To Long Chen’s surprise, the experts surrounding him bore a striking resemblance to humans, save for their third eyes and teeth as jagged as a saw. Their limbs were long, and their nails were like sharp blades, gleaming with a metallic sheen that lent them a fearsome and savage appearance.

These lifeforms appeared silently and without any warning. In an instant, they surrounded Long Chen, their gazes ferocious, as if they might attack at any moment.

Long Chen frowned. He had never seen this race before. However, from their ferocious gazes, he knew that they weren’t a kind bunch of bastards.

What puzzled Long Chen the most was the potent medicinal energy emanating from them. Such a phenomenon was typically associated with spirit beasts that habitually ingested medicinal ingredients.

Many spirit beasts consumed precious medicines as part of their diet, accumulating a large amount of medicinal essence in them. Take, for instance, the Scarlet Armor Armadillo, whose body was so infused with medicinal energy that nearly every part of it held medicinal properties.

On the other hand, these humanoid lifeforms had different fluctuations. Their medicinal energy wasn’t acquired through natural absorption but rather through excessive consumption. Because they consumed medicinal ingredients above their limit, an overflow of medicinal fluctuations like this occurred.

In other words, these lifeforms had to sustain themselves through prolonged consumption of medicinal elixirs or perhaps by ingesting an immense quantity of medicinal pills. That was the only way to produce such fluctuations.

Although humans also consumed a lot of medicinal pills for cultivation, comprehension, healing, and breaking through, they had one natural advantage. As long as they avoided excessive consumption of low-grade pills, they could slowly expel any accumulated toxins, thus mitigating the potential side effects.

However, these lifeforms were different. With one look, Long Chen could tell that most of them were brimming with pill toxins. They might explode at any moment.

All of this made sense. What perplexed Long Chen was where these lifeforms could have gotten so many medicinal pills. They didn’t seem like the type capable of refining their own pills.

“What are you looking at?! Hand over the treasure of this place, or we’ll make you regret being born!” shouted one of them.

They had arrived just in time to see Long Chen squatting and digging something out of the ground. Thinking that they had arrived one step too late, they immediately surrounded him.

Looking at them, Long Chen couldn’t be bothered to waste any words. With a wave of his hand, he grabbed the neck of the person who shouted.

Long Chen then tightened his grip and crushed that lifeform to death, causing countless soul fragments to fly through the air.

In truth, this lifeform was the strongest one in this group. However, he only had the power of a three-star Doyen.

Even before his blood was switched out, Long Chen could have killed this guy with the wave of his hand. Now, he wasn’t even sure of the extent of his newfound strength, so that lifeform was no more than an ant in his presence.

“Medicine slaves? The Three Eye race?”

Long Chen scanned those soul fragments and found that they were not normal. The individual’s soul appeared to be in a state of half-madness, with numerous fragments blank, as if he were a puppet manipulated by someone.

“Kill!”

At the sight of their comrade’s demise, the other lifeforms launched into a frenzied assault, rushing toward Long Chen like deranged bastards.

In response, Long Chen raised his head and let out a dragon roar that reverberated through the world. A powerful ripple surged forth, reducing the Three Eye lifeforms to dust in an instant.

With a single roar, he wiped out tens of thousands of Three Eye lifeforms. The power of Long Chen’s dragon cry was far more terrifying than before.

“What a vile technique. Using medicine to control their wills, turning them into puppets,” Long Chen remarked with disdain, his gaze turning icy as he sensed the air.

Although he didn’t gain any useful information from the soul fragments, as an alchemy master, Long Chen could tell that this group of lifeforms had no free will. Someone had fed them medicine to control their souls.

Moreover, the one controlling them had to be an alchemy master. While Long Chen believed that employing alchemy for both healing and harm was acceptable, using medicine to subjugate others like this was utterly abhorrent.

“What a hateful technique.” The Earth Cauldron’s voice rang out in Long Chen’s mind. It seemed that it also loathed this method.

“Wait, if they’re medicine slaves, doesn’t that mean that their master is nearby?”

Long Chen suddenly had a thought. If their master was in the vicinity, then these medicine slaves were probably gathering the medicinal ingredients in this land.

“I have to hurry up! Otherwise, someone else will get all the medicinal ingredients!” shouted Long Chen as he flew off.

An hour later, Long Chen heard the resounding roars echoing from up ahead. Peering ahead, he witnessed a fierce battle unfolding between a beast and a group of lifeforms—a clash over treasure, once again.

This group had five seven-star Doyens. Long Chen didn’t recognize what race they came from, but he vaguely caught a hint of devil qi from them. Most likely, they had some affiliation with the devil race.

Just as their fight reached the climax, Long Chen silently appeared with an exploding World Extermination Flame Lotus, catching the beast and all the lifeforms off-guard. After that attack, only the beast and the five seven-star Doyens survived.

However, they were pretty much half-dead. The five Doyens cursed but didn’t dare to stay around any longer.

The beast also tried to flee, but due to its big ass, it wasn’t agile at all. Long Chen just struck its head with his fist, and it fell to the ground, lifeless.

After tossing its corpse into the primal chaos space, Long Chen dug out the small flower behind it. Without even checking the tier of the flower, he sent it into the primal chaos space and flew off.

The entire process of ambushing, slaying the guardian, seizing the treasure, and departing unfolded with such ease that Long Chen started to feel that he was a genius bandit.

Long Chen sped forward, abandoning his previous wide-ranging search strategy and just going for a straight and swift path. After all, the further he delved, the more valuable the treasures would become.

Moreover, the appearance of the medicine slaves heightened Long Chen’s sense of urgency. Time was of the essence, and he couldn’t afford to waste it.

Long Chen occasionally saw other experts fighting the guardian beasts. If he didn’t like the group, he’d directly take what they were fighting for.

Sometimes, the guardian beasts would be too much of a bother to deal with. If he couldn’t kill the beasts in one blow, he aimed for their medicinal ingredients and took them. After that, the experts fighting the beasts would face a calamity. Thinking Long Chen was their comrade, the frenzied beasts would go after these experts after losing their treasures.

Observing the chaos unfold as they scattered in panic, their curses echoing in his ears, Long Chen inexplicably felt a surge of satisfaction deep within.

Suddenly, Long Chen halted mid-flight and changed directions. He turned to the left, a familiar sensation washing over him once more—the unmistakable aura of the medicine slaves.