Across the river on the grassland lay truly dangerous territory.
Not only were Black Iron Grade beasts relatively common here, but Bronze Rank beasts were also far from rare.
There were even some higher-level Silver Rank beasts.
Fortunately, the route Jiang Ziliu had chosen perfectly avoided the territories of the more powerful beasts.
He could easily pass through the territories of weaker beasts with his Life Aura Concealment ability.
The next area, however, was a true forbidden zone, but it was also where he had determined Soul Crystals could be found using his innate skill, Probability Judgment.
This had once been a battlefield between humans and beasts, as well as the site of a large human city.
But during the Great Cataclysm, after the humans in this great city had lost hope, they detonated an ultra-high-yield nuclear bomb in a suicidal strike as the beasts stormed the city, utterly turning the entire region into a land of death.
Among those destroyed by the nuclear weapon back then were powerful Gold and Diamond Rank beasts.
There were even rumors that a top-tier Supreme Rank beast had fallen here.
Gray Rock, Black Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Supreme!
These were the ranks of beast tamers and beasts that humanity had disclosed to the lower classes, but Jiang Ziliu suspected that humanity even had beast tamers above Supreme Rank.
This was because he had heard some news that humanity was not merely holding fast to this primary life-bearing planet, but was also expanding to other life-bearing planets.
From this, he boldly guessed that there were still higher beast-taming realms that had not been disclosed to ordinary humans.
Silver Rank represented the strongest experts of Base No. 12, its very highest echelon!
Yet in the forbidden zone he was heading toward, there were remains of Gold, Diamond, and even Supreme Rank beasts.
The lingering nuclear radiation and power of Supreme Rank beasts had made this region incomparably terrifying, turning it into a special supernatural maze domain amid the ruins.
This was a place one could enter but never leave.
To this day, human beast tamers had not found a way to venture inside and emerge safely.
Others could not find one, but through Probability Judgment, Jiang Ziliu had found a way to counter this maze domain of ruins, produced by the fusion of nuclear radiation and the beasts' supernatural powers.
The method was simple: dig a tunnel forward!
Through Probability Judgment, he learned that the power contained in this illusion domain of ruins covered only a nearly five-hundred-meter-wide area along the ruins' outer edge.
The interior of the ruins was safe!
Originally, the power of the illusion domain had also extended underground, giving rise to the legends of this terrifying land of death.
But no one knew that much of this place's original terrifying power had already dissipated under the erosion of time.
More than three meters underground, the power of the maze domain no longer worked, allowing someone to pass straight through.
Even so, digging a tunnel spanning five hundred meters at a depth of three meters was no easy task.
But Jiang Ziliu had the Azurite Rock Man.
Its skills, such as Rock and Earth Evasion and Rock and Earth Sneak Stab, could manipulate earth to a certain extent, so creating a stable tunnel in a given location was no problem.
However, since this was not one of its skills, performing such operations cost the Azurite Rock Man three to ten times as much Dark Energy as a normal skill.
But Jiang Ziliu was in no hurry at all. After reaching the edge of the ruins, he first dug a hole himself and hid underground.
Then he quietly lay low and rested there, letting the Azurite Rock Man carve out an underground passage ahead.
When its Dark Energy ran out, he let it rest and recover.
Jiang Ziliu had also brought plenty of low-level earth-attribute Slime beast cores, more than enough for the Azurite Rock Man to recover.
Once it had recovered and rested enough, it went back to carving out the underground passage.
After two days of carefully excavating the passage this way, the Azurite Rock Man successfully broke through.
The Azurite Rock Man entered to conduct a preliminary exploration and confirmed that there was nothing inside; the site was simply a stretch of ruins.
Only after confirming there was no danger did Jiang Ziliu pass through the tunnel and enter.
Ruined human buildings could be seen everywhere, but there were few plants.
As Jiang Ziliu walked inside, he sensed that the space here differed from the outside.
He understood then that the power of the maze domain was not so simple. It was very likely also a force field like a spatial wall, but it did not seem to cover the underground area completely.
This should have been a subspace-type environment, a spatial domain far lower in level than a Dungeon Space.
Dilapidated high-rises stood everywhere, showing that humanity's technological civilization on this planet had developed quite well before the Great Cataclysm.
He began searching the city. Any place where Soul Crystals might exist had to be at the heart of the beasts' assault on the city back then-the center of the nuclear explosion.
But his Probability Judgment had only determined a vague location, so he still needed to search this place thoroughly.
The streets, overgrown with vines and weeds, were covered in dirt.
Yet scattered traces of industrial wreckage could still be seen, such as the frames of heavy vehicles.
Most of the remnants, however, had already turned to sludge under the erosion of time.
Only a few fragments had weathered the wash of time, barely preserving traces of what had once been.
There were no beasts here. The power of the radiation had once left this place barren of even a blade of grass, and only now had some vitality returned.
Even now, traces of radiation still lingered here.
But while still at home, Jiang Ziliu had used Probability Judgment to confirm that residual radiation of this level was harmless to him as a Nine-Star Gray Rock Rank life-form.
It was precisely this special environment that made this a place where he could obtain Soul Crystals in relative safety.
The other places around the base where Soul Crystals existed were all far more dangerous than this one.
Only after searching for nearly a day did he find the site of the great battle.
Around an enormous crater several kilometers across, beast bones dozens of meters long lay scattered everywhere, still as extraordinary as jade brimming with life.
Some of the beast bones were even golden, bright purple, or rainbow-colored.
Without exception, however, these bones emanated a terrifying presence that made him and his two tamed beasts feel extremely oppressed.
It was the lingering presence of higher life-forms after death, persisting for who knew how many years.
It was already far below the beasts' original level of life, yet it was still this frightening.
But under the might of a high-yield nuclear weapon, they had all been made equal, reduced to ash and smoke by that terrifying power.
The center of a nuclear explosion of this magnitude reached temperatures of tens of millions of degrees, something even powerful beasts could not fully withstand.
Having found where the mighty beasts had fallen, Jiang Ziliu also confirmed that the Soul Crystals he needed were here.
Soul Crystals existed in beasts' pineal glands, so as long as he found the skulls left behind by powerful beasts, he had a chance of finding the Soul Crystals here.
Remains of powerful beasts lay everywhere, and Jiang Ziliu soon found a beast skull the size of a room.
The skull was already buried in mud.
Next, if Jiang Ziliu wanted to find a Soul Crystal, he would have to begin digging out the mud.
He dug alongside the Azurite Rock Man, carefully inspecting the excavated soil and searching bit by bit for traces of Soul Crystals.
Generally speaking, Soul Crystals were not large. Small ones were only the size of a soybean, while large ones were the size of a fist.
Naturally, the larger the Soul Crystal, the better its effects.
Soul Crystals were generally black and relatively easy to identify.
He also had the Azurite Rock Man, with its keen perception of conditions within the soil, help him search.
But this time, even after spending a day digging out all the soil beneath the skull, he found no Soul Crystal.
Jiang Ziliu understood that this was normal.
No matter how powerful a beast was, the appearance of a Soul Crystal was a matter of probability. Not every beast could form one.
Some beasts really did grow only in size and strength, not in soul, possessing no talent whatsoever for soul growth.
Beasts from the Great Cataclysm in particular were even less likely to yield Soul Crystals.
Humanity had already noticed that the longer beasts stayed on life-bearing planets, the more likely they were to form Soul Crystals.
But in the beasts' primordial world beyond the Gate of the End, the likelihood of beasts producing Soul Crystals was extremely low.
This showed that their souls grew very slowly there, if at all.
Perhaps this was one reason the beasts crossed the Gate of the End and invaded this life-bearing planet.
Jiang Ziliu had no choice but to stop and spend the night here.
The next day, he found a second, somewhat larger beast skull and continued searching.
This time, he successfully found a black Soul Crystal the size of a quail egg.
Judging by its size, this Soul Crystal's quality was in the lower-middle range.
That day, he found an even larger beast skull and discovered another Soul Crystal, but this one was only the size of a soybean.
On the third day, he found a slightly smaller beast skull, yet successfully unearthed an excellent-quality Soul Crystal half the size of a fist.
On the fourth day, his luck was poor, and he found nothing.
Jiang Ziliu stayed here for eight days and successfully found five Soul Crystals of varying sizes.
If anyone learned of such a tremendous haul, their eyes would surely turn red with envy and darken.
Both he and his family would face terrible danger.
Every Soul Crystal in Jiang Ziliu's hands was an exceedingly precious treasure, among the finest treasures known. Without power to match, he would be doomed if word got out.
What disappointed Jiang Ziliu slightly, however, was that he had not found a single beast core.
He guessed that perhaps beast cores were somewhat like living flesh and blood, ultimately decaying under the erosion of time, which was why none had survived.
Having found five Soul Crystals, he was already extremely satisfied.
So he put aside his greed to dig up more Soul Crystals and quietly left.
He had the Azurite Rock Man directly destroy the passage leading here, erasing the traces of his entry.
Only then did he leave without a sound.
After Jiang Ziliu left, he failed to notice that an enormous multicolored cloud hung in the sky above the ruins.
Atop this mysterious cloud, a giant rainbow butterfly the size of a soccer field lay asleep. After he left, the presence of this sleeping creature silently weakened by a sliver, and continued to do so!
Jiang Ziliu did not know that a terrifying beast of unknown rank, above Gold Rank, had been sleeping over his head!
Probability Judgment had merely determined that he was incapable of waking this sleeping being!