Ashen God
Chapter 569 - 568 Ocean Demon Sunflower

Chapter 569: Chapter 568 Ocean Demon Sunflower

Although the Holy Emblem looks wonderful, the issue is that it is only suitable for professions with related Holy Light Power, such as Priests and Holy Knights. For someone like Zhang Yanhang, it is completely unusable because he practices the Empire’s standard Limitless Universe Skill, not some Western Meditation Method or Breathing Method.

Therefore, for such a Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure that he could not use, and that might not even have a suitable Awakener in the entirety of Qin Island City, Zhang Yanhang really saw no need for choosing it.

More regretfully, besides this Holy Emblem, the second choice of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures was also of no use to him. It was a Mutant Fish Egg located on the wall of the landscape pond within the Guanghua District on Suihua Road in the North City area.

According to the description in the options, this Mutant Fish Egg seemed to have failed to hatch initially, and later, due to contamination by Spiritual Energy, its inner biological structure underwent a change, combining with the green moss on the pool’s wall, transforming from a pure biological entity to a half-biological, half-plant deformed egg pouch.

Although it was half-biological and half-plant, this Mutant Fish Egg, like a plant, had no wisdom or consciousness—it would only instinctively absorb the Sun and Moon Essence and the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth. Thus, after accumulating Spiritual Energy for a period and coinciding with an increase in Spiritual Energy density, it finally grew into a qualified Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure.

Of course, the above information was from the Multiple Choice, and Zhang Yanhang guessed that if he went to that pond right now, he would probably only see normal fish eggs. It was only if he actually picked that option that he would really encounter that Mutant Fish Egg.

By the way, this season, which is September to November in autumn, happens to be a peak spawning period, and the corresponding other one is the spring spawning peak from March to May. Most fish typically spawn during these two seasons.

Naturally, compared to the growth process of this Mutant Fish Egg, Zhang Yanhang was undoubtedly more concerned about the usage effects of the Mutant Fish Egg.

Specifically speaking, perhaps it was because the egg, before hatching, had already somewhat developed a bit of consciousness which then bore resentment, the effects of this Mutant Fish Egg were quite rare.

It could actually enable the consumer’s body to break through physical limits and undergo secondary development, meaning the body could become sturdier and also include some shaping effects.

And Zhang Yanhang felt this usage effect, although a bit strange, was actually quite useful for him, especially since he was already 1.9 meters tall, which is considered taller than average in the human population. However, he felt growing even taller, such as reaching 2 meters or 2.1 meters, wouldn’t be bad.

And if you asked why he wanted to grow taller, it was purely because it could indirectly increase his strength.

After all, since the Giant Transformation Spell amplifies based on Zhang Yanhang’s own height, naturally, by increasing his height, he could correspondingly increase the amplified height.

Mainly because, right now, Zhang Yanhang was quite unsatisfied with his current 10-meter height. At this level, he felt as if he was stuck in between, not sufficiently high or low, still categorized among the Dumb Giants in "Attack on Titan."

His ideal height should be at least 20 meters or more, at least being on the scale of an Intelligent Giant. Otherwise, wouldn’t it be troublesome to fight large-sized monsters later?

Just a Third Tier One-star Lord Monster like the Goblin Chief Nu Shan had augmented up to seven meters in height. From this perspective, Zhang Yanhang thought that his chances of encountering such giant monsters in the future were quite high.

Although now, his 10-meter height made fighting the Goblin Chief Nu Shan like an adult beating a child, if he encountered monsters standing at 14 or 20 meters tall in the future, the fight would be likewise...

Alright, perhaps that was still unlikely, unless there was a huge rank difference between them, such as Zhang Yanhang at Second Tier fighting a Fourth Tier. Otherwise, if just at Third Tier, it should not lead to such scenarios.

But it cannot be denied that Body Suppression truly is a very deadly factor. Thus, he would rather suppress other enemies than be used by them to gain a size advantage over him as a suppressed target. And, even if he could not suppress enemies, he at least wanted to maintain an equal footing. That was definitely fundamental.

However, while this may be the case, having a 20-meter height was currently out of reach for Zhang Yanhang, but it did not prevent him from setting it as a small goal and striving toward it.

For instance, by gently increasing his height, after all, 2 meters or 2.1 meters was still within the range of normal humans, which he found completely acceptable. Even 2.5 meters, like the Tyrant, would not be out of the question. Well, maybe that was too tall, although Zhang Yanhang truly admired the idea.

After all, for Zhang Yanhang, a close-combat brute, the suppression advantage brought by body size was indeed very useful. Plus, he actually had once dreamed of becoming a Muscle Demon, probably back in high school. Then in college, the dream disappeared as he became more solitary and indifferent.

And now, after becoming an Awakener, he inexplicably revisited this past little dream. By the way, during high school, Zhang Yanhang was much thinner than now, weighing at most 80-90 kilograms. It was only after starting to work out and further development of his body that he stabilized at the current 100 kilograms.

As an adult with a fixed body shape, Zhang Yanhang guessed that his weight probably would not change much for a long time. Moreover, aside from stopping development, just the digitization of his body data alone would likely keep his weight at this level forever.

Although his physical quality had greatly improved, strong enough that a punch could perhaps kill a hundred of his pre-digitization self, neither his physique nor his weight had changed at all.

At most, he had increased his Constitution to slightly improve his skin and minutely adjusted his features with his Charm—that was about it. Well, perhaps other changes had occurred as well, but Zhang Yanhang traditionally had no interest in changes that didn’t boost strength, after all, he wasn’t Li Zerui, reliant on his looks for a living.

"Although this mutant fish egg allows the user’s body to break through physiological limits and undergo secondary development, the problem is that the usage conditions are really too harsh. It’s limited to aquatic animals only, which means it’s usable for fishes and a few other animals, but clearly not for humans," Zhang Yanhang explained.

Zhang Yanhang had actually considered using a Transformation Technique to turn himself into a fish to consume this mutant fish egg at first. However, after thinking it through, he decided against it, considering the risks too high. What if he grew fish scales all over his body after eating it?

Moreover, the Transformation Technique is just a Fourth Tier Magic and not a particularly high-end spell. The realism of the transformation effect isn’t that great. Although it can barely inherit some abilities, there is indeed a very big gap compared to a real primitive life form.

Otherwise, Mages wouldn’t need to learn other spells. They could just transform into a giant dragon with a Transformation Technique and become invincible under legendary creatures.

Also, the Dark Elf Dragon Vein Mage Family wouldn’t need to practice consanguineous marriages while still occasionally hunting giant dragons for breeding. They could simply pull in a Mage who knows the Transformation Technique, couldn’t they?

Therefore, for such an unreliable Transformation Technique, Zhang Yanhang felt there was an even greater possibility that after consuming the mutant fish egg it might not work at all, as compared to the risk of growing fish scales.

"Speaking of which, since this choice describes the growth process of the mutant fish egg in such detail, could it be that this fish egg was accelerated in maturity?" Zhang Yanhang wondered.

Compared to the spontaneous refresh of the Yin Yang Mother-Child Tree, Zhang Yanhang felt that this description of the growth process implied the fish egg might suddenly be matured after selection is completed. If that’s the case, then the means of obtaining Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures by Multiple Choice are quite varied.

"But although I want to verify whether there’s a way to prematurely mature these Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, neither the Holy Emblem nor the mutant fish egg are of any use to me. Do I really need to seek out such useless Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures?" Zhang Yanhang thought deeply for a moment before deciding to save his Energy Value and dismiss this choice. After all, neither option was useful to him.

As for prematurely maturing them, Zhang Yanhang thought it was something he could verify later when the opportunity arose; there was no rush.

After canceling the choice, time resumed its normal flow, and Zhang Yanhang once again drank a Medium Magic Recovery Potion until his Energy Value was fully restored.

This was something Zhang Yanhang had learned long ago; only by keeping his Energy Value at full could he maximize the potential of Multiple Choice to obtain Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures with stronger usage effects.

After replenishing his Energy Value, Zhang Yanhang immediately tried to trigger choices again, but unexpectedly, after several attempts, none yielded anything useful. Each time the items in the choices were different and varied in function, but they were all useless to him.

For instance, there was an Ocean Demon Sunflower that grew on the seabed near Bohai. Its specific effect was to enhance the user’s digestion and eating capabilities, but Zhang Yanhang was fasting. What use would he have for it? Besides Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, he hardly ate anything else.

As for the Yin Yang Mother-Child Tree he had obtained previously, which required strong eating and digestive capabilities to consume, that Ocean Demon Sunflower was merely a low-level Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure. No matter how strong, it definitely couldn’t enhance someone’s stomach to directly digest over a hundred cubic meters of wood.

If that were possible, the Ocean Demon Sunflower would indeed be a high-level Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure, but with his current Energy Value, Zhang Yanhang surely couldn’t obtain such high-level treasures. So even if he did eat the Ocean Demon Sunflower, it would be like a drop in the bucket and not worth acquiring and marketing.

Moreover, more importantly, Zhang Yanhang felt he could solve the problem of the Yin Yang Mother-Child Tree with Alchemy later on, perhaps by compressing its size so Zhou Muxi could consume it normally. Thus, the Ocean Demon Sunflower seemed even more unnecessary, as Alchemy was essentially more productive in this regard.

The circumstances of the other Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were basically similar to that of the Ocean Demon Sunflower, all having effects that were of no use to him, such as increasing the toughness of hair follicles and providing rapid growth.

Although these might be useful to ordinary programmers suffering from hair loss, Zhang Yanhang was just a college student majoring in computer science who hadn’t yet graduated. Moreover, after becoming an Awakener, he wouldn’t be working as a programmer in the future.

Therefore, for him, with his thick black hair, such a product was entirely unnecessary and superfluous. Besides, even if he were to go bald, he could grow hair using Alchemy, which would certainly be more convenient than this; he could grow his hair as long as he wanted, even down to his waist.

He could even grow hair tens of meters long and cosplay as the princess from a fairy tale. After all, hair doesn’t contain nerves, capillaries, pores, or the like; it’s just a mass of keratinized cells or a large keratin layer.

This wasn’t a technically demanding process. If Zhang Yanhang used Alchemy to create such a thing, the production speed would definitely be much faster compared to complex human skin.

"Sigh, I had thought maybe I would encounter some Heavenly Material that could increase the Life Value Limit since the flag had already been set, but Multiple Choice completely ignored my needs and also didn’t present any of the most common types that could increase defensive power and Physical Strength."

Zhang Yanhang disliked the options triggered in these few rounds, so he canceled them all, even though it cost him quite a bit in fees. But this was still much better than making selections that used up a large amount of Energy Value.

"So, the question is, what should I do next? Should I go home directly? Yes, I should head home." Zhang Yanhang felt that even if he continued to trigger choices, he likely wouldn’t find any useful Heavenly Materials, so it was time to end his night run.

"Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, I’ll just continue the search next time when I have a chance since I still have many other things to deal with." After checking the route home on his phone, Zhang Yanhang turned on the navigation and headed toward Xingfuli District.