The off-road vehicle left the straight national highway, turning onto a dirt road almost buried by wind and sand, jolting as it drove deeper into the Gobi Desert.
The surrounding scenery grew increasingly desolate. Apart from jagged, unusual rock formations and rolling sand dunes, no trace of human construction could be seen anymore.
Even the most tenaciously resilient cal thorn plants beca sparse.
Only after confirming there was absolutely no possibility of human habitation within tens of kiloters around.
Su Zhan parked the vehicle behind a huge, wind-sheltering rock.
He got out of the car and surveyed his surroundings.
This was an open gravel flat, with relatively flat terrain and wide visibility—an ideal location for summoning the Mist.
It was ti to test just how far he could take this ritual, undisturbed and in such an excellent geographical location.
Su Zhan walked to the center of the clearing and sat down cross-legged.
Closing his eyes, his consciousness sank inward, once again guiding the fusion of Mist Energy and ntal power.
With the experience from the previous few attempts, this process went much more smoothly.
Su Zhan sent this mixture imbued with summoning intent toward that elusive Mist Will.
The light rapidly dimd.
Thick, gray-white Mist instantly materialized.
Within re seconds, a massive, condensed gray-white Mist sphere took form.
Completely enveloping Su Zhan, his off-road vehicle, and a large stretch of the gravel flat.
Inside the sphere, the light was dim, as if dusk had arrived early.
The gravel on the ground was clearly visible, while the slowly flowing fog walls at the boundaries completely isolated the inside from the outside.
Looking up, the sky was also replaced by a gray-white do.
A sense of oppression washed over him.
The surrounding fog walls imdiately began churning violently.
Dense clusters of figures squeezed out from the fog walls in a frantic rush.
They were Bone-Erosion Rats.
A type of low-level Mist Creature only the size of a house cat.
Possessing astonishing reproductive capabilities, with teeth sharp enough to gnaw through steel.
Typically, individual strength only reached low-risk levels, with an extrely small portion capable of reaching dium-risk.
They surged forth like a gray tide, instantly covering most of the domain, emitting hair-raising squeaks.
Su Zhan looked at this swarm of Bone-Erosion Rats, numbering probably no less than several hundred, and was montarily stunned, a trace of helplessness and... impatience appearing on his face.
"What the hell... this kind of trash in the first wave?"
Su Zhan muttered a low complaint.
These Bone-Erosion Rats were practically useless except for their numbers, providing minuscule Life Essence, and were particularly troubleso to kill.
The rat swarm paid no heed to his thoughts, beginning their search for prey.
If an ordinary Tide Realm Awakened individual faced such a massive rodent tide, they would likely be flustered, possibly even have their Spiritual Energy exhausted and be gnawed down to bones.
Su Zhan simply stood in place, his hands transforming into sharp claws covered in black scales.
His figure weaved through the rat swarm, his dual claws becoming two black cyclones of death.
"Shh-shh-shh-shh—!"
The sharp claws sent up bursts of dark-red blood mist and shattered limbs.
His movents were so fast they left afterimages, his steps landing amidst the rat swarm.
Those Bone-Erosion Rats attempting to pounce and bite him often hadn't even touched the hem of his clothes before being torn to shreds by the claw winds.
Wherever he passed, Bone-Erosion Rats fell in swathes, unable to even slow his pace.
Occasionally, a few lucky ones broke through the claw shadows, biting onto his pant legs, but couldn't even breach the defense of his scales, instead having their teeth shattered by the recoil.
The entire slaughter process lasted less than a minute.
Su Zhan stopped moving.
The surroundings were carpeted with a thick layer of Bone-Erosion Rat corpses, the dark-red blood nearly soaking through the sand and gravel on the ground.
The few surviving Bone-Erosion Rats finally sensed fear, emitting terrified squeaks, desperately trying to burrow back into the fog walls, but were nailed to the ground by several strands of Mist Energy Su Zhan casually flicked out.
The scene returned to silence.
Su Zhan shook his claws, flicking off non-existent bloodstains, looking at the battlefield full of spoils with a slight frown.
Activating his absorption ability, a faint, almost negligible stream of life energy flowed into his body from all directions.
For his high-risk level realm, this was a re drop in the bucket.
"A waste of ti."
Su Zhan gave a low evaluation.
…
Ti seed to lose aning on the desolate Gobi Desert.
The sun rose, the moon set, and in the blink of an eye, a month passed.
During this month.
Su Zhan, like a solitary ascetic, conducted unimaginable cultivation in this forgotten corner of the world.
His daily routine was simple and repetitive: find suitable, remote locations, attempt to summon Mist domains.
Once successful, he would leverage his advantage as the summoner, launching deadly ambushes before the Mist Creatures identified him as a target.
Relying on the premonition of his Ti Abyss Pupil, his high-risk level strength, and his newly acquired flight ability, his efficiency in hunting Mist Creatures was extrely high.
Yet this process was not entirely smooth sailing.
Su Zhan quickly discovered that the summoning ritual was extrely unstable.
Sotis he could successfully deploy a large domain with a radius of a kiloter;
other tis, he couldn't even condense a wisp of Mist, his ntal power sinking like a stone in the sea, receiving no response.
"It seems this thing isn't sothing you can just summon whenever you want..."
Su Zhan looked at the traces of another failed ritual, lost in thought.
He recalled the information he had reviewed back in Lincheng—the number of Mist incidents occurring daily within Daxia seed to maintain a relatively stable range. Even though the intensity had increased recently, the quantity hadn't exploded.
A speculation ford in his mind: Perhaps, across the entire territory of Daxia, the total number of Mist incidents that could be successfully summoned each day was limited?
There existed an invisible quota?
When this quota was used up by Aberrants elsewhere, his summons here would fail?
If this conjecture held true, then what the Transcendence Society mastered might not be an unlimited summoning ability, but a more efficient thod of seizing the quota.
Not only that, even when summoning succeeded, the quality and quantity of Mist Creatures appearing within the domain fluctuated wildly.
Sotis he could attract one or two high-risk level entities, giving him substantial gains.
Other tis, there were only large swarms of low-level cannon fodder, troubleso to kill, yet providing pitifully little Life Essence, offering extrely low cost-effectiveness.
This uncertainty severely slowed his progression speed.
Nevertheless, under this nearly cheat-like grinding thod, over the course of a month, Su Zhan's strength still achieved steady growth.
From high-risk first stage, he broke through consecutively, reaching high-risk third stage.
Breaking through two stages in one month, and at the high-risk level, equivalent to the Tide Realm for Awakened individuals...
If this speed were made public, it would be enough to make any Awakened individual or Aberrant stare in disbelief, treating it as a fantasy.
But for Su Zhan, who had long coveted the ability to summon the Mist, this result was within expectations.
After all, he had wanted to obtain this summoning thod for a long ti, but never had the chance. Now that he finally got it, such advancent speed was inevitable.
Su Zhan possessed the advantage of location—the Uninhabited Zone allowed unrestricted summoning.
He possessed harmony—his own strength and special abilities.
What he lacked was favorable timing—stable summoning opportunities and high-quality prey.
To have achieved this much harvest was already a stroke of luck.
Sigh, so much ti has passed.
I wonder how my teammates and Teacher Wang Mingyuan and the others are doing?
I hope they are all safe and well.
I also hope I can have a good, stable period of developnt. If I maintain this cultivation speed, by the ti I reach the special-risk level, I'll consider re-entering the Mist.
After all, I can't forget my Awakened individual's SSS-grade Life Soul talent.
To search for that legendary Reforge Fruit.
He felt uncertain in his heart...
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