Shangguan Bing Xue quickly hid behind a giant tree beside her and crouched down as she carefully observed the scene before her eyes in wonder.
In the center of what appeared to be a clear patch of grass was a small lake of crystal clear water; a lake that if she remembered correctly was only a small island where there was a small rose and tulip garden.
Next to the lake, there were at least thirty or forty beasts of all kinds. Some of them had several legs, some others were standing on two legs, and others were just casually crawling on the ground.
Strange-looking snakes whose bodies stretched almost fifteen meters, giant elephant beetles, fat bees measuring more than thirty centimeters, dogs, cats, all kinds of creatures were there without a fight.
Even though they occasionally looked at each other with fighting desire and eyes filled with murderous intent none of them took the first bite; therefore, the place was in peaceful silence where the sound of an occasional growl or the rippling water of the lake was the only thing that could be heard along with the wind blowing through the treetops.
Suddenly, a strange creature that was surrounded by several other First Order creatures slowly crawled from its position to the shore of the lake. The other First Order creatures began to move carefully allowing the strange creature to pass but everyone's eyes remained fixed on the beast as if they were its guardians or its captors and feared it would slip out of their sight.
Shangguan Bing Xue could not help but feel a surge of disgust when she finally caught a glimpse of the appearance of the creature which Chen He had described the day before.
The creature was actually a huge worm. Its more than three-meter-long body left a trail of disgusting-looking sticky liquid every time it crawled everywhere. Its stomach moved strangely as if there were millions of living objects moving inside it.
For a moment Shangguan Bing Xue had thought that perhaps the huge worm was pregnant and perhaps about to give birth. However, she soon realized that this was not the case.
The giant worm was extremely slow so even though it was relatively close to the shore it still took a couple of seconds for it to reach the water to start drinking. After a few gulps, the giant worm suddenly stopped its movements and its mouth opened wide revealing a terrifying-looking set of teeth inside.
Howl!
The creature let out a high-pitched howl that caused ripples and raised some waves in the previously calm lake. The previously calm forest suddenly became agitated and Shangguan Bing Xue thought she had been discovered.
However, soon everything calmed down again and what happened next was something she could never forget.
The giant worm's puffed-up stomach began to shrink at a speed visible to the naked eye as a thick cloud of sapphire-colored air came out of the creature's mouth. The sapphire-colored air soon spread to the surrounding area and began to blend in with the forest.
The trees began to become more alive, the plants began to grow slowly, and the animals and insects began to suck in deeply.
Mana! Shangguan Bing Xue's eyes lit up and she finally understood everything, solving the mystery that none of them could solve before.
Why were there so many First Order creatures in this place? How was it possible that the small front garden of the university suddenly turned into a forest that looked like something out of a prehistoric movie? Why weren't all these monsters fighting each other to evolve?
It was all caused by that giant worm!
Apparently, the giant worm had the ability to create and produce Mana inside its body to evolve. However, the amount was so much that it had no choice but to release much of it or else it would die; the other beasts simply took advantage of the situation and began to slowly grow!
Shangguan Bing Xue suddenly felt a bad premonition and hurriedly turned around. Her expression froze as she saw what seemed to be hundreds of tiny leeches crawling towards her and slowly surrounding her.
If she fought the leeches naturally she could kill them all easily. However, if she fought here she would attract the attention of the other creatures and that wasn't exactly part of the plan.
"I have no choice."
She gritted her teeth and shot out of her hiding place. Her speed burst into full gear making wonderful use of all her Agility and in no time she had almost completely closed the distance between her and the lake.
However, the First Order creatures noticed her and began to move while roaring ferociously. The synchronized roars of dozens of First Order existences were so terrifying that even an unnatural sound wave shot out towards her!
Because Shangguan Bing Xue was focused on reaching her target, she could not afford to stop to defend herself or avoid the attack because if she did that she knew that the entire previously devised plan would fail. Therefore, she could only continue to move forward independently.
"Ugh..."
Her face turned slightly pale and her steps faltered for a moment, giving her a frail and pitiful appearance; however, she endured the dizziness she felt and bit her lips fiercely. Her cold eyes had a look of resolve and she continued to charge forward.
Swoosh!
Suddenly the wind seemed to be cut in two by an object moving at high speed and Shangguan Bing Xue felt a horrifying pressure from her back. However, she ignored that attack and continued forward without stopping.
What was behind her was a snake that was almost twenty meters long and was currently swinging its heavy tail at her! If she was hit directly by that attack, even if she survived it was unlikely that she would be able to get up for quite a while!
However, just as she was about to be whipped, a small ragged-looking bronze bell came out of the pocket of her Combat Robe and floated above her head releasing a yellow glow that soon surrounded her completely.
Bang!
The one-meter-thick tail ferociously slammed into the yellow barrier creating a thunderous explosion that echoed throughout the forest.
The barrier shuddered slightly and the yellow glow dimmed a little. However, that was all; Shangguan Bing Xue continued to move forward without being injured in any way and had soon left behind the snake that was the fastest creature close to her.
This small bell was precisely the object that Bai Zemin had given her just before she entered the mutated forest. It was his Magic Grade Treasure that he had acquired when he killed his first First Order beast and that treasure had saved her life, preventing the plan from collapsing and making everything more dangerous!
Due to her speed and lightness, Shangguan Bing Xue sprinted a few meters above the water of the lake and just before she started to submerge the water under her feet froze into small ice plaques.
She stopped her footsteps abruptly and kicked hard as she made a full 360-degree turn.
A wave of water several meters high rose as consequence and before the wave of water fell on the giant worm Shangguan Bing Xue pointed her magic wand and shouted, "Freeze!"
A cloud of frost came out from the tip of the wand and she fed it with her own Mana. When the frost cloud touched the giant wave of water it froze it completely, creating a beautiful ice sculpture almost twenty meters high.
Moreover, the most impressive thing was that apart from the beauty of the ice wave, it was curiously pointed at the giant worm that was howling furiously at her.
At this point, she had already done her best to pinpoint the main target that needed to be eliminated, thus fulfilling her main part in this whole business.
"Now it's your turn to play your part, Bai Zemin."
Shangguan Bing Xue muttered as she ran in the opposite direction, being fervently pursued by the snake that had attacked her earlier and was now crawling through the water as it hissed with its tongue and glared fiercely at her.
But she was not intimidated and on the contrary, making use of the lake water, Shangguan Bing Xue made dozens of ice pikes and began to attack the snake as she retreated.