Ashen God
Chapter 606 - 605: [High Elf Blood (Essence Extraction)]

Chapter 606: Chapter 605: [High Elf Blood (Essence Extraction)]

October 25th, Sunday, Double Ninth Festival, and also the first day Zhang Yanhang repetitively hopped between the Main World and the Ashen World. At 11:50 PM, within the deepest recesses of the Southern Forest in the Demonized Swamp.

"Successfully killed a First Tier Three Star Monster ’Demonized Canine Giant Ape (Ordinary)’ x1, Soul points +10."

"Successfully killed a First Tier Three Star Monster ’Demonized Canine Giant Ape (Ordinary)’ x1, Soul points +10."

"Successfully killed a First Tier Three Star Monster ’Demonized Canine Giant Ape (Ordinary)’ x1, Soul points +10."

...

After finishing off the last thirty-five Demonized Canine Giant Apes in the Southern Forest of the Demonized Swamp with a single Death Wave Skill, Zhang Yanhang let out a long breath, "I have now completely cleared the entire Southern Forest. Finally, I can take a little break. After working continuously for ten hours, I’m indeed a bit tired."

In the past hour-plus, he successfully cleared the remaining last ten square kilometers of the Southern Forest, thereby smoothly accomplishing his mini-goal of clearing the entire Southern Forest in one go.

"At first, I thought I might have to wait until after midnight to clear this remaining area of the Southern Forest, but unexpectedly, I finished before midnight. This way, my progress isn’t looking so bad."

Since he had successfully cleared the entire Southern Forest, the progress of the first stage of the cleansing operation had reached one hundred percent. He could now move on to the next stage of the plan, but that was a matter for tomorrow, or rather, after Zhang Yanhang woke up next. What he needed to do next was to clear the Lucky Slot Machine reward pool in the Demonized Swamp.

"Before, the overall cleansing progress of the Demonized Swamp was 19.3%. Now, after thoroughly clearing the entire Southern Forest, it’s 22.5%, with an additional 3.2% progress. There are still more than three days left, but the progress has just surpassed one-fifth. All I can say is, although it’s not as terrible as before, the overall progress still falls short—it’s only slightly better."

Fortunately, Zhang Yanhang would continue to enhance the Talent Level of Life Pulse. Presumably, with the increase in Movement Speed bonuses, his hunting efficiency would surely see a significant further increase. After all, his current hunting efficiency left much to be desired, and if it could only be maintained at this level, in the end, it might not be possible to completely clear the Demonized Swamp.

"Anyway, I’ll worry about these matters after I wake up tomorrow. Next, I’ll head to the Lucky Slot Machine. Of course, I can’t forget about collecting treasure boxes."

After waiting in place for several seconds, Zhang Yanhang found that two Green quality Drop treasure boxes had fallen, and both happened to be from the dozen or so Demonized Canine Giant Apes in front of him. He immediately picked up the two Green quality Drop treasure boxes and put them into his Waist Bag.

After collecting the Drop treasure boxes from the Demonized Canine Giant Apes, Zhang Yanhang quickly moved eastward. He was only a few hundred meters away from the Lucky Slot Machine, and with his current speed, he took only a few seconds to reach the Lucky Slot Machine by ramming straight through the forest.

Zhang Yanhang didn’t pay attention to the broken trunks behind him and began to carefully inspect the Lucky Slot Machine in front of him. How to say it, it looked exactly the same as the previous ones in Raccoon City, the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, and the Goblin Plain. The only difference was the cost of use, which here was nine Soul points for one play.

"If I could still vaguely consider it a coincidence before, then this time it’s definite proof. It seems that the Lucky Slot Machines indeed price themselves based on the weakest monsters in the current area—otherwise, there’s no way such a twisted price of nine points would have emerged."

After a brief inspection of the Lucky Slot Machine, Zhang Yanhang skillfully pulled the metal lever on the side of the machine. As the lever turned, that all-too-familiar Time Pause, absent for a good dozen hours, descended upon the Demonized Swamp. At the same time, a sea of dense text options automatically appeared in front of Zhang Yanhang’s eyes.

"[Please select the specific contents of the prize for this round of Lucky Slot Machine.]"

"[Option One: 777 (First Prize, ’World Tree Juice (Blood Dilution),’ quality light gold, artifact.)]"

"[Option Two: ✮✮✮ (Second Prize, ’High Elf Blood (Essence Extraction),’ quality dark purple, artifact.)]"

"[Option Three: ✮✮✮ (Second Prize, ’High Elf Blood (Essence Extraction),’ quality dark purple, artifact.)]"

...

"[Option Thirty-Seven: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Demonized Maned Beast, first tier three stars, ordinary monster.)]"

...

"[Option Sixty-Five: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Demonized Maned Beast, first tier three stars, ordinary monster.)]"

...

"[Option One Hundred Forty-Three: ✭✬✭ (Fourth Prize, thank you for your patronage, no physical prize.)]"

After successfully triggering an option, Zhang Yanhang immediately began skillfully reviewing the prize pool contents of the Demonized Swamp Lucky Slot Machine, starting naturally with the contents of the third-prize pool.

Once he had finished reviewing all the options that belonged to the third-prize pool, Zhang Yanhang felt that in this respect, Raccoon City, Goblin Plain, and the Demonized Swamp were really following the same pattern; the initial prize pool only contained the weakest monsters of the current area.

In other words, all one hundred positions in the Demonized Swamp third-prize pool were Demonized Maned Beasts, which somewhat disappointed Zhang Yanhang. After all, he had originally thought that a place like the Demonized Swamp, with multiple species of monsters of equal strength, would have its pool refreshed with some Demonized Dogtooth Giant Apes, just like how the small-scale Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu would refresh Crimson Iron Worker Ants and concurrently some Crimson Iron Flying Ants.

However, unfortunately, the Lucky Slot Machine third-prize pool in the Demonized Swamp only contained the weakest Demonized Maned Beasts. If someone asked why Zhang Yanhang wanted other monsters to be refreshed in the pool, it was not for any other reason than that the soul points yield from Demonized Dogtooth Giant Apes was simply higher than that from Demonized Maned Beasts.

But luckily, although the initial prize pool of the Lucky Slot Machine indeed only contained Demonized Maned Beasts, Zhang Yanhang estimated that by the next refresh of the third-prize pool of the Lucky Slot Machine, it would definitely include Demonized Dogtooth Giant Apes, given that the prize pool is refreshed based on his clearance progress.

Zhang Yanhang had now completely cleared the entire Southern Forest, so if the Lucky Slot Machine’s next prize pool refresh did not include Demonized Dogtooth Giant Apes, it could only be said that the Lucky Slot Machine had a bug.

"By the way, I don’t know when this Demonized Swamp’s Lucky Slot Machine refreshes, but judging from the situations in nearby Raccoon City and Goblin Plain, it most likely refreshes during the day as well."

Zhang Yanhang planned to pay more attention to this matter tomorrow and, in addition, since he had been sleeping all morning and had not observed the refresh time of the Lucky Slot Machine in Goblin Plain, he would need to continue monitoring that as well.

However, I can only pay attention to this matter if I wake up before the slot machine refreshes tomorrow morning. If not, then I’ll have to keep waiting.

"Speaking of this, I suddenly feel like my sleeping pattern has become quite regular for no apparent reason. I hunt monsters during the day and early morning, then sleep till noon. Unless something changes, I’m guessing this will likely continue.

After all, if nothing goes awry, I’m bound to stay awake until the wee hours and, although I won’t sleep until late noon, waking up by nine doesn’t seem to be a problem."

Zhang Yanhang remembered that when he first entered the Ashen World, due to the timing of his entry, he would usually go monster hunting in the afternoons and continue until dawn, then sleep throughout the day—his days and nights were turned upside down.

Although there isn’t exactly a strict cycle of day and night in the Ashen World either, it’s the kind that always maintains one status, like the perennially overcast skies of Raccoon City. Zhang Yanhang has been here a month and hasn’t seen anything other than overcast weather.

As for the Goblin Plain, it’s sunny from start to finish. Well, not always, since the Goblin Plain did briefly experience overcast skies when Zhang Yanhang’s thermo-baric bombs created a canopy of ashen clouds.

By the way, based on Zhang Yanhang’s estimates, that ashen cloud must have floated around for at least a day or two before dissipating, gradually spreading over most of the Goblin Plain during the process.

Now when Zhang Yanhang enters the Goblin Plain, at first glance, everything looks blurry with ash, and there’s an inexplicable scent of burning that has completely covered the original fresh grassy fragrance that’s slightly pungent to the nose after a while, making it even more pungent and irritating.

In summary, Zhang Yanhang’s previous sleep schedule in the Ashen World was quite irregular, but now it seems to be trending towards normal, which he finds incredibly baffling.

Of course, compared to a regular sleep schedule, the Lucky Slot Machine is obviously of greater importance, so Zhang Yanhang quickly shifted his focus back to the prize pool.

"This time, the top prize is High Elf Blood and World Tree Juice—I mean, while I expected it, it’s still utterly incomprehensible."

From the very beginning, Zhang Yanhang never quite understood how demonized creatures could be related to Elves, especially High Elves. Could it be because their living environments both include forests and extensive woodlands?

"This Demonized Swamp’s creatures, no matter how far you trace back their origins, shouldn’t have any link with the High Elf Empire. After all, even if an Elf were to turn dark, they’d just become a Zor Elf who likes living underground with dark skin and white hair. What kind of mutation would turn them into a demonized creature..."

Zhang Yanhang felt that Elves must have some other connection to demonized creatures, like a geographical one. He’d always suspected that there was something off about the enormous tree that stood in the forest next to the Demonized Swamp, measured in kilometers—very much like the mythical World Tree.

If it really is a World Tree, then it could indeed be connected to the Elves. However, it might also be the Nordic World Tree, and that implies a different set of beings altogether—Frost Giants, Flame Giants, Valkyries, and the like.

Moreover, the Nordic World Tree’s power system seems a bit stronger overall. After all, a World Tree is called that because it carries an entire world; every world grows on the branches of that massive tree.

Given how absurdly powerful a World Tree with that kind of power system would be, Zhang Yanhang didn’t think it would be situated near the Demonized Swamp where the strongest monsters are at most Third Tier.

So, compared to the Nordic World Tree, Zhang Yanhang is more inclined to believe it’s the Elf World Tree. Although that World Tree is also quite grand, the power levels of world trees differ due to differences in the Elf themes.

There were World Trees that provided the source of all magical energy for the entire world, as well as those which merely had a strong life force and couldn’t do anything besides producing Elves. Then there were also World Trees that gave birth to their own consciousness, capable of freely manipulating their power to crush divine beings. Indeed, there was a great variety of them.

"Suddenly, I feel like geographical relationships aren’t reliable at all..." After pondering for a while, Zhang Yanhang eventually decided to give up on thinking and started checking the attribute list of the Second Prize "High Elf Blood (Essence Extraction)".

**High Elf Blood (Essence Extraction)**

**Quality: Dark Purple**

**Type: Artifact**

**Origin: Ashen World, High Elf Empire, Supreme Forest, Elf Court Avando.**

**Usage Effect: Increases Life Value Limit by 120 points.**

**Usage Requirements: Constitution below 70 points.**

**Score: 260 (Dark Purple Items have a score between 151 and 260.)**

**Introduction: My name is Azikasa Baofeng Saint Silvado, a rather unremarkable War Hero. Since making a major contribution in the full-scale war against the Dwarves a thousand years ago, I have been collecting my pension without any sense of guilt and began my dull and monotonous retirement life.

Although my retirement life is indeed dull and tedious, life cannot always remain the same. One day, I heard that a new tailor had arrived at the palace and was highly favored. The Queen kept her by her side at all times, accompanying her to eat, sleep, use the toilet, and take baths, calling out for the tailor as soon as she opened her eyes every day, and even started neglecting her royal duties.

The court officials gradually became unable to bear watching this and felt that such a decadent life should not be seen with the Elf Queen of the High Elf Empire. They wished to petition her collectively for caution, and as the Imperial War Hero with some influence among the Military Officers, they approached me to join the petition.

I gladly agreed because I could not stand to watch the Elf Queen, who had promoted me in those years, continue down this path of decline. Upholding the concept of supporting and rectifying the state, I quickly became one of the main planners as soon as I joined the initiative, and to save the Queen, I began to actively seek other High Elves to sign the petition with us.

However, it was regrettable that while other ministers, nobles, and I managed to gather most of the officials from the court to sign the petition, the Queen did not care at all. She tore the petition in half and threw it on the floor, and in the days that followed, she continued to keep the beautiful new tailor by her side, persisting in consulting with her about new clothing designs.

We could not stop the Queen from tearing up the petition and continuing her autocratic behavior since ultimately, she was the master of the entire High Elf Empire and the most powerful Elf in the Empire. As her subjects, we had no power to resist and could only let her continue to live that fallen lifestyle.

However, although the collective petition failed, I heard some rumors about the true nature of the situation. A palace maid told me that the Queen was actually discussing with the new tailor the design of the dress for next year’s two thousandth coronation anniversary, a day she took very seriously.

I was deeply surprised by this because such a significant event was already taken very seriously by the court officials, who had planned the related processes and specifics well in advance. But now it seemed that the Queen had her own opinion on the matter. Why she would not communicate with us if she was dissatisfied was beyond my understanding.

When I told the other ministers about this, they also failed to comprehend the situation. Therefore, under these circumstances, we initiated a second, even larger collective petition. We all felt that the Queen must have been bewitched by that mysterious new tailor.**