Chapter 306: Cheating Is Shameful! (Request Monthly Votes)

The small world, under the consumption of Hei Chao Xie Sui led by A Luo, saw all things wither and rapidly collapse.

With the aid of Di Nian Xie Ling, A Luo had no possibility of defeat.

Qi Sheng's consciousness, after the world's collapse, followed Di Nian Xie Ling back to the Monster World.

He now fully understood the truth behind the birth of the new troop type: Mo Zhong.

This world can be viewed as a breeding ground similar to that of the Ascension Clan, where everything operates according to the will of the Creator.

They forged this world into a cruel, oppressive realm precisely to harvest Rule Energy.

And the name of this rule is: Mo Zhong.

Its effect allows one to obtain the target's inner: Pain and Evil Intent.

The higher the target's life intensity, the greater the amount of Pain and Evil Intent, and the more Rule Energy produced.

The entire world was designed solely to generate more Pain and Evil Intent.

The common populace breeds Pain; city lords and other rulers breed Evil Intent.

A Luo resides in the Eighth Epoch; seven prior Epochs have already been harvested.

At the start of each Epoch, the Creator scatters life seeds; the beings born in this fertile environment study the stars, poets sing of love… During this phase, the small world's inhabitants enjoy endless food and various spiritual entertainments.

Population surges explosively during this phase.

But the Creator never intended to preserve the world's beauty; the hidden fangs reveal themselves when the small world reaches its peak of prosperity.

Each Epoch follows the same developmental rhythm.

Even the city lords, whom A Luo perceives as standing at the pinnacle of this world, are merely tools crafted by the Creator to generate suffering.

The city lords see themselves as the Creator's chosen secular representatives, elevated above all other beings.

They obey the Creator's will, fabricating reasons to punish mortals, yet in truth they wield the Yan Sheng Lao Yin to harvest Rule Energy for the Creator.

This is why, before each killing of a "criminal," spiritual oppression and torture are inflicted.

The reward they receive is that the Creator teaches them the Blood Flesh Alchemy method to extend their lifespan.

Having reached the position of city lord, they possess absolute power and crave immortality.

To satisfy their greedy Evil Intent, they relentlessly exploit the world's living beings for the Creator.

Yet in truth, the city lords' alchemy dens, the torture devices in every city's dungeons, the oppressive and despairing living conditions… all are meticulously designed rule-output mechanisms by the Creator.

The Pain and Evil Intent generated by beings tortured to death, and the city lords' boundlessly expanding Evil Intent, ultimately become the Creator's "delicacies."

But the Epoch in which A Luo resides has not yet entered the final phase of harvesting the city lords.

When all created by the Creator vanishes, the small world is reborn from destruction, entering the next cycle.

As for why Di Nian Xie Ling chose A Luo as the vessel for the rule, the reason is simple.

Gui Ya also asked Di Nian Xie Ling this same question within the small world.

Di Nian Xie Ling's reply was:

"Choosing a city lord, or choosing him, or choosing any other being in this world—it doesn't matter to me. I have to pick one, don't I?"

The truth is this simple.

Di Nian Xie Ling does not care about the suffering and despair A Luo endures, nor does it care how hateful the city lords' exploitation and oppression of the small world's beings are.

The fact is, any being in the small world who receives Di Nian Xie Ling's power enhancement can easily destroy this world.

The city lord is an ant; A Luo is an ant.

Whichever ant is chosen, power must be infused to accelerate its growth—there is no essential difference.

The city lord's strength and A Luo's weakness are merely concepts perceived by the small world's beings.

But from Di Nian Xie Ling's perspective, they are all the same—trash.

It cares only about one thing: finding a suitable target to harvest this Epoch.

Ideally, a target who already desires to destroy the world, to rapidly accelerate the process of harvesting and destruction.

As for the breeding model, Di Nian Xie Ling has no such thoughts.

It only wants to quickly harvest this small world, take the Mo Zhong bearing the rule, and refine it into its exclusive troop type.

Di Nian Xie Ling's goal has always been the Monster World; the rule's future growth will also be placed in the Monster World; it will not invest significant energy into the small world's Epoch cycles.

It is merely killing beings and harvesting their accumulated Pain and Evil Intent.

The Monster World is filled with ancient, powerful beings who have lived for eons; harvesting them yields Rule Energy far beyond what the small world's beings can produce.

As for why it does not personally intervene to harvest:

Because when Di Nian Xie Ling created the Rule Troop, it could not create consciousness—it needed a vessel with self-awareness.

This vessel could be a being from the Monster World or a being from the small world.

Its choice was to use what was at hand.

After retrieving the rule stored in the small world, Di Nian Xie Ling forged the Mo Zhong rule and its own will imprint directly into A Luo's spiritual consciousness.

After completing the gestation of the Mo Zhong, it allowed this troop to grow by killing and destroying within the small world, absorbing Rule Energy.

During the process of world destruction, the Pain and Evil Intent accumulated by beings continuously converge into the Mo Zhong.

This is also the process by which Di Nian Xie Ling grants the Mo Zhong—a troop with self-awareness—practical combat experience.

Beyond this, there are no other reasons.

Even without A Luo, Di Nian Xie Ling would have found another target to become the Mo Zhong.

It was merely coincidental that A Luo's unexpressed rage perfectly matched Di Nian Xie Ling's needs, so he became: the Chosen One.

But the true A Luo is already dead.

What was born within him is a Rule Troop, modified by the Evil Eye, utterly loyal to Di Nian Xie Ling.

This is the first Rule Troop Di Nian Xie Ling has ever created since its campaigns in the Monster World, theoretically possessing infinite growth potential.

The Pain and Evil Intent within any being slain by the Mo Zhong shall become its nourishment for growth.

After understanding the full course of events, the scene rewound at lightning speed in Qi Sheng's eyes.

His vision returned to the platform of the Xie Yan Gao Ta.

The Di Nian Xieling hovered in midair, watching the rule-based troop "Mo Zhong" ascend under the Gao Ta's purification.

The current strength of Mo Zhong is still too low.

It possesses world-shattering power within the small world, but in the Monster World, its strength is at Hunting Level 90+.

The era in which A Luo resides is nearly at its end.

The rule energy accumulated in the small world has long been mostly extracted; there is simply not enough left to harvest.

Under Qi Sheng's gaze,

the black tide energy, controlled by Di Nian Xieling, continuously flooded into the Mo Zhong, replacing rule energy to aid their growth.

Like Shou Shou Jili, black tide energy is a universal rule energy, capable of substituting for other rule energies.

But its quality differs significantly from Shou Shou Jili.

Only the black tide energy used by the Black Tide God might be considered a primordial energy on the same tier as Shou Shou Jili.

Di Nian Xieling's current actions are familiar to Qi Sheng.

Because he himself did exactly this.

The current Ming Hun growth system is built entirely around Shou Shou Jili as its core.

If a single Ming Hun detaches from the Challenger System and wishes to grow, it must follow specific logic to obtain evolution.

For example, the "Wind Mastery" Ming Hun controlled by Qi Die.

It must generate rule energy through the act of bullying the weak, and use that to gain growth.

But once connected to the Challenger System, all logic becomes simply hunting.

The Shou Shou Jili extracted during hunting becomes two things: part transforms into evolution points—i. e., Ming Hun experience—and part converts into player-accessible Shou Shou Jili.

But fundamentally, evolution points are also Shou Shou Jili.

Di Nian Xieling is doing the same now.

By consuming black tide energy to convert it into Mo Zhong rule energy, it accelerates the growth of the Mo Zhong troop.

As time passed, the "Mo Zhong" infused with black tide energy rapidly surpassed Hunting Level 120, continuing to grow at breakneck speed.

Clearly, Di Nian Xieling intends to forge Mo Zhong into its first high-tier combat troop.

This is also the first troop under Di Nian Xieling's sole control, detached from the Black Tide troop system, yet connected to Black Tide system power.

Qi Sheng no longer followed the developments; his consciousness returned to Di Zhong Village as guided.

……

Two days later.

Di Zhong Mountain Range.

The allied battle group led by Shen Wang advanced rapidly toward the Tian Yuan domain node.

This battle may not secure victory.

But he could be certain it would force Di Nian Xieling to pay a terrible price.

Times are not as they once were; the player system has received multiple recent enhancements.

First, the Giant Beast System went live, upgrading the war mode; the appearance of monster blood packs greatly improved players' endurance in battle.

Second, the newly launched Battle Array System.

This battle was designed to test the actual combat performance of the Battle Array System.

To this end, he spent a fortune to forge a "Thousand-Man Array Group," composed of 9999 players.

The players' Ming Hun within the group were reconfigured; all members were equipped with Ming Hun embedded with maximum compatibility for "Battle Array Attributes."

During the march, Shen Wang could already imagine the furious expression on Di Nian Eba's face.

Di Nian Eba's tactics center on conserving resources and rarely generate powerful troops.

The sudden unleashing of terrifying combat power would surely cause Di Nian Eba to lose a significant amount of black tide energy, caught off-guard.

At least before Di Nian Eba updates his player tactics information, this round will deliver a stunning performance. This battle is not about victory—it is solely to deeply annoy Di Nian Eba.

On the other side, the Tian Yuan Node Gao Ta.

The moment the allied battle group appeared, Di Nian Xieling knew.

Seeing the player army, which had vanished for a time, reappear, Di Nian Xieling remained indifferent.

Some things, once habitual, become natural.

The more frequent, the less anticipation remains.

It understood that the beastly players' brief absence was to return with greater strength.

At this moment, it raised its right hand, and a red-and-blue interwoven rule imprint rose in its palm.

Thick black mist surged from all directions, drawn like an invisible vortex, converging under the imprint's light.

Rapidly churning and coalescing, it gradually took shape into the menacing silhouette of a figure clad in black armor and wearing a mask.

Deep-set eye sockets burned with dark red flames; the mask's gaping maw split from ear to ear, revealing rows of sharp, interlocking fangs.

Limbs emerged from the mist; as the last wisp of black mist merged into the form, the Mo Zhong troop revealed itself.

It stood three meters tall, its body covered in dark red scales, sharp spines growing from its joints, and massive scythe-like claws at the ends of its arms.

"Boss Di Nian, are you preparing to deploy Mo Zhong in combat?" Gui Ya's voice echoed in its mind.

"The beastly players have come—perfect chance to test Mo Zhong's combat performance. Let them feel the oppression of a rule-based troop," Di Nian Xieling sneered.

At that moment, Tie Ji's voice sounded in the mental communication channel:

"Boss Di Nian, combat testing is fine, but protect Mo Zhong's safety. Unlike battles with other-region lifeforms, in other regions we can instantly recall Mo Zhong—even if killed, we can reconstruct its body quickly with black tide energy at low cost. But players possess the ability to kill and absorb rule energy—don't let the player beasts steal Mo Zhong."

Di Nian Xieling was, of course, fully aware of the issue Tie Ji raised.

From the initial node rules vanishing suddenly after being touched by player members, to players gaining related abilities after killing Source Monsters, to the rules plundered by players during the Gigantic Domain Campaign, and the subsequent introduction of the Monster Flow warfare system… past cases all prove that players possess the ability to devour rules and master (imitate) them.

The Devil Seeds can act recklessly against other races, but face extreme risk when confronting players.

One misstep, and they will be plundered by players.

Considering this issue, he planned to create a new army derived from Devil Seed rules, so that even if the Devil Seed soldiers died, it would not affect the rule core in his possession.

And the Devil Seed would serve as the commander of this new Devil Seed army.

But creating rule-derived troop types requires a certain amount of preparation time.

This battle only tests the Devil Seed's performance in actual combat.

As the player army advanced, the Earth-Nian Evil Spirit floated into the air, its back connected to tentacles extending from the Evil Eye.

In an instant, the black mist surrounding Gao Ta surged like a tidal wave, spreading toward the player army.

But this time, the generated troops were not Catastrophe-type, but close-combat powerhouse Apocalypse-type troops.

Then, the Earth-Nian Evil Spirit's gaze turned to the Devil Seed kneeling on one knee beside it.

Without words, its thoughts surfaced in the Devil Seed's mind.

The Devil Seed nodded sharply, then its form dissolved into a mass of black mist, flying toward the front lines.

Eventually, it merged into the Apocalypse-type troops.

On the other side, the God King's player army also began preparing to activate their battle formation, with the formation squad already adjusting their positions.

To avoid wasting time repositioning during formation assembly.

All that remained was for the squad leaders to activate the battle formation, instantly triggering it and unleashing explosive damage to smash the Earth-Nian Tyrant's head.

But what puzzled the players was that the Earth-Nian Tyrant's tactics seemed to have changed again.

The familiar Catastrophe-type walls had vanished; most of what they saw were Apocalypse-type troops.

But this did not hinder the players' advance.

As the Giant Beast army and the Tank squad launched their initial charge, the earth trembled.

The ground began to shake.

The Black Tide also rapidly formed its ranks.

Corrupted Apocalypse Iron Hooves shattered the earth; cavalry forged from bone and flesh tore through the black veil first.

Each breath their mounts exhaled spewed sulfurous black smoke; the cavalry's spears were twisted spirals of bone.

Behind them crawled the "Disaster-Breaking Ghosts."

Their forms resembled skinned giants, muscles exposed, spines piercing through their backs to form serrated bone blades.

Dense and countless, like an ant swarm crossing the land.

The sky darkened abruptly; as black mist churned, countless Soul-Binding Crows converged into a dark cloud and dove downward, spewing liquid that became a torrent of poisonous arrows.

From a high-altitude aerial view, the black representing the Black Tide and the colorful representing the players exploded into collision at the center of the Emperor's Tomb Mountains.

The initial burst of power shook the earth, triggering a high-frequency earthquake.

In the initial contact, the Earth-Nian Tyrant opened its mouth to curse.

Because the players' strength had grown again.

No further probing was needed; with just one clash, the Earth-Nian Tyrant, already deeply familiar with the Allied Battle Group, calculated the players' growth percentage data.

After all, over these years in the Monster World, it had fought only players and insect clans.

It didn't need to sense bloodline or spiritual force through the Evil Eye; merely by observing the shift in combat power, the answer automatically surfaced in its mind.

On the other side, the God King, though lacking the Earth-Nian Tyrant's data analysis ability, also realized after contact that the beast tyrant's forces had strengthened.

It made him realize he must strike hard during the Waning Moon phase.

Once the lunar phase shifted, the Earth-Nian Tyrant's power might surge dramatically—this Waning Moon was the perfect moment to beat the "dog in the ditch."

In the brutal collision, both sides were preparing.

During the probing, the God King noticed the Earth-Nian Tyrant suddenly split its forces, revealing a path toward the Evil Eye Gao Ta.

Knowing the Earth-Nian Tyrant as he did, this was clearly a deliberate opening—a trap. The Earth-Nian Tyrant could never make such a low-level mistake.

It was practically shouting: Come here, there's a trap, step in and you're dead.

Yet the God King unhesitatingly accepted the open card, roaring out:

"Battle Formation Squad, charge! Scare the tyrant to death!"

As his words fell, the battle formation squad, long ready, activated.

The ground erupted in fissures; blazing golden battle formation runes ignited beneath the squad leader's feet, like rivers of lava flowing from a volcano, spreading across the earth.

The runes spread rapidly, covering every member of the squad in an instant.

Boom!

The runes surged skyward, transforming into 9,999 brilliant pillars of light.

In each pillar stood a player figure.

Their bloodlines entwined, their spirits linked, their wills fused.

Immediately, the battle formation's divine manifestation activated—the Yama Hell Lord appeared (Thousand-Man Battle Formation Manifestation).

It towered over two hundred meters tall, clad in armor forged from flowing flame, its energy-body inscribed with runes, each symbolizing an activated battle formation attribute.

At its appearance, the Yama manifestation's eyes ignited like twin suns.

As it gazed down, everything within its sight spontaneously burst into flame.

This was the battle formation attribute: Soul-Eye Burn the World, forged around the Soul-Eye and Ink-Flame Painful Painful Minghun.

It required only "looking" to unleash its power.

"While the Earth-Nian Tyrant hasn't reacted yet, charge!" the God King shouted again.

Thud!

The Yanmo Dharma Aspect took a step forward, and the earth quaked.

The ground of the entire battlefield sank with a thunderous boom, and the violent spiritual pressure formed a visible golden fury that surged toward the Xie Sui legion to crush them.

The Dharma Aspect phantom's charge carried no earth-shattering battle cries, only the pure roar of power, as if a nine-heaven thunderstorm were pouring down.

Leaning forward in its most ferocious posture, it charged toward the "opening" that Di Nian Eba had given, wanting to break through the encirclement and go straight for Xie Yan Gao Ta.

Just then, a figure wreathed in dark-red power suddenly cut across in front of the charging Yanmo Dharma Aspect.

Boom!

Dark-red blood lightning suddenly cleaved down at the center of the battlefield, and a rule-brand faintly appeared on this figure's forehead.

A towering black fog mixed with dark-red baleful aura gushed out, and a phantom wreathed in boiling blood flames enveloped it, swelling ceaselessly like a balloon.

The power of the Demon Seed's rules was now fully unleashed.

Every inch of its body erupted with dark-red flowing light, and dense ancient demon patterns surfaced on its skin, like red-hot branding irons, as its body rapidly grew.

Amid its wildly dancing blood hair, two twisted demon horns pierced through its forehead and appeared.

Roar!

The Demon Seed roared toward the sky, and the sound waves turned into tangible blood-colored ripples that blasted forward.

In the dark-red vortex formed around it, countless bolts of blood lightning coiled, each strike precisely slamming into the Demon Seed, greedily devoured by its body.

Muscles swelled, bones proliferated, and the surface of its enlarged body was rapidly covered in dark-red crystallized, ferocious armor.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Amid the sound of bones interlocking, a Demon Seed at its full-form body, no smaller than the Yanmo Dharma Aspect, rose from the ground.

Behind this towering figure, two demonic rings floated, rotating like a taiji.

Dark red represented agony; deep blue represented evil thoughts.

The Demon Seed raised its right hand covered in crystallized claws and hurled a fist imbued with the power of laws at the Yanmo Dharma Aspect.

Bang!

Two towering figures collided at the center of the battlefield.

The terrifying force unleashed even caused tiny cracks to flash briefly in space.

The intensity of the clash of combat power now reached an entirely new height.

Seeing this sight, both Di Nian Eba on the Gao Ta platform and the Divine King behind the player legion couldn't help but widen their eyes.

"Shameless!"

Realizing the other side had once again, once again, once again cheated, Di Nian Eba and the Divine King both cursed furiously in their respective comm channels.

The sense of superiority in their hearts, and the joy of their imminent successful sneak attack, vanished without a trace; they only felt the other side was utterly disgusting.

It simply wouldn't end; they couldn't shake it off at all!

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(End of this chapter)