Element Core

Qin Feng climbed out of the passage, and the sharp, burning pain stung his skin once again as the toxic liquid made contact with his body.

But it did not bother him. He continued swimming towards the shore, even killing a bunch of frogmen on his way back until he reached shallower waters.

The toxic scum from the laboratory did not reach this part of the river, so it was supposedly clear and safe from pollution.

When the spatial rifts started appearing, and the humans ungraciously forced down the food chain, factories had no choice but to shut down. Within centuries, the earth was covered in lush green foliage, and pollution decreased drastically—probably a good thing for mother earth!

Qin Feng washed his hands, face, and neck in the clean water. Fortunately, his body was unaffected; if the T3 suit did not have this protective function, it would not have been worth its asking price.

Once he had cleaned up, Qin Feng unzipped his bag and removed the afterbirth1 with the little creature still inside.

Perhaps it was because it was away from the space passage, that the little thing regained its vitality.

Qin Feng could see, very clearly, every breath it inhaled. The translucent liquid in the placental expulsion gradually disappeared into its mouth, slowly wringing its little capsule and sucking up energy!

In less than an hour, it might even hatch.

Qin Feng checked the time and saw that it was already eight at night. No cars traversed the wilderness at this hour, and the base was by now securely locked down!

He would have to spend the night here.

He walked around, soon finding a place sheltered from the wind. He was careful to sprinkle some beast repellent powder around the area to keep particular low-tier creatures away with its caustic smell.

As for space rifts, though they may appear effortlessly, the chances of them occurring was not very high. The only exception here was that every time they appeared, they were often almost inevitably destructive. 

From what he could remember, on this night of which he escaped death, there were no spatial rifts.

If that was the case, it should not be a problem for him to spend one night out here in the open wilderness.

Looking back, Qin Feng had one too many experiences sleeping rough all alone in the wilderness.

He hurriedly gobbled down some compressed biscuits, slowly settling down on the earth, legs crossed, and acknowledging the whispering quiet of his inner world.

Slowly, Qin Feng relaxed, and his breathing slowed. It was as if he was no longer in this world.

It was completely dark in his mind. It was then when a crystalline diamond suddenly appeared in his perception.

From afar, the diamond 'looked' infinitesimal.

But as Qin Feng thought about getting closer, the diamond began to expand.

It felt as if he was floating in the darkness of deep space and along his line of sight was a brilliant star, continuously expanding in his eyes.

It was very much like a diamond planet. No one could tell how big it really was, and all around this transparent planet was a faint halo of smog circling it.

"Ability core!" Qin Feng gasped.

In the last life, his talent was destroyed, and no matter how hard he tried to manifest it in his thoughts, he could not sense the ability core that all the ability users were talking about.

Now, it was clear. This diamond planet only existed in the ability core within the human consciousness.

This was the first time he could see his own ability core, in its whole complete and unscathed glory.

It was big and robust, quietly levitating in the darkness, intensely brilliant and blinding.

Qin Feng controlled his excitement, carefully reaching out to it again.

This diamond planet was not completely clear as a black light actually lay at its core, dark and deep like a whirlpool that could suck in all forms of matter.

"This is my innate absorbing ability! From the looks of it, it's really powerful!"

Sensing this ability brought Qin Feng back to the time before his rebirth, when his ability core was destroyed, leaving only this black nucleus, which gave him the ability to absorb.

The only thing was that he could never be an ability user again, and had to use this ability to become an Ancient Warrior.

"My absorbing ability is black. Could that mean that I am a dark ability user?!"

To this day, there were ten types of abilities among ability users, where some were weak and some strong. Their respective probability of awakening was very high. It consisted of five ordinary element abilities, namely metal, wood, water, fire, earth. Special abilities included wind, thunder, ice, and the two extremely rare abilities of light and darkness.

Who would have known that his ability would be darkness?

Qin Feng's mind began to wander as his consciousness began to ease, and the bright star gradually moved further away until it was just a tiny speck in the darkness.

He slowly opened his eyes, looking as if he had just returned from a long journey. Although the darkness disappeared and he had already left his subconscious, his mind was extremely exhausted.

"My consciousness is too weak!" Qin Feng furrowed his brows. 

Consciousness was one of the required strengths to control a user's special ability. Even if he practiced the Ancient Warrior's ability, his inner force's development would require him to have better control of his subconsciousness as well. He would need to keep practicing it until he genuinely mastered its art.

Chirp! Chirp!

The voice sounded frail. Qin Feng turned around to look for the source of the noise, immediately drawn to his sleeping bag.

He unzipped his sleeping bag and lo and behold, a creature lay squirming on the thin mat!

It was the little beast that he had rescued.

It had chewed through its afterbirth, eating nearly half of it, leaving remnants of goo dangling from its hind legs. That stuff would dry up soon enough.

Chirp! Chirp!

The little creature called out, eyes still shut and mouth opened wide as if looking for something to eat. 

Qin Feng took out a tube of nutrient jelly, which had a strong remedy effect. He initially planned to use these to help the giant beast recover some of its strength, but instead, he was now giving them to its offspring.

The little creature clung to the plastic tube and began to suckle hungrily. 

Qin Feng looked down at the meek little thing and smiled; the tension in his shoulders eased and, his heart began to soften.

After that, he produced a towel, wet it lightly with water, put it against his body to warm it, and wiped the little beast. Never had he ever been so gentle before. Not even with his own brothers and women, neither in the previous life nor this life.

Undoubtedly, it was because those people were strong enough not to need it in the first place!

After he had dried the tiny body, the little beast's appearance changed slightly. As the bloodstained fur was exposed to air, it dried up, and in its place, white fur sprouted.

"I'll call you Xiao Bai!"

Terrible at naming things, Qin Feng decided not to trouble himself and christened the little beast. Like it or hate it, the newborn did not possess the ability to refuse names given to it. It merely chirped twice, drank up until it was full before falling into a deep slumber.

Qin Feng crawled into his sleeping bag, placing the little beast on top of his chest to avoid crushing it.

Even though his eyes were shut, he was only 30% asleep but 70% awake. It became second nature to achieve such feats since he had already spent a great deal of time in the wilderness previously.

While he was in this semi-awoken state, a noise in the dark drifted to his ears. Qin Feng's eyes immediately popped open. Quickly getting to his feet, he placed Xiao Bai into his shirt pocket, hurriedly rolled up the mat, and stuffed it into the combat backpack. It only took him ten seconds to get all of that done.

From afar, the soulful howling of wolves pierced the stoic night. Suddenly, several figures were seen scampering frantically toward him.