The Chest, and a Familiar Face
Lu Yuan swam upward through the passage and quickly surfaced in the mountain valley's pool.
The water around him was still ringed with Ancient Sea Giant Crocodile carcasses, the surface tinted a faint crimson, thick with the smell of blood.
He glanced at the pool, then shifted his gaze to the clearing ahead.
The Boss had kept retreating here even as it was dying. This might be its lair. There could be other valuables.
Worth a look.
He moved into the clearing. The interior was dim; he couldn't make out much at first.
The ground was strewn with shattered rock fragments. The deeper he went, the worse the putrid stench became — a thick, rotting reek that made him want to hold his breath. Scattered across the floor were piles of shattered bones, the remnants of other Feral Beasts the Giant Crocodile had fed on over the years.
Above, shafts of sunlight broke through gaps in the ceiling.
As his eyes adjusted, the full scene emerged. At the very back of the clearing sat a bronze-colored chest.
Lu Yuan's eyes went wide.
*There's a chest here?*
He pushed past the foul odors and crocodile droppings without a second thought, walked straight to the chest, and opened it. No lock — it yielded without resistance.
Inside lay a white jade stone, a cyan orb of light, and a green orb of light.
He quickly gathered everything.
The white jade stone was an Origin Stone. No introduction necessary.
*Origin Stone: Can be used to break the Gene Lock.*
Once Gene Chain tempering reached 100%, breaking the Gene Lock was the only path to advancement — the doorway to unlocking a new Gene Chain. But cracking a Gene Lock was no trivial matter. The higher one's rank, the more unyielding the lock became. Special methods were required, and using an Origin Stone was one such method. Held within it was a peculiar primordial gene energy that could hammer against the Gene Lock and force it open.
Origin Stones were a special item that any Feral Beast could potentially drop, though the probability from ordinary creatures was nearly zero. Higher-grade beasts dropped them at better rates. For Trainee Rank Origin Stones specifically, Boss Grade Feral Beasts had a reasonably solid drop chance — though even then, not every Boss-grade kill would yield one.
Lu Yuan had originally expected to spend significant time hunting Elite and Boss beasts after his tempering hit 100%, just to obtain one. His very first Boss kill dropping one was a genuine stroke of luck.
He carefully stored the Origin Stone, saving it for his breakthrough.
The cyan orb held a black ring etched with delicate threads of blue — fine craftsmanship, elegant in its simplicity.
The ring's name was the **Torrent Ring**.
When equipped, it provided a large boost to mental strength, with minor improvements to strength, defense, and agility. On top of that, channeling Spirit Power into it could trigger a single Water Arrow activation — though each use required time to recharge, limiting it to once per day.
Lu Yuan's expression lit up. A Boss Grade Gene Armament, and an accessory type at that. In terms of rarity, it was no less valuable than his Moonstone.
He tried to equip it immediately, but found he fell just slightly short.
His Transcendent Gene was Guardian Type, and the Moonstone Spirit Dew and Moonstone Spirit Essence he'd consumed had pushed his body to considerable strength. Even so, channeling a second Boss Grade Gene Armament carried real strain — for an ordinary Elite Rank Gene Warrior, equipping even one Boss Grade armament was already a challenge. He would need to push his tempering just a bit further.
Once it hit the cap, that should be enough.
He stored the Torrent Ring away to absorb later.
The green orb held a deep blue robe — an Elemental Type Gene Warrior armament focused primarily on boosting mental strength. Not particularly useful to him. He stored it away to auction off later.
After finishing with the chest, he turned his attention to the Boss crocodile's body.
Nearly the entire carcass was valuable. Most precious were the horn on its head and the hide covering its body. He stripped and stored both.
As for the flesh — at Boss Grade, even raw meat held a meaningful amount of Spirit Power. Eating Ancient Sea Giant Crocodile flesh could genuinely accelerate cultivation. The Spirit Power in flesh couldn't compare to Spirit Crystals in purity, but it absorbed far more gently.
The problem was that the body stretched over ten meters in length. His Battle-mark Space was roughly eight or nine meters across — storing all that flesh would consume most of it. He thought it over and settled for cutting away just the choice sections, the thick thigh-like portions that looked like they'd cook up well.
*Gene Warriors need to eat too. Boss-grade beast flesh beats anything at the market.*
All told, between the Boss kill and the chest, the haul came to: two Origin Stones, one Elite Grade Transcendent Gene, two Boss Grade Gene Armaments, two Elite Grade armaments, Boss crocodile materials and meat, and a substantial quantity of Spirit Crystals. The combined value had to be in the millions.
*The haul this time is staggering.*
He was genuinely excited — and he had every right to be.
Once certain he'd missed nothing, he dove back into the pool, swam through the underground passage, and surfaced on the other side of the valley. He didn't linger. He followed the river out of the valley.
When the gorge was a safe distance behind him, he finally let out a long breath and allowed himself a smile.
Good thing he'd gone back to check. He never would have expected a chest to be hiding in there.
He had used a high-grade healing serum earlier to treat his injuries; they were mostly recovered now. But after a battle that brutal, his body and mind were still worn down. He decided to make camp for the night.
He found a quiet clearing against the cliff wall and settled down.
He pulled out his grilling rack and a few cuts of Ancient Sea Giant Crocodile meat. He'd heard for a while that Boss-grade beast flesh was supposed to be something special.
The moment he set the meat over the fire and added seasoning, the answer arrived instantly: it really was. The flames rose, and within moments the cuts had turned a gorgeous golden-brown, fat sizzling and dripping into the coals with a steady, rhythmic hiss, a mouthwatering aroma rising to fill the clearing around him. Lu Yuan found himself swallowing involuntarily.
*This smell is going straight to my head.*
His cooking skills were genuinely terrible. The fact that this turned out so good was entirely the ingredient's doing.
While he sat waiting for the meat to finish, a quiet voice spoke right beside him:
"It's about to burn."
He froze.
Then cold sweat burst across his entire body, and every hair stood on end.
He threw everything he had into a single explosive burst, launched himself sideways at the fastest speed he had ever moved in his life, and spun to face the source of the voice.
A Cat-kin woman was crouched right where he had been sitting a moment before, her eyes fixed intently on the golden-brown meat over the fire.
Jet-black hair cascaded down her back. Black cat ears twitched faintly. A black tail swayed in slow, lazy arcs. Her face — pale as snow, breathtakingly beautiful — wore no expression whatsoever. In the amber light of the setting sun, she looked like a dark elf carved from shadow itself.
*What the hell — someone was right there??*
*He hadn't sensed a thing??*
Cold sweat ran down his spine. If she had made a move just now, he would already be dead.
He had been maintaining vigilance the entire time, keeping Black Iron Body active. But he harbored absolutely no illusions about his defense holding against someone who could run down a Boss Grade Feral Beast.
Then it clicked.
*Wait — isn't this the same cat-kin woman from the desert? The one who was hunting that Sand Crocodile Boss?!*
She was the most powerful Gene Warrior Lu Yuan had ever seen. The image of her had left a permanent mark on him.
A thin thread of cold unease wound through his chest.
He stared at her, thoughts racing.
*When did she come to the Ancient Sea Oasis?*
*How did she appear right beside me without making a sound?*
*Based on her speed last time... I can't outrun her.*
*Should I run now?*
*After a haul this massive — am I seriously going to do all this just to hand it over to someone else?*
*What do I do?*
While he was still turning it over, the cat woman turned her head and looked at him. Her pitch-black vertical pupils were utterly still, without a single ripple.
"Done yet?"
Lu Yuan: *"...?"*