At six in the morning, Tianhai City was still shrouded in a gray haze, but Jiang Chen, who had woken up, could no longer sleep.
After a night of rest, Jiang Chen's spirit had returned to normal, and he couldn't sleep now.
He immediately switched his consciousness to his Clone, which finally put his mind at ease.
Jiang Chen was afraid that if yesterday's events were just a dream, all his fantasies from that night would be ruined.
He immediately got up and went to the courtyard, while also controlling his Clone to swim out of the water.
Jiang Chen was about to pick up the leftover shrimp from yesterday by the pond to feed his Clone when he suddenly stopped.
He brought the shrimp to his nose, sniffed them, and then, with a look of disgust, threw them far away.
This Clone was himself, after all, so shouldn't he eat a little better?
Jiang Chen almost treated himself like a pet.
After thinking for a moment, he went to the kitchen and found some meat.
Watching his Clone continuously eat, Jiang Chen fell into contemplation.
Now that it was time to evolve, he needed to carefully consider the direction of evolution, especially since the evolution value wasn't increasing as quickly as before, despite consuming so much.
It seemed that once it could evolve, the Clone wouldn't grow further unless it evolved.
After some thought, he began to look for an evolutionary direction based on his own attributes.
Currently, Jiang Chen's biggest concern for his Clone was its defense; as for strength and speed, he didn't need to worry about them for now.
Although he had the Regeneration talent, Jiang Chen was still worried that if something truly happened to his Clone, his main body might be affected.
Therefore, in the early stages, stable development was the priority; he needed to bolster his Clone's defense first, otherwise, Jiang Chen wouldn't dare let it hunt in its current state.
After Jiang Chen ate the remaining shrimp as breakfast, he decided to check online for any useful information.
He then pulled out his phone from his pocket, opened the search engine, and began searching.
"What species in this world has the strongest defense?"
Immediately, countless entries appeared.
However, the very first entry immediately left Jiang Chen speechless.
"Chaotic Behemoth Black Tortoise"
"Chaotic Behemoth Dragon Turtle"
"..."
Seeing these entries, which were all Chaos Grade Behemoths, Jiang Chen immediately rolled his eyes.
Who the hell is so bored?
Who doesn't know that these Behemoths have the strongest defense?! Do you need to tell me that?
These Behemoths probably don't even exist on Blue Star; is he supposed to go to the Mythical World to find them? Even if he went to the Mythical World, are these species something you can just encounter?
However, Jiang Chen immediately reflected on his own mistake; he had been careless and hadn't asked clearly enough.
Currently, his Clone could handle ordinary animals, but if it were a mutated beast, let alone his Clone, even he couldn't handle it.
Subsequently, Jiang Chen rephrased his search.
"What is the strongest defensive ordinary animal on Blue Star?"
Once the entries appeared, everything became normal.
Jiang Chen immediately clicked to view them.
Upon opening it, he immediately saw an animal that looked very much like a pangolin—the Armadillo.
Looking at the description, Jiang Chen couldn't help but feel a little tempted; this thing's scales were so tough that even bullets couldn't penetrate them!
This was somewhat terrifying; this defensive power was absolutely sufficient, but the problem was that this Armadillo was so large, his Hydra wouldn't work.
Jiang Chen slowly scrolled down, seeing something called a pinecone fish later, which Jiang Chen didn't recognize; it was a deep-sea species and couldn't be found immediately.
He skipped it directly, followed by another deep-sea scaly-foot gastropod snail, then pangolins, tortoises...
It wasn't until Jiang Chen scrolled to the very end and saw the last two that his eyes lit up.
"Water Bear?"
"It can endure such extreme environments? High temperatures, extreme cold, and even survive in a vacuum?"
"It can even survive outside the epicenter of a nuclear explosion; is its radiation resistance that incredible?"
However, looking at the Water Bear's description and abilities, Jiang Chen suddenly realized that it was only its tenacious vitality.
This already somewhat overlapped with his Hydra Clone; what he wanted was physical defense for the body, not an unkillable vitality like this, because the Hydra's talent, Regeneration, was already invincible.
Subsequently, Jiang Chen turned his attention to another creature.
This was a creature less than a centimeter long, with a carapace resembling a black rock.
Its exoskeleton was composed of two dorsal plates and one ventral plate, and this tiny thing could withstand an external force 40,000 times its own body weight!!
It was the Darkling Beetle!
This was the strongest defensive species Jiang Chen was looking for, and it was so tiny that the Hydra could digest it perfectly!
He just didn't know if he could buy it in Tianhai City.
Jiang Chen could no longer suppress his excitement; he picked up his phone and ran outside.
Along the way, he walked and searched on the map app for places in Tianhai City that sold special pets.
Jiang Chen also tried his luck searching on online stores, but his hope was dashed; there was no one selling this thing online.
If he couldn't get his hands on this beetle, it would be a bit of a headache; then he would just have to find another evolutionary path first.
However, after searching for a long time, there were no such pet stores on the map.
Helpless, Jiang Chen had no choice but to take a taxi to the largest flower and bird market in Tianhai City.
This was a famous international flower and bird market, and Jiang Chen wanted to try his luck here to see if he could find it.
"Boss, do you sell special insects here?"
"Are you talking about mutated beast insects as pets?"
"No, no, no, just an ordinary Darkling Beetle, do you have it?"
Jiang Chen broke into a sweat; are people who Cultivate the Martial Dao so fierce? They're already taking mutated beasts as pets?
For his Clone to devour a mutated beast now was simply a fantasy; even if it swallowed it, the mutated beast could break open its belly and escape, and even if it could eventually recover, devouring a mutated beasts was still too difficult.
Subsequently, Jiang Chen rushed to ask several more shops.
But the results were, without exception, negative.
Just as Jiang Chen was about to give up on evolving defense and switch to something else, a voice came from behind him:
"Hey, little brother, for the beetle you're asking about, you can ask the shop in the very corner of the street. They might have it there."
Jiang Chen was stunned, then overjoyed; the hope that had just been shattered instantly reignited.
"Thank you!"
After thanking him, Jiang Chen immediately rushed towards the street corner.
When Jiang Chen arrived at the corner, panting, he looked into the corner and immediately saw a shop with a rather unremarkable facade.
Above it, three imposing characters were written—"Ten Thousand Beasts Pavilion."
Jiang Chen hadn't expected such a dilapidated shop to have such an imposing name.
With a nervous heart, Jiang Chen walked inside.
Once inside, Jiang Chen looked around the shop.
There weren't too many animals kept in the shop, but a parrot saw Jiang Chen enter and called out:
"Don't sleep, someone's here."
This startled Jiang Chen, and then an impatient voice came from a blind spot behind the shop counter.
"Who is it? What do you want?"
Looking at the rising figure, Jiang Chen spoke directly: "Boss, do you sell Darkling Beetles here?"
"Darkling Beetle?"
"What grade of mutated beast is that?"
The questioning voice came again, and Jiang Chen, feeling a bit helpless and embarrassed, explained:
"It's not a mutated beast, just an insect. Someone said you might have it here, so I came to ask."
"Oh, not a mutated beast. But you're right, if it exists on Blue Star, we have it here. We even have things that don't exist on Blue Star."
"However... the price..."
Hearing that there was hope, Jiang Chen immediately became wide awake.
"The price is negotiable, how much?"
It was then that Jiang Chen clearly saw the person in front of him; he had long hair and an arrogant expression.
But looking at this familiar hairstyle, if he wasn't a non-mainstream person, it would be truly unbelievable.
If he didn't currently need his help, Jiang Chen would have almost blurted out to ask if he didn't need his eyes, he could donate them to someone in need.
When this person heard Jiang Chen's words, the eye left exposed instantly lit up.
He liked these rich clients.
"Darkling Beetle, the designated item is priced at 50,000."
"No problem."
As a member of the Jiang Family, 50,000 was certainly affordable.
Seeing Jiang Chen agree so readily, the long-haired man instantly felt a pang of regret; had he been too lenient?
"Please wait a moment."
He said, then turned and left.
A moment later, he returned, holding a transparent plastic box in his hand.
From afar, Jiang Chen saw the target he was looking for today—the Darkling Beetle!
Transferring money, paying, and taking the goods, Jiang Chen didn't feel like he was being ripped off at all.
All his thoughts were now on this little beetle.
Watching Jiang Chen's departing figure, he felt even more that he had suffered a huge loss today.
"Doesn't this kid know that 50,000 yuan can buy a Medicinal Pill that increases Qi and blood?"
"What's so special about that Darkling Beetle?"
Jiang Chen couldn't care less about all that; evolve!
He wanted to evolve!
