Despite this, the method for a Black Iron Grade breakthrough to Silver Grade wasn't much of a secret; not only was Chen Bugu, who had returned from rebirth, aware of it, but even the leaders of various clans in the town knew it very well.
There was only one way to break through to Silver Grade: contact a boundary stone, open a secret realm, and upon passing through, one could break through to Silver Grade.
boundary stones, rumored to be ancient stones born alongside the Zero Realm Continent, contained mysterious and ancient energy.
And as far as Chen Bugu knew, the closest boundary stone to Obsidian Town was in High Heaven City.
Or rather, in Chen Bugu's impression, even looking across the entire “Middle Land” area, the boundary stone in High Heaven City was the only one.
According to “Container Theory,” the power of a boundary stone would transform the “container,” endowing it with powerful plasticity, making the originally rigid “container” flexible, capable of both free expansion and elasticity.
The transformed “container” often determined the upper limit of energy acquisition; the higher the plasticity of the container, the easier it was to break through.
At the Silver Grade, energy acquisition was still a sufficient condition for level breakthroughs, but not a necessary one, because the training and transformation of one's own “container” were equally crucial.
But it was precisely this “Container Theory” that made Chen Bugu realize a problem: the essence of the “container” was also a lock.
Even before the Great Disaster, many religious figures and elders held such a view.
In their eyes, skin, bones, and flesh were all shackles, restricting the lightness of the soul and life.
Since that was the case, the existence of the “container” should also be within the scope of his Decipher ability.
Therefore, from the moment his body, this “container,” could no longer accommodate energy, Chen Bugu repeatedly tried to “unlock” his body with Decipher.
Initially, Decipher was indeed effective; Chen Bugu could feel the power of Decipher flowing throughout his body, and then a familiar voice appeared in his mind.
But before Chen Bugu could rejoice, he was confused by the content of the words.
“Trunk Gene Lock Decipher progress: 0%”
Although he had heard of the gene lock as he wished, he didn't understand what 0% meant.
And no matter how he urged Decipher, the Decipher progress of the trunk gene lock showed no change, and his “container” could not continue to absorb energy.
Perhaps certain restrictions had not yet been lifted; in short, Chen Bugu was happy for nothing.
Helplessly, he had no choice but to place his hope for breakthrough on the boundary stone.
Amon, on the other hand, seemed much more comfortable; this guy had absorbed the origin of the Black Tortoise and killed many magical beasts in the beast tide, and now seemed to show faint signs of another breakthrough.
Born less than two months ago, yet about to enter Nine Star...
Chen Bugu couldn't help but exclaim “Good, good, good...” when he thought about it.
Looking at Amon on the side, he suddenly remembered the Black Tortoise's name for this little guy.
King?
The word “King” for magical beasts only had two possibilities.
One was a “King” Grade magical beast. “King” Grade was a designation for magical beasts at the Gold Grade level; magical beasts of this grade were capable of establishing a complete clan, thus being no different from a king within that clan. The Black Tortoise was a typical “King” Grade magical beast.
The second was a Royal Family magical beast. After magical beasts entered the “King” Grade, most of their reproductive abilities would decline, but the offspring born during this stage all possessed their bloodline energy. These offspring were collectively referred to as Royal Family magical beasts.
These magical beasts were marked by bloodline inheritance and possessed a natural bloodline suppression over their fellow magical beasts. However, with generational transmission, the bloodline inheritance would become increasingly diluted, and thus the strength of Royal Family magical beasts varied.
Given this, could Amon's ancestor have been a “King” Grade magical beast even stronger than the Black Tortoise?
Chen Bugu was a little dumbfounded.
If that were truly the case, this branch of Amon's lineage had fallen too far, already reduced to the Black Iron Grade.
However, upon closer thought, it made sense; with the reproductive capacity of Amon's species, even if their ancestor was a “King” Grade magical beast, the bloodline would be largely diluted after a few generations.
Fortunately, Amon was already a mutated species, and having absorbed the Black Tortoise's origin, Breaking through to Silver Grade shouldn't be difficult.
Seeing two more pieces of dried meat grilled, Amon wagged his tail, eyes sparkling, his gluttonous nature something Chen Bugu had long experienced.
During the half-month he spent absorbing the Source of Freezing Water, Amon reportedly ate a considerable amount of the Unyielding Hall's food reserves.
Chen Bugu threw the dried meat in his hand to Amon, instructed him to guard after eating, and then lay down with peace of mind.
Even though he was just a child laborer, Amon was very serious about guarding, and Chen Bugu decisively gave him a mental commendation for it.
The next day, as soon as dawn broke, Chen Bugu completely left the plains and entered the hilly region.
The terrain began to rise significantly, and the surrounding vegetation also became noticeably denser.
Unlike the Starting Forest, most of the vegetation here resembled fir trees on Earth, with straight trunks, whorled branches, reaching twenty to thirty meters high, but the large branches were brittle and snapped upon touch, unable to bear weight.
Conversely, although the leaves of these plants were small, they were all needle-shaped, extremely hard and sharp.
Walking through the forest, one could often see dense needles stuck on the ground and tree trunks; this was a unique “leaf-shedding” method peculiar to this forest.
When strong winds rose and branches broke, these small, hard needles, once detached from the branches, would mysteriously eject from the branch points, and with the aid of strong winds, often turn into a fierce rain of needles, which caused this scene.
If it were merely a rain of needles, it would be fine, but these plants also had neurotoxins on their surfaces. Once a wound was inflicted, the toxins would invade the body. Although the toxins were not fatal, they caused side effects such as dizziness and numbness.
The hilly terrain was complex, making it difficult to traverse quickly in a short period.
Therefore, in his previous life, people passing through here would be fully armed, never taking off their gear even when sleeping.
Chen Bugu didn't have to worry about this; the defensive mechanism of Lingguang Lock perfectly countered this type of sudden but limited-damage attack.
Thus, Chen Bugu quickly moved through the mountains with Amon, occasionally encountering some magical beasts, which Chen Bugu would try to avoid.
Firstly, most magical beasts living in this environment had tough hides or were immune to toxins; secondly, Chen Bugu could no longer gain energy, so killing those magical beasts wouldn't yield much benefit.
So, Chen Bugu traveled during the day, and at night, he had Amon build an ice wall, and the man and the turtle would hide under the wall to spend the long night.
This pattern was monotonous but efficient. On the third day Chen Bugu entered this hilly area, he had already crossed over a dozen hills.
In his line of sight, the boundless cliff became increasingly clear.
On the afternoon of the third day, as Chen Bugu passed the foot of a mountain, he found that all the vegetation spanning several miles in front of him had been snapped in half.
The broken parts of the trees were very rough, as if they had been broken in half after being struck or hit.
This meant that there might be relatively powerful magical beasts inhabiting the area ahead.
Chen Bugu immediately decided to take a detour to the other side. However, not long after he started walking, he suddenly heard a noisy sound from ahead.
He squinted his eyes and looked carefully into the distance, immediately spotting the newcomers.
That was the first living person he had seen in this hilly area.
The sun shone down, and the person, with a bald head and a calm expression, moved with sweeping motions, sprinting towards Chen Bugu's direction with full force.
He wore a front-facing baby carrier, and inside it was a young child.
Upon closer inspection, the child had long ears and was actually an Elf Clan member.
Compared to the person's expressionless face, the Elf Clan member's expression was much more vivid.
It was an obvious terror, and coupled with her constantly looking back, it seemed as if she was being chased.
But looking behind them, no trace of any magical beasts could be seen. Just as Chen Bugu was confused, he suddenly heard rustling sounds.
He abruptly looked up, then his mouth twitched, and without a word, he turned and ran.
“Damn it, big brother, don't run this way!”