Chapter Ninety-Six: Now We’ve Truly Struck It Rich

Swallowing a piece of spirit stone, he gained over five hundred energy points.

Seeing the result, Lu Chen’s beast eyes first revealed disbelief, then brimmed with an inexplicable excitement. Had he not been deep at the bottom of the pool at that moment, he might have howled to the heavens.

Once his mood calmed somewhat, he understood why the spirit stone he had previously obtained had only yielded a hundred energy points. That fragment had languished in the belly of the Black-tailed Rock Python for who knew how long, its energy already mostly absorbed.

One piece, two pieces, three pieces… After swallowing three spirit stones in succession, Lu Chen did not succumb to greed. He decisively stopped, quietly lying at the bottom to digest.

After all, a spirit stone no bigger than a fingernail had nearly caused Blackspot to explode and die. It was only thanks to its unique talent that it had survived. Though his own body had been strengthened several times, caution was still necessary.

“A grade one spirit stone provides 436 energy points.”

“A grade one spirit stone provides…”

As new messages continued to appear on the system panel, Lu Chen finally relaxed. This body’s capacity far exceeded his imagination.

Until now, Lu Chen had always regarded himself as an ordinary bay crocodile. Only at this moment did he truly experience the formidable power of bloodline reversion.

In just an hour, the three spirit stones were fully digested. Seeing no adverse reactions... he swallowed a fourth and a fifth!

Then, he waited for further changes.

When he had swallowed eleven in total, Lu Chen finally felt something strange within him.

A qualitative change sparked a quantitative leap.

Where once his limbs and bones were calm, now waves of intense heat surged. It was reminiscent of the time in the Tiannan Mountain Reserve, when he had devoured Burmese python flesh.

But the previous fever was but a trickling stream; now, it was a raging flood, a tempestuous wave... overwhelmingly fierce!

In an instant, Lu Chen felt his body burn out of control. Even the icy surrounding water began to boil, bubbling furiously.

His beast eyes turned blood-red. The scales on his back bulged, growing rapidly until they pierced through, transforming into sharp, black bone spines.

Boom, boom, boom!

To dispel the internal heat, Lu Chen rampaged through the depths, stirring up a torrent of murky water...

He did not know how long it lasted, but eventually the heat subsided entirely, and his reason returned.

Only then did he notice a new row of bone spines growing along his back, a mutation brought about by the bloodline reversion.

Looking again at the system panel, he saw the bloodline reversion value had indeed risen to twenty-seven percent… all thanks to consuming those spirit stones.

Afterward, Lu Chen moved across the pool’s bottom, feeling lighter than before. With a flick of his tail, he could swim more than ten meters in an instant, stirring the surface of his scales into wisps of foul, black mist.

Black mist?

He stopped to observe carefully and found that the mist was impurities expelled from within, just clinging to the surface of his scales.

Having experienced this before, he knew well that refining his body was a blessing.

Swallowing so many spirit stones at once had granted him thousands of energy points.

Yet now, his belly felt empty, hunger gnawing at him.

It seemed spirit stones alone could provide energy points, but could not satisfy his digestive needs. He would still need to feed on flesh and blood to sustain his body’s daily requirements.

There were many nutrients in food that spirit stones simply lacked.

He quickly found the water anaconda he had killed earlier and devoured its flesh, consuming over three hundred pounds before his hunger was sated.

Blood Serpent Orchid, spirit stones, mutated water anacondas and the prehistoric tyrant salamander, as well as that mysterious skeleton... even the trees in the valley were noticeably taller than elsewhere.

Lu Chen had long suspected something was amiss in this place.

Now, he had found the root: it was the presence of spirit stones that had caused such great changes nearby.

No, merely the stones within the deep pool were not enough for this.

Perhaps beneath the thick mud, more spirit stones lay hidden.

With this hypothesis, Lu Chen searched the pool bottom carefully. Sure enough, after swimming a short distance, he sensed subtle fluctuations deep within the silt.

He immediately swept his claws, quickly digging out a spirit stone.

Moreover, the underground disturbances grew clearer—there seemed to be many more buried deep below.

Could there be a spirit stone vein?

If so, it would explain the abnormal changes throughout the entire forest.

Thus, it was highly likely that a spiritual vein existed in the hot spring valley of Tiannan Mountain.

Understanding this, Lu Chen wished he could smack himself with his claw.

Why had he not thought of this before? Had he found and consumed spirit stones earlier, perhaps he would already be the dominant bay crocodile, reigning above all.

There would have been no need to cross the sea and struggle in the Madura rainforests.

But it was not too late!

At least, before the era of great transformation began, he was already a step ahead of the other animals.

Lu Chen’s original plan had been to hunt down all the mutated water anacondas, then return to his lair on the mountain’s edge to find Boss Croc and the others.

Now, knowing there was a spiritual vein here, he changed his mind.

The water anacondas’ mutations were not only due to devouring Blood Serpent Orchid; more likely, like the hot spring valley, they had lived near the spiritual vein for a long time, gradually mutating.

Lu Chen immediately decided to claim this mountain forest as his new territory, and later bring Boss Croc and the others to settle here.

But first, he had to wipe out the remaining mutated water anacondas.

Without the snakes, the party would continue, but the strange fragrance of Blood Serpent Orchid would not keep them here for long—they would soon disperse.

As Lu Chen had guessed, the mutated water anacondas possessed considerable intelligence. Seeing the female water anaconda sink to the bottom and not reappear for so long, they grew restless and agitated.

Suddenly, waves rolled across the surface—a dark, four-legged reptile emerged!

“Hiss, hiss…”

Spotting their enemy, the creatures immediately twisted their bodies, swiftly encircling him.

Seeing they did not flee, Lu Chen did not hesitate. He cut off his breathing and charged at the nearest water anaconda.

Splash! The waters churned.

In a blink, Lu Chen was entwined by the opponent... He had done this deliberately, to test the sharpness of his back’s bone spines.

As the anaconda tightened its coils, it sensed something was amiss. It seemed to be wrapped around a block of hard stone, unable to crush it.

Damn, what a waste of effort.

Lu Chen was thoroughly speechless.

The bone spines, besides making him look more imposing, were utterly useless.

But he had just grasped a new mutated ability, which he could now try.

Test complete, Lu Chen had no intention of entangling with the water anaconda any longer. His tail suddenly whipped out.

Snap, snap, snap... He struck hard at the snake’s body.

It soon could not withstand the blows and instinctively loosened its grip.

Lu Chen opened his jaws and snapped its spine.

Then he set his sights on a second water anaconda, swimming swiftly toward it.

His limbs propelled him through the water at more than twice his previous speed.