The large and succulent green leaves grew in layers upon layers, vaguely blocking off the sunlight that was coming from above as well.

There were wisps of a white mist rising around him. The mist was very thick, and visibility was limited to a dozen meters or so.

Psst...

Garen took a light breath, and smelled an intense note of sulphur.

"Here."

He slowed the black wolf down, and sensed that his Willpower could not stretch that far.

His eyes twinkled slightly, and then Garen quickly got off the wolf, searching in the sachet at his waist to find the mini electronic detector that he always carried with him.

He put the square silver detector on the floor, and a steel needle shot out from the bottom of it, embedding itself into the thick layer of fallen leaves.

A small antenna and reception disk appeared on top of the detector, and they began to spin slowly, beeping softly as they went.

'Warning, warning, scanning unavailable for signals more than three meters away, please leave the high radiation zone, please leave the high radiation zone...'

"I knew it!" Understanding flashed across Garen's eyes. "This is a high-energy radiation zone."

He had lived in such an environment for a very long time, so he was most familiar with these sorts of surroundings.

"It's hard for the detector to scan this area, and Willpower can't reach any further, either. Isn't this the best place for me to hide?"

Garen climbed astride the black wolf again, and began to slowly wind his way through the white mist. Occasionally, he would pay attention to the places where the soil was looser.

Soon enough, he found a place, where the ground was black soil and it was covered by a thick carpet of leaves. Some of the leaves had begun to rot, but others had just fallen.

Peeling away some of the thicker and larger leaves, Garen found a natural crater in the floor.

"This is the place!"

He crouched down, and stretched out his hand, placing it on the surface of the ground.

"Devour!"

Many blue silk threads poured out of his palm like a tide, and began to devour the soil.

The devoured soil was quickly converted into tiny specks of pure energy. However, the efficiency of this conversion was extremely low, especially compared to when he had devoured the Blue Wolf before. The energy produced from devouring a Blue Wolf was equivalent to devouring this soil for a month.

But his main motive was not to devour energy.

Closing his eyes, Garen controlled the blue threads using his mind, making them devour the large amounts of soil and stone beneath him without stopping. Soon, a clear open s.p.a.ce had been created in the ground more than ten meters beneath him.

Following the image in his mind, the blue threads kept digging and devouring, quickly forming a small cave that could three or four people, and then they also created a ventilation duct from the surface into the underground cave.

After devouring some scorpions and bugs on the way, Garen finally opened his eyes, satisfied. With a wave of his hand, a flash of black light shot into the distance. Garen sensed the situation in the distance, and nodded with satisfaction.

The black wolf continued on, leaving footprints that led further away. When the black wolf had completely disappeared from his sensory field, Garen pulled back his Energy Machine Imprint's senses, walked up to the cave that was hidden by leaves, and jumped in.

The blue threads controlled and twined the mounds of soil on either side, so that the soil covered the entrance that Garen had left behind on the surface, sealing it shut.

Inside the soil underneath, there was not a single shred of light to be seen.

Garen released his blue silk threads, and continued to dig and devour at the ground diagonally below him, rapidly deepening the hole even further.

A Resonance-level Energy Machinist would have a shocking number of skills at his disposal, so if the hole was only a dozen or so meters deep, it probably would not be able to fool his opponent. He needed to make it even deeper.

Garen kept digging down, using that small s.p.a.ce he had created just now as the foundation so that he could continue digging downwards.

The countless blue silk threads were like huge jaws that kept devouring the earth, stones, and even some half-rotten animal corpses or tree roots beneath him in large gulps.

After he continued digging for some time, Garen slowly began to feel the air around him thinning. He was probably about seventy or eighty meters down now, so he finally stopped.

There was only the blue light created by his own blue silk threads around him now.

Garen got straight to work creating a s.p.a.ce around him, and he could just about use the ventilation duct from before to provide air ventilation here. He also found some places where there were more stones, and used the stones to make a support pillar that kept the top layer of the soil steady. In no time at all, a small underground s.p.a.ce with a stone structure and walls of soil was formed.

Looking at the small square s.p.a.ce, Garen sat on the ground, also slightly exhausted. There seemed to be a stone mine near here, the earth on his right was full of white stones.

Part of the s.p.a.ce Garen had dug out was in the middle of a giant stone, he had dug a crater right out of the stone.

Sitting on the hard stone surface, Garen paid no heed to the dirt, and began to appraise the fruits of his effort. He nodded, somewhat satisfied.

"This way, it's not likely for them to find me. Be it the high radiation levels or the thick soil and stone, all of it weakens and blocks off signals, and it would definitely interfere with his detector. I just need to get enough time so that I can absorb the secret scroll!"

Garen took the secret scroll out of his pocket, and was just about to open it.

Squeak squeak squeak squeak.

Suddenly, there was a faint squeaking from the ground in front of him.

A little dirt-yellow mole had dug a small hole out of the ground, and poked its little head out, looking at Garen intently.

It seemed to be wondering at the sudden lack of soil in front of it.

The mole looked confused.

Squeak squeak.

It squeaked a few times, revealing its large white teeth, and then it looked at Garen again in confusion. It was probably its first time a human creature, or maybe it was just wondering why it would encounter such a creature underground.

"A mole?" Garen frowned slightly, he was not sure whether this little guy was intelligent, it might be slightly troublesome if it was an intelligent creature.

But this deep underground, and especially in such a high radiation zone, the chances of it being intelligent were extremely low. The biggest danger of high-energy radiation was that it was extremely destructive towards the brain.

Not many intelligent creatures or races could last long in high-energy radiation zones, Garen had done all the research, and he knew that except for his own Distorted Seed, none of the already-established other races dared to live inside a high-energy radiation zone.

Relaxing slightly, he glanced at the little mole. The palm-sized thing squeaked a few more times, and then turned around, darting into its hole and disappearing without a trace.

Garen opened the secret scroll, and that pillar of light with blue electricity appeared again, standing upright on the secret scroll, and turning slowly.

There were faint arches of electricity all over the pillar of light, crackling. The many runes kept flowing and appearing on the pillar.

Garen quickly memorized the contents of the runes on the surface of the pillar, and slowly began to lose himself in the deep layers of calculations.

*****************

Above the pine forest, two black shadows flitted past quickly, rus.h.i.+ng towards a particular direction.

The shadow in front stopped abruptly, and stayed suspended in mid-air, lowering his head and looking at the white sphere in his hand again.

"What's the matter, Barlow?" asked the shadow behind him unhappily as they stopped as well.

"Don't say my name!" Barlow Hertha was the First Elder's second Three-Hearted disciple, and he stared at the black shadow behind him particularly unhappily.

"There's no one here anyway, what are you afraid of!" said the shadow, voice full of contempt.

"That kid went into the high-energy radiation zone, the interference is getting in the way, I need to determine his location again," said Barlow softly. "Hold on for a moment."

"The high-energy radiation zone? Is he trying to speed up his death?!" Boss laughed coldly. "Even I don't dare to stay in there for too long. Anything could happen in a place like that, it'd be bad if we came across a high-energy mutated creature!"

"We know that, so wouldn't that kid know that as well?" Barlow laughed coldly. "Ron, if you keep on underestimating your opponent like that, one day Julie will really beat you to death!"

"Did I ask for your opinion?" Boss instantly flew into a rage.

The Second Brother lowered his head and continued to observe the white sphere, and suddenly he frowned deeply.

"What's the matter? Can you still find his location?"

"Don't panic, the interference is more than I expected," said Second Brother, Barlow, softly.

His finger immediately left many traces in the air, as he drew a very complicated and mysterious rune on the white sphere in an instant. The rune shone with a white light, which quickly faded and vanished.

The red dot on the white sphere had been weakening, but now it seemed to have gotten another boost, as it lit up abruptly.

"Found him! Let's go!"

The Second Brother, Barlow, shot out flying. The Boss, Ron, followed closely behind him.

"This way!" Second Brother ran straight ahead, to his right, and soon enough, the forest in front of him began to change slowly. The trees started to grow shorter as they went, the leaves growing larger, the branches drooping down. The leaves were like wash basins, but they were layered until they looked like green skirts on the trees, with a strange yet beautiful effect.

The white mist in the air grew thicker as well, from the faint white mist from before, until it was too thick for them to see their hands in front of their eyes.

"This is the high-energy radiation zone," said Second Brother Barlow in a low voice. He flicked his finger, and instantly released some small black insects that looked like bees. They scattered into the air soundlessly, a veritable swarm of almost five hundred insects.

His first Energy Machinery was something like a seal, and the second was this one. It was particularly useful for search and surveillance.

"Are you sure he's here!?" Boss Ron breathed in a little of the mist, and then quickly held his breath. The radiation pollution here was just too much, it was more than ten times that of normal.

Even if he lived here, he would be infected by that very troublesome radiation disease if he stayed for too long. A Level Five Energy Machinist whose Scarlet Snow Technique probably had not even reached the eleventh grade would not stand a chance.

"I'm sure!" Second Brother Barlow nodded with certainty. "The white sphere shows that he's in this white mist, there's no mistaking it!"

"This way!"

He suddenly flew to the left decisively, and headed straight for the ground, where he landed.

"Do it!"

With a low roar, Boss struck out, smas.h.i.+ng his Snowstorm Palm into the ground.

Boom!!