"No, no, that's impossible. In the past, that rumor had eventually been verified by multiple sources, so there has to be something to it."

According to the lucky fellow who had found the superior white grub, it had simply appeared as he was killing regular white grubs. However, Zhang Lie hadn't even seen a hint of this purported superior-grade lifeform despite having been in the cave for three months straight.

And not only that—he was even having trouble with his foundation.

Extensive research in the past had confirmed that the soft cores of these white grubs were particularly good catalysts for a breakthrough in one's foundation, and prices for these cores were sure to soar in the future. Indeed, they had been in such high demand that the white grubs in the first realm of the dimensional world had been hunted to extinction, so Zhang Lie made sure to store at least half the cores every time he returned to the settlement.

But even after having consumed countless such cores, Zhang Lie had yet to experience a breakthrough. 

His annoyance flared. The plans that he had worked out for himself rested on two critical components: a breakthrough in his foundation, and the soulshard obtained from the superior-grade white grub. Would his work over the past three months be for naught?

Just because he knew the future didn't mean that he couldn't be stymied by unexpected variables, after all. 

Should I revise my plans? Three whole months of effort, down the drain... the moment he thought of Wang Xiaohua's arrogant expression and his sister's tears, Zhang Lie's anger rose to a crescendo, and he pounded on the cave wall beside him.

Kraak! The sound reverberated around the cave, and small cracks radiated outward from the point of impact. Fresh blood seeped down Zhang Lie's clenched fist.

With a long sigh, Zhang Lie made to leave the cave. The incident with Wang Xiaohua meant that he was even more pressed for time than before, and he would have no choice but to change his plans. Even if it would be less advantageous for his future development, his sister was far more important.

Suddenly, the part of the cave that he had hit began to crumble, revealing a hole large enough to pass through.

What? This cave had essentially been his second home for three months. He knew the entire region like the back of his hand, and this was an area he'd never seen before.

"Could it be… well, I've already wasted three months, after all, what's a little more time?"

With rekindled hope, Zhang Lie scrambled into the newly revealed tunnel. As the tunnel expanded, he found himself in a gigantic area the size of an exhibition hall. An enormous silvery-white grub sat in its center, glowing with white light.

"I've finally found you!"

Zhang Lie instantly realized that this was the superior-grade lifeform that he had been hunting. In truth, this tunnel had only been discovered in the past as a result of a long string of coincidences. Zhang Lie didn't know about the specifics of the discovery; all he had heard were rumors, so he'd never been successful.

And yet his hard work had eventually paid off.

The first realm of the dimensional world could generate regular-, mutated-, and superior-grade lifeforms. In other words, superior-grade lifeforms were at the apex of the realm.

The enormous silvery-white grub in front of him was such an existence: the weakest superior-grade creature, but one whose soulshard was inordinately useful, and who would provide as many superior gene fragments as any other superior-grade lifeform.

"You'll be my first step to advancement!" After having slaughtered three months' worth of white grubs, Zhang Lie had developed an intimate understanding of their anatomy. With a precise, efficient stroke, he thrust his blade toward its core.

He had initially expected to be able to kill it with one attack, but even the weakest superior-grade creature was still stronger than he had anticipated. The blade could only penetrate a little of its flesh, no matter how much strength Zhang Lie used.

His attack naturally enraged the silver grub, whose core suddenly turned blood-red and shot out toward him like a football.

As a reincarnator, Zhang Lie was easily able to avoid the telegraphed attack. 

White grubs had essentially no offensive capabilities, and even this silver grub wouldn't have any particularly destructive or complicated attacks. Apart from its size and resilience, it was really no different from a regular white grub. Its attack pattern was more straightforward than that of just about any other lifeform.

As he dodged to one side, Zhang Lie nicked the silver grub's flesh with a flurry of slices.

In pain, the grub recoiled before suddenly expanding its body and bouncing up into the air, intending to squash Zhang Lie into meat paste.

Unfortunately, Zhang Lie was simply too agile for it, and was able to dodge its attacks with ease. At the same time, he continued whittling away at the grub's flesh. 

The jelly-like fragments that he sliced off melted as soon as it hit the ground. Every time the grub bounced toward him, Zhang Lie would wave the sword in his hand and slice off another piece of its body.

It chased him all around the cave, even as Zhang Lie kept dodging and slashing. After all, it was a superior-grade lifeform, and despite Zhang Lie's relentless attacks, it was able to continuously regrow its flesh.

The fight dragged out into a stalemate.

Eventually, the efficiency and persistence of Zhang Lie's swordplay, honed by months of fighting these grubs, paid off. The silver grub had shrunk to a third of its original size, and Zhang Lie was certain that he would be able to whittle it down before long.

Before he could do so, however, Zhang Lie's stamina was sure to give out. After all, his foundation hadn't yet broken through, and he had only filled a fifth of his basic gene capacity. With only twenty basic gene fragments, his constitution was simply too poor for a drawn-out fight.

Skill and technique were meaningless if his body couldn't keep up, and he was quickly running out of stamina.

After another ten minutes, Zhang Lie could feel his body at its breaking point. Sweat drenched his body, his muscles quivered, he panted in huge, gasping breaths, and he was only keeping himself upright by willpower alone.

Would this be it for him? To be killed by the superior-grade creature he had worked so hard to find, before even taking the first step toward success?

As the silver grub bounced toward him once more, Zhang Lie yelled out in frustration, stepping aside and forcing his arm to strike again at its flesh, at least once more. As he looked death in the eye, the tip of his sword suddenly radiated light; the moment it struck the grub's flesh, Zhang Lie felt as though a dam had broken within his body, flooding him with strength.

Finally, a breakthrough!

Clad in shining light, his sword was faster, more flexible, and easily able to penetrate into the silver grub's core.

Upon reflection, perhaps this was something Zhang Lie could have anticipated. Without any fear of death, without pushing himself to his limits, how could he have hoped to advance? He had used his experience and knowledge from his past life to work out the safest route to ascension, but it was exactly this safety that had caused him to stagnate in his foundation.

Despite his earlier exhaustion, Zhang Lie now felt relaxed all over, as though his body had been reforged, refuelled, and revitalized. He immediately reached into his soulspace and retrieved the soulshard of a regular white grub, smashing it to pieces.

An astounding discovery from his past life was that, within ten seconds of killing a lifeform, destroying a soulshard would increase the chances of a soulshard condensing from the recently deceased lifeform. If the destroyed soulshard belonged to the same species, a soulshard would be guaranteed.

This phenomenon had been heavily studied, and the conclusion was that, because a soulshard was composed of spiritual matter, destroying a soulshard would temporarily increase the spirit density in the air. The dead lifeform would then absorb this spiritual matter to condense a soulshard with a probability increasing with the spirit density.

[You successfully killed a superior-grade white grub and obtained its soulshard.]

Zhang Lie beamed in delight, then hurriedly brought out the silvery-white soulshard from his soulspace. Activating it by will, he transformed the soulshard in his palm into a gigantic water balloon, one the size of a human. It gave off a silver glow, and its center was a soft core.

[Soulshard designation: weapon-type.]

Even though the will of the world had classified it as a weapon-type soulshard, the hunters of the dimensional world instead categorized it as a rare transformation-type soulshard instead.

A moment's thought was sufficient to transform the water balloon into a silvery-white translucent overcoat. Its color was relatively appealing, but because Zhang Lie wasn't yet accustomed to manipulating the soulshard, the structure of the coat was lumpy and misshapen.

After significant effort, Zhang Lie finally transformed it once more into a suit of silver armor. A pale pink pearl was embedded into the breastplate, the core of the soulshard. As long as it wasn't destroyed, the armor would be able to repair and even regenerate itself. The superior-grade white grub soulshard was infinitely flexible, able to be used as standalone armor or in addition to other armor-type soulshards.

In Zhang Lie’s past life, the hunter who had obtained the superior-grade white grub soulshard had gained such proficiency with it that he ultimately became known as the 'Monarch of a Hundred Transformations'.  

At present, Zhang Lie could only generate at most one or two extra arms, and he would require significant practice to draw out the soulshard’s true utility. There was also one caveat to the transformations: the amorphous material, by nature, was unable to reproduce anything sharp.

Of course, it was already more than sufficient for most purposes, and it wasn't as though this flaw couldn't be fixed. In the third realm of the dimensional world, there was a curious item known as Pandora's box. It was a consumable item that could fuse multiple superior- and higher-grade soulshards to enhance them.

This was the primary reason that Zhang Lie had valued this soulshard so highly. It met the necessary requirements for fusion, so it had limitless growth potential. As long as Zhang Lie was willing to spend an exorbitant amount of resources to do so, it could grow to a disaster-grade, or even a monarch-grade, soulshard.

More importantly, because of the fact that white grubs were one of the weakest lifeforms in the dimensional world, superior-grade white grubs were the rarest of the rare, and there had only been one recorded appearance in the past.

As a result, this superior-grade soulshard that Zhang Lie now possessed might well be unique. Three months of effort for such a valuable and customizable soulshard was a bargain. But, even more importantly, this particular soulshard was necessary for the next step in his plan.