92: 【Follow the Heart Iron Soldier】Mutation
Su Yuan’s figure rapidly weaved through the trees, spiritual power surging beneath his feet, leaving trails of afterimages.
Through his Cultivation during this period, he had perfectly integrated “Treading on Snow Without a Trace” and the “Free and Unfettered Roaming” movement technique.
His current speed was already comparable to blue-Rank speed-type entries.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up.
Not far away, beneath a giant tree, a Wild Boar Demon with menacing tusks was rubbing its back against the rough bark.
Su Yuan’s lips curved slightly.
“Boom!”
A burst of spiritual power exploded beneath his feet, and his body shot up like an arrow released from a bowstring.
Mid-air, the greatsword in his hand instantly transformed into a fangtian halberd.
With a whooshing sound, it heavily smashed onto the Wild Boar Demon’s head.
“Crash!”
The dull thud of the halberd blade sinking into flesh, accompanied by the cracking sound of the Wild Boar Demon’s skull shattering.
The Wild Boar Demon immediately bled from all seven orifices and crashed to the ground.
A moment later, it dissipated into Devilish Qi.
After waiting for a while and seeing no entries or items drop, Su Yuan once again activated “Free and Unfettered Roaming” and continued to swiftly search for demonic creatures in the mountains.
“Oh! A Crow Spirit,”
Soon after, Su Yuan spotted another demonic creature in a tree.
However, he lacked ranged attack methods, so he could only leap up again and pin it down from afar with his halberd.
After successively killing seven or eight demonic creatures, Su Yuan passed through a dense forest and finally found the first mini-boss he encountered in this Secret Realm—the Bear Leader!
The giant bear was massive and incredibly strong, and its fur provided strong defense.
It looked very difficult to deal with.
But in reality, this type of boss was most susceptible to Su Yuan. Last time he came, he was already able to kill the Bear Leader alone.
This time was even easier.
Using the “Free and Unfettered Roaming” movement technique, he easily approached the Bear Leader, and with one halberd strike to its horse leg, he directly broke the Bear Leader’s paw joint.
“Roar—!” The giant bear howled and knelt to the ground.
Taking advantage of the giant bear’s fall, Su Yuan seized the opening, his halberd striking like a Dragon, aiming straight for the giant bear’s throat.
Blood splattered, and the giant bear struggled before collapsing.
“Too easy!”
In just a few moves, he easily ended the Bear Leader’s life.
After defeating this mini-boss, he didn't find any other demonic creatures for a long time.
Su Yuan took out water and food from his spatial storage, replenishing some energy.
“I wonder how Qin Zijin’s progress is…”
Su Yuan continued his search for demonic creatures.
The demonic creatures in this Secret Realm were now very sparse; he often had to search for a long time to find just one.
This was thanks to his speed.
By around four in the afternoon, Su Yuan had almost given up hope.
It was nearly time to descend the mountain.
Unexpectedly, he discovered another mini-boss.
The Wolf Head Leader, which he once had to trade blows to kill, only lasted two moves against him this time.
Su Yuan knocked it down with a single halberd strike on their first encounter.
Su Yuan clearly perceived his own progress.
Around 4:40, he returned to the Secret Realm entrance on time.
His gains this time were relatively ordinary.
No other entry items dropped, only two white entry fragments.
Su Yuan had originally hoped to see if another As-You-Wish Iron Rod would drop.
He was really fond of the weapon he had.
Qin Zijin only emerged from the Langlang Mountain Secret Realm right at five o’clock.
“How were your gains? You didn’t encounter any danger, did you?” Su Yuan asked as he waited for her at the entrance.
“Not bad! I encountered a Wolf Head Leader and almost got injured, but luckily, I managed to kill it in the end.”
The girl looked happy, “Oh, by the way, my Cultivation increased by 16% this time. How does that compare to you?”
“Uh, let me see. I went from 13% on the ninth layer to 40%, an increase of 27%.”
“Wow! Then you must have killed two mini-bosses, right? I’m so envious! Oh, by the way, look what this is!”
The two walked back to the teaching building from the back mountain.
Qin Zijin showed Su Yuan an iron rod she was holding.
“Is that an entry weapon you got from killing monsters just now?” Su Yuan asked.
He had noticed earlier that besides her Fire-Tipped Spear, Qin Zijin had an extra long iron rod.
“Yes, but I’m not asking you about that; I’m asking you what kind of weapon this is!” Qin Zijin winked slyly.
“This… isn’t it just an ordinary refined iron rod?”
“Dummy! Don’t you think it looks familiar? You have one yourself!” Qin Zijin rolled her eyes.
“Ah!”
Su Yuan was stunned, then he reacted.
“This… this is a As-You-Wish Iron Rod?!”
“That’s right!”
Qin Zijin giggled, pouring spiritual power into it to summon the entry panel.
“Item Name”: damaged ruyi iron rod
“Attached Entry”: Effortless Lifting
“Entry Rank”: green
“Entry Effect”: No matter how heavy it is, it can be held effortlessly.
“This entry… is just so-so!”
This “Effortless Lifting” entry would naturally be extremely helpful if it were on an inherently heavy weapon.
But Su Yuan knew that the As-You-Wish Iron Rod was not heavy.
Therefore, this entry was indeed a bit redundant here.
Qin Zijin also nodded: “Yes, but it’s not light and flimsy when you carry it; it’s more like a very handy, very suitable feeling.”
She handed the iron rod to Su Yuan: “You try it too!”
“It really fits well!”
Su Yuan took the As-You-Wish Iron Rod with “Effortless Lifting” and weighed it.
He then took out his own As-You-Wish Iron Rod with “Shape-Shifting” and changed it back into an iron rod.
He held one in each hand to feel them.
Indeed, Qin Zijin’s iron rod was lighter and handier.
“In that case, it’s not bad,” Su Yuan twirled the rod with one hand, praising it.
He then tapped it with his own iron rod, wanting to feel it from multiple angles.
“Dong!”
The two iron rods collided, emitting only a dull thud.
“Huh, why are they stuck together?!”
Su Yuan was stunned, and Qin Zijin also looked over curiously.
They saw that where the two iron rods collided, they were firmly stuck together like magnets.
Upon closer inspection, Su Yuan’s face immediately showed surprise.
“…It’s actually Fusing!”
They saw that the connection point of the two iron rods was magically merging together, like water and milk blending.
The metal was like wax melting at high temperatures.
And it gradually spread, other parts also gradually Fusing together.
It was like molten iron being recast.
Under the incredulous gazes of Su Yuan and Qin Zijin, the two iron rods miraculously Fused into one!
A seemingly brand-new iron rod lay in Su Yuan’s palm.
“What… what’s going on?”
Su Yuan and Qin Zijin stared at each other, both a bit dumbfounded.
“This weapon can actually Fuse?”
“Could it have been the same weapon before? It’s not impossible. Look at its prefix, ‘damaged ruyi iron rod’; these might all be broken parts of the As-You-Wish Iron Rod,” Su Yuan analyzed.
“But other weapons also often have the ‘damaged’ prefix, yet I’ve never heard of them being able to Fuse!” Qin Zijin fell into thought.
“Perhaps this weapon is more powerful. Other damaged weapons are just damaged and won’t restore themselves. This weapon is more powerful; it can absorb and Fuse with other damaged parts.”
Su Yuan thought of a plausible explanation.
The two studied it for a while but couldn't find any more clues.
“Oh, right, summon the entry information and see if both entries are still there,” Qin Zijin reminded him.
If only one entry remained after the synthesis, that would be a loss!
“Right, right,” Su Yuan snapped back to reality and quickly poured spiritual power into the newly synthesized iron rod.
In an instant, three entries appeared on the new iron rod.
Both of them were stunned.
“Huh, why are there three?”
Su Yuan’s iron rod only had “Shape-Shifting,” and Qin Zijin’s iron rod only had “Effortless Lifting.”
Where did the third one come from?
Could it have been generated again after the Fusion… that’s the only explanation.
Their eyes scanned the information entries.
Among them, the two green entries were naturally “Shape-Shifting” and “Effortless Lifting.”
And the third one that appeared—
“It’s actually a red entry!”
[I came back last night thinking I’d just lie down for a bit, but I fell asleep and procrastinated until now.]