Just as dawn broke, a thin mist drifted through the woods.
The moment Luo Xun opened his eyes, he immediately reached out to his side.
The bow was there, its string perfectly taut.
It gave a faint hum when plucked.
He let out a sigh of relief.
To someone surviving in the wild, a weapon was their second life.
Ever since learning he had transmigrated into Azeroth, he hadn’t slept well, plagued by one nightmare after another.
As a veteran Warcraft player, if this world was indeed like the one he knew, then without a doubt, it was the most dangerous place in the universe.
To name just a few: the undead, demons, Old Gods, extraterrestrial invaders…
they came in wave after wave.
Plus, the various self-destructive races native to the planet.
It was safe to say there was nowhere in this world where one could comfortably lie back, take it easy, and wait for death.
No, he had to plan carefully to survive in this godforsaken world.
He pulled over his backpack.
It was empty.
Well, not completely empty.
Inside, there was still a multi-tool, a flint, a small spool of fishing line, two crushed biscuit wrappers, and a full canteen.
These were the only things left from Earth.
Staring at the empty bag for a couple of seconds, Luo Xun’s lips twitched.
*Alright, as of today, hard-core wilderness survival mode is officially active.* “Awake?” Alice’s voice drifted over.
She had clearly just woken up as well, taking small, elegant sips from her leather waterskin.
Even out in the middle of nowhere, her movements remained refined.
This elf was definitely not from an ordinary family; that innate grace wasn’t something that could be bought with a bit of gold.
“Morning,” Luo Xun replied in his newly learned Elven, pointing toward the northeast.
“Go?” Alice nodded and used a tree trunk to push herself up.
Her complexion looked better than yesterday, and her left shoulder was simply bandaged, with no more blood seeping through the white cloth.
Without saying much, they quickly swept away the traces of their overnight camp and continued northeast.
The deeper they went, the denser the forest became.
The stifling grey aura on the ground gradually thinned out, replaced by thick, emerald-green light particles floating sporadically in the air.
Life energy.
Luo Xun observed as he walked.
The more he used his “energy vision,” the more proficient he became.
Now, he could see not only the cosmic forces but also vitality.
By the brightness of a creature’s internal life energy, he could roughly judge its state of health.
He was staring in fascination when his steps suddenly froze.
About fifty paces ahead, a dirty, grayish-green light swirled in a hollow.
It wasn’t pure death energy, but rather…
soiled life energy.
Luo Xun raised his hand, signaling her to stop.
Alice stopped instantly, her hand moving to the leather pouch at her waist as she lowered her voice.
“What is it?” Luo Xun didn’t say a word, narrowing his eyes at the light.
It seemed to be squirming slowly, like a living thing.
He unslung his bow and notched an arrow.
Just as the arrowhead pointed at the thickest center of the light…
The bushes suddenly exploded!
The thing that lunged out still vaguely resembled an elf, but its skin was bark-like and grayish-brown, split with cracks that oozed dark green slime.
In place of eyes were two hollow sockets burning with eerie green fire.
Its limbs were thin as withered branches, ending in wood-like, pointed claws.
The monster let out a screech like glass scratching glass.
Dropping to all fours, it lunged toward Alice with terrifying speed!
“A corrupted treant!” Alice cried in a low voice.
“A creature born after the forest was polluted by death energy!
Its weak point is the energy core in its chest—” Before she could finish, the monster was already upon them.
Luo Xun’s arrow flew first.
*Thwip!* The arrow pierced the monster’s left shoulder, but didn’t go deep, lodged in its wood-like hide.
The monster merely shuddered, its eerie green eye sockets turning toward him.
Letting out an even shriller screech, it pivoted and lunged at him instead!
*Coming for me?
Fine, saves me the chase.* Alice grit her teeth and raised her right hand.
Golden light flared in her palm, only to flicker wildly and die out.
Her internal mana depletion was still too severe; she needed time to recover.
But she didn’t just stand there.
She bent down, grabbed a piece of deadwood, and threw it with all her might at the monster’s back.
The deadwood drew a clumsy arc through the air, hit the monster’s back, and bounced off harmlessly.
Forget damage—it didn’t even make the creature flinch.
But the monster instinctively glanced back.
In the wild, distraction meant death.
Luo Xun had already lowered his stance.
The moment the monster turned back, its branch-like claw tore through the air, sweeping toward him.
He twisted his body quickly to dodge.
The claw grazed past his ribs, tearing a neat gash in his shirt and instantly leaving three bloody welts on his skin that burned like fire.
Luckily, it was only a graze.
If it had hit him squarely, his ribs probably would have been ripped out.
At the same time, the hunting knife in his right hand cleared its sheath.
The blade slashed upward in a flash of cold light, hacking hard into the monster’s swinging arm.
*Squelch!* The sensation of the blade sinking in was bizarre.
It didn’t feel like cutting flesh, but rather hacking into waterlogged, soggy wood.
Dark green, viscous sap sprayed from the wound, splattering his hand and releasing a pungent, rotting stench straight into his nose.
The smell was ten times worse than a dead rat.
Howling in pain, the monster let out an ear-piercing screech.
Without a second thought, its other claw swept horizontally at him.
*Again?* It was too fast.
At this distance, there was absolutely no time to dodge.
Luo Xun only had time to bring up his bow horizontally to block.
*Bang!* The wooden claw slammed into the carbon-fiber bow limb.
The sheer force numbed his arm, forcing him back half a step.
This thing’s strength was ridiculous!
Seizing the opportunity, the monster opened its mouth, a turbid grayish-green light glowing deep in its throat.
It was about to spit something!
In Luo Xun’s eyes, that glow was surging up from the monster’s belly, passing through a violently throbbing energy node in its chest, and heading straight for its throat.
*Is that the energy core Alice mentioned?* *Whatever, let’s gamble!* Releasing his grip on the bow and letting it be knocked aside, he held his hunting knife in a thrusting grip.
Aiming the tip of the blade at the wildly pulsing node in the monster’s chest, he charged forward.
*Pfft!* The blade sank cleanly into that erratic grayish-green light.
The monster’s movements froze instantly.
The light in its throat dissolved, and the eerie green fire in its eye sockets flickered wildly.
It made a series of cracking noises, and grayish-green energy began to leak from the wound on its chest like escaping gas, mixed with viscous sap.
It struggled to take a step forward, its wooden claws clawing uselessly in the air before it crashed down.
Its body rapidly shriveled, cracked, and turned into a pile of rotten wood and decaying leaves.
From start to finish, it took less than ten seconds.
Luo Xun panted.
He walked over, bent down, and pulled his hunting knife from the pile of rotten wood.
The blade was still coated with sticky, dark-green residue.
He wiped it clean on some nearby fern leaves before sheathing it.
His right arm was still a bit numb.
The three bloody welts on his ribs were burning like fire.
He looked down and casually lifted the hem of his torn shirt to inspect the wound.
Then he froze.
The three bloody welts were closing up at a speed visible to the naked eye.
It was as if invisible threads were sewing them shut; the edges of his skin wriggled slightly, the bleeding stopped, and new flesh knit together.
Within ten seconds, the wounds were gone.
Only three faint pink marks remained, and those would probably disappear entirely in a moment.
…What was going on?
He looked up, catching Alice’s gaze.
She had seen it too, her golden eyes wide with shock, mixed with something…
unreadable.
“You…” Alice opened her mouth, speaking in halting Chinese, “Wound…
healed itself?” Luo Xun remained silent.
He looked down at his intact ribs.
His skin was smooth, with no pain or itching, as if those three bloody gashes from a moment ago had been an illusion.
Then his gaze shifted to the pile of decaying, fermenting wood on the ground.
*The thing that treant was about to spit earlier…
was polluted life energy, right?* *And then I got scratched by its claw, my wound accidentally absorbed the energy it released, and then it healed on its own?* *I can consume polluted energy?
No, not consume.
Convert.* He remembered the time Alice had accidentally drained his energy when she was suffering from her withdrawal.
Back then, he had felt something was off.
It hadn’t felt like a one-sided siphon, but more like an exchange.
Something had flowed from her into his body, but it was so faint he had almost dismissed it as an illusion.
*What the hell is this body made of?* In the distance, another faint screech echoed through the woods, as if the treant’s kin were responding.
But Luo Xun had no time to worry about that now.
He stared at his hand, thinking: *With this recovery speed, do I even need bandages next time I get hurt?* *That would save a lot of bandages.*