Chapter 157: Black Tide Easter Egg, the Spring Makes Its Debut

To better execute the resource-stealing plan, the Di Nian evil spirit controlled the Hei Chao Xie Sui to join the battle.

But this time, the Hei Chao's attack target was not the players, but the Evil Armor Clan that was fleeing.

The Di Nian evil spirit had no idea why the players wanted to engage the Evil Armor Clan, nor did it want to know why; it only knew that because of the Evil Armor Clan, its resource-stealing plan had been put on hold.

On this point alone, this clan no longer had any reason to exist in the Di Nian evil spirit's eyes.

And the Hei Chao poor-bastard monsters in the players' eyes were an irresistible, terrifying natural disaster in the Evil Armor Clan's eyes.

Their very life structure was completely countered by the Hei Chao.

When Qi-and-blood lifeforms encountered the Hei Chao's strangling slaughter, it was like a deep-sea leviathan swallowing the small fish swimming in the sea — utterly powerless to resist. This was not only a crushing superiority in the number of evil spirits, but also the absolute domination of higher energy over lower energy.

It was like ink dropped into clear water, quickly dyeing the entire pond's clear water black.

The Evil Armor Clan's breakout resistance not only failed to weaken the Hei Chao's intensity, but instead rapidly strengthened it through devouring, with its stored Hei Chao energy constantly being elevated.

This was a completely unequal war.

More accurately, this was a gluttonous feast for the Hei Chao — only a war in the Evil Armor Clan's eyes.

In fact, the Di Nian evil spirit had never regarded small forces like the Evil Armor Clan as worth its notice.

Since descending upon the Monster World, only two forces had ever made it feel worthy of being called opponents.

One was the Battle Zerg, which possessed rapid evolution abilities and required constantly updated troop types to counter.

The other was the Player Clan, whose deaths could not be devoured, and whose slain evil spirits could not feed back into the Hei Chao.

The rule characteristics mastered by these two forces were nearly unsolvable, giving it immense pressure.

As for the Evil Armor Clan — setting aside that its overall strength was far inferior to the Hei Chao under projection control.

Even if the Evil Armor Clan's overall strength exceeded that of the Hei Chao under projection control, it could easily defeat them and convert this force into nourishment for the Hei Chao's growth.

In protracted warfare, the Hei Chao has always grown stronger the more it fights.

And small-world-level wars are training grounds for the Hei Chao's newborn evil spirits, basically always starting from a disadvantaged position, until they grow into terrifying Hei Chao that devour the entire world.

So in the Di Nian evil spirit's eyes, apart from the main battlefield of the Chao Da Shi Jie, the Hei Chao has always fought uphill battles.

Small forces like the Evil Armor Clan could only be considered a light snack for the Hei Chao, not worthy of being called opponents.

In this battle, the Di Nian evil spirit's focus was not on the Evil Armor Clan, but on the Player Clan members pursuing from behind.

After controlling the Hei Chao to cover the Evil Armor Clan warriors, the Hei Chao swept straight toward the players' direction.

The familiar emotion-manipulation tactic played out once again.

Only to see the disaster-type troop bodies ahead expand as if being inflated, then give the players a thumbs-up, slowly flipping it downward:

"Yo~ Isn't this the players? Are you guys chasing and killing, or giving these weak little sheep an aerobic workout? Look, they've lost several laps' worth of weight from running — can you actually catch up?"

Other evil spirits also chimed in with taunts at this moment:

"I'm sure you guys definitely aren't chasing and killing, just enjoying the process of the chase. The kind-hearted you want to let these weak little sheep live a little longer, right? Mm, I believe you're deliberately going easy."

"What chase? They're giving the monsters a tour, taking them sightseeing around the map!"

"At this point I have to ping you guys — achievement unlocked: Best Running Buddy Award."

"Did you guys recently switch careers to become fitness coaches? I think they're almost getting chased into having well-developed muscles."

……

The Hei Chao Xie Sui activated face-to-face taunt mode.

Many of the quotes had never appeared before; although some of the various word combinations didn't quite hit the mark, the vast majority could precisely taunt the players' anger points.

This also made the players realize that this Di Nian overlord had advanced again.

It had even started creating taunt quotes based on the players' behavior.

What could be confirmed was that during this process, the Di Nian evil spirit was still collecting feedback data from the players, cataloging the effective taunts.

The various taunting words infuriated the players into cursing wildly; both sides instantly clashed, fighting and cursing at the same time.

Only the players of the Giant Serpent Clan and the Night Demon Clan were still in a passionate frenzy — the harder the Hei Chao taunted, the fiercer their state became, clearly enjoying this kind of combat environment.

During this time, the players knew that taunting the evil spirits was useless, so all the taunt quotes they spat out targeted the Di Nian evil spirit.

Taking the Evil Eye along for the ride in the cursing as well.

In response, the Evil Eye hiding behind the scenes always maintained an indifferent attitude, but the Di Nian evil spirit's blood pressure skyrocketed from hearing it.

Especially one particular player's line:

"You gutless coward hiding in the back, if you've got the guts then come out and fight your grandpa for three hundred rounds. But then again... your cowardly personality only qualifies you to hide in the back and control things. Frontline warfare? That's not for you. Keep on hiding — hide in the Evil Eye's arms and cry wah-wah, begging for hugs, begging for comfort."

This line truly struck the Di Nian evil spirit's sore spot.

Before becoming the Hei Chao's commander, it was a frontline warrior who participated in war, responsible for leading the Hei Chao's local evil spirits in charging the enemy lines.

This was also why, when it first descended upon the Monster World, it had chosen to take action personally.

The cultivation of its command consciousness was also gradually brought into shape with the Evil Eye's help, learning a large number of command-and-combat techniques.

But deep in its heart, it had not forgotten the exhilarating feeling of leading the charge at the frontlines on small-world battlefields.

It clearly remembered that it had once used similar words to taunt a deity in a small world who was hiding behind its clansmen — it never expected that similar words would be used against itself.

With its mentality exploding, it decisively controlled a large number of evil spirits to tear apart the player who had struck its sore spot.

The war of words continued, with both sides simultaneously entering a red-hot state, their anger values constantly skyrocketing.

During this period, the players also did not forget the resources carried by the Evil Armor Clan.

And the Di Nian evil spirit, in order to report to the blue-skinned Evil Eye, likewise did not forget to devour the resources carried by the Evil Armor Clan.

The players' and the Hei Chao's biting struggle quickly evolved into a scramble for the Evil Armor Clan's resources.

Players with Treasure-Hunting Mice summoned them one after another at this point, creating opportunities for the Treasure-Hunting Mice to snatch up the armor pieces fallen on the ground, or the armor half-devoured by the Hei Chao — snatching food from the jaws of death.

The remaining Evil Armor Clan warriors caught in the middle became the focus of concentrated fire.

The players and the Hei Chao were like two teammates in a ranked match — slaughtering the Evil Armor Clan while mic-ing up for a passionate mutual spray, tripping each other along the way, high-energy the entire time.

Once the Evil Armor Clan's resources were completely divided up, the Di Nian evil spirit controlled the Hei Chao to actively retreat.

The Evil Eye also informed the Blue-Skinned Evil Eye at this moment that during the external devouring war, it had discovered the Player Clan suddenly launching an attack, preparing to lure this group of players into the Evil Moon Domain to fight on home ground.

And just as the Earth-Intent Evil Spirit wished, shouting the slogan of capturing the Earth-Intent Bully alive, they charged straight toward the Evil Moon Domain battlefield.

They activated the Domain War mode, familiar to both sides.

In the high-intensity confrontation, the only thing players could be grateful for was that the Earth-Intent Evil Spirit never used the most disgusting Disaster-Type units; although the yield from a single unit was very low, their numbers were sufficient.

They were all output-system units easy to kill.

During this time, the Earth-Intent Evil Spirit was also observing the players' situation and recording the players' combat information in real-time.

After hours of fierce battle, it discovered that the abilities used by this newly arrived batch of players included several types never seen before.

Especially, the players had learned a summoning ability that could connect to other dimensional spaces to summon units for combat.

These summoned lives possessed weak combat power, but their abilities were truly not weak.

Especially a flying unit that could release connecting light beams to repair player injuries, improving the players' combat sustainability.

Already troublesome players, aided by this sustainability summon, became even more disgusting.

But for this, the Earth-Intent Evil Spirit also had a solution.

The Black Tide unit library had plenty of system units to deal with flying units.

In an instant, the Death-Calamity unit "Disaster Bow" was generated.

The unit's form was a humanoid skeleton, with a gaunt frame; in the hollow eye sockets of its skull burned two pools of pitch-black flames, and its ribs, like a rotting fence, were sparsely arranged in its chest cavity, rising and falling with the flickering ghost fire in its chest.

Its hands were tightly gripping a long bow emitting a ghostly light.

Accompanying the drawing of the bowstring, pitch-black energy gathered at the center of the string.

Bang!

Whoosh!

The sound of breaking wind arose; the perception data provided by the Evil Eye predicted the flight trajectory of the Light Spirit Feather in advance, killing the already low-level Light Spirit Feather.

The Black Tide surged, generating a massive number of Disaster Bows; with the Evil Eye providing real-time battlefield data support, every attack was a predicted shot targeting flight trajectories, clearing the flying Light Spirit Feathers from the sky in no time.

This was the terror of the Black Tide.

Its vast unit library allowed the Black Tide to handle combat in various environments, with no weaknesses on any level.

Most importantly, Black Tide units could be reshaped through feedback at any time to undergo unit replacement.

And the only thing the Evil Spirit commander needed to do was increase the Black Tide's intensity; the units' strength would naturally rise along with it.

After clearing the Light Spirit Feathers, the Earth-Intent Evil Spirit once again manipulated the Black Tide to fight a war of attrition.

During this period, he discovered that besides the summons, there was a group of figures behind the player army controlling lifeforms with strange forms; the combat power of these lifeforms was extremely high.

Even the evil spirits generated by this Evil Moon Domain found them difficult to contend with.

Fortunately, their numbers were not large.

But what puzzled him was that the players controlling these strange creatures seemed particularly afraid of death and cared deeply about the safety of the controlled lifeforms; compared to the other players' fearless fighting style, they appeared unique and unconventional.

The entry of these special lifeforms gave the Earth-Intent Evil Spirit a headache; it couldn't help but speak:

"Evil Eye, why is this Player Clan becoming stronger and stronger, just like the Insect Clan?"

Facing the question, the Evil Eye remained silent for a while before speaking:

"The specific situation is unclear, but we analyzed this issue last time; it is possible that the Player Clan's invasion of the Monster World proceeds from weak to strong, with the first to appear being cannon-fodder warriors, while those descending later possess greater strength and more abilities mastered."

The Evil Eye's analysis plunged the Earth-Intent Evil Spirit into silence.

The current situation was that the combat strength of the Player Clan's appearance always kept pace with his growth speed, or even exceeded it.

If not for the Black Tide energy transported through nodes from other domains, the node he controlled would have collapsed long ago.

In front were the combat Insect Clan, and behind were the Player Clan.

This frustrating environment of being surrounded seemed impossible to break through.

"Di Nian, don't think too much; after extracting most of this domain's energy, the combat power of the node we control will increase significantly. At that time, we will attempt a breakout battle against the outside; we must quickly open a channel to acquire external resources."

"Good." The Earth-Intent Evil Spirit nodded in agreement.

After speaking, his consciousness switched, continuing to manipulate the Black Tide to fight the players.

With the Black Tide intensity of this Evil Moon Domain, killing these tens of thousands of players would not be difficult, but it did not intend to do so.

This battle must be fought as a prolonged war, continuously attracting more players to enter, so that it could steal energy resources by having players kill evil spirits.

"Di Nian, this time the Player Clan members attacking are numerous; we can try a new combat mode strategy." The Evil Eye proposed a suggestion at this moment.

Hearing this, the Earth-Intent Evil Spirit immediately nodded, and in an instant began generating new system units.

Based on the combat data information provided by the Evil Eye, he discovered the Player Clan had a characteristic: they were not absolutely united internally.

Especially during the battle with the Evil Armor Clan, he discovered players often fought to seize resources dropped by Evil Armor Clan warriors on the ground.

In other words, all players possessed an uncontrollable desire and pursuit for "Spiritual Treasures," even if this behavior might cause their own death or affect other players on their own side.

This made him think of a new tactic: by providing Spiritual Treasures, destroy the Player Army's unity against the outside.

But whether this method was feasible was currently unknown to him; it required practical testing.

Under the control of the Earth-Intent Evil Spirit, the Omen-Shadow unit was born.

Its form was ethereal and unstable, like a rolling ink-black fog in the wind; wisps of dim purple qi surrounded it, and its body presented a ghost-like sense of void.

Black Tide energy gathered at this moment, generating a pitch-black energy crystal like ink, floating before the Omen-Shadow Ghost.

Under the control of the Earth-Intent Evil Spirit, the ghost picked up the energy crystal, then rushed toward the direction where the Player Clan was gathering.

The ghost-like figure moved with extreme speed; in the blink of an eye, it arrived above the player army, diving straight toward the area with the densest concentration of players.

The sudden attack startled the nearby players, who all looked up.

Immediately, the analysis information of the ghostly evil spirit floated into their minds and was shared in the regional voice channel.

【Black Tide · Ghost】:

Hunting Level: 57

Target Analysis: Black Tide Evil Shadow infantry unit, possessing a special life structure that grants immunity to partial physical damage, high movement speed, and the Soul-Attachment ability; parasitized lifeforms will continuously suffer various negative status effects and endure ongoing Black Tide energy corrosion damage.

The players' attention quickly shifted from the wraith to the black glowing gem in its hand.

After the Analysis ability activated, relevant information about the gem surfaced.

【Black Tide Energy Crystal】:

Item Analysis: A compressed crystal condensed from Black Tide energy, a test product in the Di Nian Evil Spirit's combat plan; can be exchanged for 9,877 points of Sacrificial Force after sacrificing Beneath Di Zhao.

Seeing the analysis information, the players were dumbfounded.

The analysis information basically wrote out the Di Nian Evil Spirit's entire scheme.

This is the method the Di Nian Evil Spirit uses for combat.

The voice channel thus exploded into chaos:

"Damn, is the Di Nian Evil Spirit throwing treasure chests for us to grab? How can such a vicious tactic exist... but what should I do, I really want it!"

"Everyone says the beauty trap is hard to resist, and I didn't think so, but the Di Nian Evil Spirit's 'Wealth-Gifting Scheme' is truly unbearable; never mind, I'll grab it first and worry later."

"Listen to me everyone, absolutely do not fall for the Di Nian Bully's vicious scheme; let me check if there's something wrong with this energy crystal for everyone. My death is no matter; it is my duty to die in place of my brothers."

"No, you all say not to fall for the trap, yet you are still frantically pushing forward; your greed is written all over your faces."

"Truly the Di Nian Bully; even with this scheme laid out openly, we players still can't resist it. Too ruthless."

What ten thousand points of Sacrificial Force meant, the players understood very clearly.

Shangcheng shopping, pet cultivation, body refinement level upgrades, Star Pulse level upgrades, weaponized vehicle crafting... there were too many places to spend Sacrificial Force.

If they could secure these ten thousand points of Sacrificial Force, they would surely become instantly wealthy in one stroke.

As the wraith swept over the players' heads, nearby players immediately launched a pursuit; instantly, the previously advancing army formation became chaotic.

Nor did the Di Nian Evil Spirit care about this energy crystal; after letting the wraith circle once, it threw it straight into the densely populated player area.

Instantly, in the high-altitude overhead view, the players were like goldfish in a pond fighting for food, immediately swarming toward the area where the energy crystal lay.

The preliminary test results left the Di Nian Evil Spirit, positioned in the rear, extremely satisfied.

He did not understand the players' erratic logic, but he knew it was enough that players had exploitable weaknesses.

In an instant, he condensed five more wraiths again, each holding a Black Tide Energy Crystal, and sent them flying toward the player army.

By using treasures to attract and disrupt the player army's direction, achieving the goal of deeply controlling the course of the war.

Facts proved that the effect of this method was far better than he had imagined.

After multiple successful tests, the Di Nian Evil Spirit couldn't help but laugh heartily.

The players shared the same thought as the Di Nian Evil Spirit.

The Di Nian Evil Spirit's tactics reminded players of many Easter egg monsters existing in games, also known as Chest Monsters.

Killing such monsters usually yields resources and game currency far higher than normal monster drops, or special equipment.

Such monsters would undoubtedly be targets fought over by players in other games.

This time was no exception; all players were attracted by the special monsters carrying treasures, wanting to become instantly wealthy in one stroke.

The Di Nian Evil Spirit felt he had profited, having mastered another combat strategy against the Player Race.

The players also felt they had profited; the Black Tide was actually producing wealth chests during the confrontation.

Moreover, the appearance of Chest Monsters made players feel that combat in the Evil Moon Domain had become more interesting; they looked forward to Chest Monsters occasionally spawning and flying in, perhaps crashing onto their heads at any moment.

Qi Sheng, observing from behind the scenes, discovered this scene but did not find it surprising.

The players were causing trouble, and the Di Nian Evil Spirit was also causing trouble.

He discovered the Di Nian Evil Spirit was indeed very smart; by continuously collecting player information, it could always design new combat strategies, all of which produced miraculous effects.

But as long as it could bring profit, the Di Nian Evil Spirit would use its tactics freely; he would not have any targeted countermeasures.

Just like the strategy where the Di Nian Evil Spirit exploited players to steal Black Tide energy resources from the Evil Moon Domain.

This strategy made the Di Nian Evil Spirit enjoy itself greatly, and the players also reaped benefits; his real-time Sacrificial Force output even saw a short-term surge with the help of this Di Nian Evil Spirit.

Therefore, as long as players could gain benefits, nothing else was a problem.

Just then, the Guide floating beside him showed a thoughtful expression, materializing an arm to prop up his chin and said:

【Boss, is there such a possibility that many years later, when the Black Tide Administrator managing this region asks about the development status of various nodes and information on opposing forces, other Black Tide nodes report records of battles with numerous forces, while only the Di Nian Evil Spirit submits a thick Player Strategy Manual, because in all these years it did nothing else but fight players.】

Qi Sheng:...

The Guide's roasting made Qi Sheng laugh silently.

It was truly as the Guide said; since the Di Nian Evil Spirit descended into the Monster World, it has always been fighting against players.

Even after switching scenes, it was still engaging players in combat.

Five days later.

Meng Yuan Chu Altar.

Through these five days of observation, players gained many new harvests.

First, in terms of containment, three new Meng Yuan Chu monsters were contained.

The first was a Second-Generation Meng Yuan Chu: Mental Shockwave, contained by the player "One Jin of Scallions, No Garlic" in the Winter Snowfield region.

【Mental Shockwave (Second-Generation Meng Yuan Chu)】:

Meng Yuan Chu Trait: Releases mental ripples, causing mental shock damage to a single or area-of-effect target, ignoring the target's physical defense capabilities; specific effects are influenced by Painful Painful Minghun level, own mental strength, and target's mental strength (Note: If the damage intensity far exceeds the target's mental consciousness tolerance range, it can cause the target to become dizzy, nauseous, disoriented... or even consciousness death).

This is the third mental interference-type Painful Painful Minghun following Taunt and Soul-Departing Spear.

But compared to the previous two Painful Painful Minghun, Mental Shockwave is a pure mental damage-type trait, with destroying the opponent's mental consciousness as its core.

The emergence of Mental Shockwave also allowed the Functional Support Style to derive a new style capable of both supporting and dealing damage.

Among them, the Star Pulse combination provided by the forum post with the highest likes was called: Puppeteer.

Star Pulse Combinations: Mental Shockwave, Control, Qi Consumption, Light Shield, and Restraint.

The effect weakens a monster's mental consciousness intensity through mental shock, then controls it by imprinting a mark via the Painful Painful Minghun.

Other Painful Painful Minghun lean toward support, capable of cooperating with team combat, yet possessing formidable combat power even when acting alone.

The second is a Meng Yuan Chu monster contained by the player "Giant Knight" in the Cang Star Sea: Brain Overclock.

【Brain Overclock (Third-Generation Meng Yuan Chu)】:

Meng Yuan Chu Trait: Can significantly boost memory and concentration, strengthening cognitive processing capabilities.

This Meng Yuan Chu ability was a template ability present in the early Painful Painful Minghun Library; this time, a player squad successfully contained it in the sea area.

The Meng Yuan Chu monster is a cephalopod-like deep-sea creature with a Hunting Grade of 17.

For the vast majority of players, the Brain Overclock trait is optional.

But for players engaged in research, such as the Arms Dealers and the Alchemist Alliance, this Painful Painful Minghun trait is comparable to a divine skill.

After using the trait ability, logical thinking becomes exceptionally clear, significantly improving learning efficiency and allowing rapid mastery of various new knowledge.

The forum has not yet developed any Star Pulse Combination compatible with Brain Overclock.

The only Painful Painful Minghun relatively compatible is Qi Consumption.

While Brain Overclock is active, the player continuously consumes mental energy; Qi Consumption can provide endurance.

This is why Qi Consumption is called the universal Painful Painful Minghun, its strength always ranking Tier 0 in the current version.

With dual recovery effects for Blood and Mental Energy, it can be used by both physical and Faxiliu Sect builds, basically compatible with any Renheliu Sect.

Coupled with the strengthening brought by the Territory Rule "Gathering," the strength of Qi Consumption has received a significant boost.

The third is a second-generation Meng Yuan Chu monster contained by the player "Ignite Water Nuclear Power" in the dense forest region of the Colorful Mist Coast: Wither.

【Wither (Second-Generation Meng Yuan Chu)】:

Meng Yuan Chu Trait (Passive): All damage-type skills can attach Wither damage, causing negative status effects like Blood depletion and weakness; Wither effects can stack infinitely (the higher the damage intensity, the more Wither energy attached).

This is a passive damage Painful Painful Minghun similar to the Black Armor Snake's Venom trait.

Compared to the Venom trait, the greatest advantage is the ability to stack damage infinitely.

The Venom effect can only stack poison quantity, but cannot stack poison intensity.

The Wither trait has no such limitation and can stack damage effects infinitely.

However, the stacking method is not calculated by attack frequency, but determined by the Blood or Mental Energy consumed by a single attack.

This Painful Painful Minghun was contained not long ago; after being evaluated by strategy-guide players, it was quickly pushed to the Tier 0 throne by forum players.

The reason is nothing else; this is a passive trait.

As more Painful Painful Minghun are contained, the strength of passive traits is gradually increasing.

Too many active traits mean that the Mental Energy or Blood required for each release must also increase accordingly.

To guarantee output endurance while also increasing damage, passive traits are the best choice.

In the contained Painful Painful Minghun Library, every Painful Painful Minghun with a passive trait has at least Tier 1 strength, holding a natural advantage over active-type Painful Painful Minghun in ratings.

After the Wither trait appeared, the strength of the Faxiliu Sect rose again.

Among the three Zhu Liu Wan Fa, besides the Stone Statue Tanking Liu Wan Fa, the other two major classification Xiliu Sects already possess two passive Painful Painful Minghun.

Faxiliu Sect Damage Passive Traits: Qi Consumption, Wither.

Physical Damage Passive Traits: Venom, Forbidden Blade.

Tanking Passive Trait: Resistance.

After the three Meng Yuan Chu monsters entered the Containment Wall, the total number of contained Meng Yuan Chu monsters reached 37.

Besides Meng Yuan Chu monsters, two new Domain Nodes integrated into the Di Zhong Village space these days.

Both of these Domain Nodes come from the dense forest region of the Colorful Mist Coast, namely Phantom Sea and Eye of the Wind.

Both of these Domain Nodes are resource-type, with trait effects being Spirit Qi Nurturing and Spirit Spring Nurturing respectively.

This is the first time Qi Sheng has seen a node domain producing Spirit Spring resources; the effect is the continuous generation of Spirit Spring Water with healing properties.

Regarding how to use the Spirit Spring resource node, the first thing Qi Sheng thought of was connecting it to the Shangcheng, continuously producing recovery potions to sell to players.

This would save him a considerable amount of potion production expenses every day and increase his revenue sources.

But upon careful thought, Qi Sheng felt there was no need to do so.

The potions producible by a Level 1 Spirit Spring daily are not even one-fortieth of the potions consumed by players daily.

With the growth of the latest batch of rookie players, the volume of potions consumed continues to increase; the Spirit Spring Water production is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket.

His core philosophy has always been to focus on cultivating player growth; the stronger the players, the higher his income.

Thinking of players constantly complaining that Shou Shou Jili production in the game is too low, he suddenly had a Xin De Xiang Fa.

That is to build a healing point in the Newbie Village space, freely healing various injuries for players, including pets accompanying players.

But the total daily healing energy is limited; first come, first served.

For example, if a player suffers Shen Shou Zhong injuries and is reluctant to consume potions, originally they could only restore status through death and resurrection; now they can freely consume Spirit Spring Water produced at the healing point to restore peak status.

But Qi Sheng feels this setting needs to add one restriction: custom pets cannot enjoy it.

After all, the daily Spirit Spring Water production is limited.

Among custom pets, many have high levels; the Spirit Spring energy required to heal them could cure a large number of players.

Considering the angle of fair distribution, the healing point is limited to players and growth-type pets.

As for the choice of healing location, considering the angle of providing convenience for players, he decided to combine it with the teleportation point.

The teleportation points of the Di Zhong Village space, Colorful Mist Coast space, and Winter Snowfield space will simultaneously connect to the Spirit Spring production energy; players returning to any space can use it.

Analyzing the average physical constitution and mental consciousness intensity of players, it can freely heal all injuries for approximately 6339 players daily.

But this real number will obviously be lower than 6339.

After all, the recent surge of a large batch of rookie players has lowered the comprehensive attribute values.

One could foresee that, as containment of resource nodes like the Spirit Spring continued, the volume of free healing services available to players would gradually increase.

After tallying the gains from the past five days, Qi Sheng began checking the guild information.

According to the Guide's feedback, he discovered that the two major guilds players on the forum called the Mo Sect had already hit a development bottleneck.

These two guilds were the Doomsday Technology Guild, known as the arms dealer, and the Alchemist Alliance Guild, which researched genetic potions.

According to the Guide's feedback, the Doomsday Technology Guild was recently preparing to build a research base in the Colored Mist Coast region to develop more powerful tech weapons.

To construct this base, the Doomsday Technology Guild had even begun chopping down trees, preparing to clear out an open plot of land.

Next, the Alchemist Alliance was also considering developing enhancement potions to sell to other players.

According to the information read by the Guide, the positioning of these potions in development was centered on improving physical attributes as the core direction; as for the severity of side effects, they simply didn't care.

So these potions were meant to be used at critical moments; as for the various side effects after consumption, they were not within the consideration of the Alchemist Guild members.

Players could revive after death; no matter how severe the side effects, dying was nothing more than dying.

But the combat power boost at a critical moment might be able to turn the tide of battle.

The positioning of enhancement potions was very clear: miracle wonder-drugs to turn the tide at critical moments.

This was also why the Alchemist Guild was called the Mo Sect by players — they were always researching all sorts of "evil" potions, but every single product came with extremely severe side effects.

Even after multiple improved versions of the genetic potion, few players were willing to try it.

The R&D of these technologies all required professional sites and equipment; they couldn't be cobbled together by hand.

But building a research base outside carried a series of risks.

After all, in the current Monster World, nowhere was safe.

There were three potential risks.

The first risk was the arrival of new forces — invading forces from small worlds like the Skyfire Tribe and the Evil Armor Tribe were continuously pouring in, and there was a probability they would suddenly descend right above the research base the players had built, completely destroying the equipment and production lines the players had worked so hard to set up.

This would seriously impact technological development, even causing technology to regress.

The second risk was the airdrop of plundering forces.

Like the Mechanical Overlord's plundering of the Imperial Tomb Mountain Range region — completely unguarded, a sudden arrival followed by a devastating strike.

The third risk was invasion by migrating forces.

This had happened before — for instance, the Black Wind Tribe, facing survival risks, chose to migrate, and there was a probability they would relocate to the Colored Mist Coast region.

Death was nothing, and even being blocked at the spatial point exit was no big deal.

But if the research base was destroyed, the technological wealth the players had painstakingly created would suffer heavy losses.

A similar case was Shu Yan — because it couldn't beat forces like the Black Tide, it kept migrating its domain, and had only recently descended near the Ascension Tribe.

For the sake of better survival and development, the migration of ethnic groups was a common trend in the Monster World.

Considering the protection of player assets, Qi Sheng felt it necessary to designate a piece of space for players to use, so they could safely conduct various technology R&D within the spatial scene.

Doing so would greatly benefit the development of the player legions.

After all, these tech-development guilds, if they wanted to grow, had to serve the players, then earn resources from other players, and reinvest those into new technology R&D, forming a positive cycle.

While the project of building research bases outside had not yet fully unfolded, Qi Sheng decided to provide assistance in advance.

That afternoon at three o'clock.

The version update notification rang in players' minds, and a real-time update post was published on the forum:

【Challenger Notice (All Channels): The game is about to undergo a version update. The contents of this update are as follows】:

Poster: Guide (Official)

Update Setting 1: Healing Point function opened

Update Introduction: After this update, resurrection points and teleportation points will be used in combination, and the Healing Point function will be added. Players can summon a healing function within the resurrection point area (specific) to heal themselves and their growth-type pets.

Note: Daily healing energy is limited; once consumed, it refreshes at dawn the next day.

Update Setting 2: Spatial Plot Auction preview.

Update Introduction: On December 28, 2524 (two days later), Plots 1-3 in the West District of Imperial Tomb Space will be auctioned. Players participate in the bidding in the form of guilds; successful bidders will obtain the right to freely modify the plot.

Note: Plot locations will continuously shift outward as the spatial area grows. A function to freely expand plot area will be opened later (not yet available).

Comment Section:

A Pinch of Cooking Wine: Good lord, players can build their own houses in the space now, but what puzzles me is why not just sell houses directly instead of selling custom-build plots. Where do ordinary players like us have the ability to build houses ourselves? Can't you offer selectable house designs and just sell houses?

Not Full Strength: The comment above made me laugh. Just three plots and they're auctioned by guilds — you actually think ordinary players have a chance to participate? They'll definitely be taken by the big guilds to build employee dorms. The prerequisite for ordinary players to own one is joining a big guild. I feel the Divine Hall Guild will probably get one, but in terms of overall financial power, you still have to look at the Mo Sect.

Game Life: Thumbs up for the first Healing Point update — no more needing to die to recover from heavy injuries in the future. But I don't understand why the dog official is so stingy. Since you've already figured out making Healing Points for players to recover HP and save on Shou Shou Jili expenses, you still added a first-come-first-served limit. I protest — I demand unlimited free healing, or at the very least one free heal per player per day.

Won't Dream of South Flower True Man: The first setting reeks of stinginess. Classic dog official. We've complained on the forum so many times that Shou Shou Jili output isn't enough, and instead of adjusting the Shou Shou Jili output income settings — like increasing income by 200% — you just opened a limited free healing?

Little Daoist Who Subdues Demons: How should I put it about the first update — although it's a good thing for us players, it's like we're on a patch of parched land crying for water, counting on the dog official to send a downpour or dig a well to give us a way to get water, and what you delivered was a case of bottled water, still distributed by quota. I'm so angry I could punch— forget it, I'm afraid of getting my account banned so I won't rant. I still need to retire in this game; if my Luck stat gets secretly nerred I'm done for.

Cold-Blooded lsj: Thumbs up for the first update. The second update gives us commoners no chance. Even if free building had a chance, it's still hard. As a weak ordinary player, where do I have the ability to build a house? Although the game isn't short of big shots with hands-on skills, they're still a minority. I hope the official will quickly roll out houses ordinary players can live in. Really looking forward to it.

……

In response to this update, players launched a heated discussion on the forum.

Especially the second update — opening up the use of spatial plots left ordinary players baffled.

But members of the Doomsday Technology Guild and the Alchemist Guild, after reading the update contents, were immensely excited.

They had previously decided to build their research base in the relatively safe and pleasantly environmented Colored Mist Coast region.

They hadn't expected plot usage permissions to be opened at this time.

This meant they could build their research base inside absolutely safe space, while outside they only needed to set up a test site framework.

They had originally been worrying — what if the base built outside was suddenly attacked and destroyed by outside forces? How to protect the base equipment?

But this problem now had the best solution.

In the chat channels of the two major guilds, guild players spontaneously organized themselves to pool money, vowing to win a plot through the auction.

In this regard, both major guilds were confident.

When it comes to spending money, they have the Human Federation backing them, so there's no possibility of being suppressed by those super big-spending players.

Secondly, comparing overall guild strength, although they are not as strong as Divine Hall, Fanzui Group, and several other major guilds.

But when it comes to guild Shou Shou Jili wealth, these guilds really cannot compare to them.

At this point, preparing was clearly too late, after all, the land auction was only two days away.

No matter how rich one is in reality, it's impossible to acquire a large amount of Shou Shou Jili in a short time.

Especially after the pet feature had just launched, the Shou Shou Jili reserves of many players were already spent to the bottom, with simply not enough Shou Shou Jili to support their own guilds.

The major combat guilds had similar thoughts.

Although their enthusiasm for auctioning land was not as high as that of the two Mo Sect guilds.

But bidding on land was a good opportunity to prove guild strength and attract more elite players to join the Wanjiajia Alliance, and none of them wanted to miss it.

After the update ended, posts buying up Shou Shou Jili sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain, continuously driving up the price of Shou Shou Jili.

This made the small-spending players furious, yet helpless.

In fact, at the current stage, there was no difference whatsoever between small-spending players and free-to-play players, and it was simply impossible to create a significant gap.

One million credit points in reality could only be exchanged for just over 3,000 Shou Shou Jili in the game, and one still had to see if anyone was willing to sell, generally having to piece together small amounts to acquire it.

This price even made many ordinary players feel it was hard to comprehend, feeling that no matter how rich one was in reality, one couldn't spend money like that.

The current consensus among players was that small-spending equaled zero-spending.

Or rather, anyone without an investment of several million as a starting point could be classified as an ordinary player.

(End of this chapter)