Chapter 82: Massive Harvest! Breakthrough in Both Footwork and Defense!

Looking around, it was still that familiar cave.

The air was very dry and filled with a rich smell of sulfur.

On the gravel ground, there were dense fire-red ant eggs everywhere.

Outside the cave, a large number of Blazing Fire Ants were continuously transporting food and fire crystal stones, surrounding the ant queen.

During these days, after Lu Zhangsheng cleared the area around the volcano crater and fed the ant colony with a large amount of inferior crystal stones, the number of the entire ant colony began to surge.

Not only did it recover the number that died in the last battle, but even individual strength had increased somewhat.

Lu Zhangsheng suspected that this was because the surrounding environment was suitable for the ant colony to multiply.

Of course, there was also the credit of feeding a large amount of fire crystal stones.

He looked carefully at the ant queen in the center of the cave and found that the ant queen's aura was slightly unstable, as if it was about to improve again.

This discovery made him quite happy.

As long as the ant queen could break through to the third tier, the ant colony under her could immediately begin to break through the bloodline suppression.

By then, his ant army would all be second-tier creatures, and their strength would also surge.

The day was not far off.

Not only that, those ant tribes catalyzed by source energy points were extremely fierce, and if they broke through, their strength would also be stronger.

As long as he had a massive second-tier ant colony, he could explore deeper into the mountain range, and collecting resources would be more convenient.

Lu Zhangsheng put away his thoughts and ran toward the outside of the cave.

Before long, he left the ant nest and arrived at a giant mountain rock platform.

This place was located in the central area of the volcano crater, still some distance from the inside of the volcano crater.

After long-term exploration, the fire crystal stones near the entire volcano crater had been excavated almost completely.

He prepared to explore the inside of the volcano to see if he could find some spiritual objects.

According to his guess, since there were quite a few fire crystal stones outside, there must also be quite a few spiritual objects inside.

Lu Zhangsheng kicked his legs and ran quickly toward the front.

As he went deeper, the air around him became more and more hot.

However, fortunately, this volcano had not erupted for many years, otherwise he would not dare to go in and explore.

After traveling for several hours.

Lu Zhangsheng arrived at the top of the central volcano crater, looked down, and the inside was bottomless.

There were gravel and debris everywhere, and the whole world presented a fire-red color.

"Shoo..."

He no longer hesitated and immediately explored downward.

Exploring downward, the air became more and more scorching, fortunately, he could barely withstand it after breaking through to a mountain spirit.

There was not even a single exotic beast around, which was quite strange.

Before long, when he arrived at a corner, a glimmer of light suddenly flashed before his eyes.

"There is a situation!"

Lu Zhangsheng's expression was happy, and he immediately turned his head to look.

Only to see a pile of fire-red crystal stones lying quietly in the gravel.

He immediately ran over and placed his hand on the crystal stones.

"High-grade fire crystal stones discovered, absorb?"

At this time, a crisp prompt sound entered his mind.

Lu Zhangsheng's eyes lit up; they were actually high-grade fire crystal stones, which he had never encountered outside.

This place was quite spacious, and there must be quite a few inside.

This discovery made him quite moved.

Now the situation in the county city was becoming increasingly eerie, and he had to have a large amount of resources to break through rapidly.

"Absorb."

He no longer hesitated and immediately nodded.

"Source energy points plus 10."

"Source energy points plus 10."

……

He didn't stop until he had absorbed all eight high-grade fire crystal stones on the ground.

After having a harvest, his confidence increased greatly.

Then Lu Zhangsheng continued on his way, rushing toward the bottom quickly.

When he crossed a corner, the distance suddenly brightened.

A huge lava river came into view.

The entire surrounding space was illuminated in a fire-red color.

Not only that, he also found a few glimmers of light near the lava river, which was the light emitted by the fire crystal stones, quite conspicuous.

Just as Lu Zhangsheng was preparing to rush up and collect the fire crystal stones, a sudden change occurred.

"Shoo..."

In the lava river, two exotic beasts rushed out like lightning, then stood steadily on a giant rock, looking at Lu Zhangsheng with murderous intent.

Lu Zhangsheng's gaze tightened; these two exotic beasts looked quite strange, just like two giant toads.

However, their bodies were covered with scales, their eyeballs were all red, and their auras were not weak, obviously both were third-tier creatures.

"Could it be that a group of fire toads lives in this lava river?"

"I just don't know if there is a fourth-tier beast king."

This discovery made Lu Zhangsheng quite vigilant.

Generally, in places where a large number of third-tier exotic beasts travel, there is a high probability of a beast king.

If there were really fourth-tier exotic beasts in the lava river, added to the blessing of the tribe, he could only retreat temporarily.

Just as Lu Zhangsheng was thinking, the two fire toads immediately killed their way over, with rolling malice.

"Sss..."

Harsh whistling sounds echoed through the bottom of the cave, reverberating in the surroundings.

Immediately afterward, the two fire toads rushed to Lu Zhangsheng's front quickly, stretched out their giant claws, and slapped them down fiercely, with an incomparable momentum.

"Die."

Lu Zhangsheng's eyes were cold, and he immediately operated his talent skill 【Soul Strike】, a ray of light instantly rushed toward the fire toad on the left, and in the blink of an eye, it sank into the other party's mind.

"Awoo..."

With a cry like a baby's weeping blood, this fire toad immediately lay on the ground and rolled.

The surroundings instantly flew with sand and stones, leaving a mess.

Lu Zhangsheng seized the opportunity, immediately arrived in front of this fire toad, stretched out his sharp claws, and slapped toward the other party's head.

"Clatter..."

A large opening was directly slashed into this fire toad's head, and red and white matter flowed toward the ground quickly.

One strike, and a third-tier exotic beast died directly.

Relying on Lu Zhangsheng's talent skill and claw strength, it was enough to kill most ordinary third-tier exotic beasts in seconds.

All this happened in an instant.

At the same time, the other fire toad's claw also slapped Lu Zhangsheng's back fiercely.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

Relying on his deep scales, Lu Zhangsheng only felt his body go numb, with no major problems. Then he backhanded his sharp claws and stabbed fiercely toward the remaining fire toad.

"Awoo..."

Lu Zhangsheng's claws directly stabbed into the other party's eyeball, and the fire toad immediately emitted a painful wail.

Seizing this opportunity, he killed his way up again, waving his claws and roaming around the other party.

In just a moment, this fire toad was covered in wounds and soon lay on the ground as a corpse, with fresh blood everywhere.

Then Lu Zhangsheng collected the two corpses; these exotic beast meats contained quite a bit of energy, and using them to feed the ant colony had excellent effects, so naturally, they could not be wasted.

After doing all this, Lu Zhangsheng rushed to the side of the pile of fire crystal stones and placed his palm on them.

"High-grade fire crystal stones discovered, absorb?"

"Absorb."

Lu Zhangsheng thought silently in his heart.

"Source energy points plus 10."

"Source energy points plus 10."

……

Before long, another six high-grade fire crystal stones were credited.

After having a harvest again, Lu Zhangsheng was full of energy and immediately explored toward the deeper part.

The next few days.

He had been exploring by the lava river, successively harvesting quite a few high-grade fire crystal stones, making his own source energy points abundant again.

During this period, he also encountered quite a few stray fire toads, all of which were beheaded by himself one by one, and the corpses were all collected, preparing to feed the ant colony.

There were also times when he accidentally encountered groups of six or seven fire toads, but Lu Zhangsheng did not choose to take action, but chose to avoid them instead.

This also made him increasingly convinced that there must be a fourth-tier beast king in the lava river, so Lu Zhangsheng's subsequent actions became increasingly cautious.

Everything was developing in a good direction.

…………

Changping County.

Lu Zhangsheng sat on the chair in the study, looking at the source energy points in his hand, with a happy face.

After several days of hard excavation, he could finally improve his skills again.

Source energy points: 340.

"Add points."

Lu Zhangsheng moved his thoughts and clicked the plus sign behind 【Cloud Mist Step】.

"Hum..."

A fluctuation from the void instantly descended, as if a strong person was practicing in his mind day and night.

The source energy points also immediately decreased by two hundred.

【After several years of hard practice, Cloud Mist Step has finally reached small achievement.】

As the prompt sound from the panel in his mind came, this improvement officially ended.

Lu Zhangsheng immediately began to test it.

Only to see him use his feet lightly, his whole body turned into countless residual shadows, shuttling quickly in the room, his speed extremely astonishing.

The top-tier footwork at small achievement, compared to before breaking through, was about thirty percent stronger in speed.

Now his speed had surpassed quite a few experts at the mid-stage of the Blood Exchange realm, reaching an unimaginable realm.

Having such astonishing speed also gave Lu Zhangsheng some life-saving means.

Even if the situation fell into crisis next, he could retreat quickly relying on his footwork.

In the following days, Lu Zhangsheng had been cultivating martial arts at home and testing his footwork, and his days were very fulfilling.

…………

Time flew by, and another four days passed.

This day, at night, the stars were dotted.

Inside a dim study.

Lu Zhangsheng opened the panel.

A blue light screen appeared in the void in front.

Source energy points: 320.

After several days of collection by the exotic beast clone, the resources in his hand met the improvement conditions again, so he no longer hesitated and immediately began to improve his skills.

With a thought.

Lu Zhangsheng clicked directly toward the plus sign behind 【Giant Cauldron Art】.

As the source energy points decreased by two hundred.

"Hum..."

The same fluctuation descended into the depths of his mind again.

It was as if a twilight drum and morning bell were striking, making his heart shake violently.

【After several years of uninterrupted hard practice, you have finally cultivated Giant Cauldron Art to the small achievement realm...】

After a while.

Lu Zhangsheng slowly opened his eyes, and a ray of essence pierced the void.

"Footwork and defensive techniques have finally broken through."

Now he only needed to fully improve his realm, improve to the Bone-Forging Late Stage, and his strength would definitely surge again.

With his own perfect-grade breakthrough, at the Bone-Forging stage, he was the most top-tier existence.

As for after he broke through to Bone-Forging Perfection, that would likely be Bone-Forging invincible, except for some demon servants hidden extremely deep.

These demon servants were mostly people from the Heavenly Demon Gate, who had absorbed a trace of demonic blood essence and turned into servants, with astonishing strength.

Among the same rank, they all belonged to the most top-tier existence.

This information was also heard by Lu Zhangsheng from Qin Ruobing, naturally making him attach great importance to it.

Afterward, Lu Zhangsheng walked out of the room and arrived in the courtyard.

He began to test the newly broken-through defensive technique.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

As he operated 【Giant Cauldron Art】, it was as if great rivers and seas were surging inside his whole body.

Strands of blood energy gathered quickly, turning into a giant cauldron that firmly shrouded him.

There were also mysterious runes flashing around the giant cauldron, which was quite miraculous.

At this time, Lu Zhangsheng took out his slaughtering knife and slashed fiercely toward the giant cauldron.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

The crisp knocking sound echoed through the entire courtyard, reverberating in the dead of night.

The blood-colored giant cauldron was still rotating slowly above his head, without the slightest trace of being broken.

Seeing this situation, Lu Zhangsheng was very satisfied.

He had already used several layers of force, yet he still couldn't break his own defense; compared to before breaking through, his defensive power was about thirty percent stronger.

Now, relying on this top-tier defensive technique, even at Bone-Forging Perfection, it would be difficult to break his defense easily.

Even human-sea tactics wouldn't work.

As long as his own source energy points were not exhausted, it was enough to kill his way out of the encirclement.

After this breakthrough, his survival ability had increased significantly again, which also gave him quite a bit of confidence for the subsequent actions.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 83 =====