Chapter 115: Fifth Rank

After resolving the issue with the blood-thirsty mosquitoes, Lu Sheng went to sleep. He rested comfortably within the settlement, but the same could not be said for the Wilderness Bandits. Even in the dead of night, a constant stream of orders was being issued. The mandate was simple: whoever could locate Lu Sheng’s exact position would be rewarded with five fifth-tier spirit fruits.

This reward had been bumped up a notch, and it sent the entire wilderness into a frenzy. Fifth-tier spirit fruits! And giving away five of them at once! For a fifth-tier powerhouse, this was a massive fortune; for others, it was wealth they might never see in a lifetime. At this moment, no one cared about anything else; they only wanted to claim the prize. The news was still spreading, and by the time it reached every corner of the wilderness the next day, everyone would effectively become an informant for the Wilderness Bandits.

However, all their efforts were in vain. At this very moment, Lu Sheng was already sound asleep in the settlement within the safe zone. The Wilderness Bandits were also making preparations; since Lu Sheng had left those words behind, it meant he would surely come for revenge. If they couldn't find him, they would simply wait for him to come to them. As the largest faction in this stretch of the wilderness, they had the confidence to face Lu Sheng's so-called "revenge."

...

The next day, the first thing Lu Sheng did after a restful night was to collect the water spirit fruits. The ten fruits on the water spirit tree had successfully reached the fifth tier, meaning Lu Sheng could safely consume them to boost his strength. He plucked the ten fruits, which shimmered like blue lakes on their surfaces, one by one. Once he had stored them away, he withdrew his consciousness from the sub-dimensional space and began to consume them in the outside world.

Each fifth-tier water spirit fruit contained an immense amount of energy. He popped one into his mouth, chewed a few times, and swallowed. A surge of powerful energy erupted from his stomach. Following his usual method, he channeled all that energy into his life-bound card. As he continuously absorbed the energy, a single fruit was enough to raise his rank from late fourth-tier to the fourth-tier peak. The feedback from the life-bound card’s advancement also significantly enhanced his physical strength.

Without stopping, he continued to consume the fruits. Endless energy surged through his body, only to be absorbed by his life-bound card. An hour later, all ten fifth-tier water spirit fruits had been consumed, and his rank had ascended to the mid-fifth tier. These two advancements to the mid-fifth tier left him feeling that his physique had improved considerably once again. In particular, the jump from the fourth-tier peak to the early fifth-tier had more than tripled his strength, and the subsequent rise to the mid-fifth tier had further reinforced his physical capabilities. He felt better than he ever had before.

The only thing that left him slightly dissatisfied was that he still could not sense the laws mastered by his life-bound card. Even at the mid-fifth tier, he remained unable to perceive the laws of space and time within the Space-Time Ant. He wasn't in a hurry, though; he summoned the ant to cultivate their bond, knowing that when the time was right, he would naturally be able to sense the law power within it. The small, silver-white ant sat on his left shoulder. Throughout their journey, the Space-Time Ant’s appearance had never changed; it remained just as small as it had always been.

With the ant in tow, Lu Sheng stepped out of the door. He was going to find Wang Xian to ask about the quality of the ten-fold fertility cards. Arriving at Wang Xian’s home, he found the large iron furnace still sitting in the center of the living room. Sitting across from each other, Lu Sheng went straight to the point.

"Miss Wang Xian, I would like to ask if the quality of the ten-fold fertility card can be improved?"

Wang Xian thought for a moment. "I haven't tried it myself, but to upgrade a ten-fold fertility card to blue quality, you would need at least the blood of a blue-quality monster. If you have that, I can give it a try. If not, there’s nothing I can do."

"The blood of a blue-quality monster?" Lu Sheng pondered. "How much is needed for one batch?"

"You can actually get your hands on blue-quality monster blood?" Wang Xian asked, surprised. "For one batch, you’d need about a small cup—the kind you use for tea."

Lu Sheng glanced at the teacup on the table and said, "In that case, the blood is no problem. You wait for me to find a way. Until then, there's no need to produce any more white-quality ten-fold fertility cards."

With that, Lu Sheng hurried out of Wang Xian’s home. Wang Xian watched his retreating figure with a sense of anticipation. If Lu Sheng could really provide blue-quality monster blood, it would be quite beneficial for her as well. Producing higher-quality cards would significantly improve her card-crafting proficiency, allowing her to handle even more advanced cards with ease in the future.

Walking back, Lu Sheng already had a target for bloodletting. He didn't need much; his Bristle-Tusked Boar was the perfect candidate. He wouldn't need to take too much at once, and he could just use a healing card on the boar afterward. Back in his room, he projected his consciousness into the sub-dimensional space. It was a pity he couldn't resurrect blue-quality monsters, or things would be much easier. For now, he had to be careful not to kill the boar.

He summoned the Bristle-Tusked Boar. At the early fifth-tier, it was over two meters tall and five meters long, looking quite massive.

"Gangya, don't move. I'm going to take some blood. You’re so fat, you won't miss the nutrition."

Gangya: "..."

Gangya couldn't disobey Lu Sheng’s orders and could only watch helplessly as Lu Sheng prepared to draw his blood.

"Master, how much are you taking?"

Lu Sheng pulled out a bucket. "Not much, just a bucketful."

"..." Gangya didn't know what to say. "Isn't that too much?"

Lu Sheng was already moving with the bucket. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. I have plenty of healing cards; I'll give you a couple in a moment. By the way, where is your main artery?"

How ruthless...

...

After some effort, Lu Sheng successfully filled the bucket with blood. Looking at the pale-skinned Gangya, Lu Sheng patted its body. "Thank you for your hard work."

However, even from those light pats, Gangya’s body swayed uncontrollably. This was clearly the result of excessive blood loss. Even so, Gangya said weakly, "It is my honor to be of service to you, Master."

Lu Sheng felt a bit embarrassed. After all, Gangya was a loyal follower who had been with him from the start, and he did have some affection for it. He used two fifth-tier healing cards on the boar and fed it two fourth-tier red fire fruits to replenish its vitality before reverting it into a card to rest. Lu Sheng then hauled the large bucket of blood to Wang Xian’s place.

Arriving at her home, he placed the bucket of boar blood in front of her. "Here, this is a bucket of blue-quality monster blood. I'll leave the rest to your expertise."

Wang Xian was deeply shocked. It hadn't been long at all—how did Lu Sheng manage to get blue-quality monster blood so quickly? Surely he didn't make his own life-bound card bleed, did he?