Dardanyan suddenly spoke up, "I have a way to track them, but it will come at a tremendous cost, requiring extremely expensive spell components. Therefore, I cannot bear the expense alone."

Heddikuri and Aziza immediately showed impatience. "Fine, ten thousand Universal Points from each of us should be enough, shouldn't it?"

Dardanyan nodded, and to prove he wasn't exaggerating, he voluntarily presented his spell component—the blood of a Green Dragon!

This item was indeed exceedingly precious. A pool of viridescent liquid sloshed within the glass test tube, possessing the texture of an emerald. Catching the setting sun's rays, the light refracted and rippled incessantly within the blood, creating an illusion that one could not tear their gaze away from it.

Dardanyan cupped the dragon's blood in his hands and began to murmur mysterious incantations. The magical energy within his body seemed to boil and surge in an uncanny manner. Then, the dragon blood slowly floated into the air, enveloped by what seemed like tangible runes. Finally, it coalesced into a sphere of deep green blood, the size of a ping-pong ball, hovering before Dardanyan. Its surface even emitted an eerie luminescence, like a flawless jade imprisoning a powerful soul.

Dardanyan walked towards the purple-plumed reeds near the camp and began chanting in a low, majestic, and arcane language. During the chanting, Ramtas suddenly transmitted a thought to Fang Senyan: "Master, this is a Tier Seven Nature Spell: Nature's Tongue."

"What??" Fang Senyan was startled.

In many high-magic worlds, Druids and Elves often claimed the ability to communicate with plants. While this sounded mystical, the underlying mechanism was rather mundane. It was akin to an experienced farmer judging the health of his rice paddies from a distance—this too could be considered a form of communication with plants. Druids and Elves merely advanced this by leveraging their innate talents, allowing them to discern the plants' joys, sorrows, and temperaments through the tactile feel of leaves and subtle shifts in their aura.

However, this Tier Seven Nature Spell, Nature's Tongue, was entirely different. It sought to harness the Draconic Might contained within the dragon's blood to simulate the overwhelming majesty of nature's storms and frost-edged blades. Its purpose was to utterly subdue the flora, forcing them to yield completely, even at the cost of self-harm, to execute the caster's will—an astonishing feat of sorcery.

Naturally, the primary reason this was a formidable Tier Seven spell was that this power could also be brought to bear upon Treants. Ordinary Treants encountering Nature's Tongue would either be instantly subdued or suffer devastating, targeted damage.

In this situation, Dardanyan’s use of this ability felt like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but in reality, his judgment had been clouded by avarice for the Xian Ore vein.

Dardanyan finished chanting and shouted at the surrounding purple-plumed reeds, "Where did those people go? Tell me! In the name of Nature!"

Instantly, the suspended Green Dragon blood before Dardanyan splattered outwards, as if an invisible quill had dipped into the blood and was rapidly writing characters that were ancient, arcane, and imbued with authority. This was Ancient Hebrew—the legendary Divine Script! The Words of God!

Immediately, everyone felt a strange power emanating from the characters Dardanyan was writing, a power that seemed to resonate with all of nature itself!

The purple-plumed reeds within a radius of several hundred meters slowly bent and fell in every direction within that instant. Then, to the astonishment of the onlookers, they realized they were standing within the boundary of a gigantic arrow shape, spanning at least several hundred square meters! The arrow pointed northwest.

Seeing this, the group instantly understood the implication. They scrambled onto the rafts and began paddling toward the northwest. Fueled by the heat of the high-purity Xian Ore, even Paul couldn't resist grabbing a paddle, causing the raft to skim swiftly across the swamp.

After that, every few hundred meters, Dardanyan would use the Divine Script to commune with nature and correct their bearing. After traveling five or six li, the expanse remained an endless, rolling swamp stretching to the horizon. Suddenly, Ramtas let out a grunt, sniffed the air intently several times, and then turned to Fang Senyan, "Master, I smell blood."

Fang Senyan immediately stopped the raft. "Where?"

Ramtas’s fleshy nose twitched a few times, he expelled a few jets of mucus, and then leaped off the raft. Ignoring the muck and water, he charged straight ahead, sinking deep into the mud. After the raft turned a corner and proceeded another kilometer, they came upon a depression covered in water lilies, vibrantly green.

On the western bank of the depression, nestled among the purple water bamboo, lay a figure prone on his stomach. His clothing was ragged, but they could vaguely discern it was a standardized military uniform. The man, however, was utterly still, as if asleep.

The senses of the incoming group were a hundred times sharper than those of an ordinary person. As they focused their attention on the body, they realized he had stopped breathing and his heart was still; he appeared to be dead.

"Nobody move!" Heddikuri raised his hand. "Don't disturb the scene. Rony, go examine him."

Rony's form flickered like a ghost, and he vanished, sweeping over to investigate. Soon, he delivered his conclusion: "This man is named Daniel. He's been dead for three hours, killed by poison—which is also why his corpse is preserved—otherwise, the greedy creatures of the swamp would have devoured him long ago."

Hearing Rony, Fang Senyan noticed that if he looked closely, there were numerous dead insects and ants near the corpse, obscured by the dense vegetation which made them hard to see at first glance. Rony continued, "This man is probably not a regular soldier. First, he has no dog tags. Second, his musculature is abnormally developed, suggesting extremely rigorous combat training. Third, his body seems to have undergone some form of modification, allowing him to breathe the local air without any adverse effects."

Rony then took anti-toxin precautions and, after a careful inspection, discovered a map on his body. This map was hand-drawn and, judging by its size, depicted the terrain spanning several hundred square kilometers nearby.

Although the map was rudimentary—drawn on tanned hide with burnt charcoal sticks—it seemed the work of a very professional individual, conveying maximum information with minimal strokes.

The map showed the swamp’s area was staggering; its boundaries weren't even fully charted. It merely marked their previous temporary camp with a circle, and about ten kilometers above it, drew another circle with the words "Food/Bird" written beside it, suggesting he had gone to hunt those creatures. Furthermore, the canyon where Fang Senyan's group had previously stopped was marked with a large red 'X', indicating they were aware of the inescapable danger there. Most significantly, the northern area bore the marking of a red skull! This designated a location of extreme peril.

Now that they had found a body, there was certainly no need to continue using the raft. Daniel must have fled immediately after being attacked, only to succumb to the poison here. Therefore, Rony, being an expert tracker, could follow the path of his retreat to locate where they had been ambushed.

Suddenly, Heddikuri looked up at Fang Senyan, speaking without courtesy, "Hey, Sailor, we might be facing poisonous creatures soon. Do you have any anti-toxin potions?"

Although Fang Senyan didn't possess an anti-toxin, he replied flatly, "I do, but the effects of the two potions cannot coexist. Are you certain you want the anti-toxin?"

Heddikuri hesitated. Though they didn't say it aloud, they were secretly in awe of Fang Senyan’s astonishing potion amplification bonuses. Otherwise, why would they have tolerated Fang Senyan and his two companions repeatedly? Especially when their standard equipment was generally a tier below that of the Ace Team. Even with Fang Senyan using his most basic mist enhancements, they could gain an extra 8% in attributes—a minimum of 6 attribute points—the value of which was self-evident; it could be the deciding factor between crushing an opponent or merely holding your own. Some could even use Fang Senyan's potion buffs to wear gear they otherwise couldn't equip, though the gear would turn red and lose all bonuses once the potion effect faded (Fang Senyan and his team members were immune to this restriction).

Hearing Fang Senyan's reply, Heddikuri could only sigh and wave his hand dismissively, "Forget it, I'll stick with the attribute potions."

"Oh, right," Rony suddenly interjected sharply, "I heard you can create individual-use potions that grant a 10% full attribute boost, equating to at least 8 attribute points. Why don't you use those on us?"

Fang Senyan had already prepared his excuse. He shrugged and retorted with a mocking tone, "Mr. Rony, may I ask what the value is of equipment that grants a 10% full attribute bonus, translating to at least 8 attribute points?" (To be continued)

For more novels, visit storyread.net.