After completely clearing this Fourth Tier Permanent Transmission Channel, Zhang Yanhang will have to go find other Low-level teleportation channels for clearing again with great effort.

Perhaps it's because, without the Lord Monster, the remaining monsters are somewhat scared; these guys even want to escape back to the Ashen World. But naturally, Zhang Yanhang won't let them have their way. He directly blocked the door and went on a killing spree. Only after all monsters with the possibility of returning to the Ashen World were dead did he proceed with the regular clearing.

......

November 2nd, Monday, the day after Halloween, also the first day Zhang Yanhang left the Ashen World, at 2:28 PM, Niger, Niamey City Ruins, Fourth Tier Permanent Transmission Channel.

Just as Zhang Yanhang initially estimated, after spending about twenty minutes, Zhang Yanhang successfully cleared out the entire Fourth Tier Desert Permanent Transmission Channel. But this was just the clearing; subsequent monster corpse collection consumed quite a bit of time, so it was nearly 2:30 PM when everything ended.

And now, Zhang Yanhang can finally enjoy the fruits of victory. He immediately opened his Soul point balance to check precisely how many Soul points he could gain after killing 400,000 monsters this time.

[Soul points: 631507920 (+597153500)]

"I thought earlier that this time should directly gather enough Soul points needed to upgrade the Swallowing Heaven and Earth Skill. Sure enough, it's easily accomplished. Moreover, even the balance needed to upgrade the Death Wave Skill is almost achieved.

Originally, I had only 34.35 million Soul points, but now I've acquired 597.15 million more Soul points, instantly boosting my Soul point balance to 631.5 million, creating an entirely new record."

Currently, Zhang Yanhang's Swallowing Heaven and Earth Skill requires 300 million Soul points to continue upgrading, while Death Wave still needs 400 million, so roughly 70 million Soul points are needed to max out both skills.

Fortunately, it's not a big problem. Although it is highly likely there aren't any Fourth Tier transmission channels left within Niger, there should still be quite a few Low-level teleportation channels. With some effort, he should quickly gather the missing 70 million Soul points.

But undeniably, Zhang Yanhang feels he's increasingly deviating from the main road. He came here to find the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures held by the rebels, yet now he's inexplicably assisting Niger in clearing Permanent Transmission Channels.

But considering the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were of no use to him, whereas Permanent Transmission Channels effectively helped him enhance his strength, Zhang Yanhang was relieved. After all, all roads lead to Rome; as long as it enhances his strength, it's worth doing.

"All the Soul points I obtained before the Fifth Tier certainly did not amount to 600 million, barely reaching 300 million. But now, just casually clearing a Fourth Tier Permanent Transmission Channel yielded significantly more returns than previously clearing Fifth Tier areas."

Zhang Yanhang had to admit that sometimes quantity is extremely important. Although the strength aspect was relatively weaker, 400,000 monsters provided far more Soul points than 100,000 monsters.

"Choose! Skill Level Enhancement!"

Right after quickly checking the Soul point balance, Zhang Yanhang immediately triggered the related selection, as he's a bit impatient and can't wait to use the artifacts in his waist bag.

Accompanied by the arrival of Time Pause, the text selection box that was triggered not long ago instantly appeared in front of Zhang Yanhang again.

[Would you like to proceed with Skill Level Enhancement?]

[Option One: Upgrade 'Gun Master·Original LV.6' to 'Gun Master·Original LV.7' (consumes 26,214,400 Soul points.)]

...

[Option Five: Upgrade 'Limitless Universe Skill[5th Tier]LV.2' to 'Limitless Universe Skill[5th Tier]LV.3' (consumes 21,700,000 Soul points.)]

...

[Option Seven: Upgrade 'Death Wave·Origin LV.6' to 'Death Wave·Origin LV.7' (consumes 26,214,400 Soul points.)]

...

[Option Twelve: Upgrade 'Heaven and Earth Devourer·Original LV.8' to 'Heaven and Earth Devourer·Original LV.9' (consumes 104,857,600 Soul points.)]

...

[Option Fifteen: Upgrade 'Eternal Demon Body LV.6' to 'Eternal Demon Body LV.7' (consumes 26,214,400 Soul points.)]

"Speaking of which, now that I have surplus Soul points, should I first upgrade Death Wave?"

Zhang Yanhang feels that if he upgrades Death Wave to LV.9 first, it might boost his clearing efficiency slightly too. But after thinking it over, he decided to wait. He prefers the feeling of upgrading all at once, so it's better to upgrade after gathering the missing 70 million Soul points.

"So, this time, only the Swallowing Heaven and Earth Skill needs upgrading."

According to the upgrade plan, Zhang Yanhang is going to upgrade both Swallowing Heaven and Earth and Death Wave to max level, then proceed with the Profession Level and Cultivation Method Level of Limitless Universe Skill. After reaching the Fifth Tier limit for all Attribute values, he'll begin enhancing other professional skills.

"Therefore, I choose Option Twelve, consuming 104,857,600 Soul points to upgrade the Swallowing Heaven and Earth Skill to Original LV.9."

After completing his contemplation, Zhang Yanhang quickly selected this originally planned target.

......

November 2, Monday, the first day after Halloween, and also the first day Zhang Yanhang left the Ashen World. At two twenty-nine in the afternoon, Niger, Niamey City Ruins, Fourth Tier Permanent Transmission Channel.

After successfully upgrading the Swallowing Heaven and Earth Skill to Origin LV.MAX, Zhang Yanhang still didn't rush to check the skill effect of Swallowing Heaven and Earth·Origin LV.MAX this time but first checked his soul point balance.

[Soul points: 316,935,120 (-314,572,800)]

"Before upgrading, my soul point balance had already reached 631,500,000, and now it has directly dropped to 316,935,000, which means a total of 314,570,000 was consumed to upgrade the Swallowing Heaven and Earth Skill."

Zhang Yanhang originally thought that if he wanted to upgrade the Death Wave next, perhaps he only needed to gather 70 million soul points, but now it seems that it might take 80 million. Fortunately, if it's just roughly an additional 10 million, it's still easy to gather. After all, Niger is quite big.

"The previously unattainable 300 million soul points have now disappeared just like that after upgrading twice, biubiu. The efficiency of obtaining soul points has indeed significantly increased, but it's still not enough compared to the rising demand for soul points."

After sighing quietly, Zhang Yanhang quickly closed the soul point balance and instead opened the Swallowing Heaven and Earth·Origin LV.MAX skill effect to start checking it.

[Swallowing Heaven and Earth·Origin LV.MAX (Passive/Active)]

[Passive effect: +100% (+20%) effect to artifact (benefit) usage (consumption) effect.]

[Active effect: Upon skill activation, the Heavenly Destiny Master can swallow matter and energy through the oral entrance into the Stomach Space and grow in size and restore their own energy value by digesting matter and energy in the Stomach Space. No cooldown time. Slightly consumes physical strength.

Current Stomach Space volume: 2000 (+400) × 2000 (+400) × 2000 (+400) = 80,000,000,000 cubic meters (+39,040,000,000 cubic meters).

Current Stomach Space absorption efficiency: 2489 [Energy Value Recovery Speed] ×10% (+2%) = 249 points (+50 points) energy value/second.]

[Additional Attribute: Proficient—You can now skillfully control the Swallowing Heaven and Earth skill, allowing free manipulation of the absorption efficiency of the Stomach Space (0–100%). You can set different absorption efficiencies for different substances and energies at will. Substances and energies with 0% absorption efficiency will remain static.]

[Additional Attribute: Mastery—Your mastery of the Indestructible Golden Body skill has become quite proficient, granting you the ability to "ruminate." After swallowing substances and energy through the oral entrance into the Stomach Space, you can anytime use the oral entrance to release the swallowed substances and energy again.

Using the 'ruminate' ability will increase the rate of physical strength consumption according to the volume and energy level of the substance and energy.]

[Additional Attribute: Specialization—After long effort, your control over Swallowing Heaven and Earth can now be described as specialized. You've mastered more absorption of energy and related manipulation techniques, allowing you to absorb energy attacks more freely, and release them using the 'ruminate' ability in a better form through related energy aggregation techniques.]

[Additional Attribute: Expert—After a long period of effort, your control over the Swallowing Heaven and Earth skill can now be described as expertise. You've mastered more manipulation techniques about the Stomach Space, and you can now freely swallow life forms and souls using the Stomach Space and manipulate them to a certain extent.]

"After the Swallowing Heaven and Earth skill was upgraded to Origin LV.MAX, it indeed gained another 20% artifact effect bonus. This way, the total artifact effect bonus provided by Swallowing Heaven and Earth rose from the previous 80% to 100%.

At the same time, I no longer have to worry about wasting artifact effects. I can now start confidently using various artifacts to enhance my Life Value Limit and Energy Value Limit."

According to the large number of artifacts he accumulated, Zhang Yanhang estimated that in terms of Energy Value Limit alone, he should elevate by at least ten thousand points, and the Life Value Limit would be even more remarkable.

"Additionally, the volume of the Stomach Space has once again been upgraded, changing from a cube with a side length of 1600 meters to one with a side length of 2000 meters, meaning each dimension grows by 400 meters.

With the increase in each dimension, the volume of the Stomach Space has increased from the original 4.1 billion cubic meters to 8 billion cubic meters, almost doubling."

This made Zhang Yanhang's previously ample Stomach Space even more abundant. Zhang Yanhang thinks he could easily store millions of monster corpses in the Stomach Space now, even those giant beasts several meters long.

Of course, ordinary monster corpses are useless to him now, and it's better to convert all those monster corpses into Subordinate Sage Stones as soon as possible, as they truly save space.

"More importantly, the absorption efficiency conversion coefficient of the Stomach Space has also improved again, from the original 8% to 10%, an increase of 2% overall.

Although my energy value recovery speed remains at 2489 points, the energy value absorption efficiency of my Stomach Space after conversion has increased from the original 199 points to 249 points, an increase of about one-quarter."

Moreover, due to the fact that Zhang Yanhang currently absorbs energy through the twofold efficiency of Subordinate Sage Stones, he has managed to absorb 498 points of energy value per second, or, in other words, automatically restore 498 points of energy value every second.

"With only 2 points short, the small goal of 400-point energy value absorption efficiency was easily achieved, and I even smoothly completed the small 450-point energy value absorption efficiency goal along the way."

Therefore, Zhang Yanhang decided to set his next small goal at 500-point energy value absorption efficiency. He is currently only 2 points short of this goal. Given that Miserla's Core can also improve the energy value recovery speed, Zhang Yanhang feels that achieving this goal should also be easy.

"With my current energy value absorption efficiency, I can automatically recover 29,880 points of energy value per minute, and 1,792,800 points of energy value per hour."

Speaking of this energy value, Zhang Yanhang could not help but remember his currently obsolete Rebirth in Pure Bliss Realm Prison Suppression Cannon. If he had such an amount of energy value back then, he could easily generate tens of thousands of Thermo-baric Bombs to flatten all new areas with them.

But unfortunately, he can't go back. Those beautiful times are gone forever. Although his biological age is still the same as when he was the youthful twenty, his mindset has changed dramatically, with his psychological age possibly more akin to that of middle-aged and older individuals, having undergone a major transformation in his views of the world.

He could only say that for a fragile human life form that relies on hormones and various chemicals to sustain thinking ability and determine specific personality, existence as a semi-energy life form means he no longer feels those original sensations, as those hormones and chemicals have long since transformed into energy, dissipating into nothing.

This may be the reason for Zhang Yanhang's slightly unusual behavior recently. After all, humans are really susceptible to environmental influences, let alone his subject itself and the broader environment have both changed, naturally resulting in substantial influence, which is unavoidable.