In front of Su Zhan, the black smoke fluttered in front of him, and then the black shadow Clones appeared out of thin air!
"Owner!"
The black shadow solidified in an instant, bowing with a greeting even faster than before
One could tell at a glance that the Clones had grown more intelligent.
"This time… ten?!"
After seeing the specific number appear, Su Zhan's eyes flashed.
The pattern was clear.Through repeated upgrades, Su Zhan discovered a pattern—whenever a new function emerged, the cooldown phase afterward would cause both unlocked abilities and Clone numbers to leap forward.
At first glance, the storage space was the same—it had quickly expanded from 6 cubic meters to 10 cubic meters!
Everything was getting stronger. If the Clone cultivation also improved… would there be progressive growth?
Su Zhan turned his attention to the top priority.
Since all the unlocked functions had benefited… the Clone cultivation, also one of the functions, couldn't possibly be excluded.
Immediately, Su Zhan directly placed a little black into the cross-legged shadow.
"Nothing changed…"
"Is it because Clone cultivation is a relatively powerful function, so it can't improve along with the others?"
"Um?"
"Wait!"
Suddenly, Su Zhan's eyes widened. "The speed of this aura flow is much faster than before!"
Su Zhan had long been familiar with how this process looked.
The flow of aura was normally calm and steady, never this fast and violent.
By rough estimation, this flow speed was about double what it used to be!
This also meant that… the efficiency of the Clones had doubled!
"Really!!"
"The function of Clone cultivation has also been upgraded!"
Su Zhan was very excited. "It's only 1x acceleration now—this is just the beginning! Could it become 2x, 3x, or even 10x in the future?!"
"How fast would my Realm rise then? Arrange 100 little blacks, 100x acceleration, 10,000x! What genius or so-called prodigy could compare?"
"This upgrade… is amazing!"
As he thought about the nearly explosive multiplier in cultivation efficiency and how the effect exceeded imagination, Su Zhan couldn't help but shake his head in satisfaction.
For now—
If 30 little blacks were invested, the additional growth rate of 100% meant the effect would be equivalent to 60 little blacks!
This Black Mark was truly powerful.
Such a massive number of low-grade spirit stones was worth every bit!
"Although doubling the training efficiency is great, it still takes at least half a month to reach the Fourth-Level Mortal Realm!"
"Half a month, for other people, is short enough to excite them… but for me, it's too long.
With that time, it's better to keep mining and increase the number of Clones. Improve the training efficiency again!"
"When I can break through to the Fourth-Level Mortal Realm in just a few days, that's when I should go all out to train!"
Mining, training.
Now, for Su Zhan, it was no longer a matter of choosing one or the other.
Although improving strength was the top priority, the process took too much time.
Half a month was too long.
He couldn't wait.
If Zhou Yueshan came to trouble him, he would still have to run away if necessary, and yield when needed.
By contrast, mining could bring in a lot of low-grade spirit stones in just a few days.
Thirty-two little blacks could generate as much as 3,840 low-grade spirit stones every day.
Even if the Ninth-Level Mortal Realm required a full 19,000 or nearly 20,000 low-grade spirit stones… it would take only five days to gather them!
This way—
Not only could the Black Mark be improved, but he could also purchase more low-grade spiritual weapons, techniques, elixirs, and fully equip all the little blacks for battle!
Spiritual weapons weren't just weapons.
Helmets, armor, wrist guards, boots… even rings, bracelets, necklaces, and other accessories with special functions—when fully equipped, mortal cultivators could easily "fight across levels"!
And all of this required low-grade spirit stones. A lot of them.
"Newcomers, get your hoe and dig with all your strength!"
Time flew by again.
Five days passed in the blink of an eye.
"It's the eighth day. Those people haven't reported back for eight days. Zhou Yueshan still hasn't come for me?"
"He hasn't even checked the place they were hiding… Could it be that Zhou Yueshan encountered something important and couldn't come for now?"
Even Su Zhan felt puzzled this time.
If someone kept watch on him and didn't report for eight days, even if they were still alive, Zhou Yueshan would surely be suspicious.
But until now, no one had visited the place where Su Zhan placed the eight markers.
The only explanation was that Zhou Yueshan had encountered something more important than dealing with him.
However, the Punishment Team's movements were always kept secret.
Su Zhan couldn't ask around rashly—it would only bring trouble.
"Since he won't come, I won't bother with him. If an opportunity presents itself, I won't waste it."
"As expected, this time, the number of little blacks will increase by 14, bringing the total number of my Clones to 46!"
"Forty-six little blacks of the Third-Level Mortal Realm… Zhou Yueshan, wait until you see the big gift I've prepared for you!"
"Come on, start absorbing!"
The shining black light in his palm flared again.
As nearly 20,000 low-grade spirit stones quickly melted away before his eyes, Su Zhan not only felt no heartache, but was filled with anticipation.
Soon—
The low-grade spirit stones were fully absorbed.
The Black Mark officially entered the Ninth Stage.
As Su Zhan expected, there were no new functions, but the number of black shadows born was exactly 14—no more, no less!
A quick glance at the Clone space—
10 cubic meters had increased to 14 cubic meters.
The flow rate of spiritual energy cultivated by the Clones had become faster and faster. With the doubled cultivation speed, the current cultivation efficiency was now three times what it used to be!
"Three times the cultivation efficiency. Putting 40 Clones inside is equivalent to the effect of 120 little blacks. Based on this number, I estimate it will take only seven days! Seven days to break through to the Fourth-Level Mortal Realm!"