As for why he had been using Medium Magic Recovery Potions for recovery, there was no helping it, since Zhang Yanhang's own operation of the Limitless Universe Skill for recovery was just too slow—it would take about five hours to fully recover. If he was in a hurry, indeed, Medium Magic Recovery Potions were more practical.

This also led to him often thinking about making his own Magic Recovery Potions, and ones with stronger effects at that, given that the current Magic Recovery Potions he had were only of Blue Quality and, while plentiful, the quality was an inherent weakness, which could easily complicate things later on.

"In that case, I'd better start hunting monsters right away." Zhang Yanhang packed the remaining Crimson Marrow Ghost Mask +4, Crimson Marrow Ghost Mask +3, and Crimson Marrow Ghost Mask +1 into his waist bag and began moving toward the monster-infested area.

"Damn it, suddenly I feel that something is not quite right. I followed the trail of dropped treasure boxes back to my initial position, but to hunt monsters means I need to travel again to reach the previous position before I can continue clearing them out. Isn't this wasted time going to be even slower than if I had just stood in place waiting for the monsters to respawn and quickly picked up the boxes?"

Suddenly, Zhang Yanhang felt that making a special trip to collect treasure boxes might not be such a good decision after all—at least at his current speed, making a special trip to collect boxes versus standing still and waiting for the boxes to spawn and then picking them up right away seemed to have no advantage.

"If that's the case, I might as well just obediently hunt monsters while picking up treasure boxes," Zhang Yanhang thought to himself that he might be able to give the traditional method another try, and if the efficiency wasn't good, switch back to his new method.

"But whether it's innovation or a return to tradition, there's no way I'm going to run this entire route again," Zhang Yanhang raised his hand and conjured an Arbitrary Gate directly to the position where he had stopped hunting.

...

October 29, Thursday, four days after the Double Ninth Festival, and also Zhang Yanhang's first day in the Ashen World, 5:15 PM, Ashen World, Crimson Iron Ore Vein, the Outer Zone of the Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano.

Da-da-da—

Accompanied by Zhang Yanhang pulling the trigger of the Six Roots Pure Soul Gun, loud shots rang out, and at the same time, cannon bullets flying at the speed of Nine Mach entered the body of the Crimson Iron Destruction Ant.

Under normal circumstances, a cannon bullet traveling at Nine Mach would hit the Crimson Iron Destruction Ant before it even heard the sound, after all, Nine Mach represents nine times the speed of sound.

However, Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano, being an environment within a Crimson Iron Ore Vein, was essentially solid with crimson iron ore all around. As a metal, crimson iron ore conducted sound ten to twenty times better than air.

Furthermore, the Crimson Iron Destruction Ant, being an ant with poor eyesight and more sensitive to vibrations of sound waves, could actually perceive the firing of the cannon bullets in advance.

But just because it could perceive the shot, that didn't mean it could react to what was happening and dodge the attack in time—that was a completely different story.

The moment the cannon bullet pierced through the head of the Crimson Iron Destruction Ant, it brought a massive amount of surrounding flesh and tissues to collapse backward with its potent impact force.

From the complex neural ganglia in the brain to the esophagus, then to the glandular tissues and stomach pouch, these vital organs and tissues that the Crimson Iron Destruction Ant relied on to live, mixed with muscle fibers and thick body fluids, were all wrapped up and ejected from the body by the force of the cannon bullet, exploding in an instant.

And the parts of the Crimson Iron Destruction Ant's body that had not yet been torn apart swiftly followed, bursting into pieces due to the subsequent shock and spreading all around as flesh and limbs.

[Successfully killed Second Tier three-star elite monster 'Crimson Iron Destruction Ant (Elite)' ×1, Soul points +160.]

[Successfully killed Second Tier three-star elite monster 'Crimson Iron Destruction Ant (Elite)' ×1, Soul points +160.]

[Successfully killed Second Tier three-star elite monster 'Crimson Iron Destruction Ant (Elite)' ×1, Soul points +160.]

...

Although the cannon bullets from Zhang Yanhang's Six Roots Pure Soul Gun did only create a one-meter wide hole when striking a Molten Fire Demon, it was, after all, a Fourth Tier Lord Monster, and it would still die if hit in the head or heart.

But what exactly were the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants? Merely Second Tier three-star elite monsters. Against the cannon bullets from the Six Roots Pure Soul Gun they naturally had no ability to resist. Although the Six Roots Pure Soul Gun was only of Dark Purple Quality and merely Third Tier equipment, its attack power was still considerable with the numerous enhancements provided by Zhang Yanhang.

Not to mention, he had just finished boosting his Critical Strike Rate which effectively doubled the attack power of the Six Roots Pure Soul Gun's cannon bullets once again. He estimated that if he were to face the Molten Fire Demon again, even without hitting a vital point, he would at least be able to take off half its life with one shot.

Before advancing to the Third Tier, Zhang Yanhang had worried whether the Six Roots Pure Soul Gun, with only Dark Purple Quality, would meet his hunting needs. Now it seemed that his worries had been completely unnecessary. The Six Roots Pure Soul Gun still very much met his hunting requirements and certainly wouldn't have any problems even when used up to the Fourth Tier.

After all, the growth rate of his various attack power bonuses indeed far surpassed the strength growth rate of the monsters.

After taking out the batch of Crimson Iron Destruction Ants that had been on the periphery and not covered by the Death Wave, Zhang Yanhang began to quietly wait for the drop treasure box to refresh.

It was worth mentioning that Zhang Yanhang found his hunting efficiency had actually increased after switching back to his original hunting method. Although the main reason was that he had used a Spiritual Qi Blessing to double his Movement Speed, his original method had indeed contributed to some of the efficiency increase.

Originally, it took Zhang Yanhang about forty-five seconds to clear each square kilometer while hunting and picking up treasure boxes. But now, even though his speed had only doubled, his hunting efficiency had increased by more than twice. The time he took to clear each square kilometer had been compressed by twenty-five seconds, down to only twenty seconds.

Although there was still a gap compared to the fifteen seconds per square kilometer at the smaller Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, it was nonetheless an unprecedented high efficiency, especially since he was clearing an entirely new area.

As such, although he had only been clearing for twenty-three minutes, Zhang Yanhang had actually cleared sixty-nine square kilometers. Including the previous twenty square kilometers, that was a total of eighty-nine square kilometers cleared, with just the last eleven square kilometers left to complete the first phase of his cleaning plan.

It had to be said that the progress of the first phase was very easy to calculate. He had now reached 89% of the progress, with just the last 11% remaining to complete the first phase of his cleaning plan.

However, even though the first phase was about to be completed, in terms of the entire large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Tarano, Zhang Yanhang's progress had only just reached 13.7%, not even one-seventh. There was no doubt that his current progress was significantly behind, and he would need to continue catching up.

But currently, his hunting efficiency was quite good, thanks primarily to the boost in movement speed due to the spiritual qi blessing, so for now, he only needed to maintain that momentum. It would only be necessary to employ other methods to improve his hunting efficiency if his progress fell behind later.

A few seconds later, two purple quality treasure boxes refreshed upon the blurred corpse of the Crimson Iron Destruction Ant that Zhang Yanhang had just killed. He immediately picked up the two purple quality treasure boxes and put them into his waist bag.

After picking up the treasure boxes, Zhang Yanhang promptly continued to move forward. He had just scanned a new monster up ahead and wanted to get closer to observe it in detail.

...

October 29th, Thursday, four days after the Double Ninth Festival, and also Zhang Yanhang's first day in the Ashen World—5:18 PM, Ashen World, Crimson Iron Ore Vein, the large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano, connecting passage between the outer and middle layers.

Yes, that's right. Although it's mentioned as "up ahead," Zhang Yanhang was actually at the very end of the outer zone, that is, at the connecting passage where he saw the new monster. This area was also the last square kilometer that needed to be cleared in the first phase of the cleaning plan.

At the entrance of the passage, hundreds of Large Crimson Iron Ants crowded densely together. A small part of these were Crimson Iron Destruction Ants, while the majority were the new type of monster that Zhang Yanhang had mentioned earlier.

Before this, he had cleared another ten square kilometers, which, when added to the previous eighty-nine square kilometers, totaled ninety-nine square kilometers. This meant that 99% of the first phase of the cleaning plan was completed.

After clearing the last 1% in front of him, Zhang Yanhang planned to open a bunch of treasure boxes or, to put it another way, after clearing out the Lucky Slot Machine's prize pool of the large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano, he would casually open a bunch of treasure boxes for an upgrade.

He was quite looking forward to the prize pool contents of the large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano. After all, this was the first fourth tier region he cleaned, so the rewards should definitely be much better than those of the third tier regions he had cleared before.

Because it was the last square kilometer and due to the presence of new monsters, Zhang Yanhang didn't rush to start hunting monsters but decided to observe first. He noted that the strength of these new creatures was similar to the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants, but their status was clearly a notch above that of the lowest-tier Crimson Iron Destruction Ants.

Moreover, their heads looked quite normal and did not have the claw-shaped mouthparts disproportionally large like those of the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants. On the contrary, their wings were somewhat larger, as were their bodies. It was evident that they were better adapted to flying than the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants.

To explain why Zhang Yanhang could conclude that these ants were more adept at flying despite their increasing size and wings: these Large Crimson Iron Ants had already taken to the air and were continuously emitting flames in formation toward him—constant spraying, like a floating flamethrower.

Despite being bathed in flames, this did not prevent Zhang Yanhang from checking their attribute list.

[Crimson Iron Flame Ant (Ordinary)]

[Level: Second Tier Four Stars]

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

[Mystic Steed Power: When launching an attack, there is a 2.1% chance to trigger an extra attack effect. Strength +30%.]

[Large Crimson Iron Ant (Flame Ant): Offspring of the mating between the Lord Monster Crimson Iron Queen Ant and the Crimson Iron Prince Ant, resulting in a female Large Crimson Iron Ant without reproductive abilities and incomplete development. During their growth, they often consume vast amounts of Crimson Iron Ore and absorb the nutrients within to forge their solid exoskeleton and wings.

As Flame Ants with a higher developmental status than the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants, despite also consuming large amounts of Crimson Iron Ore to forge a thick and solid exoskeleton, their wings achieve full development during this process, significantly enhancing their flying ability as compared to the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants.

As the second line of defense for guarding the Crimson Iron Ant Nest, the Crimson Iron Flame Ants do not need to dig and 'produce' Crimson Marrow like the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants. Although the Crimson Iron Flame Ants are also involved in some production, they more commonly and passively accept feedings from the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants, consuming the produced Crimson Marrow.

With their higher developmental status and continual use of Crimson Marrow, the Crimson Iron Flame Ants draw upon a unique power from the marrow during digestion, granting them mastery over flames and the ability to utilize fire to attack foes to some extent.

However, due to their incomplete development, even as they digest more Crimson Marrow, they can only assimilate a small portion of its power. The harder parts, richer in energy, are expelled from their bodies. This processed product of Crimson Marrow, after further digestion, is commonly referred to as Refined Crimson Marrow.]

[Life Value: 780/780]

[Energy Value: 450/450]

[Strength: 44]

[Agility: 40]

[Constitution: 39]

[Intelligence: 30]

[Charm: 5]

[Skills: 1. Flame Jet. 2. Crimson Flame Breath. 3. Ant Acid Spitting. 4. Bite.]

"The strength of these Crimson Iron Flame Ants is indeed similar to that of the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants, the latter being Second Tier Three Star Elite Monsters, and the former being Second Tier Four Star Ordinary Monsters, and except for the intelligence attribute, the other attribute values are also similar...

However, why are the large Crimson Iron Ants here so grotesque? Previously, in the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, the small Crimson Iron Ants would directly consume Crimson Iron Ore, and the excreted Crimson Iron and Refined Crimson Iron were treated as waste. Why do these Crimson Iron Flame Ants eat the Crimson Marrow excreted by the Crimson Iron Destruction Ants?"

At first, Zhang Yanhang thought the Crimson Iron Flame Ants looked quite normal, but upon closer inspection, he suddenly found that these ants were all essentially Lao Eight.

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