“Hey!” Old Anderson summoned his remaining strength, and this aged body seemed to suddenly regain its vitality. A brilliant silver light burst from him as the battle aura of a beginner silver warrior was unleashed at full force. Gripping his waist knife with both hands, he let out a loud roar and slashed at the leaf of that terrifying orchid.

The silver light whistled through the air and struck the orchid leaf entangling Gaia with a clang. A golden starlight flashed across the leaf. The slash, into which Old Anderson had poured all his strength, managed to cut only halfway through before getting stuck fast!

The orchid leaf seemed completely unfazed by this injury and continued to drag Gaia back.

Gaia couldn’t care about anything else now. Suddenly, his battle aura erupted, a flash of golden light, and he clenched his fist and slammed it hard onto the back of the knife.

“Bang!” The battle aura exploded wildly, air currents rampaged, and the items in the basement were blown about with a crash.

With a crack, the waist knife severed the orchid leaf into two pieces, clattering to the ground, but a thumb-sized notch had broken open in the blade, cracks spreading everywhere—it was clearly unusable now.

Old Anderson rushed over and quickly shut the secret compartment, forcefully screwing the bolts back in.

Gaia moved forward, using his battle aura, but a surge of turmoil rose within him, and that sensation of being cut by a blade returned. Blood trickled from his nostrils, and he plopped down on the ground, his face pale—half from fright, half from the orchid leaf having choked his neck so he couldn’t breathe.

Still shaken, he said, “Looks like I really can’t recklessly use battle aura beyond my body’s limits. One more time and I’ll be done for…”

Old Anderson had nearly exhausted all his strength and collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath.

The scythe of death had once again brushed past the tip of Gaia’s nose.

The severed half of the orchid leaf lost its vitality, twitched twice on the ground, and then lay still, still emitting that alluring starlight.

“What is this thing?” Gaia asked, still shaken.

“Bloodthirsty Nightmare Orchid,” Old Anderson said. “Luckily, it’s still in its juvenile stage and hasn’t matured. Otherwise, the two of us probably wouldn’t have escaped death today.”

There was no need for Old Anderson to explain; the Bloodthirsty Nightmare Orchid was a notorious plant throughout the entire Abyss. Gaia felt a chill: “That dark red liquid is human blood?” Old Anderson nodded. A mature Bloodthirsty Nightmare Orchid had combat power equivalent to a mid-tier seventh-rank magical beast. The Abyss classified magical beasts into seven ranks, each with three tiers. The highest-level magical beasts were seventh-rank high-tier; as for even more powerful divine beasts or holy beasts, those existed only in legend. Aside from the tales of wandering bards, those who had actually seen them in the Abyss could be counted on one hand.

This Bloodthirsty Nightmare Orchid was not yet mature, but it had already forced a beginner silver warrior like Old Anderson to use all his strength and still couldn’t cut through a single leaf—one could imagine how terrifying this plant was.

“Today, we master and servant were just lucky,” Gaia said. “It hasn’t matured yet, and clearly the armored skeleton restricted its abilities, so it could only shoot out one leaf. Otherwise…” Neither dared to imagine the outcome.

The secret compartment was too small; the Bloodthirsty Nightmare Orchid couldn’t shoot out two leaves at once.

Gaia glanced at the other armored skeleton, wondering: This one contained the Bloodthirsty Nightmare Orchid, but what’s inside that one? Though his curiosity was strong, right now he wouldn’t dare open the chest of the other armored skeleton even if his life depended on it.

“Let’s go, young master. The steel on this skeleton restrains the Bloodthirsty Nightmare Orchid—it can’t get out.” Old Anderson, having rested a bit and regained some strength, pulled Gaia to leave the basement. As Gaia walked up the stairs, he suddenly paused and looked back at the piece of Bloodthirsty Nightmare Orchid leaf on the ground.

“Young master…”

Gaia ran back and stuffed that piece of leaf into his pocket.

……

“Lord, this is Modo Town.” The guide, a boy named Roy, was about the same age as Gaia, but sturdier. The harsh environment of the frozen tundra actually produced robust youths.

Gaia had originally planned to just send someone to Modo to deliver the message, and the honest city administrator Strong had assigned Roy, who was familiar with the route. But since Gaia wanted to sell armor, he naturally had to come to Modo himself, so Roy became his guide.

“Is this really just a small town?” Gaia could hardly believe his eyes. Both towns were in the northern part of the Martinique province, both outside the frozen tundra, and only two hundred miles apart, yet the difference was like night and day. Modo Town had five-meter-high stone walls, and the huge city gate was bustling with people.

Only after entering Modo could one truly feel the vast difference: here, shops lined the streets—not only were there plenty of adventurer supply stores, but also auction houses, taverns, blacksmiths, restaurants, inns, brothels, and a whole range of other facilities.