long Hua sees one of the new abilities labeled as sword Dao proficiency, and reading through the descriptions, he readily decides to purchase it—reducing his mutation points down to eight.
As a result of him having proficiency in this ability beforehand, it is automatically upgraded to level three.
"…"
Closing his eyes, Long Hua immediately feels this ability's effect, as he waves his finger—drawing out a total of five flowers, with a sixth that is barely visible to the eyes.
(Such a drastic effect… I see. Mutation points are basically the forceful way to upgrade my individual abilities. Under very specific circumstances, these abilities can be upgraded without using them. Hmm, seems like my best bet would be to use mutation points to acquire an ability, then upgrade this ability without relying on mutation point spendings.)
Pausing his thoughts, Long Hua raises a sigh, while shaking his head in a depressing manner.
(…What am I thinking? This is the Leng Bing Realm, not the outside world. So long as I'm stuck here, I'm forced to rely on mutation points to upgrade these abilities… Ai, I wonder what my original self was…-)
Thinking back to his original self—who had appeared in front of "Long Hua" as a "God," Long Hua's outward expression turns solemn.
(Why is it that I have lost my memories of my original self? Was it done by my original self because I had a very specific purpose in mind at the time, which required it to be done? If it's related to that unpleasant bast…-)
Opening his eyes, Long Hua—for a brief moment, seems to have realized the answer, but in the next instance, the answer slips from his mind.
"...…"
Confusion and clarity interchangeably flash from Long Hua's eyes, causing his expression to turn somewhat strange.
Eventually—
(This answer aside… Am I actually going against my original self's intent by using this system?)
(*-laoban, say something, don't just leave things at a cliffhanger.)
"…Hmm. Something, something, I'm tired."
Falling back on the bed, Long Hua wraps his arms around Tian Cheng's waist—thoroughly intent on sleeping the day away tomorrow.
...…
Within the dreamscape, the Tai Xuan Emperor frowns.
"He seems to have realized something, but since he won't talk… Tch."
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