Trouble

Su Qi walked through the forest.

The deeper he ventured, the thicker the ominous aura became.

The air was thick with a cloying, grotesque stench—like corpses left to rot and then pickled in spices.

The ground beneath his feet was ashen and spongy, as if stepping on decaying flesh.

The surrounding trees had completely lost their original forms, twisting and contorting, their trunks covered in knots eerily resembling human faces. Those knots gaped soundlessly, as if locked in eternal screams.

[Such a small yet powerful life...]

The voice echoed in his mind once more, but this time, it carried not just temptation but a condescending scrutiny.

[Your soul... is the most exquisite delicacy I have ever encountered...]

[Look behind you. Look at everything you hold dear...]

Su Qi’s vision twisted abruptly.

He saw Liu Yuan’s tear-streaked face as countless black vines dragged her into the earth.

He saw Lin Xiao and all the trainees from the camp writhing in agony amidst a sea of blood-red flowers, their bodies withering into desiccated husks.

An illusion?

Su Qi curled his lip, unimpressed.

He couldn’t even be bothered to dispel it.

Instead, he simply raised a hand and snapped his fingers.

Click.

A crisp sound.

The illusion shattered like broken glass, dissolving into fragments of light that vanished into the air.

Around him, the silent, twisted forest remained unchanged.

[...Impossible!]

For the first time, the voice trembled with shock and disbelief.

Su Qi dug a finger in his ear and kept walking. "Same old tricks. Can’t you come up with something new?"

As he passed a gnarled ancient tree, the largest face-like knot on its trunk suddenly opened its eyes. Twin beams of crimson light shot toward his back.

Su Qi didn’t even turn around.

The blood-red rays—capable of corroding the soul of a seventh-rank expert in an instant—fizzled out harmlessly half a meter from his body, leaving not even a ripple.

The ancient tree, meanwhile, withered in an instant, its bark peeling away as its branches crumbled into rotten sawdust.

Su Qi didn’t pause.

He had reached the heart of the forest.

Here, there were no trees.

Only a vast basin, a grotesque pit filled with mountains of corpses.

And at its center, the monstrous blood-red flower revealed its full form.

It was indescribable—a colossal abomination woven from flesh, bone, and despair, so vast it blotted out the sky.

It had no roots. Its roots were the piled corpses beneath it.

Humans, sourcebeasts, even some clad in the uniforms of the Great Xia military… elites.

Their bodies had fused and twisted in unnatural ways, forming the flower’s "petals."

Each petal bore thousands upon thousands of eyes, brimming with agony, malice, and madness.

At its core, a massive vortex of flesh pulsed rhythmically, swallowing countless flickering souls—screaming, writhing—before crushing them into pure nourishment.

Thick, cloying miasma, visible as a black-red mist, shrouded the entire area.

This was hell.

[You’ve come.]

This time, the voice wasn’t just in his mind.

It was thousands of voices—men, women, children—blending together as they emanated from every part of the flower, merging into a deafening, earth-shaking roar.

[We’ve waited so long for you.]

[The Star-Grasper has taken an interest in you.]

"Star-Grasper?" Su Qi raised an eyebrow. "That trash collector?"

[You dare?!]

The roar turned furious, shaking the entire basin.

[You have no idea what kind of greatness you face!]

[We are the seeds of a new world! The pinnacle of evolution! We are—]

"Enough." Su Qi waved a hand, cutting it off. "Nice slogans. Shame about the aesthetics."

He eyed the grotesque flower with open disdain.

"Seriously, do you ‘Descenders’ have some kind of grudge against beauty? Each creation is uglier than the last."

[You… will die for this!]

The flower erupted in rage.

Its corpse-laden petals flared wide as the flesh vortex at its core spun wildly.

Huummm—!

An invisible force—one that warped space itself—locked onto Su Qi.

This wasn’t mere energy.

It was the very concepts of decay and rot.

The ground beneath Su Qi’s feet turned gray and crumbled into lifeless dust.

The air around him grew thick and foul, as if time itself accelerated, dragging everything toward oblivion.

Any living being struck by this would have their vitality, soul, and body annihilated in an instant.

Yet Su Qi simply stood there.

The decay-force—enough to terrify even tenth-rank experts—splashed harmlessly against an invisible barrier around him.

[This… cannot be!]

The flower’s voice trembled with disbelief.

[Your essence… What are you?!]

[Why does my power… have no effect?]

Of course it didn’t.

Otherwise, Su Qi wouldn’t have come alone.

Originally, he hadn’t planned to get involved.

But…

The details were too telling.

‘Star-Grasper’…

‘The Gardener’…

‘This abominable flower’…

It was impossible not to connect them.

Add in the controlled sourcebeasts and the threat to kidnap Liu Yuan to manipulate him…

Everything fit.

Su Qi finally activated a long-unused card—[Mountainwood Starflare].

Where the starlight touched, the black-red miasma melted away like snow under sunlight.

The twisted corpses, the tormented souls—their faces, once contorted with hatred, softened into peace.

They bowed silently toward Su Qi before dissolving into motes of light.

[NO—!]

The flower’s final, piercing shriek echoed.

It poured all its power into resisting the purifying radiance.

Useless.

All its "darkness" and "filth" were laughably feeble.

Its massive body, woven from despair and flesh, crumbled under the light, vanishing without a trace.

Seconds later…

The light faded.

The basin was empty.

The sky-blotting flower of flesh was gone.

The mountains of corpses had turned to nothingness.

Only pristine, untouched earth remained.

And…

At the very center of the basin, where the colossal flower had once stood, lay a fist-sized, pulsating mass of dark-red flesh resembling a heart.

It was the core—the condensed embodiment of all its power and corruption.

Su Qi strolled over, crouched down, and poked the fleshy mass.

Soft. Surprisingly springy too.

Then, with a sudden burst, the heart exploded, leaving behind a single card in its wake.

[Card Name: Masterpiece of the Starlord]

[Type: Material]

[Rarity: Mythic]

[Energy Tier: ?????????? (Tier 10)]

[Effect: Contains vast, tainted life force and soul energy—a flawed remnant of a failed god-forging experiment. Usable in alchemy, enchantment, or… as a power bank?]

[Note: Maybe some cumin and chili powder would make it a decent midnight snack?]

Su Qi pocketed the still-warm card and turned to leave.

No way he’d taint his card slots with something like this.

Better to sell it off when he got the chance.

The forest, once eerie and foreboding, was now bathed in sunlight, alive with birdsong and the scent of blossoms.

He reckoned his actions made him a prime example of an eco-warrior in the Origin Realm.

…

Back at the camp, tension had reached a breaking point.

Lin Xiao had just issued an ultimatum.

All personnel were to assemble within half an hour for an emergency evacuation.

He no longer had the luxury of wondering where Su Qi had vanished to—every extra minute spent here multiplied the danger.

That grotesque flower of flesh loomed over them like the sword of Damocles.

"Report! All trainees assembled!"

"Medical supplies loaded!"

"Teams One and Two ready to move on your order!"

Lin Xiao listened to the rapid-fire updates, his bloodshot eyes locked onto the depths of the forest, his grip on his weapon white-knuckled.

Just as he was about to give the command—

A figure ambled out from the trees.

"Whew, made it just in time."

Su Qi dusted himself off, looking relieved.

"Thought you’d leave without me."

Lin Xiao turned to stare at the guy who’d not only defied orders to wander into the forest alone but had also returned completely unscathed.

His body trembled uncontrollably—not from anger, but from a mix of dizzying relief and the suffocating urge to have a heart attack.

"You—"

Before he could finish, a sharp crackle of static erupted from his high-priority communicator.

Lin Xiao’s expression darkened. He immediately answered, shoving Su Qi aside.

The voice on the other end belonged to a frantic intelligence analyst, half-hysterical with shock and elation.

"Captain Lin! The Black Forest—its energy readings just normalized!"

"The high-concentration corruption source… it’s gone!"

"Repeat—the corruption has completely vanished! Our scouts confirm the core zone is empty! It’s… it’s pristine, like it’s been scrubbed clean!"

Lin Xiao’s mind went blank.

Slowly, mechanically, he lifted his gaze back to Su Qi.

Su Qi was now holding up the dark-red card.

"Want me to hand it over? If not, I’m selling it."

Lin Xiao’s lungs seemed to have stopped working.

He took one unsteady step forward, then another, as if walking on cotton.

Pointing weakly toward the forest, his voice came out like sandpaper.

"Was it… you?"

"Was what me?"

Su Qi blinked, then followed his gaze.

"Oh, the big ugly flower?"

He nodded casually.

"Yeah, I plucked it."

As if he’d just yanked out a weed.

"It was ruining the scenery."

Lin Xiao’s mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.

All that came out was a wheezing gasp.

He’d survived battlefields, witnessed miracles, weathered storms that would break lesser men.

But this—this defied all logic, all reason.

That flower had been classified as a top-tier threat, something requiring at least three Tier 10 elites to even attempt containing.

And Su Qi had just… strolled in and plucked it?

Because it was ugly?

Suddenly, Su Qi’s past antics—like breaking the testing pillar or Yun Huang’s legendary rating—seemed downright mundane in comparison.

Lin Xiao staggered back and collapsed onto the ground, covering his face with his hands.

He needed silence.

…

The Black Forest crisis had ended in a way no one could comprehend.

The evacuation order was rescinded.

The trainees were told the military had deployed an undisclosed strategic weapon to eliminate the corruption.

Most bought the explanation.

Only a handful—Chen Ye, Yun Huang—watched Su Qi skewering a piece of the dark-red flesh over the campfire and felt a deep unease.

"Captain Lin, want a bite?"

Lin Xiao stared at him, dead-eyed.

He was done talking.

All he wanted now was for this nightmare to end so he could transfer to the frontlines of the Abyss. He’d rather fight monsters daily than see Su Qi’s face ever again.

And so, the storm passed.

…

On the third day, the hunting exam concluded under an air of surreal tension.

The results were predictable.

Yun Huang’s team dominated, their lead so absurdly vast it bordered on parody.

No one protested.

After witnessing that night’s battle, everyone knew—those two existed in a different realm entirely.

When Lin Xiao announced the end of training, the camp erupted in exhausted cheers.

Su Qi was the first to bolt, dragging Liu Yuan toward the transport vehicles.

He couldn’t wait to get home, flop onto his soft bed, and game all afternoon.

On the transport, Su Qi leaned against the window, watching the Origin Realm blur past as drowsiness crept in.

Then—a flicker of intuition.

He turned slightly.

At the distant horizon, a fleeting glimmer of light vanished almost instantly.

Yet in that split second, Su Qi "saw" it clearly—a man clad in resplendent starry robes, his face obscured by radiance.

The man seemed to smile at him before dissolving into motes of starlight.

Not a challenge.

More like… an amused, detached observation from above.

Just like humans, occasionally pausing to observe an especially interesting ant at their feet.

Su Qi's brow lifted almost imperceptibly.

He withdrew his gaze, leaned back into his chair, and closed his eyes.

"Trouble," he muttered under his breath before turning over and settling back into sleep.

He hated trouble.

Yet somehow, trouble always seemed to seek him out.