Evolution Begins with Elemental Domination

Xing Jingsong believed he understood Su Chen better than anyone else.

After all, this was the badass who had single-handedly cleared the riverbank by the bridge at night. Once that clicked, he quickly realized why the commercial street had suffered so little damage when the disaster first broke out—it was most likely thanks to him.

Seeing Su Chen finish felling the trees, Xing Jingsong immediately went over to talk to him.

"You don’t look like you slept well," Su Chen said, looking at the man’s face. The bags under his eyes were swollen on his square-jawed face, and he looked completely exhausted.

Xing Jingsong gave a bitter smile. It wasn’t just that he hadn’t slept a wink; after his son had stumbled upon such a huge secret, it would have been a miracle if his mind hadn’t been in turmoil all night.

If he revealed this secret, never mind the trouble it might cause for those native villagers—he and his son would undoubtedly be dead and gone, without a trace.

He shook his head. "Stormy nights are rough."

To change the subject, Xing Jingsong quickly told him that he had gotten a new shipment of small knives at his store.

"Alright. If they’re good, I’ll take them."

Even though Su Chen had mastered the Telekinesis Rune and combined it with Flame Burst Damage to create Strong Thought Burst, that didn’t mean he was about to give up on throwing Flying Knives.

He no longer needed Telekinesis for acceleration. With his enhanced neuromuscular coordination and explosive Power, the effective range of his Flying Knives had increased significantly, and he could guarantee a perfectly stable flight path.

And thanks to his increased agility, he didn’t even need to be too picky about the knives’ material anymore.

As the others began using tow ropes and ground stakes to secure the logs, Su Chen put away his battle-ax and walked over to the camping supply store. Inside, Xing Wenbin was already waiting, a box of small knives laid out on the counter.

Su Chen took one and immediately felt its balanced weight distribution as he hefted it.

It was forged from a single piece of steel, full-tang, with a perfectly straight spine.

The polished blade had a silvery-white sheen, giving it a cold, sharp, and dependable look.

He tossed it lightly a few times. After two rotations in the air, it landed perfectly back in his palm, pointing exactly as intended every time.

"I’ll take them."

There were 22 Flying Knives of the same model in the batch, and Su Chen, of course, took them all.

"Is one Gold Element essence enough?" he offered outright.

"That’s enough."

Xing Jingsong didn’t dare ask for more. If he hadn’t managed to kill an injured wild boar last night, he wouldn’t even have five essences to his name.

No one else had his skill with Flying Knives, so no one else would offer such a price.

Ultimately, it all came down to supply and demand.

The archery range had the gall to charge an exorbitant price—one essence per arrow—simply because they were capitalizing on the large number of tournament archers. Of course, with the advent of the Shaping Skill, that business was becoming much more difficult.

"How about some other outdoor supplies?" Xing Jingsong asked enthusiastically.

Su Chen flatly refused.

"Oh, right, other stores probably have more Small Straight Knives. I can help you look for them."

Xing Jingsong’s tone grew eager. "As for the armor, I haven’t been able to contact my brother yet, but I’ll definitely keep an eye out for you."

"We’ll see."

Su Chen wasn’t too concerned about that.

Rune Armor sounded cool, but there was no practical use for it at the moment. That was something for the future.

In any case, enchanting it with a Lightning Shield lv4 Rune would be perfectly fine.

And with his current physique, which was gradually surpassing theoretical human limits, wearing armor that weighed dozens of pounds for extended periods of combat would be as easy as breathing.

"As for the Small Straight Knives, if you can gather a batch, you can deliver them to the temporary RV camp at night," Su Chen instructed. He understood the man’s earnest desire to get on his good side.

’If I were sixteen and still in school, I’d probably be disgusted by such a utilitarian, deliberate attempt to curry favor. It’s too calculated.’

’But at twenty-four, I’m long past that black-and-white stage of my life.’

’In this unstable apocalypse, any goodwill offered, even if it comes with ulterior motives, is far better than hostility.’

Soon.

Several travel trailers began the slow journey back, dragging the tree trunks behind them. Yang Hongyu hadn’t wasted his connections the day before; he had managed to borrow a professional tow truck from the base’s engineering department, which made it much easier to haul the birch logs back to the main encampment.

The trip also gave the group of RV owners their first real impression of him.

Everyone was especially in awe of Su Chen’s incredible Power. Earlier, a felled birch tree had accidentally started to topple toward him, but he had shoved it aside with a single hand.

If he really hadn’t used a Rune to do that, then he truly possessed natural Divine Power.

After returning to the camp, he took pictures on his phone of the suspicious figures captured by his RV’s four-way surveillance cameras. He then sent the photos to the others via Bluetooth.

The others recognized them as the same people who were always loitering around the RVs.

One of the older men flew into a rage. He recognized one of them as the person who had driven off with an RV. The real owner was someone else, and they hadn’t been heard from since—no one knew if they were dead or alive.

Su Chen listened and realized these were repeat offenders. It was getting late, so after giving a few simple instructions, he shouldered his hiking backpack and headed for the meeting point.

...

In a pork chop shop in the food court.

Everyone was gathered. This included the eight-person group from Jingcheng University, led by Yan Ziqian and Yan Ruoruo; members from the university of science and technology and the polytechnic university; and Su Chen, who had just arrived.

The discussion about whether to set out was already winding down.

The result was rather one-sided.

The vast majority had voted against it.

Their reasoning came down to four main points.

First, these cave-dwelling humanoids were products of biological evolution. They were intelligent and had combat instincts, which terrified the squishy Mages—it was like being forced into close-quarters combat with a Warrior.

They felt it was better to wait for more official intelligence.