Chapter 225: The Scavenger

Bai Lang was young and full of vigor; not long after he had just washed his face in the morning, by the afternoon, after parting with those people, he used his lightness skill to rush to the red circle from before, and his beard had already grown out, short stubble. As soon as this full beard appeared, Bai Lang's appearance instantly turned into that of a deep sand general.

"Now I've become the third junior brother." He took a look in those strangely colored pools, and Bai Lang also couldn't help but wryly smile. What appeared before him was still the coal bucket monster; however, Bai Lang now possesses a book. He flipped through the records in this little notebook: "The coal bucket monster and the iron spear blue worm are worthless."

In this world, Bai Lang likewise doesn't dare to cultivate much; Innate Experts have limits—they still cannot break free from the world's qi to cultivate independently, nor have they reached the realm where they can spontaneously generate the world's qi. To reach this realm, one must at least be just a step away from externalizing the inner vision in order to enter the manifestation of the dharma body.

If there is no special fortune, even reaching that step does not necessarily mean they can spontaneously generate qi—after all, the world's qi of a dharma body is actually the world's qi stored in their own cave-heaven. However, those mighty beings such as gods and buddhas have basically already stepped beyond this, which is also the foundation of the legends they leave behind after transcending the dharma body.

Bai Lang wasn't just idling away at the Guardian Captain's Office; although those martial arts secret manuals basically require exchange, those secret legends don't, and they are open to him as an Innate Expert. Therefore he confirmed that those powerful ones truly became buddhas and patriarchs, and likely they took another step beyond the dharma body.

Having reached this step, what these powerful ones seek is eternal existence—living as long as heaven and earth, shining as bright as sun and moon, even surviving the destruction of heaven and earth, able to hold their heads high and stride into the next epoch. Those who can attain this level are likely only the Three Pure Ones, perhaps also a Buddha Ancestor.

As for the ancient heavenly emperors and demons, innate gods and demons and the like, they are truly only legends; we cannot confirm whether they have achieved this step. Bai Lang simply regards them as the Classic of Mountains and Seas—hey, they're actually quite entertaining.

The world's heavenly-earthly rules are twisted; although Bai Lang doesn't fully know them yet, he instinctively senses that if he draws qi into his body, something unspeakable might happen—going off the prescribed path is still tolerable, but if there are other mutations, that would be troublesome.

"So if one wants to gather qi, the only way is to slowly absorb the mutated qi here bit by bit, then use the tiger's heart of the Southern Dipper White Tiger Fist to gradually wear down, transform, and absorb it——this is still me; if it were someone else, what would they do?"

However, the myriad marvelous techniques and wondrous methods under heaven are endless; perhaps there is some martial art that can easily make use of this twisted qi.

His boots stepped on a gravel plain full of small stones; Bai Lang's cowboy hat blocked the sunlight, making it easier for him to see into the distance—those coal buckets and big blue worms he had shaken off, worthless trash, which Bai Lang could easily annihilate with a gust of wind.

Within Bai Lang's field of view appeared a mobile plant. It was a large flower, with five red petals surrounding a large mouth full of fangs. The petals were fleshy, and their surface also bore hooked spikes; beneath the calyx writhed green tentacles.

This flower, over a person tall, had a thick, upright main trunk, with branching green tentacles below—these tentacles are what enable the flower to move across the wilderness. Its speed of movement is not slow, but Bai Lang doesn't know how this thing senses prey.

"Touch? Smell? Hearing or sight?" Bai Lang circled the flower, still quite curious about this world. The flower's tentacles kept lashing at him, but their speed was too slow to keep up with Bai Lang's movement. Bai Lang quickly spotted the clue—"This thing seems to sense prey via vibration, and likely also has something akin to an animal's sense of smell."

From that large mouth spewed yellow-green smoke, spreading quickly. Bai Lang merely flashed out of its range; his vision could tell the substance of the smoke: "Pollen, indeed it's toxic pollen—if all goes as expected, it's probably the paralysis‑poison regimen."

All right, now this man‑eating flower has exhausted its tricks; Bai Lang also acted swiftly, like a flash of lightning—he lunged forward, a sweep of his palm already plucked the flower from its trunk, and retreated to his original spot. After losing the flower, the stem quickly rotted, leaving on the ground nothing but a puddle of sticky slime and a few tough tentacles.

The flower itself also began to rot; Bai Lang casually tossed it onto the ground, the viscous juice giving off a foul odor, but within it remained a few fist‑sized "seeds", which are the "flower honey" recorded in the notebook—an excellent base material for medicine and also a decent food ingredient.

Actually this flower honey is still quite valuable—because this giant man‑eating flower is found only inside the red circle and carries potent poison; ordinary bullets are ineffective against this fast‑regenerating man‑eating flower, but using a flamethrower on it easily destroys the flower honey.

Bai Lang carried a backpack, the cheapest "storage box" there is, with compartments and insulating, moisture‑retaining material that could fairly well preserve his harvested spoils. He continued deeper, and after walking less than a kilometer, he immediately saw ants larger than a person.

These ants glittered with a metallic sheen and crawled at great speed; Bai Lang flipped through his notebook: "Wow, are these giant predatory ants that can devour both metal and flesh? Let me check the precautions—beware of swarms." Bai Lang then leapt forward and slapped the ant's head with a palm.

This ant is indeed hard; its surface actually contains metal components—the only valuable things on these ants, aside from their formic acid sacs, are the metallic carapaces formed by the metal they usually ingest and deposit on their exoskeletons. If lucky, one can find ants with a gold‑plated shell.

This particular ant is just an iron shell, but if collected it would actually be high‑quality iron—however, unless Bai Lang is riding a vehicle, his backpack can't hold much of it—and it's heavy besides. His palm strike was like a hammer; one blow flattened the ant's head instantly, yet even this lowly creature's vitality remains strong, its hind half still twitching.

The air was filled with a peculiar sour smell, accompanied by a chirping sound, as several ants crawled up from the ground. "This must be a summoning skill—the more you hit, the more they come, until they overwhelm you." Bai Lang didn't mind, though; these ants are a match for ordinary people, but against him they're just free food—ants can't be eaten.

"They're all iron shells, with one that looks like a copper shell—all worthless junk, let's go, let's go." Bai Lang swept past like a wind over the land, and as he passed those few ants he simply cleaved them in two as if with a great axe.