Chapter 74: The Triumphant Return

After advancing to the Black Iron realm, Lin Huang quickly distanced himself from the territory of the Six-Armed Enchantress. Although he had obtained a fragment by slaying the Violet-Dressed Enchantress earlier, he truly could not accept such a monstrous creature, no matter its beauty. If someone were to summon a creature like the Six-Armed Enchantress onto the street, it would surely reduce a crowd to tears of fright.

Having put a good distance between himself and the gathering grounds of the Six-Armed Enchantress, Lin Huang found a clearing in the forest and, unable to contain his excitement, summoned the Undead Hatchling.

It was a small dragon, about three meters long, its entire body inky black, with wings spanning nearly five meters when fully extended. Two tiny horns, less than ten centimeters long, sprouted from its head, and its face was flat and round, lacking all the ferocity usually associated with dragons. In fact, it looked endearingly ugly.

The moment it saw Lin Huang, it eagerly pushed its head toward him, nearly knocking him over in its enthusiasm.

“You’re pretty strong, aren’t you?” Lin Huang chuckled, shaking his head. He reached out and patted the little dragon’s head. “Since you’re pitch black all over, I’ll call you Charcoal.”

“If it advances just once, Charcoal’s rarity can evolve from epic to legendary, and the concentration of dragon blood in its body will rise from primary to intermediate.” Having named the hatchling, Lin Huang muttered quietly, then turned to Xiao Hei and said, “Xiao Hei, I want to use an Advancement Card on Charcoal.”

[Insufficient number of Advancement Cards. Unable to proceed.]

“How can that be? I remember I still have one left.” Lin Huang had deliberately saved an Advancement Card for a time when he acquired a truly valuable creature.

[Promoting an ordinary card to a rare one requires one Advancement Card. Promoting a rare card to epic needs two. To advance an epic card to legendary, three are required. And to reach mythic from legendary, you need five. Going from mythic to super-mythic demands ten Advancement Cards!] At last, Xiao Hei revealed the complete rules of advancement.

After listening, Lin Huang felt rather helpless. He only had one Advancement Card, and that wasn’t even enough to advance Bai or Sha Tu. If he completed the task on the mission card and received another card, he’d only have two in total.

[Even if you accumulate enough Advancement Cards, I do not recommend advancing the Undead Hatchling at this time.] Sensing Lin Huang’s intentions, Xiao Hei suddenly spoke up to remind him.

“Why not?” Lin Huang asked, puzzled.

[Your current authority only allows you to control monster cards of epic rarity and below. Any card of a rarity higher than epic will be temporarily sealed until you reach the Transcendent level.]

Upon hearing this explanation, Lin Huang had no choice but to abandon the idea of amassing three Advancement Cards to evolve Charcoal, at least for now.

In truth, Lin Huang already knew that even without advancement, Charcoal and Bai were more than strong enough to handle the dangers lurking on the outskirts of the Forest of Forgetting Worries.

If not for the suppression of its combat level, Charcoal, being of dragon blood, would naturally be stronger than an ordinary Transcendent from the moment of its birth. Bai started out as a third-rank bronze mutant bloodthirster.

After Lin Huang ascended to the Black Iron realm, both of them automatically had their combat strength elevated to First Rank Bronze. Although only at First Rank Bronze, their power far outstripped many Third Rank Bronze monsters.

Thanks to this, Lin Huang thrived on the outskirts of the Forest of Forgetting Worries over the next few days.

In the two days following his advancement to Black Iron, Lin Huang led Bai and Charcoal on a spree of slaying Black Iron monsters, wiping out nearly every creature they encountered. When the first ring of his life wheel’s 360 units was nearly filled to overflowing, he instructed Xiao Hei to temporarily suspend the life wheel synchronization.

He did this out of concern that Li Yanxing and the others would notice something amiss.

After all, he had come to the Forest of Forgetting Worries to break through to Black Iron, and if he soared from an ordinary person with no Black Iron cultivation to Black Iron Second or even Third Rank in just a few days, Li Yanxing and his companions would surely suspect him of having a way to quickly amass life energy.

Under normal circumstances, the accumulation of life energy depends on practicing Life Arts—absorbing Life Light from Life Crystals or Life Jades via Life Arts and converting it into life energy.

Life Arts, too, have ranks, determined strictly by their conversion efficiency. If the conversion rate is between 30% and 40%, it’s called a Low-Grade Life Art. Between 40% and 50% is Middle-Grade; 50% to 60% is High-Grade; 60% to 70% is Supreme-Grade. Anything over 70% is known as a Saint-Grade Life Art. Lin Huang had never even heard of anything exceeding 80%.

The life energy at the Black Iron level is ten times more concentrated than Life Light. Even with perfect conversion, a hundred-year Life Jade would only fill ten life energy units.

In reality, aside from the extremely rare Supreme and Saint-Grade Life Arts, most Life Arts only achieve a conversion rate of 30% to 60%. In other words, a hundred-year Life Jade would only fill three to six units of life energy.

Moreover, even with ample resources, advancing from Black Iron First to Second Rank takes more than just a few days. Converting Life Light into life energy via Life Arts is a time-consuming process. Even with a High-Grade Life Art and enough Life Jades, it typically takes about two hours to convert one unit of life energy. Excluding time for meals and sleep, a person could convert seven or eight units per day at best. To fill 360 units would take at least over a month.

Of course, some people with special constitutions can convert life energy much faster than average, shortening this period several times over.

Lin Huang, however, bypassed this process entirely. As long as Bai and Charcoal slew monsters, they would absorb the Life Light and instantly convert it into life energy, which would then synchronize with his life wheel.

If he let them hunt enough monsters, Lin Huang could easily fill his life wheel with enough energy to reach Black Iron Third Rank.

But since he would have to travel back with Li Yanxing and the others, Lin Huang had to suppress his combat level at Black Iron First Rank to avoid raising suspicion.

After disabling the life wheel synchronization, Lin Huang did not idle away his time. Instead, he began taking Charcoal and Bai to hunt Bronze-level monsters around the forest’s edge.

Now that he had advanced to Black Iron, Lin Huang could wield life energy, greatly expanding his combat repertoire.

Besides activating his Blood Energy Wings, he now wore several weapon rings on his fingers: one for black armor, one for a combat blade, and another for a Blackhawk 33 firearm.

The Blackhawk 33 was especially notable—it could switch freely between sniper rifle and pistol modes. In pistol form, its firepower rivaled some Bronze-level weapons, to say nothing of its sniper mode. Hunting Bronze-tier monsters with it was a breeze.

Where once Lin Huang had to tread carefully, always wary of monster attacks, he now strode with confidence and dominance.

This time, he was determined to sweep through the outer reaches of the Forest of Forgetting Worries with a single goal in mind—to scour the land for card fragments…