Chapter 19: Progenitors of Multiple Schools

The appearance of a Black Tide rift means the real world has entered the countdown to Black Tide erosion.

The exact rate of collapse, Qi Sheng is unclear; further observation of world changes is needed for analysis and judgment.

But what is certain is that he still has ample time to perfect the Challenger Plan.

At this stage, the Monster World is recruiting new members under the banner of "Dark Lands," but there will inevitably come a day when the truth is fully exposed.

Yet he has never worried about the problem of the truth being exposed.

In the Challenger Plan he devised, the recruitment targets include not only humans, but also the alien factions that have fled to Earth.

But not now; the Shou Shou Jili on his person is still insufficient to launch mass recruitment.

In the containment wall beneath Di Zhao Village, the number of Meng Yuan Chu monsters already contained has reached nine: the Black-Armored Snake, the Eagle-Headed Demon, the Gargoyle, Bone Fire, and the Five Weapon Spirits; their daily Shou Shou Jili output is 2,160 points, and with the Shou Shou Jili generated by players hunting and mining, the daily Shou Shou Jili revenue is around 2,500.

After deducting the 1,000 points of Shou Shou Jili consumed to maintain Di Zhao Village, 1,500 points of Shou Shou Jili remain available for recruitment expenses each day.

That is to say, one and a half player slots can be generated daily.

This amount of Shou Shou Jili is a drop in the bucket for expanding the player camp; let alone recruiting aliens, it is far from enough even to meet the goal of recruiting all of humanity.

To increase the number of recruits, one must wait for players' strength to gradually improve and create more Shou Shou Jili revenue.

Without pondering this issue further, Qi Sheng turned his gaze to the Guidance Water Sphere:

"Notify Uncle Yan; send me back."

【Understood.】

After the Guidance nodded, it vanished into nothingness; a few seconds later, a teleportation array appeared beneath Qi Sheng's feet.

After returning to the Meng Yuan Chu Altar beneath Di Zhao Village,

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

……

Di Zhao Mountain Range, Blood-Red Plain.

Dim Cave.

"Gargoyles, take the front; Black-Armored Snakes and Eagle-Headed Demons, look for opportunities to deal damage."

Accompanying the woman's shout, the players once again erupted into fierce combat with the Iron-Shell Beetles.

In recent days, the Dim Cave has become the players' first choice for leveling up and gathering resources.

This is related to the Monster World's unique environment.

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

The Monster World is completely different; once outside Di Zhao Village, besides hunting lower-level Cursed Weapons, one can easily encounter high-level monsters capable of wiping out entire player teams, making exploration full of uncertainty.

In comparison, the Dim Cave, with its clearly defined monster strength and abundant diggable resources, has become the players' preferred location.

After these days of growth, quite a few players have already activated their second Star Vein.

Three powerful Star Vein schools have been proven effective through actual combat.

The strongest version is the Weapon Spirit school, which embeds multiple Weapon Spirits into the Star Vein, using the human body as the core to control the characteristic powers of various Weapon Spirits in battle.

But at this stage, only Li Tie belongs to this school.

Each level of Body Forging requires 10,000 points of Shou Shou Jili; other players simply do not have enough Shou Shou Jili to forge the Star Vein combinations for the Weapon Spirit school.

Next is the Bone Fire plus Eagle-Headed Demon long-range strike school; the combination of damage output and perception positioning makes this school the first choice for players who started with an Eagle-Headed Demon, and its combat performance is excellent.

Finally, there is the Black-Armored Snake plus Power-Mighty Axe Star Vein combination.

The Black-Armored Snake attacks in physical form; combined with the Power-Mighty Axe's strength attribute and damage amplification, it significantly boosts combat power.

But at this stage, players mostly fight by switching forms; very few players choose to fuse characteristic powers and maintain the main human form for prolonged combat.

As for the Gargoyle form, no suitable Star Vein school has been developed yet; generally, players choose one of the Five Weapon Spirits contained by Li Tie as their second form, with the Gargoyle plus Soul-Departing Spear combination being the most popular.

The Gargoyle's damage output is not high; its characteristic is strong defense; combining the Soul-Departing Spear's attack, which carries a mental shock effect, follows the damage-effect school path.

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

These players believe that the more Star Veins are embedded, the more evolution points are required for cultivation; it is better to focus on cultivating one form.

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

Facts prove that focusing on cultivating the initial form brings equally impressive combat power gains; this school has also been jokingly called the Monster School by players.

Every player has different ideas; the development of the combat power system has already shown tendencies toward different schools.

The battle lasted half an hour.

The players of the Grind Emperor Team, the Drunk Team, and the Toddler Team repelled the incoming tide of Iron-Shell Beetles at the cost of losing more than half their numbers.

Besides gaining a large amount of evolution points, which allowed many players' monster forms to level up, the shells scattered all over the ground were also part of the spoils.

These shells were classified by the Guidance as Level 1 Spiritual Materials, which can be used to sacrifice to Beneath Di Zhao to obtain additional Shou Shou Jili rewards.

As for how to distribute them, since the chaotic battle made it impossible to calculate each player's contribution, the final decision was equal per-capita distribution: all shells were handed to the Drunk Team for sacrifice, and the resulting Shou Shou Jili revenue was evenly divided among the leaders of each player team, who would then distribute it to their team members.

Just as the players were distributing the spoils, a sudden change occurred.

Only then did the Eagle-Headed Demon player in the team, who had activated the Lament Perception ability, suddenly shout a warning:

"This is bad! The Cave-Dwelling Clan is here again!"

Hearing these words, everyone silently tossed the shells into their spatial bags and sprinted decisively toward the cave exit.

The Cave-Dwelling Clan warriors have a hunting level of 19; combined with the large number of Iron-Shell Beetles following them, they are no match for the players' current strength.

Death is not frightening; what is frightening is that death deducts 10 points of Shou Shou Jili and triggers a one-hour resurrection cooldown.

While fleeing, the regional voice channel was filled with laughter:

"Brothers who chose the Gargoyle, your defense is high; hold the rear for a while and let us run first."

"What kind of human talk is that? Why should choosing a Gargoyle mean sacrificing yourself?"

"I'm about to be caught up with; why are you running so fast? Wait for me!"

"Are you bullying us Eagle-Headed Demons because our legs are short? Everyone runs so fast; we agreed to be a team, yet you treat your teammates like this?"

……

In this tense and thrilling escape segment, the players could no longer spare a thought for their teammates; they all dug deep and sprinted full tilt toward the cave entrance.

Along the way, several players lagging at the rear were ensnared by silk threads spat by the iron-shell beetles and dragged backward, their piercing screams causing those ahead to suddenly quicken their pace.

Once the players emerged from the cavern, they began to discuss a question.

Should they unite to kill the Nether Clan warriors?

The presence of the Nether Clan warriors had become an obstacle to their mining in the Dark Cavern and even to their leveling through monster hunting.

Unless they were cleared out, the players would have to be ready to flee at any moment within the Dark Cavern.

Rather than live in constant fear day after day, it was better to cut off the roots and eliminate the threat once and for all.

(End of this chapter)