Chapter 22: Primordial: Mockery

Consciousness bypassed the golden crystal, following the guidance's pull to sweep across every corner of the fifth layer of the Dim Cave.

Aside from the Ice Blade's shell and the Black Armor Army that followed him to their deaths, Qi Sheng also discovered a deeply dug grave in a corner of the main hall, containing a large number of corpses.

【The owners of these corpses should be members of the Ice Blade's clan; after hiding underground, they eventually perished and were buried there due to a scarcity of resources like food.】

"What about the Cave Dweller Clan? What is their origin?"

【They should be underground lifeforms manipulated by the Ice Blade's clan through some method. They can survive by devouring ore, so there is no worry about food shortages. After the Ice Blade clansmen died, they continued to follow the commands implanted in their minds while under control, directing the Iron Shell Worms to excavate underground spiritual ore, throw it into the smelting furnace, and continue charging the golden crystal.】

In Qi Sheng's view, the guidance's analysis was entirely reasonable.

His consciousness swept toward the rear of the main hall, where a fist-sized pale blue crystal floated, its surface covered in pitch-black fungal hyphae, beside a flesh sphere pulsating like a heart.

"Is this a Domain Node?"

【Correct. You can understand it as a core piece of the Monster World; it is precisely countless such core pieces that form the main framework of the Monster World.】

As the guidance explained, the parsed information fed back into Qi Sheng's mind.

【Domain Node: Dim Cave】

Territory Type: Resource

Territory Trait: Spiritual Proliferation

Trait Introduction: Continuously consecrates spiritual ore resources.

Domain Status: Black Black Tide Energy Corrosion (Unoccupied)

After reading the parsed information, Qi Sheng shifted his gaze to the pitch-black flesh sphere pulsating beside the crystal.

This was exactly the Corrosion Core.

To seize this Domain Node, one had to purify the node crystal and completely eradicate the corrosion roots.

However, achieving this was not easy.

Just now, the guidance's analysis had examined the Black Armor Soldiers standing inside and outside the palace, discovering that the remains of these dead warriors had also been invaded by corrosion, transforming into evil spirits similar to Cursed Soldiers.

Moreover, the Hunting Rank of the Cursed Soldiers here generally reached 25+.

Fortunately, the Ice Blade's remains had not been controlled by the Black Black Tide's corrosive power.

More accurately, the Ice Blade's remains had fought until their oil was exhausted and the lamp extinguished, leaving only an empty shell that the Black Black Tide's corrosive power could not drive.

Even if thrown into the altar for refinement, no Sacrificial Power could be extracted.

If it were the Ice Blade in its prime, its Hunting Rank might have been above level 500, possessing the power to move mountains and overturn seas, making players utterly unable to resist.

After investigating the information of the fifth underground layer of the Dim Cave, Qi Sheng's consciousness followed the guidance back to Emperor Tomb Village.

As for the energy crystal left by the Ice Blade for the new Emperor Omen, he had no intention of going to retrieve it himself.

It was not that he didn't want to, but that he lacked the startup capital.

His Cultivation Mode of exploration outside Emperor Tomb Village differed from that of the players; players enjoyed free-to-play plus in-app purchases like the Mall, Star Vein, and Body Tempering.

Whereas after he went out, he would have to activate the burn-rate model.

Back when the four vassals injected their remaining Sacrificial Power into Emperor Tomb Village, the available Sacrificial Power exceeded eighty million, enough to support him masking his aura to explore outside in the body of an Emperor Omen without fear of being detected by evil spirits.

It was also during that time that he took in the Eagle-Headed Demon, the Black Armor Snake, and the Gargoyle.

But now, the Sacrificial Power in hand was only in the five figures; the Sacrificial Power needed to mask the Emperor Omen's solidified original source aura was calculated by the second, costing over 1, 00 Sacrificial Power per second, and his inventory could not withstand such consumption.

The task of occupying the Domain Node could only be handed over to the players.

Although this investigation yielded no tangible gains, Qi Sheng already felt a sense of expectation.

The energy storage crystal left by the Ice Blade could yield at least ten million points of Sacrificial Power upon refinement, which was enough to recruit ten thousand players and greatly accelerate the early development speed.

Sitting cross-legged on the altar, Qi Sheng closed his eyes at this moment; after switching to the Emperor Omen form, his vision jumped to the player's perspective.

Dim Cave.

After another round of fierce battle, the players began to clean up the battlefield.

They picked up the loot on the ground, then summoned the Sacrifice Cultivation Mode from the function panel and threw all the carapaces into the altar to refine them into Sacrificial Power.

After days of fighting, the players had already become familiar with the combat rhythm of the Iron Shell Worms.

The Iron Shell Worms' attack methods were divided into two types: spitting silk to entangle the target, then dragging it forward to tear it apart with scythe-like mandibles.

The interval between silk spittings was the best opportunity to launch an offensive.

With more battles fought, players familiar with the rhythm could now flexibly dodge the spit silk.

The only thing that gave the players a headache was the narrow terrain inside the cave; when encountering an Iron Shell Worm Black Tide, skills offered limited improvement to combat power, and the only way to win was a fierce charge.

The end of each battle was the players' happiest harvest time.

The physical enhancement from leveling up, the Sacrificial Power gains from sacrificing loot, the joy of victory through teamwork... these were all parts of the happiness.

After clearing the battlefield, the remaining players continued down along the cave tunnel, entering the space of the second underground layer.

The second layer was relatively spacious, with large quantities of rock walls visible that had been mined hollow.

Strangely, the rock walls were covered by a layer of pale green crystalline substance; upon focusing their gaze, parsed information appeared:

【Spirit Gathering: Collects energy from heaven and earth, continuously nurturing spiritual ore...】

Realizing that the spiritual ore in this cave was a renewable resource, the players did not show much emotional fluctuation and continued to follow the team deeper into the cave.

After killing several more Iron Shell Worms along the way, they stopped in front of a stone cave that was clearly excavated.

A muffled roar could be clearly heard coming from within the cave.

Li Zheng of the Grind Emperor Team stepped forward first, throwing the torch in his hand into the cave.

The torch traced an arc through the air before landing inside the cave, rolling several times and illuminating the interior environment.

At the far end of the cave, eight chains were nailed into the rock wall, their ends imprisoning a huge monster.

The creature resembled a beetle, its body covered in layers of white scales; the intricate patterns on them pieced together to look like a ghostly Iron Face at first glance. A pair of massive claws danced continuously, and its exposed crimson eyes resembled two burning lanterns in the dim environment.

No one knew how many ages this monster had been imprisoned, yet it still lived.

【Mockery (Second Generation Primordial)】

Hunting Rank: 29

Guidance Analysis: A special monster controlling the Primordial Power of "Mockery," possessing the ability to weave mental illusions, causing targets within its ability's coverage to fall into a state of extreme madness, uncontrollably attacking Mockery.

Hint: When hit by the Mockery ability, the target will use their own memories as a blueprint to experience a large amount of adapted memory plotlines in a short time; the caster (Mockery) will become a part of the adapted memories, becoming the object of hatred.

After reading the monster's parsed information, none were more excited than the players who had chosen the Gargoyle.

Marble: Hahaha, the perfect option for the Gargoyle's second Life Soul; Mockery draws aggro, then activate the Petrification ability to tank damage. It's simply more perfect than the Eagle-Headed Demon plus Bone Fire build; I can already foresee the rise of the Gargoyle.

Is This Reasonable: Spring has arrived so suddenly for Gargoyle players; Mockery plus Petrification gives birth to the version's strongest defensive build.

Little Class Monitor: Although the Petrification skill can greatly increase damage tolerance in the short term, its drawback is also fatal: unable to move after activation. Now with the addition of a Mockery skill, it's simply invincible; if we add an ability to reflect damage taken, just thinking about this build feels amazing.

The regional voice channel erupted in heated discussion about the ability characteristics of "Mockery."

Whether it was the Eagle-Headed Demon or the Black Armor Snake, both already had suitable second Life Soul choices at the current stage; only the Gargoyle did not.

The Second Generation Primordial monster imprisoned in the cave gave this group of Gargoyle players hope for rising up.

"Kill!"

Someone shouted, and instantly the players swarmed toward Mockery.

(End of Chapter)