Chapter 61: Remnant of the Arcana Race (1) (Part 7)
The Arcana Race was once the most prominent race in the entire Primordial Continent, and had lead it for over thirty thousand years. In the end, they were only destroyed by an Origin Beast that had reawakened.
The Arcana Race was an Intelligent Race that came to be after awakening the Divine Eye Ape Origin Beast bloodline.
They had small bodies and large heads. Though they appeared quite similar to humans from afar, according to legends the real Arcana Race had four eyes; two to observe the macroscopic world, two to observe the microscopic world. As people who had inherited part of the Divine Eye Ape's bloodline, they had a clear, strong ability to see. In conjunction with their intelligence and their understanding of physical objects, they were able to create many miraculous Origin Energy Tools, which allowed them to establish the powerful Arcana Kingdom.
After the destruction of the Arcana Kingdom, the remaining members of the Arcana Race did not give up on reestablishing their kingdom. They were later able to establish a second Arcana Kingdom, which appeared after the seven kingdoms of humankind had already had time to develop. But this time, the other Intelligent Races did not give them the opportunity to rise in power. This second Arcana Kingdom only existed for three thousand years before being destroyed by the combined efforts of the Ocean Race, the Human Race, and the Spirit Race.
The remaining members of Arcana Race hid away, living out their lives scheming and plotting.
Having experienced failure, the current Arcana Race had become a tribe of the shadows.
They did not desire open confrontation. Instead, they used tactics like business, plots and schemes, and leaking secrets to undermine the Five Great Races.
They used their unique Arcana abilities to disguise themselves and infiltrate all of the great races, creating shadowy organizations that would incite conflict, pushing the Five Great Races to enter conflicts with the beast race, while waiting for the appropriate time. They tried in vain to use these underhanded methods behind the scenes to establish the third Arcana Kingdom.
Of course, these methods were not successful. However, without question, they gave many a kingdom a lot of trouble.
These members of the Arcana Race were known as Remnants of the Arcana Race.
If Su Chen wasn't wrong, Night Demon's organization was precisely one such organization. From last time, when Night Demon had accidentally let the word "forever" slip, Su Chen guessed that this organization was very likely the Immortal Temple that had been founded by Jodi-Quilter in the fourteen thousandth year of the New Star Era. They were an old criminal organization that had already existed for over eleven thousand years
Of course, these matters were all very unimportant at the moment. No matter what the organization Night Demon worked for was, the enemy in front of him was definitely a Remnant of the Origin Race.
To deal with a member the Arcana Race, the easiest method was to rush forwards and cut off his head – the Arcana Race were known to lack close-quarter combat abilities.
Having dodged two large fireballs in a row, Su Chen whipped out the Moon-Swallowing Heavenly Wolf Blade, charging towards the Remnant of the Arcana Race, his movements quick as lightning.
As a Remnant of the Arcana Race, the skills that he used were naturally ancient Arcana techniques. Seeing Su Chen charge towards him, the magic staff in his hand swayed. "Receive the punishment of Surging Force!"
Su Chen watched as a brilliant white light formed in the old man's hand. Next, as if a person had pinched it, this white light appeared as if it had been pinched by someone, turning into a round ball of white light.
That was.....
"Origin Energy Bullets!" Su Chen yelled piercingly.
He had seen this Origin Skill before in the ones that Night Demon had given him. It was quite a frighteningly powerful Origin Skill, and could release tens or even hundreds Origin Energy bullets to attack their opponent. Although its shot-for-shot offensive capabilities were somewhat lower than a fireball, it more than made up for it in sheer number of projectiles.
Obviously, this Remnant of the Arcana Race had recognized that he could not allow Su Chen to get close to him given his speed, so he directly used an area-of-effect Origin Skill to counter him.
Su Chen did not hold back anymore. The Moon-Swallowing Heavenly Wolf Blade swung wildly, blocking the Origin Energy Bullets flying at him. At the same time, his figure once again flashed. Thankfully, he had his motion vision and could track objects moving at high speed. Thus, he had calculated the appropriate path to avoid most of the attacks in an instant, and he twisted and contorted to dodge the majority of them. Even so, an Origin Energy Bullet slammed into his chest.
The Amethyst Battle Armor had no protection on the front, and this hit was very solid. Even with the physical protection of the armor itself, Su Chen was hit with a bout of intense pain.
However, he had at least blocked or dodged one volley of attacks.
The old Arcana man evidently had not expected that Su Chen could actually dodge this volley of Origin Energy Bullets. As he stood there somewhat dazed, Su Chen had already charged him at high speed.
His speed was astonishingly fast. Activating the Snaking Mist Steps and the Cloud Stepping Boots, he arrived in front of the old man in a blink of an eye. The Heavenly Wolf Blade came crashing down onto the old man's head, setting off ear-splitting crashes of thunder.
Thunder Blade!
At the same time, the projection of a Wolf Soul appeared on the blade's surface, rushing towards the old man.
The old man let out a loud yell and lifted the black cloth covering his head. A pair of jade-green eyes stared at Su Chen, and Su Chen felt slightly dizzy. The blade strike he had just unleashed actually paused for a moment; when he tried to strike at the old man again, his body was already covered in a barrier of light which blocked this attack. The Wolf Soul could not enter the barrier either. It could only circle it and fiercely bite at it, causing the light barrier to flicker constantly.
The blade in his right hand did not change, but Su Chen's left hand pulled out a blade at the same time.
Black Streak Battle Blade!
The battle blade struck out at the old man's light barrier. A blood-colored light flashed, and the old man let out a cry of pain. He disappeared into thin air, and all that remained was the blood aura shooting off into the distance.
"Bastard! You actually injured me!" A voice sounded out from behind Su Chen.
Su Chen hurriedly turned around and saw that the old man's left arm had a striking wound on it.
This blood aura had broken through his protective barrier and injured him, but the injury itself was not too severe.
This caused Su Chen to feel a sense of frustration.
At that moment, the old man had just activated two fireballs, Origin Energy bullets, a soul attack, a protective barrier, and a teleportation Origin Skill in rapid succession, so his strength was quite high. He had only wounded his opponent once by catching him off-guard. Injuring him another time would not be so easy.
However, the old Arcana Race man did not think along these lines.
He was very clearly enraged.
"You bastard, you will need to pay a price. Hey, you piece of trash, why haven't you taken care of him yet!?" This last sentence was clearly aimed towards that beetle.
Not good!
Su Chen's heart jumped.
Although the old man was strong, Su Chen still had the confidence that he could deal with him.
However, this large beetle would be extremely hard to take care of. One look at the protective shell covering its body and Su Chen knew that beetle would have extremely strong defense. It could probably just stand there and take four or five blood auras with no problem. If it and that Arcana Race old man were to join forces, the old man could use it as a shield and unleash attacks from behind it. Su Chen's death would be imminent.
This was also a commonly used battle tactic of the Arcana Race. Almost every member of the Arcana Race would have their own personal shield in the form of a pet which would protect them from the front. Evidently, the person in front of him intended on raising this beetle to become his shield.
Upon being yelled at by the Arcana Race old man, the beetle that was feasting upon the starsilver very reluctantly turned around and charged towards Su Chen.
As soon as this beetle joined the fray, Su Chen was in incredibly danger. Even if they hadn't joined forces, that beetle alone was enough to make Su Chen fearful. Su Chen retrieved the blade in his left hand, then swung the Moon-Swallowing Heavenly Wolf blade. The Moon-Swallowing Wolf Soul bit the beetle's back. A few "crunch"s sounded out; its shell was so tough that the Wolf Soul had actually been unable to bite through it. The beetle's giant mandibles swung forwards like scissors, almost severing Su Chen in two.
Su Chen hurriedly retreated. Before he could counterattack, a large fireball once again shot towards him, forcing Su Chen to dodge once again.
The Arcana and the beetle were extremely compatible. With the giant beetle's support, the old man could freely use the space available to him. At the moment, he was firing off fireballs at Su Chen. Thankfully, because the large beetle blocked him, the old man did not use the Origin Energy Bullets anymore. Even so, Su Chen was already forced to the point that his movements were chaotic.
Bang!
Another fireball slammed towards Su Chen again. Su Chen had just dodged it when the large beetle once again charged over. Su Chen used all his efforts to evade it, narrowly dodging those vicious mandibles. However, he was headbutted by the beetle and went flying into the air. Although he struck back with his blade, the attack landed on the beetle's back, and only a faint white scar was left on its shell. However, he had been hit so hard that he almost lost his life.
The Arcana old man ferociously laughed as he released another fireball to take Su Chen's life, but suddenly a figure shot towards him from an angle. This was precisely Iron Cliff.
The old man had not expected at all that Iron Cliff would attack him. As Iron Cliff's fist landed on his face, he spit out a few teeth.
"My teef1!" The old man painfully looked at his teeth which had fallen to the ground.
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Page 2
Chapter 62: Remnant of the Arcana Race (2) (Part 8)
He was already old, and the Arcana Race did not cultivate their physique, so after all this time he didn't have many teeth left in the first place.
After this punch, he basically had no teeth remaining.
He stared at Iron Cliff with anger, and the old man's entire body began to emit a shocking killing intent. "Damned Cliff Race, you actually dared to harm I, the great Ulrich! You must die!"
He pointed the magic staff in his hand toward Iron Cliff. Iron Cliff's body was instantly engulfed in flames.
"AWOO!" Iron Cliff let out a pained howl.
But Iron Cliff did not retreat. He instead hugged his head and rushed forwards. He grabbed the old man, causing the flames to engulf both him and the old man.
"Flames, retreat!" Ulrich yelled loudly. He had no choice but to disperse the Origin Energy flames on Iron Cliff's body.
Iron Cliff was still holding him tightly, and was unwilling to let him go. As part of the Cliff Race, he had not yet entered the Qi Drawing Realm and could not use Origin Energy. However, he still had a strong physique and could restrict the opponent. He would hug this old man to death.
A scornful expression flashed across Ulrich's eyes. "You insignificant insect, do you think that you can harm me?"
As Ulrich spoke, Iron Cliff suddenly discovered that something had grabbed onto his arm. He saw that a tentacle made out of air had taken hold of his arm, and was pulling it outwards.
"NO!" Iron Cliff let out a low, angry howl, as he furiously fought against the force that was pulling his arm out.
This was pure physical strength fighting against an Origin Skill. Surprisingly, Iron Cliff was actually able to resist the air tentacle's pulling.
"So it seems you have some ability?" Some surprise appeared in Ulrich's eyes. "But in the end, it's still not enough."
He laughed strangely and snapped his fingers.
More air tentacles appeared from thin air and grabbed onto Iron Cliff, pulling him forcefully away from Ulrich's body. They then began to pull on him from all sides, trying to pull him into pieces.
"This is what happens when you overestimate your strength." Ulrich sneered sinisterly. "I want your blood as a sacrifice to my precious. I will make you... Hm?"
Ulrich said with shock.
A flash of cold light shot towards him.
Ulrich hurriedly activated his Origin Energy barrier. A poison dart slammed against his barrier, then fell to the ground.
He turned his head around to see that in his battle with the beetle, Su Chen had not forgotten to throw a dart at him.
Upon seeing that his dart had not hit his target, Su Chen sighed in his heart.
In reality, if he had waited a little bit longer before making a move, until Ulrich was overconfident, he might have been able to succeed.
But if he waited for that opportunity, Iron Cliff might have died.
Su Chen didn't want to do that. At the very least, he was unwilling to exchange Iron Cliff's life for success in battle.
However, it was now impossible to succeed if the situation progressed.
Su Chen and Iron Cliff were far from being Ulrich and the beetle's opponents. That beetle was simply too strong. Even one-on-one, Su Chen could do nothing to it. Thankfully, the beetle's speed was not too fast, and Su Chen still had the opportunity to dodge. However, with Ulrich present, he would die sooner or later.
Would he really fail here?
In the distance, Ulrich had already activated the air tentacles again, and had lifted Iron Cliff into the air. Ulrich seemed as if he was very accustomed to torturing people, and he was not particularly busy trying to kill Iron Cliff quickly.
Next to Su Chen, the large beetle was still attacking, brandishing its mandibles at him, forcing him to concentrate all his attention on defending himself and leaving him with no possible method.
Upon seeing this scene, Su Chen's heart felt like it was on fire.
What could he do? Was there any way out of this situation?
As Su Chen continued to evade, he furiously racked his brain for ideas.
Just at this moment, the large beetle charged Su Chen. As Su Chen evaded, the large beetle headbutted the mountain rock, actually knocking loose a piece of starsilver ore.
When that starsilver landed on the ground, the large beetle paused and took a moment to swallow the ore whole.
This scene causes Su Chen's eyes to light up.
He suddenly realized something, and furiously pulled out something from his storage ring.
A piece of pure, refined starsilver.
As if it had smelled the fragrance of metal, the large beetle let out a piercing yell. Even after Su Chen had chopped at it with his blade ten or so times, it had never let out such an excited screech.
"Do you want to eat it?" Su Chen yelled loudly.
"Hiss!" The large beetle stood up straight, as if it were a dog begging for food in front of its master.
Su Chen threw the starsilver in his hand out. "Go get it!"
The large beetle chased after the starsilver.
"No!" Upon seeing this, Ulrich let out a despairing yell, "This damned bastard, useless trash!"
But there was nothing he could do.
He had not finished training this metal-eating bug of his. Its instinct to eat metals often surpassed its will to follow his orders. If offered regular pieces of metal, the beetle may have been able to resist this enticement, but purified starsilver was almost like an exotic delicacy, a food of the gods, to the metal-eating bug.
"Dammit!" Ulrich knew that the situation was not good.
All that he could do was delay for time while he waited for the metal-eating bug to return.
He tightened his air tentacles in an effort to garrote Iron Cliff, all the while pouring the rest of his Origin Energy into a new Origin Energy Barrier.
At this moment, Su Chen had already drew near. The blade in his right hand slashed out towards the air tentacles, causing all of them to break. Iron Cliff fell to the ground and fainted. Next, his blade struck back at Ulrich, and the rumbling of thunder sounded out, loud enough to shock one's soul. At the same time, the Black Streak Battle Blade reappeared in his left hand.
Both blades struck out at the same time!
Ulrich gritted his teeth and braced himself against the Origin Energy barrier. He also released a large wave of Origin Energy Bullets.
With a loud 'BANG', both of them flew into the air at the same time.
Ulrich's barrier instantly fragmented, and another flurry of blood appeared on his body. Su Chen's Amethyst Battle Armor was also broken, and multiple bullets landed on his chest in rapid succession, causing him to spit out a mouthful of fresh blood. Two of his ribs broke, and his vision began to darken; he barely avoided fainting.
Bang!
The two of them fell to the ground at the same time.
At this point, the large beetle had returned after eating the starsilver.
"Kill him!" Ulrich yelled.
What greeted Ulrich was another bunch of starsilver appearing in Su Chen's hands.
This time, he pulled out three pieces.
"Oh, no!" Ulrich yelled with despair.
He forcefully tossed them out, and the three pieces of starsilver carved out three different lines in the air. The metal-eating beetle rushed towards them like a little pekingese dog.
"It's just me and you again," Su Chen laughed.
He gritted his teeth and stood up, then waved his blade and rushed towards Ulrich.
Ulrich had no strength to go all out. As Su Chen charged towards him, Ulrich suddenly disappeared with a wave of his staff, directly reappearing behind Su Chen.
Su Chen, however, was prepared for this. Just as Ulrich disappeared, he tossed the blade away.
He then pulled out the Flaming Hunter Blunderbuss, and shot behind him in rapid succession.
Bang bang bang bang!
As the gun sounded out repeatedly, Ulrich had been struck in rapid succession. Three profound bullets left three wounds on his body. Although these wounds were not serious, Ulrich's weakened body had no way of bearing them.
He let out a howl of pain and rage, then turned around and charged towards the metal-eating bug.
Su Chen sped up after him. He charged to Ulrich's side, then struck out with the Black Streak Battle Blade again.
"DIE!"
Su Chen had not expected that Ulrich would actually turn around. He lifted the magic staff in his hand, causing flames to appear before Su Chen.
Fireball!
At this moment, Su Chen's Amethyst Battle Armor had disappeared, and he had no way of activating it. He also had no time to avoid it, and given that he had already sustained heavy injuries, he could not possible forcibly block this fireball attack.
This attack was all according to Ulrich's calculations.
In this moment of incredible danger, Su Chen's eyes opened wide, and he activated his Soul Eye.
Ulrich suddenly felt as if his head hurt, and his vision went blurry. The fireball that he had prepared had no way of being cast.
In the next instant, the Black Streak Battle Blade had already cut through his waist.
Ulrich's body trembled. He lowered his head to look at his waist only to see himself fall to the ground in two pieces.
He glanced at Su Chen, then turned his head to look at the metal-eating bug. He sighed, "What a pity... If I had just a little more time... I could have tamed it..."
His head tilted, and he died.
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Page 3
Chapter 63: Rewards (Part 9)
Su Chen retrieved his blade, then sat on the ground, sapped of all his energy.
While he had won the battle, he had also sustained some heavy injuries.
Ulrich's body began to release bits of starlike light. Those were dots of Origin Energy.
Su Chen hesitated for a moment, but still decided to raise his hand.
This battle had taught Su Chen the value of strength.
Without enough strength, one could encounter dangers at any time. This made it so that he no longer cared about where the Origin Energy dots originated from. Origin Energy was Origin Energy, and it was pure in the first place. It did not depend on the race.
At this time, the metal-eating bug had finished eating the three pieces of starsilver and returned.
Su Chen watched it with vigilance. He did not know if this bug would go crazy upon discovering that Ulrich had died.
However, he was relieved very quickly.
The bug, which seemed vicious outwardly, used its head to prod Ulrich. Upon discovering that there was no response, it actually just walked to the side and went to sleep, completely ignoring Su Chen.
This made Su Chen feel somewhat speechless.
Since the giant beetle was not interested in him, Su Chen also needed to rest.
After realigning his bones and applying medicine, Su Chen lay on the ground, resting peacefully.
As he rested, he began to replay the battle in his mind.
Old man Ulrich had six to seven – or even more – Origin Skills. His strength was not to be taken lightly. There were three reasons why he had been able to kill Ulrich. Firstly, he had an advantage in equipment. Five Origin Tools gave him a nontrivial increase in strength. The old man only had one magic staff, and very clearly it was just a common amplification staff, amplifying the intensity of fire-type Origin Skills. However, the Origin Skills that he controlled were not all fire-type. This was one of the reasons why the old man had lost. Secondly, ancient Arcana techniques were not easy to chain together nor meant for close-quarters combat. As soon as Su Chen drew near, it was difficult for Ulrich to hit him. In addition, the space in their environment was limited, so Ulrich wasn't able to dodge well, which gave Su Chen the opportunity to attack. Thirdly, Iron Cliff's presence and the giant beetle's lack of maturity had given away Ulrich's final opportunity.
However, the main reason that he had been able to win was because of the metal-eating bug's weakness.
In reality, Su Chen should have recognized the giant beetle's thirst for metals from the very beginning. However, his attention had been captured by Ulrich, so he had overlooked this point. He hadn't thought of it until later.
If he hadn't thought of this idea, then the one dying would have been him.
From this, one could easily see that in battle, it was incredibly important to preserve a clear mind.
Because his mind had been clear, he had quickly discovered the weakness of the giant beetle. Because his mind had been clear, he had used Soul Eye at the most critical moment, which prevented Ulrich from turning the tables on him. Powerful strength needed to be paired with a clear mind; these were essential conditions for success.
This was what Su Chen had understood after his battle, and was also the requirements that Su Chen had placed on himself for the future. Every time he battled, he would need to remind himself of this. He would review his mistakes and correct his progress.
After resting for an unknown period of time, the broken bones in Su Chen's chest finally began to hurt less.
He stood up again, then walked towards Ulrich.
It wasn't until this moment that he finally saw Ulrich's appearance the most clearly.
The old man's face was filled with wrinkles. He was incredibly old, and he was frighteningly skinny. No wonder he possessed no strength. Ancient Arcana had no techniques for cultivating the physique. They only studied the intricacies of Origin Skills themselves, and this was reflected in the old man's appearance.
Compared to humankind, their eyes were blue. This was one way to discern the difference between the Arcana race and humankind. However, he never saw that second pair of eyes; perhaps it was just a rumor.
Upon taking away the magic staff, Su Chen began to search Ulrich's body.
There was absolutely nothing. No pouch, no storage ring.
This made Su Chen feel extremely disappointed.
But after thinking about it again, he realized that Ulrich could not have brought nothing with him, especially if he was attempting to train a metal-eating bug.
Unless...
Su Chen turned his head around to look at something.
Ulrich had walked out from that dark area off to the distance.
He first walked over to Iron Cliff. Upon seeing that he wasn't seriously injured – he had only fainted – Su Chen picked up the crystal lamp and walked into the distance. The yellow light scattered the darkness, and Su Chen very quickly saw that there was another cave not far away from where he was.
It seemed as if that cave was Ulrich's home. All of his belongings were inside.
There was a lot of stuff inside the cave.
Apart from items necessary for survival, what attracted Su Chen the most was a large workbench.
The workbench was covered in all kinds of strange vials and jars, as well as a few notes that recorded the experiments.
Su Chen carelessly picked one up to look at. On it was recorded the way to tame and raise the metal-eating bug.
"So this thing is called a metal-eating bug." It wasn't until now that Su Chen knew what this strange beast was called.
In any case, the large bug wasn't bothering him, so Su Chen hung the crystal lantern up on the wall and began to read Ulrich's writings.
The writings were very messy. Some recorded what Ulrich had learned from his experience, some were recalling his memories. Su Chen felt very confused initially, but as he read book after book, Su Chen began to understand.
Ulrich truly was a remnant of the Arcana Race.
However, after the Arcana Race had fallen into ruin, they were not allowed to exist by the other races. Thus, even though he was a remnant of the Arcana Race, Ulrich did not have much of a legacy. In his early life, he had followed his parents while they wandered, attempting to hide from the pursuit of other races. However, in the end, he was still a remnant of the Arcana Race. Perhaps using those connections, Ulrich had obtained a book that recorded ancient Arcana techniques.
Instead of transmission pearls, the information here was written down!
Su Chen paid attention to this point.
He searched the room thoroughly, finally discovering a sheepskin scroll hidden in the corner. The sheepskin scroll was ancient. Even though steps had been taken to preserve it, it still looked like touching it would cause it to fragment.
Su Chen very carefully opened it. However, he saw that it was written using an ancient Arcana script, and his heart immediately sank.
Although he had studied an ancient Arcana text with Tang Zhen before, it was for a short duration, so the amount that he had learned was limited. He estimated that even if Tang Zhen himself was here, it might still be difficult to translate it.
Cultivating was not like other things. A small mistake could result in serious consequences.
There was nothing Su Chen could do. He first put the sheepskin to the side, then continued to examine Ulrich's writings.
According to what was written here, after Ulrich obtained the sheepskin, he began to cultivate according to what was written on it. However, because the Arcana Race was not accepted by the other races, Ulrich's cultivation environment was pretty bad because he was always running away or wandering. Most of his time was spent hiding or evading. This was also why his cultivation layer was so low, even though he was quite old.
He did not have a master to guide him, nor did he have the appropriate cultivation environment or resources. For him to cultivate to his current state while relying only on a sheepskin manual was already quite good.
Apart from Arcana techniques, the sheepskin also recorded an Arcana Life-Altering Technique.
The Arcana Life-Altering Technique was how the Arcana Race used their special ancient Arcana techniques combined with their knowledge to change the lives of other life-forms, turning them into their slaves.. This method existed when the Arcana Kingdom was created and became extremely popular. However, this may also have been the cause for the Arcana Kingdom to fall into ruin.
Because of their unscrupulous changing and utilizing other life-forms, as well as the pain and bitter suffering lifeforms of other races endured, they finally enraged all the great races. Once the Origin Beasts dealt a serious blow to the Arcana Kingdom, all the other Intelligent Races allied together and toppled the Arcana Kingdom.
One could say that of the countless sins that the Arcana Race had committed, life-altering would be the number one sin.
Regardless, this conscienceless method also made the races reevaluate their understanding of life. Afterwards, they began to create more cultivation methods and skills that were easier to implement. This would also have great value towards improving their society.
Ulrich did not dare to use the Arcana Race's Life-Altering Technique, and he could not use beasts. The Beast Emperor would use a long-range call to awaken the abilities of beasts outside of their territory, preventing the beast race from being blindly used by others. Thus, all he could choose to use were bugs.
Ulrich had unintentionally encountered these metal-eating bugs while he was wandering. They were extremely hard to discover and usually only the size of a fingernail.
Ulrich had basically killed all of the metal-eating bugs that he had encountered. Through a large numbers of experiments and care, he had finally created this metal-eating bug.
However, there were clearly flaws in his experimentation.
Ulrich originally had hoped that he could use the metal-eating bug's love for metals to train a powerful meat shield. While he had accomplished this, and the super metal-eating bug that he had trained was truly frighteningly strong, and it could continue to raise its potential by eating more metal, the main issue was that this metal-eating bug clearly did not like doing battle.
Its lazy nature made it so that it hated doing battle. Its ferocious mandibles didn't like picking up anything except metal ore. Even if people were to hit it, it would only whimper and retreat. In any case, its shell was so thick that blows to it didn't hurt.
Ulrich tried to think of many ways to address this issue, finally coming up with a way to increase the metal-eating bug's battle capacity.
It was at this time when Su Chen appeared.
In the end, a few pieces of pure starsilver had quenched the metal-eating bug's fighting spirit.
"No wonder..." Su Chen said to himself.
No wonder the metal-eating bug didn't try to get revenge after its owner died, instead running to the corner and going to sleep. It didn't enjoy battling in the first place.
Su Chen originally planned on figuring out how to kill it after he recovered, but now he gave up on this idea.
Su Chen was very clear that without Ulrich's training, the metal-eating bug's true nature would very quickly take over, and it would not be dangerous to humans. Since that was the case, there was no longer any need to try and deal with it.
After retrieving the sheepskin scroll, Su Chen continued to flip through, seeing if there was anything else he could gain.
However, apart from a bug pouch, he didn't see anything else. The old man had spent all his resources on cultivating and training metal-eating bugs. The bug pouch was used to raise metal-eating bugs. These bugs could enter a state of hibernation in the pouch and could survive on very little food. Its value was roughly worth that of a common grade storage ring, so Su Chen retrieved it as well.
Su Chen thought for a moment, then took the old man's experimental logs and his instruments as well.
These writings were the accumulation of all the years of experience this old man had gained. It was everything that he knew.
The current age prioritized items and cultivation as the most important, and was not particularly fond of ancient Arcana techniques, which were "crooked" pathways. However, Su Chen had studied under Tang Zhen, and he had personally witnessed the metal-eating bug's strength. Thus, he had no aversions to knowledge.
After all, who could know whether or not these could be used to increase his own strength? Now that bloodlines were valued for strength, both the bloodline extractor and bloodline medicines were all products of knowledge.
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Page 4
Chapter 64: A New Discovery (Part 10)
When he opened his eyes, Iron Cliff found himself lying inside a cave. Not far away from him, a crystal lamp was lit. Su Chen walked towards him.
"You're awake? How do you feel?" Su Chen asked.
Iron Cliff sat up and rubbed the back of his head. "The bed is slightly small."
Su Chen laughed. "Thankfully, you weren't too injured; only some of your muscles were torn. This is my first time seeing pure physical strength resist an Origin Skill... not bad."
Iron Cliff laughed with some embarrassment.
into the air out of fright.
"Don't be nervous, it won't hurt you." Su Chen waved his hand at Iron Cliff.
Perhaps out of habit, after running around outside for a bit, the metal-eating bug had automatically returned to the corner of the cave, unmoving.
Iron Cliff sat back down with some annoyance.
Su Chen handed him a bottle. "If you drink this, you will recover more quickly. But as a side-effect you might feel weak for a day, or you might have diarrhea. However, there shouldn't be any big problems."
"Okay." Iron Cliff obediently received the medicine, gulping it down.
Upon seeing his quiet, obedient attitude, Su Chen suddenly asked, "Why did you help me?"
Iron Cliff replied straightforwardly, "You are my master. Of course I would fight for you."
"But you aren't my soldier; you're just my servant. Fighting is not your responsibility. Also, if I died, then you would be free to go."
Iron Cliff shook his head. "I didn't think about it. I just thought that I should do it this way."
"So there was no other reason? Such as 'you like me as a master', or 'you feel like I treated you better than Black Hand', or any other reason?"
Iron Cliff shook his head. "I've followed four masters. You are not the one that has treated me the best. My second master, who was female, treated me the best. She was very kind. She never made me work. She was always good to me."
Su Chen let out a laugh. "You really don't know how to flatter people. So why didn't your previous female owner want you anymore?"
Some pain flitted across Iron Cliff's eyes. "It's not that she didn't want me anymore. She died. In the midst of a battle, a despicable person mounted a sneak-attack and stabbed her in the back."
"My condolences," Su Chen said.
Iron Cliff lowered his head, sitting there without making a sound.
Seeing his quiet appearance, Su Chen's heart was moved.
He said, "Do you want to become my soldier? Someone who specifically does battle for me?"
Iron Cliff was stunned. "I don't have any Origin Energy power."
"I can teach you."
Iron Cliff shook his head. "I am very stupid. The previous three masters all taught me, but I just couldn't learn it."
"Was it that you couldn't learn it well, or that you couldn't learn at all?"
Iron Cliff thought for a moment, then replied, "It should be that I couldn't learn well. The Cliff Race's perception of Origin Energy is very low, and our cultivation speed is also very slow.
"But you can still learn, can't you? It's just that it's somewhat slow."
"But I don't want to learn." Iron Cliff lowered his head. "I hate battling, and I don't like killing."
Su Chen was stunned for a moment. It was a long while before he responded, saying, "You're right. Killing is not a good thing, but only with enough strength can one control their own destiny and avoid being killed. Do you not want to become stronger? Do you not want to get revenge for your female master?"
Upon hearing the last sentence, Iron Cliff's eyes began to flicker with energy.
But in the next instant, this spirit once again dimmed.
He lowered his head, saying with melancholy, "I couldn't beat that person. He was very strong... You couldn't beat him either. Even if we combined forces, we couldn't beat him."
"But that's only right now." Su Chen grasped Iron Cliff's shoulder. "If you trust me, I might have a way of increasing your speed of cultivation."
Iron Cliff raised his head with amazement. What he saw was Su Chen's eyes, filled with confidence.
Warmth began coursing through his heart. Iron Cliff slowly nodded his head. "Okay, I am willing to be your soldier. What do you need me to do?"
"Right now..." Su Chen laughed, "Sorry, although your previous female master didn't make you work, I am not that generous, mostly because I have no one working for me. Help me dig out some ore; mine out all the starsilver ore inside this cave for me. Whenever you finish digging, we will return, and I will cultivate with you at that time."
"Okay!" Iron Cliff nodded his thick, heavy head.
In the following days, Iron Cliff spent all his energy mining for ore.
Although this cave was where the metal-eating bug lived and ate,, its appetite was limited. Once the bug was full, it would not continue to eat, so its ore consumption rate was far less than that of the insatiable human race. For humans, as long as they could still find ore, they would continue to mine it incessantly.
Because of this, there was still quite a significant amount of starsilver ore that came falling out as Iron Cliff continued to mine.
Under these circumstances, that metal-eating bug actually became somewhat of a nuisance.
Every time the large beetle got hungry, it would whimper and run over, eating voraciously from their pile of ore. After finishing, it would leave to sleep once more.
Quite a significant chunk of ore that Iron Cliff had bitterly mined was eaten by this guy. Thus, Su Chen just gave his storage ring to Iron Cliff, and told him to place the ore into the ring as soon as he found it.
Since the metal-eating bug couldn't find anything to eat, it would run around Iron Cliff, whimpering as it did so. It wouldn't attack him, making it look like a dog. Iron Cliff found the beetle quite interesting, so from time to time he would secretly feed it a few pieces of fragmented ore. The metal-eating bug was not picky and happily ate it up. However, as a result it began to follow Iron Cliff around even more closely.
Su Chen knew this as well, but he did not care.
He was extremely busy.
Now, apart from cultivating his Origin Skills every day, he also had to look at Ulrich's writings in a bid to learn the ancient Arcana script.
The knowledge that Ulrich had recorded was very scattered and lacked organization. His writings were simply the procedural documentation of one person's experience. However, because of this, Su Chen could also more easily understand them. These writings very clearly detailed Ulrich's journey to understand the Arcana techniques, including the process of knowing nothing to knowing a little bit. If it were written with depth and complexity, Su Chen might not have been able to understand any of it. These writings were filled with a person's guesses and slow progress, so Su Chen was able to understand it much more easily.
As he read about Ulrich's progress, Su Chen saw reflected his own experiences in learning ancient Arcana techniques and very quickly lost himself in reading. Through the phrases Ulrich used, Su Chen began to have a deeper understanding of the previous Arcana Kingdom. They were a miraculous kingdom which had thirty thousand years of glory and had made countless important discoveries and inventions.
Inventions such as the powerful, flying Origin Demon Puppets; devices that could convert the Origin Energy in the air into motion; the rare bloodline extractor instrument and the Life-Altering technique, as well as many other mystical ancient Arcana techniques. They were all invented and spread during that period of time by the Arcana Race.
The current bloodline system that humankind relied on for survival originated from a small branch of the Arcana Kingdom's research.
Upon thinking to this point, Su Chen felt quite shaken.
However, it was quite tragic that most of what they had discovered had been lost in the sands of time. Now, even when talking about the Arcana Race themselves, there was no way of regaining the former glory of that time period.
When he had free time, Su Chen would call Iron Cliff over to teach him the Dartfrog Absorption Technique.
One had to say that the Cliff Race was truly stupid, and their brains were filled with rocks. Iron Cliff took four days and nights before he could barely exercise it. By comparison, Su Chen had been able to exercise it proficiently after only one night.
In terms of perception, the Cliff Race did not even have half that of a regular person.
However, perhaps it was because they were so slow that they were also so loyal.
With losses there would always be gains. It was impossible to hope that a person could be absolutely loyal yet extremely intelligent. That kind of person did not exist.
Having thought through this point, Su Chen was also satisfied.
Today, Su Chen was examining an experiment from Ulrich's writings when he suddenly heard Iron Cliff yell, "Don't come here, you can't have this!"
When Su Chen heard this, he walked out only to see Iron Cliff holding a piece of starsilver ore in the air, continuously backing up. The metal-eating bug was chasing after the ore in Iron Cliff's hand. It did not have any malicious intent, but its giant mandibles were extremely frightening, and Iron Cliff was being chased all over the place.
"Why not place the ore inside the ring?" Su Chen asked.
Once the ore was placed into the ring, the metal-eating but wouldn't be able to smell it anymore, and it wouldn't cause a fuss anymore.
"The ring is full. I can't fit this piece of high-purity ore in, and it won't stop chasing me," Iron Cliff said with distress.
"Hmm. Just give it to it."
Although he was somewhat unwilling, Su Chen similarly did not wish for Iron Cliff to be continually chased by it.
The starsilver carved out a beautiful line as it flew off into the distance. The metal-eating bug was like a trained hunting dog, as it furiously charged towards the ore before swallowing it in one go.
The metal-eating bug stopped bugging Iron Cliff now that it was satisfied. It first rubbed itself against the walls of the corner of the cave, then pooped for a bit before sauntering to another corner to go to sleep.
The metal-eating bug was alive, so it naturally had needs to take care of. Su Chen did not mind this. Ulrich had already taught it to find a corner to take care of business, so Su Chen and Iron Cliff didn't need to worry about that. Just as Su Chen was about to return to his cave, he saw that the metal-eating bug's poop shone with a metallic light.
Su Chen was surprised and intrigued, so he walked over to take a closer look.
Because the metal-eating bug only ate large amounts of metal ore, its poop was not smelly, and most of it was hard slag, and the rest was mostly earth. Its appearance was not that gross.
Su Chen broke the hard earth shell on the outside of the poop. A brilliant silver light shone out from the inside of the poop. It looked like starsilver, yet it seemed to be more precious than starsilver.
"Starsilver essence?" Su Chen yelled with surprise.
Starsilver essence was produced when large quantities of starsilver were refined again into a higher-quality metal. It was specifically used to create high-tier Origin Tools and could improve a tool's ability to conduct Origin Energy. It was not something that Su Chen, who was barely an Origin Qi Scholar, could come into contact with or use.
Su Chen did not expect that the metal-eating bug would actually produce something like starsilver essence. In that instant, the first thought that flashed through Su Chen's mind was: 'Is this a lucky coincidence? Or is this normal?'
Upon thinking to this point, Su Chen furiously began to break open all the piles of poop in front of him, attempting to find a second piece.
Nothing, nothing, still nothing.
He raised his head, then charged towards the darkness, where piles of poop from the metal-eating bug were everywhere.
Bang bang bang bang! Under a series of repeated attacks, Su Chen finally found another bit of light that appeared.
Su Chen picked up a silver ball of metal that was significantly smaller, yet his eyes displayed an expression of excitement.
"Master?" Iron Cliff walked over with some doubt. "What are you doing?"
He had no idea why Su Chen would suddenly have an interest in the metal-eating bug's poop.
"Nothing much." Su Chen forcefully repressed the happiness in his heart as he said, "In the future, I will have some new work that I want you to do."
"What work?" Iron Cliff asked.
"Digging through feces," Su Chen replied.
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Page 5
Chapter 65: Enslavement Scroll
In the remaining time, Su Chen and Iron Cliff went through the entire cave, discovering and breaking apart every single mound of poop the metal-eating bug had left behind. Indeed, every few that they broke open, they would find something.
After half a day, all of the poops had been broken. Upon confirming that there were no intact pieces of poop remaining, the two of them stopped. At this time, the amount of starsilver essence that Su Chen possessed had increased from the size of a pellet to the size of an infant's head.
Su Chen was intoxicated by the sight of so much starsilver essence.
Outside the gorge, a walnut-sized starsilver essence was worth around five thousand low-grade Origin Stones. The piece that Su Chen held in his hand was roughly three to four walnuts, which meant that it was potentially worth above twenty thousand Origin Stones.
"I never expected that you were actually a money-making machine," Su Chen muttered to himself as he looked at the sleeping metal-eating bug.
Starsilver essence refinement was an extremely complex process, and it also consumed a lot of raw starsilver in a ratio of forty to one. Thus, the value of starsilver essence remained incredibly high.
Su Chen did not know exactly how much the metal-eating bug consumed, but he knew that it needed to eat a lot.
The metal-eating bug's appetite was huge, being able to eat roughly fifteen kilograms of metal ore in a single day, with five percent of it being starsilver. That was to say that it roughly ate one half of a kilogram of starsilver a day. According to Ulrich's writings, he had already been in this place for 270 days or so, meaning that it had eaten a total of close to two hundred kilograms of starsilver. The starsilver essence that Su Chen collected was around ten kilograms despite only being the size of a baby's head. Thus, this conversion rate was roughly twenty to one, much better than forty to one.
Of course, this was an estimate and could not be confirmed. It was possible that the metal-eating bug had simply eaten large amounts of starsilver ore in the beginning.
Quite frankly, the only reason that Su Chen had discovered the starsilver essence was because he had fed the giant beetle four pieces of pure starsilver, not just starsilver ore. These four pieces of pure starsilver was already much greater than the bug's average intake of starsilver. This, this had resulted in the metal-eating bug pooping out a large piece of essence, whic Su Chen had noticed. Otherwise, Su Chen most likely would have been like Ulrich and overlooked this precious, hidden treasure.
That was also to say that if he were to feed it pure starsilver, he could also obtain even more starsilver essence? In addition, he could more accurately calculate the conversion rate.
Su Chen thought for a moment.
In the following days, the quality of life for the metal-eating bug went up drastically.
Su Chen instructed Iron Cliff to feed the metal-eating bug pure starsilver, calculating the weight carefully every time.
The large bug was extremely happy about the increase in its food supply, and its relationship with Iron Cliff had become one of adulation.
However, Su Chen waited for three entire days for the metal-eating bug to excrete its waste with no result. In fact, the amount that it ate also began to decrease.
This made Su Chen feel quite surprised.
On the fourth day, the metal-eating bug was obviously lacking energy. Even if Iron Cliff fed it, it refused to eat, leaving after sniffing it a few times.
Su Chen began to worry that he had done something wrong.
That night, the metal eating bug sat in its corner and began to use force.
It let out pained cries and whimpers, constantly rubbing against the rock walls, causing pieces of rock to fragment off and fall to the ground. However, it just could not poop anything out.
Upon seeing this scene, Su Chen finally understood.
"Crap, it's constipated."
Iron Cliff: "..."
That night, the metal-eating bug struggled for half of the night before finally pooping out a silver, shiny lump of excrement.
Upon weighing it, good Lord, it weighed two kilograms – Iron Cliff had fed it half of all the starsilver in the storage ring to it.
No wonder it couldn't poop it out.
This experiment helped Su Chen realize two things. First, the metal-eating bug's rate of conversion was closer to twenty two to one, slightly lower than his previous calculations but not by much. Secondly, too much was just as bad as too little.
The Black Streak Battle Blade and the Moon-Swallowing Heavenly Wolf Blade could not kill the metal-eating bug, but it had almost died from constipation. One could only say that this world was truly too strange.
From this time onwards, Su Chen fed the metal-eating bug its normal diet, only mixing in a few bits of pure starsilver. The metal-eating bug's energy also quickly returned to normal.
When he had nothing to do, Su Chen wondered if the metal-eating bug could poop out starsilver essence after eating starsilver, would it produce other essences if it ingested other metals?
He could only find an opportunity in the future to test this hypothesis out.
His current mission was more important, which was how to bring this moneymaking machine with him.
Thankfully, Ulrich had left behind a method to control the metal-eating bug in the form of an Enslavement Scroll. After using it on a target, it would generate an imprint of the user as its master on the target's heart. Thus, it could understand and carry out commands to a certain extent.
The Enslavement Scroll was not difficult to learn. Su Chen had mastered it very quickly.
On the eleventh day that he had entered the cave, all of the starsilver ore in the cave had been completely mined.
Su Chen was also reaching a point where he more or less understood Ulrich's experiments and knowledge. Thus, there was not much point in remaining in this place.
Before leaving, Su Chen pulled out a white Origin Scroll. This was a scroll made out of Vicious Beast hides, and the talisman for the Enslavement Scroll was inscribed on it. He pointed it at the metal-eating bug and activated it. This was one of the ancient Arcana techniques.
Current people often used the simpler and more convenient Origin Talismans. Origin Talismans were created using a special kind of paper that could store Origin Power. Its benefits were that they were low-cost and could be mass-manufactured. However, their effects would be slightly worse than a scroll, and their storage durability was not too good either.
The Enslavement Scroll had just landed on the metal-eating bug's body when it exploded with a "BANG!", turning into grey ash.
Enslavement resistance.
Strong life-forms would resist the Enslavement Scroll. The stronger it was, the more difficult it was to successfully enslave them. Su Chen's strength was not comparable to the metal-eating bug, so his Enslavement Scroll had been broken instantly.
Su Chen was not yet satisfied. He created two more Enslavement Scrolls, and both of them were met with resistance.
This gave Su Chen a feeling of helplessness.
Ulrich had only left behind four blank Origin Scrolls in total. Now that three had failed, only one was remaining.
As he gazed at this last Enslavement Scroll, Su Chen hesitated.
If this one also failed, he probably wouldn't have any more opportunities to tame it.
At this time, Iron Cliff said, "Can you let me try? Master."
"You?" Su Chen was shocked.
Iron Cliff trembled with some anxiety. "Please don't misunderstand me, Master. I don't have any intention of seizing this pet from you. I only feel that it may be more likely to listen to me."
Su Chen looked at Iron Cliff, then laughed, "No, I don't mind... Perhaps you are right."
He handed the Enslavement Scroll to Iron Cliff, then said, "Go ahead."
Iron Cliff held the Enslavement Scroll and slowly turned his head to look at Su Chen. "You know, Master. If I succeed, it will... only listen to me.""
"Of course, don't worry about it. Go ahead, Iron Cliff." Su Chen patted him.
Iron Cliff breathed in deeply and walked forward, placing the Enslavement Scroll on the metal-eating bug's back.
In terms of strength, Iron Cliff was lower than Su Chen.
But in that instant, the Enslavement Scroll wasn't destroyed.
The metal-eating bug raised its head and looked at Iron Cliff, letting out a few muffled roars.
Then, the Enslavement Scroll disappeared into the metal-eating bug's body.
Upon seeing this scene, Su Chen broke out into a smile. "Congratulations, Iron Cliff, you are now stronger than I am.:
Iron Cliff knelt in front of Su Chen. "Iron Cliff will always belong to master."
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