Chapter 191 - 131: Height Card and Lighting Stone! A Bloodthirsty Vine That Can Simulate and Learn! The Coming Rainy Season

Chapter 191: Chapter 131: Height Card and Lighting Stone! A Bloodthirsty Vine That Can Simulate and Learn! The Coming Rainy Season

’A Lighting Stone?’

Chen Chong stared at the faintly glowing stone on the Card.

This was the first time this Card had appeared. Judging by the description, it didn’t seem to be anything special. It was just a rock that could provide light, a daily necessity not much different from a candle.

However, given their current survival situation, it was quite practical.

’But... the Gloomy Abyss.’

’Why does that name sound so familiar?’

Chen Chong thought for a moment, then suddenly remembered.

The description for recruiting the Blade-Limbed Assassin Insect had mentioned that it came from the Gloomy Abyss.

In fact, this wasn’t the first time an unheard-of place name had appeared on a Card.

For example, Wang Biao, Jia Wen, and even Qi Zhen—the dynasties they came from were not places he was familiar with.

But the Gloomy Abyss had now been mentioned for a second time.

A thought began to form in Chen Chong’s mind. ’Could this place be another ecosystem?’

Judging from the name alone, surviving there would be several times more difficult than in any jungle or desert.

’If I were really transported there, the difficulty of survival would probably skyrocket...’

Shaking his head, Chen Chong let out a laugh, feeling he was overthinking things. He immediately activated the Card.

The next second, a fist-sized stone appeared in his palm.

He had to admit, the Lighting Stone lived up to its name.

The moment it appeared, the dim room instantly brightened.

The light it emitted was far more brilliant than a candle, its brightness almost comparable to a modern light bulb.

Chen Chong toyed with the Lighting Stone in his hand for a bit, but he couldn’t figure out the principle behind its glow.

’On second thought, that’s to be expected. These things can’t be understood with common sense anyway. The items from the Cards are all unbelievable contraptions. It would be stranger if I could figure them out so easily.’

He glanced at the Blade-Limbed Assassin Insect hidden in the corner and sent a mental command.

The Blade-Limbed Assassin Insect sensed its master’s call and immediately crawled over, stopping obediently at his feet.

Chen Chong held the Lighting Stone in front of it.

"Do you recognize this?"

The Blade-Limbed Assassin Insect circled the Lighting Stone twice. Its two pairs of blade-like forelimbs lightly tapped the stone’s surface, making a crisp sound.

Then, it swayed its body as if to tell Chen Chong... that it was very familiar with this object.

’Just as I thought!’

Chen Chong understood.

’The Lighting Stone really did come from the same place as the Blade-Limbed Assassin Insect.’

’I wonder how many other strange things are hidden in this place called the Gloomy Abyss.’

After a moment of thought, Chen Chong decided to put the Lighting Stone in the living room.

Although his own bedroom also needed light, the living room, where everyone gathered, clearly needed it more.

But before taking the Lighting Stone out, there was one more thing to do...

’The Daily Intel!’

As something just as important as the daily settlement, Chen Chong wouldn’t forget it...

[C-Class Intel: The Jungle will soon enter its rainy season. At that time, the river and all its tributaries will rise, and many animals will hide in their nests and not go out.]

[C-Class Intel: When the rainy season arrives, Fierce Poisonous Bees will hide in their nests and hibernate. Their aggressiveness will be greatly reduced, and they will enter a weakened state.]

Chen Chong read the first two pieces of intel, his brow immediately twitching.

’The Jungle... a rainy season?’

’This isn’t a good sign.’

Once the rainy season arrived, not only would the jungle animals be reluctant to go out, but it would also be unsuitable for humans to venture outside.

Otherwise, the wet and slippery environment would not only make it easy to slip and fall but could also lead to illness.

With the river rising, it would also no longer be suitable for fishing.

The arrival of the rainy season meant that the difficulty of finding prey would increase dramatically, and the success rate of hunting would plummet.

For the people at the school, this was practically a death sentence.

But that didn’t mean there were no advantages.

During the rainy season, people would go hungry, as would many animals. Once it ended, they would all swarm out to find food.

At that time, it would definitely be easier for the people at the school to hunt than it was now.

At the same time, many puddles would form on both sides of the receding waters, trapping fish and shrimp that hadn’t escaped in time. They would become easy prey for the jungle animals to pick off...

’Besides these benefits, isn’t the second piece of intel also like that?’

"The Fierce Poisonous Bees’ weakness is actually the rainy season?"

Chen Chong considered whether he should take a trip to the thicket during that time.

After all, the Jungle Compendium clearly recorded that this insect’s nectar was a good thing.

Even for a Transcendent, consuming it would bring certain benefits.

"It seems this rainy season has its pros and cons. It’s just a pity the intel’s rank is too low; it doesn’t say exactly when it will arrive or when it will end..."

Chen Chong pushed aside his thoughts about the rainy season and turned to the third piece of intel.

He took a closer look and saw that there was an A-Level intel today, which made him grow a little serious.

After all, based on past experience, whenever an A-Level intel appeared, it was more or less related to Extraordinary Creatures.

[A-Level Intel: With sufficient energy, a Bloodthirsty Vine can infinitely split and parasitize. Each Bloodthirsty Vine possesses an independent consciousness. Under normal circumstances, the Bloodthirsty Vine King will not interfere with the actions of its offshoots. After successfully parasitizing a host, a Bloodthirsty Vine not only devours the host’s physical energy but can also digest the host’s memories, allowing it to imitate, learn, and continuously evolve. After successfully parasitizing humans, the Bloodthirsty Vine discovered a more suitable host than beasts and birds. It has now mastered a great deal of previously unknown knowledge. To learn more, it has changed its previous parasitic model. It no longer immediately absorbs all of a host’s strength, which would lead to weakness and death. Instead, it now focuses on spreading and lying dormant, parasitizing different people while ensuring the hosts’ survival, greedily absorbing each person’s memories...]

Gazing at the intel, Chen Chong fell into deep thought...

’This thing... loves to learn this much?’

’Is it really just an A+ Class Extraordinary Creature?’

’It even changed its parasitic model just to learn human knowledge?’

’To be fair, if a normal person had the Bloodthirsty Vine’s enthusiasm for learning, they’d have a boundless future...’

Chen Chong’s brows furrowed tightly.

’This thing is even harder to deal with than I imagined.’

Every time intel about the Bloodthirsty Vine appeared, it shattered his previous impression of it.

’Infinite splitting and parasitizing, independent consciousness, memory reading, learning through imitation...’

Every single one of those traits was a nightmare to deal with.

Especially the learning through imitation.

No wonder the damn thing was so intelligent. It probably evolved by constantly learning through one host after another.

In the past, when it parasitized the birds and beasts of the Primitive Jungle, what it could learn was limited. Even so, it became smart enough to outwit the Unihorn Catfish, the Stone Claw Eagle, and even the Blood-tooth Python.

Now that it had parasitized humans, the things it could learn were unimaginable. Heaven knows what level its intelligence would evolve to.

’Right now, I can only pray that the people it’s parasitizing don’t have anything useful in their heads. If it learns something truly valuable, we’ll be in trouble...’

Chen Chong stood up.

The Blood-tooth Python had been slain, and a night’s rest had fully restored his energy. Now was the time to deal with the vine.

The Extraordinary Creature’s intelligence was bizarrely high. If he didn’t deal with it soon, it would only become more troublesome.

Before heading out, Chen Chong’s gaze fell on the Extraordinary Artifact Forging Furnace.

At that moment, the Forging Furnace was trembling slightly.

This meant that an item was being forged inside.

The Blood-tooth Python materials he had brought back earlier had already been forged.

Besides the Blood Eye Blade, Snakebone Giant Axe, and Bipolar Bow that were initially crafted,

the leftover scraps couldn’t be used to forge any more Extraordinary Weapons, so Chen Chong had thrown them into the furnace in batches, refining them into several Extraordinary Artifacts of varying levels.

The material currently being forged in the furnace wasn’t from the Blood-tooth Python, but rather the Earth Core Crystal he had discovered in the Underground Cave while hunting it.

The Earth Core Crystal was the first completely naturally formed Extraordinary Material Chen Chong had discovered, aside from materials from Extraordinary Creatures.

According to the Identification Skill, this item was A- Level. It was a natural ore formed deep within the earth’s veins over thousands of years, and its contained Extraordinary Power could grant a living being the ability of invisibility.

On its own, it could already be considered a rather excellent Extraordinary Artifact.

But Chen Chong couldn’t help but wonder: since it was an Extraordinary Material, what kind of change would it undergo if it were tempered by the Extraordinary Forging Furnace?

So, just a moment ago, after retrieving a few newly forged Extraordinary Artifacts, he had unhesitatingly tossed the Earth Core Crystal into the Forging Furnace.

Sure enough, the Forging Furnace reacted instantly!

Raging flames instantly erupted, quickly enveloping the Earth Core Crystal layer by layer.

Countless tongues of fire surged and coiled, beginning to temper this A- Level Extraordinary Material...

Based on the Forging Furnace’s past forging times, the more precious and rare the material, the longer the forging process would take.

An A-Level material would take at least half a day to form. It probably wouldn’t be finished before dawn.

Chen Chong didn’t pay it any more mind. He planned to take care of his own business first and come back after he was done. It would probably be about ready then...

...