278: Chapter 278 Undeterred by setbacks, Drew continues to improve! His ambitions!

In the cultivation room, Zhang Jian seemed to lose track of time.

He divided his time into several parts.

First.

Was the cultivation of the [Star-Shattering Art].

The first successful cultivation was extremely difficult.

But at the moment of success, he not only gained a means to accelerate the absorption of star cores.

But also upgraded one of his previous affixes.

[Persevering through Adversity] (transcendence-grade) (+1)

Every time you fail in any cultivation, skill comprehension, or ability integration, you gain 1 stack of [Mark of Adversity] Lv2:

Each stack: Next success rate +4.5%

Stack limit: 10 stacks

Reset rule: Upon one successful cultivation, all marks are cleared.

(affix upgrade condition: [Mark of Adversity] stacks reach max level / successful cultivation 2 times)

After just one upgrade of this affix, the mark's effect increased from 3% to 4.5%.

With the 10-stack limit reached, he would have a guaranteed 45% chance.

Combined with Zhang Jian's original insights and experience.

It almost guaranteed that he would succeed once every 10 attempts.

Each time the [Star-Shattering Art] took effect, it was equivalent to performing an acceleration process on a star core.

When the operation stopped, the original star core would shatter directly due to structural damage.

Once Zhang Jian discovered this, he made a decision.

He would ignore the consumption and start grinding the progress of the [Star-Shattering Art].

As long as he succeeded once.

And absorbed at least 1 point of Star Power, he would immediately stop the operation of the Star Art.

The entire process took only a little over an hour.

And this was only the speed of absorbing ordinary star cores.

If switched to Advanced star cores, the speed would be halved again.

But Zhang Jian only had one four-star star core on hand, and he had none left after trying it.

Since the absorption efficiency of one-star and three-star cores was the same anyway.

He simply grabbed a handful of one-star star cores and began using the [Star-Shattering Art] rapidly.

A day passed.

After he succeeded twice more, the affix upgraded once again.

Lv3 [Mark of Adversity] became a 6% success rate increase.

This also indirectly increased the speed at which he comprehended Star Arts.

On just the third day of seclusion, the [Star-Shattering Art] progressed from Entry level to Proficient.

The absorption speed, which could originally be increased by 2 times, became 3 times.

He could complete one harvest of Star Power in almost 50 minutes.

However, this speed still hadn't met Zhang Jian's expectations.

He continued to delve into it.

On the fifth day, [Persevering through Adversity] reached the +3 level.

Giving him a 7.5% success rate bonus.

Combined with the original Proficient-level effect.

Zhang Jian could basically succeed once every four attempts.

In just two days.

[Persevering through Adversity] reached +4.

With a 9% guaranteed success rate, efficiency increased once more.

The [Star-Shattering Art] now succeeded once every three attempts.

If he worked without sleep or rest, he could succeed almost 20 times a day.

And the affix progress of 16 times was also completed smoothly without him realizing it.

[Mark of Adversity] had reached Lv6, possessing a terrifying bonus of 10.5% success rate.

The ninth day.

After being used nearly a hundred times, the [Star-Shattering Art] also successfully reached Major Achievement!

With a full 5-fold speed bonus, the time it took for Zhang Jian to absorb a star core cycle was reduced from the initial two and a half hours directly to half an hour!

Furthermore, the Major Achievement level [Star-Shattering Art] possessed a 50% base success rate.

Even without the help of the affix, the efficiency was far superior to before.

However.

There was also some bad news.

As the base success rate increased, the [Persevering through Adversity] affix became harder to trigger successfully.

He was successful almost once every two or three attempts.

The speed of improvement was actually slower than before.

The progress of 32 times seemed difficult to complete.

On the other hand, the accumulation of Star Power had become much faster.

And then, on the tenth day.

Just after finishing one use of the [Star-Shattering Art] and casually wiping away the star core powder from his hands.

Zhang Jian saw that his current usable Star Power had broken through 100 points.

His spirits immediately lifted.

But just then.

Wang Fei's urgent voice came from outside the door.

"Brother Jian, is it convenient to talk? Something has happened!"

...

Drew's mood had been quite good lately.

After following Lord Blood Shadow's instructions and having the group of prospects he favored begin to level up frantically.

There was progress every day.

In just ten short days.

Catherine's team had all reached level 99.

During this period, they had also learned over 10 mythical level passive skills, raising their attributes to the limit of 55,000 points.

They only needed to absorb another 20,000 star core fragments to reach the 75,000-point limit for Water Blue Planet Professionals.

Thinking of this, Drew felt a bit worried.

Even with more than five teams continuously clearing Dungeons.

The star core fragments accumulated so far were only a little over 3,000.

It was still a long way from creating a prospect with a deep foundation.

Even if he redistributed the ten or so planet-level Professionals he had recently promoted.

At most, he could only scrape together two additional teams.

The efficiency increase would still be limited.

Unless.

Increase the number of Dungeons?

He thought of the news reported by the spies he had recently stationed in Huaxia.

Zhang Jian, who was suspected to have high-tier planet-level strength, had not appeared for nearly half a month.

And that group in Huaxia led by Wang Fei and Xuan Jizi seemed to have quieted down lately.

When friction occurred with the people he had stationed, their tone was no longer as arrogant.

Thinking of the spy reports that there were suspected to be more than three planet-level Dungeons in Huaxia and its surrounding areas, Drew's heart burned with excitement.

It seemed...

He could expand outwards?