After collecting the big haul, Xu Kun did not get carried away and forget about the smaller gains!
The previous 200 Corrosive Poison Termites guarding the shrine had died under Wrath of the Fire Dragon, leaving nothing to collect. It made Xu Kun's heart ache terribly!
But the 100 fresh Corrosive Poison Termites just now, including the Corrosive Poison Termite Emperor, had been dealt with by his own hands!
Even tiny profits were still profits. Xu Kun would not let even the slightest bit slip away!
He first searched all 100 Corrosive Poison Termites and obtained 100 E-grade materials!
Blood Devouring Ant Mandibles Grade: E-grade Description: An organ used by Blood Devouring Ants to absorb an enemy's blood. It can be used to research the traits of the Blood Devouring Ant Race and forge weapons with bloodsucking effects!
The Blood Devouring Ant Race was an E-grade race. Judging by talent grade, it was a superior race to the Corrosive Poison Termite Race.
Xu Kun had only heard a little about this race. It was said to be extremely small; despite being an E-grade race, its members were even smaller than ordinary ants!
Yet whenever this race appeared, it signaled the arrival of a terrible disaster!
Just like their name suggested, Blood Devouring Ants would use their sharp mandibles to bite through an enemy's chest without being noticed, burrow into the area around the enemy's heart, and slowly drain every drop of blood from their body!
And because they were so tiny, they were difficult to detect. Like normal ants, they moved in groups numbering in the hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands!
Whenever Blood Devouring Ants appeared somewhere, if they were not discovered and dealt with immediately, the result could be the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians!
There had been several horrifying records in human history of Blood Devouring Ants slaughtering entire cities. They were simply impossible to guard against!
For this reason, researchers had never stopped studying the Blood Devouring Ant Race!
Besides understanding their habits and taking preventive measures, they also needed to turn this race's abilities into technological power to help humanity grow stronger!
"This thing isn't much use to me, but there should be plenty of demand for it within humanity. Maybe I can sell it for a good price..."
Halfway through speaking, Xu Kun slapped himself across the mouth. "Money, money, money. All you think about is money. This kind of material is incredibly important to human research. The best thing is obviously to hand it over to humanity as a whole. Do I really care about the petty cash from selling materials?"
Xu Kun loved money—he loved it very much. Mainly because he and his mother had depended on each other in the past, and they had been poor for far too long!
His mother was only an F-tier talent holder. Although she had luckily survived one Great Purge after another, an F-tier talent holder who could no longer enter the Haotian Pagoda had an extremely limited income!
And his mother was a proud person. She had refused Hao Jian's parents' assistance and raised him alone through countless hardships. Now that Xu Kun had become an adult and could enter the Haotian Pagoda, he felt that he had to earn enough money so his mother would not have to work so hard anymore!
But a gentleman loved wealth and acquired it properly. Xu Kun did not think there was anything wrong with loving money. That was also why he had been so distressed by the destructive power of Wrath of the Fire Dragon earlier—it had cost him a huge sum for nothing!
At the same time, he treasured every material that could be sold for money!
That was what he thought in his heart, but what his mother had taught him most was that when the nest was overturned, no egg remained intact!
Only if humanity continued growing stronger could younger generations like them flourish under humanity's protection. Over the past ten-plus years, humanity's upper echelons had continuously invested resources into their education!
They had spent enormous sums to invite powerful people who had climbed the Haotian Pagoda to a certain level, asking them to give up their tower-climbing time and work in education instead. And all of this was free for every human child!
The return on such investment was very low, because even for someone who had just come of age, no matter how outstanding their talent was, it would take at least several years before they could truly grow into someone capable of serving humanity!
Not to mention that some people could not even pass the beginner trial, rendering all the investment futile!
Xu Kun did not think of himself as some great person. His original intention had merely been to emulate the martyrs, contribute what little he could to humanity's construction through his own efforts, and do his small part!
But everything he had experienced after entering the tower was telling him that his future held immense possibilities. Perhaps his modest strength could become the earth-shaking force of the Lords of the Era, opening a new age and revitalizing all of humanity!
Humanity had treated me sincerely, and I will repay it a hundredfold!
After putting away the materials, Xu Kun walked toward the Corrosive Poison Termite Emperor's corpse.
After some searching, he found that these insect bosses did not offer rewards as impressive as the Barbarian Bull Race. There was only one material to collect from the Corrosive Poison Termite Emperor, but it had automatically upgraded into a D-grade material!
Blood Devouring Ant Queen Reproductive Gland Grade: D-grade Description: As the queen of the Blood Devouring Ant Race, its reproductive gland still contains over ten thousand unhatched Blood Devouring Ant eggs. Under certain conditions, the eggs inside can hatch into Blood Devouring Ants. The reproductive gland itself is the source of the ant queen's power. If fed to ordinary Blood Devouring Ants, it has a certain chance of cultivating a new Blood Devouring Ant Emperor!
Touching the reproductive gland that was still constantly wriggling, Xu Kun felt a wave of nausea!
There were actually over ten thousand living creatures inside this thing!
Naturally, living creatures were far more valuable than the mandibles he had just collected. Not to mention that this reproductive gland could even cultivate a new Blood Devouring Ant Emperor!
"I'll find an opportunity to hand this over, along with the mandibles I collected earlier, to humanity's upper echelons. Maybe it can help advance humanity's research into Blood Devouring Ants!"
Xu Kun did not dare delay and hurriedly put away the constantly wriggling reproductive gland. He was afraid that several Blood Devouring Ants might suddenly crawl out from inside. They were E-grade racial monsters, and Blood Devouring Ants were a race that struck fear into people's hearts. Xu Kun did not dare make any rash moves. One careless mistake, and he could fall victim to their tricks!
Once it was placed in his backpack, which functioned as a spatial container and isolated its contents from the outside world, the wriggling reproductive gland immediately calmed down. He no longer had to worry about it breaking out!
"Although the process was a little unexpected, this was no loss!"
Killing one extra E-grade boss was far more than merely breaking even. It was an absolute windfall!
And Xu Kun had now reached level 10, the maximum level for the first floor of the Haotian Pagoda. He could no longer gain experience, but the process still had to continue!
There was still 40% completion waiting for him, and he wanted to prove to the Myriad Races that F-tier talent holders could also receive SSS-tier evaluations!
Having leveled up twice in a row, Xu Kun, who had not yet checked his status screen, opened his brand-new attribute panel!
ID: Kun Talent: Myriad Races Bestiary (F-tier), Barbarian Bull Strength (F-tier), Corrosive Poison (E-tier) Level: 10 Class: None Strength: 73 Spirit: 60 Constitution: 50 Agility: 50 Willpower: 50 Luck: Max Physical Attack: 368 Magic Attack: 210 HP: 1000 Stamina: 800 Physical Defense: 160 Magic Defense: 160 HP Recovery: 10/S after leaving combat, doubled while meditating Stamina Recovery: 10/S after leaving combat, doubled while meditating Hit Rate: Based on target's evasion Evasion Rate: Based on target's hit rate Attack Speed: Normal Movement Speed: 6.5M/S Special Attributes: Fire Attribute: Attack +160, Fire Attribute Resistance +60 (Dragon Body and set immunity attributes calculated separately) Poison Attribute: Attack +143, Poison Resistance Ignore +33 Equipment: A-grade (Zenith Flame Spirit Set), B-grade (Locust Stone), D-grade (Soul Chaser, Soul Seizer), E-grade (Minotaur Gauntlets) Skills: SSS-tier (Unyielding Starfire) A-grade (Explosive Fireball, Wildfire Scorches the Plains, Azure Sand Palm, Blood Poison Myriad Miles, Bone-Melting Palm) B-grade (Charge) F-tier (Swift Attack, Spirit of Grass, Bleeding, Paralysis Venom, Trample, Blue Silver Entanglement, Shadow Plunder, Fire Line, Poison Marsh, Poison Source Conversion)
Level 10!
Having an attribute panel like this definitely placed him among the very best!
With his HP breaking past the 1,000 mark, Xu Kun felt much more confident!
But for now, attributes were secondary. No matter how much HP he had, against something like the Corrosive Poison Termite Emperor, even Xu Kun's increased health would have been useless!
He had gained two more talents, but one was F-tier and the other E-tier. Neither could provide Xu Kun with much of a boost!
He knew perfectly well that what he relied on was still his collection of skills, along with the special effects granted by the Zenith Flame Spirit Set he had obtained at the very beginning!
"Next, it's time to enter the final Desolate Shrine. I'll quickly deal with the Shrine Guardians. I'm really curious what the final boss looks like!"
Filled with confidence, Xu Kun stepped over the broken bricks and shattered tiles piled across the ground.
Ding! Trial participant Kun is about to enter the Desolate Shrine. Confirm?
"Confirm!"
A vortex resembling a black hole appeared before him. Xu Kun knew that this was the teleportation array leading to the Desolate Shrine!
His body suddenly felt light, and he was sucked into the vortex!
After a dizzying whirl, Xu Kun fell to the ground in a miserable heap.
"Damn it, couldn't you be a little gentler?"
Behind him, the teleportation array vanished after delivering Xu Kun to his destination.
Ding! Congratulations, you have completed the shrine exploration. Mist Island completion +1%. Current completion: 61%. You have received an F-tier evaluation. You may choose to settle or continue the trial!
"Continue the trial!"
Ding! Selection successful. Trial participant Kun, please defeat two Shrine Guardians. Completion +10% for each one defeated!
Xu Kun looked around. The scene had changed, but the surroundings still looked much the same: broken-down ruins and crumbling walls. The only difference was that he had been outside before, and now he was inside!
Rumble!
The violent roar startled Xu Kun so badly that he covered his head!
Pebbles rained continuously from above the desolate shrine. The entire dilapidated shrine shook, making Xu Kun wonder whether the whole structure would collapse the next second and crush him to death!
But the ancient shrine ultimately held firm and did not collapse as Xu Kun expected!
Not far ahead of Xu Kun, two bottomless caves appeared!
Xu Kun cautiously approached and took a look, just in time to see a hand grip the edge of one cave!
"Holy shit, what kind of monster is that?!"
The enormous stone hand exerted a little force. Then, two gigantic figures used the strength of their hands to leap out. Their thick feet slammed heavily into the ground, cracking it in every direction and causing the shrine to shake violently once more.
"Quit jumping around. You call yourselves Shrine Guardians? I think you two are shrine wreckers!"
Holding the Myriad Races Bestiary in his palm, Xu Kun complained.
As the dust settled, Xu Kun finally saw the true forms of the so-called Shrine Guardians!
They were actually two stone statues, nearly five meters tall and entirely made of rock!
The statues did not attack immediately. Their stone lips slowly opened, releasing a deep, muffled voice like a call from ancient times!
The Myriad Races Bestiary successfully recorded them, and the information on the two stone statues appeared before Xu Kun.
Shrine Guardian...
Before you continue