Chapter 329: Sudden Change

In the blink of an eye, Lin Qing had already drifted at sea for over ten hours.

This sea area was shrouded in thick fog, seemingly devoid of the concept of sunrise or sunset, or perhaps the time had not yet come, remaining rather dim throughout.

"Boom."

On the deck, a giant spider, half a person's height, covered in black fur, and bearing a beautiful human head, stared fixedly at Lin Qing; the eyes filled with charm slowly lost their luster, then it crashed to the ground with a thud.

Threads of crimson qi spiraled out, finally condensing into a dark red circular coin that fell onto the ground nearby.

"Spider silk can actually be spat this far?"

Lin Qing glanced at the thick spider silk stuck to his foot; with a gesture, a trace of aura emanated from the innate supreme treasure of his soul, projecting a sharp long blade.

After cutting off the spider silk with a slash, Lin Qing walked over and picked up the dark red coin.

He also slashed the neck of the human-headed spider, letting dark blue blood gush out onto the deck, then seep deep into the deck, absorbed by this demonic ship.

—The power source of this 'Abyss' is fresh blood.

"Another one."

Lin Qing weighed the dark red coin in his hand, then casually tucked it into the cloth bag at his waist.

This was already the fourth such coin he had obtained.

However, he still did not know the function of this coin.

"Only five more demons needed to upgrade this ship."

Lin Qing glanced at the corpse of the human-headed spider, preparing to wait until its blood was drained before tossing it into the lower cabin.

In these ten-plus hours, this was already the fifth demon he had killed.

These inferior demons could not withstand the consciousness destruction of the Illusory World Great Extinction; without exception, they fell to the ground unharmed.

Except for the first demon, which left behind an axe artifact upon death, the subsequent four demons all left behind this kind of dark red coin.

"I'm a bit hungry."

Lin Qing rubbed his abdomen, "There's no food on this ship either; does it want me to eat these demons?"

Since reincarnating into this world, he had not eaten a single bite of food or drunk a single drop of water; he had only been piloting this Abyss forward, luring inferior demons onto the ship one by one.

Some of these demons drifted here on rafts, some were flying demons, and some simply lurked beneath the sea surface.

Fortunately, he used the Illusory World Great Extinction to instantly kill them, consuming no physical stamina at all; he was only mentally exhausted and needed some rest.

"There's no fire either; does it expect me to eat raw flesh and drink blood..."

Lin Qing couldn't help but frown slightly.

To know, these demons were all grotesque in shape; for instance, the spider just killed had little flesh, bore a human head, and its blood was dark blue.

Even if one removed the head to eat it, did this thing require eating as sashimi?

"Wait a bit longer; anyway, I'm not hungry." Lin Qing temporarily suppressed this thought.

Unless forced into a desperate situation, he did not want to eat these things raw.

Although it was survival, he currently felt absolutely no difficulty whatsoever.

Mainly because the advantage brought by the Illusory World Great Extinction was too great; killing these inferior demons was effortless; otherwise, fighting them bare-handed would indeed be quite dangerous, and getting injured would be normal.

Moreover, this Abyss possessed the trait of attracting demons; if a normal survivor were in his place, fighting continuously five times would only lead to a faster death.

"Continue; only five more demon corpses are needed to upgrade the Abyss."

Just as Lin Qing was preparing to return to the cabin to wait, he suddenly stopped, looked at the dim and deep thick fog outside the deck, and couldn't help but frown slightly: "Has the sky turned dark?"

Before, although the sky was relatively dim, it was not this dark.

Just at this moment—

"Congratulations to you all for surviving the first day."

A solemn and indifferent voice, like that of a deity, suddenly rang in the minds of all survivors: "As of this moment, over eight hundred million of the five billion survivors have died, almost all upon encountering the first demon, but night has just begun, and the true danger has not yet started."

"However... whenever night falls, the wandering merchants will also begin to move; if your luck is good enough and you have sufficient wealth, once you encounter a wandering merchant, you might gain some hope of survival."

"At the same time, after night falls, each of you will have one opportunity to trade via your shelter."

"Continue to struggle."

As that solemn and indifferent voice faded, survivors everywhere in the survival world couldn't help but feel fear.

The dangers encountered over these ten-plus hours were not even the true danger?

"Wandering merchant?"

Lin Qing pondered, then looked at the pitch-black night outside the cabin, "True danger? Higher-level demons encountered? Or a higher probability of encounters?"

He didn't think much of it and immediately entered the cabin.

Anyway, this Abyss would actively attract demons onto the ship; as long as he hid inside the shelter, he could wait for the demons to approach and then unleash the Illusory World Great Extinction.

These inferior demons could not withstand his Will Secret Art; even if more came, they posed no threat.

Instead, they were delivering corpses to him.

"Let's see the trade."

After returning to the cabin, Lin Qing looked at the screen on the wall, where a trade channel had now appeared.

Upon opening it, the words 【Death Sea Area Channel】 were prominently displayed, along with over seventy thousand people.

Although each person was limited to three messages, the channel with over seventy thousand people was densely packed with information, making it almost impossible to filter out much useful data.

However, Lin Qing noticed that it seemed the vast majority of people had only encountered one inferior demon.

Although some had managed to kill the inferior demons, many were injured, and quite a few people had been hiding inside their cabin shelters, too afraid to fight the demons guarding the doors.

"This Abyss really pushes people into the abyss..."

Lin Qing couldn't help but raise an eyebrow slightly.

If not for the fact that the owner of the Abyss was him, given this frequency of attracting demons, anyone else would either only dare to hide inside the cabin or would already be dead.

The vast majority of survivors had to think of every possible way to kill a single demon, risking injury and even death themselves.

Five?

The mortality rate is beyond imagination.

"Someone actually has food?"

Lin Qing continued observing the posts and transactions within these channels, discovering people seeking to trade for weapons, food, or water, while others were taking the opportunity to collect those dark red coins.

As for food, as expected, most of it was demon creature sashimi...

Some even provided information for free, stating they had used fishing nets in the sea to haul up drifting barrels or sealed crates, from which they discovered food, water, or other items, and even weapons.

"No one is even sure of the function of these coins, yet people have already started collecting them."

Lin Qing suddenly noticed that within the channel, several people had already begun exchanging small amounts of food and water for those dark red coins.

However, no one was willing to trade. After all, anyone could guess that perhaps the so-called Night Wandering Merchant required these dark red coins for transactions?

"This axe is worth selling..."

Lin Qing glanced at the axe placed beside him; as a tierless demon artifact possessing special traits, its utility in combat was still very significant.

However, since most people possessing those dark red coins only had one, he was not in a rush to trade.

He was also unclear about the probability of such so-called tierless demon artifacts appearing.

But it should not be high.

So, he could wait and see.

"Quite a few with status, it seems..."

Lin Qing saw that within the channel, quite a few people claimed to be from this or that family, or related to some powerful figure, and some even waved the banner of the Eternal Existence, hoping someone would help them.

But the survivors were all reincarnated into this place, could not connect to the Second Universe Network, and had no way to prove their authenticity.

However, there were some who matched the secret signals, seemingly having arranged it before entering the Survival World, and voluntarily gifted away their food or those coins as a trade.

"Those reincarnated with backgrounds indeed have the advantage..."

Lin Qing sighed inwardly; through the exchanges of this channel with tens of thousands of people, he had gained a certain degree of understanding of the Third-Level Civilization.

Even in a Third-Level Civilization, the vast majority of people still had not transcended; they merely found it easier to become Void Lords, but even without the Time Calamity brought by the Star Abyss, Void Beings could not be immortal; the laws of the universe would limit the supply of energy, and Void Beings would still have to work hard to earn money to extend their lives.

Without money, one either waits to die or sells oneself.

And these survivors had sold themselves to the 'Myriad Phenomena World' Group that created this Survival World; only survivors who lived on would be qualified to sign a contract with the Myriad Phenomena World Group and continue living.

As for the specific details, Lin Qing was not quite clear.

He had only inferred some situations indirectly through the exchanges within the channel.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, Lin Qing turned his head to look outside the cabin door.

Immediately following, a series of knocking sounds, quite chaotic, rang out.

Lin Qing could clearly sense the visitor outside the door.

A humanoid demon creature with eight tentacles, and a demon creature with a human body and a snake tail.

"Is this the danger of the Night?"

Lin Qing's eyes lit up. "Two demon creatures at once?"

Of course, it was definitely because this Abyss Ship would actively attract demon creatures.

"Come on!"

Lin Qing immediately willed it, and his will, nearly manifesting as reality, instantly formed a vast illusory world, which directly crashed down upon the outside of the cabin door with a boom.

Inside the Surveillance Divine Temple.

"My lord, the difficulty of this Night is nothing but child's play for Survivor Number C021030..."

Director Qiu could not help but speak up: "This will not only affect the balance of the Survival Rules, but the betting matches arranged by the Group will also be impacted..."

The handsome young man dressed in simple plain clothes glanced at him and said coldly, "This is an order; you need not worry. Moreover, inferior demon creatures are simply shaped from the souls of deceased survivors; at best, they are ordinary Void Lords. It is normal that they cannot withstand his will secret arts."

Looking at Lin Qing in the water curtain, he said, "When he encounters high-level demon creatures or even King-level demon creatures, the effect of will secret arts will not be great."

Actually, there was another sentence he did not say in his heart—

"Forget about affecting the balance; even if the entire Survival World were destroyed, so what?"

Director Qiu did not dare to speak further, so he could only watch silently from the side.

"By the way," the handsome young man asked again, "Have you sent in the new batch of demon creatures I asked you to replace?"

"The cultivated demon creatures with the bloodline of Third-Generation Chaos Beings have all been sent in."

Director Qiu hurriedly said, "But the bloodline of Second-Generation Chaos Beings is too precious and rare; drawing it out is also quite troublesome, so we can only apply to the Research Department. Fortunately, we only need to cultivate them to a strength equivalent to the previous Demon Creature Emperors, so it won't take long. Plus, with time-accelerated cultivation, it should be ready soon."

"Hmm, fortunately the Survival World has only just started for half a day. It will take at least a long while before the survivors encounter the final Demon Creature Emperor," the handsome young man said.

He asked again, "By the way, regarding the Demon Creature Emperor prepared to be drawn in, which Second-Generation bloodline of a Chaos Being is it?"

"It is a hybrid mutated bloodline; one of the bloodlines is Eternal Frozen Ice Flame," Director Qiu said uncertainly. "However, within this Eternal Frozen Ice Flame bloodline, there are also mixed bloodlines of other Chaos Beings, though it is uncertain which ones. This is also considered a very rare situation."

"Oh?" the handsome young man asked with some confusion, "I heard that between Chaos Beings, bloodlines are almost impossible to hybridize?"

"It is said that Lord Morichi recently caught a Chaos Being while exploring the Chaos and handed it over to the Research Department for development; the Research Department only just extracted the bloodline from its body," Director Qiu said. "If it were not for your order, my lord, and the fact that this is the only Second-Generation bloodline remaining in the Group, the Research Department would never have been willing to part with it."

"Excellent." A hint of a smile appeared on the handsome young man's lips.

He suspected that this mysterious survivor might be a disciple of the Ultimate Existence; naturally, he wanted to befriend him, which is why he was willing to make such an investment.

After all, the Second-Generation bloodline of Chaos Beings was useless to the Eternal Existence.

And this rare mutated Chaos Being bloodline, he imagined, would make the other party even more delighted.

For those below the Eternal, the Second-Generation Chaos Being bloodline was still very precious; even most Eternal Existences had only fused bloodlines of such a level.

As for the First Generation?

That would be the bloodline of the Chaos Being itself, even containing inherited memories, and was even more extremely precious.

Only a small fraction of the Eternal Beings have any chance of obtaining such an opportunity.

Inside the Survival World.

Within a boundless, dark sea, a spatial rift suddenly appeared, silently piercing through the world's boundaries.

Then, a tiny streak of light flew out from within, completely shrouded in eerie, cold, azure flames, and dove straight into the seawater.

"Crack, crack, crack..."

The azure flames burned, instantly freezing vast stretches of seawater into ice, and at the center of the massive ice block, a tiny demon beast was faintly visible.

"Am I free?"

A surge of wild joy arose in its heart. "What is this? The bloodline controlling these ice-cold flames is already terrifying enough, yet deep within another bloodline, there actually lies inherited memory? What a horrifying power..."

Above the boundless, dark sea, the Abyss Ship sailed like a ghost through the waves, constantly breaking through layers of thick fog.

"The tenth one. They are all gathered."

In the darkness, Lin Qing looked at the ten demon beast corpses on the deck, a faint smile curling his lips. "It is time to try upgrading the Abyss Ship."

(End of this chapter)