371: Chapter 371 Overflowing Vitality

Wen Yan's fingertips trembled as he reached out to touch a nearby grass stem thicker than his thigh. The rough, slightly fuzzy texture transmitted clearly to his nerve endings. Inside the stem, fluid flowed slowly, and he could even feel the immense pulse of life within.

This was no illusion.

Wen Yan pinched his own cheek hard. The sharp pain made him suck in a cold breath.

It was real.

He slowly stood up.

His gaze passed over the green barrier before him—something that could no longer be called mere 'grass'—and a bizarre world unfolded before his eyes, a sight bizarre enough to instantly shatter the sanity of any normal person.

Above, where the Organization's sturdy alloy dome should have been, it was now completely pierced by an indescribably colossal tree. Growing from its branches were not leaves, but clusters of enormous, constantly opening and closing translucent spores. With each opening and closing, multicolored, luminous dust drifted down from them.

Wherever the luminous dust landed, new, bizarrely shaped plants would immediately break through the soil.

A mushroom grew from mycelium to the height of a three-story building in mere seconds. Its cap was covered in swirling, ever-shifting patterns of color.

A vine crawled frantically up the ruined wall of the Duel Arena. For every meter it extended, it bloomed a metallic blue flower. From the stamens, liquid life energy sprayed out, gathering on the ground into a small, emerald-green stream.

The air was thick with a cloyingly sweet plant fragrance. With every breath, it felt as if countless essences of life were being forcibly poured into his lungs.

Wen Yan felt his body beginning to swell again.

Where was this place?

The Demon Realm? A Divine Domain? Or some never-before-discovered alternate dimension brimming with primordial vitality?

No.

It was none of those.

Wen Yan's body froze. He recognized it. That ten-meter-tall 'weed' was scientifically known as 'Setaria viridis', the most common type of weed within the territory, found everywhere by the roadside, never growing taller than half a meter. That three-story-tall giant mushroom was 'Leucocoprinus birnbaumii', a common, non-toxic edible fungus, usually no bigger than a palm.

And those drifting spores, those climbing vines... they were all the most ordinary, most unremarkable plants in his knowledge.

Precisely because they were ordinary, it made the scene utterly terrifying.

This was no alternate world.

This was the Duel Arena of the Organization.

It's just that... everything here had been ripened for hundreds of millions of years by that incomprehensible, world-creating vitality.

It was truly breathtaking. Wen Yan considered himself far from ignorant. Whether during his studies or after starting work, especially after joining Fangs, he had seen far, far more than the average person.

Yet, he had still rarely heard of such anomalous phenomena, let alone witnessed them with his own eyes.

Just then, a series of soft, dull thuds and the whistling sound of objects cutting through the air came from ahead of the wild grass thicket.

Wen Yan's heart tightened. He slowly straightened up, feeling something was off.

His body felt sore and swollen, but this wasn't due to fatigue. It was because an overwhelming influx of vitality had flooded him, leaving him with a feeling of being stuffed full, like after overeating. His muscle fibers, the depths of his bone marrow, were packed with inexhaustible energy.

This swelling sensation wasn't exactly unpleasant, just a bit awkward.

Wen Yan flexed his muscles and joints, eliciting a series of crackling pops. He suddenly realized... this feeling was actually quite comfortable.

He pushed aside the dogtail grass taller than a man and cautiously walked toward the source of the sound.

Passing through a screen of fern-like plants, the scene before him rooted him to the spot.

In a relatively open area, three figures were sparring.

Lin Yu, Lin Yao, and... Zhao Tianyang.

He could understand Lin Yu and Lin Yao waking up early. After all, they were the instigators, the epicenter of this disaster, or perhaps, this miracle.

But why was Zhao Tianyang awake too? And even earlier than himself?

Wen Yan's brain completely short-circuited.

He remembered clearly. Earlier, to buy time for Lin Yao, Zhao Tianyang had been the most brutally drained, beaten almost into a pulp. Even with the nourishment from Lin Yu's sea of life, he couldn't possibly have recovered this fast, could he?

To be even faster than me...

What a monster.

Judging by their current state, the three of them seemed to have been awake for a while.

They weren't using any grand, flashy skills. Instead, they were engaged in a form of sparring that resembled practical combat training, relying purely on raw physical power.

Lin Yao's movements were agile and deadly. Her fingertips occasionally traced a cold, arcing light, condensing into sharp ice blades aimed precisely at Lin Yu's vital points. Each of her attacks carried a precision forged through countless repetitions, clearly having integrated the Infinite Legion's combat techniques into her instincts.

Zhao Tianyang, on the other hand, was a completely different style.

He wasn't in that terrifying Eight-Armed Asura form, appearing in his most ordinary human state. Yet, every punch, every kick carried a momentum as heavy as a mountain. Where his fists passed, even the air was compressed, emitting dull explosive sounds.

Wen Yan had no doubt that if one of those punches landed on him, his specially-made combat suit would be as fragile as paper.

This kid was stronger than before! And not just in raw power, but his control over it had improved by more than a notch!

Wen Yan's attention finally settled on the figure who, fighting one against two, seemed completely at ease.

Lin Yu.

Facing his sister's cunning attacks and his subordinate's fierce blows, his movements were simplicity itself.

No superfluous footwork, no flashy techniques.

When Lin Yao's ice blade shot toward him, he merely shifted his body sideways, letting the deadly cold light skim past the edge of his clothes with pinpoint accuracy.

When Zhao Tianyang's heavy fist blasted toward him, he simply raised his hand, gently meeting it with his palm, effortlessly dissipating the force capable of splitting mountains and shattering stone.

The entire process flowed seamlessly, possessing an indescribable sense of rhythm.

He was like a reef, standing firm and unmoving no matter how the wind and waves battered against him.

This wasn't because his practical combat ability surpassed the two before him, but rather a form of confidence.

It was a fighting style cultivated under extreme self-assurance. Zhao Tianyang and Lin Yao, influenced by this style, had completely fallen into Lin Yu's combat rhythm.

But this rhythm...

Wen Yan's Adam's apple bobbed.

What the hell... are they doing?

Morning exercises?

Just after causing such a huge commotion, nearly draining everyone dry, then flooding the entire Organization with vitality, transforming a high-tech Duel Arena into a prehistoric jungle...

After all that, you three masterminds are here calmly practicing... health-preservation boxing?