Chapter 260: Core Demand

【Great Demon Wasteland.】

Four large characters swept past Jiang Cheng's eyes.

Opening the map revealed this was an area that had never been explored; aside from their current location, the map was blank.

All other regions were shrouded in fog.

In the distance stretched an endless desert; behind them, the snowfield extended on and on.

From here onward, the snow layer on the ground grew thin, exposing the grayish-brown permafrost beneath.

The wind remained biting, but no longer carried dense snowflakes—only a few stray flecks of ice drifted down, vanishing before they hit the ground.

Further ahead, the ground lay bare of gravel and crushed stone, and the snow disappeared entirely.

The environment here was harsh; the earth was sun-baked and cracked, with a few clumps of withered, stiff grass crawling out from the fissures, trembling and rustling in the wind.

The chill in the air lingered, yet was laced with a trace of dry heat.

After walking on for a stretch, the wind here whipped up fine sand, carrying waves of heat.

The environmental shift had no normal gradual transition—it was as if, in a game, passing through an invisible wall had suddenly dropped them into another world.

Jiang Cheng found this deeply puzzling.

Monster World, in its pursuit of realism, should logically have a gradual scene transition between every region's environmental changes.

Curious, he queried the Guide and received this explanation:

Monster World's territories are pieced together from different nodes as their cores, like a massive world puzzle, and among them are large numbers of territories stuffed in by Descending Factions.

This also caused different regions of Monster World to display entirely different environments and climates.

As for the Guide's explanation, Jiang Cheng's takeaway was: game settings.

"Ba Ba Jian, where did you say the Blood Storage Cauldron is?" Xia Sheng spoke up from the side to ask.

"At the end of the desert. Still some distance to go."

As he said this, Ba Ba Jian's heart was bleeding.

In its current state, it was utterly spent, completely unable to act on its own.

Though it was quite satisfied with this host's condition, it couldn't produce a single wisp of energy, and it had no idea where exactly the problem lay.

The only thing it could do was head to the resource vault and directly drink the stored qi-and-blood energy.

This resource vault had also been left behind by a previous host; after that host died, Ba Ba Jian had turned it into an energy transfer station.

Before growing into its complete form, the influence of the Divine Artifact's rule characteristics meant it could only unleash its full power while held by a host.

Without a host, its power would be heavily suppressed.

That was why it needed to keep swapping hosts.

This was the double-edged sword of the rules—to gain the power of rules, one had to act in accordance with the rules' operating logic.

Supposedly, top-tier rules had no restrictions at all, but at least it had never seen one with its own eyes.

This trip to the resource vault meant, as one could imagine, everything inside would be taken out and used.

It didn't really care about those junk items.

The only thing that stung was that the power earned by the previous host had been almost entirely spent on this one.

It only hoped that later there would be a generous reward, letting it feast to its heart's content on a banquet of negative emotions.

On the road, Ba Ba Jian was also pondering one question.

Where exactly had things gone wrong, causing its body to be unable to absorb qi-and-blood energy, and even unable to absorb negative emotional energy anymore?

Before this, such a thing had never happened.

If the cause truly couldn't be found, perhaps the only option was to return to the clan lands and seek help from the clan's elders.

After another half-day or so of travel, until sunset and dusk, Jiang Cheng and Xia Sheng, following Ba Ba Jian's directions, arrived at their destination.

In the distance, a square structure of stacked black stone stood jutting out among the sand dunes.

As the view drew closer, the wind-eroded outer walls were covered in honeycomb-like holes, emitting a whimpering wail within the wind and sand.

Just from the outside, there was nothing special about this place.

It looked more like a ruined relic left behind by some tribe before they migrated.

Drawing near, a statue stood at the building's entrance—a headless sword-wielding warrior.

The sword in its hand was identical in shape to Ba Ba Jian.

"This is it. Pierce me into the hole before the great door." Hearing this, Jiang Cheng didn't hesitate, reaching out to summon Ba Ba Jian into his right hand.

Gripping the hilt, he thrust Ba Ba Jian's blade into the groove at the center of the stone door; immediately, a muffled sound like gears turning rose from within.

The heavy black stone door slowly sank downward, kicking up a veil of yellow sandy mist.

Beyond the door was a staircase leading down, pitch-black inside, its end impossible to see.

Drawing Ba Ba Jian and carrying it on his back, Jiang Cheng stepped in first; Xia Sheng followed right behind.

The passage was like the gullet of some great beast; the air carried the stale smell of blood, mingled with the scent of oxidized metal.

At the bottom of the stairs, a dim reddish halo was faintly visible, like a clump of congealed blood-mist suspended in the darkness.

Walking downward, bronze lamps hanging along the rock walls lit up one by one.

In the firelight's reflection, dense carvings emerged across the walls.

With the auto-translation parsing, the information conveyed by the text was clear at a glance.

【Pain is power; I savor it.】

The first passage to catch the eye had been traced over seven times on the passage's rock wall.

The edges of the characters were crusted with black blood scabs; the final stroke trailed out into a long hooked tail, as if the sword-bearer had been enduring some terrible agony even at the last moment while writing.

Continuing downward.

【Flay the skin and strip the bones, so what? I want only power!】

The pain in the body is not even one ten-thousandth of the hatred in my heart.

Below the handwriting, five clear fingerprints remained; the rock had been clawed open with sheer force, and several broken fingernails were still embedded between the fingers.

At the corner of the passage, written in fresh blood:

【Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!】

Beneath the dried blood characters, the word "Kill" was carved densely, each one penetrating deep into the rock wall, as if trying to nail all hatred into this cold stone.

【Vow to exterminate the Cang Yan Clan!】

As they walked, every word radiated killing intent.

Jiang Cheng could imagine the hatred in the heart of the previous host of the Overlord Sword at that time.

But as they went deeper, the content of the text gradually became milder.

Until they arrived before a passage of text, Jiang Cheng stopped:

【Mother, my heart hurts so much.】

This sentence had been roughly scratched out by a sharp weapon, but the original strokes were still visible between the scratches, like a wound that could never heal.

These words suddenly made Jiang Cheng realize that the initial hatred of this avenger was not that strong.

Clearly, he had been constantly bewitched and altered by the Overlord Sword, eventually turning into a killing machine filled with hatred.

A few minutes later, they reached the end of the passage; ahead stood a bronze door.

The blade of the Overlord Sword swept across the door crack; a flash of blood light appeared on the surface, and the heavy door slowly opened inward.

"What good is this broken door at stopping anyone? Why make the entrance so complicated?" Xia Sheng couldn't help but complain in the team voice channel.

"Fool, the main door isn't to keep thieves out, but to prevent the spiritual energy inside from leaking out and attracting outside forces; secondly, it's to prevent specific resources from spoiling during storage... You can think of it as a refrigerator. Study more knowledge on the forums usually."

"Makes sense!" Hearing Jiang Cheng's explanation, Xia Sheng nodded in sudden understanding.

The two passed through the heavy door at this moment.

Inside, the area was not large; it was a hemispherical stone chamber of over a hundred square meters. The uneven rock walls were covered with fine sword marks, and the ground was covered with a layer of dark red dust, like powder formed after blood coagulated.

On the left wall, three tiers of stone niches were carved; the top tier was piled with yellowed bone slips, bound with faded red strings.

The middle tier held more than a dozen small porcelain bottles, half of which were already shattered.

The bottom tier scattered several rusted weapons; on the guard of one short sword still hung half a piece of rotten leather cord.

In the corner, a white skeleton could be seen curled up; the surface of the bones was covered with cracks, with numerous red marks remaining on them. The finger bones dug deep into the ground, and the head looked up at the dome at a twisted angle, as if suffering extreme pain before death.

As the analysis swept over, relevant information appeared:

【Sword Heart (Dead)】:

Target Analysis: At a critical stage of cultivation, the Overlord Sword forcibly drained all the vital blood from the body, causing the physical form to disintegrate. The Overlord Sword deliberately delayed the death process, converting the extreme pain of near-death into its own energy. The pain lasted for three days until death.

"Tsk, this broken sword is so vicious; kill it if it has no more use."

After reading the analysis, the origin of this stone chamber became obvious.

It could be determined that it was left by a previous host of the Overlord Sword; he had cultivated, grown, and vowed to avenge his clan here.

But ultimately, under the Overlord Sword's deception and bewitchment, he walked down a dead end for power, finally becoming nourishment for the Overlord Sword.

The gaze turned forward.

In the very center of the stone chamber stood a black square cauldron, covered with spiderweb-like cracks; dense fluctuations of blood qi emanated from within the cauldron.

The Overlord Sword automatically detached, flew up, and hovered above the large cauldron.

The sword body trembled slightly, emitting a low hum.

The solidified black substance in the cauldron suddenly began to wriggle; a wisp of viscous blood plasma rose from the cauldron and, like a living creature, coiled around the sword body.

The cracks on the sword spine greedily sucked in the energy; the spiderweb-like cracks on the sword body healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Blood patterns flowed on the sword body, as if life had been reinjected; the originally dim sword edge gradually glowed with a cold, chilling light.

As the absorption continued, the solidified blood clots in the cauldron quickly dried and cracked, turning into dark red dust that rustled down.

At the guard of the Overlord Sword, the vertical pupil that had always been tightly closed suddenly opened.

The red pupil contracted to the size of a needle point; several blood threads extended from the end of the sword hilt and, like roots, drilled into the cauldron, squeezing out the last drop of essence.

When the last drop of blood was absorbed, the Overlord Sword suddenly erupted with a blinding blood light.

But Jiang Cheng, observing with analysis, discovered that the Overlord Sword's hunting level had not been restored.

From this, it could be judged that the Overlord Sword had used its own source power to assist its cultivation at that time.

This part of power could not be repaired by devouring external energy at all; it could only grow by following the logical requirements of the rules.

The blood qi energy in the cauldron was similar to a healing potion in the player system, while the Overlord Sword's own growth had to be obtained through "hunting" after being "wielded," and even through painful emotions.

If this had been before the plan of the "Seizing the Divine Artifact Rule" was activated, Jiang Cheng certainly would not have given the Overlord Sword the chance to devour blood qi energy.

Once the Overlord Sword's strength was somewhat restored, it would completely break free from their control.

Rather than risking the danger of losing control, it was better to deal true damage and kill it directly to obtain hunting rewards.

But now they had a far greater goal.

Before obtaining the coordinates of the clan behind the Overlord Sword, the Overlord Sword still had some utility value.

And the Overlord Sword, having restored part of its power, automatically returned to Jiang Cheng's hand at this moment.

Looking around, Jiang Cheng decided to take everything in the stone chamber away.

But there didn't seem to be anything good here; it was not a true treasure vault, but more like a gas station along the Overlord Sword's path of deception and fraud.

Storing a portion of blood qi in different regions for emergencies.

"Overlord Sword, before we leave, may I take the pills and items refined here?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Naturally." The Overlord Sword agreed without hesitation.

In fact, everything in the stone chamber was left by the third host and held no significance.

The only thing of value is the blood qi energy within the stone cauldron.

This was forged by the host at its request, intended to assist the host in cultivating a technique with extremely severe side effects.

After it drained the host dry, the remaining blood inside the cauldron was treated as a transit station; it planned to operate within the Pale Continent region, and if it encountered a crisis in the future, it could build several resource rooms to heal and hide.

It never expected that this would actually be put to use this time.

Hearing Ba Ba Jian agree, Jiang Cheng acted decisively.

Activating Analysis, he swept over and packed the items on the three-tiered stone niche into his spatial satchel.

Even if he couldn't use them himself, he could list them on the trading hall; at the very least, he could sacrifice Beneath Di Zhao to exchange for Shou Shou Jili.

A preliminary estimate put the value of the items here at around 10,000 Shou Shou Jili; compared to the Blood Pool Treasury discovered by Xiao Xiao Fa, or even the Dark Descendant Spatial Treasury of the Headmaster, it fell short by more than a little.

Yet it was still a considerable amount of extra income.

Seeing Jiang Cheng take away the items from the stone niche, Ba Ba Jian curiously asked:

"You possess space-type artifacts?"

Facing the question, Jiang Cheng, who had already packed everything into his spatial satchel, nodded:

"This is the last remaining treasure of my Heavenly Fire Clan; it can store items."

As he spoke, Jiang Cheng pointed to the ring in his hand; in reality, this was a Rune Resonance Weapon.

Ba Ba Jian's perception swept toward the ring, and it was subsequently shocked to discover that the object actually retained what seemed to be a substance of Rule Energy.

But as to exactly what it was, it could not analyze it through perception.

This instantly made greed rise in its heart.

It made up its mind: after tricking and killing Jiang Cheng, it would take this ring, which carried a portion of Rule Power, into its possession.

Leaving the resource vault, Ba Ba Jian once again had the thought of hunting.

It wanted to test whether itself, having recovered some power, could now obtain power through hunting.

If it still failed, perhaps only returning to its clan grounds could find a solution to the hidden trouble.

"Since the senior wishes it, then we shall continue hunting." Jiang Cheng nodded and agreed respectfully.

Although he agreed verbally, he still had no intention of letting Ba Ba Jian absorb even a trace of blood qi energy.

The current goal was clear: find the exact coordinates of Ba Ba Jian's clan grounds.

Facing an unsolvable problem, normal thinking is to seek help from elders, relatives, or friends.

Even for us players, it is the same.

If encountering an unsolvable problem, the first thought is to post on the forum seeking help.

So he would not let Ba Ba Jian succeed; he must continue to create predicaments.

Make Ba Ba Jian completely despair, abandon the thought of continuing to try, and instead seek help from its clan members.

At that time, he would have the opportunity to come into contact with the Artifact Clan.

With specific coordinates, seizing the Artifact Rules would be only a matter of time.

Not long after, they found a hunting target in the desert.

A giant scorpion with a hunting level of 28.

When Ba Ba Jian pierced the first Sand Dune Demon Scorpion, the moment the corpse exploded, the flesh and blood essence automatically turned into a blood mist and was absorbed by Jiang Cheng.

But in Ba Ba Jian's eyes, it was a completely different scene: the Demon Scorpion seemed to be pulverized by some invisible force, turning into dust that followed the yellow sand flying into the distance, disappearing in the hot wind.

Strange!

The emotional fluctuations radiating from Ba Ba Jian revealed anxiety.

Now that it had recovered one and a half tenths of its power, it had expected this hunt to go smoothly.

It never expected the problem to remain unsolved.

It didn't even know how to solve this problem.

What could be confirmed was that it could still absorb blood qi energy to restore its own strength.

Only the hunting absorption and negative emotion absorption had gone wrong.

Thinking this way, the problem most likely lay in the Rule Imprint derived from the Artifact.

Perhaps the "Derived Rule Imprint" inside its body had undergone some unpredictable change due to the palm strike of the Purple-Skinned Evil Demon, causing the Derived Rule Imprint to malfunction.

This problem, perhaps, could only be solved by returning to the clan grounds.

Having finished the kill, Jiang Cheng pretended to ask with concern at this moment:

"Senior, is the recovery proceeding smoothly?"

"Try again."

"Good."

Jiang Cheng agreed decisively.

If Ba Ba Jian wanted to try, he would let Ba Ba Jian try enough.

Try until Ba Ba Jian itself doubted whether it was useless.

The most despairing thing is not having no chance to try, but failing repeatedly after countless attempts.

It proves there are chances, but even if given the chance, you cannot grasp it.

Thinking of this, Jiang Cheng continued hunting.

He killed the second, the third prey...

With every hunt, Jiang Cheng would release the Painful Painful Minghun trait, causing the energy that should have been absorbed by Ba Ba Jian to strangely "evaporate" the moment it touched the sword body.

During this period, he accelerated the pace of hunting, giving Ba Ba Jian ample opportunity to feel the despair of every futile effort.

When the seventh Desert Giant Lizard likewise turned to ash, Ba Ba Jian's sword body began to emit an unstable humming.

Those cracks that had just been repaired reappeared; Jiang Cheng and Xia Sheng could clearly perceive the chaotic emotions radiating from Ba Ba Jian.

Confusion, fury, and... a sliver of despair.

This put Jiang Cheng and Xia Sheng in excellent spirits.

That broken sword still wanted to scam them players? It never even asked whether the players' built-in analysis ability would agree.

Behind them players, there was an entire rule system backing them up.

Wanting to scam them players? Not even close.

Overlord Sword clearly had no idea that the prey in its eyes was entirely beyond its comprehension.

What are players? They are infinitely expandable talent monsters who can even contain Meng Yuan Chu monsters that represent the world's fundamental rules.

They are hidden calamities who, relying on the "resurrection mechanic," can fight the Black Tide and the Swarm head-on.

Overlord Sword's set of mind-beguiling tricks might work on ordinary NPCs of Monster World, but against them players—

Sorry, they don't take plot-deaths.

All of Overlord Sword's beguiling lines, in the eyes of Jiang Cheng and Xia Sheng, were nothing but skippable plot content.

In essence, Overlord Sword didn't even qualify as an opponent.

From start to finish, it was just a little game of a pig pretending to eat a tiger.

If Overlord Sword didn't still have some use, it would already have died in despair under the extreme agony inflicted by "Touch of Pain."

Its materials might well have already been listed on the trading house, snapped up at a high price by some player.

After repeated failed attempts, the thoroughly despairing Overlord Sword finally spoke the words Jiang Cheng and Xia Sheng had long been waiting for:

"Heavenly Fire, I have a request."

"Senior, please go ahead."

"I have slept for three thousand years, and my body seems to have undergone some unforeseen changes. I may now need to return to my clan's land to recuperate, but the journey is quite long. Would you be willing to escort me there?"

"No problem." Jiang Cheng nodded in agreement without the slightest hesitation, though inwardly he was overjoyed.

Wasting so much time accompanying Overlord Sword—this was their core objective all along.

Find the lair, then wait for the chance to blow it sky-high!

Buying is out of the question; only robbing can solve the problem.

(End of chapter)