After both Liu Cheng and Jia Lin had rested for a moment, they once again continued down the path they thought would be right.
They were unaware that this path led right to the heart of the valley, right where Lin Ming was situated.
“So it seems that my guess was right after all…”
Lin Ming pondered.
He had upgraded his Spiritual Perception ability, and to tell the truth, it had completely exceeded his imagination.
This ability allowed him to clearly hear the contents of the two human beings’ conversations!
Although he still could not perceive what the two people looked like, this was already sufficient.
Initially, he had thought he would only be able to detect their movements. He did not expect this ability to be quite so powerful.
However, he did not know if he would be able to understand foreigners if he were to encounter them in the future.
From the brief conversation overheard between the two, Lin Ming could still extract some information.
Spiritual realm, transcendent beings, missing people, spiritual aura density indicator, a transcendent being who could control fire elements, Bamboo Sea Nature Reserve, the corps outside the valley.
All this information compiled together allowed Lin Ming to deduce quite a bit.
Firstly, among the humans, there was a special group of people who had adapted to spiritual aura recovery. They labeled themselves as ‘transcendents’ and possessed special abilities.
Ordinary ones possessed massive strength. As for the one who they referred to as ‘Captain Zheng’, he possessed the ability to control fire elements!
Captain Zheng had to be the critical red person whose spiritual aura had appeared strange.
The matter of manipulating elemental attributes was something Lin Ming had guessed before.
The three wolves, Lil One, Lil Two, and Lil Three, had experienced a strange change in their fur. Some areas on their bodies had turned a light green color.
Lin Ming wondered whether they would evolve into demons that could utilize elements.
His previous suspicions were confirmed today.
On the human side, there was already a transcendent being who could use the fire element. Could the mutated creatures around him utilize elements too?
Would wind elemental wolves appear? Or perhaps a fire elemental snake and a lightning elemental panda?
Lin Ming already had some expectations for the coming development of his subordinates.
From the information contained in their conversation, Lin Ming also easily deduced a rough outline of the matter.
This sixteen-member squad of transcendents, led by Captain Zheng, had come to this spiritual realm known as the ‘Bamboo Sea Nature Reserve’, seemingly to complete two tasks.
The first was to retrieve the missing people. The second was to carry out the so-called ‘spiritual aura density indicator’.
The missing people probably referred to those four people. Regarding the matter of the ‘spiritual aura density indicator’, it left Lin Ming to rejoice at the decision that he had made.
Lin Ming was still clueless about how these people were going to measure the so-called spiritual aura. It seemed to require an instrument of sorts. He was very interested in why this group of people came to probe around.
He had some speculations about it.
Firstly, there appeared as many spiritual realms like this Bamboo Sea Nature Reserve on the entire Blue Star. To determine the level of threat of these spiritual realms, they had dispatched transcendent beings to measure it.
Secondly, only this area had been labeled a spiritual realm, and he, a mutated bamboo, was their objective.
Lin Ming had quickly ruled out the second speculation.
If that were the case, why would they only dispatch this number of transcendent beings? Why did they not directly adopt the strategy of sealing the borders with the army and protecting them with firepower?
Moreover, hearing the conversation between the two, it was certain that they did not know a single piece of information about Lin Ming.
The two only spoke of that ‘mutated snake’, ‘mutated panda’, and the other mutated creatures.
The humans perhaps had never considered that this valley was ruled by a mutated bamboo like him.
Perhaps, in other words, humans did not include plants within their scope of ‘mutated creatures’?
If that were the case, that certainly was good news.
In addition, that Aura Concealment ability worked well.
Otherwise, their conversation would have included phrases like ‘the spiritual aura density here is fairly powerful’, or ‘the strongest in this spiritual realm is a plant’.
The humans had mobilized a sixteen-member transcendent squad to look for missing people and measure the spiritual aura density. It seemed that their task was roughly complete.
However, to reduce losses, they had abandoned these three unlucky fellows in the spiritual realm.
These three unlucky fellows continued to trudge their way toward the heart of the valley.
Then, in front of Lin Ming was a choice.
Would he get rid of these three people, or let them go?
Frankly, if he had not heard the last few words uttered between them, Lin Ming would have chosen the first option. He would have allowed them to remain in the spiritual realm as corpses that could not talk or reveal any secrets.
The two had mentioned that if they died, the soldiers outside the valley would enter to collect their bodies.
Lin Ming understood the meaning carried by the word ‘soldiers’.
Strong discipline, strong execution, and heat weapons.
If they could enter the spiritual realm to recover the bodies of the dead transcendents, they would also be able to do a lot of damage in this spiritual realm.
Were the weapons they possessed like the ones with the highly explosive bullets that had severely injured Lil Six and Lil Seven?
There was almost no need to guess something like that.
Lin Ming examined himself. He had not reached the kind of strength and intensity that could easily scorn at human beings.
If humans showed boldness and the army crushed and covered the valley’s spiritual realm with firepower…
He might be able to regain his own original strength from the ashes. However, Adorable Little Snake, the little wolves, and even the panda, lynx, jackals, and the rest would definitely disappear.
Moreover, even if he could recover, the humans would certainly cut down the grass and pull up the roots.
As a ‘grass’ in a certain sense of the word, Lin Ming felt that now, he should try not to cross human beings.
Instead, he would hide behind the scenes, not revealing his existence, as he did just now.
He would utilize these mutated creatures to chase the humans out of the valley. During this period, he could continue to develop his strength to become a being that could completely look down on humans.
He would peacefully undergo a scary development. When the time came for the humans to retaliate, they would not have any way to deal with him.
“Well, I will dispatch Lil Four and the rest to regroup with Lil One and the others. They will send these humans out of here.”
Lin Ming thought of this and came to a decision.
Not killing them did not mean that he was incapable of doing so. It was also not to be considered as ‘mercy’.
Once he arrived at the power level where he could scorn at humans, Lin Ming would slaughter without hesitation.
A bamboo branch caressed Lil Four and the others who were running around, and delegated their newest task.
Lil Four and the others immediately flew away like arrows from a bow, disappearing.
“Next, there are still be tasks to be handed over. However, we need to wait for Adorable Little Snake and Panda to return.”
Lin Ming contemplated.
He had already done what he could do for the time being. The rest would now depend on the movements of the humans.
If they still wanted to upturn everything to investigate, then Lin Ming was not without preparation.
He would kill as many as dared come.