Chapter 210: Flow of Fortune

Meng Yuan Chu Altar.

A flood of fresh intel from players swept through Qi Sheng's mind.

He noticed a forum post whose popularity was climbing fast.

The post described a bizarre phenomenon that had recently appeared in the Ascension Sea Region.

The posting player claimed that Shu Yan had once again "cut books," the cultivation system had vanished, and a new combat-power system—the Legion—had been born within Shu Yan's domain.

Even more outrageous, this time Shu Yan had taken the initiative to launch an offensive against the Ascension Race.

The reversal of attack and defense set the players buzzing, with a strong air of "the world's situation is shifting dramatically, and even though we're bystanders, we just can't get enough of the drama."

The discussion topics all revolved around why Shu Yan would do such a thing.

Some players offered a guess: after cutting books, Shu Yan had launched a wildly popular work, massively boosting the Legion's combat power and giving it the confidence to strike first.

Other players said Shu Yan had simply had its mentality shattered, decided to fight the Ascension Race to the death, and thrown all caution to the wind.

All kinds of views sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain, but the players' general attitude was simply to watch the show.

Players didn't care whether the Ascension Race or the Shu Yan Race won.

They only cared about how to grab a share of the spoils from the chaotic war.

Just as the forum players were discussing, players lurking in the mist of Shu Yan's domain were caught up in Shu Yan's offensive.

When Shu Yan struck first, these players—who were regarded as Outer-Domain Heavenly Demons—also became targets of attack.

During this period, some players noticed a strange thing.

The Legion system in Shu Yan's domain could actually be switched at will, and one of them was a Legion composed of spiritual-body lifeforms.

To the players, this special Legion seemed tailor-made to counter them.

Because spiritual-body lifeforms have no "near-death" state.

Once their life structure collapses, they simply dissipate—in other words, without sufficiently powerful Spirit stats, players simply couldn't capture Shu Yan warriors in spiritual-body mode across a gap of dozens of levels.

Going forward, if Shu Yan kept fielding Legions built from spiritual-body lifeforms, the get-rich-quick route of capturing Shu Yan warriors was completely finished.

Unless one possessed a spiritual intensity strong enough to suppress spiritual-body lifeforms, using stat suppression to complete the capture.

But anyone capable of suppressing Shu Yan warriors would no longer need to hunt Shu Yan warriors in the first place—they'd have far greater pursuits.

Qi Sheng skimmed past this kind of discussion and paid it no further attention.

Already aware of the changes in Shu Yan's domain, he shifted his gaze to the revenue feedback data.

At this stage, the returns from Shou Shou Jili were mainly being invested in building out the weapon system.

Once the weapon system was complete, he would issue a new round of player qualifications on the Monster World official site.

This time, the tentative plan was to release 500,000 qualification slots to the public.

The pace of issuing qualifications was gradually accelerating as players' returns grew.

Meanwhile, recently, the number of Meng Yuan Chu monsters contained had reached 51.

During this period, three new Meng Yuan Chu monsters were successfully contained.

The first was a second-generation Meng Yuan Chu: Void Grip, contained by the player "Shark Is a Little Nanliang" in the Colored Mist Coast region.

This was an offensive Painful Painful Minghun usable only by magic-type players.

Its special effect: consume Spirit to generate an arm of void energy at the target location, capable of actions like slamming, grabbing, and crushing.

Its strength performed impressively in the tests by strategy-focused players.

Its advantage: no flight trajectory like Ink Flame or Lightning Rush when the Painful Painful Minghun special is released, no need to throw, and it can be generated directly beside distant enemies—output with zero delay.

It can also be paired with elemental offensive Painful Painful Minghun to imbue Void Grip with elemental properties, pushing damage to the next level.

The most-liked Stellar Vein combo on the forum: Void Grip, Scatter Shot, Qi Siphon, Ink Flame, Lightning Rush, Bind, Wither.

This Stellar Vein combo leans toward functional offense.

In the demo video, the strategy-focused player raised his right hand, and dozens of Scatter-Shot-sliced void arms materialized a hundred meters ahead.

Arcs of electricity and blazing ink-black flames wreathed the arms.

A single slam dealt area bombardment plus elemental strike damage; every test monster hit was affected by Bind's root and took the continuous damage from Wither.

Capable of both AoE output and area attacks—impressive performance.

But players who liked the "Void Grip" Painful Painful Minghun generally cared less about its damage output than its instant-cast effect.

It could catch enemies completely off guard.

The second was a third-generation Meng Yuan Chu monster: Siphon Spear, contained by the player "Seventeen Wither" in Spirit Valley.

The moment this third-generation Meng Yuan Chu was contained, it successfully rose to become one of the strongest of the patch.

It was also regarded by a large number of magic-type players as a must-slot Painful Painful Minghun for the late game.

Siphon's special effect: lock onto a perceived target, drain the target's Spirit, and convert it into one's own Spirit reserves (the siphon effect is influenced by three factors—the target's Spirit intensity, one's own Spirit intensity, and the Painful Painful Minghun's level).

Although Siphon isn't a Painful Painful Minghun like Qi Siphon that directly restores Spirit, it is one of the few that can boost a magic-type player's sustain.

In the test videos posted by strategy-focused players, the Siphon special's performance was extremely eye-catching.

Especially when paired with the "Scatter Shot" Painful Painful Minghun—typically chosen by physical players—it could sustain siphon healing across multiple targets.

In the test video, the strategy-focused player adjusted the Painful Painful Minghun's level and stats, then attempted to maintain siphon links on 100 targets simultaneously—the blue bar refilled at a speed visible to the naked eye.

But the Siphon Painful Painful Minghun's drawbacks were also obvious.

Its special effect was influenced by the target's Spirit intensity.

Siphon a target with strong Spirit, and you can't budge their Spirit; siphon a target with weak Spirit, and there's barely anything to take.

Activating the Siphon special also consumed Spirit.

It was easy for Spirit expenditure to outpace Spirit recovery.

Moreover, it occupied a precious Stellar Vein slot without providing any meaningful offense.

But as one could foresee, in the future this was a late-game Painful Painful Minghun whose strength would keep climbing as its Stellar Vein level rose.

Forum players built many powerful builds around "Siphon" as the core.

Among them, some players suggested siphoning teammates if there were no enemies around.

Have a teammate act as a power bank, drinking Spirit Recovery Potions nearby, while you siphon their spiritual energy to quickly recover your own state and keep dealing damage.

This suggestion even got a like and a tip from the "Divine King."

It was originally just a meme build; the player who posted the idea only meant it as a joke on the forum and never intended to actually use it in combat.

But in the Divine King's eyes, this meme build became an effective strategy that could significantly boost his own command ability.

Every time he conducted a war command, he needed to prepare a spatial pouch full of Spirit Recovery Potions.

Constantly drinking potions also affected his command efficiency.

But with the Siphon Painful Painful Minghun, it was different — bringing a power bank along could skip the potion-drinking step, letting him focus entirely on commanding the player army in battle.

The highest-liked Star Vein combo on the forum was: Bind, Siphon, Qi Devour, Spirit Shockwave, Wither.

This Star Vein combo looked unremarkable on the surface, yet players who had tested it regarded it as the strongest version dueling Painful Painful Minghun.

Built mainly around the Bind Painful Painful Minghun, the strategy-guide player in the demo video used Bind to forcibly root the target, stacking continuous Siphon and Wither damage.

If the target showed signs of breaking free, a Spirit Shockwave would pin them down again to continue the Siphon.

Keeping the target constantly rooted, its dueling performance was outstanding.

The drawback was also obvious — damage output was too low.

It had neither the multi-functionality of support builds nor the burst damage of damage builds.

It could only rely on the sustained effects of Wither and Siphon.

Apart from being strong in duels, it was useless, and also unsuitable for war mode.

It only suited lone-wolf players challenging monsters stronger than themselves in the wild, but the kill efficiency was very low.

The last Meng Yuan Chu was an unexpected catch by the player "No More Picking Up the Blade" while fishing in the Ascension Sea — only after hauling it up did he realize it was a golden dragonfish from head to tail.

What surprised this player even more was that the analysis showed it was a fifth-generation Meng Yuan Chu.

The Meng Yuan Chu monster's trait was named "Gold Coin," and the analysis description stated that it could draw positive extra income through the flow of wealth energy.

This description was very vague, leaving forum players scratching their heads.

In the end, the Guidance gave a clear answer.

The so-called flow of wealth energy referred to actively participating in economic activities — such as trading and investing — both of which could bring about the flow of wealth energy.

And positive extra income meant earning profit, not losing-money deals.

At the current stage, there was only one way for players to fit the "Gold Coin" trait — raising Fatty Peach, which could be seen as a form of value investing.

Embedding a level-1 Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun granted an extra 8% income, stored in the form of Wealth Energy power.

Once the value reached 100 Shou Shou Jili, it could generate one gold coin, which could be sacrificed at any time to be exchanged for Shou Shou Jili.

After learning the clear usage of the Gold Coin trait, forum players had a wave of excitement.

They believed they could exploit a bug on the trading house to earn extra income — 8% each time, and as long as they looped it infinitely, they would have endless Shou Shou Jili.

But the fact was that the back-and-forth flipping trading model could not fit the Gold Coin trait.

The reason was simple — many trading models on the trading house were not positive income; there were percentage-based commissions on the principal.

Even without commissions, it was hard to form a flow of wealth energy.

Because the Gold Coin trait required naturally formed energy — players needed real value exchange and emotional investment.

When a player's normally listed Jia De Shang Pin was sold through trade, it could generate a flow of wealth energy and grant extra "Gold Coin Power" cashback.

But if one approached it with a "grinding" mentality, cooperating with other players to flip goods back and forth, no flow of wealth energy could be generated — even the first listing before any flipping began could not generate a flow of wealth energy.

The judgment standard was set by the rule traits of the "Gold Coin" Painful Painful Minghun, and there was no possibility of exploiting any bug.

If it could be exploited, in fact Qi Sheng wanted to exploit infinite gold coins even more than the players, to exchange them for Shou Shou Jili.

Therefore, the order-farming method was not feasible.

After learning the correct usage from the Guidance, the popularity of the Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun on the forum plummeted.

Embedding a fifth-generation Ming Hun Qian Qi required an investment of 30,000 Shou Shou Jili — not only did it bring no combat power boost, its trait effect was also extremely mediocre.

At least at the current stage, it was very hard to obtain excess returns through the Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun.

In the words of forum players: "I have 30,000 Shou Shou Jili — spending it to boost my strength and hunt stronger monsters is far more useful than embedding a Gold Coin."

In the eyes of many players, the Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun was not as strong as the recently contained Void Grip and Siphon Painful Painful Minghun.

But forum players all understood one principle.

Whether a Painful Painful Minghun was strong or not was never fixed — since Gold Coin was a fifth-generation Painful Painful Minghun, it proved it had very high development potential.

Perhaps in the near future, the Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun would shine brilliantly.

……

Misty Color Coast, Azure Star Sea.

A small boat cut through the waves.

On the boat, a figure holding a fishing rod sat on a vine-woven chair, legs crossed and propped on the gunwale, a straw hat on his head to block the sun.

At that moment the fishing rod trembled, and he sat up abruptly, arms exerting force.

A struggle began with the big fish beneath the sea surface.

Everyone said anglers were leisure-type players, but Zhong Yi did not think so.

Without strength, how could one reel in a big fish?

The Gang Qi Painful Painful Minghun activated, his arm muscles tensed and veins surfaced, and with a sudden burst of force, a crimson big fish leapt out of the water.

"Take my fist!"

His coiled right fist shot out abruptly, blasting the crimson big fish into a skyful of blood mist with a single punch.

The Challenger prompt sounded in his mind.

After making the choice, the flesh and blood of the disintegrating big fish suddenly contracted, coalescing into fish meat that fell, which Zhong Yi caught back with his Gao Qi Painful Painful Minghun.

The next second, it was listed on the trading market.

This strange fish had a hunting level of 12, a common sea fish variety in the Ascension Sea, with limited value.

No analysis was needed; one glance allowed him to judge its value.

This was practice making perfect; every fishing enthusiast had a clear price list for catches in their heart.

He sat back down on the rattan chair, picked up the straw hat that had fallen on the ground, placed it on his head, and continued waiting for the next big fish to bite.

His gaze swept toward the guild chat box shrunken in the upper left of his vision.

The guild he belonged to was very famous, known by forum players as one of the Sandamo Sects: Fishing Alone in the Cold River Snow.

The brothers inside were nothing short of inventors, turning simple fishing into a spectacle.

New inventions would appear every so often.

For example, the latest developed Tao Wan Fa was so sinister that even he, who had seen much, found it particularly eerie.

This Tao Wan Fa was called the Self-Sacrifice Fishing Method, requiring no specific fishing gear.

It only required fishing party players to embed a "Star Shift" Painful Painful Minghun; once the bait was taken, the stars would shift, the big fish would board the boat, and the player would dive into the sea.

No contest of strength was needed, nor any fish-playing technique; it was truly a one-hit kill among fishing Tao Wan Fa.

There were many other absurd Tao Wan Fa.

But for Zhong Yi, he preferred the ordinary fishing mode he was currently using.

He enjoyed the thrill of the contest after the prey bit the hook.

At this moment, players in the guild group were exchanging their gains for the day; various photos of fish catches were in a chaotic brawl, making Zhong Yi feel thoroughly annoyed.

Because everything he had caught today was of ordinary quality, with no prey worth showing off or bragging about.

Just then, a guild brother's post caught his attention.

Reverse Vortex Current: Brothers, is the newly acquired Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun worth it? At level 1, it gives an extra 8% yield. We list fish meat for trade every day; I feel that embedding one will eventually break even.

Dome: Don't be silly. Embedding costs 30,000 Shou Shou Jili. The daily yield you earn isn't even enough to upgrade your fishing gear, let alone get extra yield. My suggestion is not to embed it in the early stages; consider it later.

Ten Thousand Phenomena: Fishing yields fluctuate too much. Suppose you can stably earn 300 points of Shou Shou Jili daily by selling fish meat; the extra yield from the Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun would be 24 points of Shou Shou Jili. The 30,000 Shou Shou Jili upfront investment would require 1,250 days to recoup costs. Don't consider this thing in the early stages; embed it later when you can fish ocean giants.

Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun?

Having recently logged off to equip a room full of nutrient solution, Zhong Yi actually knew what this Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun was.

With curiosity, he opened the Painful Painful Minghun Library and began flipping through it.

The appearance of the Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun was a golden energy ball, inside which a golden fish-shaped phantom swam.

After reading the introduction information of the Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun, Zhong Yi understood what the effect of this Painful Painful Minghun was.

Simply put, trading generates wealth Qi; wealth Qi can produce "Gold Coins," and offering one Gold Coin to Beneath Di Zhao brother can exchange for 100 points of Shou Shou Jili.

It belongs to the financial management type of Painful Painful Minghun.

Afterwards, flipping through the reviews by guide-seeking players on the forum, Zhong Yi gained a deeper understanding of the Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun.

This Painful Painful Minghun could be said to be very useless.

The only advantage was increasing extra yield.

But the disadvantages were a huge pile.

First, the purchase price cost of the Painful Painful Minghun itself was 30,000, extremely expensive.

Secondly, the price of opening a Star Vein slot must be calculated, based on the price of the last Star Vein slot.

No wonder forum players said the cost of the Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun was too high, with too little help for improvement.

For players with hunting as their core He Xin Wan Fa, embedding the Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun meant greater losses the later it was used.

Closing the forum interface, Zhong Yi pulled his straw hat down and activated the Old Man Fishing Mode.

Breathing the sea breeze, feeling the warmth of the sun sprinkled on his body... this life was truly comfortable.

A few minutes later, Zhong Yi lifted his straw hat and opened his eyes.

Wealth Qi circulation? Extra yield from trading?

According to forum players, wealth Qi created by trading cannot be obtained through mutual brushing; it requires real trading to generate.

The game obviously had a hidden detection mechanism to judge whether a trade was real; players' ideas to exploit bugs were inevitably unfeasible.

Then, could extra yield be produced by trading with other races?

He felt this idea seemed feasible.

8% was the extra yield at the initial level of the Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun; one only needed to raise the Painful Painful Minghun's level, and the extra yield would rise accordingly.

Theoretically, even with equivalent exchange, he could obtain considerable extra yield through the wealth Qi generated by the Gold Coin Painful Painful Minghun.

The only problem was how to guarantee his own safety during trade.

Actually, his own safety wasn't important; the main thing was the safety of the goods.

This was the Monster World, not the peaceful environment of the real world where all races lived in harmony and possessed the Earth Alliance communication platform.

Having played Monster World for three months, Zhong Yi knew that in this world, might was always right.

If you seek trade with other races, the creatures of those races look at the goods first, then at the person.

Trade by the weak has always been delivering goods to the door.

To establish stable trade channels, one must first have strength that makes the other party wary; at the very least, one must display power not inferior to the opponent.

Only with comparable strength can trade be conducted.

With a significant gap in strength, it is nothing but you robbing me, or me robbing you.

The same applies to players.

Player teams with strength simply grab directly; why would they need complex trade processes?

Weak players who try to trade with other races will only get robbed, unless they store their goods in spatial packs and keep them out of sight.

Apart from this one problem, every other issue is easy to solve.

When it comes to choosing trade goods, the in-game Shangcheng is stocked with a dazzling array of items to pick from.

There will always be some exotic race that takes a liking to certain goods and is willing to exchange various spiritual resources for them.

With an idea in mind, Zhong Yi began to think of a way to break the deadlock.

If this growth path could work—establishing stable trade with the exotic races—it would bring in a steady stream of extra Shou Shou Jili income from now on.

The prerequisite was figuring out how, with limited strength, to open up trade with the various racial powers across the islands of the Cangxing Sea.

(End of chapter)