Chapter 276: Hard Steps, Promising Future

Sea of Illusory Flowers.

Xiao Xiao Fa stood silently on the plain; a gentle breeze blew, stirring up layers of colorful waves around him.

His jet-black hair and robes fluttered in the wind.

After yesterday's Council of Eight Kings, he had proved to the Seven Wang Zuo of the Lingxi Clan his ability to connect to the Mysterious Shop, an ability he had "accidentally" obtained.

All seven kings also expressed their willingness to let him manage the clan's resources to seek benefits for the clan's development.

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

The items in the Player Shangcheng are numerous; how to choose to maximize developmental benefits?

Squatting down, Xiao Xiao Fa touched the ground with one knee.

At that moment, the Eagle-Headed Demon activated, its perception seeping into the earth.

In an instant, the pulse of the earth veins traveled through his fingertips; flowing within the soil were invisible, lustrous streams of light, like a sleeping galaxy.

Although the land on the Sea of Illusory Flowers plain cannot be counted as Spirit Fields, it still harbors vigorous vitality; in his perception, every grain of soil was wrapped in green fluorescent particles.

A preliminary test could confirm that this area was very suitable for reclamation to plant Spirit Plants.

And the Player Shangcheng sold various types of Spirit Plant seeds.

In the initial stage of development, planting Spirit Plants seemed to Xiao Xiao Fa to be a good source of revenue.

The Monster World differs from the Small World; here, the growth cycle of Spirit Plants is very short.

For example, a Spirit Plant that takes several years to cultivate to maturity on Earth might only need 10 days in the Monster World.

This is merely a shortening of the maturation cycle; other differences are even more obvious.

Spirit Plants on Earth need to grow in specific environments, requiring the creation of suitable temperature, humidity, and other conditions; they are also very fragile during growth, needing continuous energy injection into the soil.

But in the Monster World, Spirit Plants, which are precious in the eyes of Earth's races, grow wildly all over the mountains like weeds, and they grow all day long.

They only need a very short time to grow to Zhi Cheng Shu Qi.

They also exhibit exaggerated gigantism.

Players on the forum found a Spirit Plant that the Eclipse Clan had previously publicly cultivated; it took three and a half years to cultivate to maturity in an Earth environment, but only 187 hours in the Monster World, and the land used was not even a Spirit Field.

Secondly, even at the same Zhi Cheng Shu Qi, the volume of the Spirit Plant differed by four times, and Spirit Plants planted in the Monster World continued to grow wildly even after maturing.

The quality of the Spirit Plants cannot be compared at all.

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

When they first arrived in the Monster World, the Seven Wang Zuo had considered relying on planting various Spirit Plants to obtain developmental resources.

The highest-quality Spirit Plant seeds they brought were worth more than the ordinary plants on the Sea of Illusory Flowers plain.

But the problem lay in the fact that the compatibility between Spirit 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 appeared: the seeds could not withstand the overly fertile soil.

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

The seeds carried by the Lingxi Clan were already selected and cultivated varieties.

For example, the "Moon Tear Flower," regarded as the strongest Spirit Plant.

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

With every absorption, life particles from the soil seeped and surged into the seed interior at an unimaginable speed.

Instantly reaching a state similar to energy overload, the life form rapidly collapsed after a brief period of forced, rapid growth.

This was a survival advantage evolved in a poor environment; no matter how fierce the intake of life particles, there was a limit, and they could all effectively absorb and convert it.

Yet in a rich environment, because there was no feedback mechanism to suppress absorption, it became a fatal weakness that destroyed itself.

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

He had used his perception to observe the growth situation of a batch of seeds brought by the Lingxi Clan on the Sea of Illusory Flowers plain.

Basically, all the seeds exhibited similar phenomena after planting.

Before sprouting, they showed signs of "energy burns"; under the Eagle-Headed Demon's perception, the internal networks of the Spirit Plants were completely carbonized, making further growth, let alone subsequent maturation and harvesting, impossible.

But the Spirit Plants in the Player Shangcheng did not have this kind of problem.

Even when planted in the rich life energy environment of Spirit Fields, they could adapt and grow.

So his first consideration was to buy a batch of low-level Spirit Plants with short growth cycles that could continuously generate revenue and then resell them on the Exchange.

After some selection, he chose three types of Spirit Plant seeds.

Among them, the one he looked forward to most was the Level 1 Spirit Plant, Star Dew Grass.

In the Sea of Illusory Flowers plain region, the growth cycle was estimated to take 13 days.

Its feature was that after reaching Zhi Cheng Shu Qi, it could condense Starlight Dew; it was a very easy-to-sell Spirit Plant on the Exchange.

The Alchemist Guild also purchased large quantities of it regularly.

Secondly, many players bought it for use in alchemy; it was one of the common materials for refining "Evolution Pills (Experience Pills)" at this stage.

After leaving the Sea of Illusory Flowers plain, Xiao Xiao Fa arrived at the mining area recently discovered by the Lingxi Clan.

This was a mining area that had obviously been mined.

Chisel marks remained on the rock walls, like scars scratched by the claws of a giant beast, but their edges had already been worn smooth by time; the exposed rock layers were covered in moss like silver threads.

Deep within were uneven pits and broken mine tunnels; some collapsed tunnels looked like bones gnawed by a giant beast, half-buried among rubble. The air was filled with a damp metallic smell, mixed with faint fluctuations of spiritual energy.

At this time, Lingxi Clan warriors were busy inside, installing biological mining machines.

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

They resembled giant worms, their skin covered with hardened biological armor; their heads had no eyes, only a spiral mouthpart containing thousands of tiny tentacles.

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

The ore would undergo preliminary purification inside the mining machine's body, and waste residue would be expelled from the tail, forming crystallized fecal stones.

A small portion would be absorbed and digested inside the mining machine's body, becoming nutrients for the mining machine's growth.

As their size grows, the mining efficiency of the mining machines also increases.

This is a growth-type mining tool with a normal service life of up to 35 years.

During the excavation period, after each mining machine eats its fill, it follows the guidance of the Lingxi Warriors back to the ore storage area, spits out the spiritual ore from within its body, and then the Lingxi Warriors transport it to the clan territory for secondary refining.

But the mining machines also have weaknesses.

Since they are living organisms, encountering spiritual ore with radiation will damage the life structure of the mining machines, causing irreversible deformation of the biological tissues within their bodies.

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

Mining machines at this stage can still be used, but as the radiation energy from various types of spiritual ore accumulates, the machines will suffer from shriveled and falling-off tentacles, twisted and deformed spiral structures in their mouths, and other conditions, eventually completely losing their mining capability.

In preliminary tests in this mining area, the service life of the mining machines has already been shortened from 35 years to 1-2 years.

Recently, Bone King stated that he intends to alter the life structure of the mining machines to curb their ability to grow by devouring spiritual ore.

Change them all to short-term use, creating maximum value within their limited lifespans.

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

In the future, there is also consideration to breed new types of mining machines with stronger radiation resistance.

Continuing to probe deeper into the mine.

One can see many rock walls shrouded in a layer of hazy glowing orbs.

Through analysis, it was learned that the rock walls shrouded by the light orbs are regenerating spiritual ore.

Although this mining area was once violently mined, in the Monster World, time is the greatest healer.

The process of resource re-nurturing is very rapid; it is like an infinitely refreshable mining point in a game, and after a period of time, new resources will be available for mining again.

The quality might even be better than that of the previous nurturing cycle.

Regarding this issue, he had seen lore-focused players discussing it on the forum.

Lore-focused players believe that the Monster World is growing rapidly, with lands, elements, and energy brought by descending factions merging in every day.

This causes the speed at which the Monster World nurtures resources, and even the quality of those resources, to improve every minute and second.

The Monster World can even be viewed 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 are providers for the Monster World; they fight and plunder within the Monster World, eventually heading toward destruction, and everything cycles within the Monster World's system.

An explanation by a lore-focused player on the forum left a deep impression on Xiao Xiao Fa.

He introduced in a straightforward manner why the Monster World can generate various types of resources.

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

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

The resources of the Monster World are also similar to fingernails and hair; they can be continuously updated and generated.

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

But this regeneration is not a replication according to the original pattern; it is the result of the "Monster World" making dynamic adjustments based on its own changes.

For example, a person who lacks protein for a long time will have dry and brittle hair, and even horizontal indentations may appear on their fingernails.

The regeneration of resources in the Monster World follows a similar logic.

When a mining area is completely exhausted, the earth veins will not mechanically "refresh" out the same ore.

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

The strength of generated resources is directly affected by the strength of the world.

Therefore, even if the entire Monster World is mined empty, it is not a major issue; these are substances that can be metabolized and regenerated.

The only thing that can truly affect the Monster World is the rules; these are the life framework of the Monster World, which can be viewed as the organs and bones within a human body... The rules constitute the underlying logic of the Monster World.

Only when the rules are damaged will the Monster World suffer serious consequences.

This is also one of the reasons why Meng Yuan Chu monsters cannot be truly killed by external factions.

Every Meng Yuan Chu monster is a projection of the world's rules; to truly kill one, one must destroy the rule framework of the Monster World.

But even the Black Tide finds this difficult to achieve, let alone a small faction like the Lingxi Clan.

Violent mining in a region does not even count as the intensity of using a file to scrape a bit of nail powder on the Monster World.

After the mine inspection ended, Xiao Xiao Fa asked the Lingxi Clan warrior in charge of this area how much spiritual ore could be mined roughly each day, what the average quality was, and what the rate of production increase was.

These data points are important chips for him to layout the future development of the Lingxi Clan.

He has considered building a small spatial teleportation array in the mine to significantly improve the transportation efficiency of spiritual ore.

The materials used for construction can be purchased at the Trading Hall and the Player Shangcheng; it is best to use spatial-type ores like "Kongyuan Stone" for construction.

As for the technology required for construction, the War Priests of the Lingxi Clan already possess spatial technology; what is lacking is top-tier spiritual materials.

There are no spatial-type resources near this area either, so he still has to find a fellow countryman to buy them.

With the Trading Hall and the Player Shangcheng, he does not need to worry about being unable to buy the desired resource types; the only concern is that the commodity prices are too expensive and the initial investment cost is too high.

Leaving the mining area and returning to the clan territory, Xiao Xiao Fa arrived at the breeding area.

One can see a group of plump, fat fish swimming leisurely; this is an edible material called "Waduo," with tender flesh but sparse spiritual substances within the body, at best serving as a supplement to the daily diet of the Lingxi Clan. In the shallow water area nearby, Crystal Worms are raised; they are transparent throughout like glazed glass and turn into an alluring pink after being cooked. Although the texture is good, they do not even count as ordinary ingredients in the Monster World.

Even this is something only top-tier warriors of the Lingxi Clan can eat.

Before coming to the Monster World, the ingredients used by ordinary members of the Lingxi Clan were not much better than those on Earth, containing only a very small amount of spiritual substances.

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

But those who can come to the Monster World are the elites of the Lingxi Clan, so these ingredients have fallen from top-tier ingredients to ordinary ingredients.

Shifting the gaze to the fence on the shore, groups of round, colorful-feathered birds are lowering their heads to peck at crystal fragments; their feathers display soft gradient colors, and the eggs they lay also carry pale golden spots, looking quite exquisite.

The meat quality of these poultry is much worse than that of wild monsters, but they make up for it with a faster reproduction speed.

But these types of ingredients have basically reached the edge of elimination and are no longer suitable for the future needs of the Lingxi Clan.

Their help to one's own growth is not even as good as being hungry and gnawing on wild grass everywhere on the Phantom Flower Plains.

After inspecting the breeding zone, a thought sprouted in Xiao Xiao Fa's mind.

Could they build a spiritual ingredient farm within the Lingxi Clan, then sell various ingredients at the Exchange to earn Shou Shou Jili?

The Lingxi Clan's greatest advantage lies in their biotechnology.

If they could push this advantage to the extreme, it would not only satisfy internal needs but also become a hot commodity in the Exchange.

After all, there are quite a few foodies in the player legion; he was one of them.

At this stage, players' methods for obtaining ingredients are very singular: hunting outside and draining the pond to catch the fish.

For instance, the difficulty of catching the Golden Claw Crabs along the Colored Mist Coast grows day by day, and their numbers have decreased significantly.

The supply of many ingredients depends entirely on what the hunting-party players can catch.

If the Lingxi Clan can cultivate farms for ingredients like the Golden Claw Crab in the future, then they can ride the high-speed development train of the player legion.

Become the player legion's ingredient supplier.

Whether the price is high or low is secondary; the main thing is having a sales channel to generate continuous Shou Shou Jili revenue.

At the very least, sacrificing to Beneath Di Zhao would do.

Secondly, helping players lower ingredient prices at the Exchange indirectly aids the growth of the player legion; perhaps in the future, this could even wash away the "sins" on his own body.

But to do this, they first need living ingredients for research; buying directly from the Exchange is not feasible.

As thoughts surged, Xiao Xiao Fa made a decision.

One of the key projects for the Lingxi Clan's future external exploration will be to find wild monsters that are delicious and have high spiritual substance content in their bodies, capture them, and attempt to breed and cage them.

After the two-day inspection and research concluded, Xiao Xiao Fa finally arrived at the Resource Warehouse and turned off the Zhi Bo Gong function.

He then began selecting resources inside.

After circling around, he walked straight to the innermost ore zone, grabbing chunks of glowing Ghost Crystals; these are energy ores unique to the Lingxi Clan's territory and are important resources for the Lingxi Clan's development.

After storing them in his spatial bag, he began listing them in bulk.

He referenced the prices of other spirit ores in the Exchange and estimated a price slightly lower than the market rate.

These spirit ores must be sold according to their spiritual substance content values; the value of each one differs, so it truly requires some effort.

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

Before long, Challenge Notifications began ringing consecutively in his mind.

【Challenge Notification: You have listed Ghost Crystals x248, successfully sold, obtained Shou Shou Jili: 928 (fees deducted)】

【System Notification: You have listed Ghost Crystals x285, successfully sold, obtained Shou Shou Jili: 1047 (fees deducted)】

After listing most of this pile of Ghost Crystals, he soon had 183,600 Shou Shou Jili in hand.

It seems like a lot, but in reality, it is still far from the goal of crafting rules.

Xiao Xiao Fa left the remainder untouched, turned, went to an area, and dragged out three boxes of "Stardust Sand."

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

These sands are war spoils looted from other worlds during the Lingxi Clan's early cross-realm campaigns, containing elemental energy with slight impurities.

Theoretically, this is an excellent material for crafting high-strength weapons and equipment.

But that is limited to theory.

The Lingxi Clan does not want to utilize this Stardust Sand; they simply cannot use it.

This is like giving crude oil to a Stone Age tribe, or giving rare earth ores to a blacksmith who only knows how to forge iron.

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

The Lingxi Clan's method of utilizing resources relies on biotechnology, while processing Stardust Sand requires a rune-etching technique; it is like asking a civilization accustomed to magic to operate the spaceship of a technological civilization.

Technological isolation prevents many resources from being used reasonably.

The Player System and the Black Tide System do not have this kind of problem.

In the Player System, Beneath Di Zhao collects pots, pans, old TVs, and old refrigerators; all spiritual resources can be converted into Shou Shou Jili after sacrifice.

The Black Tide System, on the other hand, swallows all matter, which can all be converted into Black Tide energy.

These two all-encompassing resource conversion systems mean there are no unusable spiritual resources.

But for weak clans, while resources are scarce, there is also a series of shortcomings in resource utilization.

Not all resources can be converted into development momentum.

Regarding how to handle this batch of Stardust Sand, Xiao Xiao Fa first summoned the function panel, checked Beneath Di Zhao's revenue, and then listed it on the Exchange with a 15% price increase.

If successfully sold, it could bring 88,000 Shou Shou Jili in revenue.

Thirteen seconds later, a Challenge Notification rang in his mind, showing the item had been purchased by a player.

Although he was unclear what a fellow countryman would use the Stardust Sand for, being able to sell it was a good thing.

Leaving this stuff in the Lingxi Clan's warehouse only lets it gather dust, but converting it to Shou Shou Jili can buy anything.

Turning to a wall of temperature-controlled storage cabinets, he pulled out transparent boxes one by one, inside of which were neatly stacked pre-processed Frost-Whisper Flowers and Night-Glow Moss.

These plants don't even count as spiritual plants in the Monster World; they will likely be sacrificed to Beneath Di Zhao to exchange for Shou Shou Jili.

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

Just as he predicted, plants comparable to weeds in the Monster World simply could not fetch a price.

Throughout the waiting process, no player ever placed an order.

Selecting them in bulk, he lowered the price by 10%, yet still no player was willing to buy.

Helpless, he could only sacrifice them all to Beneath Di Zhao, exchanging them for 3,293 points of Shou Shou Jili.

Wandering through the Resource Warehouse, Xiao Xiao Fa then set his sights on a sealed jar in the corner.

Stored inside was a type of spiritual weapon of the Lingxi Clan named: Corrupt-Realm Mycelium.

It could be sold to Assassin-style players for weapon poisoning, but he was unsure at what price it would be appropriate to list it.

He first checked the yield from sacrificing Beneath Di Zhao, then added a 50% markup and listed it on the trading hall for sale.

Brother Beneath Di Zhao never looks at functionality when buying; he always buys based on the content and quality of spiritual substances. This 50% markup was added to the functional effects of the Corrupted Realm mycelium.

While waiting, transaction notifications began to ring in his mind one after another.

After nodding in satisfaction, Xiao Xiao Fa arrived at the weapon and equipment zone.

His gaze swept over the otherworldly weapons gathering dust on the shelves.

War axes with serrated edges, 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 are merely Shou Shou Jili exchange vouchers.

Only Beneath Di Zhao, Brother, values them; the player system has no use for such useless equipment, and listing them would find no willing buyers.

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

The Spirit Breath Clan does not need these weapons and equipment either.

The Super Beast is the Spirit Breath Warrior's most powerful weapon, while the weapons and equipment here are useless items brought back from plundering wars.

According to Blood King's memories, the Spirit Breath Clan's use of such resources often requires multiple refinements; the process is cumbersome and the energy conversion efficiency is low.

It is far better to directly sacrifice to Beneath Di Zhao, Brother.

He began loading the weapons and equipment in the warehouse into his personal space bag in batches, then immediately sacrificed them to Beneath Di Zhao to exchange for Shou Shou Jili.

When he reached a dark silver heavy armor hanging on the wall, a memory fragment of Blood King surfaced in Xiao Xiao Fa's mind.

This piece of equipment once caused bloodshed and turmoil in a small world and was regarded as the "Unbeaten 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 a small world, crafted day and night by three thousand great craftsmen working together.

But this piece of equipment was easily pierced in front of the Spirit Breath Clan.

Its only value lies in the materials used to cast the armor; they are all spiritual materials, so it still holds some collectible significance.

What weak races see as a supreme treasure of defense is, in the eyes of strong races, merely an ordinary item that can be broken with a casual touch.

Now, the Spirit Breath Clan is also experiencing this process.

The Spirit Breath Clan calls the warehouse a Treasury of Treasures, but the truly valuable items inside are very few; the vast majority have only the value of being sacrificed to Beneath Di Zhao and are worthless in the eyes of players.

After sacrificing the dark silver armor, he received 539 points of Shou Shou Jili.

This was mainly due to the material value; as for the craftsmanship value, it was completely negative.

This heavy armor is exactly a microcosm of how most war trophies in the Spirit Breath Clan's warehouse are appraised.

If these weapons and equipment could be restored to their original spiritual materials without production loss, the Shou Shou Jili yield from sacrificing to Beneath Di Zhao would obviously be higher.

Brother Beneath Di Zhao buys everything; no matter how awesome the equipment, he treats it all as scrap for recycling.

But being able to exchange it for Shou Shou Jili is already a profit; keeping it in the Spirit Breath Clan's hands would only make it a useless warehouse decoration.

Amidst the busy work, Xiao Xiao Fa continuously sacrificed and listed items, and his Shou Shou Jili balance grew rapidly during this period.

Before arriving in the Monster World, to generate the Rule Clan Territory, the Spirit Breath Clan had already consumed the vast majority of its resources, leaving almost nothing of high value in the warehouse.

Through initial sacrifices, he obtained 3.39 million Shou Shou Jili.

The remainder consists of many items needed for the Spirit Breath Clan's development, as well as those for which a reasonable valuation cannot yet be given; these are prepared for further research to clarify their value before being listed as Jia De Shang Pin.

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

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

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

Every seed emitted a spiritual light, causing the energy concentration in the surroundings to rise rapidly.

The expressions of the Seven Kings instantly became spectacular.

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

His black robe danced without wind, and shadow tentacles spread out from beneath his feet, trembling the instant they touched the pile of seeds.

The pure life force emitted by the seeds made it understand how important the batch of seeds purchased by Blood King was to the development of the Spirit Breath Clan.

"This is... a Spirit Seed?" Its voice unusually carried a hint of tremor.

"That's right; these are seeds that can be planted in this world. We recently need to reclaim a piece of land on the Phantom Flower Plain, plant them in bulk to produce spiritual plants, and then hand the spiritual plants over to me for processing."

"Good, I will take responsibility for this part," Shadow King said, nodding gravely.

The expressions of the other six Wang Zuo also appeared utterly shocked.

Facts proved that Blood King had indeed gained a powerful ability in his dreams that they could not imagine.

He could purchase many Jia De Shang Pin that the Spirit Breath Clan had long dreamed of.

"Blood King..." Soul King's voice was dry: "Could the authority you gained in your dream be Rule Power?!"

Xiao Xiao Fa calmly looked at the seven Wang Zuo before him who had lost their composure, casually took a bottle of starlight-emitting liquid from the void, and tossed it toward Soul King.

This was a potion he had just purchased with his remaining Shou Shou Jili, merely repackaged.

After all, the Seven Great Wang Zuo had seen the packaging of potions used by players but were unable to analyze any substance within the transparent liquid.

Soul King, having caught the potion, cast a puzzled look.

"This thing can heal the injuries on your body."

Soul King did not hesitate; he drank the liquid in one gulp, and an expression of disbelief immediately appeared on his face.

The liquid exploded within his body; under his perception, it turned into billions of light points, each one precisely piercing into the cracks of his soul body.

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

Even the broken energy circuits were forcibly reconstructed by this power, and the newly formed energy meridians shimmered with a crystal-like blue-purple luster.

Rather than healing, it was more like a bodily reconstruction as if time had reversed.

Soul King, who had originally been preparing to replace his body, completely resolved the hidden problems within his body through the effects brought by this bottle of potion.

Seeing the change in Soul King's expression, the other six Great Wang Zuo's expressions stiffened.

They each manipulated their memory sacs to extend tentacles, docking with Soul King's body, wanting to inspect the changes within it.

Subsequently, shock also appeared in their eyes.

At this moment, Xiao Xiao Fa sensed a complex wave of emotion from the Seven Wang Zuo.

But he could completely understand the excitement churning inside the Seven Wang Zuo at this instant.

Ever since coming to Monster World, the Seven Wang Zuo's mood had been utterly suppressed.

Leading the remnants of their tribe as they struggled in this cruel world, every decision was like walking along the edge of a cliff — where was the carefree bearing a raiding force ought to have had?

Just as he had said, they were like a pack of carnivorous predators turned into bees living off nectar.

During this period, the shadow of clan-annihilation had constantly hung over their hearts.

The most obvious change was that the Seven Wang Zuo never again spoke of the tribe's glorious history.

Because no matter how glorious the history, in the Monster World it was nothing but dust found everywhere.

Beneath the blood-dyed earth, who knew how many powerful clans with even greater achievements than the Lingxi Tribe lay buried.

Once the plunderers' former glory faded, they were like prisoners trapped in an endless night, replaced by the daily grind of survival scheming.

Every decision was made on thin ice; the first thought was always what kind of crisis this action might bring.

During this period, the Seven Wang Zuo had long grown accustomed to thinking in the most conservative way, and to burying the ambition deep in their hearts.

The plunderers' former glory had long been ground smooth by reality, transformed into a cautious, timid survival wisdom.

The feeling it gave Xiao Xiao Fa was that the Seven Wang Zuo were like beasts with their fangs and claws pulled out, forced to gnaw on wild fruit to survive.

As for raiding — with the Lingxi Tribe's combat strength, even outward exploration had to be done with extreme caution, lest they provoke a clan that would bring disaster; they didn't dare harbor Zu De Xiang Fa of plundering other tribes at all.

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

It gave the Lingxi Tribe's future a hope of reclaiming its glory.

Perhaps they no longer had to drag out a wretched existence; perhaps they could lay out a more aggressive development plan.

Seven gazes turned toward him at this moment.

Xiao Xiao Fa sensed from them a long-absent emotion — something called "ambition" was quietly reviving within the Seven Wang Zuo.

The Seven Wang Zuo said nothing, and Xiao Xiao Fa also stood quietly.

The wind stirred the scattered spiritual energy waves of the seeds, spreading through the tribe's encampment.

Eight gazes met; without words, they read each other's innermost thoughts.

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

The shadow of clan annihilation still hung over them, but a sliver of dawn had already appeared on the horizon—a light sharp and bright enough to tear through the long night enveloping the Lingxi Tribe.

In this cruel world, hope itself represents the future.

And now.

The future is worth looking forward to!

(End of this chapter)