"Man, this Nameless Blacksmith is truly twisted. I initially thought that the adventurers teleported by the Nameless Blacksmith would all be male adventurers, but it turns out they are all female adventurers. Turning female adventurers into Crimson Iron Prince Ants and male adventurers into female Large Crimson Iron Ants, this Nameless Blacksmith really has something going..."

Zhang Yanhang could no longer evaluate the current Nameless Blacksmith, all he could say was that after departing from human society, he really started to let himself go. If the original version within human society could still be considered a neutral unit following certain orders, then now he was completely chaotic and evil, doing things based wholly on his own preferences.

Of course, more than the plot described in the synopsis, Zhang Yanhang was more interested in the additional attributes of the Crimson Marrow Flame Demon Armor. "Despite the previous Crimson Marrow Ghost Mask and Crimson Marrow Ghost Claw enhancing critical strike rate and critical strike damage, why does the Crimson Marrow Flame Demon Armor suddenly boost strength effects?"

Naturally, it was normal for the Crimson Marrow Flame Demon Armor to increase strength effects as the main function here was to enhance strength effects, and the equipment also inevitably had the same effect. Moreover, Zhang Yanhang really liked this kind of equipment that could enhance strength effects.

However, not being able to obtain equipment that could increase hunting efficiency did make him feel a bit regretful; after all, even though it's slow to improve hunting efficiency, it still needed to be enhanced.

"The score for this Crimson Marrow Flame Demon Armor isn't bad, with a score of 310, it belongs to the upper-middle tier among the Light Golden Quality..."

"So, I choose '3100 Soul points,' '3100 Soul points,' '3100 Soul points,' 'Mystic Steed Power,' 'Crimson Marrow Flame Demon Armor.'"

After reviewing all five item slots, Zhang Yanhang quickly made his final selection. Time Pause disappeared in an instant, but Zhang Yanhang's hand immediately reached for another Drop treasure box and quickly triggered another round of Time Pause, anticipating thousands more to come.

…

October 29, Thursday, four days after Double Ninth Festival, and also the first day Zhang Yanhang entered Ashen World, 8:47 PM, Ashen World, Crimson Iron Ore Vein, Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Tarano, Central Region.

After opening a four-digit number of Drop treasure boxes, Zhang Yanhang glanced at the time. Well, although it didn't take an hour, it still took fifty-seven minutes to open all the treasure boxes, which was basically the same as taking an hour.

"Ah, it still took an hour to open treasure boxes, but the longer it takes to open them, the more substantial my gains."

With this thought in mind, Zhang Yanhang quickly began to tally up the gains he reaped from the treasure boxes, starting naturally with the most important ones related to Talents.

After counting, Zhang Yanhang found that he had gained a total of 1148 C-grade Mystic Steed Talents this time. Adding the 231 Mystic Steed Powers he had originally stored in his Waist Bag, he now had a total of 1379 Mystic Steed Powers in hand, more than ever before, and probably the first time he'd acquired four-digit talents in one go.

"If I want to enhance the SSS-grade Kua'e Power further, I need a total of 6561 E-grade Ant Power Talents, but I'm using C-grade Mystic Steed Powers now, so, after dividing by nine, I only need to use 729 Mystic Steed Powers to raise Kua'e Power to a level above SSS-grade. I am really looking forward to it."

As Zhang Yanhang spoke, he continuously burst the crimson little light balls in front of him; he had to burst seven hundred and twenty-nine of them, which was a bit of a task. However, as a Third Tier Awakened, Zhang Yanhang had extremely fast hand speed, so he quickly completed bursting all 729 Mystic Steed Powers and was greeted by the familiar upgrade notification sound.

[Detected that the Talent list contains SSS-grade Talent 'Kua'e Power.' Do you want to merge talents?]

"Yes, merge."

Because after this upgrade, the SSS-grade Talent Kua'e Power would ascend to a whole new stage, Zhang Yanhang was naturally quite excited, mainly hoping that the trigger chance of Double Strike could be significantly increased during this enhancement.

His request was not too tall; reducing from triggering once every one hundred and fifty attacks to once every fifty attacks would suffice. That way, he could trigger Double Strike ten times are firing a five hundred-round machine gun magazine, which would make combat more flexible and increase the margin for error.

[Merge complete.]

[You have acquired X-grade Talent 'Power of Bixi.']

"X-grade Talent? So, there's an X grade above SSS-grade?"

While he didn't know yet if new levels would appear in the future, based on previous naming conventions, Zhang Yanhang thought it likely that X-grade would probably advance to XX-grade and XXX-grade; after all, the previous SS-grade and SSS-grade had followed this pattern.

Of course, Zhang Yanhang didn't really have any specific requirements for these grade names. He just hoped that they wouldn't come up with something like SSSSSSSSS-grade, which would just be ridiculous. Looking at it now, he had probably been overthinking, and should trust the aesthetic judgment of Ashen World.

"But what is this 'Bixi' (bixi)?"

Zhang Yanhang looked at the word Bixi and felt it was very familiar, even more so than the previous Kua'e siblings. After all, Kua'e siblings were quite obscure, and normal people probably wouldn't care about the name of the Herculean figure who moved mountains in the tale of 'The Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains'; but this Bixi seemed more familiar to him, something he likely saw often in various places.

After giving it some thought, Zhang Yanhang finally remembered what this Bixi was. It's commonly known as 'Ba Xia,' one of the Dragon's Nine Sons, most classically depicted carrying a huge stele on its back and thus considered a symbol of strength.

However, comparing it to the stele, a product that appeared in the later stages during the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors era, the early Ba Xia preferred to carry the Three Mountains and Five Mountains on its back, wandering or wreaking havoc across the seas. These Three Mountains Five Mountains referred to Mount Hua, Mount Lu, Yandang Mountain, Mount Tai, Mount Hua, Mount Heng, Song Mountain, and Heng Mountain.

"If we look at it this way, this Power of Bixi, or rather, Ba Xia Power, is indeed much stronger than the previous SSS-grade Kua'e Power."

After all, the two sons of the Kua'e Family had only moved Wangwu and Taihang slightly to the side together, but Ba Xia was constantly causing storms with the three mountains and five peaks on his back year round. Just this 8-to-2 ratio alone shows that Ba Xia was indeed more formidable.

Moreover, the two sons of the Kua'e Family, after all, were just two particularly strong humans born to the relatively unknown Kua'e during the era of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, and they really couldn't compare with Ba Xia, who ranked almost first among the ancient mutant species, Dragon's Nine Sons.

Zhang Yanhang remembered that the original models of the two sons of the Kua'e should be the equally mighty sons of Kua'e, who were born with innate divine strength under Emperor Zhuanxu, one of the Five Emperors during the era of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, who was also called the Heavenly Emperor. Emperor Zhuanxu ordered the two sons of Kua'e to move big mountains individually.

But later on, it gradually evolved to the Jade Emperor, and the two sons of the Kua'e Family were also promoted to become the great Hercules of the Heavenly Court. Of course, since the actual reason is that the Jade Emperor was originally the God Hao Tian, he could also be referred to as Heavenly Emperor and God. Perhaps it was the presence of the abbreviation for Heavenly Emperor that led to this degree of evolution, gradually turning Emperor Zhuanxu's story into that of the Jade Emperor.

After recalling some legends related to Bixi, Zhang Yanhang quickly opened up the attribute list for Level X Talent "Power of Bixi" and began to check it.

"Power of Bixi"

"Quality: X (0/19683)"

"Ability One: Robust and Powerful—Strength +12 (+3)."

"Ability Two: Double Strike—When launching an attack, there is an 18.0% (+6.0%) chance to trigger an additional attack effect with 325% (+100%) attack power, and when triggering an additional attack, there is an 18.0% (additional attack chance) ÷ 2 = 9.0% (+3.0%) chance to trigger a double strike with 650% (+200%) attack power.

When triggering a double strike, there is an 18.0% (additional attack chance) ÷ 3 = 6.0% chance to trigger a triple strike with 975% attack power."

"Ability Three: Great Strength—Power Effect +205% (+60%)."

The requirement of 6561 Level E Ant Power Talents, which was already monstrous, predictably tripled again upon being upgraded to Level X, now demanding a five-digit number, requiring 19683 Level E Ant Power Talents to advance further to Level XX.

This terrifying requirement of 19683 Ant Powers, given my current rate of getting one drop treasure box for every thirty Crimson Iron Worker Ants killed, would approximately require me to kill six hundred thousand Crimson Iron Worker Ants to obtain, equivalent to clearing sixty small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu of all monsters.

Even considering when I was at Level 1 without rank penalty when only ten monsters were needed per drop treasure box, it would still require me to slay two hundred thousand Crimson Iron Worker Ants or essentially clear the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu twenty times to gather enough.

But fortunately, I'm no longer the past me, I'm now using Level C Talent Mystic Steed Power. If I divide the need for 19683 Ant Powers by nine, I'll only need to obtain 2187 Mystic Steed Powers, well, even divided by nine, it's still a lot.

Because I had previously used 729 Mystic Steed Powers to upgrade the Bixi Power to Level X, I now only have 650 Mystic Steed Powers left, still needing 1537 Mystic Steed Powers to meet the subsequent upgrade requirement for Level XX.

"1537 Mystic Steed Powers would approximately require me to clear again thirty thousand Large Crimson Iron Ants, but I've already cleared almost thirty thousand Large Crimson Iron Ants before, and there are only about sixty to seventy thousand Large Crimson Iron Ants in the large-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano..."

From the current situation, Zhang Yanhang felt that he might need to wait until he completely cleared the remaining half of the Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano to gather enough Mystic Steed Power to upgrade the Bixi Power.

Of course, because the central region is really large and also has a lot of monsters, Zhang Yanhang was still fairly confident that after completing the third stage of the cleaning plan, which is to completely clear the entire central region, he would gather enough Mystic Steed Power needed to upgrade the Bixi Power.

But that would probably be the limit of his possible upgrades this time. Continuing to upgrade to Level XXX talents and beyond would definitely be impossible to gather, given that upgrading to Level XX alone would require nearly clearing the entire Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano.

"This time, the increase in Ability One, Robust and Powerful, has once again increased a bit. Previously, the Level SS and SSS only increased two points of strength attribute each time, but this time it directly increased by three points, equivalent to increasing three levels when it was Level S, worthy of Level X Talent.

With this increase of three points in strength attribute bonus, the power bonus provided by the Bixi Power will increase from 9 points to 12 points."

Zhang Yanhang felt that continuing at this rate would definitely help him save a lot of free attribute points after being promoted to Fourth Tier.

"Previously, it was always the intelligence attribute that significantly overflowed, but this time it's the strength attribute that has significantly overflowed. Fortunately, this type of attribute overflow from innate talent is only pseudo-overflow and will not disappear; one just needs to wait until the promotion to Fourth Tier to unlock the subsequent attribute limit to automatically enjoy it."

Zhang Yanhang even had some regrets now about previously using free attribute points to boost strength attributes. If he had known how much strength bonus Bixi Power provided, he would have at least saved an additional six free attribute points, giving him forty-two free attribute points for Fourth Tier to use.

Well, perhaps the difference isn't significant. It's merely a matter of promoting a bit earlier or later.

"Besides the growth in Ability One, Robust and Powerful, this time the growth in Ability Two, Double Strike, was also significant. Previously, each upgrade could only increase the additional attack chance by 3.0%, but after upgrading to Level X, it has doubled to a 6.0% increase in trigger chance.

My additional attack chance has increased from the original 12% to 18%, equivalent to a direct increase of half of the trigger chance.

Previously, I needed to attack eight times to trigger an additional attack, but now, it only takes six attacks to trigger an additional attack, a reduction of two more, which is really nice.

Moreover, what's even more important is that the rate of growth of additional attack multiplier has also doubled, from a 50% increase each time before to a 100% increase each time now. As a result, the magnitude of additional attack I can trigger has increased from the original 225% directly to 325%."

If previously, Zhang Yanhang's additional attacks could only deal double damage, now they could already cause triple damage, which is completely beyond what his normal attacks could compare to.

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