"Now, in my skill list of eleven skills, only Alchemy and Fatian Xiangdi remain upgradeable. Once those two skills are upgraded, there would be no other skills left to upgrade..."

Moreover, it wasn't just the skills that would become non-upgradable, but other aspects such as Cultivation Technique Level and Profession Level as well. Overall, there was almost nothing left to upgrade, so Zhang Yanhang felt an urgent need to promote in rank.

"Although I could still obtain Equipment and improve my Talent by hunting a large number of monsters, I really need to promote in rank all the more. I never thought that less than a day after my last promotion, I'd already be rushing to promote again. It's exceptionally quick this time."

Previously, Zhang Yanhang thought promoting in rank every two weeks was normal, but now he felt that even promoting every week might be too long. It could only be said that the circumstances he encountered upon promoting to the Third Tier were completely different from the previous ranks. Not only did it not take longer to promote, but the time required had substantially decreased.

"Forget it, let's not think about these things for now. I better go hunt some monsters. Even though I've got an extra seven hours, I shouldn't waste them," Zhang Yanhang said, as he began to stuff all the items on the ground into his Waist Bag.

After cleaning up the items on the ground, Zhang Yanhang immediately began scanning the surrounding areas for monster distributions, then rushed towards the direction with the densest gathering of monsters.

...

October 29, Thursday, four days after the Double Ninth Festival, and the first day for Zhang Yanhang in the Ashen World. 9:45 PM, Ashen World, Crimson Iron Ore Vein, the large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Tarano, Central Region.

After venturing half an hour into the Central Region, or rather, after clearing his way for half an hour, Zhang Yanhang encountered a new type of Large Crimson Iron Ant, which was substantially larger than the Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants he had faced before. These new ants were almost the size of an elephant.

Naturally, with the increase in size, their strength had also increased. Zhang Yanhang could tell that these Large Crimson Iron Ants were much stronger than the Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants. In addition, although both were dark red, the exoskeletal armor of these ants was a much deeper shade of red than that of the Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants.

Taking advantage of the fact that the group of Large Crimson Iron Ants hadn't attacked him yet, Zhang Yanhang thought he should maintain the good practice of checking their Attribute list first.

[Crimson Iron Hell Ant (Common)]

[Level: Third Tier Two-star]

[Talent: 1. Mystic Steed Power. 2. Large Crimson Iron Ant (Hell Ant).]

[Mystic Steed Power: There is a 2.1% chance to trigger an extra attack when attacking. Strength +30%.]

[Large Crimson Iron Ant (Hell Ant): Born from the mating of a Lord Monster Crimson Iron Queen Ant and a Crimson Iron Prince Ant, these are female Large Crimson Iron Ants without the ability to reproduce and with incomplete development. Throughout their growth, they often consume large amounts of Crimson Iron Ore and absorb its nutrients to forge their hard exoskeleton and wings.

Having a higher level of development compared to the Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ant, the Crimson Iron Hell Ants also consume a lot of Crimson Iron Ore to forge a sturdy and hard exoskeleton and strong wings. However, they focus a portion of their energy on enhancing their muscle tissue and increasing their size as well.

As the fourth line of defense for the Ant Nest, the Crimson Iron Hell Ants do not need to carry out tasks like the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants who are in charge of digging and producing Crimson Marrow, nor do they handle part of the production work like the Crimson Iron Flame Ants. Their sole duty is to passively accept nourishment from the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants and focus on protecting the Ant Nest and leading the Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants in attacks against enemies.

Thanks to their higher developmental level and constant consumption of Refined Crimson Marrow over the years, the Crimson Iron Hell Ants have gradually mastered the power of flames and have become more proficient at using it, allowing them to unleash stronger flame abilities in combat compared to the Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants.

Due to their advanced developmental level, the Crimson Iron Hell Ants have a stronger digestive ability that allows them to absorb a portion of energy that would normally be indigestible, using it to increase their size. However, this is just a portion, as they still retain most of the energy to use as the ultimate measure to stop enemies from penetrating deeper into the Ant Nest.]

[Life Value: 1680/1680]

[Energy Value: 1225/1225]

[Strength: 57]

[Agility: 46]

[Constitution: 56]

[Intelligence: 49]

[Charm: 13]

[Skills: 1. Hellfire. 2. Hell Breath. 3. Blazing Flame Beam. 4. Flame Demon Body. 5. Fiery Flame Body Explosion.]

"No wonder it grew so big; it turns out it absorbed part of what the Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants could not, which caused them to bloat. That's why its size suddenly increased by several sizes, from an Iveco Golden Cup to an elephant.

However, the name of this new Large Crimson Iron Ant is Crimson Iron Hell Ant? And there's Hellfire in the skill list; could it be capable of summoning Hellfire? By the way, if it really can summon Hellfire, would killing it grant me Soul points?"

But Zhang Yanhang soon realized he might be overthinking it because, in the gap while he was reviewing the attribute list, the group of Crimson Iron Hell Ants started attacking him. They incessantly spewed out spherical dark red flames, which, if Zhang Yanhang wasn't mistaken, were probably the so-called Hellfire.

After all, it was clear that the last four skills behind the Crimson Iron Hell Ant, Hell Breath, Blazing Flame Beam, Flame Demon Body, and Fiery Flame Body Explosion, were not likely to produce this kind of spherical fire attack. It could only be Hellfire.

"It seems this Hellfire isn't the Hellfire I had in mind; it's not the summoned kind but should be called Hellfire instead."

Zhang Yanhang's understanding of Hellfire was that it was a kind of half-demon, half-elemental creature made mostly of rock, its crevices interspersed with or rather burning with fierce Hellfire flames.

As for why he came to this understanding, it was mainly because his spell library contained related spells that he could learn. Moreover, there were a series of related advanced spells in the nine-ring and even ten-ring legendary magic, which could summon more powerful and numerous Hellfire armies. Overall, it was similar to summoning a legendary elemental creature like the Fire Elemental Lord.

Of course, knowing is one thing, but Zhang Yanhang himself wasn't really interested in summoning Hellfire. If he had spare time, he would rather learn how to summon an Enchanting Demon than to summon a bunch of stone bumps.

In fact, even summoning a Slime would be more useful to him than summoning Hellfire, since, after all, Slimes could mimic and shape, and more importantly, they were very smooth and moist. Although Slimes usually came with a slight corrosiveness, that was completely irrelevant to someone like him, a Third Tier Awakened—though people couldn't... at least shouldn't...

But this was just an idea that most Mages had at some point, with many Mages wanting to capture their own Enchanting Demon during their apprenticeship period to use for... experiments, just like their mentors did.

"Even though it has already become a Crimson Iron Hell Ant, why is the skill list still showing Flame Demon Body? Shouldn't it have evolved into some other high-level skill? And the Fiery Flame Body Explosion still looks exactly the same as before."

Zhang Yanhang felt that the reason for this situation was most likely because the power levels of the Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ant and the Crimson Iron Hell Ant were fairly close, just one star apart. If he encountered even more powerful Large Crimson Iron Ants, such as a Crimson Iron Prince Ant, then it would definitely be completely different.

After checking the attribute list of the Crimson Iron Hell Ant, Zhang Yanhang quickly refocused his attention on the Crimson Iron Hell Ants themselves. Now that they realized that their Hellfire spray was ineffective, they were using Blazing Flame Beams to launch concentrated attacks on him.

Dark red flame beams as thick as water buckets shot towards the energy shield from different angles, completely enveloping the energy shield.

The surrounding air, distorted and chaotic due to the continuous high-temperature flame attacks, made the Blazing Flame Beams covering the outside of the energy shield look twisted and illusionary, like phantom attacks.

But unfortunately, if this was the Second Tier, such concentrated fire attacks might indeed strip away a large portion of his shield value in an instant, and if sustained long enough, breaking the energy shield wouldn't be impossible.

But now, even though these Crimson Iron Hell Ants were really trying hard and had activated the BUFF skill Flame Demon Body right from the start, their attacks were like true 'phantasms' to Zhang Yanhang.

Even though they hit the energy shield solidly, without any discount, they failed to cause even the slightest ripple or wave on the surface of the energy shield.

Of course, this wasn't because the 90% defense bonus from being Three-Headed and Six-Armed played a role; it was because his original defense was strong enough to withstand it. He guessed that the 90% defense bonus would only come into play when the Crimson Iron Prince Ant launched an attack on him.

Zhang Yanhang estimated that he would encounter the Crimson Iron Prince Ant very soon, probably around the time he finished clearing the Central Region.

According to his previous scanning results, the only Large Crimson Iron Ants left in the Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Tarano he had yet to encounter were the last two types—repeatedly appearing in the attribute lists of other Large Crimson Iron Ants, but whom he had not yet seen: the Crimson Iron Prince Ant and the Lord Monster Crimson Iron Queen Ant.

In other words, Zhang Yanhang was on the verge of clearing the entire Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Tarano. As long as he could clean up the remaining area in the Central Region, he would be able to quickly clear the inner and core areas due to their small size and the scarcity of monsters.

Although one should not be distracted by such thoughts during battle, he couldn't help but become distracted. As a punishment for his distraction, Zhang Yanhang raised the Six Roots Pure Soul Gun in his hand and pulled the trigger at the group of Crimson Iron Hell Ants to help them descend into hell faster.

Da da da—

The dark cannon bullets flew out of the barrel of the Pure Soul Gun and hit the Crimson Iron Hell Ant at the very front, which had been continuously launching Blazing Flame Beams at him, in the blink of an eye.

Even though it was bigger and its exoskeleton armor was thicker, this Crimson Iron Hell Ant did not perform any better than the Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ant.

The cannon bullets easily penetrated its head and then flew out of its abdomen with undiminished power, shattering the sturdy and wide lower jaw of another Crimson Iron Hell Ant right behind it, and continued to fly towards the chest exoskeleton of this Crimson Iron Hell Ant.

After wreaking havoc on the surrounding muscle tissues, blood vessels, and various messy gland tissues, the cannon bullet exited from its abdomen, which is typically considered the tail end, and went on to target the third Crimson Iron Hell Ant behind it.

However, this Crimson Iron Hell Ant was relatively lucky because, due to its position, only two of its legs were shot off. Even though it lost balance and fell to the ground immediately after its legs were shot off, compared to the first two Hell Ants that were directly killed by the cannon bullets, it was indeed lucky.

But it was also unfortunate, as it only survived for less than a second before another cannon bullet struck its head exoskeleton, turning the complex ganglion serving as its brain tissue into an unrecognizable substance.

And whether it was this bullet or the one that had killed two Hell Ants, after piercing through the bodies of their enemies, they continued to fly backward, piercing into the Crimson Iron Rock Layer behind them and leaving behind pits that were one to two meters wide and often tens of meters deep.

Because Zhang Yanhang could now trigger an extra attack with 325% attack power every six attacks, within these pits one could often find even deeper and wider chasms, some reaching a hundred meters in depth.

[Successfully killed a Third Tier Two-star Monster 'Crimson Iron Hell Ant (Normal)'×1, Soul Points +600.]

[Successfully killed a Third Tier Two-star Monster 'Crimson Iron Hell Ant (Normal)'×1, Soul Points +600.]

[Successfully killed a Third Tier Two-star Monster 'Crimson Iron Hell Ant (Normal)'×1, Soul Points +600.]

...

But compared to those pits of varying depth, Zhang Yanhang was more concerned about the kill notification sounds of the Crimson Iron Hell Ants.

"Third Tier Two-star Monsters are indeed Third Tier Two-star Monsters, the value of their Soul Points is almost double that of the Third Tier One-star Crimson Iron Flame Demon Ants, with a kill value of 600 Soul Points, almost equivalent to four Crimson Iron Destruction Ants or four Crimson Iron Flame Ants."

Overall, Zhang Yanhang was quite satisfied with the Soul Point value of these Crimson Iron Hell Ants.

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