In the City Lord's mansion.
Everyone was gathered around the golden beetle, curiously touching and examining it.
"Look, these forelimbs are sharper than the longsword I use."
He Kaige took an iron rod and struck the golden beetle's forelimb. The rod instantly split in two.
"This shell… I doubt even my spear could pierce it." Zhang Qiang tapped the golden beetle's shimmering shell with his fingertips.
"It would be great if we could contract a golden beetle too." Xie Haimei said with a face full of envy.
"Stop sighing. With your current mental strength, you couldn't even contract a dying golden beetle. Hurry up and improve your strength, and I'll get you all golden beetles as pets then."
Qin Shilei said with a smile.
"Brother Qin, are you really going to keep this golden beetle in Insect Valley?" Zhang Xiaoli asked.
"Yes, if the golden beetle stays out of Insect Valley for too long, the insects there will disperse. I can only leave it there to guard the spatial rift," Qin Shilei explained.
Actually, he had another intention: to use the golden beetle to establish a foothold in the insect world.
This would not only make it easier for Qin Shilei to explore the insect world in the future, but he also hoped to use the golden beetle to capture other insects to be pets for those around him.
While speaking, Qin Shilei also began refreshing attributes for the golden beetle.
Finally, he fixed the attributes to 'Unwavering Loyalty', 'Indomitable', and 'Swift as Lightning'.
Unwavering Loyalty (Red): Once it recognizes a master, it will never regret it.
Indomitable (Red): The sharpness of the golden beetle's forelimbs increases by fifty percent.
Swift as Lightning (Red): The golden beetle's base speed increases by thirty percent.
As for the golden beetle's fourth attribute, since the number of attribute fixes for today had been used up, it could only be refreshed later.
At this moment, the various legion commanders and the hall masters of the Rock Formation Battle Group handed over their earnings from this period.
Qin Shilei roughly calculated that there were over forty thousand crystal cores.
After setting aside the crystal cores needed for Hope City's operations, he had just enough to level up again.
After dinner, Qin Shilei absorbed all the crystal cores and finally advanced to Silver Five Stars.
Although Qin Shilei didn't necessarily aim to compete with his wife for the top spot on the leaderboard, the enemies he encountered were becoming increasingly powerful, and his Silver realm cultivation was ultimately a bit weak.
Qin Shilei decided to level up properly and strive to advance to the Golden realm as soon as possible.
Therefore, the next morning, Qin Shilei and Zhang Xiaoli went to Qing County, about a hundred kilometers away.
Qing County had about two to three hundred thousand zombies, with about ten percent of them having advanced to the Black Iron realm.
Qin Shilei first drove around for a few hundred meters to attract the surrounding zombies.
Then, with a wave of his hand, he released the elephant herd and charged at the gathered zombies.
To deal with these zombies, the colossal mammoths didn't need any special abilities; they just needed to charge forward.
The ground shook, and dust billowed. After the elephant herd passed, it left behind scattered zombie corpses, and many zombies were even crushed into mincemeat.
Qin Shilei followed behind the elephant herd, collecting the treasure chests and zombie corpses and placing them into the Qiankun Ring.
Zhang Xiaoli was responsible for casting the 'Revival' ability on the elephant herd, healing their minor injuries.
"Brother Qin, these colossal mammoths are so violent when killing zombies."
Zhang Xiaoli exclaimed, "The only downside is that they are too brutal, resulting in the zombies dying in a gruesome manner. If it were before the apocalypse, I wouldn't even dare to look at this mincemeat."
Qin Shilei said with some concern, "Xiaoli, why don't you wait for me outside Qing County? I'll find you again after some time to heal the elephants."
Zhang Xiaoli shook her head and replied, "The apocalypse has been going on for so long, I've long adapted to this scene. I feel good accompanying you to grind monsters."
Qin Shilei looked at the hellish scene before him, which also dampened his mood.
Suddenly, he had an idea and raised his left hand, which was wearing the Qiankun Ring.
[Would you like to refresh attributes?]
[Refresh.]
Dazzling (Blue): The color of the Qiankun Ring becomes more radiant, like a multi-colored gemstone.
Shape-shifting (Green): The Qiankun Ring can transform into various forms such as bracelets, necklaces, belts, etc.
Auto-Loot (Purple): Can automatically pick up loot within a ten-meter radius.
Nice!
Qin Shilei immediately fixed the 'Auto-Loot' attribute for the Qiankun Ring.
Instantly, the zombies within a ten-meter radius around him were collected into the Qiankun Ring.
Qin Shilei tried setting it up.
As he walked, the zombies on the ground did not disappear, but their mental energy beads and crystal cores were continuously collected into the Qiankun Ring.
Unaware of this, Zhang Xiaoli split open a zombie's head with her long saber but couldn't find the mental energy bead or crystal core.
"That's strange, why are there no crystal cores?"
Qin Shilei shook the Qiankun Ring in his hand, "My ring has gained an auto-loot function. We won't have to work hard to dig for crystal cores anymore."
"That's amazing." Zhang Xiaoli looked at the Qiankun Ring with sparkling eyes, "Brother Qin, can you upgrade my ring too? I want the auto-loot function."
Qin Shilei took Xiaoli's ring and tried refreshing it several times, but the excellent 'Auto-Loot' attribute didn't appear again.
He could only smile bitterly and say, "Upgrading this function requires extremely good luck. We'll talk about it later."
Through experimentation, the two of them discovered that only monsters killed by Qin Shilei himself or his pets would have their loot automatically collected by the Qiankun Ring.
After fixing the new attributes, Qin Shilei and his companions became even more efficient at killing zombies.
Two days later, Qin Shilei leveled up again, advancing to Silver Six Stars.
As soon as Qin Shilei, who had successfully advanced, walked out of his room, Xu Hongyu walked up to him with a smile.
"Big Brother, my Sacred Spirit Gu is finally ready. Quickly release your pet, and I'll see if I can heal it."
"Really? Then I'll have to trouble you." Qin Shilei's face lit up with joy, and he quickly moved to a spacious area to release Xiao Qiang.
Xu Hongyu pointed at Xiao Qiang on the ground. A seven-colored butterfly flew above Xiao Qiang's head.
The brilliant butterfly circled Xiao Qiang's head several times, scattering a rain of seven-colored light.
After a few minutes.
The seven-colored butterfly was too exhausted to scatter any more seven-colored light and flew back into Xu Hongyu's palm.
Qin Shilei looked at Xiao Qiang, still lying on the ground, with disappointment.
Suddenly, Xu Hongyu said excitedly, "Big Brother, it moved."
Qin Shilei also saw Xiao Qiang's eyelids twitch slightly.
Following that, Xiao Qiang slowly opened its eyes, then stood up from the ground.
"Screech!"
Xiao Qiang tilted its head and let out a cry, then quickly walked to Qin Shilei's side, rubbing affectionately against Qin Shilei's chest with its head.
"Very good, we can fight side by side again from now on." Qin Shilei gently stroked its soft feathers.
He turned to Xu Hongyu and asked, "Thank you for helping me wake my pet. What reward would you like?"
Xu Hongyu said sweetly, "My life was saved by you, Big Brother. This is just repaying your kindness, I don't want any reward."
Qin Shilei smiled and said, "I'm happy today, so just make one request, and I will fulfill it."
Xu Hongyu thought for a moment, "Big Brother, then can I join the Rock Formation Battle Group?"
"Of course you can." Qin Shilei said affirmatively, "You are welcome to join the Rock Formation Battle Group." Xu Hongyu not only had good strength but also possessed various mystical effects with her Gu worms. If she wanted to join Rock Formation, Qin Shilei was naturally eager.