October 29th, Thursday, four days after the Double Ninth Festival, also the first day Zhang Yanhang left Ashen World, at 5:30 AM, in Qin Island City, Xingfuli District, unit 505, bedroom.

After making his decision, Zhang Yanhang's vision first abruptly darkened and then darkened again, mostly because he had turned off the lights when he left the previous day which made the bedroom quite dim even at 5:30 AM, due to the curtains being drawn. Although it was dim, it was definitely significantly less dark than the complete darkness experienced during teleportation.

After using Mage's Hand to draw the curtains and experiencing the morning's faint light, Zhang Yanhang did not continue to delay. He swiftly poured out a huge pile of Drop treasure boxes from his waist bag.

After quickly taking inventory, Zhang Yanhang found that he had obtained a total of four hundred fifty-nine Drop treasure boxes and one Ashen Treasure Box, making it four hundred sixty treasure boxes in total.

Among these four hundred fifty-nine Drop treasure boxes, the majority were from Big Saber Goblins of the Goblin Plain, contributing two hundred twenty-one treasure boxes, followed by Ordinary zombies which contributed one hundred nine boxes.

Then, there were no monsters that contributed three digits worth of boxes left, just those with two digits.

First up were Goblin Spear Throwers, contributing twenty-six boxes, followed by Goblin Wolf Cavalry with twenty-one boxes, then both Police Zombies and Zombie Dogs each contributing seventeen, and finally, Lickers contributing thirteen.

The rest were only single-digit contributions, with Beta-type Hunters, Demonized Four-eyed Wild Boar, Demonized Mammoth, and Demonized Emperor Crocodile each contributing six. Next, Shaman Goblins and Big Goblins each contributed three, followed by Demonized Saber-toothed Tiger contributing two.

Lastly, each with only a single contribution were Gamma Type Hunters, Demonized Dogtooth Giant Ape, and Demonized Maned Beast.

After completing the inventory of the treasure boxes, Zhang Yanhang didn't rush to open them but first habitually checked his Soul points balance.

[Soul points: 371776 (+56803)]

"Clearly, I killed eight to nine thousand monsters, but in the end, I only gained 56803 Soul points, the earning from low-level monsters is really low. But, to some extent, it's actually not bad, considering even the creatures in the Demonized Swamp might barely provide an additional ten to twenty thousand Soul points at most.

With these 56803 Soul points from kills, my Soul point balance successfully increased from the original 314973 to 371776. Although it didn't surpass the previous record of 390,000, it was still not far off…"

Zhang Yanhang estimated that after he finished opening the treasure boxes, his Soul points would at least reach over four hundred thousand, maybe even close to five hundred thousand.

After quickly checking his Soul point balance, Zhang Yanhang then picked up the EX level Ashen Treasure Box that was constantly flashing with colorful lights and started checking its attribute list.

[Ashen Treasure Box (Demonized Swamp)]

[Quality: None (Exclusive Ashen Treasure Box received after completing evaluation settlement, no quality.)]

[Related area comprehensive evaluation level: EX]

[Type: Treasure box]

[Origin: Ashen World, Demonized Swamp.]

[Treasure box keywords: Demonization, Deformation, Animal, Forest, Swamp. (Keywords are a special attribute exclusive to Ashen Treasure Boxes, determining the items based on the keywords. They are not limited to one area; any region containing corresponding keywords might contain related items.)]

[Durability: Indestructible (Received after the evaluation settlement, exclusive to Ashen Treasure Boxes, cannot be destroyed.)]

[Special Attribute: The higher the comprehensive evaluation level and difficulty of the related area, the better the rewards from the treasure box.]

[Usage Requirements: Zhang Yanhang (Received after the evaluation settlement, exclusive to Ashen Treasure Boxes, and can only be used by the owner.)]

[Description: Upon completion of the evaluation settlement, you receive an exclusive Ashen Treasure Box that cannot be traded, destroyed, or dropped. The comprehensive evaluation level of the related area could further raise or lower the reward limits, with the basic upper and lower limits of the treasure box rewards determined by the area's difficulty.]

"Demonization, deformation, animals, forest, and swamp - these five keywords are quite clear and explicit, especially related closely to the Demonized Swamp whose regional name comprises just these four words, all of which were used, not missing a single one."

Zhang Yanhang felt that the keywords for this Demonized Swamp were indeed much clearer than those for the Goblin Plain he had evaluated before.

After checking the attribute list of the Demonized Swamp Ashen Treasure Box, Zhang Yanhang didn't rush to open the treasure box immediately because he first needed to make a choice. He had to replace the items in the Ashen Treasure Box with a Divination Tarot Card; otherwise, he would lose a chance to obtain a Divination Tarot Card.

After all, it is impossible for an EX-level Ashen Treasure Box to naturally contain a Divination Tarot Card of blue quality, based on previous experiences—the lowest quality should be of dark purple.

"Choice! How can I obtain a blue-quality 'Divination Tarot Card [Fake] (Gate of Truth)' that might be related to the 'Divination Tarot Card·Star [Fake] (Gate of Truth)' through as normal a channel as possible!"

Due to path dependency, Zhang Yanhang once again triggered the familiar but unknown text options in the form he knew best, as he uttered the question and time paused instantly over Qin Island City. Immediately, a large array of familiar-formatted but unfamiliar-content option boxes appeared before Zhang Yanhang.

[Do you want to obtain a blue-quality Divination Tarot Card?]

[Option One: Yes (Since you have completely eradicated all Demonized Creatures including the Third Tier Two-star Lord Monster Demonized Four-eyed Wild Boar Queen Pei Qi in the entire Demonized Swamp, your evaluation settlement Treasure Box for the Demonized Swamp Zone unsurprisingly reached over one hundred percent completion, perfectly meeting the conditions for receiving an EX-level Ashen Treasure Box. Thus, you unhesitatingly collected this EX-level Ashen Treasure Box from the Demonized Swamp Zone, but you didn't rush to open it immediately. Instead, you waited until you returned to bedroom 505 of your residence in Qin Island City Xingfu District before you began to prepare to open this Ashen Treasure Box. Fortunately, you obtained a blue-quality Divination Tarot Card.)]

[Option Two: No (Previously, you couldn't find any related Divination Tarot Cards in the Demonized Swamp area of Ashen World, so after returning to the Main World from Ashen World, you felt it was even less likely for you to obtain the relevant Divination Tarot Card, lacking the necessary conditions, therefore, you quickly chose to give up.)]

[Option Three: Didn't find (Although you felt that if you couldn't find it in the Ashen World, it would be even harder to find in the Main World, nevertheless, you still harbored hope for this. Because you thought maybe other Awakeners might also have possibly obtained related Divination Tarot Cards from Ashen World. Furthermore, they might not be able to use it due to the requirement of knowing Alchemy, so you eagerly wanted to find such Awakeners and trade with them. Unfortunately, owing to the vastness of Qin Island City and your limited social connections, you ultimately didn't find any such Awakeners.)]

"Still the familiar choice of relinquishing one option to obtain another.

I mean, the second option, finding some unwanted Divination Tarot Card from the Main World, one that just happens to be lying in some remote place or somewhere else waiting for me to pick it up, logically speaking, it shouldn't exist at all, considering my luck isn't that outrageously good.

As for the third option, though not as absurd as the second, it's still completely impossible. For a loner like me, whose QQ messenger list doesn't even reach triple digits, even if I asked the group owner for help, it's definitely impossible to get a Divination Tarot Card from another Awakener's possession.

Besides, it's a very critical question whether other Awakeners actually possess Divination Tarot Cards, given that areas related to Alchemy are bound to be much rarer than other normal areas, and with their ordinary luck, obtaining a Divination Tarot Card would be even more difficult."

From a probabilistic perspective, Zhang Yanhang felt that unless one were an Awakener with multiple choice abilities like him or a Lucky Awakened with maxed-out Luck Value, the chances of obtaining a Divination Tarot Card were indeed not great, or rather, virtually nil.

"So, I choose Option One, yes," Zhang Yanhang decided immediately after reviewing the three options triggered this time, choosing the only reliable option.

After making his choice, Zhang Yanhang immediately picked up the EX-level Ashen Treasure Box and chose to open it.

[Open the 'Ashen Treasure Box (Demonized Swamp)'?]

"Yes, open it," Zhang Yanhang immediately chose to confirm without hesitation; he was somewhat impatient to advance his rank.

[Item One]

[Option One: 1 Ash Source point]

[Option Two: 2 Ash Source points]

[Option Three: 3 Ash Source points]

"What can I say? The first option, as expected, involved the Ash Source, which indeed seems to have some mystic enhancement. And unsurprisingly, it provided three Ash Source points.

That makes a total of four Ash Source points including the one I had left from before, just enough for me to promote my rank.

But that's just enough for the rank promotion and not enough for upgrading skills, so I'll have to think of another solution for that later."

Zhang Yanhang silently sighed in the Time Pause state and then immediately clicked to the second item slot.

[Item Two]

[Option One: Demonized Crystal (Incomplete), Dark Purple Quality, Material]

[Option Two: Demonized Crystal, Quality Light Gold, Material]

[Option Three: Demonized Crystal (Essence), Golden Quality, Material]

"Demonized Crystal? Can such a thing really come out? Just from the name alone, it's definitely related to that demonization keyword."

As Zhang Yanhang discussed, he began examining the Demonized Crystal's Attribute list and found that they are similar to the commonly seen in-game type of items like inlaid gemstones, which can be embedded into Equipment after drilling to provide certain demonization power enhancements.

However, for Zhang Yanhang, this was of no use since he didn't have that capability. Thus, the only use for this Demonized Crystal Essence would probably be as an upgrade material for the Four Great Emptiness Purifying World Fist; he might later use Alchemy to turn it into a common type of weapon, such as a Crystal Sword and Gemstone Bow.

Of course, if he encounters another Awakener who needs it, Zhang Yanhang could possibly trade this Demonized Crystal for something more useful to himself, though the likelihood isn't high as he doesn't know those types of Awakeners.

[Item Three]

[Option One: Scythe-tailed Serpent Spear, Quality Light Gold, Weapon]

[Option Two: Plague Devourer, Golden Quality, Weapon]

[Option Three: Divination Tarot Card·Moon[Fake] (Gate of Truth), Blue Quality, Equipment]

"Um? Uh?? What??? I just got a Golden Quality Material, and immediately there's a Golden Quality Weapon in the third item slot? That's a bit outrageous.

Moreover, what's even more outrageous is that despite having a Golden Quality Weapon, multiple choices still included the Divination Tarot Card in this option.

Could it be that multiple choices felt this option is the least valuable, so the Divination Tarot Card was inserted here?

It might also be possible that since it was previously always linked with weapon-related options, the Divination Tarot Card·Moon was again forcibly included in this option.

Now, the question arises, faced with a Golden Weapon and a Blue Quality Divination Tarot Card·Moon, which one should I choose?"

Although Zhang Yanhang's heart truly leaned more towards the Divination Tarot Card·Moon, as Golden Weapons can still later on be obtained through materials,

he decided to first check the attributes of the Plague Devourer, this Golden Weapon, to see just how powerful it is. If it indeed proves to be extraordinarily powerful, then he might temporarily forgo the Divination Tarot Card·Moon.

But after examining the attribute list of the Plague Devourer, he found that the abilities of this Golden Weapon were quite ordinary, just like its name suggests, merely allowing the user to be immune to plagues, or rather, to devour all things plague-like such as viruses, toxins, etc., and then use it to assist in attacking.

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