Chapter 88: Secret Eye Upgrade

Chapter 88: Chapter 88: Secret Eye Upgrade

Chen Shang’s attack exploded between the two rows of the centipede’s simple eyes. High-temperature steam poured into its skull, blinding those dark red eyes one by one.

The centipede’s body thrashed wildly. It slammed its head against the ground in a frenzy, desperately trying to shake out the searing heat that had burrowed inside.

Seizing the opportunity, the Giant Wood Guard grabbed the centipede’s appendages with its coarse, massive hands and tore at them with all its might to inflict as much damage as possible.

The giant centipede shrieked once more. Its Spiritual Power violently fluctuated, forcing Chen Shang and his forces back. Then, whipping its head around, its segmented body rapidly burrowed back into the sand and vanished.

In just a few seconds, only a long trench remained on the ground.

Chen Shang dispelled the Witchcraft in his hands. Surtr walked over, its dark golden eyes fixated on the direction where the centipede had disappeared.

"Boss, did it run away?"

Chen Shang glanced through the vision of the Secret Eye. Deep underground, the centipede’s Life Energy was moving sluggishly, drifting further and further away.

"Its home turf is underground. It won’t be easy to track," Chen Shang said.

He didn’t plan to pursue it anyway. Just then, his interface vibrated, and a new notification popped up.

[Eye of the Earth Element (Blue): Grants the ability to perceive Earth Element flow nodes. Enhances Control Power over Earth Element System Witchcraft, and reduces the cost of casting Earth Witchcraft.]

Realization dawned on Chen Shang. No wonder the centipede had managed to evade his initial detection—it had perfectly concealed itself under the camouflage of the Earth Element, fooling even the Secret Eye.

[Mythical Resonance conditions met!]

[Secret Eye (Blue) + Eye of the Earth Element (Blue) can be fused. Upon fusion, a new trait will be acquired: Eye of True Sight. Proceed with fusion?]

Without hesitation, Chen Shang confirmed the fusion.

The blue light of the Secret Eye and the deep blue light of the Eye of the Earth Element converged on his interface, like two rivers flowing into the same lake.

Soon, a new trait appeared.

[True Sight Eye of Earth (Purple). Building upon the Secret Eye, it grants insight into the operational laws of the Earth Element, vastly increasing Control Power over Earth Witchcraft. Can be supplemented with other elements.]

Chen Shang opened his eyes. The wasteland in his vision had changed once again.

Looking down, he could see through nearly a hundred meters of sand. Below that was loose sandy soil, resting on hard bedrock. Beneath the rocks ran a subterranean river, its water flowing sluggishly, illuminating the depths with some kind of fluorescent ore submerged within.

Further away, a mass of dull yellow light moved through the earth. It was the centipede, rapidly tunneling hundreds of meters below ground.

This was Chen Shang’s second Purple trait.

The Secret Eye had allowed him to see the flow of elements and granted a slight measure of control over them. But the Eye of True Sight went further, revealing Earth Element nodes and even analyzing the material composition of Earth Element matter.

What excited him most was the small line of text on the interface: "Can be supplemented with other elements."

He wondered what the Eye of True Sight would become if he managed to integrate all four basic elements, various Composite Elements, and even High Tier elements.

Eyes of Golden Flame? Or the Eye of Truth?

Perhaps one day, he would be able to directly see through the energy trajectories of Runes, decipher the underlying structure of any Witchcraft, and even unravel the fundamental elements that made up all matter.

Just as Chen Shang was about to close the trait window, he paused. His gaze had swept over a severed segment of the centipede’s carapace and detected an abnormal fluctuation.

He walked over, crouched down, and flipped the shell over to inspect its inner wall.

Just as he thought! A complex pattern was etched into the inner surface. Based on his judgment, it was highly unlikely to be a naturally formed texture; it had to be artificially carved.

Chen Shang traced the lines with his fingers, sending his Spiritual Power flowing through them. They were very shallow Runes, almost entirely overgrown by newly formed tissue, but the Eye of True Sight still managed to capture the residual traces of energy.

Someone had embedded some kind of function within its body. It might have been to control its central nervous system, or perhaps to reinforce the durability of its carapace.

Anyone capable of modifying a creature to this extent couldn’t be an ordinary native. It had to be a Wizard or a Wizard Apprentice—and one who possessed dual mastery over both Alchemy and biological anatomy.

However, the traces were very old, dating back at least a few decades. Either the Wizard who modified it had already left this Plane, or the centipede had outlived its usefulness and was casually discarded.

As for the possibility of the centipede having escaped on its own... that was virtually zero.

Chen Shang stood up and stored the broken carapace in his Space Book to study later.

Next, he walked toward the giant boulder. Following Saphiron’s instructions, he took thirteen steps to the west, crouched down, and found a groove in the sand. He cleared away the gravel and poured the Dragon Blood from the test tube into it.

The dark red liquid seeped into the groove. A moment later, the ground trembled.

The sandy ground around the groove began to cave in, revealing a downward passage. It was narrow, only wide enough for one person to pass, and completely pitch-black inside.

Surtr leaned over and poked its head into the entrance. Orange-red light radiated from the cracks in its skin, illuminating the inner walls of the passage. The walls were smooth—not naturally formed, but polished by something.

"Boss, I’ll go down first," Surtr said.

Chen Shang placed a hand on its shoulder to stop it. Instead, he summoned a Ben Bo’Erba from his Space Book and ordered it to go down first to scout the way.

Although he had already inspected the area, it was better to be cautious. Even if it couldn’t defeat the Tang Monk and his disciples, using it as cannon fodder to scout the path was perfectly fine, right?

Ben Bo’Erba silently leaped into the passage, its grayish-blue silhouette vanishing into the darkness.

Chen Shang waited for a moment. Hearing no unusual sounds, he followed it down.

The passage was deeper than he had anticipated, and the smooth stone walls were somewhat slippery underfoot. Ben Bo’Erba was a few steps ahead of him, its Runes emitting a faint golden glow that lit up the bottom of the tunnel.

After descending for nearly a hundred meters, the tunnel finally leveled out. Chen Shang looked around and found himself in a modest underground space.

In the corner, several suits of armor stood neatly against the wall, their surfaces shimmering faintly. Two were half-body plate armors, and one was a full-body scale armor. Each was inscribed with densely packed Runes. With just a glance, Chen Shang could identify several layers of Enchantments, including protection, resilience, and lightweight properties.

Beside the armor were a few wooden chests. One of them was piled with over a dozen Magic Gemstones—Flame Heart, Tears of Frost, Eye of Thunder... Each one radiated its own unique color under the runic glow.

Another chest contained some high-quality raw materials, which were specialties of this Plane.

As for the rest, it was just gold, diamonds, and other worthless trinkets. There was even a lustrous undergarment made of large, perfectly round pearls—who knew where that bastard Evil Dragon Saphiron had scavenged it from.

Chen Shang made a rough estimate. The gold and diamonds were worthless to him, while the armors could probably fetch one or two thousand Wizard Coins—since they weren’t produced in the Wizard World, their added value was mediocre.

The raw materials could sell for ten to twenty thousand. The Magic Gemstones were the most valuable. Whether used as energy sources or Alchemy Materials, they were excellent and could likely be sold for forty to fifty thousand.

Extremely satisfied, Chen Shang packed everything away. He had truly made a windfall this time; the trip had definitely not been in vain.