December 1st, Black Iron Calendar Year 903...
At this moment, the sky had only just begun to lighten. Across a hundred-mile radius of land below, smoke still billowed. As the first ray of the rising eastern sun fell upon the still-smoking volcanic crater, two figures shot skyward from the bubbling lava beneath it. In an instant, they soared into the high sky above the volcano and stood suspended in midair.
Those two were Zhang Tie and his newly taken old servant, Zhang Gui.
This harvest had been truly immense. After waking up, Zhang Tie had spent a full eleven days turning those gains into his own.
Though less than two short weeks had passed, Zhang Tie was now vastly different from the Zhang Tie who had chased Han Zhengfang here two weeks ago.
Two weeks ago, Zhang Tie's Earth Knight water chakra had condensed 38 scales, and he had only just undergone the First Earth Transformation. Now, his Earth Knight water chakra had condensed 161 scales, and he had advanced all the way to the Fourth Earth Transformation.
From the First to the Fourth Transformation, Zhang Tie had gained three more powerful ability enhancements at the Earth Knight realm. Those three enhancements alone had raised Zhang Tie's overall strength and combat power by another thirty percent.
Because Zhang Tie had killed Han Zhengfang deep underground amid the lava, where his protective Battle Qi had endured immense pressure and his body had suffered grievous injuries beneath the crushing weight of the molten rock, these three enhancements had once more sent the defensive power of his protective Battle Qi and his own resilience soaring. After testing them over the past few days, Zhang Tie found that his protective Battle Qi and physical resistance had each increased by roughly forty percent through those