Otherworldly Desert Dust

Guo Hong no longer hesitated.

In the black market, those nobles consume these substances to evolve; they cherish their lives like gold. If there were any severe side effects, they wouldn't spend a fortune collecting them for their self-use.

Is his life more valuable than theirs?

A worthless life. With such a fortunate opportunity before his eyes, he did not want to miss it.

He placed the Life Pearl in his mouth, and the extracted Condensed Liquid slid into Guo Hong's esophagus, cold as a spring.

The efficacy of the Life Pearl was immensely strong. The moment it was swallowed, a hot and vigorous life essence surged within Guo Hong's body, traveling from his neck to his chest, from his chest to his abdomen, and after wandering around his limbs, it rapidly returned to the chest and directly entered the heart!

Simultaneously, Guo Hong's skin, muscles, blood vessels, bones, and organs all began to transform. Even more outrageous, a large amount of soft material like silkworm threads released from Guo Hong's hair follicles, wrapping his body and startlingly forming a cocoon of life.

This process was extremely rapid, in just a minute, the soft cocoon had already covered Guo Hong and transformed him into a human cocoon.

Lu Xian was completely dumbfounded as she watched, her eyes filled with either fear or anticipation…

"Crack!"

Suddenly, the human cocoon shattered, all the soft life silks slowly combusted in the air, and within the gentle velvety fire, Guo Hong emerged from the remnants of the human cocoon, his entire body still gleaming with the luster of an evolved physique, and the unmistakable Crown Radiance even made the restless mutant specimens on this floor shy away in fear.

"I've progressed! I am now a Fifth-Rank Life!" Guo Hong's eyes shone brightly, his face filled with excitement.

"The effect is immediate!" Wu Hen remarked.

This effect nearly approached a single life blessing from Nuwa Yan, even though the Nuwa God End can now bestow Seventh-Rank Life, this Life Organization is mass-producing Life Pearls here, seeming to create a production line that rivals the unattainable Yuan You in this otherworldly place.

"What about you, want to try it?" Guo Hong asked Lu Xian.

Lu Xian thought for a moment, then nodded.

They had several bags of these level Life Pearls; the rest could be taken back and exchanged for more advanced equipment.

What excited them more was that many areas of the Blood Lake Base remained unexplored; if Life Pearls of this quality were stored here in the exhibit hall, it could be certain that other places would hold even higher quality ones, those would truly be priceless treasures.

Lu Xian also ingested the Life Pearl.

Regrettably, she didn't produce any life silks on her body.

She felt her physique strengthened but did not evolve directly to Fifth-Rank Life like Guo Hong did.

Lu Xian nearly cried out of urgency.

She felt she had wasted a highly valuable Life Pearl, which could have been used in the black market to buy equipment and enhance her weapons and armor.

"If one isn't enough, then take two," Wu Hen also casually threw two Life Pearls to Lu Xian.

As Lu Xian took them, she was flustered, looking at the lavish Wu Hen in disbelief.

Guo Hong reacted quickly, smiling at Lu Xian and saying, "Look at you, lacking in success; these precious items in Lord Wu Tian's eyes are just trivial things. If we work well with Lord Wu Tian, not just Fifth Rank, even Sixth Rank is within our reach for promotion."

"Thank... thank you!" Lu Xian bowed repeatedly.

Lu Xian did not take both Life Pearls in one go but swallowed one more.

The Life Pearl melted as soon as it entered her mouth, this time soft life silks finally emerged from her hair follicles, thin layers wrapping around her body, translucent, whether it was the female body structure automatically triggering a more aesthetic thin cocoon or her evolutionary effect being inferior to Guo Hong's was unclear…

Soon, Lu Xian also became Fifth-Rank Life.

Below the Sixth Rank, most evolutions are merely enhancements to the physique; it's only above the Sixth Rank that one enters the advanced life of Desert Dust, so Guo Hong was quite smart; as long as they diligently followed this big shot, both of them had the chance to step into Sixth-Rank Life.

"I am Fifth Rank now too!" Lu Xian's excited face blushed, the previous worries about side effects already thrown to the back of her mind. After becoming Fifth Rank, she could clearly feel the changes in physical strength, power, and reaction nerves, the whole person feeling much lighter, even scars from previous injuries had disappeared.

"It's said that Sixth-Rank Life recovers from injuries very quickly, no matter how severe the injury, as long as energy is replenished into the body, it can slowly heal, including re-growing severed limbs or other body parts," Guo Hong suddenly felt more hopeful about life.

"It is so." Wu Hen nodded, giving Guo Hong an affirmative answer, "Speaking of which, now that you both are Fifth Rank, as your team leader, it would be reasonable for me to be one rank higher, right?"

As he said this, Wu Hen's body again made a sound like thousands of firecrackers popping!

With a "crackling," Wu Hen released the sealing of his physique, advancing himself into Sixth-Rank Life.

Unlike Lu Xian and Guo Hong, even when Wu Hen unleashed his Sixth Rank Life, his physique didn't seem much different from before: no skin shimmering with radiance, nor a powerful aura akin to Heavenly Radiance, as he had purposely turned off his evolution effects, aiming for a low-key integration.

Guo Hong and Lu Xian were witnessing Wu Hen's spontaneous evolution for the second time!

They had struggled hard in the Desert Dust, exerting tremendous effort to barely reach the Fifth Rank, and in the past had not even dared to dream of reaching it. Ascending from Fifth Rank to Sixth Rank represented another metamorphosis of life, something they had never hoped for in their lifetimes... And then, looking at this major figure in front of them, he calmly announced, "I am going to evolve," and just like that, he evolved into a Sixth Rank Life, which was truly outrageous!

"Don't worry, you both will also get a chance to reach the Sixth Rank Life," Wu Hen patted the dumbstruck duo, encouraging them to keep up their good work with him.

"Do you not need the Sixth Rank Life Pearls?" Lu Xian asked incredulously.

"They're not an immediate need, but if there are enough, I will collect them for my comrades... Of course, right now you need to enhance your strength, so they can be prioritized for you since I still need your help to deal with the Black Angels," Wu Hen stated.

Upon hearing this, Guo Hong and Lu Xian's eyes sparkled with excitement.

The two suddenly felt an upsurge of energy, taking the lead with their weapons, part due to their significantly enhanced strength and partly due to their longing for Sixth Rank Life!

...

The trio continued to ascend towards the twentieth floor through the exhibition hall.

Along the way, they encountered attacks from the specimens, but all within the capacity of the evolved Guo Hong and Lu Xian to handle.

The lure of Fifth Rank Life Pearls had diminished, especially with the Black Shirt Organization's Black Deacon Corps below them, and they needed to hasten their pace.

They also deliberately avoided some powerful mutant specimens; the specimens grew stronger the higher they went, with almost a qualitative improvement on each floor. Whenever they found it hard to defeat such specimens, they would have to stop on that floor or return to a previous floor, scouring it thoroughly for resources that could further enhance their combat capabilities.

Wu Hen harvested more advanced Mutant Condensed Liquids on each floor, which allowed his weapon to upgrade further, now even threatening Seventh Rank Lives.

Both Guo Hong and Lu Xian's equipment had gone through transformations.

Guo Hong found a type of Corrosion Fungus that could be integrated into the alloy bullets of his sniper rifle, allowing these bullets to possess intense corrosive properties. No matter what level of mutant creatures they faced, especially those with rare metallic armors, one corrosive bullet could break through all their defenses.

With these Corrosion Fungus bullets, Wu Hen and Guo Hong had a good collaboration.

When tackling powerful specimens, Guo Hong would pick the right shooting angle, and after corroding the creature's armor with the bullet, Wu Hen would deliver the fatal blow.

"Shwooosh!!!"

The Alloy Laser Claw tore through an Alien Species Pig, and Wu Hen successfully extracted its enormous crystallized heart.

The Alien Species Pig was enveloped in a layer of transformable metal, inside which lay a layer of biochemical fat infused heavily with sand gold.

The defense of this Alien Species Pig reached outrageous levels; it took tens of Potshots from Guo Hong's corrosive bullets to finally corrode through its skin layer thoroughly.

"This life organization is too extravagant, using transformable metal as this pig's skin; we're not fighting a pig, but a Transformers pig!" Guo Hong, drenched in sweat, finally managed to kill this alien species.

"All the materials on this pig are top-notch, even the original material for my weapons improved," Wu Hen remarked.

Wu Hen's weapon was cast from transformable metal of lower quality.

Whereas the metal from this Alien Species Pig was of a higher-grade, as these metals along with the Mutant Condensed Liquid were absorbed by his weapon, the efficiency of his weapon's transformation improved drastically, turning Wu Hen into a Thunder King almost overnight. With a flick of his fingers, he could unleash a powerful Thunder Magnetic Cutting Whip, and with a spread of his palm, a terrifying Thunder Bomb...

"There's also a code on this pig's neck," Lu Xian said excitedly.

"We're now on the eighteenth floor; maybe it's the Sixth Rank Life Pearl!" Guo Hong also began to hope.

The trio immediately split up to search, quickly locating an alloy wall on the eighteenth floor with a password-required door.

Upon opening the door, they found it still to be a cold storage room.

However, to their excitement, they discovered the room was completely empty!

Judging by the compartments of the freezer, it indeed had contained Life Pearls, but it appeared someone had already cleaned them out, even taking the basic Nutrient Liquid, Healing Liquid, Strengthening Agent, and Mutant Potion.

"It must have been top-notch Gold Seekers who explored here before; they might have used a secret passage to directly reach these upper floors…" sighed Guo Hong.

"It seems those expensive pieces of information on the black market are indeed useful," said Lu Xian.

"It's alright, we are strong enough now, let's head directly to Zone L," Wu Hen suggested.

Both nodded, their power having leaped qualitatively compared to before.