Chapter 874: Attribute Surge! Next Target!

Deep underground, Xu Jingming was wreathed in black lightning, his aura dangerous and lethal.

"This is what an eighth-rank Master Zongshi feels like..."

Xu Jingming slowly opened his eyes.

The entire underground space flashed with light, as if a bolt of lightning had sliced through his pupils.

He could feel an endless stream of power surging up from within him.

Every gesture, every movement, seemed to carry astonishing destructive force.

"Congratulations, S-Class, on successfully breaking through to eighth rank—closer than ever to the Ninth-Rank Martial Saint."

In midair, the twin-tailed little girl Eva chirped her congratulations with a playful tone, then bowed mockingly.

"For an Adept, reaching eighth rank is indeed a crucial step. Once we return in the next couple of days, we can celebrate properly," Xu Jingming smiled.

For the past month, Xu Jingming had remained in the Dayangzhou Wild Zone and never left.

Although he hadn't used any wide-area lightning-based combat techniques, his daily surge of over 100,000 Adept Points must have come at the cost of countless ferocious beasts' deaths.

High-rank ferocious beasts possessed intelligence equal to humans; such a terrifying rate of death among them was enough to make them sense something amiss.

In recent days, he had clearly felt the beasts retreating, huddling together within the same territories.

Even seventh- and eighth-rank ferocious beasts now patrolled and swept through their own domains.

This forced him to act with extreme caution—kill and leave immediately.

While this ensured his safety, it also meant a sharp drop in efficiency for harvesting Adept Points.

So he planned to return to Daxia first, then come back to the Dayangzhou Wild Zone after some time—or seek out another wild zone as an alternative.

"Finally going back? That's awesome!"

The little girl Eva blinked her big eyes, her adorable face brimming with excitement.

The Wild Zone consisted only of forests, mountains, and endless ferocious beasts.

At first it was fine, but staying too long grew boring.

More importantly, she had no physical form and couldn't connect to the outside network while in the Wild Zone.

Without Xu Jingming keeping her company, it was practically like imprisonment.

"By the way, has your mother contacted you again recently?" Xu Jingming asked.

Communication between intelligent lifeforms relied on special psychic energy, not signals.

Thus, even in the Wild Zone, Big Eva could reach out without issue.

"No," the little girl shook her head. "After sending us that last warning, she fell into another slumber."

"Understood," Xu Jingming nodded slightly.

Even without Big Eva's intelligence, it didn't matter.

A month had passed; he could now piece together some details about the Second Civilization's Seed Project.

He had just broken through to eighth rank, giving him sufficient strength to handle whatever changes might come.

"Deep Blue."

Without further speaking to Eva, Xu Jingming silently murmured the name—and a pale blue virtual interface instantly appeared in his mind.

【Name】: Xu Jingming

【Rank】: Eighth Rank, Lower Tier

【Adept Power】: Chaos Doushen Shenlei (SSS)

【Physique】: Blood Qi (+)

【Spirit】: He (+)

When he noticed the Physique and Spirit attributes, Xu Jingming paused in surprise.

Had these attributes increased too much?

His Physique had broken past 100,000 Blood Qi points!

His Spirit had also surged dramatically—just over five thousand points away from reaching the 100,000 threshold!

"So breaking from Seventh-Rank Peak to Eighth Rank boosted both my core attributes by over thirty thousand points each!"

Xu Jingming's eyes gleamed.

No wonder he felt vastly stronger—such a dramatic rise in stats couldn't help but make him powerful.

Recall that

when he previously broke from Seventh-Rank Middle to Seventh-Rank Upper, his stats had only risen by seven thousand points.

"No wonder it gets harder to fight across ranks the higher an Adept climbs—this gap in stats is simply too vast."

At this moment, Xu Jingming gained a deeper appreciation for the absurdity of an SSS-grade Adept Power.

It allowed him to fight across ranks even at eighth and ninth rank.

"If I faced that ninth-rank Sabertooth Tiger Emperor again, I could kill it completely within one minute."

Xu Jingming raised his right hand.

About ten centimeters above his palm, the SSS-grade Chaos Doushen Shenlei coalesced into a black lightning orb.

The black orb was no larger than a ping-pong ball, yet its aura

was stronger than the SS-grade Thunder Dragon Art he had unleashed at Seventh-Rank Upper!

And this was merely a basic application of his lightning Adept Power.

Imagine the power unleashed if he activated a full lightning combat technique.

"Too bad I'm about to leave the Wild Zone—otherwise I could've hunted a ninth-rank Beast Emperor to test my current strength."

"Then again, maybe not. With my power surge now, I can just get close enough to the Dayangzhou Wild Zone's teleportation boundary, kill a Beast Emperor, and teleport out immediately."

Xu Jingming mused inwardly.

He was now more than a thousand kilometers deep into the wilderness zone.

Even the 600-kilometer teleportation of a space beast bone couldn't carry him out of the wilderness zone in one go.

And a ninth-rank Beast Emperor's ability point total was at least 150,000 points — still quite good for him now.

"Eva, open the map."

Hum—

Eva waved her small hand, and the map of Dayangzhou Wilderness Zone reappeared before his eyes.

On it were numerous familiar light spots marking Beast Emperor-level ferocious beasts.

The only difference was that Xu Jingming's current position was even deeper.

A quick glance revealed a suitable target — Storm Wrath Dragon!

It was a lower-tier ninth-rank Beast Emperor-level ferocious beast.

Though also a lord-level beast, its strength was significantly stronger than the Sabertooth Tiger Emperor.

The domain boundary of Storm Wrath Dragon was less than 300 kilometers from exiting Dayangzhou Wilderness Zone.

Killing Storm Wrath Dragon would allow him to teleport out.

"Storm Wrath Dragon's domain is vast, and it can fly — it won't necessarily stay in one place.

Search for two hours within its domain; if you don't find it, leave immediately."

Xu Jingming no longer dared use the same method that had lured the Sabertooth Tiger Emperor last time.

After all, when he was at seventh-rank upper tier, his Wan Leitianlao Yin already had a 175-square-kilometer strike range.

Now that he had broken through to eighth rank, the range would be even more terrifying.

What if, after firing Wan Leitianlao Yin, he didn't lure Storm Wrath Dragon — but instead alerted some even stronger Beast Emperors?

Thinking of this, Xu Jingming no longer hesitated.

The alloy blade once again spiraled around him, wildly rotating and hurling the soil above to either side as he broke upward.

Once he emerged from underground, he unfurled his Thunder Dragon Wings and flew toward Storm Wrath Dragon's domain.