As soon as the metal beast core appeared in Lu Ming's hand, the metal ball immediately bounced up, shaking violently like a piece of jelly. A large mouth and a pair of eyes appeared on it, the eyes gleaming as they stared at the metal beast core in Lu Ming's hand.
Whoosh!
The metal ball bounced over, opened its mouth wide, and swallowed the beast core whole, crunching away with a thud.
In a short while, the metal beast core was eaten by the metal ball, which then stared longingly at Lu Ming.
Lu Ming took out a few more, but the metal ball ate them up in no time.
"This can't go on! Where are we going to get enough metal beast cores for it to eat!"
Lu Ming frowned.
"Metal beast cores are actually a type of refining material. I wonder if this guy will eat other metal-attribute refining materials!"
Thinking of this, a piece of refining material appeared in Lu Ming's hand. It shone with various different lusters and was made of metals with different properties.
Click!
As soon as Lu Ming took it out, the metal ball swallowed it whole and ate it with relish.
"It actually eats it. This guy has really good teeth. So, Zhanbing, will it eat it?"
Lu Ming thought for a moment and then took out another Emperor-level weapon.
The metal sphere extended two tentacles, grabbed the Emperor Soldier, and chewed it to pieces in a few crunches. Then, its round body shook, as if to say that the soldier's level was not high enough and the food was not tasty enough.
Lu Ming was speechless. The next moment, a bow and arrow appeared in Lu Ming's hand.
This is the Falling Star Bow, a damaged Heavenly Dao weapon that provided Lu Ming with considerable assistance when his cultivation was still weak.
The metal ball was grabbed and swallowed in a few quick snaps.
Only then did a hint of satisfaction appear in the metal sphere's eyes.
"Here are a few more for you!"
Lu Ming then took out several more Heavenly Dao Weapons, including the Great Wilderness Spear.
The Great Wilderness Spear fought against the alien ancestor back then.
It was already damaged, and for Lu Ming now, a Heavenly Dao Soldier-level weapon was useless; he could shatter it with a wave of his hand.
The metal sphere accepted everything without hesitation, chewing and swallowing several Heavenly Dao Weapons one by one. After swallowing them, a layer of radiance emanated from its metal body, and then it stared longingly at Lu Ming.
"This guy has a huge appetite!"
Lu Ming had a headache.
Then, gritting his teeth, he took out two weapons, a battle sword and an axe, both of which were divine artifacts, but only low-grade first-tier divine artifacts.
These were all spoils of war that Lu Ming obtained from the enemy.
In the battle of Wan Jinxing, Lu Ming and his companions each obtained several divine artifacts, but the highest-ranking one was a low-grade third-tier divine artifact. They did not obtain any low-grade fourth-tier or higher divine artifacts.
Upon seeing the two low-grade first-tier artifacts, the metal ball's eyes lit up, and it grabbed them and began to gnaw on them vigorously.
This is a divine artifact! Although it's only a low-grade first-tier artifact, its sturdiness is extraordinary. Even with Lu Ming's current strength, it would take a lot of effort to destroy it. But the metal ball can bite off a large chunk in one bite and eat it with great 'fragrant' crunch.
The metal ball ate the artifacts a little slower. After about half an hour, it finally destroyed both artifacts, glowing with a satisfied expression.
"This guy, will he need to eat divine artifacts all the time in the future?!"
Thinking of this, Lu Ming's face darkened.
Each of these magical artifacts is incredibly expensive; if he keeps buying them like this, he'll definitely go bankrupt.
However, the thought that this guy would advance in rank if he ate too much made Lu Ming's heart burn with excitement.
If there are enough metal materials and various weapons to feed the metal ball, wouldn't it be able to keep advancing? That would be of great help to it in the future.
"Let's eat something basic first, and I'll think of something else!"
Lu Ming pondered for a moment, then took out some of the refining materials he had collected over the years.
Over the years, he has collected too many metal refining materials. He gave some to the Dragon Alliance and others to use for refining, but there are still quite a few left.
However, none of them are of high level.
Although only a portion was taken out, it still piled up like a small mountain. Seeing so much metal material, the metal ball's eyes lit up, and it plunged into the pile of refining materials, devouring them.
Over the next two weeks, Lu Ming stabilized his cultivation level while observing the condition of the metal sphere.
In the past two weeks, the metal sphere has consumed almost all the refining materials that Lu Ming collected, but it shows no signs of advancing.
"It seems the refining materials are of too low grade to provide enough energy for the metal sphere!"
Lu Ming sighed.
Lu Ming guessed that after the metal ball swallowed the metal material, it could absorb the spiritual essence within the metal material and improve itself.
Only by absorbing enough spiritual essence can it undergo a transformation and advance to the next level.
The low-grade refining materials contained too little energy for the metal sphere, which was already at the second level of the Void God Realm.
"What should I do? Will I have to keep feeding it this artifact? How can I afford to do that?!"
Lu Ming sighed.
"etc!"
Suddenly, Lu Ming's eyes lit up.
If you can't afford to feed the divine artifact, then feed it with divine artifact fragments.
In the vast universe, countless people fight each other every day, and countless others venture into forbidden lands, dangerous places, and unknown planets for adventure.
They fought fiercely against each other, and every day, magical artifacts would shatter, creating magical fragments.
The metal sphere only needs the spiritual essence within the metal, so consuming artifact fragments and consuming artifacts are essentially the same thing.
However, artifact fragments are much, much cheaper than artifacts themselves.
In fact, the price of artifact fragments is even cheaper than the refining materials of the same level.
Because crafting materials can be used directly for crafting, but if you want to reuse magical fragments, you must first extract the materials from the artifact fragments.
However, when forging divine artifacts, the various materials are completely intertwined and mixed together, making it very difficult to extract them.
Labor costs are also very high, which results in artifact fragments not being very expensive.
"Let's go buy some artifact fragments, haha!"
Thinking of this, Lu Ming was overjoyed, grabbed the metal ball, and walked outside.
The metal sphere itself was like a clump of liquid metal. At this moment, it began to wriggle along Lu Ming's palm and actually transformed into a golden bracelet, which was worn on Lu Ming's wrist.
"Good, that's good!"
Lu Ming was overjoyed.
It was transformed into a bracelet to wear on the wrist, so as not to attract attention.
"I'll give you a name!"
Lu Ming looked at the 'bracelet' on his wrist.
A pair of eyes immediately appeared on the bracelet, looking at Lu Ming expectantly.
"You're round and chubby, just like a ball, so I'll call you Ballball, how about that? Doesn't it sound nice?"
Lu Ming said.
The metal ball blinked its eyes, seemingly quite pleased with it.
"Dandan, Bubble, Ball..."
Lu Ming thought of Dan Dan and Bubble, and smiled to himself. He was quite satisfied with his own naming skills.
Once outside, Lu Ming took to the air and soon arrived at the place where the Zhengtian Army traded treasures.
Editor's note: The damaged English source for this chapter has been replaced with WTR-LAB's public Web machine translation from Chinese, with minor editorial corrections. Names and wording may differ from nearby chapters.