After Chen Bugu finished speaking, the entire place was silent, falling into an eerie quiet.
“No wonder you told us to hurry…” Lin Xiaoxiao murmured to herself.
“I’m not sure what it was, but in any case, getting out of there as quickly as possible was the best choice.”
Actually, having run this far, Chen Bugu was no longer as worried.
Now that he thought about it carefully, if it really was a beast beyond the Black Iron Grade trying to attack them, there would have been no way for them to escape.
However, there was one thing Chen Bugu couldn’t understand: why would a beast beyond the Black Iron Grade appear in the Starting Forest?
In his previous life, following the large group, until he left the Initial Forest, the strongest beast he had ever seen was only at the peak of the Black Iron Grade mid-level, which corresponded to the level of a Black Iron Six Star late-stage Awakened.
Even after he left that place, he never heard anyone mention that a beast beyond the Black Iron Grade had appeared in the Starting Forest.
Forget it, if he couldn’t figure it out, then he couldn’t figure it out. Chen Bugu knew very well that dwelling on these things was meaningless; instead, it was better to quickly strengthen his own power.
He looked again at the Ice Armor Crocodile Turtle’s egg, which was currently lying under a tree about 10 meters away from everyone.
“Lin Lin, is Holy Light useful on that egg?”
Chen Bugu turned his head to look at Lin Lin and found that she was resting with her eyes closed. She had just broken through to Black Iron Three Stars earlier and was currently feeling the changes in her body.
“I’ll try.”
After Lin Lin heard Chen Bugu call her, she stood up again and walked to a spot five meters away from the egg. This was the farthest distance she could currently unleash Holy Light.
The moment the Holy Light shone on the beast egg, Lin Lin felt that strange power, identical to the one on Chen Bugu and Lin Ye.
However, the power attached to the beast egg was clearly much stronger.
“It’s useful. I can drive away the strange power on it, but it will take more time, about three hours.”
Chen Bugu pondered for a moment, then nodded.
“Alright, then I’ll trouble you. Let’s rest here tonight. Everyone was more or less injured in this battle. Anyway, we’re already far enough from that stream. We’ll rest for a night and continue our journey tomorrow.”
Although Old Liu’s injuries had been treated, he was still somewhat weak, making it unsafe for him to continue scouting. While Han Badou’s Energy Monitoring could also serve as reconnaissance, its range was too short; 100 meters was not much time for a high-level beast.
Fortunately, they also obtained a thermal imaging drone.
Before Chen Bugu received treatment from Lin Lin, this thermal imaging drone had been given to Han Badou, who used it to monitor the surrounding situation.
Although there were beasts nearby, their numbers were not large, and most were low-level Black Iron Grade beasts, posing no threat to them.
It wouldn’t be long before darkness fell, and this place was relatively safe, making it a good spot to rest.
Chen Bugu was about to take out Luo Beast fur from his storage ring to spread on the ground for everyone to rest, when he remembered that he had also left a large piece of starfall crystal, so he took it out as well.
After the starfall crystal was taken out, Yan Kuan was the first to come closer. Having inherited the “Great Earth Blacksmith” profession, rough information about this type of stone automatically appeared in his Mind.
“Good stuff! Why didn’t you get more?”
Yan Kuan looked at this piece of starfall crystal, his eyes shining as if he had seen some treasure. Just as Chen Bugu was about to laugh at this fat man’s lack of experience, he suddenly noticed something strange on the surface of the starfall crystal.
“Fatty, wait a minute!”
Chen Bugu squatted down and carefully examined this piece of starfall crystal.
Although it was very inconspicuous, he did indeed find a small patch of black mist on the surface of the starfall crystal.
“Fatty, this stone can’t be used yet. Wait a bit.”
After Chen Bugu finished speaking, he walked straight to Lin Lin, asking her to come and confirm.
Lin Lin came forward, and after shining Holy Light on it, she gave Chen Bugu a definite answer—this starfall crystal was also contaminated with that strange power, and the degree of contamination on this piece of starfall crystal was even deeper than on the beast egg.
Upon hearing this, Yan Kuan retreated several steps, relieved that he hadn’t touched it impulsively just now.
Chen Bugu also remembered that after he first picked up the starfall crystal, his emotions had indeed fallen into a state of anxiety.
It was only later that he unknowingly eliminated that influence by relying on “Recall.”
The starfall crystal was not like the crocodile turtle egg; this type of ore was not a living thing, so Chen Bugu hadn't paid attention to it after putting it into his storage ring.
In that case, the piece given to Xu Lu was probably also…
Never Mind, the transaction was already complete, and Chen Bugu couldn't worry about anything else.
“Lin Lin, how long will it take you to purify the crocodile turtle’s egg plus this stone?”
“The strange power attached to these two items is far more than what you and Teacher Lin were contaminated with before, and purification is not easy. I estimate it will take about half a day.”
“Then purify this egg first. The starfall crystal is fine in the storage ring; we can purify it slowly later when we have time. This egg is a bit more troublesome. Fatty, you’ll have to wait a bit longer for the starfall crystal.”
After Chen Bugu finished speaking to Lin Lin and Yan Kuan, he put the starfall crystal back into his storage ring.
Lin Lin nodded and returned to the beast egg’s side to continue the purification.
Yan Kuan also pouted. After gaining the “Great Earth Blacksmith” profession, he suddenly became very interested in this type of ore. Being able to look but not touch made him feel a bit itchy.
However, Yan Kuan also felt bad about making Lin Lin purify continuously. Although Lin Lin’s gentle nature probably wouldn’t refuse, it was better not to overwork her.
Besides Lin Lin continuing to purify, everyone else also began to prepare for their own matters.
Lin Xiaoxiao used Mind to collect firewood for tonight’s fire. Ever since she obtained the Cold Iron Dart, this task had become increasingly easy for her.
Yan Kuan and Bai Ting took Han Badou and began hunting low-level beasts in the vicinity. Yan Kuan seemed to be just a step away from Breaking through to Black Iron Four Star, so he was a bit impatient.
Half an hour later, when Yan Kuan returned, he had already mastered a new skill, “Earth Swamp,” which allowed him to freely generate a swamp area on the ground. The land within the area would instantly turn into a swamp, and objects caught in it would be restrained.
It was a pity that this skill was too slow to activate and consumed a lot of power. Otherwise, Yan Kuan alone could probably take on a Goblin squad.
Bai Ting had tested it with Yan Kuan. Currently, the Earth Swamp Yan Kuan created was at most a circular area one meter in diameter, and when released, the ground’s transformation into a swamp wasn’t fast enough; Bai Ting could always dodge in advance.
Chen Bugu gave Yan Kuan a suggestion: don’t try to enlarge the Earth Swamp. With the limitations of this skill, controlling a large number of enemies at once was not realistic. Instead, it was better to reduce the skill’s range to gain faster casting speed.
For example, maintaining the size of one foot.
“Your Mind works pretty fast!”
Yan Kuan suddenly understood after listening, annoyed that he hadn’t thought of it sooner.
Chen Bugu patted Yan Kuan’s shoulder.
“You still need to practice, Fatty.”
As for how Chen Bugu thought of it, it wasn’t because his Mind was quick; it was simply because Yan Kuan used the “Earth Swamp” move this way in his previous life.
Instead of expending a lot of mental power to create a complete large Earth Swamp area, which was also easy for enemies to escape, it was better to strengthen the control and casting speed of a small-range Earth Swamp.
However, that required higher precision in casting, and the current Yan Kuan indeed still needed to practice.
As time passed, nightfall draped the forest in a black coat. Darkness swept through the forest like a tide, and before it engulfed Chen Bugu and the others, Wang Bin lit a bonfire, its light slightly dispelling the darkness.
Everyone’s food for tonight was Luo Beast meat and big-orange, which was a bit richer than before.
After dinner, the purification of the crocodile turtle egg was also completed. Lin Lin was exhausted and went to rest after leaving the egg.
The others, however, gathered around the blue egg and watched for a long time. They were somewhat excited when they discovered it occasionally made slight tremors.
However, this excitement didn’t last too long, and everyone went to rest.
The flames in the middle of the clearing crackled, burning the firewood. This insignificant burning sound was very prominent in the quiet night.
The first group on night watch was Chen Bugu and Old Liu.
Chen Bugu sat on one side, keeping watch while attempting to maintain Breaking on his arm, trying to unlock a new gene lock.
Unfortunately, no matter how much mental power he injected, there seemed to be no reaction whatsoever, and he still had no clue about the conditions for unlocking the gene lock.
“Chen Bugu, you should have this.”
Old Liu sat beside Chen Bugu and took out an item from behind him.