175: Chapter 175 Black Market
Lin Fan stared at the dense information in his field of vision, stunned for quite a while.
Devour attribute, no upper limit—this was already enough to surprise him.
But he hadn't expected it to also be a weapon-type Armor Spirit.
The corners of Lin Fan's mouth slowly curled up, and he grinned so wide his eyes almost disappeared.
Back at the competition, when he saw that girl from Fengdeng City No. 1 High School holding the Light Feather Heavenly Sparrow Longbow, he had been incredibly envious.
He hadn't expected it to come just like that.
Lin Fan looked down at the deep purple little spider in his palm, finding it more and more pleasing to the eye the longer he looked.
"Little thing, what other surprises do you have that I don't know about?"
The little spider blinked its eight eyes, its chelicerae opened and closed, and it let out a faint hiss.
Lin Fan held it up to his eyes and examined it carefully. Eight legs, eight eyes, a deep purple carapace, silver-white spiderweb patterns, and a slowly rotating vortex mark on its abdomen.
This little thing looked fierce, but its abilities were even fiercer.
I am increasingly suspicious now that I am a true child of Luck.
Lin Fan placed the little spider on the table and muttered to himself.
"Otherwise, why am I always so lucky? Whatever I want, I get."
Lin Fan felt secretly pleased and dug out three Shadow Magic Crystals. These were auxiliary Materials he had previously bought from the association, intended for Tongtong's evolution, but he hadn't been able to bring himself to use them.
Shadow Magic Crystals were a type of Ore containing pure dark-type energy. They were pitch black, with fine cracks on the surface. Within the cracks, dark purple specks of light flowed, and holding one in his palm, he could feel a cold aura drilling into his body through his pores.
He had originally planned to save them for later, but he was happy today, so he decided to test the little spider's Devour evolution ability first.
The three Shadow Magic Crystals were each the size of a baby's fist, and together they were larger than the little spider's entire body.
Lin Fan placed the first one in front of the little spider.
"Little guy, give it a try."
The Nether Devouring Magic Spider stared at the Shadow Magic Crystal with all eight eyes, opened its chelicerae, and let out an excited hiss.
It pounced, wrapped its eight legs around the Shadow Magic Crystal, stabbed its chelicerae into the crystal, and began to devour it.
The radiance of the Shadow Magic Crystal dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the dark purple specks of light flowed into the little spider's body along its chelicerae.
Its body began to glow, dark golden patterns emerged on its deep purple carapace, and the vortex mark on its abdomen spun frantically.
In less than a minute, the fist-sized Shadow Magic Crystal turned into a pile of gray-white powder.
The little spider's body shone for a moment, and its aura was clearly stronger by a notch.
Lin Fan swept his left eye across it—Rank 3.
He handed over the second Shadow Magic Crystal.
The little spider pounced, repeated the process, and devoured another one.
Its body lit up again, and its aura strengthened by another notch.
After the third one was fed, it directly reached Rank 4.
Its body size also grew, going from the size of a fist to the size of a palm; the serrations on its chelicerae became denser, and the silver patterns on its back carapace became brighter.
Lin Fan looked at the three piles of gray-white powder on the floor, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
"Three Shadow Magic Crystals, and you ate them all in three minutes."
The Nether Devouring Magic Spider blinked its eight eyes, its chelicerae opened and closed, and it let out a faint hiss, as if asking, "Are there any more?"
Lin Fan rummaged through the drawer again and found one more Shadow Magic Crystal—it was the last one.
He hesitated for a moment, but still handed it over.
It devoured it again, and its body lit up once more.
Rank 5.
Lin Fan looked at the empty drawer, then at the little guy, and fell silent.
This Devour ability was indeed very strong; as long as the resources kept up, the speed of its Cultivation and evolution would not slow down.
It was truly a gold-eating beast.
"From now on, your name is Tuntun."
Lin Fan poked its back carapace.
"You devour everything; you can eat anything, and you dare to eat anything."
Tuntun's eight eyes blinked simultaneously, and it seemed very satisfied.
Lin Fan placed Tuntun on the pillow; it tucked in its eight legs, curled up into a ball of deep purple fuzz, and half-closed its eight eyes.
Lin Fan reached out to stroke Tuntun's back carapace and sighed.
"It's a pity I'm only Rank 47 now, still a bit short of becoming an Armor Emperor, so I can't contract you yet."
Tuntun opened its eight eyes a slit, glanced at him, and closed them again.
...
Some time passed.
Lin Fan's Rank also reached 48, and most of the evolution Materials for Xiao Zhuang and the others had been collected.
Especially for Little Rabbit, only the last evolution Material remained.
Little Rabbit had two evolution paths.
The first path was the Thunder-Light Holy Pattern Rabbit, Mid-Rank King Spirit.
After evolution, it weakened the ancient Hou Beast Bloodline, fused the Bloodlines of the Cloud-Maned Flowing Light Rabbit and the Silver-Scaled Thunder-Claw Rabbit, added the Thunder attribute, but discarded the Hou Beast Bloodline.
This path seemed like an enhancement, but in the long run, it was far inferior to the second one.
Thunder-Light Holy Pattern Rabbit sounded impressive, but it was actually a compromise choice.
And the second path was the Heavenly Light Prison Hou.
The Rank requirement was 46, and it needed to devour 3 Heavenly Light Stones, 3 Holy Light Essences, 3 Evil-Suppressing Hou Manes, and 1 netherworld evil core.
This path completely suppressed the rabbit hybrid Bloodline, fully awakened the ancient Hou Beast Origin, used mutated Holy Light as its fundamental power, had an extremely high growth ceiling, and was a top-tier evolution path for exclusive mutations.
Lin Fan had also chosen the Heavenly Light Prison Hou evolution path, and now it was only missing one Material: the netherworld evil core.
The netherworld evil core was a product exclusive to the core rift of the Advanced Secret Realm—the Netherworld Abyss.
It was formed by the condensation of countless wraith-type Armor Beasts and Void Realm energy under extreme pressure.
Therefore, it was not easy to obtain and was extremely scarce.
However, Little Rabbit needed the evil power contained within the netherworld evil core as a catalyst to activate the Hou Beast's innate talent for suppressing evil.
Just as Lin Fan was sitting at the counter, lost in thought.
The wind chime at the shop entrance rang, along with Xu Ziyan's voice.
"Lin Fan! I have news about the netherworld evil core!"
Lin Fan was startled by the sudden voice.
"Oh my god, you scared me to death!"
Xu Ziyan rushed to the counter in two or three steps, slapped the table, and emphasized again.
"The netherworld evil core, there's a lead!"
Lin Fan's eyes lit up. "Where?"
Xu Ziyan lowered his voice and leaned in.
"The Dongyun City black market is holding an auction in three days. My dad said the netherworld evil core is on the list."
Lin Fan tapped his fingers lightly on the tabletop.
"Is the information reliable?"
Xu Ziyan patted his chest.
"Absolutely reliable! My dad is a regular at the black market; he goes several times every year and has never been wrong."
Lin Fan stood up and paced back and forth behind the counter a couple of times.
"A black market auction... I'll need an invitation, right?"
Xu Ziyan pulled a black card from his pocket and handed it to him.
"My dad helped you get one."
Lin Fan didn't stand on ceremony and took it directly.
"Good brother, thank your uncle for me."
Xu Ziyan chuckled, and just as he was about to say something, he suddenly leaned in close to Lin Fan, looking at him with an extremely pitiful, sparkling gaze.
With his cute little face paired with that expression, he looked just like a puppy abandoned on a rainy night, all wet and forlorn.
It carried three parts grievance, three parts expectation, three parts ingratiation, and one part of the shamelessness that said, "If you don't agree, I'll cry for you to see."
This was simply a natural-born little "0".
If it weren't for the fact that Lin Fan wasn't into men, he would have really found him a bit pitiful.