October 29th, Thursday, four days after the Double Ninth Festival and also the first day Zhang Yanhang left the Ashen World. At 9:30 a.m. in Qin Island City, Jiaozhou Industrial Zone, within the parallel space barrier.

After half an hour of effort, Zhang Yanhang was surprised to discover that he seemed to have killed nearly half of the monsters in this fourth-tier region, which was about over forty thousand monsters.

Of course, during this time, he wasn't always standing still. If he saw monsters gathering in the distance but then shrinking back after assembling, he would take the initiative to strike.

Now, he finally saw other monsters besides the second-tier three-star Molten Fire Giant Lizard and the second-tier four-star Molten Lava Giant Turtle. These monsters were initially in the rear, so they assembled more slowly. Now, after half an hour, they had finally finished assembling.

Zhang Yanhang felt that this had to do with the size of the area across from him. Although he hadn't entered it yet, even a brief glance made him think it was at least a thousand square kilometers in area, which is why he hadn't just charged in recklessly. He was afraid he would scatter them.

If they really spread out, then the vastness and sparseness would not allow for the current level of cleaning efficiency. Rather than taking the initiative to attack, it was more convenient to let the monsters come to him.

Moreover, Zhang Yanhang discovered that these new monsters seemed to possess a short-distance teleportation ability similar to Fire Jump, allowing them to teleport to any place with flames and high-temperature substances.

As for why Zhang Yanhang suddenly started paying attention to this, it was because a flame toad had just leapt out from above his head and opened its mouth wide to encompass the entire energy shield.

Although swallowed by the flame toad, this did not prevent Zhang Yanhang from checking its attribute list. If his perception was not mistaken, this flame toad should be an early third-tier monster.

If everything was as expected, this would be the first normal third-tier monster he encountered. Previously, in the realm of third-tier monsters, he had only ever met the one-star lord monster Goblin Chief Nu Shan from Goblin Plain and the two-star lord monster Demonized Four-Eyed Wild Boar Queen Pei Qi from Demonized Swamp.

So now, Zhang Yanhang was very curious about just how strong a normal third-tier monster should be.

Of course, this was something Zhang Yanhang had to find out by trying it out himself; the attribute list would definitely not reveal it. He only thought of checking the flame toad's attribute list to learn its name and rank.

[Molten Flame Toad (Ordinary)]

[Level: Third Tier One-star]

"Indeed, it's a third-tier monster. Although it's only a third-tier one-star and doesn't seem very strong, I still need to take such same-tier monsters seriously."

Adhering to a cautious attitude, Zhang Yanhang threw a punch at the head of the Molten Flame Toad, which was directly in front of him.

Boom!

A slightly muffled collision sound rang out, and the Molten Flame Toad instantaneously exploded into a gore, with everything from its skull to the end of its spine pulverized.

A large amount of bloody tissue mix fell like a mini blood rain on the surrounding monsters that were continuously attacking Zhang Yanhang, quickly sizzling in the high-temperature environment.

The blood was gradually evaporated, and the muscle tissue was losing its vitality, or rather, gradually charring under the searing heat.

Thanks to the tireless, persistent attacks of the previous forty thousand or so monsters, a new, man-made molten lava pool had formed entirely around Zhang Yanhang, emitting terrifying heat like a giant furnace.

This extreme heat caused an imbalance in the density of the surrounding air, resulting in the sight Zhang Yanhang saw—the high temperatures distorted the light, and looking out from there, everything appeared twisted and misshapen.

In response to this, Zhang Yanhang had to admit that their tactics were indeed successful, physically causing substantial and sustainable interference to his visual capabilities.

More than these concerns, what Zhang Yanhang was even more interested in was the kill notification that had just appeared.

[Successfully killed a Third Tier One-star Monster 'Molten Flame Toad (Ordinary)' ×1, Soul Points +300.]

[Successfully killed a Second Tier Three-star Monster 'Molten Fire Giant Lizard (Ordinary)' ×1, Soul Points +100.]

[Successfully killed a Second Tier Four-star Monster 'Molten Lava Giant Turtle (Ordinary)' ×1, Soul Points +150.]

...

As for why the kill notifications for the Molten Fire Giant Lizard and the Molten Lava Giant Turtle also appeared, it was because Zhang Yanhang's punch just now also incidentally killed many other monsters surrounding him, or in other words, directly cleared a path littered with carnage directly in front of him.

"Wow, a third-tier one-star monster is indeed a third-tier one-star monster. Compared to the previously killed two-star four-star Molten Lava Giant Turtle, the value of soul points has doubled, increasing by one hundred and fifty points. Killing one will yield me three hundred soul points, which is double that of the Molten Lava Giant Turtle and three times that of the Molten Fire Giant Lizard."

Although it was Zhang Yanhang's first time killing a third-tier one-star monster and he did not know whether these three hundred soul points were considered high or low, at least in his opinion, they were still very good. If he could kill ten thousand Molten Flame Toads, he would be able to level up his new skill with an additional three million soul points.

While Zhang Yanhang was checking the kill notifications, he realized he seemed to be surrounded by many Molten Flame Toads that had teleported over.

Although the transmission channel opened in a wasteland, the Molten Flame Toad's Fire Jump would not be as effective there as in the volcanic clusters of the Ashen World.

But the problem was that under Zhang Yanhang's feet was a man-made molten lava pool formed by the relentless attacks of the previous forty thousand or so monsters. As long as he stood there, these Molten Flame Toads could continue to use Fire Jump.

Moreover, even without the man-made molten lava pool for Fire Jump, they could still teleport short distances using the flames on the tails of the Molten Fire Giant Lizard.

So overall, the advancement speed of this group of Molten Flame Toads was incredibly fast. They could be across the transmission channel one moment and teleport right next to Zhang Yanhang the next.

Although Zhang Yanhang had a Strong Dimension Anchor capable of forbidding even Fourth Tier teleportation, he definitely wouldn't use it. In his view, an enemy daring to teleport was entirely a good thing, as it would only speed up his hunting efficiency. There was no need to bother with it; after all, it couldn't cause him any harm.

For Zhang Yanhang, there was indeed no need to pay any attention to attacks. Only when an enemy showed intentions of using space abilities to escape would he employ the Strong Dimension Anchor to prevent their escape. This was because only in such circumstances would his hunting efficiency be genuinely affected.

However, since he had not yet encountered an enemy with space abilities attempting to flee, the Strong Dimension Anchor had yet to be put to use.

Because the first Molten Flame Toad had immediately swallowed him whole upon its appearance, Zhang Yanhang had only now finally begun to properly observe the Molten Flame Toad.

These Molten Flame Toads were not very large. When curled up with their legs tucked under them, they were only slightly bigger than the previously encountered Second Tier Three-star Molten Fire Giant Lizard and the Second Tier Four-star Molten Lava Giant Turtle, looking to be only about seven or eight meters in size.

But when it leapt high into the air, attempting to slam its body into Zhang Yanhang, one could see that if it stretched out its legs, it was actually quite long, at least over ten meters.

Moreover, the height of this Molten Flame Toad was also about four or five meters. Compared with the previous Molten Lava Giant Turtle, whose height was propped up to five meters by its back crystalline structures, this was genuinely five meters, and it did indeed look quite majestic.

This also meant that its mouth, which constituted at least one quarter of its body length, was especially large. Especially when it opened fully, it shot a Molten Flame Fireball directly at Zhang Yanhang that was about the size of a table and in a mixed state of solid and liquid.

At first glance, Zhang Yanhang associated it with the large fireball spat by Doctor Jiang Wang. However, the one from Doctor Jiang Wang had rolled slowly on the ground, while this one hit Zhang Yanhang like a missile.

Seeing the Molten Flame Fireball, at least over a meter in diameter, smash straight onto his Energy Shield, Zhang Yanhang had thought that such an attack from a Third Tier monster should have some effect on his Energy Shield. After all, he had just advanced to the Third Tier and was far from reaching his peak strength.

Unexpectedly, there was no reaction at all from his Energy Shield when the Molten Flame Fireball hit it. It wasn't just that the Shield Value didn't decrease; there wasn't even a ripple on the surface of the energy shield.

Meanwhile, the Molten Flame Fireball shattered like a rotten orange the instant it hit, with high-temperature liquid splattering, while the solidified lava fell into the artificial molten lava pool beneath Zhang Yanhang's feet, where it began to melt slowly and gradually amalgamated.

For such a display, Zhang Yanhang felt certain that the two hundred percent Flame Resistance he possessed was having an effect. Otherwise, the Energy Shield, when encountering a Third Tier One-star monster's Skill Attack, although it might not have reduced the Shield Value, should have, at the very least, produced some symbolic ripples.

While Zhang Yanhang examined the Molten Flame Toad, he noticed that the surrounding monsters had gradually re-converged. It was time to begin unleashing the next wave of the Death Wave.

However, among them were quite a few Molten Flame Toads, roughly two to three hundred in number. Even if these Third Tier One-star Molten Flame Toads only had a Constitution Attribute of fifty points, Zhang Yanhang couldn't kill them with his Death Wave, which had a mere Fixed Damage Limit of 1092 points.

So, he was contemplating whether to upgrade a wave momentarily. After all, there were assuredly more Third Tier monsters to clean up, and his current Death Wave was definitely insufficient.

"Ah, screw it, just go for it. When in doubt, Time Pause! Choose! Skill Level Enhancement!"

Zhang Yanhang had actually been tossing this issue around from the start, but after going back and forth, he realized he didn't need to hesitate at all. In short, just get on with it, and it would be done!

As Zhang Yanhang began to initiate his autonomous selection, time pause instantly descended upon this parallel space, and at the same moment, those familiar yet unfamiliar text options materialized before his eyes.

Although Zhang Yanhang's previous upgrade plans generally started with enhancing Technique Immunity first, this time, the Death Wave was indeed necessary for emergency use, so the Death Wave was about to become the first skill in his Third Tier upgrade plan to be elevated to Original LV.MAX stage.

[Would you like to enhance the skill level?]

[Option One: 'Gun Mastery LV.6' to 'Gun Mastery LV.7' (Consumes 204,800 soul points.)]

…

[Option Five: 'Limitless Universe Skill[Second Rank]LV.MAX' to 'Limitless Universe Skill[Third Tier]LV.1' (Consumes 50,000 soul points.)]

[Option Six: 'Alchemy' to 'Alchemy·Original' (Consumes 2 Ash Source points.)]

[Option Seven: 'Death Wave·Original LV.6' to 'Death Wave·Original LV.7' (Consumes 204,800 soul points.)]

…

[Option Ten: 'Fatian Xiangdi LV.6' to 'Fatian Xiangdi LV.7' (Consumes 204,800 soul points.)]

[Option Eleven: 'Three-Headed Six-Armed LV.6' to 'Three-Headed Six-Armed LV.7' (Consumes 204,800 soul points.)]

Although Zhang Yanhang had not checked his balance of soul points just now, he felt that after killing over forty thousand monsters, his current balance of soul points must at least be over five million, which should be more than sufficient to upgrade Death Wave·Original LV.6 to Death Wave·Original LV.MAX.

After all, according to his previous estimates, upgrading Death Wave·Original LV.6 to Original LV.MAX would probably only require about three million soul points.

"I hope that after Death Wave is raised to Original LV.MAX, the fixed damage limit can be increased as much as possible. I'm not expecting it to instantly kill Late Third Tier monsters like three-star or four-star ones, but it absolutely must be able to at least take out Early Third Tier monsters like one-star and two-star without fail."

Of course, Zhang Yanhang was very confident about the strength of Death Wave, so compared to concerns about the fixed damage limit, what he was actually more worried about was the energy consumption of the skill.

He hoped that the energy consumption of Death Wave wouldn't increase too much, optimally only by one or two times at most; otherwise, the robust physical strength he just gained from his rank promotion might not be enough.

Previously Zhang Yanhang had said he could cast the Death Wave skill five hundred consecutive times, and at that time, it had seemed like a lot. But when he actually started to hunt monsters using only the Death Wave, it didn't seem so plentiful—he had already cast it a hundred times in just half an hour.

Therefore, if the physical energy consumption of Death Wave after the upgrade really increased too much, it would be a significant concern whether he could last until the end of the Fourth Tier Transmission Channel cleanup.

He definitely did not want to end up in a situation where he was approaching the finish and then had to hand over the remaining monsters to Zhou Muxi to clean up because he was running out of energy. Although it would not be a big deal, it would be somewhat embarrassing, especially after he firmly declared he would handle the cleanup himself.

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