"I remember that when I was promoted in rank, I only increased my Life Value Recovery Speed by forty points, but this freely acquired Blood Energy Essence is already comparable to four-fifths of the rank benefits."

Of course, the reason for such an improvement in Life Value Recovery Speed is inseparable from Zhang Yan's Swallowing Heaven and Earth Skill, which provides a 60% bonus effect. So, in actuality, this Blood Energy Essence should initially increase the Life Value Recovery Speed by 20 points, with the other twelve points being all bonus.

"It's just that, knowing that this thing could increase the Life Value Recovery Speed, I probably should have waited until after the Swallowing Heaven and Earth Skill upgraded before consuming it, but fortunately, the issue is not significant. Anyway, Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that can increase the Life Value Recovery Speed are not valuable, and I should be able to continue obtaining more."

Zhang Yan thought at least before entering the Ashen World, acquiring one or two more Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that can increase Life Value Recovery Speed shouldn't be very difficult. After all, he has several adventure opportunities every day, and he can also actively trigger options.

After checking the improvement in Life Value Recovery Speed, Zhang Yan couldn't resist opening up the Skill Effect of the Eternal Demon Body to take a look, wanting to know how much that part of the improved Life Value Recovery Speed could enhance his breathing regeneration efficiency.

[Eternal Demon Body LV.6 (Passive skill)]

[Skill Effect: The 'Heavenly Destiny Master' generates 1 Magic Energy Crystal within the body. Under its influence, the Heavenly Destiny Master gains the 'Magic Energy Cycle' effect, automatically restoring 142689[Life Value Limit]×6%+4047(+858)[Life Value Recovery Speed]×60%=10990(+515) Life Value each second.

Every time the 'Heavenly Destiny Master' launches an attack, the 'Magic Power Surge' effect is triggered, gaining 4047[Life Value Recovery Speed]×60%=2428(+514) extra damage bonus.

Each attack by the 'Heavenly Destiny Master' triggers the 'Magic Energy Gathering' effect, absorbing 2428[extra damage bonus]×60%=1457(+309) Life Value from the enemy's body for self-recovery. If Life Value is full, excess Life Value will be stored in the Magic Energy Crystal.

Currently, the Magic Energy Crystal Life Value storage limit is 142689×120%=171227 Life Value, which can be used at any time, with no cooldown, no consumption, and cannot be destroyed.]

......

"After increasing the Life Value Recovery Speed by 32 points, my breathing recovery rate has increased by 515 compared to before, from an automatic recovery of 10475 Life Value per second to 10990 per second.

At the same time, the extra damage bonus also increased from 1914 to 2428, equivalent to an increase of 514 points in extra damage bonus.

This level of extra damage bonus is sufficient to instantly kill Third Tier monsters with 81 Constitution Attribute points and Fourth Tier monsters with 54, but unfortunately, these monsters don't exist."

Therefore, Zhang Yan's current additional attribute damage temporarily remains only at the level of being able to kill Third Tier monsters, but for Fourth Tier monsters, he still needs to strive further, making more effort to continue improving his Life Value Recovery Speed through adventures.

"Moreover, with the increase in extra damage bonus, my life absorption efficiency has once again improved, directly rising from 1148 to 1457, which is equivalent to an increase of 309 points in life absorption efficiency."

This way, Zhang Yan only needs to defeat 118 monsters to fill up his current Magic Energy Crystal maximum storage, whereas previously, it required 150.

"However, I must quickly find some Linkers to increase the Life Value storage limit of the Magic Energy Crystal. Currently, it's only at 120%, barely equivalent to one life, which feels a bit unsettling."

Of course, this issue just needs to be resolved before entering the Ashen World, so Zhang Yan is not particularly anxious right now. Yes, it's contradictory indeed, being in a state of urgency yet not overly urgent.

After inspecting the Eternal Demon Body, Zhang Yan didn't immediately leave Wushan Village but instead looked around, hoping to conveniently capture some ghosts to extract Soul Power. However, he couldn't do so as there were no ghosts, probably due to the sparse population in the vicinity.

Occasionally, he could see some low-level spirits without Transformation, like Squirrel Spirits or Mountain Cat Spirits, but he decided against it. After all, spirits are generally physically strong but lacking in soul intensity. In comparison, he preferred ghosts who specialize in soul intensity.

Having found nothing, Zhang Yan silently started his journey toward Erdaogou. In reality, it wasn't far, only about three or four hundred kilometers. It only took Zhang Yan a few seconds to reach Erdaogou.

Upon entering Erdaogou, Zhang Yan found that, as the options suggested, there were indeed not many ghosts, only a few scattered First Tier Ghost Monsters. However, even mosquito legs are meat, so he wasn't picky and swiftly captured all of these First Tier Ghosts.

Nonetheless, though he did capture those few scattered lone ghosts, the most important Life and Death Book Fragment he couldn't find at all. Thus, he could only circle around Erdaogou repeatedly, using exhaustive methods to try and find the 'nearby' mentioned in the options.

Fortunately, this time it wasn't like before in Wushan Village where it turned out to be further on the other side; Zhang Yan only circled around two to three times before finding the Life and Death Book Fragment.

This fragment was buried in an unattended mountain grave overgrown with wild grass. Zhang Yan took a look at the gravestone and found the name was unreadable, probably indicates some years have passed, likely over a hundred at least, possibly a Qing Dynasty grave.

Judging from the shape of the pelvis, Zhang Yan concluded that a man was buried there, and the Life and Death Book Fragment was likely his burial accompaniment.

Because digging graves was troublesome and a bit inappropriate, Zhang Yan simply opened his mouth, and a deep dark passage emerged, instantly unleashing boundless gravitational force that forcefully swallowed the entire grave into the Stomach Space.

Zhang Yan moved the decayed skeleton from the grave to the previously found Human-faced Corpse Fragrance Devil's Tongue and buried it there. After all, maximizing utilization, since it was swallowed, it should serve some purpose, extracting the last potential, which is what a qualified Awakener should do, colloquially known as squeezing the last drop of value from the dead.

As for the Life and Death Book Fragment inside the coffin, Zhang Yan spat it back out since he remembered that this thing couldn't directly be absorbed; it required writing a name on it to increase lifespan.

Zhang Yan briefly examined this Life and Death Book Fragment. From the outside, it looked ordinary, just like a piece of slightly yellowed white paper, except for its older pattern, as if directly torn from some ancient book.

Moreover, Zhang Yan could hardly feel any Spiritual Energy from it, as if it was really just an ordinary piece of paper.

But Zhang Yan believed the Multiple Choice wouldn't deceive him, so he immediately took out a pencil and wrote his name. Don't ask why it's a pencil; due to limited conditions, this was all he had.

This was something he picked up from a small supermarket in Raccoon City before. After all, he really doesn't use pens at all in his daily life.

After writing his name, the fragment of the Life and Death Record flashed a few times and then instantly transformed into a puff of ashes and dissipated away.

"Is that it? It should have already taken effect, right? Luckily, it didn't ask me to fill in something like my birth date and eight characters, otherwise I really couldn't have answered."

After using the fragment of the Life and Death Record, Zhang Yanhang immediately opened the Talent Immortal Life effect of his XXX-level talent to check what the fragment had exactly enhanced in his lifespan.

[Infinite Life]

[Quality: XXX (0/177147)]

[Ability One: Unwearied—Constitution +19.]

[Ability Two: Energetic—Physical Strength +760%.]

[Ability Three: Longevity—Life Span +500 years + 20 years × 123 [Constitution] = 2960 years.]

[Ability Four: Longevity—When the remaining life is greater than 1000 years [currently 6907 years (+800 years)], increase Attack Power by 6907 years (Life Span) × 0.2% = 1381% (+160%), and increase defensive power by 6907 years (Life Span) × 0.2% = 1381% (+160%).]

[Ability Five: Heavenly Mandate—Luck +1. When the remaining life is greater than 10000 years [currently 6907 years (+800 years)], for every 10000 years of life, additionally gain 1 point of Luck. The current additional luck value bonus is [0].]

"Previously, I only had a total lifespan of 6107 years, but now it has increased to 6907 years, meaning it was directly boosted by eight hundred years in one go, which is similar to the lifespan increase during the promotion to Fourth Tier. The Life and Death Record is indeed powerful, even just a fragment helped me increase my lifespan by eight hundred years.

If I could get a complete Life and Death Record, I could go crazy writing names in it, wouldn't it be easy to increase my lifespan by tens of thousands of years?"

Of course, the reason for the additional eight hundred years increase in lifespan is still related to the Heaven and Earth Devourer. Zhang Yanhang figured that the original Life and Death Record fragment could probably increase the lifespan by five hundred years, while the extra three hundred years came from the Heaven and Earth Devourer's bonus.

"After this increase of eight hundred years in life span, I am currently only three thousand one hundred years short of reaching ten thousand years of life and gaining an additional point in Luck attribute."

Zhang Yanhang felt this fragment of the Life and Death Record indeed greatly reduced his workload. Previously, it might have taken him two to three days to accumulate ten thousand years of life, but now it might only take one or two days.

"After gaining these eight hundred years of life, the attack power bonus and defensive power bonus that Ability Four Longevity can provide have increased from the previous 1221% to 1381%, which is equivalent to a further increase of 160% in attack and defensive power."

Therefore, if only considering the attack bonus, Zhang Yanhang can now inflict 14.8 times damage with a single normal attack, which is roughly equivalent to 15 times damage with a punch.

It's precisely because of having a large number of bonuses that he can casually destroy asteroids. After all, if it was just strength and speed alone, he might at most leave a big crater in an asteroid, but could definitely not penetrate the entire asteroid and completely shatter the Star Core.

That's a product of massive bonus stacking, something a normal awakener absolutely cannot achieve. Otherwise, Earth would probably be gone by now.

"As for defensive power, since having a defensive power bonus as high as 1381%, being completely impenetrable by a Fifth Tier Monster should still not be a big problem."

But to what extent can it exactly achieve, that will have to wait for Zhang Yanhang to find out through practical experience later.

"Speaking of which, is Erdaogou's nickname of Ghost Town related to this fragment of the Life and Death Record?" After settling the matters, Zhang Yanhang began pondering the mysterious place of Erdaogou.

Even though he didn't know the cause and effect, Zhang Yanhang thought there was probably some connection between them, but he didn't know exactly what. He just regretted not catching the Night Parade of Hundred Demons crossing in Erdaogou. Otherwise, he surely would have captured all the ghosts in sight.

By the way, every time an adventure encounter is triggered, due to unclear causes and effects, Zhang Yanhang always has the illusion of suddenly skipping to the reward stage, directly crossing trials to enter a benefit stage. Obviously, these good things were supposed to be obtained through arduous battles with enemies, but he could easily get them with just a reach of his hand.

He couldn't help but envy those ordinary awakeners with people fighting on the side for any random Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures obtained, believing that such high-intensity social interactions or high-intensity group movements could certainly make many friends.

If a loner like him could exercise more in such lively environments, he would surely gain significant growth.

But unfortunately, he ended up in this situation precisely because he was too lazy to participate in various social activities, making it hard even to develop just five subordinates.

Speaking of five subordinates, Zhang Yanhang couldn't help reminiscing about his five roommates, only to find that they might not even have bone fragments left, otherwise he certainly would have developed one or two subordinates from them.

But now, he has no choice but to develop subordinates elsewhere, planning to start with online pyramid schemes early on, striving to gather the number of subordinates as soon as possible.

"Since the affairs of Wushan Village and Erdaogou in the adventure options have already been settled, what should I do next? Should I go to Niger? Although I'm not too interested in the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures over there, since the options mentioned it twice, I might as well go for a look."

But before that, Zhang Yanhang plans to search the vicinity again to see if there are any lost items or hidden ghosts, as he still has some hope regarding the Night Parade of Hundred Demons.

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