Chapter 276: Struggling to Advance, Yet the Future Holds Promise

Sea of Illusory Flowers.

The Little Mage stood quietly on the plain; a gentle breeze swept past, raising layers of colorful waves around him.

His full head of black hair and robes fluttered in the wind.

After yesterday's Eight Kings Meeting, he had proven to the Seven Thrones of the Lingxi Clan that he had "accidentally" gained the ability to connect to the Mysterious Shop.

The Seven Kings had all expressed their willingness to let him manage the clan's resources and seek benefits for the clan's development.

His next step of thought was how to utilize the Mysterious Shop to pave the way for the clan's development.

With a vast array of goods available in the Player Mall, how should one choose to maximize developmental benefits?

Squatting down, the Little Mage touched the ground with one knee.

At this moment, the Eagle-Head Demon activated, and his perception seeped into the earth.

In an instant, the pulse of the earth veins traveled up through his fingertips; flowing within the soil were glistening streams invisible to the naked eye, like a sleeping galaxy.

Although the land of the Illusory Flower Plain could not be classified as spiritual fields, it harbored robust vitality; in his perceptual view, every grain of soil was wrapped in green fluorescent particles.

A preliminary inspection confirmed that this region was highly suitable for reclamation and planting spiritual plants.

Furthermore, the Player Mall sold various types of spiritual plant seeds.

In the initial stage of development, planting spiritual plants seemed to the Little Mage to be an excellent source of income.

Unlike minor worlds, the growth cycle of spiritual plants in the Monster World was extremely short.

For instance, a spiritual plant that required years to mature on Earth might need only ten days in the Monster World.

This was merely a shortening of the maturation cycle; other disparities were even more obvious.

Spiritual plants on Earth required specific environments to grow, necessitating the creation of suitable temperature, humidity, and other conditions; they were also extremely fragile during growth, requiring continuous energy infusion into the soil.

But in the Monster World, spiritual plants precious to the various races on Earth grew wildly across mountains and fields like weeds, growing around the clock.

They required only an extremely short time to reach maturity.

Exaggerated gigantism phenomena would also occur.

On the forum, a player had found a type of spiritual plant once publicly cultivated by the Moon Eclipse Clan in the Monster World; while it took three and a half years to mature in Earth's environment, it required only 187 hours in the Monster World, and the land used was not even spiritual fields.

Secondly, even at the maturity stage, the volume of the spiritual plants differed by four times, and those planted in the Monster World maintained a frenzied growth momentum even after maturing.

The quality of the spiritual plants was simply incomparable.

The reason lay in the terrifying life energy contained within the soil of the Monster World.

Upon first arriving in the Monster World, the Seven Great Thrones had considered relying on planting various spiritual plants to acquire developmental resources.

The highest-quality spiritual plant seeds they brought were worth more than the ordinary plants on the Illusory Flower Plain.

But the problem was that the compatibility between the spiritual plant seeds and the Monster World was too low, even worse than those non-spiritual plants.

After attempting to plant them, a temporarily unsolvable problem emerged: the seeds could not withstand the overly fertile soil.

It was like a creature accustomed to drinking fresh water suddenly being immersed in concentrated nutrient solution.

The seeds brought by the Lingxi Clan were varieties that had been screened and cultivated.

For example, the "Moon Tear Flower," regarded as the strongest spiritual plant.

Its seed coat possessed a semi-permeable membrane structure designed to actively capture free-floating life particles from the air in the barren Lingxi World, but this ability became a fatal flaw in the Monster World.

With each absorption, life particles from the soil permeated and rushed into the seed's interior at an unimaginable speed.

It instantly reached a state akin to energy overload, causing the life form to rapidly grow in a manner similar to forced acceleration, only to quickly collapse afterward.

This was a survival advantage evolved in impoverished environments; no matter how fierce the intake of life particles, there was a limit, and all could be effectively absorbed and converted.

Yet in an affluent environment, the lack of a feedback mechanism to inhibit absorption turned this into a fatal weakness that destroyed itself.

The Lingxi Clan's seeds in the Monster World were like containers with their valves left open; their growth process would be ruptured by the continuously surging life particles bursting their cell walls.

He had used his perception to observe the growth status of a batch of seeds brought by the Lingxi Clan on the Illusory Flower Plain.

Basically, all the seeds exhibited similar phenomena after planting.

Even before sprouting, they showed signs of "energy burns"; under the Eagle-Head Demon's perception, the internal networks of the spiritual plants were completely carbonized, making further growth, let alone subsequent maturation and harvest, impossible.

However, the spiritual plants from the Player Mall did not suffer from such issues.

Even when planted in spiritual fields rich with life energy, they could adapt and grow.

Therefore, his first consideration was to purchase a batch of low-grade spiritual plants with short growth cycles capable of continuous profit generation for resale at the Exchange Row.

After some selection, he chose three types of spiritual plant seeds.

Among them, the one he favored most was the Level 1 spiritual plant, Star Dew Grass.

Its growth cycle in the Illusory Sea Plain region was estimated to require thirteen days.

Its characteristic was that after reaching maturity, it could condense Starlight Dew, making it a very popular spiritual plant in the Exchange Row.

The Alchemist Guild also purchased it in large quantities regularly.

Furthermore, many players bought it for use in alchemy; it was one of the common materials currently used to refine "Evolution Pills (Experience Pills)."

Leaving the Illusory Sea Plain, the Little Mage arrived at a mining area recently discovered by the Lingxi Clan.

This was a mining area that had clearly been excavated before.

Chisel marks remained on the rock walls, like scars left by the claws of a giant beast, but their edges had been smoothed by time; the exposed rock strata were covered in moss resembling silver threads.

Deep within were uneven pits and fractured mine tunnels; some collapsed tunnels resembled bones gnawed by a giant beast, half-buried among rubble, while the air was filled with a damp metallic scent mixed with a faint fluctuation of spiritual energy.

At this moment, warriors of the Lingxi Clan were busy inside, installing biological mining machines.

These were tool-type lifeforms cultivated using the Lingxi Clan's biotechnology.

Shaped like giant worms, their epidermis was covered in hardened biological armor; their heads lacked eyes, possessing only a spiral-shaped mouthpart containing thousands of fine tentacles.

They employed a feeding-style mining method: the mining machine would press its mouthpart against the rock wall, secrete dissolving fluid, then use its tentacles to churn and explore inward, swallowing all the ore into its body.

The ore underwent preliminary purification inside the machine, with waste slag expelled from the tail to form crystallized fecal stones.

A small portion would be absorbed and digested within the machine, becoming nutrients for its growth.

As its size increased, the mining efficiency of the machine would also improve.

This was a growth-type mining tool with a normal service life of up to thirty-five years.

During excavation, after each machine had eaten its fill, it would return to the ore storage area under the guidance of Lingxi warriors to spit out the spiritual ore within its body, after which Lingxi warriors would transport it back to the clan lands for secondary refinement.

But the mining machines also had shortcomings.

Since they were living organisms, encountering radioactive spiritual ore would damage the life structure of the machine, causing irreversible mutations in its biological tissues.

In mild cases, it only affected the metabolic system, making the secreted dissolving fluid unstable and difficult to effectively decompose the ore.

Machines at this stage could still be used, but as radiation energy from various spiritual ores accumulated, they would also exhibit symptoms such as tentacle atrophy and detachment, and distortion of the spiral structure of the mouthparts, eventually losing all mining capability.

In preliminary tests in this mining area, the service life of the mining machines had already shortened from thirty-five years to one or two years.

Recently, the Bone King had indicated plans to alter the life structure of the mining machines to curb their ability to grow by devouring spiritual ore.

They would all be converted to short-term use, creating maximum value within their limited lifespans.

This was also an adaptive technological update undertaken by the Lingxi Clan to adapt to the Monster World.

In the future, they were also considering cultivating new types of mining machines with stronger radiation resistance.

Continuing deeper into the mine cave.

One could see many rock walls shrouded in a hazy, glowing mass.

Through analysis, it was learned that the rock walls enveloped by the light masses were regenerating spiritual ore.

Although this mining area had been violently excavated before, in the Monster World, time was the greatest healer.

The process of resource re-nurturing was extremely rapid; it was like mining spots in a game that could refresh infinitely, and after a period of time, new resources would be available for re-excavation.

Even the quality might be better than the previous cycle of nurturing.

He had seen research-oriented players discuss this issue on the forum.

Research-oriented players believed that the Monster World was growing rapidly, with land, elements, and energy brought by descending factions merging into it every day.

This caused the speed of resource nurturing in the Monster World, and even the quality of nurtured resources, to improve every minute and every second.

One could even view the Monster World as a living world that constantly devours, fuses, and evolves.

It digests and reorganizes all the matter and energy brought by descending factions, ultimately transforming them into part of itself.

Essentially, descending factions were all providers for the Monster World; they fought and plundered within the Monster World, eventually heading toward destruction, with everything cycling within the Monster World's system.

An explanation by a research-oriented player on the forum left a deep impression on the Little Mage.

He introduced in straightforward terms why the Monster World could generate various types of resources.

He stated: If one views the Monster World as a living organism, then everything becomes easy to understand.

The act of various races excavating and mining resources in the Monster World was like humans trimming their fingernails and hair.

The resources of the Monster World were similar to the existence of fingernails and hair, capable of constant renewal and generation.

After fingernails are cut, they grow back; after hair falls out, new hair still emerges.

But this regeneration was not a replication according to the original pattern, but rather the result of the "Monster World" making dynamic adjustments based on its own changes.

For example, a person lacking protein for a long time would have hair that becomes dry and brittle, and horizontal ridges might even appear on their fingernails.

The resource regeneration of the Monster World followed similar logic.

When a mining area was exhausted, the earth veins would not mechanically "refresh" the same ore.

Just as the human body repairs wounds, the Monster World would regrow spiritual ore of better quality based on the current energy concentration of the region and its own growth speed.

The strength of generated resources was directly influenced by the strength of the world.

Therefore, even if the entire Monster World were mined empty, it would not be a major issue; these were all substances that could be metabolized out.

The only things that could truly affect the Monster World were the Rules; these were the life framework of the Monster World, comparable to organs and bones within the human body... the Rules constituted the underlying logic of the Monster World.

Only when the Rules were damaged would the Monster World suffer serious consequences.

This was also one of the reasons why the Primordial Monster could not be truly killed by external forces.

Every Primordial Monster is a projection of the world's laws; to truly kill one, one must destroy the rule framework of the Monster World itself.

But even the Black Black Tide would find this difficult, let alone a minor faction like the Lingxi Clan.

To the Monster World, violent mining in a single region isn't even as significant as filing off a bit of nail dust.

After concluding the mine inspection, Xiao Xiao Fashi asked the Lingxi Clan warrior in charge about the daily yield of spiritual ore, its average grade, and the rate of production increase.

These data points were crucial chips for his planning of the Lingxi Clan's future development.

He considered constructing a small spatial teleportation array within the mine tunnels to significantly boost the transport efficiency of the spiritual ore.

The materials required for construction could be purchased from the Exchange and the Player Mall; ideally, spatial-type ores like "Void Meng Yuan Stone" should be used.

As for the construction techniques, the Lingxi Clan's War Priests already possessed spatial technology; what they lacked were top-tier spiritual materials.

Since there were no spatial-type resources nearby, he would still need to buy them from his fellow countrymen.

With the Exchange and Player Mall available, he didn't worry about being unable to find the desired resource types; his only concern was that prices might be too exorbitant, making the initial investment cost prohibitive.

Leaving the mining district and returning to the clan grounds, Xiao Xiao Fashi headed to the breeding zone.

He could see a school of plump, fat fish leisurely swimming; these were an edible ingredient called "Wa Duo," with tender flesh but sparse spiritual substances inside, serving at best as a dietary supplement for the Lingxi Clan's daily meals. In the adjacent shallow waters, Crystal Worms were raised; transparent as glazed glass, they turned an alluring pink when cooked. Although their texture was decent, they didn't even count as ordinary ingredients in the Monster World.

Even so, these were things only the top-tier warriors of the Lingxi Clan could afford to eat.

Before coming to the Monster World, the ingredients used by ordinary Lingxi Clan members were hardly better than those on Earth, containing only trace amounts of spiritual substances.

Only warriors of the Super Beast Legion qualified to consume spiritual ingredients.

But since those who could come to the Monster World were the Lingxi Clan's elite, these ingredients had degraded from top-tier fare to ordinary rations.

Shifting his gaze to the fenced shoreline, flocks of round, colorful-feathered birds were pecking at crystal fragments; their feathers displayed soft gradient hues, and the eggs they laid bore pale golden speckles, looking quite exquisite.

The meat quality of these domestic fowls was far inferior to that of wild monsters, their only advantage being a faster reproduction rate.

However, such ingredients were already on the verge of elimination, no longer suited to the Lingxi Clan's future needs.

Their contribution to personal growth was even less than simply going hungry and gnawing on wild grass across the Illusion Flower Plain.

After inspecting the breeding zone, an idea sprouted in Xiao Xiao Fashi's mind.

Could they establish a spiritual ingredient farm within the Lingxi Clan and then sell various foodstuffs on the Exchange to earn Sacrificial Power?

The Lingxi Clan's greatest strength lay in their biological technology.

If this advantage could be maximized, it would not only meet internal clan demands but also become a hot commodity on the Exchange.

After all, there were plenty of foodies among the player legions, and he was one of them.

At the current stage, players had only a single method to obtain ingredients: external hunting, draining the pond to catch all the fish.

For instance, the Golden Claw Crabs along the Colorful Mist Coast were becoming increasingly difficult to catch, their numbers significantly dwindling.

The supply of many ingredients depended entirely on what the hunting-party players managed to capture.

If the Lingxi Clan could eventually cultivate farms for ingredients like the Golden Claw Crab, they could ride the fast-developing train of the player legions in the future.

They would become the ingredient suppliers for the player legions.

Whether the prices were high or low was secondary; the main point was securing a sales channel to continuously generate Sacrificial Power revenue.

At the very least, they could sacrifice the items to Brother Di Zhao.

Furthermore, helping players lower ingredient prices on the Exchange would indirectly aid the growth of the player legions; perhaps in the future, this could even wash away the "sins" stained upon him.

But to do this, they first needed live ingredients for research; direct purchase from the Exchange was not feasible.

Amidst surging thoughts, Xiao Xiao Fashi made his decision.

One of the key projects for the Lingxi Clan's future external exploration would be to search for wild monsters that were delicious and rich in spiritual substances, capture them, and attempt to breed them in captivity.

The two-day inspection and survey concluded, Xiao Xiao Fashi finally arrived at the resource warehouse and disabled the livestream function.

He then began selecting resources within.

After walking a lap, he headed straight for the innermost ore section, grabbing handfuls of glowing Ghost Crystals; these were energy ores unique to the Lingxi Clan's territory, a vital resource for their development.

After storing them in his Spatial Sack, he began listing them in bulk.

For pricing, he referenced other spiritual ores on the Exchange, estimating a value slightly below the market rate.

Such spiritual ores could only be sold based on their numerical spiritual substance content; since each piece held different value, it truly required considerable effort.

He could have asked the Guide to provide scanning services at any time, but the Guide always went on strike for tedious tasks, so he had to activate his Eagle-Head Demon perception to calculate manually.

Before long, Challenger notifications began ringing consecutively in his mind.

[Challenger Notification: You have listed Ghost Crystal x248; successfully sold; Sacrificial Power gained: 928 (fees deducted)]

[System Notification: You have listed Ghost Crystal x285; successfully sold; Sacrificial Power gained: 1047 (fees deducted)]

After listing most of this pile of Ghost Crystals, he soon found himself with an additional 183,600 Sacrificial Power.

It seemed like a lot, but in reality, it was still infinitely far from the goal of crafting laws.

Xiao Xiao Fashi left the remainder untouched, turned, and walked to another section, dragging out three crates of "Stardust Sand."

The moment the crate lids were lifted, the fine silver-white powder shimmered faintly under the warehouse's dim light.

These gravels were spoils of war plundered from other worlds during the Lingxi Clan's early cross-world campaigns, containing elemental energy infused with slight impurities.

Theoretically, this was an excellent material for crafting high-intensity weapons and equipment.

But that was only theoretically.

The Lingxi Clan did not wish to utilize this Stardust Sand; they simply couldn't.

It was like handing crude oil to a Stone Age tribe, or giving rare earth minerals to a blacksmith who only knew how to forge iron.

The items were indeed good, but without a corresponding technical system to support them, even the most advanced resources were just a pile of waste.

The Lingxi Clan's resource utilization relied on biological technology, whereas processing Stardust Sand required a rune-etching technique; it was like asking a magic-using civilization to operate a technological civilization's spaceship.

This technological isolation prevented many resources from being utilized reasonably.

The Player System and the Black Black Tide System did not suffer from such issues.

Within the Player System, Brother Di Zhao accepted everything from pots and pans to old TVs and refrigerators; all spiritual resources could be sacrificed to convert into Sacrificial Power.

The Black Black Tide System devoured all matter, converting everything into Black Black Tide energy.

These two universal resource conversion systems meant there were no spiritual resources they couldn't use.

But for weak clans, alongside resource scarcity, there existed a series of shortcomings in resource utilization.

Not all resources could be converted into developmental momentum.

Regarding how to handle this batch of Stardust Sand, Xiao Xiao Fashi first summoned his function panel to check the returns from sacrificing to Brother Di Zhao, then listed them on the Exchange with a 15% price markup.

If successfully sold, this could yield 88,000 Sacrificial Power.

Thirteen seconds later, a Challenger notification rang in his mind, indicating the goods had been purchased by a player.

Although he wasn't clear what use his fellow countrymen had for Stardust Sand, selling it was a good thing regardless.

Left in the Lingxi Clan's warehouse, this stuff would only gather dust; exchanged for Sacrificial Power, it could buy anything.

Turning to a wall of constant-temperature storage cabinets, he pulled out transparent boxes one by one, inside which were neatly arranged Frost Whisper Flowers and Nightlight Moss that had already been processed.

These plants didn't even qualify as spiritual flora in the Monster World; most likely, they would need to be sacrificed to Di Zhao for Sacrificial Power.

But before that, he intended to try listing them on the Exchange first.

Just as he had predicted, plants comparable to the Monster World's wild grass simply couldn't fetch a price.

Throughout the waiting period, no players placed orders.

He bulk-selected them and lowered the price by 10%, yet still, no players were willing to buy.

Helpless, he had to sacrifice them all to Di Zhao, exchanging them for 3,293 points of Sacrificial Power.

Wandering through the resource warehouse, Xiao Xiao Fashi then set his sights on sealed jars in the corner.

Inside was stored a type of Lingxi Clan spiritual weapon called: World-Rotting Mycelium.

It could be sold to Assassin-build players for weapon poisoning, though he wasn't sure what price would be appropriate for listing.

After first checking the returns from sacrificing to Di Zhao, he listed them on the Exchange for sale with a 50% markup.

Brother Di Zhao never looked at functionality when accepting goods; he bought based solely on the content and quality of spiritual substances. This 50% markup was added based on the functional utility of the World-Rotting Mycelium.

As he waited, transaction notifications rang in his mind one after another.

Nodding in satisfaction, Xiao Xiao Fashi moved to the weapons and equipment section.

His gaze swept over the dust-covered otherworldly armaments on the shelves.

Serrated battle axes, staves inlaid with unknown creature eyeballs, crystal spears flowing with liquid energy—these things might be classified as divine artifacts in other worlds, but in the Monster World, they were merely vouchers for exchanging Sacrificial Power.

They held value only for sacrificing to Brother Di Zhao; the Player System had no use for such useless equipment, and no one would be willing to buy them even if listed.

The growth-type resonance weapons and armed vehicles used by players were far beyond comparison with the weapons and equipment in this warehouse.

The Lingxi Clan had no need for these weapons and equipment either.

The Super Beasts were the Lingxi warriors' most powerful weapons, while the armaments here were useless items brought back from plunder wars.

According to the Blood King's memories, the Lingxi Clan's usage of such resources often required multiple rounds of refinement; the process was tedious, and the energy conversion efficiency was low.

It was far better to simply sacrifice them to Brother Di Zhao.

He began loading the weapons and equipment from the warehouse into his personal Spatial Sack in batches, then immediately sacrificed them to Di Zhao to exchange for Sacrificial Power.

When he approached a suit of dark silver heavy armor hanging on the wall, fragments of the Blood King's memories surfaced in Xiao Xiao Fashi's mind.

This piece of equipment had once stirred up blood and wind in a minor world, regarded as the "Undefeated Silver Armor"; as long as one wore it, there was no possibility of being killed.

It was said to have been forged deep within a volcano in that minor world, crafted jointly by three thousand master artisans working day and night.

Yet this very equipment had been easily pierced through when facing the Lingxi Clan.

Its only value lay in the materials used to cast the armor; they were all spiritual materials, holding some collectible significance.

A defensive treasure in the eyes of a weak clan was merely an ordinary item easily broken by a strong clan.

Now, the Lingxi Clan was undergoing this same process.

The warehouse the Ling Xi Clan called the Treasure Vault contained very few truly valuable items; the vast majority were only fit for sacrifice to Di Zhao, worthless in the eyes of players.

After sacrificing the dark silver armor, he gained 539 points of sacrificial power.

The value lay primarily in the materials; as for craftsmanship, it was entirely negative.

This heavy armor was precisely a microcosm of how most spoils in the Ling Xi Clan's warehouse were valued.

If these weapons and equipment could be restored to their original spiritual materials without any production loss, the yield of sacrificial power from sacrificing to Di Zhao would obviously be much higher.

When Brother Di Zhao accepted goods, no matter how awesome the equipment, it was all recycled as scrap.

But being able to exchange it for sacrificial power was already a gain; left in the hands of the Ling Xi Clan, it would merely be useless warehouse decoration.

Amidst the busyness, Xiao Xiao Fashi constantly sacrificed and listed items, his balance of sacrificial power growing rapidly during this period.

Before arriving in the Monster World, in order to generate the clan territory according to the rules, the Ling Xi Clan had already consumed the vast majority of its resources, leaving nothing of high value to be found in the warehouse.

From the initial sacrifice, he obtained 3.39 million points of sacrificial power.

Many of the remaining items were needed for the development of the Ling Xi Clan, or temporarily lacked a reasonable valuation; he planned to consult references to clarify their value before listing them as goods.

Next, he began purchasing spiritual plant seeds and pure energy crystals in bulk.

When he left the warehouse, he discovered the Seven Kings waiting outside the main gate.

Xiao Xiao Fashi wasted no words; with a wave of his hand, spiritual plant seeds poured out, piling into a small mountain on the ground.

Every seed emitted a spiritual glow, causing the energy concentration in the surrounding area to rise rapidly.

The expressions of the Seven Kings instantly became a dazzling array of colors.

Shadow King, always known for his coldness, subconsciously took half a step back.

His black robes danced without wind, while shadowy tentacles spread out from beneath his feet, beginning to tremble the moment they touched the pile of seeds.

The pure vitality emitted by the seeds made him understand just how important this batch purchased by Blood King was for the development of the Ling Xi Clan.

"Are these... spiritual seeds?" His voice rarely carried a trace of tremor.

"Correct, these are seeds that can be planted in this world. We recently need to reclaim a patch of land on the Illusion Flower Plain; after planting them in bulk to produce spiritual plants, hand those plants over to me for processing."

"Very well, I will take charge of this part," Shadow King nodded, speaking in a deep voice.

The expressions of the other six thrones also displayed immense shock.

Facts proved that Blood King had truly gained a powerful ability during his sleep that they could not imagine.

He could purchase many goods the Ling Xi Clan had long dreamed of.

"Blood King..." Soul King's voice was dry and rough: "Could the authority you gained in your dreams be the power of rules?!"

Xiao Xiao Fashi calmly looked at the seven discomposed thrones before him, casually took a bottle of liquid emitting starlight from the void, and tossed it to Soul King.

This was a potion he had just purchased with his remaining sacrificial power, merely repackaged.

After all, the Seven Great Thrones had seen the packaging of potions used by players, yet they could not analyze any substance within the clear liquid.

Soul King, holding the potion, cast a puzzled glance.

"For the injuries on your body, this thing can cure them."

Soul King did not hesitate, downing the liquid in one gulp, whereupon an expression of disbelief floated onto his Iron Face.

The liquid exploded within his body; under his perception perspective, it transformed into hundreds of millions of points of light, each particle precisely piercing the cracks in his soul form.

Toxins that had accumulated within his body over long years and could never be cleared were wrapped in starlight, melting away rapidly like snow encountering sunlight.

Even the incomplete energy circuits were forcibly reconstructed by this power, the newly born energy meridians glowing with a crystal-like blue-purple luster.

Rather than healing, it was more like a bodily reconstruction akin to time flowing backward.

Soul King, who had originally been preparing to change his physical body, used the effects brought by this bottle of potion to completely resolve the hidden dangers within him.

Seeing the change in Soul King's expression, the other six great thrones straightened their countenances.

They each manipulated their memory sacs to extend tentacles, connecting to Soul King's body, wishing to examine the changes within him.

Subsequently, shock also surfaced in their eyes.

At this moment, Xiao Xiao Fashi sensed a complex fluctuation of emotions from the Seven Great Thrones.

Yet he could fully understand the excitement currently stirring in the hearts of the Seven Great Thrones.

During these years since arriving in the Monster World, the moods of the Seven Great Thrones had been immensely suppressed.

Struggling in this cruel world with the remnants of their clan, every decision felt like walking along a cliff edge; where was the wanton posture that a plundering faction ought to possess?

Just as he had said, it was as if a group of carnivorous predators had turned into little bees living off gathering nectar.

Throughout this period, the gloom of clan extinction had constantly hung over their hearts.

The most obvious change was that the Seven Great Thrones no longer discussed the glorious history of their race.

Because no matter how glorious the history, in the Monster World it was merely dust seen everywhere.

Beneath the blood-stained earth, who knew how many powerful clans with achievements even more glorious than the Ling Xi Clan lay buried.

After the glory of former plunderers faded, they were like prisoners trapped in an eternal night, replaced by day-after-day calculations for survival.

Every decision was as treading on thin ice, the first thought always being what kind of crisis such an action might bring.

During this time, the Seven Great Thrones had long grown accustomed to thinking about problems in the most conservative manner, and accustomed to burying the ambitions deep in their hearts.

The glory of former plunderers had long been worn smooth by reality, transformed into the cautious wisdom of survival.

The feeling Xiao Xiao Fashi got was that the Seven Great Thrones were like beasts with their fangs and claws pulled, forced to learn to gnaw on wild fruits to survive.

As for plundering, with the Ling Xi Clan's combat strength, even external exploration had to be conducted with extreme care, fearing they might provoke a clan that would bring disaster; they simply dared not harbor thoughts of plundering other races.

But at this moment, the mysterious shop he mentioned was like a beam of light piercing the eternal night.

It allowed hope of regaining glory to appear in the future of the Ling Xi Clan.

Perhaps they no longer needed to drag out an ignoble existence; perhaps they could possess a more aggressive layout for development.

Seven gazes turned toward him at this time.

Xiao Xiao Fashi sensed a long-lost emotion in them; something called "ambition" was quietly reviving within the Seven Great Thrones.

None of the Seven Great Thrones spoke, and Xiao Xiao Fashi also stood calmly.

The wind blew, stirring the fluctuating spiritual energy scattered by the seeds, spreading it throughout the clan territory outpost.

Eight gazes met; without words, they understood the thoughts in each other's hearts.

At this moment, they were no longer trapped beasts, but predators about to break from their cocoons.

The gloom of clan extinction still hung overhead, but a glimmer of dawn had already appeared on the horizon; this light was sharp enough, bright enough, to slice through the long night shrouding the Ling Xi Clan.

In this cruel world, hope represented the future.

And now.

The future holds promise!

(End of Chapter)