Chapter 4

Ye Jingyan never could have imagined that the “powerful” origin crystal that had become practically legendary in his previous life, luring countless ability users to their deaths, was now right in front of him—and was actually a useless crystal!
It was as though Heaven had played one enormous joke on everyone!
He suddenly felt that the ability users who had died in Fine Beauty Department Store in his previous life had died for nothing.
In fact, origin crystals differed not only in size but also in attribute, and their colours varied accordingly. For example, crystals containing fire-aspected origin energy were generally red, and a flame would appear at the centre of the origin-energy sphere inside the ability user. Crystals containing water-aspected origin energy were generally blue, and a droplet would appear at the centre of the ability user’s origin-energy sphere…
There was one exception, however. One type of origin crystal had no attribute at all and looked like colourless, transparent quartz, so ability users searching for origin crystals often overlooked it. These crystals were extremely rare. Absorbing their origin energy could still turn someone into an ability user, but the origin-energy sphere inside that person would remain blank.
In other words, someone who awakened through a transparent origin crystal would gain improvements in speed, strength, constitution, and similar physical qualities as their level rose, but would never acquire any other supernatural ability.
For that reason, transparent origin crystals were also known as “useless crystals.”
Looking at the useless crystal before him, Ye Jingyan let out a deep sigh. Although its usefulness was limited, he might as well take it first. Perhaps it would prove useful someday.
He first surveyed the surrounding area. Only after confirming there was no danger did he step forward and carefully remove the origin crystal from the crack in the wall.
The longer Ye Jingyan looked at the transparent crystal in his hand, the more regretful he felt. It was three times the size of a normal origin crystal. An ability user awakened through it should possess far more origin energy than another ability user at the same level.
What a pity.
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The emotional swing from great excitement to disappointment suddenly left Ye Jingyan tired. In low spirits, he placed the origin crystal in his pocket and turned to continue toward the fifth floor. But at that exact moment, something unexpected happened. A thin vine suddenly shot out from the huge crack in the wall. Before Ye Jingyan could react, it wrapped tightly around his waist, and a tremendous force immediately began dragging him backward.
After living through the apocalypse for years, Ye Jingyan did not panic at such a sudden attack. In the crisis, he thrust the other end of the iron rod against the wall behind him, barely slowing his backward slide. But before he could turn to see what had attacked him, another vine burst from the crack, wrapped around the iron rod, and yanked it away. Deprived of support, Ye Jingyan stumbled several steps backward and slammed heavily into the wall.
The vine around his waist tightened again, trying to drag him into the crack. But he was an adult. No matter how wide the fissure was, there was no way his body could pass through it smoothly. The creature on the other side seemed to become anxious and kept increasing the force of its pull, apparently determined to achieve its goal.
As the pressure around his waist grew stronger, Ye Jingyan soon began having difficulty breathing and his vision blurred. With effort, he twisted around, planted one leg against the wall to create some distance between his body and the surface, then gripped the vine with both hands and pulled backward with all his strength. For a moment, the two sides reached a stalemate.
Taking advantage of that brief opportunity, Ye Jingyan drew the short dagger he had previously bought from his boot and slashed hard at the vine around his waist. He had no idea what kind of mutated plant was inside the crack. Although the vine looked extremely thin, it was astonishingly tough. Ye Jingyan had to exert tremendous effort just to leave a shallow wound on its surface.
He immediately abandoned the idea and searched for another way out. At this rate, he would be strangled to death long before he managed to cut through the vine.
But the creature did not seem willing to give him that chance. Very soon, Ye Jingyan heard the faint sound of something scraping inside the crack. The noise drew closer and closer, as though something was trying to squeeze its way out.
Whatever the creature was, fire was usually the right choice against a mutated plant.
With that thought, before the creature could emerge, Ye Jingyan quickly tore out part of his clothing lining, pulled a lighter from his pocket, and set one corner alight. He planned to throw the burning fabric at the monster when it appeared and use the opening to escape.
But the instant he saw what kind of mutated creature had attacked him, he immediately abandoned the idea of using fire, and overwhelming terror engulfed him.
The monster inside the crack was a Heaven-Devouring Plant!
Deep regret surged through Ye Jingyan. Everything he knew about this mutated plant flashed through his mind—
Heaven-Devouring Plants were extremely rare. Before Ye Jingyan died in his previous life, only one had ever been discovered in the whole country, deep within a southern forest. That forest had quickly been designated a universally recognised “forbidden death zone,” because no one had any idea how to deal with a mutated plant that swallowed anything it encountered and feared neither fire nor blades.
Ye Jingyan suddenly understood something.
So the ability users who came treasure-hunting in Fine Beauty Department Store in his previous life must have been devoured by this thing. If he had known, even beating him to death would not have persuaded him to confront such a vicious mutated plant—one nicknamed the “wooden glutton”—for the sake of a useless crystal.
But regret was meaningless now. The Heaven-Devouring Plant had already been enraged by Ye Jingyan’s earlier actions. Its roots were planted firmly inside the crack, more than half its body protruded from the wall, and two vines whipped through the air with sharp cracking sounds while its head lunged rapidly toward Ye Jingyan.
Watching the flower crown draw closer and closer, Ye Jingyan felt despair for an instant. Then he fiercely rejected the thought in his mind—
No! He absolutely could not die here!
In desperation, he remembered the “useless crystal” he had just placed in his pocket. He did not want to use it, but if he wanted to survive, he had no choice but to gamble. He was already facing certain death. Although the Heaven-Devouring Plant was ferocious, it appeared to still be in its juvenile stage. Perhaps once he possessed an ability user’s enhanced strength and speed, he could force his way out of its jaws alive!
So while dodging the Heaven-Devouring Plant’s pursuit, he pulled the useless crystal from his pocket and pressed it against his forehead without hesitation. The instant he sensed the tremendous origin energy within it, he guided that energy into his body as quickly as possible…
Absorbing origin energy from an origin crystal was actually a simple process. As long as someone had a compatible constitution and strong mental power, they could succeed. The crystal in his hand had no attribute, and Ye Jingyan had already absorbed origin energy once in his previous life, so he was not worried at all about the possibility of failure.
At that moment, he felt a violent surge of power rush into his body. It swept rapidly through his organs and into every limb and bone, forcefully transforming his body. At the same time, every nerve and even every cell seemed to send intense pain screaming into his brain!
Ye Jingyan had guessed correctly. The Heaven-Devouring Plant had indeed only just mutated and was currently in a stage where it was curious about everything. When it discovered that the “prey” in front of it seemed to be undergoing some kind of change, it unusually restrained its urge to swallow him whole. Instead, it wrapped a vine around Ye Jingyan, lifted him into midair, and turned him over repeatedly as though “studying” him.
It soon found this entertaining and simply began tossing and swinging Ye Jingyan through the air for fun.
Poor Ye Jingyan was already gritting his teeth against the agony of origin energy remaking his body. Now the Heaven-Devouring Plant was toying with him like a cat tormenting a mouse. Dizzy and disoriented, he suddenly felt a burst of irrational fury from nowhere. In his dazed state, as he swung downward, he grabbed the Heaven-Devouring Plant’s root and began tearing at it desperately. Apparently deciding that still was not enough to vent his anger, he leaned his head over and bit down viciously…
What was that in his mouth? Mm, so bitter and astringent…
And it seemed a little hard on his teeth…
As the hard unidentified object in his mouth went down his throat, Ye Jingyan vaguely felt something enter the origin-energy sphere that was gradually forming inside him. Immediately afterward, a pale green sphere of light spread outward with the man and plant at its centre.
Several breaths later, the light gradually faded. The Heaven-Devouring Plant had vanished, while Ye Jingyan fell heavily to the ground…
The impact instantly snapped him back to awareness. He immediately sprang up from the floor and spread origin energy throughout his body while frantically thinking about how to deal with the crisis—
His origin-energy sphere had formed successfully, but Ye Jingyan knew that because he had absorbed a useless crystal, he would gain no other ability beyond an improved physique. It seemed his only option was to see whether he could temporarily force the creature back through brute strength.
Given his current condition, Ye Jingyan believed that even if he could create only a single breath’s worth of space, he would have a strong chance of escaping.
But after deciding on a response, Ye Jingyan discovered something astonishing: the Heaven-Devouring Plant that had just been playing with him like prey was gone…
How could that be? Where had the Heaven-Devouring Plant gone? Was this another new way for it to play with him?!
Ye Jingyan no longer dared trust his eyesight alone. With practised skill, he circulated the origin energy inside his body and formed it into fine strands, using them to probe the surrounding space and search for the plant.
The result stunned him. Normally, the detection range of a Level-One ability user’s origin-energy strands should be only around a dozen metres, but his current range was nearly fifty metres. And the strands clearly told him that the Heaven-Devouring Plant truly was no longer nearby.
While breathing a sigh of relief, Ye Jingyan also secretly rejoiced. Although he had been forced to fuse with a useless crystal in an emergency, he could clearly feel that this crystal had given him at least three times as much origin energy as the fire-aspected origin crystal from his previous life…
As an ability user’s level increased, their origin energy doubled accordingly. In other words, although Ye Jingyan was currently only a Level-One ability user, the effect of his origin-energy sphere had already raised his physical condition to roughly the level of a mid-stage Level-Two ability user from his previous life.
Forget it. Before obtaining a fire-aspected origin crystal in his previous life, he had always relied on physical combat anyway. Now he at least had powerful origin energy he could use. No matter how he looked at it, his current situation was far better than in his previous life.
After comforting himself, Ye Jingyan curiously turned his perception inward to see exactly how large his origin-energy sphere was. But the moment he saw it, he froze in utter shock—
Inside the sphere that should have been completely blank floated a tiny emerald-green plant at perfect leisure: a slender stem, long vines, small leaves, and a huge flower crown almost half as tall as the plant itself…
What the hell?! Wasn’t this a miniature Heaven-Devouring Plant? Why was it inside him?! What exactly had happened just now?!!
Thrown into confusion, Ye Jingyan carefully retraced what had happened and eventually vaguely remembered that at the exact moment his origin-energy sphere formed, he seemed to have swallowed the Heaven-Devouring Plant’s crystal core…
Damn it, that was just an accident, all right?! He had never known crystal cores could be eaten instead of absorbed through origin energy!!
So the useless crystal had fused with the Heaven-Devouring Plant’s crystal core?!
Then what was happening inside his body now? Was this a mutation caused by a very specific set of circumstances, or…
Had he accidentally discovered the true use of useless crystals?