Prime Originator

"Achoo!"

Leon sneezed before rubbing his nose again. The pollen from the strange flower was like an itch that would not go away no matter how much he scratches it. 

"Haiz, I blame this silly hand of mine. Why must I pick up every interesting thing I see?" Leon shook head helplessly with a sigh.

It was a good thing that they were several miles behind the human group. Otherwise, the constant sneezes would have given away their location. 

Leon had locked onto the human group with [Spirit Eyes]. As such, despite the long distance between them, he had not lost track of the humans.

'There weren't many situations where I would need to use [Spirit Eyes] in the past due to energy constraints… But now that I am here, [Spirit Eyes] has become an essential tool in navigating my way through this dark land.' Leon mused.

Ever since he had arrived, he had been using [Spirit Eyes] more proactively and frequently. The continuous usage of [Spirit Eyes] had not only allowed him to become increasingly proficient in the skill, but the pseudo-Grandmist Energy used to activate the skill had also tempered his eyes and permanently strengthen them.

'At this rate, I could try upgrading [Spirit Eyes] to the [Earthly Spirit Eyes]. This will allow me to see through all earthly things and not have my vision obstructed by the darkness.' 

Achieving the [Earthly Spirit Eyes] was not just breaking through to a higher stage but also a higher realm.

Even in his past life, Leon had never reached the level of [Earthly Spirit Eyes], but this is also because he never needed to. 

The Divine Sense ability unlocked by divine practitioners after reaching the Divine Origin Realm was superior to [Earthly Spirit Eyes] in terms of its ability to see through all things. As a doctor, this was honestly all he needed to use to diagnose patients back then.

But now, things were different. He was no longer pursuing the path of a doctor, but that of a fighter. 

[Earthly Spirit Eyes] suited his needs better. Its range was far more extensive, and neither was it easily detected like Divine Sense.

The barren and cracked rocky ground filled with dead, withered grass made the strange flower very inconspicuous amongst them. Nevertheless, it was easily spotted by Leon's active [Spirit Eyes].

He did not recognize the plant, and neither did the [Archive] had any information on it. This astonished Leon. 

The [Divine Book of Life] supposedly had a record of every plant in existence during the age of Old Gods. The fact that it did not record this strange flower implies that the flower was a rare breed that did not exist during that age but appeared much later. 

Leon had carefully stored the flower away, but he did not expect to still be infected by its pollens.

"Achoo!" 

"Haiz, this won't do. I need to cure this sneeze. It's not going away." 

Having firmly decided, Leon inspected his own body with Divine Sense and located the flower pollen in his body. 

The flower pollen had the appearance of cauliflower, except it was yellow with an outer shade of purple in color and was extremely small on the microscopic level. 

Leon cannot detect these tiny flower pollen with his normal eyesight, but he had indeed seen these flower pollen when he harvested the strange flower previously and even used Divine Will to isolate it. 

It was only natural for him to use Divine Sense to inspect when he comes across an unknown plant. Otherwise, he would never know when and how he got poisoned.

Despite the caution, he was still infected by the flower pollen. This could only mean the effective range of the pollen spread was much more extensive than he anticipated. 

Perhaps, he was already infected by the time he noticed the strange flower on the ground.

Come to think of it, the human group did not remove their gas masks after they left the Weeping Forest but continued wearing it throughout the journey to the Infertile Plains. 

It became apparent to Leon that the gas masks were not made solely for Weeping Forest expeditions. They were made to protect the humans from other harmful chemicals and substances that could be found throughout the land. The Weeping Tree's hallucinogens just happen to be one of them.

Shaking his head, Leon quickly locked onto the flower pollen. Most of the flower pollen was stuck in his nose like glue, while very few had managed to slip past and infiltrate his respiratory system. 

Nevertheless, it took him less than five minutes to locate them and remove them via Divine Will. He did not need to resort to medicine nor any other usual medical practices to cure himself. The convenience of Divine Will was unparalleled.

"Are you sure we haven't lost the other humans yet, Leon? I can't see anyone ahead at all." Lumi asked while looking left and right into the distance with squinted eyes.

All she could see was an uneven rocky land filled with cracks, forming small and large fissures in some areas. Apart from that, she also spotted a few skeletal remains of demonic beasts. 

Reactivating [Spirit Eyes], Leon quickly located the human group several miles ahead of them. 

The distance had widened by another two miles, but it was still very well within the range of what his [Spirit Eyes] could see.

"I'm very sure." Leon nodded before he said, "Let's go, Lumi. We might actually lose track of them if we let them gain any more distance."

His [Spirit Eyes] covered a lot of distance, but it was still significantly limited by the absence of daylight.

"Alright, it's not like I can see them anyway." 

Lumi shrugged. 

For all she knows, they had long last track of the human group. Nevertheless, she chose to trust Leon and take his words at face value.

"Haha, we are going to increase our pace. Try to keep up, Lumi." Leon spoke with a partial taunt. 

"Hmph! Don't you dare look down me, Leon! I can move very fast!" Lumi pouted with a haughty look. She took his words as a challenge declaration.

"Oh? Then let us see who is faster." Leon smiled. 

"Alright! We start on the count of three!" Lumi had a glint of competitiveness before she said with a shrewd smile, "Ready? One, two—"

The counter did not even reach three before Lumi dashed ahead of time. 

"This girl…"

Leon shook his head.

Crack!

Unexpectedly, after taking a few steps, the ground beneath Leon's foot caved in and caused him to stagger and tripped.

Lumi was feeling very gleeful despite playing dirty and giving herself a head start. She could feel the distance between them widen very quickly. As such, she decided to look back smugly when her smile froze. 

Shortly after returning to Leon's side, Lumi asked, "What happened?"

The surface of the concaved area was rough, dry, and filled with cracked lines, just like any other parts of the land, but surprisingly, it was hollow underneath.

No, rather than hollow, it was soft and mushy. 

Leon got back up and dusted his clothes. His forehead was full of black lines when he looked at the sole of his feet stained in brown gooey substances. 

"I stepped on shit!" 

"Pfft! You what?"

The unexpected answer took Lumi by surprise, but she soon broke down into heavy laughter. If she were still human, her tummy would have hurt from the hard laughter.

"You stepped on poopoo? Of what kind? Hahahaha…" 

Oh, this was too funny! How can someone be so unlucky? Of all the places, he just had to walk over a demonic beast's droppings.

Hearing Lumi's laughter, at normal times, it would have been cute. But at this moment, it felt very grating to the ears and made him felt even more terrible. Despite that, he still answered her question, albeit with a gloomy expression. 

"Probably from demonic beasts." 

It was the first time he stepped on turd. Everyone had to have stepped on turd at some point in their life, right? Even if he escaped the last life, he could not possibly escape this time, right? Leon comforted himself.

"Hahaha…"

Lumi had yet to calm down when she heard his answer and began to laugh even harder. 

At the same time, Leon was wondering what he did to deserve this? Actually… he did a lot of things to deserve this, but that was not the point.

If there were free treasures just lying around on the ground, what would people usually do? They would take it, right? How could he have known that it would trigger a Bone Calamity and implicate everyone? Can he really be blamed for that?

Leon felt like all his accumulated karmic virtue had vanished at that moment. He did not doubt that a lot of people will most likely be dying during the Bone Calamity.

Anything with the word 'calamity' in it cannot possibly be a small matter. 

Not only did he feel like he had lost all his karmic virtue, but he might also be drowning in karmic sin instead.

That would explain why he was suddenly struck with such ill fortunes when he caused the Bone Calamity! He was being plagued by bad luck!

Whether it was intentional or not, Leon had to admit that it was indeed his fault. He had to help the humans overcome the calamity. That was the least he could do to make up for his mistake, Leon decided.

Hearing Lumi's ongoing laughter, Leon snappily said, "Have you had enough?!"

"Hahaha… Sorry… But… I, I just can't… it's too funny! Hahahaha!"

"I'm leaving!" 

After rolling his eyes, Leon spat those words and left, but not before conjuring some water to wash his feet crystal clean.

"Hahaha! Wait for me~!"