Evolution Begins with Elemental Domination

Killing a tycoon makes it hard to steal all their assets. One person can’t possibly carry that much cash, and you’d have to go through the trouble of torturing them for bank account numbers. If you run into a stubborn one, you get nothing.

And liquidating their real estate is even more difficult.

But when you kill a powerful Rune Caster, they drop every last bit of their Rune Essence.

All their hard-earned gains become someone else’s prize.

What’s more, despite possessing an arsenal of impressive destructive Magic, they were otherwise no different from ordinary people. Their flesh-and-blood bodies were far too weak.

The very definition of a glass cannon Mage.

And the murderer hiding at the campsite, who specifically targeted people sleeping late at night, was as insidious as they come.

"Fucking insidious."

Le Yuxuan was utterly disgusted. "People work their asses off killing monsters to level up, and he just kills people to do it."

The hardest part to accept was that it was an even more efficient way to level up.

If this world were an online game, its developers would be downright evil. There were no safe zones in the major cities, and any and all player-killing was encouraged. As long as you killed someone, you could loot all their Rune Skills and make a fortune.

With such fundamental mechanics, the world was bound to breed a host of murderers.

The main reason they hadn’t yet dared to act so brazenly was that order in Dongfu City hadn’t completely collapsed.

However, the societal productivity that should have been recovering in an orderly fashion had been crippled by a night of torrential rain. Compounded by the impact of a passing beast tide, the glimmer of hope that had just begun to form in people’s hearts had dimmed once more.

"Coincidence or not, I’ll keep an eye on that fat boss," Yan Ziqian said. They always had someone on watch while they slept, but they still needed to guard against an unknown killing skill cast from the shadows.

"What about you?" he asked, looking at Su Chen.

In fact, Su Chen’s situation was the one more likely to attract unwanted attention. He had repeatedly displayed his formidable strength in public, and he was a lone wolf living by himself in an RV. Once people realized that, someone would likely be tempted to take a desperate risk.

Su Chen had also been at the Bonfire General Store that day. It was entirely possible the killer now held a grudge against him for it.

With one hand in his pocket, Su Chen smiled calmly. "The group behind that fat boss is a co-assistance organization, and they’re deeply connected to the campsite’s operators. You should keep a close watch on them. As for me, don’t worry. I have my own ways of staying safe."

He had long been desensitized to life-or-death threats. They were like the forest breeze brushing past him.

If someone really wanted to deliver themselves to his doorstep, he would gladly accept the offering.

Yan Ruoruo glanced at the man walking beside her. She could clearly sense that he felt no tension whatsoever; even the rhythm of his breathing was as steady as ever.

It was just like that time in the heat of danger, when he had gripped an enemy’s neck with one hand and smashed their head with the other. He had executed that brutal, bloody counter-kill with a completely stable state of mind.

’Just what did he do before all this...?’ Yan Ruoruo found herself wondering.

"So many mushrooms."

At that moment, many people noticed that large mushrooms had sprouted all over the forest path.

This wasn’t surprising.

Mycelium usually lies dormant in the soil or rotting wood, and with an abundance of rainwater, it would begin to grow profusely.

"It would be awesome if we could identify the edible ones. We could even use the Growth Skill to mass-produce them," said Cao Yutang.

Yan Ziqian immediately corrected him. "Mushrooms are fungi, not plants. The Growth Skill wouldn’t apply to them. Besides, on Earth, less than 8% of mushrooms are safe to eat. Considering we haven’t even identified these new, large species, that percentage is likely even lower."

Bright red caps and stems of white, eat your fill and say good night.

The Healing Skill had its limits; it couldn’t bring people back from the dead. They couldn’t afford to learn by trial and error.

"Yeah, these mushrooms are way too colorful," Pang Peng quipped. "I feel like one bite would send you straight to heaven."

What was even more horrifying was a thick, fallen log lying across the path in a shaded area not far ahead. Its rotting surface was densely covered with countless tumor-like protrusions.

Some of the fungi had broken through the surface, revealing their true form. From cracks in their caps, multiple thin, fleshy tentacles emerged, wriggling slightly as they drifted with the Wind Fluff.

"What the fuck!"

The sight horrified some of the onlookers.

For a moment, Su Chen thought he’d stumbled onto the set of an *Alien* movie. The egg-shaped fungi looked as if they were about to hatch a Facehugger at any second.

Perhaps sensing the presence of living creatures, the egg-like sacs began to swell, looking ready to burst. Something was clearly pulsating within them.

"Let’s go around."

Su Chen frowned slightly. He suddenly felt countless, incredibly faint gazes upon them, putting him on alert. Beside him, Xiaoye’s fur bristled with vigilance, but as it scanned the surroundings, it couldn’t pinpoint any specific source of danger.

The life signatures were simply too weak, almost negligible—like that of an ant, hardly worth considering a threat.

Within his Perception, he discovered that some worker ants had stopped in their tracks. Strangely, mycelia as fine as spider silk were seeping from their joints. They had clearly been parasitized by the fungus.

Su Chen was reminded of the Strangling Vine he had encountered before. There was no point in fighting it. The main body of the fungus was underground; destroying what was on the surface was a waste of effort for zero reward.

"We need to pull back."

A ripple spread through Yan Ruoruo’s pupils. The Lv. 4 Spirit Element Rune she had just absorbed was ’Insight’. It greatly enhanced her dynamic vision and attention to detail, allowing her to perceive weaknesses and capture faint life signatures and Elemental Energy in the environment.