Chapter 181: The Strongest Version

Meng Yuan Chu Altar.

Qi Sheng's eyes hovered before Wang Yu's attribute panel.

The current Wang Yu's flesh and blood had long since been devoured completely; his body was an Immortal Virus collective spawned from the Immortal Virus devouring Wang Yu's flesh and blood.

Under normal circumstances, the Immortal Virus would re-edit living cells during the infection process.

The originally precise signal transmission network between neurons would be destroyed by the virus and then reshaped, including the functions of the neurons being tampered with; the neural pathways originally used to produce cognitive functions such as self-awareness, emotion, and memory were modified, and instead formed a kind of reflex circuit dominated by the virus.

This reflex circuit caused the infected to only respond to specific stimuli, such as the scent and temperature emitted by fresh flesh and blood — the energy source the virus craved.

Therefore, the virus would drive the infected to attack other living beings, achieving its own spread and growth.

But the individual's own cognition had long since vanished during the infection process.

The behavior pattern of the Immortal Zombie was not based on the living being's own consciousness, but rather "commands" set by the virus for its own continuation.

From the consciousness level, the infected's self-awareness had already vanished; what controlled the body was the Immortal Virus.

But this was the process by which a normal living being, after being infected with the Immortal Virus, became an Immortal Zombie.

Wang Yu, as a player, was protected by the Purification Rule, one of the Four Cornerstone Rules; any power eroding the spiritual sea of consciousness would be completely erased in an instant.

In other words, although the virus killed Wang Yu, it failed to seize control of this body.

Wang Yu's current flesh was a collective generated by the virus devouring his flesh and blood, but his consciousness was still the original him.

This was also why the attribute panel displayed: Immortal Status.

In special mode, although Wang Yu's physical attributes were enhanced, the operating laws and structure of life had changed.

Under this mode, the player controlled the virus, so they could no longer continue using the Painful Painful Minghun traits in the Star Vein slots; secondly, because the body had not been purified, they could not return to the Imperial Tomb Village space.

A player in Immortal Status could choose to be directly decomposed by the All Things Extraction Rule and return to Imperial Tomb Village Weight to be reshaped.

They could also choose to continue surviving in Immortal Status.

It was equivalent to the player having an extra, weakened version of a life.

But the physical attribute boost brought by the Immortal Virus only suited melee-type players; after spell-type players were infected, their spiritual strength was weakened to 0, and they could not use spell-type Painful Painful Minghun, so their combat power would be greatly diminished.

Qi Sheng's gaze now turned to the player forum.

At this moment, the forum had already launched a heated discussion on "Immortal Status."

【The situation is a bit outrageous; it all started with me getting infected with the Immortal Virus.】

OP: Overlord Fish

Content:

The apocalypse descended; while everyone else was desperately searching for weapons, hoarding supplies, and preparing to fight the zombies to the death, I, infected with the virus, unexpectedly awakened and became a Zombie King.

In the post-apocalyptic environment, human civilization was tottering like a candle in the wind.

Should I continue striving to maintain my humanity, or in this new world of the survival of the fittest, go further and further down the path of becoming a Zombie King, until I establish my own Immortal Empire?

Humanity? Beastliness? Where should I go?

Sorry, grabbed the wrong script, let me switch to another one and continue.

The specific situation is this: our Doomsday Tech Guild accidentally discovered an underground mine while testing a mining robot...

As a result, my arm came into contact with the Immortal Virus, causing me to ultimately transform into Immortal Status, that is, an Immortal Zombie.

In this state, I cannot use Painful Painful Minghun abilities, nor can I return to the Imperial Tomb Village space.

Only after dying a second time can I enter the little black room for resurrection cooldown.

I think this thing has a lot of room for development; doesn't everyone usually complain about the resurrection cooldown setting? Now there's finally a chance to have two lives.

(Video attachment, attribute panel screenshot.)

Comment section:

Aba Aba: Pretty useless, right? What can we spell-type players do after becoming Immortal Zombies? Stand in the back and clap and cheer for our teammates?

Drift with the Current: Feels more suited for melee-type players, but seeing your pained rolling-all-over-the-ground look in the video, I think melee players might not necessarily use it either. By comparison, the Stone Golem style players who take damage every day have stronger pain tolerance and are more suited for them to use — even if they die, they can get back up and fight again.

Like a Dream, Like an Illusion: The Immortal Virus has already been delivered to our Alchemist Guild; leave the side-effect problem to our Alchemist Guild. When the time comes, we'll sell you a painless zombie-transformation Immortal potion. Recently we've been developing a dual anesthetic for the physical and spiritual levels; if the development succeeds, going forward, Gene Seeds and Immortal potions are bound to sell like crazy. I can already see a big pile of Shou Shou Jili rolling in.

Night Is Coming: If the alchemists really can develop a spiritual anesthetic, the Immortal Virus is a must-have for every melee player. When HP is almost bottomed out, take a dose of strong medicine, transform into an Immortal Zombie and keep fighting. Don't care how much boost it brings; living one more minute is a good thing.

Is This a Beaver: Good, good, good, more and more playstyles are appearing, even a Zombie style has shown up. I can already imagine the scenes of the Geliu Sect soaring through the sky and burrowing into the earth a few years from now — you guys really know how to play.

The appearance of the Immortal Virus sparked heated discussion on the forum.

During this period, at the request of forum players, the Alchemist Guild also decided to invest more manpower in the research and development of the Immortal Virus.

Through the guidance, players had already learned that the Immortal Virus's infection was only effective against beings below level 85; beings above that had life strength enough to easily resist the Immortal Virus.

Melee players at this stage had bodies like a furnace of qi and blood; the Immortal Virus simply could not survive inside a melee player's body.

But this problem the Alchemist Guild could solve.

They could continue their research and development, letting the Immortal Virus continue to evolve.

They could also develop spiritual anesthetic potions, completely solving the side effects of the Immortal Virus and Gene potions.

In players' eyes, there was only one side effect of an item — pain.

Side effects other than pain posed no threat; even if after infection one's body would rot and die, as long as it didn't hurt, it wasn't a problem.

The melee-style players were undoubtedly the happiest about the debut of the Immortal Virus.

In the words of forum players: our players finally have our own plague-type unit too.

During this period, a video posted by a monster-style player once again sparked heated discussion.

In the attached video of the post, a player following the monster-style growth path took the initiative to go to an underground cave to be infected with the Immortal Virus.

Instantly, their combat power skyrocketed, transforming into an Immortal Giant Serpent.

The characteristic of the monster style was that it boosted combat power through attributes, crushing opponents with physical strength in combat.

It would not spend excess resources on Star Vein combination and matching.

The already formidable attributes, after being infected and strengthened, became even more terrifying, and the great serpent's volume also grew by nearly double.

Practice has proven that the most compatible with the Immortal Virus are monster-stream players, who unexpectedly received a major version buff.

As for whether there are other playstyles, players are still developing and exploring.

Meanwhile, the fierce battle in the underground space continued.

The Arms Merchant Guild was, after all, not a combat guild; the Immortal Zombies in the lower-level space had seen a significant increase in strength—these had all once been elite warriors of the Gui Li Clan, and several Immortal Zombies with combat power far exceeding their peers also appeared.

Facing the underground space that was difficult to advance through, the Arms Merchant Guild chose to send reinforcement requests to the leaders of several major guilds.

A true calamity soon swept through the underground space.

The entire underground space was like an ant nest, with passages extending in all directions crisscrossing like a spider web, spreading deep into the earth, resembling an intricate maze.

The incoming army of players kept splitting up within the underground space; no room they passed along the way escaped the players' destruction.

Not to mention jars and pots, even the Gui Li Clan's cesspits had to be stirred with a stick a couple of times to see if any treasures were hidden inside.

Fifth level, sixth level, seventh level… as the number of players entering the underground space grew, the speed of advancing into the lower-level space gradually accelerated.

The Arms Merchant Guild's combat strength was simply not worth mentioning in front of combat players.

Usually, weapons purchased from the Arms Merchant Guild were also used as auxiliary tools; Painful Painful Minghun was the player's strongest weapon.

The average level of the Arms Merchants was relatively low; the elite monsters in their eyes were nothing more than slightly stronger ordinary monsters in the eyes of combat players, easily dealt with by a single squad.

On the third day of exploring the underground space, the main force of players saw the sixth-generation Meng Yuan Chu monster imprisoned and sealed in the deepest part underground.

Its appearance was like a white deer, with an elegant posture, its entire body covered in a layer of down that seemed woven from moonlight, shimmering with a soft silver glow.

Its antlers were not ordinary bone, but carved from colorful, dazzling crystal, with dreamlike colors flowing between the branches, just like a rainbow condensed at the edge of the sky.

Upon discovering the players, the cry Qi Yuan emitted was like heavenly music, its eyes like a deep, serene pool, a tranquil blue shining through.

Qi Yuan's body was tightly bound by rune chains, unable to move.

After a long imprisonment, facing the players' attacks, a look of relief surfaced in Qi Yuan's eyes.

Before long, the prompt for containing Qi Yuan sounded in all players' minds.

【Challenger Prompt (All Channels): Congratulations to the player warband for successfully containing the sixth-generation Meng Yuan Chu monster "Qi Yuan." Warband players share the Shou Shou Jili reward of 100,000, and obtain x15 Qi Yuan Painful Minghun (according to kill contribution, awarded to the top 15 ranked players)】

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

Painful Minghun Trait Introduction: Completing target wishes grants malleable energy "Wish Power," which can be used to strengthen Body Tempering level or list on the trading house; Wish Power can also be used to raise Qi Yuan's level and unlock Qi Yuan's skills.

Along with the containment prompt sounding, a white deer with a spirited expression appeared in Containment Wall No. 44 beneath Di Zhong Village.

Strategy-guide players also flocked to the Testing Tower to begin testing the functions of the new Painful Minghun.

……

Hearing the prompt, Hei Ye Jiang Zhi, who was already in the Testing Space, decisively summoned the Painful Minghun Library.

Among the Painful Minghun listed above, a Painful Minghun orb with a faintly visible white deer inside had been added.

After initializing his body, he dragged the "Qi Yuan Painful Minghun" into the first Star Vessel slot.

Instantly, countless Xi Lao Yin were imprinted in his mind.

But to his surprise, raising the level of the Qi Yuan Painful Minghun only brought an increase in spiritual strength intensity, with no usable traits.

However, the Qi Yuan Painful Minghun had its own additional growth system, requiring investment through consuming Wish Power to level up.

Qi Yuan's first level required consuming 3,000 points of Wish Power to unlock.

There were no such restrictions in the Testing Space; he modified 100 million Wish Power for himself.

Instantly, skill information surfaced in his mind.

【Qi Yuan Level 1: Qi Yuan (3,000 Wish Power to unlock)】

Skill Introduction: Releases Qi Yuan on a target, raising the target's Luck stat in Monster World, lasting 32 hours.

In Hei Ye's view, this ability seemed the same as the two Painful Minghun, Ji Yun and Hong Yun—the boosted attribute effect could not be presented through any testing method.

But it could be used with Painful Minghun like "Infinity" that require luck.

At least at this stage, no effective way to use it had been developed.

Subsequently, he consumed 30,000 points of Wish Power to unlock Qi Yuan's second skill.

【Qi Yuan Level 2: Moonlight Cocoon Guard (30,000 Wish Power)】

Skill Introduction: Holy silver radiance shines upon the designated target, wrapping the target in a cocoon of gentle energy light; within the light cocoon, wound healing is accelerated and external damage is resisted (specific effects are influenced by Qi Yuan Painful Minghun level and one's own spiritual strength intensity).

After generating a template dummy, Hei Ye switched to Qi Yuan's true form, transforming into a white deer.

After setting the dummy's life at 10% and adjusting parameters to put it in a severely injured state, he then cast Moonlight Cocoon Guard on it.

Instantly, the moonlight down on his body burst forth with dazzling light; holy silver radiance surged like a rising tide toward the critically wounded dummy, swiftly wrapping it in a gentle light cocoon and generating a resilient shield.

In subsequent testing, it was discovered that Moonlight Cocoon Guard could not only effectively resist both physical and spiritual attacks, but also created a faint healing space within; under the protection of the light cocoon released by a level-100 Qi Yuan Painful Minghun, the dummy's originally bloody wounds began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye, torn flesh gradually reconnected, and broken sinews and bones slowly mended.

The effect made Hei Ye Jiang Zhi feel very pleasantly surprised.

This was actually the healing-type skill players needed most at this stage, but compared to healing, the strongest effect was still generating a defensive barrier.

Compared to light shields that could only defend against physical and elemental attacks, the Moonlight Cocoon Guard inherent to the Qi Yuan Painful Minghun could also resist spiritual shock effects.

Next was Qi Yuan's third Wish Power-unlocked skill.

【Qi Yuan Level 3: Star Chime Healing (300,000 Wish Power to unlock)】

Skill Introduction: Plays a healing movement, releasing silver starlight that merges into the injured body, dispelling all kinds of negative statuses on the target.

The skill's test effect made Hei Ye Jiang Zhi feel pleasantly surprised.

At this stage, players' means of countering negative statuses were limited; the only effective Painful Minghun was Unyielding, suited for melee players, and it was only effective on oneself.

But Star Chime Healing was a ranged, targeted skill.

It could dispel negative statuses from a distance, giving melee players one more Star Vessel slot to slot in—absolutely a divine skill for support-stream players.

Next was the test of the fourth skill.

【Qi Yuan Level 4: Lotus Hoof Flowing Life (3,000,000 Wish Power to unlock)】

Skill Description: Releases a gentle energy light screen that covers the surrounding area, continuously infusing nearby life with vitality, allowing the wounded to rapidly recover to peak condition and fully healing their injuries.

The skill's visual effect is a field of starlight forming overhead, scattering fine rain-like threads, healing all injured players within its coverage.

Its most powerful aspect is that the skill also provides nearby players with accelerated spiritual energy recovery.

In other words, this is a dual-healing skill.

Health bar and mana bar recover simultaneously.

In Hei Ye Jiang Zhi's eyes, it's simply the god-tier skill among god-tier skills.

Prayer Level 5, Prayer Level 6….

A total of 10 Prayer skills, each one a surprise.

After finishing the review, Hei Ye Jiang Zhi posted his guide on the player forum.

The test results sent the entire forum into an uproar.

Prayer turned out to be the healer-type Painful Painful Minghun players had long dreamed of.

Not a single-attribute healer, but one with a full suite of support skills.

Barrier protection, single-target healing, area healing, dispel debuffs, aura amplification, single-target amplification… every ability players need can be found across the 10 Prayer levels.

Most importantly, this Painful Painful Minghun only takes up one star vein slot.

Compared to high-tier Painful Painful Minghun like Infinity (Gen 6), Divine Aspect (Gen 7), and Overlord (Gen 6) — which look impressive on paper but have poor practical use at this stage — Prayer is absurdly overpowered.

Even more importantly, this is a non-special Painful Painful Minghun; as long as you have Shou Shou Jili, you can buy and socket it from the Painful Painful Minghun library.

Whether small-squad players or warband players, everyone realized just how exaggerated a boost to combat power and sustain this Painful Painful Minghun's arrival would bring to their side.

As the number of guide posts grew, the newly acquired Prayer quickly claimed the throne of version T0 Painful Painful Minghun.

It even surpassed the Food-Qi Painful Painful Minghun — which had dominated the rankings until now — in Painful Painful Minghun strength scoring, becoming the strongest of the current version.

But the strength was there, and a new problem followed.

Prayer Painful Painful Minghun's level progression is split into two systems.

One is Painful Painful Minghun level increases from earning evolution points through hunting, but unlocking skills requires Wish Power.

So, how does one obtain Wish Power?

The forum completely exploded, with a flood of posts discussing how to obtain Wish Power.

Several major guilds decisively pooled funds to buy the "Prayer" Painful Painful Minghun for their core supports.

But the conditions for obtaining Wish Power are extremely harsh.

Wish Power can only be gained by fulfilling a target's wish.

A player who had the Prayer Painful Painful Minghun posted on the forum, wanting to fulfill everyone's wishes.

The replies were uniformly: "Boss, transfer some Shou Shou Jili, I've got insane output."

If you want to extract Wish Power from players, they'll truly bleed you dry.

The amount of Wish Power obtained is heavily influenced by the intensity of the target's desire and the target's own strength.

Players' strength and desires are completely mismatched.

Although players currently stand at a low point, their hearts already harbor the ambition to enter the world-class battlefield.

To fulfill their goals, one would have to give them Gao Ang's worth of Shou Shou Jili.

Facing such a powerful Painful Painful Minghun yet having no channel to obtain Wish Power drove many players who possessed Prayer to despair.

It's like sitting on a mountain of Jin Shan with no key to unlock the wealth.

During the experimentation process, many ideas were tried.

But none of the methods worked.

This meant Wish Power couldn't easily be generated internally among players, and could only be obtained from external channels.

During this period, players discovered that after socketing the Prayer Painful Painful Minghun and heading to the Soul Fighting Arena, each victory and promotion yielded increasing Wish Power gains.

But this mode simply couldn't mass-produce Wish Power.

The price of Wish Power on the trading house reached 10 Shou Shou Jili per 1 Wish Power, yet supply still couldn't meet demand.

Every major guild wanted to field a powerful player socketed with the Prayer Painful Painful Minghun, sparing no expense to build one.

Just as players were agonizing over how to obtain Wish Power—

A post appeared that brought hope:

【Regarding obtaining Wish Power, I'll give you a completely viable method.】

Poster: Explorer

Content:

As the saying goes, the predecessors plant the trees while the descendants enjoy the shade.

As an exploration-faction player deeply interested in Monster World's lore, I inquired with the guide NPC and learned the detailed background of the Gui Li tribe's underground space.

The result was good news.

On the 16th floor of the underground space, there is a spatial teleportation array. This was once built by the Gui Li tribe to obtain Wish Power. The small world has already fallen into a zombie-infested Mo Ri Shi Jie, so brothers who want Wish Power — why not head to the apocalyptic small world and save the masses in the name of a savior?

(End of chapter)