’Its killing power is even stronger now.’
Casting efficiency and damage amplification also saw a huge boost.
If he could have a do-over of his fight with the Reviver, Su Chen was confident he wouldn’t even need a second sword strike, now that he had his new Lv8 Telekinesis to synergize with his other skills.
Yan Ruoruo also received a massive power-up. A pile of corresponding Spirit Element Runes and Spiritual Materials had dropped for her.
Among her five personal Spirit Element Rune Constructions, her Mind Transmission Rune successfully leaped to Lv7. Her Spiritual Shelter, Mind Impact, and Insight Skill all rose to Lv6. She also integrated a newly acquired Lv5 Telekinesis into her system.
At the same time, moving at her own steady pace, she finally unlocked the first Core Authority for the Spirit String Artisan class.
Ruoruo told Su Chen about it right away.
In a word... ’Spiritual Arrow!’
She no longer needed physical arrows. By relying solely on her spiritual power, she could automatically form an invisible Spirit Arrow. This arrow ignored physical and Element-based shields, piercing straight through them and any armor to enter a person’s body.
However, this Spiritual Arrow didn’t cause any physical damage. Instead, the area it struck would lose all nerve signals, resulting in a loss of sensation and paralysis.
A shot to the spine would instantly leave the target in a vegetative state.
A shot to the brain would essentially turn them into an imbecile.
’Not bad. That’s practically a guaranteed kill on anyone who doesn’t see it coming.’
’This Authority is really hard to defend against,’ Su Chen thought. ’An opponent who doesn’t know any better would just stupidly raise their shield to block, which is the same as signing their own death warrant.’
The only ways to counter it were to dodge or to block it with a Spirit Element shield skill.
’Without any intel, this will definitely be a huge surprise for her opponents,’ he mused.
They didn’t delay for long.
After more than half an hour, the group had returned to the cave for another load, cleaned out the resource point, and brought a pile of materials to the sacrificial altar.
There were far too many Nether Sand Ore Crystals to conveniently carry back, so they decided to just sacrifice a portion of them.
After Yan Ziqian completed the sacrifice, his Growth Skill, which was already at Lv7, brought his strongly-synergized Entanglement Skill up to Lv7 as well, bolstering his crowd control abilities.
The first Core Authority of the Life Warlock class allowed his attacks or effective blocks to automatically trigger a Life Absorption and plundering effect.
Pang Peng had probably been hoping to forge a battle helmet or a Heart-Protecting Mirror, but instead he received a Spirit-Forged Battle Helmet that adapted to his body size. In addition to being form-adaptive, it also had impact-conversion and pain-dampening effects.
It was a decent piece of life-saving equipment.
Yu Ziyuan’s four main summons were also enhanced. Her Wind Spirit, which had been worked to the bone as their porter, was still stuck at Lv6. In contrast, her Fire Fox, which had been on a pleasant stroll, evolved into its Lv7 Six-Tailed Shadow Fox form.
Those three large baskets of mutated fish flesh clearly held significant sacrificial value, as they also yielded a rather special piece of Rune Equipment for her.
"Ah..."
"It’s armor for a Summoned Pet again."
[Spirit Core Battle Armor] · Universal for Summoned Beasts · Entry-Level Exclusive Spiritual Armor
[Currently Bound]: None
When equipped by a Summoned Pet Beast, this materialized Spiritual Armor—which is also form-adaptive—greatly increases Defense Power and provides the Spiritual Shelter and Psychological Invisibility traits.
All in all, it was quite good.
Interestingly, Su Chen also obtained an identical piece of equipment for a Summoned Pet in a later round of sacrifices.
His, however, was a ’Spirit Core Battle Armor · Advanced Class Exclusive Spiritual Armor’.
Its effects were enhanced. It was balanced for both offense and defense, and could even sprout Spirit Blades from the armor. He tried equipping it on Xiaoye. The Soul-devouring Dog was already covered in a layer of natural Netherworld armor. In contrast to its dim, mist-like body, the armor covering half its form was quite substantial.
’Logically, adding another layer of armor would inevitably make him bulky and sluggish.’
But the Spirit Core Battle Armor, being a Spirit Element item, did not just cover the old armor. It permeated and bonded with it, causing faint silver patterns to appear on the surface of the Netherworld armor, giving it an extra Enchantment Specialization.
Instantly, the natural Spirit Blade on its tail was reinforced into a translucent Spiritual Spike. The Alloy Claws extending from its paws looked as if they had been plated in a silver sheen, granting them powerful Spirit Penetration Damage.
"Not bad."
Su Chen was pleased with the change.
’Logically, I could give it to Xiaolin too. It’s quite versatile.’
"Let’s go."
Seeing that everyone had finished their business, Su Chen’s thoughts naturally turned to heading back.
They still had a large amount of Nether Sand Ore Crystals to bring back to their main base camp.
And so, with a Unicorn carrying one large bag of ore crystals and a Wind Spirit using a Wind Energy Stream to carry another, the group set off. In a way, having a Summoner on the team really did save them a lot of trouble.
The group arrived back at the campsite at nearly 11:30.
Their arrival, with its unusual procession, attracted the attention of the people there.
"There are more people."
That was everyone’s first impression.
With the parasite swarm incident having come to a temporary close, a batch of people had suddenly returned.
It was also possible that they were a new group of people entirely—outsiders who had spotted this fertile, unclaimed land from above.
The latter was highly possible.
Some of the faces were completely unfamiliar, and their expressions and demeanor betrayed a cautious, scrutinizing attitude.
Upon spotting Su Chen’s group from a distance, they would quietly slip away.
In this remote corner of the world, a lawless no-man’s-land, it was only natural that one couldn’t let their guard down.
"’Supplies in the city are still scarce, and that’s not a problem that can be solved anytime soon. It’s normal for people to come here to try their luck," Yan Ziqian said.
They couldn’t even produce something as simple as paper towels.
Daily necessities had become hot commodities. Things like soap and toothpaste were difficult to create with current Rune technology. The only alternative was to find natural substitutes in the forest.

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