Chapter 140

After buying duck eggs and pickling ingredients, they returned to the shop. Xia Zhi first took out all the pickles from the [Dragon-Turning Pot], washed the jar, and put the duck eggs in for pickling.

After about ten minutes, he opened the [Dragon-Turning Pot], and the century eggs were ready.

Xia Zhi took one out, peeled the shell, and a strange light flashed, revealing a dark black surface.

This was a glowing century egg, though its unique smell might still be strange for first-time encounters.

"Boss, this century egg looks so black!"

"That's how century eggs are supposed to look. Would you like to try?"

"Do we eat it just like this?"

"Of course not, usually you eat it with a dip. Wait, I'll make you some chopped chili century eggs."

Soy sauce, salt, vinegar, sugar, chopped Jueyun chilis, sliced century eggs, simple seasoning, topped with a spoonful of hot oil - an enticing aroma filled the kitchen.

Xia Zhi tried a piece first, finding it good.

"Try some."

"Hiss~ So spicy~ Tastes strange~ Strange but delicious~"

"Actually, this is a dish that goes well with rice."

"Hearing Boss say that, I suddenly feel hungry."

"I'll make you another portion for lunch tomorrow."

After trying the century eggs, Xia Zhi pickled a jar of salted duck eggs, then bathed and went upstairs to start his daily routine.

Looking at the [Blazing Incense Burner] before him, Xia Zhi suddenly thought of its source - Cloud Retainer.

The [Blazing Incense Burner] was a golden item, and Cloud Retainer's progress bar was also golden at the time.

This was actually a bit unreasonable.

After all, Cloud Retainer and Moon Carver were both Mighty and Illuminated Adepti, and they had both fought alongside Rex Lapis. Their strength should be similar, and since Moon Carver was platinum, Cloud Retainer should also be platinum.

Thinking carefully, perhaps it was because she was severely injured at the time, losing most of her cultivation, which also caused the system's judgment of her to drop.

According to Shenhe, she couldn't even take human form now. The injury must be quite severe, probably affecting her foundation. Who knows when she'll be able to come out of seclusion...

Cultivation is timeless, especially for spiritual beasts transforming into human form. Bai Suzhen took a thousand years to become a young lady. Would Cloud Retainer also need several hundred years?

Her case is more like re-cultivation, so it shouldn't take that long.

If it's really not working, he could buy a [Transformation Pill] from the [Shop] and have Shenhe deliver it.

By now, the [Euphoria Incense] in the [Blazing Incense Burner] was ready. Xia Zhi took it out and recycled it, then put in new materials and continued pondering.

So far, the progress bars he had encountered on non-human forms were only Cloud Retainer, Guoba, and the slime.

The slime was a monster and was directly eliminated, so it doesn't count.

Guoba and Cloud Retainer were both spiritual beasts with human understanding, both had golden progress bars, and neither could speak... The similarities between them made Xia Zhi wonder if Guoba also lost his cultivation for some reason, becoming what he is now.

Come to think of it, Guoba's gender wasn't apparent from his appearance.

If given a [Transformation Pill], what kind of person would Guoba become?

Seems like he's thinking too far ahead. Xia Zhi continued to ponder about progress bars.

Excluding Cloud Retainer and Guoba's possible drops in level, the other golden progress bar characters he encountered seemed to mostly have special constitutions.

Qiqi had a zombie constitution.

Shenhe had a lone star constitution.

Ganyu had qilin bloodline.

Chongyun had a pure yang constitution.

The ghost lady had a spirit constitution.

Hu Tao's was unknown, but considering her family had always been the directors of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, they likely had some special constitution for dealing with spirits.

Except for the ghost lady, the other five were all Vision holders.

Looking at it this way, perhaps the ghost lady also had a Vision when she was alive.

Although Yanfei, like Ganyu, was half-adeptus, she was only silver. The difference between them was in longevity; Yanfei was still very young. Given more time to grow, she should also reach gold.

The second [Euphoria Incense] in the [Blazing Incense Burner] was also ready. Xia Zhi took it out, recycled it, put in new materials, and continued thinking.

From the current information, he could try to summarize the system's judgment of progress bars:

Iron progress bar: Ordinary people with outstanding talents or special experiences, like Brother Liu and the three secretaries.

Silver progress bar: Vision holders or special monsters, like Baizhu, Yaoyao, Xingqiu, and the slime.

Golden progress bar: Vision holders with special constitutions, like Qiqi, Ganyu, Shenhe, Chongyun.

Platinum progress bar: Adepti, like Granny Ping.

Diamond progress bar: Deities, like Zhongli.

Of course, this was just a rough judgment range. Not only special constitutions, but other special abilities should also be considered as bonus points.

For more accuracy, it would need to be further divided, just like the items in the [Shop] - even within the same quality, prices could vary greatly.

Some platinum ranks were platinum because they had many blessings, various bonus points, just barely reaching 1000 points. In a real fight, they might not even beat a 900-point gold.

Some platinum ranks were platinum because they had 9999 points, just 1 point away from diamond. These powerhouse platinums would probably easily defeat the water-filled 1000-point platinums with one hand.

Thinking of this, Xia Zhi recalled the young man with the golden progress bar he met on the street tonight. He wondered what special constitution he had. Judging by his confident appearance, his strength should be quite good...

--

Yuehai Pavilion, a certain room.

At the table, Ningguang was writing something, head lowered.

A sudden knock on the door seemed to follow a certain rhythm.

When the knocking stopped, Ningguang put down her pen and looked up.

"Come in, Yelan."

The door opened, and a beautiful figure walked in from outside.

"Lady Ningguang."

"Do you have results from the investigation?"

"I have some findings."

"Tell me."

"I traced the trail to the source of the earthquake, an open area in Dunyu Ruins. It's now a huge crater. I searched carefully but found no valuable clues except for traces left by wild animals. However, I detected extremely chaotic elemental energy in the area, as if there had been an extremely violent elemental reaction."

"Could something have fought there?"

"Uncertain. I detected seven elements at the bottom of the crater, and besides those, there seemed to be two unknown elements."

"Unknown elements?"

Ningguang's expression immediately became serious upon hearing this.

"Could it be that an overseas archon has returned?"

"Probably not. I didn't detect any residual aura of an archon there."

"That's good... We should send people to keep watch there. If there's any anomaly, report back immediately."

"Yes, My Lady."

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