"So, I choose 'Mystic Steed Power,' '1600 Soul points,' '1600 Soul points,' '1600 Soul points,' 'Crimson Marrow Ghost Mask,'" Zhang Yanhang swiftly made his final decision after reviewing all five item slots, and time pause ended immediately.

But soon, he picked up another drop treasure box. Although there weren't many boxes this time, it still took several minutes to open them all, and there was definitely a need to hurry, especially since picking up the boxes had only taken three to four minutes. He didn't want the time spent opening the boxes to exceed the time he spent collecting them.

...

October 29, Thursday, four days after the Double Ninth Festival, and also Zhang Yanhang's first day in the Ashen World, 4:42 p.m., Ashen World, Crimson Iron Ore Vein, Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano, Outer Zone.

It turned out that Zhang Yanhang had greatly overestimated himself; it took him about five minutes to open all the dropped treasure boxes, which was significantly slower than collecting them, slower by a third.

After opening all the drop treasure boxes, Zhang Yanhang quickly began to tally up the various items that came from the boxes, starting with the most important—Talents. This time, he had opened a total of 112 C-level Talents of "Mystic Steed Power."

Since it was the first time he obtained Mystic Steed Power, he couldn't help but take a closer look at it and noticed that the appearance of this C-level Mystic Steed Power was actually quite similar to the E-level Ant Power; both were a shade of crimson red.

However, the red of Mystic Steed Power was more intense, almost turning into dark red, considering the psychological effect brought by the difference in quality, Zhang Yanhang thought this dark red was indeed much nicer than the crimson of Ant Power.

"Although theoretically a C-level Talent should equal nine E-level Talents, exactly how they are calculated still needs to be tested..."

While Zhang Yanhang spoke, he burst a crimson little light ball. He wasn't worried at all about the S-level Talent "Bear Power" not being able to absorb it, as this Mystic Steed Power Talent had been certified by Multiple Choice, and was definitely usable.

But the actual effect was indeed an unknown, as this was his first time using a low-level Talent other than his Initial Talent to upgrade Talent Quality.

"Detected an S-level Talent 'Bear Power' in your Talent list that has a Subordinate Talent. Do you want to merge the Talents?"

"Yes, merge them." After all, it was a new area that he found only after digging a 74 km Crimson Iron channel over four days and nights, and Zhang Yanhang was quite anticipating the performance of Mystic Steed Power.

"Merging complete."

"You have obtained the S-level Talent 'Bear Power.'"

After merging the Talents, Zhang Yanhang quickly reopened the Talent effect of the S-level Talent "Bear Power" and took a look.

"Bear Power"

"Quality: S (9/729)"

"Ability one: Robust and Powerful—Strength +5."

"Ability two: Double Strike—When attacking, there is a 6.0% chance to trigger an extra attack effect of 125% Attack Power."

"Ability three: Powerful—Power Effect +85%."

"As expected, one C-level Talent is indeed equivalent to nine E-level Talents, helping me progress by nine points. With this, I only need 720 more points to upgrade Bear Power to SS-level Talent, which roughly means I need about eighty more Mystic Steed Powers."

Although there were still several hundred Ant Powers left in his waist bag, since the Mystic Steed Powers he just opened were sufficient, Zhang Yanhang couldn't be bothered to fetch them. He simply counted out eighty dark red small light balls from the nearby Mystic Steed Powers and burst them all in one breath.

After waiting for so long, Zhang Yanhang was really eager to upgrade his Talent; from the moment he was promoted to Second Tier, he had already been thinking about upgrading the Talent level of Bear Power. It's been half a month since then, waiting from Second Tier to Third Tier, it was indeed a long legitimate wait.

"Detected an S-level Talent 'Bear Power' in your Talent list that has a Subordinate Talent. Do you want to merge the Talents?"

"Yes, merge them."

According to his past experiences, Zhang Yanhang estimated that once Bear Power reached SS-tier, there would be a significant upgrade, so he hoped that the trigger chance of Double Strike could be maximized after the upgrade.

"Merging complete."

"You have obtained SS-level Talent 'Throwing Elephant Power.'"

"Not easy at all, finally got upgraded to SS-level... But does this 'Throwing Elephant Power' refer to Shakyamuni's Elephant Throwing?" Zhang Yanhang felt it was very likely the case, as he couldn't think of any other related references to throwing elephants.

Naturally, Zhang Yanhang was familiar with the classic story of Shakyamuni Throwing the Elephant.

To put it simply, when Shakyamuni was not yet a Buddha and did not understand compassion but only knew physical conversion, he lifted an elephant during a magical duel and threw it into the sky.

Incidentally, this Devadatta, with his classic wastrel archetype and major antagonist role, would have been crushed and obliterated in any stimulating novel, but since this is ultimately a Buddhist scripture, although Devadatta constantly tormented Shakyamuni to the extent that he was later known as the 'Five Reversal Sinner', in the end, Devadatta still became a Buddha.

Moreover, Devadatta's rank was exceptionally high, titled 'Heavenly King Tathagata,' which was on the same level as Shakyamuni's 'Great Sun Tathagata.'

As for why such a scoundrel could also turn into a Buddha, Shakyamuni explained that all hardships were predestined, and all this was Devadatta deliberately testing him.

If it were not for Devadatta's obstruction (help), Shakyamuni would not have been able to go through various hardships and ultimately comprehend the ultimate truth to become Buddha. From then on, Devadatta would help others become Buddhists generation after generation, and after an Infinite Tribulation, he would become a Heavenly King Tathagata, half a tier more powerful than his Great Sun Tathagata.

Thus, from here, we can see that this Buddhist short story divides into two perspectives; adopting different perspectives could lead to understanding two completely different philosophies.

From the perspective of Shakyamuni, it's roughly, "The more you bully me, the happier I am; the more you bully me, the more hardships I endure, and the more powerful I become once I achieve Buddhahood." But since ordinary people can't become Buddha, without that privilege, it translates in their lives as "The more I suffer in this life, the more powerful I will be in my next life," which is a fundamental Buddhist logic, and it is the mainstream perspective.

But people like Zhang Yanhang, who identify with the evil, prefer to adopt Devadatta's perspective. When encountering a tormented soul, "The more you bully him, the happier he becomes, and later, he will even repay you. The harsher the bullying, the greater the reward. So why not continue to bully him more harshly?"

As for discovering a conscience, wait until you're dreaming.

Yes, this might also explain why regardless of how ruthlessly the upper caste squeezes the common folk in India, the latter always remain so "peaceful." After all, the upper caste sees themselves as Devadatta, while the lower caste walks the royal path by identifying with Shakyamuni. Though Buddhism has long faded in India, this logical mindset is truly carved into their DNA.

"Speaking of this Shakyamuni Elephant Throwing, if it were just a regular elephant, theoretically, I could also casually throw one. However, directly throwing an elephant into the outer stratosphere and allowing it to orbit the earth for three days before crashing is indeed totally impossible."

Zhang Yanhang felt that with his current Strength, throwing an elephant into the troposphere might not be difficult, but reaching the stratosphere at fifty kilometers, or fifty thousand meters, would likely pose a challenge.

Luckily, the stratosphere actually covers a vast range, passing through the troposphere, which is reaching twelve thousand meters in the sky to fifty thousand meters—all of this falls within the stratosphere. Thus, if Zhang Yanhang wished, he could definitely still throw a few-ton-heavy white elephant up there.

And since reaching a mere fifty thousand meters in the stratosphere was already so difficult, attempting ten times higher, at five hundred thousand meters in the escape layer, which is typically considered outer space environment (greater than one hundred thousand meters in altitude), would indeed be preposterous. He wouldn't even have to think about it at the third tier, but at the fourth tier, it might be worth considering and could hold some hope.

After briefly pondering the feasibility and specific operations of Shakyamuni Elephant Throwing, Zhang Yanhang quickly opened the attributes list of the SS-grade Talent "Throwing Elephant Power" to check.

"Throwing Elephant Power"

[Quality: SS (0/2187)]

[Ability One: Robust and Powerful—Strength +7 (+2).]

[Ability Two: Double Strike—When launching an attack, there's a 9.0% (+3.0%) chance to trigger an extra attack at 175% (+50%) Attack Power, and upon triggering an extra attack, there's a 4.5% chance (the probability of triggering an extra attack divided by 2) to trigger a Double Strike at 350% Attack Power.]

"Ability Three: Powerfully Robust—Power Effect +115% (+30%)."

"Indeed, after upgrading to SS level, the requirement to upgrade from Throwing Elephant Power to SSS level seems to have tripled again, moving from initially needing 729 E-level Ant Powers to needing 2187 E-level Ant Powers.

However, I'm currently using C-level Mystic Steed Power, not E-level Ant Power. One C-level Mystic Steed Power is equivalent to nine E-level Ant Powers, so the real requirement for the upgrade is to divide this number, 2187, by 9, which means I need to gather 243 more C-level Mystic Steed Powers."

Zhang Yanhang had just obtained 112 Mystic Steed Powers in fifteen minutes, and he felt he should be able to gather the required 243 Mystic Steed Powers in about another half an hour.

After all, after upgrading his SS-level Throwing Elephant Power, he still had 31 Mystic Steed Powers left, so, in actuality, he only needed to gather 212 more Mystic Steed Powers. Given his hunting efficiency, half an hour would definitely be more than enough.

And even if he couldn't collect them all, the remaining four hundred and fifty-one Ant Powers in his Waist Bag could fill in the gap to some extent, roughly equivalent to fifty C-level Mystic Steed Powers,—well, perhaps they might not be very effective.

Following a close examination of the most critical upgrade requirements, Zhang Yanhang quickly began to carefully examine the various power effects of the SS-level Talent, Throwing Elephant Power.

"Ability One's Robust and Powerful, I remember it previously provided only a bonus of five points to Strength Attribute, and now it has increased by an additional two points, making it seven, a typical increase. All my other Talents usually double their attribute bonuses when upgraded to SS level."

If this had been earlier, Zhang Yanhang might have been very happy, but now, although he definitely still felt happy, it wasn't quite as exhilarating.

After all, it only took him four and a half hours to reach the Peak Third Tier, raising his main attribute to seventy-five points in his unarmored state, so, for now, the additional strength attribute wasn't immediately usable. He would have to wait until his promotion to the Fourth Tier to unlock the rank-related restrictions to truly utilize these two added attribute points.

But while temporarily unneeded, happiness was definitely still there, as these two points were just the start. As the Talent Level of Throwing Elephant Power increased, he would continue to gain more and more Strength Attribute bonuses.

"As for Ability Two, Double Strike, I originally thought that the extra attack it triggered was just Double Strike, but I never imagined that the extra attack was just a normal extra attack, and Double Strike actually referred to a special attack that entails an extra attack with double the original attack's power bonus."

Although the probability of triggering wasn't high, Zhang Yanhang felt that this Double Strike was definitely quite useful.

"The normal extra attack previously had only a 6% chance of triggering, and each upgrade only increased the probability by 1.2%, but this time it has increased by 2.5 times, raising the chance by 3% to reach 9%.

Compared to the original rate, which triggered an extra attack about once every twenty times, now it's nearly once every ten times—a significant increase in practicality.

Moreover, the attack power bonus of the extra attack also doubled. It initially increased by 25% each time but now increases by 50%, bringing the extra attack's power from the original 125% to 175%, significantly surpassing my initial normal attack.

If the two were somewhat similar originally, now there is a substantial gap between a normal attack and an extra attack."

For instance, previously, Zhang Yanhang used the Four Great Emptiness Pure World Fist with the Four Great Emptiness Skill's 788% attack power bonus to achieve a total attack of 888%, but with the factor increased to 1.75, it has now become a terrifying 1554%, almost fifteen to sixteen times the damage.

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