Chapter 127

The scene at the time nearly made me laugh out loud, but I held it in—I'd planned to grab Tongzi's hand with my bloodied hand, trembling, and tell him… Tongzi, carry my share of glory, and never stop until you reach Phase Two training camp.

But the poison effect was too severe, my health drained too fast, and before I could finish saying those words, Brother Di Zhao locked me in the black room.

Hey, if only I'd managed to say those words, you can imagine how devastating they'd have been to Tongzi.

You didn't see the look Tongzi gave me back then—he was about to cry.

How do I describe it? He was trembling all over, fighting back tears, forcing himself not to cry.

I imagine that after I died, Tongzi would have pounded the ground in frenzy, gritted his teeth and sworn vengeance for us, then turned away decisively, walked a distance, looked back once at where I lay dead, then gazed toward the region where spirit beasts dwelled, his eyes filled with endless killing intent.

I, Gui Tong, swear to avenge you all!

Through Li Zheng's description, the Gan Di group players imagined the scene and couldn't help laughing heartily.

Thinking that Tongzi, their usual rival, had been reduced to this, they felt delighted; even the Family Shared Father figure kept slapping his thighs, looking like he was about to laugh himself into a spasm.

But more than anything, the Gan Di players were happy that Tongzi and the other Snow Valley training camp brothers had escaped safely.

Choosing to die voluntarily to cover their retreat was meant to buy them time to flee.

Now, these alien brothers have escaped the most dangerous part of the White Plains—their sacrifice was not in vain.

Although this choice caused their hidden quest to be interrupted, the Gan Di players were all delighted.

Since the game's launch, the Dark Lands in their eyes had long surpassed the concept of a game—they felt more like a real world.

Interacting with the alien trainees, they even unconsciously regarded them as living beings, not merely created AI.

From initial hostility to later standing shoulder to shoulder when the Snow Valley training camp arrived, the friendship forged made them unable to stand by and watch alien brothers die before their eyes.

Compared to profit, they now had something they cared about more.

Amid casual banter, they left the respawn point and headed straight for the armed vehicle factory east of Emperor's Tomb Village.

Upon returning, the Gan Di group planned to first craft themselves a set of armed vehicles.

As for how to choose, they'd already decided clearly before returning.

Compared to building their own, they preferred downloading ready-made popular templates from the forum and crafting them with one click.

Designing their own was truly tedious, requiring multiple revisions, and after assembly, the vehicle still needed extensive parameter testing and adjustments.

Going through this entire process took at least half a day.

The popular, practical vehicles on the forum were the results of guide players spending days testing—ready-made templates were clearly superior to building from scratch.

Entering the factory, the ground's spirit runes automatically lit up.

Li Zheng's mind triggered a Challenger prompt:

【Challenger Prompt: Activate Armed Vehicle Factory Mode? Each session consumes 2 Shou Shou Jili. Yes/No.】

After mentally selecting the option, a strong sensation of weightlessness struck, and his vision blurred.

Entering the simulation test environment, Li Zheng dragged a vehicle template from his favorites into the assembly panel.

Instantly, a vehicle shaped like a flying sword appeared on screen.

Li Zheng had chosen the Cloud-Hidden Azure Dragon Flying Sword, ranked #1 in the forum's "Armed Vehicle Innovation Contest."

Although flying sword vehicles weren't very practical and suffered from a half-hour endurance limit,

the key was that it looked cool.

As for the risk of falling during riding, it could be solved through training—mastering balance on a flying sword simply took time.

He tapped to switch vehicles; the flying sword reassembled into a black robe.

Although they'd settled on the vehicle, Li Zheng and his brothers had no intention of using the default armor templates.

After discussion, they decided to unify their armor aesthetics.

After initializing the armor design, Li Zheng dragged another armor template from his favorites, then expanded and fused it according to the vehicle's armor module count, refining the details.

…

Half an hour later, the Gan Di group exited the factory.

Their original black robes vanished; now they wore long coats with black main bodies and dark red stripe accents, their demeanor noticeably enhanced by the new attire, and each coat bore a "Gan" character on the back.

After finalizing their armed vehicle setups, they began discussing how to reconfigure their Star Vein sects.

They were still using the original Star Vein sects from the game's launch and felt it was time for an update.

During their absence, the forum had added many powerful new Star Vein sects, including several they particularly liked.

Checking their Painful Painful Minghun library, they found that while traveling toward Phase Two training camp, three new Painful Painful Minghun had been added since "Scattered Arrows."

One of them was a Painful Painful Minghun Li Zheng particularly favored.

【Gang Qi (Third-Gen Meng Yuan Chu)】:

Painful Painful Minghun Trait: After embedding Gang Qi, you may freely control your internal blood qi to form crimson gang qi, releasing it for long-range ranged strikes, enveloping your body to form a gang qi defense, or infusing weapons with gang qi for damage enhancement (gang qi strength depends on your blood qi level and Painful Painful Minghun rank—the higher the Painful Painful Minghun rank, the higher the gang qi quality; the higher your blood qi, the stronger the gang qi).

…

This was a versatile Painful Painful Minghun similar to Wind Control.

The appearance of Gang Qi significantly boosted the strength of melee Star Veins.

Whether it was the Stone Statue sect focused on melee tanking, the Stabbing sect focused on melee burst damage, or the Archer focused on ranged physical output, all could enhance combat power through Gang Qi.

Since Painful Painful Minghun upgrades primarily enhanced physical attributes, and usage required blood qi consumption,

Gang Qi was unsuitable for magic-based Star Vein players.

In actual combat, using Gang Qi resembled inner force, battle aura, or true qi from novels and films—highly adaptable during battle.

Its strength ranked among the current version's T0 tier.

This was Li Zheng's top choice for a Painful Painful Minghun.

Summoning the Star Vein interface, a brilliant star-river-like spine of star veins appeared in his mind.

Clicking the Painful Painful Minghun Shop on the right, he spent 6,000 Shou Shou Jili to purchase a Gang Qi Painful Painful Minghun Pearl.

Inside the pearl, crimson qi flowed, expanding and contracting continuously.

He replaced the first Star Vein slot's Black Scale Snake Painful Painful Minghun, and instantly a powerful sense of weakness surged over him, as if his body had been drained of all strength in an instant, making even breathing abnormally heavy.

Without hesitation, he chose to disassemble the Black Scale Snake Painful Painful Minghun on the spot, directing all 95% of the returned Evolution Points into the Gale Force Painful Painful Minghun.

Immediately, a powerful energy surged into his body, coursing through every limb and vein.

The Gale Force Painful Painful Minghun's level rose rapidly; his bodily blood and qi surged like a tide, emitting a crisp "crackling" sound like frying beans.

His body was reinforced anew under the cleansing wave of rich blood and qi energy, and the lingering sense of weakness vanished.

With the point allocation complete, the Gale Force Painful Painful Minghun reached level 31.

Li Zheng opened his eyes at this moment.

How to use this ability required no training—it was as innate as breathing, imprinted in his mind.

He clenched his fist sharply, and instantly a blood-red energy current, like flame, flared across his skin; concentric ripples of blood and qi energy spread outward from his feet in layer upon layer of waves.

His right hand suddenly struck forward into empty air.

Crack!

A sharp, clear sonic boom echoed; the blood-red energy swirling around his body surged toward his right fist, then shot forward and exploded several meters ahead.

After this initial test, Li Zheng realized the Gale Force's strength lay not only in its ability to strike at a distance, but also in how its energy wrapped around his body enhanced his movement efficiency.

For example, while running, he could fully use Gale Force to propel his body forward.

"Third-generation Painful Painful Minghun are strong—equivalent to Qi Absorption for magic-oriented Star Vein lineages. This Gale Force is definitely a universal Painful Painful Minghun essential for future melee combat," remarked Sha Xin Dong Li, who also had the Gale Force Painful Painful Minghun embedded, after a brief test.

With the first Painful Painful Minghun slot completed, he reset the remaining Star Vein slots.

Besides Gale Force, the two newly added Painful Painful Minghun were:

【Blood Burn (Second-Generation Meng Yuan Chu)】:

Painful Painful Minghun Trait: When applied to any target, Blood Burn inflicts continuous HP drain while significantly enhancing the target's physical strength, boosting movement efficiency, damage resistance, and output efficiency.

This Painful Painful Minghun was obtained by hunting Meng Yuan Chu monsters in the dense forests of the Misty Coast region.

It suits players who follow a utility-focused build, allowing them to enhance designated targets.

Forum players have also combined Blood Burn with Light Shield and Binding Painful Painful Minghun to develop a bizarre Blood Burn combo for damage output.

The trick is to use Blood Burn's trait to force the target into a state of continuous HP loss while enhanced, then use Light Shield and Binding traits to immobilize the target, trapping it in a state of continuous HP drain with no mobility.

But this combo has a clear flaw: if the target is too strong, applying Blood Burn significantly boosts their power, making them even harder to stop.

The final Painful Painful Minghun is:

【Rock Shield (First-Generation Meng Yuan Chu)】:

Painful Painful Minghun Trait: After activation, it consumes blood and qi to continuously draw power from the earth, granting additional defense enhancement.

Rock Shield Meng Yuan Chu was obtained by poaching in the Spirit Vessel Valley; it appears as a massive black stone shield, and its trait performs strikingly in combat.

At level 1, Rock Shield consumes blood and qi at a ratio of approximately 1:1.2 to gain the Earth Shield.

That means, once equipped, your blood and qi value can be multiplied by 1.2 times for use.

As a Spirit Vessel lineage Painful Painful Minghun, the Rock Shield spirit can be condensed in combat to serve as a damage-absorbing armor, making it highly compatible with Stone Statue lineage players.

…

Of the three new Painful Painful Minghun, Li Zheng disliked the other two besides Gale Force.

How to arrange the new Star Vein combination, he had previously consulted the forum strategy expert "Nightfall Approaches."

Nightfall Approaches was very enthusiastic and, based on their obtained "War God Seal," provided three recommended Star Vein combinations.

He noted that the War God Seal's rule trait allows continuous absorption of war energy for enhancement during battle.

Therefore, priority should not be given to raw output power, but to surviving longer than others in battle.

The battlefield can be understood as an experience zone that continuously supplies Body Strengthening experience; the amount of growth experience gained depends on the brutality of the battle and your survival time.

The longer you survive, the more war energy you absorb.

Thus, Star Vein composition should prioritize survival first, then movement efficiency (dodging, fleeing), and finally output efficiency.

With the growth direction of the Star Vein combination clarified, all subsequent Painful Painful Minghun choices can revolve around survival.

Among the three options given by Nightfall Approaches, Li Zheng chose the second:

Gale Force + Gargoyle (Petrify) + Resistance + Power Axe + Shatter + Roar + Extreme Speed.

This Star Vein lineage's strength lies in Gale Force comprehensively enhancing physical attributes, Petrify providing massive damage reduction when taking hits, Resistance granting significant elemental resistance, and the popular Power Axe + Shatter combo boosting output intensity.

Roar is a utility trait that can stun enemies when needed, making it a semi-damage, semi-control Painful Painful Minghun.

The final Extreme Speed is used in critical moments to grant high movement speed or an instant burst of powerful output.

As for why he removed the Black Scale Snake Painful Painful Minghun, it was primarily because its Venomous trait is better suited for later special-effect Painful Painful Minghun combinations.

For example, Venomous + Curse Blade + Soul Separation, and similar combos.

These combos do not seek explosive damage in short bursts, but instead slowly kill opponents through sustained HP drain.

At this stage, Li Zheng's Star Vein slots have been unlocked to the seventh, and he feels he can fully utilize a burst-flow build to significantly enhance his melee damage and kill efficiency.

This Star Vein combination grants him both strong defense and high output.

His level 7 Body Strengthening rank allows him to have both—already placing him at a decisive, unmatched height above all other players.

The only thing troubling Li Zheng was the acquisition of Evolution Points.

His Body Strengthening rank and Star Vein rank had risen, but his Painful Painful Minghun levels remained low.

The average level of single Painful Painful Minghun among mainstream players (first tier) has already reached above level 34, with the highest nearing 40, while their highest Painful Painful Minghun level was only 31.

Now with seven Star Vein slots opened and seven Painful Painful Minghun embedded, if Evolution Points were evenly distributed across all Painful Painful Minghun during each hunt, the difficulty of leveling them up would multiply exponentially.

At this stage, hunting is the most critical task—they must raise their Painful Painful Minghun levels as quickly as possible.

To avoid falling behind the main group.

After completing the Star Vein rearrangement, Li Zheng turned his gaze to the other members of the Gank Emperor Squad.

Their Body Strengthening ranks were all at level 5, and they were still arranging their Star Vein combinations.

During the exchange just now, Leopard Head Zero Recharge decided to switch to a support-oriented build, Eat Dirt and Fun But No Spend chose to continue with the magic-system Star Vein combination, and the rest of the brothers all chose to match that same pairing.

Once the brothers had finished configuring their Star Vein combinations, Seeing Li Zheng led them off at once toward the Testing Tower to run ability tests.

The combat tests inside the Testing Tower come in two kinds.

They are the Wooden Dummy test and the Monster test.

The Wooden Dummy test is the simplest — it lets you summon a dummy that can take infinite damage inside a simulated scene; any ability used to attack the dummy will pop up a damage number, and there's a real-time statistics panel you can check.

During the test you can also adjust the dummy's values — for example, raising its defense, HP, and so on.

Next, the dummy can also be used to test the functional effects of a support Painful Painful Minghun — for instance, applying a Blood Ignition trait to the dummy, then checking the dummy's stat changes and the rate at which it loses HP.

The Monster test's setup is more complex.

In the test interface you can pick from every monster, evil spirit, and the like that players have encountered; once you've made your selection you set the quantity, and after the monsters are summoned you can choose to have them attack you for live-combat testing, or for damage-taken performance testing.

You can also summon monsters to attack the dummy; support-build players can use this window to test abilities like Binding, Light Shield defense, and other support combat skills.

In the Testing Tower's simulated combat, players can also die.

But after death you don't enter the one-hour resurrection cooldown — instead you revive instantly on the spot, and can start a fresh round of ability testing whenever you like.

Many Painful Painful Minghun combinations are performance-tested inside the Testing Tower first, and only then are they posted on the forums by the guide-writer players.

After spending an hour on live-combat testing, Seeing Li Zheng and the others left the Testing Tower.

But they didn't rush off to go hunting; instead they sat in a circle near the fountain beside the Testing Tower and began discussing their future plans:

Seeing Li Zheng: Brothers, do you think there's any chance we can pick up the hidden quest we finished early again?

Family Share Godfather: Li-ge, seems like we never even got a notification that the hidden quest ended, so I feel like we can.

Kill Intent Activated: I think we can too. I'd really like to keep going with that bunch of grandsons, cross the Phase Two to Zhi Wu Qi training camp together, then hit the battlefield together for some hot-blooded slaughtering — just thinking about it sounds fun.

Broke Enough to Eat Dirt: Your ideas aren't bad, but the question is how to pick the hidden quest back up. We're back in the village now, and the training camp isn't somewhere we can just walk into whenever we feel like it.

Chatting up to this point, Eat Dirt's expression paused, then he turned his head to look at the guidance orb floating beside him:

"Guide, did our hidden quest actually fail or not, and is there any chance of picking it back up?"

Facing the question, the Guide replied in a lazy tone:

【Can't give a definitive answer. According to the training camp's arrangements, Instructor Kuang Sha once told you that Elder You would arrive on some future day to recruit a new batch of gamer clan members into the training camp. When that happens, you can go ask whether you can rejoin the training camp and start directly from Phase Two.】

Hearing the Guide's answer, the expressions of Seeing Li Zheng and the others immediately turned excited.

Although the Guide didn't explicitly say the hidden quest could be picked back up, it also didn't explicitly say it couldn't.

Given this game's ultra-high freedom-of-setting design, the possibility of the hidden quest continuing was entirely there.

The specifics would have to wait until Elder You arrived, then they'd go make contact and ask.

Seeing Li Zheng: Right, if the hidden quest can be picked back up, how should we explain the reviving-after-death thing? Any answer we give could easily break the game's setting and come out as something that doesn't fit a player's background?

Broke Enough to Eat Dirt: That's simple. The in-game setting is that you can't answer questions about Beneath Di Zhao Village or player-related info; everything else is free. We can totally make up a reason, and whether they believe it or not is Elder You's problem — no matter what we say, he has no way to verify it.

Family Share Godfather: How about this: say our gamer clan kept a Life Seed in the Outer Realm, and when our main body dies the seed takes in our memory fragments and remolds our life to revive us.

Kill Intent Activated: Works. By the time we get there, our strength should be even greater, so we can explain that as a strengthening effect brought by the revive-remolding.

Leopard Head Zero Recharge: But what if Elder You asks how many times we can revive — what should we say?

Fun But No Spend: How about we tell Elder You we can only revive once?

Broke Enough to Eat Dirt: Saying once isn't a problem, but the issue is if we die again next time and end up reviving again, how do we explain that then? Elder You's probably going to think he's seen a ghost. Better to set it up in advance for the next death — say we don't even know ourselves how many times we can revive, that it's the elders in the clan doing soul-summoning and controlling it, and the specifics depend on our soul strength… anyway, how we make up the content is entirely up to us.

Seeing Li Zheng: Right. After all, they can't verify anything, so let's just say it's a special ability our gamer clan possesses, granted back in the day by big bro Beneath Di Zhao.

Broke Enough to Eat Dirt: Have you guys noticed? So many races in this world have cheat-like rule abilities — like the Terror Black Tide's devour-and-evolve, or the Battle Zerg's pheromone collection and modification. So it's perfectly normal for our gamer clan to have a revive cheat, right? It doesn't clash with the world's setting.

Family Share Godfather: Hahaha, no problem with that. Everyone else is cheating, so what's wrong with our gamer clan having a revive cheat? Tell me, what's wrong with it?

Fun But No Spend: I'm already imagining the looks on those brothers' faces when they see us — they're probably going to be wailing and crying while hugging us.

Seeing Li Zheng: You're overthinking it. I can guarantee they'll come charging over to beat us up, especially after they learn we have the revive ability. Think back to Painful Painful Minghun's despairing expression back then — you think that guy's going to let us off?

Broke Enough to Eat Dirt: Him not letting us off is fine; what I'm curious about is whether he'll keep his promise and gift you the divine-grade necklace.

Family Share Godfather: Tongzi's probably going to regret it so bad his guts turn green by then. Let me demonstrate Tongzi's expression for you — it'd be something like this: fists clenched tight, veins popping on his forehead, killing intent surging in his eyes, gnashing his teeth… look at me, does my act look like him or not?

The players of the Liver Emperor Group, seeing Family Share Godfather's impression, all couldn't help bursting into laughter.

Especially the slightly furrowed brow Family Share Godfather put on while doing the impression — it was practically Painful Painful Minghun himself.

With a clear goal in mind, the Liver Emperor Group players decided to keep close tabs on Elder You's movements from now on, and try to pick up the unfinished hidden quest.

After finishing the talk about the hidden quest, Seeing Li Zheng's expression turned serious:

"Brothers, where are we going to hunt next? It's time to push our Painful Painful Minghun levels up a bit. Otherwise, even if we can pick Phase Two of the training camp back up, I'm afraid we won't survive the later training items… Phase One of the training camp centered on willpower training, but after that we'll gradually start getting into real combat. No matter how strong your willpower is, if your strength isn't enough there's still a risk of being eliminated."

Facing the question, Leopard Head Zero Recharge spoke up:

"Li-ge, how about we go to the Colorful Mist Coast region? We haven't been there yet since the new region opened."

"Yeah, let's go to the Colorful Mist Coast. Isn't there a guild organizing an undersea operation there? Let's tag along and give it a try."

"I agree too, but the purification quests in Shuijingdian are mostly being done by players of the Gillfish and Abyss Fish clans — the scale doesn't feel that big. We've got the War God Seal buff now, so we should be joining large-scale campaigns. Like, ask the God King and see if he's planning to organize any big campaigns lately."

……

After hearing his brothers' ideas, Seeing Li Zheng ultimately decided to head to the Colorful Mist Coast region first to take a look.

Besides hunting, it was also to satisfy their curiosity.

During the training camp, they could only observe the Colorful Mist Coast region through other players' livestreams.

Now that they were back, they definitely had to go check out and stroll around the new region.

With a plan in mind, the group got up and headed toward the spatial teleportation plaza of Beneath Di Zhao Village.

They had only walked a few steps when a connection prompt rang in Seeing Li Zheng's mind.

It showed that "Wo Si Ni Die" was requesting a video call.

After accepting the call, the figure that appeared on the light-screen image wore silver-white armor that wrapped his entire body, with only two eyes exposed.

"Brick-Mover, you kid must be doing well for yourself now. Why haven't you been putting out Shou Shou Jili lately? Any thoughts on putting out another batch?"

Facing the inquiry, Seeing Li Zheng laughed heartily:

"What a coincidence, our Shou Shou Jili was just spent, and what we have left still has to go to medicine, so even if we wanted to come out, we couldn't."

"Forget it, the reason I'm looking for you this time is to ask if you're interested in joining a joint operation."

"Yes!" Hearing this, Seeing Li Zheng agreed without hesitation.

They were in urgent need of evolution points to raise Painful Painful Minghun's level right now; they had just been thinking about whether to contact a few major guild leaders and ask if they had any plans to organize large-scale operations recently, so that after visiting the Colorful Mist Coast region, they could fight alongside these large guilds going forward.

But they hadn't expected Wo Si Ni Die to take the initiative to connect and inquire.

"Emperor Tomb Mountain Range region, sending you the coordinates (Emperor Tomb Mountain Range coordinate address), come over and assemble now, let me see the results of your Hunger Endurance Training Camp."

"Alright, heading over now."

After hanging up the connection, Seeing Li Zheng spoke up in the squad voice channel:

"Brothers, the situation has changed. We're not going to the Colorful Mist Coast this time, we're changing to the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range to grind evolution points... As for the Colorful Mist Coast region, we'll talk about it after this campaign is over."

After speaking, Seeing Li Zheng summoned the map function, then adapted the coordinates sent by Wo Si Ni Die, and immediately a golden light spot appeared on the map.

The specific location was in the area north of the Rift Furnace.

After leaving the Emperor Tomb Village space, they each summoned their vehicles.

But the moment they started moving, they discovered a problem.

In sword-flying mode, Seeing Li Zheng instantly pulled away from his brothers; during this time he could only keep landing, switch to armed mode and wait, reducing the energy consumption of flight mode.

"How about... we get another multi-person vehicle. Having multiple vehicles in one squad is just too unreliable, the pace of travel is all over the place."

"Holy shit, I regret it too. The power shoes are fast, but they still drain stamina, it's not as easy and convenient as just getting a driving-type vehicle." Chi Tu also chimed in with a complaint at this moment.

"No big deal, Brother Li, go kill a few Blood Corpses nearby first to break your fast, the brothers will be there in a bit. My tractor feels amazing to drive, I don't want to switch at all."

……

Half an hour later, the Liver Emperor Squad members followed Seeing Li Zheng to the assembly point.

The scene ahead left them stunned.

Looking out, player figures filled the mountains and plains.

It could be seen that since the armed vehicle function was opened, players' appearances had become all kinds of strange.

Some players used armed overlay to dye their hair in all colors, some players wore comical clown-styled armed outfits, some players armed themselves into steel warriors, some players rode cool motorcycles carrying beauties... the scene could be called a chaotic grand gathering.

Besides all kinds of bizarre armed outfits, many mainstream armed styles could also be seen.

For example, xianxia-style outfits emphasizing flowing grace and immortal air.

Men wore long robes with wide sleeves, the patterns on the clothing embroidered with cloud motifs, water ripples, mountains and rivers, in light elegant colors, jade belts or silk-woven waist sashes at the waist, cloud-patterned boots on the feet, jade crowns on the head or hair simply tied up.

Female players who chose the xianxia style preferred light gauze long skirts; standing there, the hems swayed with the wind, the skirt bodies embroidered with lotus, immortal crane and other patterns, wearing jeweled flower crowns on their heads, like fairies descending to the mortal world.

Or magic-style outfits; players in this category generally wore magic robes, emphasizing mystery and splendor, using gems, runes and other elements as decoration.

Others included xuanhuan style, fantasy style, wuxia style, futuristic style, steampunk style, fairy tale style, anime style, and so on.

At a glance, the scene was utterly chaotic.

This was a completely different visual style from the previous player faction.

Before this, everyone wore black cloth garments, with a unified visual style.

The other factions that fought against the player faction were the same, the Terror Black Tide and the Combat Bug Tide each had their own unified faction style.

But the current player faction style could be called abstract; any kind of style could be found here.

Just then, the Challenger prompt rang in Seeing Li Zheng's mind:

【Challenger Prompt: Player "Wo Si Ni Die" has initiated an application. Do you agree to accept the warband invitation and join the warband together with your squad members? Yes/No.】

After touching the option "Yes" with consciousness, the warband administrator list appeared on the left side of his vision.

The God King's voice sounded in the warband voice channel, directing the arrangement of battle formation adjustments.

"Two guilds haven't arrived yet, Old Hei, go ask them again where they are now."

"The formation continues to be organized according to the previous plan. Each guild leader leads one style group. Stone Golem style players can move forward now, assemble at the very front of the formation."

"Repeating once more, every participating player must equip 15 bottles of potions in their backpack."

"All members switch your vehicles to armed mode, stop showing off riding your vehicles, hurry to your style formation area and take your position."

……

Meng Yuan Chu Altar.

At this moment, Qi Sheng's mind was playing back the scenes of the Liver Emperor Squad players before their deaths.

The footage finally froze on the Soul Beast.

Soul Return Clan, this race had been heard about before from Instructor Kuang Sha, the information was guided to be retained and recorded.

But after Seeing Li Zheng and the other Liver Emperor Squad players personally made contact and analyzed it, he discovered that this race's potential was far more terrifying than imagined.

The Soul Sculpting Seed's rule characteristic effect was to nurture Soul Beasts, which could grow by devouring souls and flesh.

In the guidance analysis's view, this growth mode had no bottleneck whatsoever.

As long as the Soul Beast devoured a target, it could obtain all of the target's abilities and memories at a nearly 1:1 ratio.

Moreover, this devouring growth was not a single inheritance; after guidance analysis, it was believed that a single Soul Beast could completely devour multiple targets, gaining unlimited growth potential.

The guidance also conducted a simulation test on this.

Assuming an ordinary Soul Beast was placed into a small world, then theoretically this Soul Beast could, through killing and devouring, inherit the strength and memories of all living beings in that small world.

A single Soul Beast alone could destroy a world and gain a terrifying boost in strength.

In other words, in the Monster World where cheats run rampant, the Soul Return Clan was chased down and beaten by the Reverse Tide Legion, but if placed in a small world, even a single Soul Beast could evolve into a world-class disaster.

But the shortcomings of the Soul Sculpting rule characteristic were also very obvious.

Soul Beasts could only inherit strength and memories, but could not inherit the characteristic enhancements of other world's rules.

For example, if a Soul Beast devoured Hei Chao Xie Sui, it could not inherit Hei Chao Xie Sui's devouring evolution ability; or if it devoured the Bug Race Hive Mind, it could not inherit the pheromone collection and modification ability granted by rule characteristics; including devouring Reverse Tide Legion warriors, it could not inherit the War God Seal.

Raising the intensity to the level of a Rule Trait, the strength of Soul Beasts was severely restricted.

But the Rule Trait of Soul Shaping was also extremely powerful.

The Guide believed the Soul Return Clan was a faction that was nearly unbeatable with the wind at its back; it was very hard for enemies to complete a comeback under the influence of the Soul Shaping Rule Trait.

The war's trajectory was bound to be this: the Soul Return Clan would gradually learn intelligence on hostile factions, and the number of top-tier combatants on their side would grow with each battle. By the late stages of the war, hostile factions would hold no secrets in the eyes of the Soul Shaping Clan — all intelligence would be known through the memories obtained by Soul Beasts.

Secondly, the Soul Return Clan also possessed a nearly shameless tactic.

That was hoarding top-tier combatants.

Reserve the Soul Beasts that became top-tier combatants, continuously accumulate more powerhouses, and only release them all at once when the final battle came.

Theoretically, the Soul Return Clan's method of creating powerhouses was simpler than any race's.

The powerhouses that enemies painstakingly cultivated with resources and effort might, after one war, become warriors of the Soul Return Clan.

And the combat skills this powerhouse had once trained hard in, the war experience honed through countless real battles, and a whole series of other abilities would also become things the Soul Return Clan obtained with ease.

After carefully analyzing the traits of the "Soul Shaping" World Rule, Qi Sheng immediately felt a headache coming on.

What gave him a headache was not the Soul Return Clan's ability — after all, no matter how strong, they couldn't possess players, so the threat to him was not great.

One could even say it like this: the Player Legion completely countered the Soul Return Clan's Soul Shaping Rule Trait.

After all, every player had four Supreme Rule blessings; even if they stood still and let Soul Beasts devour them, not a shred of energy could be swallowed.

What gave him a headache was that yet another overpowered cheating faction had appeared in Monster World.

The Soul Return Clan posed limited threat to players, but could rapidly grow by devouring other races, becoming an extremely terrifying calamity-level faction.

"Monster World nowadays is really something — without some kind of cheat on you, you're just bottom-tier weakling trash, not even qualified to set foot on the world battlefield."

Qi Sheng could not help sighing with emotion, and multiple factions flashed through his mind.

The Terror Black Tide, Combat Bug Race, Mechanical Legion, Reverse Tide Legion, Soul Return Clan, Ancient God Race… one could see that every one of these factions was absurdly strong; any portion of combatants singled out from any one of them could snowball and rapidly grow into a calamity within the small worlds.

The Guide orb floating beside him heard this, and a playful expression surfaced on its surface:

【Boss, no big deal. They all cheat, and aren't we the same? With the Player Legion's current growth speed, what is there to fear facing these factions? Sooner or later we'll beat them senseless.】

Hearing this, Qi Sheng smiled and nodded.

In recent times, the biggest gain had been the gradual opening of the Ancient God Arena to players.

Every day, arena flying craft came to the Colored Mist Coast region to capture players, and each capture brought him a considerable profit.

The Martial Soul Pearls players obtained in the arena were not consumed by themselves; they chose to sacrifice them in exchange for Shou Shou Jili, and he could earn a 30% commission from it.

And the Ancient God Race could also obtain Fighting Soul Power from the duels and battles players participated in.

Now that this growth path through the arena had entered the right track, the feeling it gave Qi Sheng was that he was sincerely power-leveling with the Ancient Gods.

The Ancient Gods gave resources, he gave the Ancient Gods combatants to participate in arena battles — each took what they needed.

This behavior also made him think of a game he had played before transmigrating into Beneath Di Zhao.

That game had a popular piece of equipment called "Heart of Steel," whose effect was to stack layers by attacking opponents, so a playstyle of sincere mutual steeling was born in the game — both players friendly stacked layers on each other to grow stronger.

He and the Ancient God Race were just like this kind of mutual power-leveling under the sincere mode.

Without thinking further on this question, Qi Sheng's gaze at this moment switched to the Di Tomb Mountain Range region.

The God King Organization's campaign was about to begin.

This time, the target they chose was the domain node "Tianlan Pool," north of the Ground-Split Furnace region.

With the great battle imminent, Qi Sheng's consciousness followed the Guide through layer upon layer of black fog, continuously pressing deeper.

After piercing through the black fog, what appeared before his eyes was a small pool; the pool water was a viscous black, with a thick layer of dense black fog shrouding above it, constantly churning—at times gathering into heavy curtains, at times dispersing into gossamer-thin mist, ever-shifting and unpredictable.

The Node Crystal floated above the pool water.

The Analysis ability activated, and the Node Crystal's information surfaced in Qi Sheng's mind.

【Tianlan Pool — Domain Node】

Domain Type: Resource-type

Territory Trait: Spiritual Energy Nurturing.

Trait Introduction: Continuously releases pure spiritual energy.

Domain Status: Terror Black Tide (Occupied)

……

"Guide, after this node is merged into Di Tomb Village, what are your thoughts?"

Facing the inquiry, the Guide conjured an arm propping up its chin and showed a thoughtful expression.

【I've thought of two ways to use it. The first is, after merging into Di Tomb Village, to build Tianlan Pool into a non-open area that can continuously produce Spirit Stones, cutting off the process of the Rule producing spiritual energy that flows into heaven and earth, which can significantly increase our Shou Shou Jili income. The second way is, after merging into Di Tomb Village, to fully open up the spiritual energy released by Tianlan Pool, letting the spiritual energy freely diffuse within Di Tomb Village, transforming Di Tomb Village's space into a space rich in spiritual energy.】

【If it's the second plan, players moving about within Di Tomb Village's space will be nourished by pure spiritual energy; even if they do nothing, they can gain Body Tempering experience. For example, those players mining in Di Tomb Village's mining area — staying in Di Tomb Village's space for a long time, going forward they too can gain Body Tempering experience.】

【Of these two plans, I recommend the second — letting the spiritual energy freely diffuse. It conforms to the Rule and will not affect the output of spiritual energy.】

"If it's the second plan, how much Body Tempering experience exactly can players gain while active in Di Tomb Village?"

Facing the inquiry, the Guide gave a brief silence before answering:

【1.8 Body Tempering experience per hour, 43.2 in 24 hours. This number might not seem like much now, but once the number of players increases, the group-strengthening effect it brings will become very obvious.】

"Good, we'll go with the second plan."

After listening to the Guide's analysis and judgment, Qi Sheng made his choice.

Secondly, he had also considered the "Fully Automatic Cultivation System" that would be launched in the future.

In his conception, this special function that could adapt to all cultivation combat techniques also needed to be used in an environment with energy, and Di Tomb Village's planned direction was to be the future main city of the Player Legion.

He had to raise the functional facilities and environmental intensity of the main city up.

But how exactly to use it was all talk for later — whether the joint operation group launched by the God King could take this domain node was still unknown.

Brothers are going wild, monthly tickets jumped by over 2000 today — thanks for the support!

Thanks to "Non-Champion Like Me" for the 10,000 Qidian coins tip.

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(End of this chapter)