Chapter 575: Chapter 572: Grip of Giant Strength

A flash of light, Bai Pu returned to the real world, the Giant Fern Mountain Range.

"There’s no level completion interface... Didn’t I switch identities and enter as an Awakened?" 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Bai Pu was a bit puzzled, but he recalled that he indeed hadn’t received any "main task" this time, only a military rank promotion task. Moreover, at the end, Gaia’s Will was busy transforming the Original Sin World, likely the reason for the lack of a level completion interface.

However, Bai Pu didn’t really mind.

The level completion rewards for the Original Sin World this time would at most give tens of thousands of Spiritual Points as a reward, and possibly an advanced title might appear.

Other than that, Bai Pu didn’t lack opportunities for military rank exchange or equipment enhancement, since he had the "Duke’s Badge of the Fu Lei Clan," which provided a chance to teleport to his territory every month, allowing him to exchange military ranks and enhance equipment during the process.

What truly interested Bai Pu was the harvest of this journey!

As usual, he first reported his safety to Li Ling, the Blood Spider, and others, then Bai Pu opened one Treasure Chest after another.

The Treasure Chests this time were all obtained in the Earth Vein Corridor, aside from a few Golden Treasure Chests for enhanced warriors, the Bound had also dropped a Treasure Chest.

However, when Bai Pu killed the Bound, its power was greatly restricted—Gaia’s Will conveniently used the rules to seal the Bound’s Spiritual Power.

The Bound was a Magic Lord, with its Spiritual Power sealed, it couldn’t even maneuver Holy Wave Power smoothly, allowing Bai Pu to handle him effortlessly.

But everything has pros and cons, the Spirit Realm Law, "difficulty determines rewards," is unchangeable. The difficulty of the kill was too low, resulting in the appearance of a Dark Gold Treasure Chest, which was just a water chest with only one draw opportunity.

Bai Pu thought for a moment and decided to keep the Bound’s Treasure Chest in reserve.

After all, it was a Treasure Chest from an Advanced Lord, and still quite valuable.

The pinnacle auction at the Fengzi Auction House was coming up soon, and Bai Pu planned to see if there were any auxiliary tools for drawing from advanced Dark Gold Treasure Chests then.

Bai Pu opened all the other Treasure Chests from the Holy War Legion Commanders in one go.

At this moment, Bai Pu’s standards were quite high, and ordinary items couldn’t catch his eye. After a quick glance, he categorized and put them away, planning to hand them over to Li Ling to sell through her channels, which would be more profitable than selling them to the Spirit Realm Will.

However, there were two rather nice items among them.

[Blade Storm: Three-star Skill Book. Use weapons to rapidly stab forward within 2 seconds, each hit causing 50% of standard damage value. This skill can critically hit. In dual-wielding weapon status, the number of stabs is additionally increased.]

[As a Golden Major, you can directly learn more detailed information about the Skill Book without having cultivated it.]

This Skill Book was left by the Agility-type Holy War Legion Commander, the spider-like "Blade Dancer" Isra. Although it wasn’t a Mystical Arts Skill Book, it also had no prerequisites.

The most crucial aspect was the number of stabs.

Through the high clearance of the Golden Major, Bai Pu learned that the number of stabs was related to Agility. With his current agility value in the low eighties, he could perform 8 stabs—this was in the single-weapon holding state.

If dual-wielding weapons, the number of stabs would increase to 12.

This was a good output skill, and Bai Pu planned to use it himself.

He was now gradually developing in an omni-directional way, and although agility was considered a shortcoming, he would certainly need to focus on acquiring agility equipment to unlock the King-level Purple Weapon.

Another piece of equipment found was a pair of armor gloves.

[Grip of Giant Strength (Sealed)]

[Equipment Quality: Hero Level (Gold)]

[Equipment Requirement: Basic Power 50]

[Equipment Position: Hand]

[Attributes: Power +12; Hand Armor +30]

[Additional Skill 1: Tight Grip: Passive, increases your power determination against disarm effects by 25 points.]

[Additional Skill 2: Power-up: Passive, power-up attacks increase the power determination value of the next strike (up to 30 points), and amplify damage (up to a 30% increase). Power-up reaches maximum in 3 seconds.]

[Durability: 100/100]

[Explanation: A punch must be pulled back first, then launched, for it to have force!]

Bai Pu replaced his original [Steam-Powered Bionic Boxing Gloves].

The original gloves were more suitable for the Awakened in unarmed combat, where the active effect of the "Steam Power" active skill was to deliver an upper hook punch to knock the enemy away, which Bai Pu had hardly used.

[Grip of Giant Strength], in comparison, had improvements in both attributes and armor.

After putting it on, Bai Pu’s Power increased by another 4 points, officially surpassing the 150 threshold.

Soon, Li Ling arrived at the Giant Fern Mountain and Steppe Border.

As Bai Pu’s Practical Officer, Li Ling knew very well that her most important "leader" was Bai Pu, and promptly reporting to the leader was very necessary.

Since Li Ling and Bai Pu knew each other from their humble beginnings, their relationship was more like friends rather than superior and subordinate, making their casual chats quite relaxed, a fortune many Practical Officers envied Li Ling for.

"This time took a bit long," Li Ling said.

The last time Bai Pu descended as a Celestial Hero, he returned in just a few days, but this time in the Original Sin World, it took half a month.

"Yes, the harvest was good. I reached Level 8. The key point is there’s been a significant enhancement in my strength," Bai Pu self-reviewed.

This strength enhancement included not just understanding the Red Flame Mystical Arts and learning the four-star Mystical Arts skill [Melt Gold Armor], but equipment upgrades like the [Sufferer’s Shoulder Armor], a Dark Gold equipment.

There’s also the health and attribute boost brought by the [Gaia Seal]. Bai Pu’s Life Value now reached 8054 points, sufficient to rival Advanced Native Warriors with blood volume bonuses from the World Waymark.

Other spoils of the journey included two Holy Artifact Shells replenished with Source Material Energy, a Golden Medal, and some Oil of the Lamp God.

The two Holy Artifact Shells were unexpected gains; Bai Pu only aimed to use them for transit through the primitive passage, not anticipating they could absorb Source Material Energy. It seemed they now had some Source Material again, which could be traded with Gaia’s Will or Divine Envoys.

However, the Source Material Energy absorbed this time shouldn’t be much; otherwise, even though Gaia’s Will was busy transforming the Original Sin World, it would have definitely issued Cleaner tasks to Bai Pu to submit the Holy Artifacts.

No task issuance meant these two Holy Artifact Shells hadn’t regained their true Holy Artifact status.

Bai Pu tossed the miscellaneous items, drawn from the Treasure Chests and unnecessary to him, to Li Ling, asking her to sell them through her network.

"Your strength has increased again, that’s great," Li Ling said, openly happy, "The stronger you are, the more stable my position is in the Practical Officer meetings."

"Why, someone giving you trouble?" Bai Pu picked up on the undertone in Li Ling’s words.

"Where there are people, there is Jianghu, not to mention meetings that determine the administration of a large district. It’s quite normal. Fortunately, leaders Qiao and Nie value you greatly, and their Practical Officers take good care of me too."

Li Ling took it in stride; indeed, her position would rouse envy in many.