Chapter 35 Experienced Provoker

Lin Feng stopped just past the marker stones and checked the watch token on his wrist. As far as Orchid Veil’s boundary rules were concerned, he was allowed to be here.

That was when the system finally updated

[Milestone 10/10 settled]

[Title updated : Novice Provoker → Experienced Provoker ]

[Reward issued: 5000 Rage Points]

[System Shop permissions expanded]

[New route unlocked: Hostile Beast Binding]

[Next Milestone: Generate lasting death intent in 3 non human targets, or complete first forced beast bind]

Lin Feng watched the number jump and felt his mood improve immediately.

"Five thousand."

He opened the full panel before taking another step into the mist. After the assessment and the long stretch of careful behavior under observation, his point count had looked thin for too long. Now the balance sat high enough to matter again.

[Current Rage Points: 5962]

[Owned Skills: Fleet Footed Coward Dash / Thick Face Counterstep]

[Owned Items: Thin Face Amulet / Echo Mockery Bell / Bone Steady Patch residue: spent]

The shop had changed with the rank up. There are more options now and several upgrade nodes that used to sit gray were now available. Lin Feng went straight for things that would keep him alive in wet terrain.

First, the movement skill.

[Fleet Footed Dash — Upgraded to level 2]

[Short range slip speed increased. Recovery interval reduced. Mud/water footing penalty lowered. ]

[Cost: 1600 RP]

He bought it. The old version had saved him on stone platforms. This one would have to deal with roots and sludges.

Second, Thick Face Counterstep.

[Thick Face Counterstep — Upgrade to Level 2]

[Counter line after enduring a hit becomes tighter. Brief impact resistance added at initiation. ]

[Cost: 1800 RP]

He bought that too and he still had points left, so he opened the item list and took two practical tools.

[Blackroot Traction Strips — 700 RP]

Attach to boots. Improves grip on wet bark, moss, and shallow marsh beds for six hours.

[Pungent Ward Vial — 500 RP]

On break, releases a sharp odor burst that disrupts beast tracking senses for a short window.

He decided to buy both as well. He left the rest of the points alone. Spending everything before seeing the swamp properly would be stupid.

[Current Rage Points: 1362]

[Upgrades complete]

"All right," Lin Feng said under his breath. "Now we can go explore what the orchid swap have to offer..."

He walked in and the air changed. Mist clung low across the surface, carrying a heavy orchid smell. The surface was wet and muddy that threatened to sink his foot. But there’s something more different about this... This was not an ordinary swamp for sure.

The mist thickened along some paths and thinned along others. The watch token stayed quiet only while he kept to the outer line, when he tested a darker branch, cold warning ran up his wrist and tugged his attention back.

He followed the safer channel until he found a root shelf above a narrow pool. It was half sunken and ugly, but stable enough for short practice. He climbed up, knelt, and worked through several slower cycles. He was settling into the third clean loop when the pool went still.

The small clicking under the water stopped. Bubbles rose from the far side, one line and then another. The mist there slowly started shifting.

Then the water broke open and a green beast dragged itself onto a drowned log, plated along the neck, jaws split too far back and weed hanging from its shoulders. Its eyes were clouded and fixed on him.

Lin Feng gulped seeing a beast for the first time. "So this what the blonde chick meant when she said the swamp is not peaceful "

The beast charged and hit the tree hard enough to shake it. Claws tore off the bark where his ankle had been a moment earlier. Lin Feng moved sideways on the upgraded Fleet Footed Dash. The Traction Strips bit into the bark just enough to keep the move from turning into a slide. He drove a reinforced palm into the plated neck. The impact still jarred his arm, but he stayed upright.

The beast swung its bulk into the tree. Lin Feng dropped low, let the force pass over him, and took a claw scrape across the shoulder hard and that was enough contact for Thick Face Counterstep.

The counter was much better than the assessment version, a short violent close that put him against the beast’s side before its claws finished resetting. He slammed both palms up under the jaw hinge and forced its head off line. The creature snarled and whipped a thick tail across the tree. Lin Feng caught part of it on his forearm and felt the shock run to his shoulder.

"You’re heavy, ugly and rude."

It lunged again with its mouth open. He broke the Pungent Ward Vial against the root tip and dashed past the left flank. The odor burst sharp enough to sting his own eyes. The beast’s head snapped sideways, tracking disrupted for a critical breath. In that opening, Lin Feng drove another Counterstep from a glancing hit on his ribs and smashed qi into the joint behind its front leg.

The beast’s legs folded and it crashed half into the pool while clawing for him in a fury. Filthy water sprayed across the roots. Its clouded eyes locked on him and for a moment, pure killing urge rolled off it so thick.

[ Non human killing intent confirmed ]

[Rage Value +420]

[Current Rage Points: 1782]

Lin Feng’s eyebrows rose despite the ache in his shoulder.

"Four hundred twenty? From one angry lizard?" He glanced at the thrashing beast, half impressed.

"In the sect i had to waste days on multiple people to raise that much points. Hmmm...I may have been farming the wrong species."

The beast answered by tearing another chunk out of the root shelf. Fair. He could push the bind attempt now, maybe, while the thing was furious and off balance. The route was there at the edge of thoughtHe stepped in to test it— and then the swamp changed somehow.

It was slight at first, easy to miss under adrenaline. The mist above the pool drew tighter. The sour orchid smell thinned and the pressure settled through the channel in a broad, even sheet, and the disordered qi that had been scraping at his circulation suddenly aligned one degree more

Looking down, he could see that the beast felt the change too. The murderous focus it had fixed on Lin Feng scattered under a larger instinct. With a rough, wet sound, it shoved back from the root shelf and slid into deeper water.

Lin Feng stayed in stance for another breath, then two, until it was obvious the fight was over.

Only then did he notice his own skin had pricked cold. He put one hand on the nearest trunk and felt the wood faintly vibrate.

"...That wasn’t the beast," he said quietly.

The mist deeper along the restricted channels had changed color by a shade, pale orchid to washed iron. The watch token on his wrist remained still, which meant he had not crossed a forbidden line. Whatever had moved was inside the swamp’s own rules.

Lin Feng looked at the disturbed water where the beast had fled, then at the darker path ahead. He wiped muddy water from his jaw and let out a low breath.

Something in the Veiled Orchid Swamp had noticed the noise. Or noticed him because the pressure did not fade after the beast fled.

Then the swamp gathered itself. Vines slid down from the trees and roots were lifted out of the mud. Reeds, orchid stalks, and long strings of marsh grass twisted together above the pool, wringing water as they rose. The mass shaped itself into a woman’s upper body without ever becoming fully human. A pale mask formed where a face should be.

Lin Feng held his ground. "If this is about the lizard, he started it."

The mask seam opened and when the voice came, it was not as harsh as he expected. It was almost warm, like wet earth after rain.

"You are not the first to enter carrying hunger."

Lin Feng watched the vine wrought figure carefully. "Really?"

"You take breath from the air here and you strike what lives here. I notices all of these things."

"And?"

The figure tilted its head. Petals clung to the vine hair and did not fall.

"And still, you stand... "Are you willing to face anything to achieve your goal?"

Lin Feng’s fingers flexed at his side. "Depends on the price."

"If so," the swamp continued, as if he had not spoken, "you are welcome to try."

The mist around them shifted. For a moment he glimpsed other channels branching away through the fog.

"There are many inhabitants here," the voice said. "Old ones and yung ones. Some may accept your presence, some may not. I will not choose for them."

"So no protection."

"No promise," the swamp said. The warmth in its voice did not make the words softer.

He let out a short breath. "That’s honest enough."

The vine woman’s form loosened at the edges. Water ran out of her arms. Before the shape fell apart entirely, the voice came once more, quieter, almost curious.

"Then go farther, Lin Feng. If your goal still matters by the end..."

The figure collapsed into the pool after saying that, Vines and roots settled back as it never been moved. Lin Feng stood alone again with an aching shoulder.

"Off to a great start."