Chapter 175: Player Diversion, the Lord Takes the Stage

Meng Yuan Chu's altar.

A feedback prompt surfaced in Qi Sheng's mind, displaying the revenue data.

After the Evil Moon Domain deep within the Colorful Mist Coast's dense forest was contained, recent sacrificial power income had dropped sharply, falling to roughly half of what it was during the Evil Moon War.

Back then, the Earth-Nian Evil Spirits chased after them feeding resources; aside from the final battle before the territory was contained, players could happily farm all kinds of squishy evil entities within the Evil Moon Domain.

But once it was on their own turf, the Earth-Nian Evil Spirits evolved into what players called Earth-Nian Tyrants.

A masterful counter-siphon tactic played out.

In the words of forum player Night Is Coming: after a squad toiled away for half a day, watching the evil entity's health drop to a sliver, almost ready to claim the kill, it would turn around and counter-siphon, reviving to full health.

This tactic was deeply loathed by players, especially solo squads — it was nothing short of their nightmare.

The entire process of fighting the Black Tide was nerve-wracking, and they had to equip supports with binding Painful Painful Minghun to apply restraints.

Otherwise, one successful counter-siphon could disgust players for an entire day.

The Calamity-type and Plague-type were the two most shameless evil-entity faction troop types in players' eyes.

What hurt players most was that the Earth-Nian Tyrant's tactic was extremely targeted.

In the eastward lateral expansion, the Earth-Nian Tyrants placed massive numbers of Calamity-type and Plague-type troops along both flanks of the battle line, like two rows of guards protecting the offensive troops in the central zone.

These two defensive barriers were also called "walls" or "green belts" by forum players; there was simply no way to happily farm evil entities like they had in the Evil Moon Domain.

The Earth-Nian Evil Spirits' specific battle plan was for the central main force to advance laterally, with the Calamity-type and Plague-type troops on both flanks following the central main force to construct a defensive bulwark.

The central main force advanced one step, and the Calamity-type troops advanced one step with them — a true firewall in players' eyes.

And the players' main direction of action also began to split after the Earth-Nian Tyrants returned to the Imperial Tomb Mountain Range.

They were mainly divided into four operational directions.

The vast majority of newbies returned to the Frost Snow Plain region and began pecking-fests with the Blissful Purple Tide and the Blissful Swarm Tide.

With players providing combat training, the development of the two army archetypes of the Lord of Bliss had progressed by leaps and bounds recently.

The Blissful Warriors' scheme for controlling the Blissful Swarm Tide and the Blissful Purple Tide was constantly revised during this period, achieving a breakthrough in controllability — evolving from constantly switching single-direction control to chained control, issuing one command to make a whole group of Purple Tide warriors act in sync.

But compared to the genuine Black Tide and Swarm Tide's precise multi-tasking control, there was still no comparison whatsoever.

Players gained improvements through the Purple Tide, and the Lord of Bliss also treated the Frost Snow Plain as a training ground, using the income from the Palace of Bliss to subsidize the snow plain region's warfare and tech R&D.

Compared to the Earth-Nian Evil Spirits — a tyrant growing at breakneck speed and wielding terrifying battlefield dominance —

the Lord of Welfare, who in players' eyes was diligent and eager to learn but whose grades were never good, firmly held first place on the forum's Villain Favorability Rankings.

This kind of weak-but-hardworking villain was full of personal charisma in players' eyes.

This was also the origin of the title "Lord of Welfare."

Meanwhile, the Earth-Nian Tyrants — equally diligent and eager to learn, but endlessly churning out disgusting tactics — trailed far behind.

Eagerness to learn is a good thing, but once the grades actually go up, players aren't happy.

By contrast, the Lord of Welfare truly hands out welfare.

The second batch of players was a group consisting mainly of squads and small teams; their main operational direction was the Shu Yan Domain.

As the Extraterritorial Heavenly Demons described in Shu Yan's story, it defined players as Chaotic Evil.

It frequently disrupted the world's normal operation, tempting cultivators into the abyss.

The entire story's framework had already split into three factions: among them, the warriors controlled by Shu Yan were the protagonists rebelling against the Upper Realm in the story; the Ascending Clan was the undisputed great villain of the Heavenly Realm; and the players were the demonic beings who ignored both heroes and villains, descending from beyond the domains to strike whenever they got the chance.

This portion of players, called the Extraterritorial Heavenly Demons, had very unstable income.

Occasionally they could slay dying Ascending Clan warriors for a big haul; occasionally they could obtain custom Shu Yan warriors through controlling Painful Painful Minghun; and sometimes they got nothing at all.

The third batch of players was also in the Colorful Mist Coast region.

Every day, like clocking in for work, they would wait at the coast at the crack of dawn for the shuttle bus to head to their shift.

Around the time the first light of dawn appeared, the Ancient God Clan's shuttle bus would come to pick people up.

The players on the shore were hungry and eager, signing up enthusiastically; those selected could head to the Ancient God Arena to begin a pleasant clearing journey.

Basically, any player sent to the Ancient God Arena, as long as their luck wasn't too terrible, could earn decent income.

The current highest record had reached 5 wins.

This group of arena-enthusiast players was also the batch with the best combat technique in the entire player army.

They had also applied on the forum to open a sub-board, where they chatted daily about various Star Vein combinations for boosting combat power and methods for polishing combat technique; the board had duel videos updated daily, with many players participating in reviews and offering improvement suggestions.

They were like a group of competitive-game players who only loved playing ranked matches.

The board's social circle also had real-time rank-screenshot updates.

1-win players were called Bronze players.

2-win players were called Silver players.

3-win players were called Gold players.

4-win players were called Diamond players.

The current record-holding 5-win players were called Kings.

With a clear victory-milestone pecking-order chain, clearing screenshots were pinned to players' personal-info homepages, making it easy to tell who was strong and who was weak.

The competitive atmosphere in the board's social circle was intense; besides Human players, large numbers of Night Demon Clan and Giant Serpent Clan players had recently flooded in.

They, just like this batch of Human players, yearned greatly for this kind of hot-blooded competitive play.

This was also the first time the Giant Demon Clan and Night Demon Clan humbly and earnestly wanted to understand the combat techniques of Painful Painful Minghun trait combinations, hoping to use this to improve their fighting ability in the Ancient God Arena.

The only thing that frustrated this batch of players was that the number of slots the Ancient God Clan issued daily simply couldn't meet demand; being able to play one ranked match a day was already very good.

The unlucky ones couldn't go to the Ancient God Arena for several days at a time.

Every day after clocking in on the shore, players who hadn't entered the arena matchmaking mode would head into the sea region to hunt and grow.

The fourth batch of players was the absolute main force of the player army.

Made up of major guilds and powerful small groups, they followed the Earth-Nian Tyrants in the Imperial Tomb Mountain Range region, expanding laterally.

Every time the local tyrant expanded eastward and crushed a small faction, preparing to devour that faction's stored resources, the players and the Zerg would decisively step in to intercept.

Forcefully leaning in to grab food from the serving dishes—even snatching food straight from the local tyrant's bowl.

Especially when a territory node appeared, it was absolutely contested.

The goal of these players was very clear: besides absorbing Shou Shou Jili by killing evil entities, doing this was also curbing the local tyrant's growth.

In their eyes, the local tyrant was growing too fast, so any chance to cause trouble was seized without hesitation.

Coordinating tacitly with the Zerg to flank the Black Tide, following the lateral expansion, and stopping every so often in between to start brawling mode.

On one side, the combat Zerg growing in sync like a stubborn plaster.

On the other side, the player faction—thick-skinned and impossible to wipe out, even if temporarily defeated, they would return in force before long.

The local tyrant had no effective response except cursing.

Besides the four main development models, there were also many Wanfaliu Sect within the player army.

For example, the Fishing Faction players who spent years high-intensity angling in the sea, then posting their catches on the forum's fishing section.

The forum's jar section had daily exchanges of fishing insights—bait usage, tackle crafting, fishing techniques… this group was also the main supplier of spirit food in the trading house.

The spirit food resources produced by Qitaliu Sect players were very scarce, relying entirely on these fishing veterans to provide large quantities of spirit food needed to replenish stamina.

And within the Fishing Faction players, there was also a clear pecking-order chain.

Although they all fished in the sea, the comparison of equipment and the comparison of catch grades was extremely fierce.

Every Fishing Faction player's forum personal homepage had to display the highest hunting-grade catch they had ever landed, and it had to be a photo of them hugging the catch.

Next, there were the ever-growing Explorer Faction players.

The adventurer gene was etched into the bones of many players.

Climbing towering Shanfeng that pierced the clouds, overlooking magnificent Shanhe… as their exploration footsteps continued, they always managed to uncover unique joys; this happiness lay in their pursuit of the unknown—a unique and wonderful experience in the eyes of Explorer Faction players.

Explorer Faction players were also the main production group for "Enlightenment Information Spheres" at the current stage.

The recent update gave these players a channel to earn extra income, adding another layer of joy to their journeys.

There were also Spirit Chef players.

Cooking up delicacies from recipes, and even researching New Dish not recorded in recipes, was the pursuit of these players.

This small group of players held important significance in the eyes of all players.

It gave them an extra bit of happiness in Monster World.

Although the spirit food made by Spirit Chefs was pricier in the trading house, every consumption brought the purchasing players a dual ultimate enjoyment of body and soul.

There were many more players in other minor category Liu Pai Wan Fa, such as arms dealers, alchemists… all of Suoyouliu Sect together built the current player army.

Although the playstyles differed, they all contributed their own strength to the development of the player army.

Behind the scenes, Qi Sheng, while observing the development of the player army, was also recording in real-time the information produced by players, gathering directions for updates and optimizations.

Recently, he was preparing a major update to the team-up mode.

At the current stage, solo players were still the largest group in the game, often needing to call for people in the channel for special operations.

He planned to launch a convenient team-up feature based on player demand.

Mainly satisfying player needs from two directions.

The first feature was posting team-up requests: players could post specific requirements and concrete action times on the team-up interface, along with requirements for recruited players.

For example.

【Tomorrow at 8 AM, gather at the Dizhong Mountain Range to fight evil entities. Requires Statue-Style players, main Painful Painful Minghun level (x), average Painful Painful Minghun level (x).】

Players meeting the requirements could directly enter the team through the recruitment and communicate with the recruiting player.

The second feature was the regional team-up list.

When encountering sudden situations, players didn't need to shout in the regional channel; they just needed to open the team-up interface, filter the activity direction by conditions, and precisely find the player squads wanting to execute that sudden activity.

In this feature, squad leaders who activated team-up mode could also set condition filters to weed out players who didn't meet the requirements.

With the convenient team-up feature, players' growth speed could be significantly improved.

Reducing team-up communication time, precisely locking onto the target group they wanted to recruit, or precisely finding player squads with the same needs.

The specific design plan hadn't been finalized yet; Qi Sheng planned to launch this feature in the next update.

His gaze at this point shifted to the player perspective.

……

Dizhong Mountain Range.

The surging Black Tide stopped its expansion footsteps and began constructing corrosion nodes.

But the players' expansion footsteps didn't pause, still continuing to push eastward.

In warband mode, the God King was conducting battlefield command in the chat channel.

In brain overclock mode, he was like a godsend—rapidly analyzing terrain, player situations, and a series of other conditions through perception, then issuing effective decisions.

After harvesting a batch of spirit plants along the way, the God King issued the order:

"All units rest, resupply at Shangcheng, recover condition."

Following the order, the player warbands still pushing forward stopped one after another and scattered.

Some players lit bonfires and began roasting fresh spirit food, some bought finished spirit food from the trading house to enjoy the deliciousness, and some sat on the ground browsing forum information to kill time.

The God King, serving as warband commander, also came to an open space at this point, sat down, took out a spirit food meal from his spatial pouch, and ate heartily.

After finishing the spirit food, he looked up at the surging Black Tide in the distance, a hint of helplessness surfacing in his eyes.

Having played games for so many years, he had always participated in game campaigns in the role of a commander.

In Sin Land, he was a top-20 human commander, having participated in countless battles large and small, including clashes between human internal guilds and clashes with foreign-race guilds.

In Conquest, he was a top-ten human commander, having had many highlight battles officially recorded and remembered by many veteran players.

But this was the first time he had felt a strong sense of frustration in a game.

When the Earth-Will Bully first descended, he had already clashed with it, organizing player warbands to seize domain nodes.

During their initial clash, the Earth-Will Bully knew nothing about the players, allowing him to successfully capture two domain nodes.

These were the already-contained Yun Tian domain node and the Demon Fall Pit domain node.

But after that, the Earth-Will Bully's growth was rapid.

It felt as though his tactics had been completely seen through.

Whatever he wanted to do, the Earth-Will Bully could predict in advance, then design traps to wait for him to enter.

He realized a significant gap had opened between himself and the Earth-Will Bully.

And this gap continued to widen.

Logically, having obtained the Brain Overclock, a supreme Command Painful Painful Minghun, his command ability should have leaped forward.

That was indeed the case.

But after he obtained the Brain Overclock, the Earth-Will Bully's growth was even faster.

The Brain Overclock not only failed to close the gap in command ability between him and the Earth-Will Bully; instead, as time passed, the gap widened further.

Facing a talent monster like the Earth-Will Bully, what surged in his heart was not anger, but an indescribable sense of frustration.

All his efforts appeared pale and powerless before the Earth-Will Bully's talent.

He had clearly been striving very hard to catch up.

Every day, he spent five hours reading forum guides.

The detailed effects of every Painful Painful Minghun, the pros and cons of every Star Vein combination, the latest Star Vein combinations... including the recently updated Enlightenment Shangcheng, where he studied the specific effects of all 688 buff states in detail, all to skillfully utilize his own players' strengths on the battlefield.

Besides understanding his own faction's capabilities, he also flipped through the Evil Bestiary to learn about the Evil troop information of the Earth-Will Bully's faction.

As the saying goes, know yourself and know your enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles without defeat; he had indeed done exactly that.

But his efforts brought no sense of achievement; with every subsequent confrontation, he could feel the power gap continuing to widen.

Frustration washed over him like a tide, drowning the pride in his heart.

Though helpless, he had no thought of giving up.

As a player, his future held too many possibilities.

Perhaps a supreme Painful Painful Minghun similar to the Brain Overclock would appear in the future, granting his command ability a significant boost.

More importantly, the Divine Hall Guild under his leadership was still expanding.

While the Earth-Will Bully's Black Tide was growing, the number of players in his Divine Hall Guild was also increasing daily, and all recruited were elite players.

Furthermore, with several other major guilds coordinating with them during every operation, their comprehensive strength had not fallen behind.

The only current shortcoming was that his command ability could not keep up with the Earth-Will Bully, and as the player count grew, the pressure regarding command intensity increased day by day.

If the Monster World were to fully open its qualifications in the future, the wars he would need to command would likely be on a scale of millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions.

He dared not even imagine how to command a war of such scale.

He had discussed this issue with his brothers in the livestream, joking that his abilities were ultimately limited and he would likely fail to keep up with the escalation of war scales in the future.

However, a visitor in the livestream did offer him a train of thought for solving the problem.

This visitor's code was "1", obviously the first unqualified player to log into the Monster World official website as a visitor.

In the livestream, he proposed a decentralized command structure suggestion.

Break the warband into multiple command groups, grant decentralized authority, with high-level commanders responsible for strategic decisions, mid-level commanders for tactical layout, and grassroots commanders for specific execution, passing information layer by layer through the decomposed voice channels.

This indeed gave him inspiration.

The concept of a modular group command mode seemed completely feasible to him.

At the current scale of fifty thousand, such detail was not yet needed, but for future world-scale wars, his Eagle-Head Demon's perception would struggle to cover the entire battlefield, and many unseen areas would require decentralized unified command to handle.

However, he did not dwell on this problem, after all, when full opening would occur remained unknown.

By then, very powerful players would surely appear, and he might not even retain supreme command authority over the player legions.

As for now, with the Brain Overclock's support, he still had surplus capacity to command a scale of fifty thousand; any scale beyond that would require upgrading the levels of the Eagle-Head Demon and the Brain Overclock Painful Painful Minghun.

Putting the tableware into his spatial satchel, the God King looked up again at the churning Black Tide in the distance.

During the expansion operations of these past two days, they had clashed with three small clans.

The parsed information showed that these three small clans were all Descending factions.

Regarding this, the God King did not feel there was any problem.

He had a detailed understanding of the power structure in the Pale Continent region.

Basically, all factions with some strength on the Pale Continent had joined the Counter-Tide Legion, receiving the Counter-Tide Legion's protection; those outside were mostly Descending factions.

While following the Black Tide's advance, he also discovered a very bizarre phenomenon.

All three factions viewed the other two as enemies, yet whenever an obstructing faction appeared during their expansion, all three factions would turn their guns on the obstructing faction.

For example, the Descending faction "Ghost Constellation Clan" that had just blocked their path.

Facing their players' active offensive, the Ghost Constellation Clan's resistance was extremely fierce, forcing them to actively retreat several times.

At that moment, the Earth-Will Bully controlled the Black Tide to strike.

Facing their players, the Earth-Will Bully simply ignored them, focusing entirely on devouring the Ghost Constellation Clan.

Seeing the Earth-Will Bully begin to devour and grow, he, who had originally intended to clash with the Black Tide, decisively turned his guns, issuing orders for the warband players to continue pursuing and attacking the Ghost Constellation Clan.

His thought was, the more they killed, the fewer the Earth-Will Bully would devour.

Moreover, since the Evils were all poor monsters, facing the equally staggering numbers of the Ghost Constellation Clan, the yield from hunting and killing the two differed by a factor of three.

Whether to counter the Black Tide or to maximize profits, the Ghost Constellation Clan was the best target.

Obviously, the Earth-Will Bully's Ba De Xiang Fa was the same.

In his eyes, players could no longer even be described as poor monsters; confronting them yielded only negative returns, with no energy production whatsoever.

Compared to the "fresh and delicious" Ghost Constellation Clan, players were more like a waste possessing combat power but dissolving into the air upon death.

The choice between the two is obvious.

Though the insect race only charges forward to kill, they also turn their weapons when facing targets worth devouring.

Though insect warriors have no brains, the mastermind behind them possesses wisdom.

Behind their brutality and bloodlust, they understand profit and sacrifice.

Thus arose the bizarre scene where all three factions aligned their weapons outward.

But once the obstructing forces are cleared, the three factions will turn on each other.

To seize the resources of the obstructing forces, they will fight fiercely and strike deadly blows against the other two factions.

Yet the Terrible Earth Nian has perfected tactical application—he can only minimize explicit combat orders, creating chaos and uncertainty within the war.

Any clear command is easily countered by the Terrible Earth Nian, causing greater losses among his own players.

For example, the previous assassin swap-and-explosion tactic was countered by the Terrible Earth Nian.

Another example: his command to switch frontline damage-takers allowed the Terrible Earth Nian to seize the opportunity and replicate the frontline damage-taker species through Fan Shi Zhong.

There are many other similar cases.

In tactics, he is no match for the Terrible Earth Nian.

So his current combat strategy has only one goal: exploit the chaotic, disordered nature of players, launching attacks against the Black Tide through a semi-free warfare model.

Calling it command, he now functions more like a resource coordinator.

Through the Hawk-Head Beast's perception, he observes the battlefield and reminds different player squads: low health needs healing, beware ambushes from evil spirits, finish off enemies with low HP, and so on.

From strategic commander, he has become a reminder bot.

As a commander, to sink to this state, he sighs inwardly.

It feels like the frustration of diligent study and self-improvement, only to be crushed under the heel of a natural-born monster.

At that moment, a voice echoed in his mind:

"Boss, found a sixth-generation Meng Yuan Chu (Meng Yuan Chu screenshot. jpg)!"

Startled by the interruption, the Divine King immediately used his consciousness to zoom in on the screenshot.

【Lord (Sixth-Generation Meng Yuan Chu)】:

Hunting Level: 129.

Meng Yuan Chu Description: A Meng Yuan Chu monster possessing the Lord trait, capable of gaining ability boosts by occupying territory (territory marker).

……

The image was sent by guild brothers who had been exploring ahead.

The scene unfolded in a region untouched by the Black Tide, with beautiful scenery; the player taking the screenshot appeared minuscule in the frame.

The Lord in the image stood over a hundred meters tall, humanoid in appearance, gazing down at the players below from before a Shanfeng.

At first glance, it resembled a towering giant tower, its blue skin taut over bulging muscles, muscle lines forged like steel, undulations between muscles resembling mountain ridges or resilient armor, glowing with strange, deep light; its arms were as thick as pillars.

Its most striking feature was the thick white beard hanging from its chin like cascading waterfalls, giving it an overwhelming sense of ancient time and wear.

Hearing his guild brothers call it a sixth-generation Meng Yuan Chu, the Divine King perked up immediately.

But when he opened the screenshot and saw the Hunting Level, his enthusiasm dimmed considerably.

This Meng Yuan Chu monster's Hunting Level was far too high in his estimation.

The average main Painful Painful Minghun combat level of players from several guilds was 49.6.

A level-129 monster's strength could not be suppressed by numerical superiority.

He estimated that even his battle group's members would struggle to even break its defense.

"Boss, wanna try?"

A curious voice came through the voice channel from his guild brother.

"How do you even try? Do you think we have the strength to take down a level-129 monster?" the Divine King snapped.

"But if we abandon it, our lateral expansion path is blocked—this sixth-generation Meng Yuan Chu stands right in the middle. To expand eastward, we must consume it."

Hearing his guild brother's reply, the Divine King fell into deep thought.

To defeat a boss of this level, many factors must be considered.

The most critical factor is the Meng Yuan Chu monster's healing speed.

Some monsters possess extremely high healing abilities, absorbing ambient energy with every breath to replenish their HP—so even if you barely break their defense, you deal negligible effective damage.

You could use numerical superiority combined with Blood Burn Painful Painful Minghun to directly burn the monster's HP for true damage.

But true damage isn't percentage-based; its effect is limited and may not outpace the monster's healing rate.

Worse still, Blood Burn is fundamentally an enhanced buff trait; using it for damage is merely a player-developed application.

A level-129 sixth-generation Meng Yuan Chu is already terrifyingly strong—adding Blood Burn's buff effect would make it utterly unplayable.

After all, the Lord isn't some powerless, utterly decadent waste from the Bliss Palace, completely lost in pleasure and incapable of retaliation against players' face-to-face assaults.

Granting a level-129 monster a buff effect would make it even more terrifying, inevitably causing massive casualties on our side.

Thus, the tactic of using Blood Burn for true damage is clearly unfeasible.

As for Life Link and Blood Reversal Painful Painful Minghun, their prerequisite condition is not being one-shot killed.

Against a Lord-type monster, whose Hunting Level allows it to easily one-shot players, these Painful Painful Minghun traits are functionally identical to having none at all.

Perhaps the only viable method is to stack damage using special-effect Painful Painful Minghun like Toxic, Forbidden Blade, and Soul Separation.

The most effective among them should be "Wither," one of the latest magical Painful Painful Minghun, the only special-effect Painful Painful Minghun currently capable of infinitely stacking damage.

But the prerequisite is surviving the Lord's terrifying output.

The complete dominance of the Hunting Level plunged the Divine King into deep thought, pondering how to devise an effective boss-strike tactic.

As his thoughts churned, he suddenly conceived a feasible idea, then summoned the guild chat group: Summit of Players.

Divine King: (Sixth-Generation Meng Yuan Chu screenshot) Interested in taking down this Meng Yuan Chu?

Wo Si Ni Die: God King, are you crazy? How can we possibly eat this thing?

Divine Wings: Damn, I got excited seeing a Generation Six Meng Yuan Chu, but after opening it and seeing the Hunt Level, I felt like I'd swallowed a huge lump. I'd love to kill it, but my strength doesn't allow it.

May the Imperial Prince Bless You: Seeing the Hunt Level, a tactic of using Blood Burn to deal true damage automatically popped into my head, then I suddenly realized that using Blood Burn on this thing would be tantamount to thinking my life is too long. I can't beat it as it is; with Blood Burn on, I'd have even less chance.

Actually, There's a Master Here: God King, have you been depressed lately, wanting to vent the anger from being bullied by the Di Nian Tyrant on a Generation Six Meng Yuan Chu? But the problem is, the brothers don't have the ability to vent your anger for you. I feel you're making things difficult for me; at Level 129, we really can't even pretend to challenge it.

A Salted Fish That Can't Turn Over: I'm in, provided we know how to win. I feel the Dog God King must have an idea; hurry up and tell us.

God King: Let me ask first, how many Custom Within Shu Yan Warriors do you have on hand?

Wo Si Ni Die: Our guild has three, but these three are treasures of our guild. If they die, I could cry for three days. We worked so hard to catch them. I'm not in, I'm not in; we can't afford it.

May the Imperial Prince Bless You: Dog God King, our guild only has two Custom Within Shu Yan Warriors. We usually can't bear to send them to the battlefield; right now, they are still resting quietly in the Di Zhai Space. Not in.

Luan Shi Si Fa: I have one with me right now, and there are two stored in the Di Zhai Village Space. If you really want to gamble, I'm in with you, brother. I know you've been having a hard time lately; I fully support you.

Mao Xiao D Le: Let's tally up how many there are. If the numbers give us an advantage, let's gamble. Leaving them in the space just means they gather dust. Don't treat Custom Within Shu Yan Warriors like treasures; this is the time to use them. If they die, we can just ask the Within Shu Yan for more. We are all Outer Realm Demonic Spirits; catching two Within Shu Yan Warriors is no problem and fits the story setting (wry smile. jpg).

God King: Actually, I don't want to fight either. It's mainly that this Generation Six Meng Yuan Chu is blocking our path forward. To continue advancing, we must definitely clear this Generation Six Meng Yuan Chu; otherwise, we'll be stuck dead on this path.

Luan Shi Si Fa: If it's blocking the expansion path, shouldn't the Di Nian Tyrant step in?

God King: Not necessarily. It's intercepting our line; the Di Nian Tyrant is above us and unaffected.

After the exchange, the guild leaders of the major guilds began tallying the number of Within Shu Yan Warriors.

Finally, the statistics came into the God King's hands.

The major guilds, plus the Within Shu Yan Warriors in his possession, totaled 32, with an average combat power level of 91.

Whether their combined combat power can take down the Generation Six Meng Yuan Chu "Lord" looks a bit doubtful.

It seems the level gap is only 38 levels, but this 38-level gap isn't even a single Life Level difference.

Just like the Black Wind Clan Chief back then, who was in his fifties and was slaughtering a group of players in their twenties at the Colorful Mist Coast; the gap in Life Levels brought about a qualitative change in strength.

Whether to attempt pushing the boss, the God King decided through voting, casting the agree vote first himself.

Before long, the voting results were out.

The final decided result was to gamble the lives of all Within Shu Yan Warriors and take one shot.

Quickly, the major guilds began contacting members, including those powerful player squads who were also recruited through contact to participate in this boss-pushing operation.

The Within Shu Yan Warriors stored in the Di Zhai Village Space, standing on the street, were also brought one by one to the assembly point.

By evening, the sun gradually drew in its dazzling light, dyeing the sky a brilliant orange-red.

The clouds on the horizon were layered upon layer, transforming into various wonderful shapes under the glow of the setting sun.

"Set out!"

Accompanying the God King's command, the player team advanced toward the location of the Generation Six Meng Yuan Chu.

Half an hour later, a body as huge as a mountain appeared in the warband players' field of vision.

Seeing it with one's own eyes is a completely opposite feeling to looking at screenshots.

The Lord's body, over a hundred meters tall, brought a strong visual shock to the players.

Like a giant statue straddling the earth, with bulging muscles, each one like a massive rock, full of bursting power.

The muscular lines of the thick arms were like winding pythons, rising and falling with movement; the broad back muscles were like continuous mountain ranges, supporting the huge body, looking indestructible; the leg muscles were even thicker, like Shi Zhu.

A wild and fierce aura rushed toward them.

The voice channels of the squads within the warband immediately erupted into chaos.

The God King had already introduced in advance that they were to fight a Level 129 Generation Six Meng Yuan Chu monster, but the visual impact of seeing it directly was exceptionally strong.

It even made many players feel that they had become exceptionally insignificant.

But there was not a shred of fear in the players' hearts; shocking as it was, they would kill without the slightest hesitation.

The God King also issued the attack order at this time.

"Everyone scatter, spread out as much as possible, free fire!"

Countless players spread out like a tide, increasing the distance between them to avoid excessive casualties all at once.

Skills released by magic-type players rose into the sky like brilliant fireworks, falling straight down upon the Lord.

Among the entire warband, only the Gargoyle players did not unleash their abilities.

Facing a boss whose intensity far exceeded their own, the charge of the Tank Gargoyle style became meaningless; the only thing they could do was spread out, occupy a position to be attacked, and try to gain one instance of damage absorption for the warband, slowing down the rate of their own casualties.

A Gargoyle-style player's self-mockery in the voice channel was: I am just cannon fodder right now.

Facing the players' fierce assault, the Lord, who had been with eyes closed, suddenly opened its eyes.

Its cold face looked exceptionally majestic; a pair of huge eyes were like burning blue flames, revealing endless ferocity.

Enduring wave after wave of attacks from magic-type players, small flames constantly splashed up on its body, yet it remained unscathed.

The players' attacks at this moment were like flies biting; they could not move it in the slightest, and it still stood imposingly.

Just then, the Lord's eyebrows furrowed slightly, seeming somewhat impatient.

It was seen that it slightly opened its mouth; immediately, the surrounding air was crazily stirred, forming a huge vortex, surging like seawater flooding in; sand and dust on the ground were swept up by a powerful suction force, converging toward the Lord's mouth at an extremely fast speed.

Its chest was like an endless black hole, continuously absorbing everything around it.

Roar!

Accompanying a deafening roar, the sound was like an invisible shockwave, spreading toward the players with the momentum of overturning mountains and seas.

Immediately, sand flew and stones rolled, with wild winds howling.

Like millions of huge beasts roaring simultaneously, it made the eardrums of nearby players ache; players closer still hadn't had time to say "Wocao" before being instantly sent to the small black room.

Seeing that a single wave of assault caused hundreds of player casualties on their side, the God King decisively spoke to signal the crowd to retreat.

At the same time, he required the warband players to continue spreading out, increasing the distance between positions, while magic-type players continued to output and stack the Wither trait.

The Within Shu Yan Warriors also acted at this time, surrounding the Lord from different directions.

The Book Word warriors charging at the very front were slapped flying by the Overlord in a single exchange, entering a critical injury state.

Facing the players' constant harassment, the Overlord was clearly enraged.

It slowly raised its arm, its thick limb like a pillar holding up the heavens, causing the surrounding air to tremble faintly.

The massive hand swept out in a sudden swing, a tremendous force surging forth like a raging tide; the air cracked with a sonic boom, and wherever the gale passed, players' bodies flew backward uncontrollably like kites with cut strings, sliced to death midair by the razor-sharp wind blades.

The Overlord's right leg, which had remained planted on the ground, now suddenly lifted and slammed down ahead; the earth groaned dully, the right leg pierced straight through the ground, and cracks spread out from the point of impact like a spiderweb toward the players' position.

The strike seemed as if it would shatter the earth, triggering a wave of tremors that knocked many spellcaster players off their feet.

The resulting shockwave killed yet another swarm of players.

At this point, only the Book Word warriors could withstand the energy shockwave damage the Overlord released with every gesture, but when clashing head-on with the Overlord, the Book Word warriors still appeared to be struggling immensely.

Facing the players' constant harassment, one could see the Overlord's rage meter surging upward.

In its enraged state, flames burned in the Overlord's eyes, its gaze like a tangible blade, sweeping across with an overwhelming pressure of death.

During this time, the guild leader chat channel kept erupting with exclamations:

"Holy shit, Divine King, are we really supposed to be able to fight this thing?"

"What the hell is this thing? The damage output is way too ridiculous — looks like we'd need to call in the Champion Warrior to take it down."

"My Wither stacks are already at 29 layers, and the health bar is dropping way too slowly. Add in the Wither stacks from the other spellcaster players, and there must be tens of thousands of layers by now. How many more do I need to stack before the health actually plummets? I might not be able to hold on."

In their first exchange, the Overlord's performance left the players in despair — they found that although their damage output had some effect, the problem was that the Overlord's casual attacks could send them into the respawn room by the dozens.

The glaring gap in strength simply could not be bridged by numbers.

But Divine King did not give up; after activating Brain Overclock, he kept adjusting the players' positioning, trying to use Wither — the ultimate boss-killing skill — to whittle the Overlord down bit by bit.

Just as the players were about to lose more than half their numbers, the surging black tide in the distance suddenly swept in.

Just as the players were wondering, puzzled, whether the local tyrant was about to cause trouble at this moment, the black tide's energy within the advancing torrent surged upward rapidly, condensing in midair into a giant black hand raising its middle finger, which swept across the players' line of sight and pushed onward into the distance.

"Damn, you bastard tyrant!"

Seeing this scene, players in the warband cursed up a storm in the chat channel.

Just as the players were about to shift their attention back to the Overlord and keep fighting, the black tide suddenly retreated.

The raised middle finger collapsed, and the surging black energy below condensed into an upside-down thumbs-up, drifting back and forth at the far edge of the players' vision.

Facing the local tyrant's off-field interference, the players felt like they could spit blood from sheer frustration.

"You animal!"

Seeing this, Divine King couldn't help cursing furiously in the warband channel.

(End of this chapter)