Chapter 80: The Crimson Chrono Ant

A completely one-sided battle unfolded before Lei Yan and the others, and a wave of admiration surged in their minds.

Lord Lu Sheng was truly growing ever stronger.

Now, not even their own intervention was needed in combat.

Under the rampage of the Rock Bear and other monsters, the ghouls inside the cave were quickly wiped out, leaving not a single one behind.

Lu Sheng had the Rock Bear carry the Fire Tree and circle around the cave for a thorough inspection. Once he confirmed there were no other passages leading deeper inside, he prepared to leave.

He gathered several source pearls and two cards dropped by the ghouls.

He glanced at their attributes.

[Night Vision]
Quality: White
Effect: Grants monsters the passive ability of night vision.

[Curse of Night]
Quality: Green
Effect: Puts the opponent in a state of blindness for ten seconds; the greater the rank disparity, the shorter the duration.

Both were skill cards, and quite decent ones at that. Lu Sheng already knew who would use them.

“Let’s go, time to head back. These few second-tier source pearls—distribute them among the brothers. You’ve all worked hard today.”

With a grand gesture, Lu Sheng handed the seven newly-acquired second-tier source pearls to Lei Yan.

Lei Yan’s face lit up with excitement. “Thank you, my lord!”

Wasn’t this the very reason he had chosen to follow Lu Sheng so loyally? To gain access to the resources that slipped through Lu Sheng’s fingers—this was just the beginning, and Lu Sheng was already unconcerned with second-tier pearls... The future was truly promising!

After all, it wouldn’t do to let those working for him walk away empty-handed. Fairness aside, distributing things he didn’t care about was a good way to win his followers’ loyalty.

“Wow! Thank you, my lord!”

The members of Lei Yan’s squad hadn’t expected any spoils for just tagging along, and now they were all overjoyed.

The group returned to the base, and Lu Sheng withdrew his Scarecrow avatar.

This avatar had proven very convenient; judging by the expressions of Lei Yan and the others, they hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.

The only drawback was that this avatar possessed no strength, practically equal to an ordinary person. If he ventured out, he would need monsters constantly at his side.

Of course, to Lu Sheng, these were hardly problems. If monsters were required for protection, he could simply summon them; if he needed to move faster, he could improve his mounts.

He had a giant crocodile for the water, a White Cloud Horse for land; as for the skies... none for now, he’d have to work on that.

Large flying monsters were never low-level, so capturing one would be difficult. There weren’t any on sale in Sky Ox City, either.

Otherwise, Lu Sheng wouldn’t have minded buying one.

Tonight, the Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes would reach maturity, but Lu Sheng wasn’t in a hurry to explore the wildlands. He had only one Scarecrow avatar, and caution was paramount.

His goal in entering the wildlands was to reach the Reflowing Sands Desert and obtain Reflowing Sand.

According to intelligence, the peripheral monsters of the Reflowing Sands were between the third and fifth rank, with fifth-rank extremely rare.

Lu Sheng planned to raise all his monsters to the fifth rank before proceeding.

Time passed, and a great number of Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes matured.

Early fourth-rank Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes: 6,900
Mid-third-rank Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes: 90,000

He used one thousand early fourth-rank Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes to elevate the Space-Time Ant to red quality.

This was also the Space-Time Ant’s original quality.

Even at the final moment, Lu Sheng felt a surge of excitement.

[Space-Time Ant]
Quality: Red
Rank: Early Fourth
Skills: Subdimensional Space (100,000 square meters, underground limited, no sky limit), 100x Strength, Time Reversal, Space Freeze, Space Travel, Space Positioning.

Evolution Requirements: One third-rank material with spatial attributes, one third-rank material with temporal attributes.

Space Positioning: Mark a point; if undisturbed, after a ten-second location lock, the ant can swap positions with the marked point at any time; movement is prohibited during the lock.

The ant’s strength hadn’t changed, but its space travel range had expanded to fifty meters with minimal energy consumption—much greater than before.

The Space-Time Ant had finally regained its red quality—its rightful state.

He could sense the ant’s excitement at this moment.

Could he continue to improve the Space-Time Ant’s quality?

Curious, Lu Sheng assigned the Space-Time Ant as the main card. A message appeared below the fusion panel.

Prompt: To upgrade a red-quality item further, it must reach the sixth rank, and the sub-card must be at least blue quality. If its law power is too weak, it cannot withstand the process. White and green quality cards lack internal law power and cannot be used as materials.

Law power?

But hadn’t the Space-Time Ant always possessed law power?

Perhaps he’d been able to upgrade it before because it was under repair and thus exempt from these restrictions.

Lu Sheng pondered for a moment and felt he understood the cause.

For now, he would focus on raising the ranks of his other combat cards and have his avatar gather resources.

He wasn’t in a hurry to upgrade other cards just yet.

He would keep elevating all the Bloodthirsty Mosquito cards and continue hatching them, aiming to create a batch of fifth-rank monster cards in one go.

He transformed 5,900 early fourth-rank Bloodthirsty Mosquito cards into 59 late fourth-rank Bloodthirsty Mosquito cards.

Of these, 56 were female and three male.

From previous breeding attempts, he had discovered that a single male Bloodthirsty Mosquito could impregnate up to twenty females—any more, and the male risked dying on the females’ backs.

The 90,000 mid-third-rank Bloodthirsty Mosquito cards became 90 early fourth-rank cards: 85 females and 5 males.

He provided them with ample blood food and ordered them to begin breeding.

He then set about harvesting the fruit of the Water Spirit Tree.

Upon reaching the fourth rank, the Water Spirit Tree had grown larger. Previously, at the third rank, it had stood five or six meters tall; now it had reached ten meters, and its trunk was much broader.

There were nine blue fruits, each plump and appealing.

Lu Sheng didn’t eat them right away, but stored them in the place the Red Fire Ants had prepared.

His gaze shifted to the True Eye Moth. After three days, they had finally hatched.

It was a pity—he’d forgotten to raise their rank beforehand, and now they were only early second rank.

[True Eye Moth]
Quality: White
Rank: Early Second
Skill: Shared Vision (link range 300 meters)

Sixteen True Eye Moths had hatched, which was more than enough for now.

He took out two, letting the rest breed freely.

One he assigned to his Scarecrow avatar, the other he kept for himself.

They would be sufficient for scouting dangerous areas at close range.

He had one of the True Eye Moths learn the two skills obtained from slaying the ghouls.

Night Vision would let the moth see in the dark, while Curse of Night would give it a surprise edge.

Once all was settled, Lu Sheng prepared to head out.

Before he could leave, a sudden surge of black light erupted from a pile of miscellaneous items in the Subdimensional Space.

A token, wrapped in dark radiance, slowly began to float.

Moments later, the token pierced the space and vanished from sight!

Yes—vanished from that space!

Lu Sheng’s consciousness quickly withdrew from the Subdimensional Space. The token was now floating right before his true body!