Chapter 128: Convergence of Deviant Abilities

In Lu Chen’s heart, harmony had always been the highest virtue. Unless absolutely necessary, he was unwilling to come into conflict with humanity.

“That truly is a pity. The compartment beneath the box contains a communicator of our own design. It stores detailed information on all kinds of developments since the great transformation of Blue Star. The communicator is waterproof and resistant to electromagnetic interference, and it can maintain communications anywhere on Blue Star. Normally, if its power runs out, all you need to do is leave it beneath the sun for a few hours…” Dong Mingjun pointed to the suitcase again as he explained.

Apart from presenting the spirit stones as a gift, this was the most important purpose of his visit.

“Is that so?”

Lu Chen’s heart stirred. With a light hook of his claw, he opened the second compartment.

Inside was a large foldable screen. Once unfolded, it was roughly the size of a desktop—unquestionably high technology. At least in his previous life, Lu Chen had never seen anything so advanced.

Still, it was somewhat small for him.

“How… does one use it?” Although Lu Chen had seen the power button beside it, he pretended not to know.

“Your Excellency the Dragon King, simply press the red button once.”

…

After sending Dong Mingjun away, Lu Chen opened the communicator’s media player out of curiosity.

An elderly professor with snow-white hair appeared on the screen. Wearing a kindly smile, he gave a detailed account of the tremendous changes Blue Star had undergone in recent months.

He also described the various mysterious and bizarre creatures humanity had discovered while exploring other dimensions…

The video materials were extremely comprehensive. In barely half an hour, Lu Chen had gained a much deeper understanding of the current situation.

This was one of the reasons he had chosen to cooperate with humanity.

Relying solely on his own strength, it would be difficult to obtain such detailed information.

Of course, he also understood that the communicator surely possessed monitoring functions, allowing the other side to collect information about his daily life without his knowledge.

But Lu Chen did not care. Before long, he would return to the Madura jungle and enter the waterfall’s dimensional space.

He did not believe that humanity would still be able to monitor his movements there.

“Chitter, chitter…”

Seeing the video, Golden Spot also came over and watched with great interest.

Primates were naturally endowed with a strong sense of curiosity, to say nothing of these creatures, who had already awakened their intelligence.

Then a second monkey came over, followed by a third…

A whole troop of monkeys stared at the screen, their eyes filled with curiosity and concentration.

Lu Chen did not stop them.

He had no idea how much they could understand, but learning more about the outside world could do them no harm.

Perhaps to demonstrate their sincerity, the drones circling above the valley quietly withdrew not long after Dong Mingjun’s departure.

As for the dozen or so spirit stones in the suitcase, Lu Chen naturally had no intention of keeping them around to reproduce.

To him, only converting them into energy points was truly reliable.

Moreover, the suitcase seemed to possess some function that isolated spiritual energy. Though the monkeys were close by, they had not sensed the presence of energy at all.

Taking advantage of their inattention, Lu Chen came to the great banyan tree and swallowed the highest-quality spirit stone first.

“A third-grade spirit stone. It can provide 49,365 energy points…”

Lu Chen’s guess had indeed been correct. It was a third-grade spirit stone, and the energy it contained was astonishing.

It was roughly equivalent to several tons of high-quality vicious-beast flesh.

Excited as he was, Lu Chen also felt somewhat depressed.

What a pity there was only one. It would have been wonderful if there had been more.

He then swallowed every spirit stone in the suitcase, gaining several thousand additional energy points.

At that moment, the “Mutated Abilities” section on the system panel displayed a new change. “Compressed Energy Bullet” had quietly evolved to the third tier, while “Swamp of the Earth” was now listed as second tier.

Lu Chen suddenly felt a great deal of knowledge imprint itself upon his mind.

It seemed he no longer needed to charge energy throughout his entire body. By following certain operational principles, he could release compressed energy with ease. He could even release it through his claws, and its shape was no longer limited to that of a spherical projectile.

In short, after his mutated ability had leveled up, Lu Chen could control compressed energy as he pleased.

He was already considering what kind of new change might arise if he fused “Compressed Energy Bullet” with “Swamp of the Earth.”

A swamp carrying explosive energy—or energy bullets capable of scattering mud across the sky?

As he contemplated his creative combination, Lu Chen immediately felt eager to give it a try.

However, he had no intention of experimenting in the Hot Spring Valley.

As he had said before, although humanity had withdrawn the drones, that did not mean it had no other means of surveillance.

The two sides had indeed established preliminary cooperation, but Lu Chen still maintained an abundance of caution. He would not be foolish enough to expose all his trump cards before humanity.

The best place to experiment was naturally the Mist Dimension. It provided ample space and enough experimental subjects for him to wreak havoc.

Having made up his mind, Lu Chen continued recuperating in the Hot Spring Valley, waiting until nightfall to enter once more.

As for food… quite a bit of black bear meat was still hidden beneath the riverbed on the outskirts of the valley—more than enough for today.

As night descended, the rift opened once again, and Lu Chen entered without difficulty.

The communicator, of course, was left in Golden Spot’s possession.

Within the Mist Dimension, everything remained as usual.

A thought stirred in Lu Chen’s mind. Rumble, rumble…

A vast expanse of thick swamp mud rapidly formed within a radius of more than a dozen meters.

At the same time, a dense layer of mud armor covered his body, causing his frame to swell to more than twice its usual size.

Once his preparations were complete, Lu Chen altered the manner in which energy circulated through his body.

Boom!

A tremendous explosion suddenly erupted.

Mud splattered in every direction, and dust billowed into the air.

Almost at the same instant, Lu Chen felt as though he had been struck by a speeding heavy truck. His body was sent tumbling seven or eight meters away.

Most of the blast’s impact, however, was canceled out by the mud armor. Combined with the protection of his scales, it left his internal organs largely unharmed.

Lu Chen had anticipated the failure of his first experiment, so he was not discouraged.

He immediately attempted the fusion a second time.

Boom!

Barely half a minute later, another explosion rang out.

A third attempt…

Boom!

Several consecutive failures left Lu Chen feeling helpless.

But he also understood that some things could not be rushed.

Sensing that most of the energy within him had been depleted, Lu Chen changed the site of his experiments and turned his attention to the spirit-stone vein.

He had already excavated all the spirit stones in the shallow layers the previous day, making further mining considerably more difficult.

He might as well use the experiment as an opportunity to set off another round of explosions.

After half a day of hard work, he had managed to obtain only a dozen or so stones.

When daylight arrived, Lu Chen appeared near the nest of the prehistoric army ants to harvest another windfall.

As on the previous day, the moment they caught the scent of prey, vast swarms of white ants came rushing over.

Lu Chen launched another barrage of frenzied attacks, then swallowed all the ant corpses he had obtained. At last, he managed to fill his belly more than halfway.

He then leaped onto a platform of mud and began exploring deeper into the Mist Dimension.

After flying dozens of miles, Lu Chen suddenly stopped and stared blankly ahead.

There, the boundless fog seemed to have been cleaved apart by some unseen force, vanishing abruptly.

Two towering mountains appeared out of nowhere before him.

With Lu Chen’s current cultivation, he could absolutely be called the strongest beast—or the strongest human—on Blue Star.

To put it boastfully, he feared nothing short of a nuclear bomb.

Yet when he saw the two mountains ahead, he felt a surge of dread.

An indescribable, bone-chilling horror spread from his spine and swiftly enveloped every limb and organ.

Even his heartbeat began to accelerate…