CHAPTER 537 GET MORE SPIRITUAL CRYSTALS (PART TWO)

He was intrigued and alarmed when he detected one almost immediately. "It can't be this easy!" he

exclaimed to himself.

The aura was a powerful one, perhaps a kilometer deep inside the swamp.

Ready for anything, he sped over until he was close to the crystal, then dived straight down into the

darkness of the swamp.

Sure enough, he immediately felt several creatures nearby, closing in fast. Whoever or whatever they

were, they definitely weren't going to be friendly.

"Hurricane Teleportation Skill!" Darren announced.

With his speed boosted exponentially, he was closing in fast on the spiritual crystal.

Soon he could see it. It was the size of his fist, and it glittered like fire. Without hesitating, he snatched

it up, put it into his Space Ring, and took flight again.

With a sound like the roar of a fierce wind, he burst through the canopy of the swamp.

However, so did a handful of other figures, reaching for him with cold hands, incensed at his attempt to

escape.

Not far away, Anna was observing the scene with a satisfied smirk.

'You despicable scum. I wonder how you'll handle danger this time, ' she thought disdainfully.

Coming a little closer, she saw the figures that now surrounded Darren as he left the swamp. They all

had metallic skin, and the aura they gave off was a powerful one indeed. They were the ruthless

creatures she had mentioned earlier.

Sizing them up even as he fled, Darren frowned. 'Each of them are as powerful as a top-level four-star

grand warrior. It'd be pretty tough to defeat them all.'

He quickly made up his mind to continue his speedy retreat, rather than confronting them head-on.

After all, it was really the spiritual crystals that he was after.

"You shameless bastard!" Anna shouted yet again. "Are you going to keep playing the same old tricks?!

They won't be so easily fooled like me!"

Darren was amazed to hear this rebuke. Despite the hassle she'd put him through earlier, he hadn't

expected the young lady to still be so mad at him for beating her. She really was no better than a little

girl. He decided to ignore her as best as he could. Giving her attention would only make things worse.

Meanwhile, the small band of ruthless creatures at his heels had no intention of cutting him any slack.

Luckily, they weren't flying fast enough to overtake him.

Keeping himself in the lead, he used his spiritual sense to scan for other crystals in the vicinity.

After a short while, his eye was drawn to a giant, towering tree that jutted up from the landscape like a

tower. He sensed his next prize there, directly underneath.

Adjusting his course, he flew toward the tree and blasted the whole thing to smithereens with one

powerful palm attack.

Without dallying, he searched the blackened crater and found what he was looking for. This spiritual

crystal was as big around as a millstone.

At the same time, the ruthless creatures were right behind Darren. Desperate to stop him from claiming

any more treasure, they charged him without hesitation.

But he spun around, unleashing a burst of his dark gold internal force, which headed off their attack.

Still unwilling to waste time fighting, he flew away yet again.

Even as he made off, a dozen more ruthless creatures showed themselves and joined their fellows in

the pursuit.

The next two hours passed in much the same way. Darren claimed six spiritual crystals, and for each

one that he took, another irate group of adversaries would appear on his tail.

When he finally looked behind himself, he counted more than forty of them.

These ruthless creatures were a lot more persistent than he would have expected, and they grew ever

more determined to surround him as their numbers increased.

Luckily, Darren had two useful skills, the Hurricane Teleportation Skill and Air-integrated True Rule. As

long as he had them, these foes wouldn't be able to catch and force him into a fight, so he could focus

on his task.

In the meantime, Anna was still following at a distance, not missing a moment of the spectacle.

'Humph! You're still running away like a frightened rat! But no matter how hard you try, in the end you

won't escape.'

The cold sneer on the girl's face never went away, and she kept her hopes up that she would

eventually see the man's downfall.

As for Darren, he continued to ignore her, focusing instead on the impressive collection of spiritual

crystals he had accumulated. Even more important, he could sense that there was a huge one still out

there, about ten miles away.

With an impressive whoosh, he headed toward it.

After grabbing that one, he would leave off the treasure hunting and turn his attention to slaughtering all

the annoying creatures chasing him.

'Oh, wow. This is not how I thought things would go, ' Anna realized as she watched them all go. 'That

shameless moron didn't kill the ruthless creatures guarding each spiritual crystal. Now he has an army

chasing him! Does he have any idea how he's going to deal with them?'

Unable to contain her curiosity, the girl did her best to keep up.

When Darren finally sensed that he was close to the last spiritual crystal, he called upon his blade

intent and sword intent to bombard the ground. With a terrific noise the earth split open, revealing the

crystal. As soon as he saw it, he dived into the fissure he had opened and collected the prize with his

Space Ring.

"This spiritual crystal is the size of a bison!" he exclaimed in triumph. "I sure made a killing this time."

He estimated that the spiritual energy in all the crystals he had found would be enough for him to break

through to the three-star Grand Realm, or perhaps even the four-star Grand Realm!

As he felt exalted over his success, however, the ruthless creatures were going berserk. Now there

were more than a hundred of them, hurtling down toward him as well as bursting out of the ground, and Belongs © to .

as one they swarmed toward Darren, eager to obliterate him.