Chapter 478 - Taming the Platinum Ring - 2

For the Flying Cats, Zhao would simply be another threat to eliminate.

"I need to find a gap in their coverage," he murmured, studying the patrol patterns.

But the more he observed, the more he realized there were no gaps. The cats had established a surveillance network that covered every cubic meter of airspace. It was a system refined by centuries of war against invading moths.

Each cat maintained perfect spacing from its neighbors, their patrol routes overlapping in ways that ensured no intruder could slip through undetected.

Zhao tried flying lower, but the Platinum Sprouts’ tentacles rose immediately, sensitive to any movement in their aerial domain. He tried flying higher than the ’canopy’, but the air became so thin due to the insane altitude of the gigantic ’trees’ that he could barely stay airborne.

And all the time, mana accumulated in his system.

His medicine worked, but it wasn’t perfect. Each breath brought more energy than he could process, and his internal filters were beginning to saturate. He could feel the growing pressure, the sensation of being filled with liquid mana.

The buildup was subtle, like slowly drowning in power. Hours later his vision began to take on a crystalline quality at the edges, and his movements became sluggish as his nervous system struggled to process the energy overload.

He could drink more, but then it wouldn’t be enough for the full trip.

"This isn’t going to work," he finally admitted, feeling how his vision was beginning to glow at the edges.

The retreat was humiliating but necessary.

Zhao turned around, flying back toward the golden ring while fighting against depression. Each meter he retreated felt like a betrayal of his mission, but the alternative was dying from wandering in circles... in that place he couldn’t stay too long or he’d die from mana saturation before even reaching the second platinum ring.

"And there are three rings of this," he murmured, processing the information he had gathered during his failed exploration.

The second platinum ring, visible in the distance behind the fence, showed an even greater fusion between the trees and sprouts.

Now massive vines covered the trees, transforming them into gigantic structures that moved with an impetus now more animal than plant, creating mobile giants that hid the cats within their living architecture.

What had been separate organisms in the golden rings had become components of larger beings, each tree now a living fortress that could relocate itself as needed.

And beyond, he knew from Victor’s information that the third platinum ring appeared to be a relatively normal forest until you realized that each enormous "trunk" was actually a hardened Platinum Sprout, and what appeared to be multiple trees in a huge forest was actually a single massive organism.

"A vegetation dragon," he had murmured, finally understanding the scale of what he was facing.

The Dragon Tree dominated the entire third ring, having defeated all other competing "trees" during decades of territorial war. It was the guardian of the crystalline mountain, destined to protect it for a hundred years before evolving and ascending to the diamond ring.

Leaving the mountain for a new Dragon to "keep".

"And our king is there," Zhao told himself, flying back toward the more breathable air of golden territory. "Fighting that thing."

♢♢♢♢

When he finally landed in the Gold Ring 3 clearing, the claw tree was still there, guarding its secrets.

Zhao allowed himself a moment of despair.

He had crashed against a wall of reality he couldn’t penetrate. His level was simply insufficient to navigate the platinum rings, no matter how perfect his stealth was, it wouldn’t be better than that of the platinum moths.

"Silver 3 in platinum territory," he murmured, laughing bitterly. "What was I thinking?"

But while processing his failure, a part of him, the part that had listened to Ren’s interesting solutions for certain situations with pleasure, began looking for alternatives.

The king’s trail continued toward the platinum rings. That was undeniable. He had to find a way to reach him.

Zhao stopped abruptly, a realization hitting him like a fist.

"Wait!" he murmured, instinctively touching where his Camouflage Raptor resided within him. "Today is the day."

With all the chaos of the mission, the constant danger, and the pressure of finding the king, he had completely forgotten that his raptor was scheduled to evolve to Bronze 1 today according to Ren’s 100 days. The timing couldn’t be worse, or maybe better, depending on how you looked at it.

The beast was Iron so it gets 8 incorrect cultivation points per day in Gold, 16 wrong points per day in Platinum. Ren had told him it had a limit of 1000...

"If you’re in places with too much mana,"

the boy had said with that seriousness that looked comical in someone of his age,

"incorrect cultivation will ruin your beast’s future. But if it levels up, the incorrect base resets to 0/1000... in theory you should rise to Bronze before spending more than 100 days in the Platinum ring or you won’t be able to cultivate in time... if the mana doesn’t kill you of course, let’s hope you don’t need to live there soon... But why did you need to ask that weirdly specific question?"

Zhao had registered the information at the time, but hadn’t anticipated he would actually use it.

"At least I managed to evolve," he murmured, feeling the changes begin in his system as he absorbed the last preprocessed crystal. "I suppose then that the ’incorrect accumulator’ didn’t fill up... and if the boy is correct, as always, I can continue cultivating because it has returned to 0 and will charge slower now."

The evolution was also more beneficial than he expected.

His Mist Owl had been the one carrying almost the whole burden of the journey and its 1000-day method hadn’t started yet... a method too costly at Silver 3 rank to waste when he wasn’t sure he could complete it properly. Although he had most of the necessary materials thanks to Julius, the length of the process had made him hesitate.

And he had been right not to start it...

Lin would finish her evolution before him, a reality that filled him with professional envy. Although he didn’t know Lin would also need to restart her method later...

Anyway, the raptor was different. Its evolution was still the main line and had to be priority, the 100 crystals taken in precise doses for at least 100 days according to Ren.

And although this main method could be interrupted without too much problem while still saving the accumulation unlike the 1000-day one...

Incorrect accumulation wasn’t a problem for the 1000 day maturation one...

Both had pros and cons.

Zhao felt the change flowing through his system, his body adapting to his beast’s new capabilities.

The camouflage became more refined, more intuitive. His muscles gained density without losing flexibility. His reflexes sharpened a bit more and the mana in this zone began to bother him a little less.

"Bronze 1," he whispered, feeling the power settle into his bones. "Finally."

The improvement for only the Raptor was considerable. Although combined with the Owl’s increases it remained smaller...

It was while getting used to his new capabilities that he began to think more positively, more like Ren.

"It’s not about being stronger," he murmured. "It’s about understanding better."