But if Zhang Yanhang were to eat a bowl of black garlic oil pork bone ramen now and savor it carefully, he might notice something peculiar.

"So, I should probably skip the Earth Vein Essence in Lanshan Town. Compared to that, the Mother Clam Spirit Pearl from Jinhe County and the Mutated Black Garlic from Ancient River Village are more suitable for me."

Of course, if he has the time, Zhang Yanhang wouldn't mind going there to see if he could find some Earth Vein Essence without choosing any option. However, as evident from past experiences, such occurrences have a very low probability, so he generally finds it too troublesome to search.

"Thus, I choose Option One to head to Jinhe County and Option Three to go to Ancient River Village."

After reviewing the three options, Zhang Yanhang quickly made the relevant choices, and Time Pause vanished instantly. Immediately, he began looking up the location of Jinhe County on his phone.

He discovered that Jinhe County is right next to a province near Qin Island City, relatively close, just about two or three hundred kilometers away. If flying at full speed, he could get there in half a minute.

But since teleportation is faster, Zhang Yanhang chose to teleport.

......

October 31st, Saturday, the sixth day after the Double Ninth Festival, and the second day since Zhang Yanhang left the Ashen World, at ten-sixteen p.m., in the Main World, Jinhe County, the main road of the town.

Since it was only just after ten p.m., and being on the main road, when Zhang Yanhang arrived in Jinhe County, he found it surprisingly lively. There were street vendors selling barbecue, fried skewers, and fried rice...but none selling black garlic.

Thus, Zhang Yanhang promptly and contentedly scanned the surrounding environment, and such a small county like Jinhe County was completely enveloped by the Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil, with its scanning range of over eight hundred square kilometers.

Therefore, Zhang Yanhang quickly found the small river mentioned in the options near Jinhe County, as it was indeed very noticeable being the only river around.

As for the mutated giant river clam within the riverbed's sludge, Zhang Yanhang also located it immediately, albeit it was buried quite deep, at least three to four meters, plus the seven or eight-meter deep river channel—no wonder it hadn't been discovered.

Alright, a more probable reason it wasn't discovered could also be because this mutated giant river clam had only 'appeared out of thin air' through the Multiple Choice a minute ago.

So, not wanting to waste any time, Zhang Yanhang promptly dug up the mutated giant river clam. True to its name, the clam was enormous; its entire shell was at least two or three meters wide, no wonder it could easily bury itself deep into three or four meters.

At the end of the day, it was just a mutated giant river clam catalyzed by Spiritual Energy, unable to compare with monsters. Zhang Yanhang evidently felt no hint of intelligence emanating from it.

It seemed like a super plus version of a river clam, like ordinary river clams, approximately equal to having no wisdom; when Zhang Yanhang dug it up, its shell did not even budge, remaining completely closed.

Although its shell was golden, the Mother Clam Spirit Pearl detected through Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil within this mutated giant river clam was pink, giving off a girly vibe—worthy of being a 'Mother Clam' Spirit Pearl.

Moreover, the pink Mother Clam Spirit Pearl was at least as large as a fist, even without considering its effects, its appearance alone could fetch a hefty sum.

However, ever since Zhang Yanhang mastered Alchemy, he had long reached a realm where he viewed money as dirt, and increasing his strength was far more important to him.

So Zhang Yanhang quickly swallowed the entire mutated giant river clam into his Stomach Space to ensure 100% nutritional retention.

As the Stomach Space absorbed it, Zhang Yanhang soon felt a warm current emerging within his body, immediately flowing throughout it. Based on his past experiences, this occurrence should roughly increase his Physical Recovery Speed by about 32%.

The primary reason these gains were so substantial was due to the Swallowing Heaven and Earth providing a 60% bonus; therefore, excluding this bonus, the original Mother Clam Spirit Pearl could only provide a 20% increase in Physical Recovery Speed, with the Swallowing Heaven and Earth Skill providing an additional 12% increase.

"This Mother Clam Spirit Pearl has provided quite a substantial boost, but unfortunately, since I don't even know how long it would take to recover full Physical Strength after completely consuming it, I can't precisely assess the effect of this Physical Recovery Speed improvement."

Zhang Yanhang roughly estimated, based on his previous sleeping Physical Recovery Speed, that it would take at least several hours to restore full Physical Strength.

Considering this particular Mother Clam Spirit Pearl increased the Physical Recovery Speed by about a third, he believed it should compress his full recovery time from several hours down to within twelve hours.

However, Zhang Yanhang felt that the Physical Recovery Speed should ideally be compressed to within ten hours at least to be satisfactory. Hence, even after just consuming a Mother Clam Spirit Pearl, he's still not fully content and wants to acquire more Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that improve Physical Recovery Speed.

"But to gain more Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures enhancing Physical Recovery Speed, I'd have to wait for another fortuitous encounter; at least this time, it's absolutely impossible."

Though his luck is fortunate enough, without option bonuses, it generally doesn't happen that he'd randomly stumble across Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.

Therefore, Zhang Yanhang entirely relies on options to actively search for what he needs and doesn't expect to suddenly find something else simultaneously, particularly things beneficial to him as a Fourth Tier Awakened, as such does exceed his lucky limits.

Without question, following options meticulously is undoubtedly more suitable for him.

"Since I've successfully found and consumed the Mother Clam Spirit Pearl here in Jinhe County, where should I go next? Should I head to Lanshan Town or Ancient River Village first?"

Zhang Yanhang thought for a moment and decided it would be best to go to Ancient River Village first. After all, Ancient River Village definitely has the Mutated Black Garlic. He exchanged his Energy Value Limit for it, so he must get it first.

When it comes to the Energy Value Limit, Zhang Yanhang suddenly remembered that after making his choice this time, he hasn't had the chance to check how much of his Energy Value Limit has been consumed. Thinking of this, he immediately opened his Energy Value Limit to check.

[Energy Value: 14194/14194 (Intelligence × 58, the current body has been formally datafied, Energy Value Recovery Speed, 222 points per hour.)]

"I remember my previous Energy Value Limit was 14195 points; now it has decreased to 14194 points. Sure enough, it's decreased by only one point again. It seems that this kind of Passive-triggered Serendipity Option only deducts a symbolic single point of Energy Value Limit as the cost."

Although the Passively Triggered Serendipity Options work this way, how much Energy Value Limit consumption the Actively Triggered Various Options using the Dual-choice ability will have is something Zhang Yanhang doesn't know. He can only say that when he goes to the Ashen World to open Treasure Boxes later, he definitely has to experiment properly.

Considering that using the Dual-choice will at least deduct even a single point of Energy Value Limit as a cost, Zhang Yanhang will certainly only experiment on some more important Drop Treasure Boxes. As for Ordinary Monsters, even a single point of Energy Value Limit would most likely be a loss.

After all, besides the most important option from an Ordinary Monster's Drop Treasure Box, the other two options are mostly useless to him.

For example, a low-quality version of the same Equipment. Since Equipment can't be stacked, only one can be used for the same position; low-quality Equipment for the same spot is essentially as valuable as scrap metal to him, practically equal to garbage. Indeed, even wasting a single point of Energy Value Limit would count as a waste.

After checking the Energy Value Limit, a relieved Zhang Yanhang immediately opened Google Maps to search for Ancient River Village. As for why not use Baidu Maps, that's naturally because Baidu Maps sometimes doesn't even work well domestically, let alone abroad. So, it's better to simply use Google Maps.

Zhang Yanhang quickly found the location of Ancient River Village. In fact, as soon as he searched for Black Garlic, there was no need to type anything else; the first search result was Ancient River Village. It seems Black Garlic is indeed a specialty of Ancient River Village, and a very famous one at that.

However, this time it's quite far; that Ancient River Village is located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, and there's at least a 2,000-kilometer distance between him now in Jinhe County.

Luckily, he is using Teleportation directly, so getting there shouldn't waste too much time.

...

October 31st, Saturday, the sixth day after the Double Ninth Festival, and also the second day since Zhang Yanhang left the Ashen World, at 10:18 PM, Main World, Japan, Gunma Prefecture, Ancient River Village.

Compared to Jinhe County just now, Zhang Yanhang's first impression upon entering Ancient River Village was desolation, as if there wasn't much human activity. The entire village was quiet and pitch black, with not a single light on.

Of course, this might also be related to the time difference between the Empire and Japan. There is a one-hour time difference between the Empire and Japan.

Although it's only 10 PM in the Empire now, over here it's already 11 PM and almost 11:30 PM. Such a situation is quite normal since it would be rather unusual if someone was wandering around in a small village like this at night.

Well, this might also be related to the aging population issue in Ancient River Village.

Zhang Yanhang sensed that there were many empty houses here, and most of the residents were elderly. It's rare to see young adults, and even children are scarce. Naturally, the lack of children is another issue, namely the demographic issue, which is a common problem throughout Japan, so it's not much of a concern.

But after all, Zhang Yanhang didn't come here to address any livelihood issues; that has nothing to do with him. So he focused more on scanning for Black Garlic while also performing a cursory scan of the residents in the houses here.

But after scanning the entire Ancient River Village, he didn't find any traces of Mutated Black Garlic. There were many regular Black Garlics, but they showed no signs of being imbued with Spiritual Energy, clearly not matching his requirements.

However, it's not a big problem. Based on past experiences, Zhang Yanhang estimated that this time the Mutated Black Garlic should be in the surrounding areas. Therefore, he immediately expanded the scanning range. When he scanned to a path in the woods a bit further from the village, Zhang Yanhang made a discovery.

He saw a Ksitigarbha Stone Statue there, next to which was a very antique-looking clay pot covered in dust, with fine vines entwined around it. The inside of this clay pot stored the Mutated Black Garlic that Zhang Yanhang was searching for.

After locating the target, Zhang Yanhang immediately teleported over to observe this Ksitigarbha Stone Statue carefully. He found that this Ksitigarbha Stone Statue was actually a very common type of Ksitigarbha Statue found in Japan.

Outside was a wooden covered small house, or rather, a miniature pitched-roof shrine. This shrine had a small wooden door that, when opened, revealed a small Ksitigarbha Statue being worshipped inside, about the size of a hand-held model.

This miniature shrine looked somewhat decayed due to its age. The Ksitigarbha Statue also seemed a bit dirty, probably because it remained open to air and accumulated dust.

Of course, this Ksitigarbha isn't exactly the same as the one in the Empire. Though related, the relation isn't particularly close.

After all, in Japan, Ksitigarbha is more of a collective term, essentially similar in status to the Land God in the Empire. When you see an unfamiliar stone statue by the roadside with indistinct features, usually you can collectively refer to it as a Ksitigarbha Statue.

The reason for this mainly lies in the fact that there are so many classifications of Japanese Ksitigarbhas, at least a dozen or more. Some common ones include Anchan Ksitigarbha, Water Child Ksitigarbha, Child-rearing Ksitigarbha, Childbirth Safety Jizo, Child Guardian Ksitigarbha, Needle-pulling Ksitigarbha, Karma Connection Ksitigarbha, Paochuan Ksitigarbha, and Substitute Ksitigarbha.

The names indicate that these various types of Ksitigarbhas are responsible for blessing safe childbirth for pregnant women, escorting aborted infants, ensuring offspring growth and safety, and supporting connections between partners or healing diseases.

Yes, summarizing it would mean promoting prosperity, more childbirth, and ensuring quality growth and development—a very simple set of wishes.

Besides that, there's also the Six Ksitigarbha associated with the Six Paths of Reincarnation, which in simple terms, involves placing six identical Ksitigarbha Statues together to signify the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

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