4: Chapter 4: Spirit Blade Aura and Trial Card, New Microorganisms

"You have opened the mysterious small wooden box!"

The System's voice was very pleasant, a very melodious female voice.

"You have received a mysterious gift—Spirit Blade Slash and a Tian Boguang Experience Card."

A long saber flickering with a faint white spiritual light floated in front of Zhao Feng; the cold, sharp blade made one's hair stand on end.

The saber was about one meter long and in the style of a ring-pommel saber, with the two characters "blade aura" on the hilt appearing as if they were naturally formed.

Zhao Feng reached out and took the saber. His hand sank, and after swinging it twice, he found it quite strenuous to use.

Suddenly, Zhao Feng felt a slight pain in the hand holding the saber, and he saw a thread of blood flow straight down the hilt, following those strange patterns.

With another flash of red light, the bloodstains vanished, and even the wound on Zhao Feng's hand healed.

Zhao Feng could sense the saber's joy; this was blood-binding! No wonder it was called a Spirit Blade; it really was a psychic treasure blade.

"What a fine saber!" Zhao Feng praised.

Holding the saber with an underhand grip, Zhao Feng cast his gaze toward the glowing card.

This was an exquisite card with emerald green borders, about the size of a playing card. Zhao Feng reached out to take the card and observed it carefully.

On the front of the card was a man in blue martial attire; his long hair was draped casually behind his back, making him look quite dashing.

In the top right corner of the card was his name, "Lone Walker of Ten Thousand Li—Tian Boguang," and next to it was the text "Experience for Half an Hour."

This was a character from The Smiling, Proud Wanderer.

The back of the card briefly introduced the skills.

Lightness Skill: Unnamed Lightness Skill, extremely fast speed, which earned Tian Boguang his title, "Lone Walker of Ten Thousand Li."

Blade Technique: Gale Blade Technique, extremely fast speed, moderate power.

Putting away the small card, Zhao Feng grinned. He finally had some power to protect himself. With the Gale Blade Technique combined with the Spirit Blade Slash, Zhao Feng was very much looking forward to their power.

Taking advantage of the remaining time, Zhao Feng planned to try and complete the mission.

Zhao Feng entered thinking mode, frowning as he pondered a countermeasure.

The only help the System could provide was biological modification, along with that mysterious small wooden box.

The rewards from the small wooden box seemed to be primarily for personal use, so the hope of completing the mission could only be pinned on the microorganisms.

To lower the temperature, there were two paths he could take. One was to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, reducing the proportion of greenhouse gases.

The other was to directly create microorganisms that absorbed heat, converting thermal energy into stored minerals.

To perform photosynthesis, not only was water needed, but the microorganisms also needed to possess chloroplasts.

The Paleo-bacteria provided by the System did not have this structure. Zhao Feng would need to spend Creation Points to create microorganisms with chloroplasts; the specific cost would depend on checking the price in the simulation.

Absorbing heat could be edited directly in the skill bar, but he didn't know if such a special skill would cost a lot.

While Zhao Feng was lost in thought, the planetary monitor suddenly sounded an alarm.

The situation forecast provided by the planet appeared on the virtual screen in front of Zhao Feng. Because the Rock-eating Bacteria had not been set with autonomous control, they would continuously devour the planet, leading to its collapse.

Zhao Feng slapped his forehead. His previous biological edits had also nearly caused the planet to collapse, so he had promptly shattered the microorganisms' gene chains. Although he lost some Modification Points, it hadn't caused any dire consequences.

He hadn't expected that despite all his precautions, this kind of thing would happen again!

However, fortunately, the problem wasn't too big. Zhao Feng immediately entered the Material Center and began preparing to evolve the Rock-eating Bacteria.

The Rock-eating Bacteria were reproducing in large numbers and continuously devouring the rock layers. To terminate this situation without wiping out the Rock-eating Bacteria, he had to change their skill slots, make them forget the rock-eating gene, and load in a new gene.

Although there was water vapor in the planet's atmosphere, it couldn't be used for photosynthesis, so the best method was to create a gene that absorbed thermal energy and re-import it into the Rock-eating Bacteria to evolve a new super microorganism.

Thinking of it, he did it. Zhao Feng began to construct the skill effect in his mind.

Under the sunlight, groups of microorganisms absorbed a large amount of fiery red thermal energy. Afterward, the microorganisms split and died, forming small pieces of red crystals, red crystals as crystalline and transparent as coral reefs...

Thermal Energy Crystallization Ability: The microorganisms die after absorbing enough thermal energy, producing crystals carrying a large amount of thermal energy. Value: 10 Modification Points.

Fine, it seems there is indeed income and expenditure; money comes and goes like flowing water. After spending another 10 Modification Points to evolve the Rock-eating Bacteria into the new Energy-eating Bacteria, Zhao Feng finally closed the editor.

"Please name the new evolved microorganism." The System provided a prompt.

It absorbs thermal energy, so let's call it Energy-eating Bacteria. Zhao Feng quickly named the new microorganism and then placed it into the planet.

When the new Rock-eating Bacteria split, the rock-eating gene had already been forgotten, and the new energy-eating gene began to take effect. The history of the planet also turned a new page.

Zhao Feng watched the rapidly ticking clock, and the blue planet, which had been full of Rock-eating Bacteria as far as his eyes could see, also gradually turned into the red of the Energy-eating Bacteria.

With the division of the Energy-eating Bacteria, who knew how many years had passed, but the planet's temperature finally dropped.

Ding! A melodious prompt sounded.

"Temperature requirement met. Awarding 10 Modification Points. Current balance: 18 Modification Points. Awarding one mysterious small wooden box."

"Time is up, Host must return immediately."

After barely completing the mission, the 30-minute temporary stay time was up, and Zhao Feng was kicked out.

Just like last time, he appeared completely naked again; the System seemed to automatically eliminate all foreign substances from Zhao Feng's body.

The difference was that this time, Zhao Feng also brought the blade aura and the experience card.

Zhao Feng put on his clothes, held the saber with an underhand grip behind his back, pulled back the curtain, and peered outside.

Outside the dormitory, it was quiet, and there were no Aliens' aircraft in the sky.

The campus was very quiet. Zhao Feng opened the door lightly and stepped out of the dormitory. After walking out of the small courtyard where the dormitory was located, he could see the playground and the campus.

The fighter jet he had seen from the back window yesterday had burned out, leaving only a pitch-black mass of metal wreckage.

It seemed that the time on the System's planet was different from Earth; Earth's time was much faster, which was somewhat unfavorable for Zhao Feng's development.

However, feeling the cold touch of the blade aura in his hand, Zhao Feng's confidence greatly increased.

At this time, the sun was just starting to get hot. Usually, at this time, the two households near the school would have long been bustling, with starving pigs oinking loudly.

But now, it was completely quiet.

Feeling uneasy, Zhao Feng first ate a piece of bread, then searched the teaching building.

The teaching building was just an old two-story brick house. Including the offices, Zhao Feng quickly searched through it, but found no signs of disturbance, and Wang Ming and Zhang Yi had not returned either.

It seemed he had to go to the village to take a look.

Zhao Feng gently opened the school's large iron gate; fortunately, it had just been wiped with lubricating oil, so the door hinge didn't make a sound.

First, he went to check on the two neighboring households.

Circling around the pear orchard, Zhao Feng immediately saw the difference.

This place had been violently broken into.

The wall made of hollow bricks had been violently smashed, and there were footprints left by machinery on the soil outside the wall.

It seemed the Aliens had deployed ground forces.

Zhao Feng was nervous, but he didn't use the experience card; it wasn't time yet. The experience card only had half an hour, and it needed to be used at the critical moment.

Entering through the broken wall, he immediately saw the corpse of a big yellow dog lying in the center of the courtyard.

The big yellow dog must have been trying to run to its owner, but was shot dead.

The big yellow dog's corpse had been sliced directly in two, the cut scorched black, and there were pitch-black burn marks on the ground.

Zhao Feng moved forward quickly; as expected, something had happened.

The door to the main room and the wall connected to it had been violently smashed open. The violent traces extended to most of the room, and at the end was a torn-off cabinet door, but no corpse.

Zhao Feng could completely imagine the scene at that time.

The terrified villagers fled and hid in the cabinets, but the Aliens' hideous machines violently tore open the cabinet doors and dragged the villagers away.

"But what are the Aliens kidnapping the villagers for?"

Zhao Feng couldn't figure it out. "It surely wouldn't be like the movies, kidnapping them to drain their blood, right?"

He searched the other house, and the situation was about the same; all the animals had been killed, and the villagers were missing.

"Bang, bang, bang..." It was the sound of an anti-aircraft machine gun!

Zhao Feng ran out of the courtyard quickly, ran to high ground, and looked toward the small village in the distance; the gunshots were coming from over there.

From afar, he could still see tongues of fire blazing and firing wildly.

"Could there still be human soldiers?"

Seemingly startled, three house-sized millipede-like machines suddenly emerged from the ground and rushed toward where the tongues of fire were.

From a distance, he could still see mechanical limbs like octopus tentacles. Alien monsters!

"Use!" Zhao Feng took out the card, and the card instantly turned into a beam of green light, entering the center of his eyebrows.

His body swayed, and Zhao Feng immediately mastered all of Tian Boguang's skills; the blade aura in his hand also seemed much lighter.

The distance of nearly five hundred meters took him almost just one minute; his figure turned into a wisp of blue smoke, flashing like a ghost.

Truly the Lone Walker of Ten Thousand Li!

He was already very close to those three huge machines. Zhao Feng hid behind a pear tree and secretly looked over there.

The lower abdomen of the huge millipede-like machine opened several ports, and many small millipede-like machines crawled out.

Saying they were small, they were actually as tall as a calf.

These small millipedes were very agile, charging from all directions toward the brick house that was spitting tongues of fire.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

The thick muzzle of the anti-aircraft machine gun lowered, and with a few bursts, it shattered a small millipede.

"Well done, Old Li."

Someone shouted from behind the brick house.

The three big millipedes had released at least fifteen small millipede-like machines, and the big millipedes weren't idle either.

Their hideous back armor suddenly opened, and it seemed like something was emerging, but Zhao Feng couldn't tell what it was from behind.

"They won't be able to hold on for much longer." Zhao Feng's expression turned stern, and his figure vanished with a swoosh.