But compared to the matter of the Eighth Elder of the ordinary Crimson Iron Flame Ants, Zhang Yanhang was more concerned about refining the Crimson Marrow.

"It turns out the high-quality Crimson Marrow stacked in the mines of the middle layer wasn't directly transformed from ordinary Crimson Iron Ore. Instead, it needs to first undergo a preliminary processing by the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants before being handed over to the Crimson Iron Flame Ants for a second stage of processing to be 'produced.'"

Although he hadn't seen the refined Crimson Marrow in person, Zhang Yanhang's intuition told him that what was piled up in those mines was definitely as it was assumed.

"Although the attribute values of the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants and the Crimson Iron Flame Ants are similar, because the Crimson Iron Flame Ants are better at flying and are also proficient at flame attacks, their strength is definitely stronger than that of the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants who are only capable of physical attacks.

However, it's true that they excel at flying, but the large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Tarano didn't leave much space for their flight."

According to Zhang Yanhang's observations, the passage heights in the outer zone were typically only a few tens of meters, and the taller ones didn't exceed a hundred meters; such heights couldn't even accommodate the transformed shape of Zhang Yanhang after using "Fatian Xiangdi," let alone others.

With his current strength, whether monsters could fly or not didn't make much difference in this environment, since he could easily jump directly to the top of the passage.

Looking at the Energy Shield that had been sprayed by the Crimson Iron Flame Ants for a long time but showed no ripple at all, Zhang Yanhang, after checking the attribute list of the Crimson Iron Flame Ants, silently activated the Death Wave. A ring of transparent, invisible waves began to rapidly spread out from his body towards the surroundings.

As the Death Wave spread, the external exoskeleton wings on the backs of the Crimson Iron Flame Ants, initially flying mid-air, shattered like tempered glass the moment they contacted the Twisted Force Field. Simultaneously, the fragile joints connecting the exoskeleton wings on their backs were torn open, revealing the dense blood vessels and nerve tissues beneath.

The massive oral apparatus of the Crimson Iron Flame Ants, which was constantly spewing flames at Zhang Yanhang, was immediately extinguished. Instead, large amounts of thick, crimson liquid and unrecognizable glandular tissue fragments surged out from the oral apparatus.

Even the complex neural structures functioning as their brains continuously overflowed through the crimson eye sockets under the effect of the Twisted Force Field, along with the torn and ragged blood vessels that supplied the brain, rendered worthless like broken rubber bands due to the tearing.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

A series of dense crashing sounds arose, and the Crimson Iron Flame Ants, previously flying mid-air spewing flames at Zhang Yanhang, crashed onto the ground like a fallen elephant, creating a heavy impact noise.

The Crimson Iron Flame Ants, already drained of a large amount of thick liquid by the Death Wave and under the influence of gravity, splattered more thick crimson liquid and mingled with their earlier fallen limbs and broken wings like a slop of rotten meat.

[Successfully killed a Second Tier four-star monster 'Crimson Iron Flame Ant (Ordinary)' ×1, Soul points +160.]

[Successfully killed a Second Tier four-star monster 'Crimson Iron Flame Ant (Ordinary)' ×1, Soul points +160.]

[Successfully killed a Second Tier four-star monster 'Crimson Iron Flame Ant (Ordinary)' ×1, Soul points +160.]

...

"Even though it felt like it should be more powerful than the Crimson Iron Destruction Ant, the soul points value is the same? All are 160 soul points?"

Zhang Yanhang initially thought that given the strength of the Crimson Iron Flame Ant, its soul points value should be at least ten more than that of the Crimson Iron Destruction Ant. Now it seemed he might have overestimated the Crimson Iron Flame Ant, or perhaps underestimated the Crimson Iron Destruction Ant.

Looking at the entrance of the corridor littered with corpses, Zhang Yanhang nodded with satisfaction, "With this, I have cleared the last square kilometer of the First Tier clearing plan, completing the final one percent progress, bringing the First Tier cleaning plan's progress to one hundred percent.

Now it's time to execute the Second Tier cleaning plan, but there's no rush for that just yet. I'll go ahead after I open the treasure boxes later."

After completing the First Tier of the clearing plan, Zhang Yanhang's overall clearance plan progress in the large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano smoothly increased from the original 13.7% to 15.4%, further increasing by 1.7%.

"If previously my clearing progress wasn't even one-seventh, now it has finally surpassed one-seventh and is even getting close to one-sixth. Although it's only one percent away from reaching one-sixth, let's save this minor goal for next time."

After waiting for a while, purple Quality drop treasure boxes began to sporadically appear on the corpses of the Crimson Iron Flame Ants. He counted them, incorporating the First Kill, these Crimson Iron Flame Ants had provided him with six drop treasure boxes, and additionally, a drop treasure box from a Crimson Iron Destruction Ant had also appeared.

Indeed, although those Crimson Iron Destruction Ants were few in number and quite unnoticeable, they still provided Zhang Yanhang with one drop treasure box.

After quickly picking up and placing these seven purple Quality drop treasure boxes into his waist bag, Zhang Yanhang immediately teleported, arriving next to the Lucky Slot Machine at the large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano. He had just passed this spot earlier without the time to take a closer look, but now he finally had the time.

Before clearing the jackpot, Zhang Yanhang first checked the drawing price of the large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano's Lucky Slot Machine and found it was indeed the same as the soul points value of the weakest monster here, the Second Tier three-star elite monster Crimson Iron Destruction Ant—160 soul points per draw.

"Since even the weakest monster, the Crimson Iron Destruction Ant, here drops purple Quality treasure boxes, the reward quality in the jackpot of this Lucky Slot Machine should also be correspondingly higher according to the pattern I've summarized before..."

While speaking, Zhang Yanhang skillfully pulled the metal lever on the side of the Lucky Slot Machine, and with the turning of the lever, Time Pause, after several tens of minutes, once again descended upon the large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano. At the same time, a large selection of textual options appeared in front of Zhang Yanhang.

[Please select the specific content for this draw on the Lucky Slot Machine]

[Option One: 777 (First Prize, 'Crimson Iron Queen Ant Hormone Gel (Magic Power Extraction)', Quality Dark Gold, Artifact.)]

[Option Two: ✮✮✮ (Second Prize, 'Crimson Iron Prince Ant Solid Hormone (High-Density Compression)', Quality Golden, Artifact.)]

[Option Three: ✮✮✮ (Second Prize, 'Crimson Iron Prince Ant Solid Hormone (High-Density Compression)', Quality Golden, Artifact.)]

...

[Option Thirty-Two: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Crimson Iron Destruction Ant, Second Tier three stars, Elite Monster.)]

...

[Option Sixty-Six: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Crimson Iron Destruction Ant, Second Tier three stars, Elite Monster.)]

...

[Option One Hundred Forty-Five: ✭✬✭ (Fourth Prize, Thank you for your patronage, no physical prize.)]

...

"Holy shit! Dark Gold Items?!" Zhang Yanhang had never expected that his first encounter with Dark Gold Quality items would be under these circumstances, and it also confirmed his previous speculation that Dark Gold Quality indeed exists and is the next level above Golden Quality.

Initially, Zhang Yanhang had thought that if he could obtain an artifact of Golden Quality, which was one quality higher than the previous Light Golden Quality prize from the prize pool, that would be great, but to his surprise, he had directly managed to get the two levels higher Dark Gold Quality "Crimson Iron Queen Ant Hormone Gel (Magic Power Extraction)" as well.

Although extremely curious about the Dark Gold Quality, adhering to the idea of saving the best for last, Zhang Yanhang first started to check the attribute list of the second prize Golden Quality artifact "Crimson Iron Prince Ant Solid Hormone (High-density Compression)".

[Crimson Iron Prince Ant Solid Hormone (High-density Compression)]

[Quality: Golden]

[Type: Artifact]

[Origin: Ashen World, Crimson Iron Ore Vein, Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Tarano, Lucky Slot Machine.]

[Usage Effect: Charm +6.]

[Usage Requirements: Charm less than 100 points.]

[Score: 420 (Golden items score from 351 to 440.)]

[Introduction: In preparation for opening the labyrinth, the Nameless Blacksmith targeted the special hormones secreted by the Crimson Iron Queen Ant and the Crimson Iron Prince Ant during mating. Based on his observation, the special hormones secreted by the Crimson Iron Queen Ant and the Crimson Iron Prince Ant are far stronger than those he had previously encountered from the Crimson Iron Ant King and the Crimson Iron Ant Queen.]

Although the part-time druid Alchemist who was responsible for helping obtain hormones had taken off with the Alchemy workshop overnight, fortunately, the Nameless Blacksmith encountered a knowledgeable Witch Demon Mage within the Crimson Iron Ore Vein, who was also acquainted with Alchemy and could help refine the hormones.

After understanding the Nameless Blacksmith's ideas more deeply, this Witch Demon Mage, who was dead for who knows how many years but still instinctively maintained her beautiful appearance from when she was alive, rejected the embarrassing proposal from the Nameless Blacksmith to transform her into a Crimson Iron Queen Ant in order to obtain the special hormones of the Crimson Iron Prince Ant.

However, seeing that the Nameless Blacksmith was willing to help her collect materials to construct a Mage Tower, she forcefully suppressed the impulse to slap him dead on the spot and instead expressed, with a pleasant demeanor, her willingness to help the Nameless Blacksmith find a way to obtain the hormones. There was no choice, his offer was too generous.

After some thought, the Witch Demon Mage suggested setting up a Malicious Transformation Technique and a forceful Teleportation Magic Trap in a passage within the Nameless Blacksmith's maze, transforming any adventurers exploring the maze into female, large Crimson Iron Ants and sending them directly in front of the Crimson Iron Prince Ant, who was captured to act as the maze's BOSS.

In this way, because the loss of a Crimson Iron Queen Ant triggered a special mechanism, the Crimson Iron Prince Ant would frantically mate with the adventurers to help them grow into a Crimson Iron Queen Ant and secrete a large amount of special hormones during this period, while the Nameless Blacksmith could take the opportunity to collect them.

"Huh? The Nameless Blacksmith is opening a maze? Why did it suddenly develop into opening a maze? Did I skip some parts? I don't think I pressed SKIP?" Zhang Yanhang, if not mistaken, saw from the item introduction of the Crimson Marrow Ghost Mask just minutes ago that the Nameless Blacksmith was retreating into the mountains to refine his skills, yet suddenly this item introduction for "Crimson Iron Prince Ant Solid Hormone (High-density Compression)" jumped to opening a maze.

Although Zhang Yanhang figured that the Nameless Blacksmith should still be in the Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano according to the plot, there was definitely a chunk of important story missing in between.

Based on Zhang Yanhang's past experience, this missing piece of story was definitely not in the item description of "Crimson Iron Queen Ant Hormone Gel (Magic Power Extraction)" but rather likely on a weapon or equipment forged by the Nameless Blacksmith Makarov, which meant it could be found in the Drop Treasure Box from a large Crimson Iron Ant.

Zhang Yanhang remembered skipping a piece of story last time, and it ended up being seen on the new equipment. He thought it would probably be the same this time, anyway, there wouldn't be a chunk of story missing for no reason.

"One should say it's worthy of being the hormone of the Crimson Iron Prince Ant, it's really similar to the usage effect of the Crimson Iron Ant King's hormone from before, both enhance the Charm attribute, and it can directly increase the Charm attribute value by six points... This is the largest increase I've encountered in any attribute-enhancing item."

Zhang Yanhang remembered that another Golden Quality item he obtained, the Blue Dragon Essence Blood, could only enhance five points of the Agility attribute, yet this Crimson Iron Prince Ant Hormone with only a Score of 420 was even more powerful than the full 440-point Golden Quality Blue Dragon Essence Blood, truly incredible.

Of course, this does not mean that the Crimson Iron Prince Ant is stronger than the Blue Dragon, it could probably be attributed to the impressive compression technique of the refiner, as the Blue Dragon's large physique naturally means its essence blood is voluminous, perhaps the bottle he drank before only contained a part of it.

In the case of the Crimson Iron Prince Ant, it was High-density Compression, estimating that most of the hormones were compressed into it to reach Golden Quality.

After all, he estimated that the Crimson Iron Prince Ant had only Third Tier strength, it couldn't reach the Fourth Tier; thus, wanting its native Third Tier hormone to reach a Fourth Tier Golden Quality, the High-density Compression was absolutely crucial—put another way, just like his Fusion technique, it was forcefully exchanging quantity for quality.

"I originally thought that the final five points of Charm attribute value still needed to be enhanced by Equipment bonus to go up. Now it seems, there's no need for equipment, just by consuming this Crimson Iron Prince Ant Hormone I can max it out."

Though it's a Sub-attribute, Charm, Zhang Yanhang still quite liked this Crimson Iron Prince Ant Hormone, after all, it was free—alright, not exactly entirely free since he still paid a dear price of one hundred and sixty Soul Points.

Those one hundred and sixty Soul Points in the First Tier would require him to kill a hundred and sixty Zombies to acquire them, indeed very precious.

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