Chapter 19: The Prototype of Multiple Sects

The appearance of a Black Black Tide rift meant the real world had entered the countdown to Black Black Tide erosion.

Qi Sheng was unclear about the specific rate of collapse; he needed to further observe and analyze the world's changes to make a judgment.

But one thing was certain: he still had ample time to perfect the Challenger Plan.

At the current stage, the Monster World was recruiting under the banner of "Dark Lands," but the day it would be completely exposed was inevitable.

Yet he had never worried about the issue of the truth being revealed.

In the Challenger Plan he formulated, the recruitment targets included not only humans but also those alien factions that had fled to Earth as refugees.

But not now; the sacrificial power he possessed was insufficient to launch large-scale recruitment.

Inside the containment walls beneath Emperor Tomb Village, the number of contained Primordial Monsters had reached nine: the Black Armored Snake, the Eagle-Headed Demon, the Gargoyle, the Bone Fire, and the five Artifact Spirits. They produced 2, 60 points of sacrificial power daily. Adding the output from player hunting and mining, the daily sacrificial power yield was around 2, 00 points.

After deducting the 1, 00 points of sacrificial power consumed to maintain Emperor Tomb Village, 1, 00 points remained each day for recruitment costs.

In other words, they could produce enough for one and a half player slots per day.

This amount of sacrificial power was a drop in the bucket for expanding the player camp; let alone recruiting aliens, it was far from enough to even complete the recruitment target for humans.

To increase the number of recruits, they could only wait for the players' strength to gradually improve, creating more sacrificial power revenue.

Without dwelling on this issue, Qi Sheng turned his gaze to the Guidance Water Sphere:

"Notify Uncle Yan to send me back."

【Understood.】

Guidance nodded and vanished without a trace. A few seconds later, a teleportation array appeared beneath Qi Sheng's feet.

After returning to the Primordial Altar beneath Emperor Tomb Village,

his vision switched to the players currently exploring the Monster World.

Emperor Tomb Mountain Range, Blood-Colored Plain.

Dim Grotto.

"Gargoyles take the front! Black Armored Snakes and Eagle-Headed Demons, look for openings to deal damage!"

Accompanied by the woman's shout, the players once again engaged in fierce combat with the Iron-Shelled Worms.

In recent days, the Dim Grotto had become the players' primary location for leveling up and gathering resources.

This was related to the special environment of the Monster World.

In normal games, once players leave the novice village, the monsters outside are generally weak, suitable for player leveling and growth.

The Monster World was entirely different. Once outside Emperor Tomb Village, besides hunting lower-level Cursed Soldiers, one could easily encounter powerful monsters with high hunting levels capable of easily wiping out entire player teams, making the exploration process full of uncertainty.

In comparison, the Dim Grotto, with its clear monster strength levels and abundant mineable resources, became the players' top choice.

After days of growth, many players had already unlocked their second Star Vein.

Three powerful Star Vein sects had been proven effective through actual combat.

The strongest in the current version was the Artifact Spirit Sect, which involved embedding multiple Artifact Spirits into the Star Vein, using the human body as the core to manipulate the various characteristic powers of the Artifact Spirits for combat.

However, at the current stage, only Li Tie belonged to this sect.

Every level of Body Tempering required 10, 00 points of sacrificial power; other players simply did not have enough sacrificial power to build an Artifact Spirit sect Star Vein combination.

Next was the ranged strike sect combining Bone Fire and Eagle-Headed Demon; the combination of damage output and perception positioning made this sect the first choice for players starting with the Eagle-Headed Demon, showing excellent performance in actual combat.

Finally, there was the Star Vein combination of Black Armored Snake and Power Barbarian Axe.

The Black Armored Snake utilized physical attacks, and when combined with the strength attributes and damage amplification of the Power Barbarian Axe, it significantly boosted combat power.

However, at the current stage, players basically fought by switching forms; very few players maintained their primary human form for extended periods to fuse and utilize characteristic powers.

As for the Gargoyle form, no suitable Star Vein sect had yet been developed. Generally, players would choose one of the five Artifact Spirits contained by Li Tie as their second form, with the Gargoyle plus Soul-Departing Spear combination being quite popular.

The Gargoyle's damage output was not high; its characteristic was strong defense. Combined with the Soul-Departing Spear's attack feature of inflicting mental shock, this path followed the route of a damage-effect sect.

Some players simply chose no sect at all, focusing solely on leveling up their initial monster form.

These players believed that the more Star Veins embedded, the more Evolution Points were needed for cultivation; it was better to focus on cultivating a single form.

For example, cultivating the Black Armored Snake into a 100-level Sky-Piercing Giant Python, or cultivating the Eagle-Headed Demon into a Great Peng Bird, and so on.

Facts proved that focusing on cultivating the initial form also brought very considerable combat power improvements; this sect was jokingly referred to by players as the Monster Beast Sect.

Every player had different ideas, and the development of the combat power system had already shown tendencies toward different sects.

The battle lasted for half an hour.

At the cost of losing over half their numbers, players from the Liver Emperor Group, the Crime Drunk Group, and the Kindergarten Group repelled the incoming Black Tide of Iron-Shelled Worms.

Besides gaining a large number of Evolution Points that allowed many players to upgrade their monster forms, the ground covered in carapaces was also part of the harvest.

According to Guidance's analysis, these carapaces were classified as Grade 1 Spiritual Materials, which could be used to sacrifice to Di Zhao to obtain extra sacrificial power rewards.

As for how to distribute them, since the chaotic battle made it impossible to tally each player's contribution, they ultimately adopted an equal per-capita distribution. All carapaces were handed over to the Crime Drunk Group for sacrifice, and the resulting sacrificial power yield was then evenly distributed among the leaders of each player group, who would then distribute it to their team members.

Just as the players were distributing the rewards, an unexpected change suddenly occurred.

Only then did they hear a warning suddenly issued by an Eagle-Headed Demon player in the team who had activated the Resentful Chant perception ability:

"Big trouble! The Cave Dwellers are here again!"

Upon hearing these words, everyone tacitly threw the carapaces into their Spatial Bags and decisively sprinted toward the grotto exit.

The Cave Dweller Warriors had reached hunting level 19, and coupled with the large number of Iron-Shelled Worms accompanying them, the players' current strength was simply no match for them.

Death itself was not scary; what was scary was that death would deduct 10 points of sacrificial power and trigger a one-hour resurrection cooldown.

While fleeing, the regional voice channel was surprisingly cheerful:

"Brothers who chose Gargoyles have high defense; take the rear and hold them off for a while so we can run first!"

"Is that even human language you're speaking? Why should those who chose Gargoyles have to sacrifice themselves?"

"I'm about to be caught! Why are you all running so fast? Wait for me!"

"Bullying us Eagle-Headed Demons for having short legs, huh? Running so fast one by one. We agreed to be a team; is this how you treat your teammates?"

In this tense and thrilling escape, who cared about teammates? All players exerted their full strength, sprinting madly toward the cave mouth.

During the chase, several players running at the very back were entangled by silk threads spat out by the Iron-Shelled Worms and dragged backward, sliding along the ground. Their piercing screams of agony caused the players running ahead to suddenly accelerate even faster.

Once the players ran out of the grotto, they began discussing a question.

Should they unite to kill the Cave Dweller Warriors?

The existence of the Cave Dweller Warriors had become an obstacle to their mining in the Dim Grotto, and even to their monster hunting and leveling.

If they were not eliminated, the players would have to be ready to flee at any moment while inside the Dim Grotto.

Rather than living in fear every day, it was better to cut the weeds and dig up the roots, completely resolving the hidden danger.

(End of Chapter)