Chapter 331: Prologue to War, No Sense of Achievement

The Primordial Sacrifice Altar.

Before Qi Sheng's eyes floated the map scenery already explored and opened up by the players.

The exploration levels of the eight core node regions, from highest to lowest, were: Misty Coast, Senluo Forest Realm, Sun-Chasing Lands, Eternal Silent Ice Firefly Lake, Emperor Tomb Mountain Range (Winter Snowfield), Illusion Spirit Wasteland (Bliss Training Camp), and Explorer World.

Among them, the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range region had already connected with the Winter Snowfield region, belonging to the same area.

Beyond the core nodes, the players had also discovered many small regions.

For instance, the Illusion Flower Sea Plain where Xiao Xiao Fashi was located had already dispelled the fog of a region.

Every player acted in the Monster World according to their own preferences, only gathering again when major events occurred.

At this moment, Qi Sheng's gaze focused on the Misty Coast region on the map.

A strand of gaze descended.

Here, another major event that would change the regional situation was about to occur.

The line of sight, from an overhead perspective, pierced through thick cloud layers, descending upon the boundary between the Cangxing Sea Domain and the Ascension Sea Domain.

In the presented scene, hundreds of millions of acres of black mist, like a tsunami breaching a dam, trampled over the blue ocean and crushed across the sea domain boundary line.

It completely erased the boundary between the Cangxing Sea Domain and the Ascension Sea Domain.

Like a sinking canopy, it advanced relentlessly; wherever it passed, the sky dimmed.

Churning waves were crushed into pale foam, turning into countless tiny whirlpools.

Deep within the mist, countless figures could be vaguely seen treading the waves.

These figures advanced with the surging Mingwu, like a legion of undead drifting with the current.

Their forms were blurry, flickering within the mist; at times they coalesced into armored warriors holding halberds, and at times they scattered into rolling dark currents.

The entire army was like an unsheathed black blade, splitting the sea domain and advancing toward the Ascension Sea Domain.

The Mingwu Clan, returning from ancient times, after consolidating their rule over the Cangxing Sea Domain, finally decided to launch a war of plunder against the Ascension Sea Domain.

And their targets were precisely the Ascension Clan and Shu Yan.

Before the war of plunder began, the Ascension Clan and Shu Yan had already realized that a powerful force had descended in the neighboring sea domain.

A two-year-long war had just ended, and both were preparing to meet the challenge.

And the bloodthirsty fangs of the Mingwu Clan arrived as scheduled.

To the Ascension Clan and Shu Yan, the Mingwu Clan was undoubtedly an invading force.

But to the Mingwu Clan, this was a campaign of revival, meant to reclaim the sea domain territories they once ruled.

In the eyes of the Mingwu Clan, formerly one of the three sea domain hegemons, whether it was the Ascension Clan, Shu Yan, or the Ancient God Clan, all were enemies.

The difference lay in the fact that the Ancient God Clan's true combat strength was unknown, and launching a war rashly carried risks.

But subduing the Ascension Clan and Shu Yan, these two forces, would be much less difficult.

"Pick the soft persimmon to squeeze"; this saying applied equally in the Monster World.

With catastrophe approaching, both the Ascension Clan and Shu Yan initiated pre-war preparations.

At the center of the Ascension Clan's island, rune divine pillars slowly rose into the sky, bursting forth with brilliant light.

This was precisely the Ascension Clan's rule: "Spirit Root."

Around the base of the Spirit Root divine pillar were carved twelve circular grooves; within each groove lay a rune, corresponding to one of the Ascension Clan's elemental Spirit Root systems.

Countless Ascension Clan warriors rose into the sky, gazing into the distance at the great army of the Mingwu Clan advancing upon them, standing ready for battle.

Within Shu Yan's domain.

Floating before Shu Yan were Zhi, Bi, and Shu, three interlocking concrete manifestations of rules.

Its vision pierced through the domain, seeing the Mingwu great army advancing rapidly.

Under the control of its consciousness, "Zhi" waved gently; the Rule Book floating before it flipped without wind, its pages rustling.

Every page recorded a long story, representing a legion system.

When the pages settled, heaven and earth within the domain changed abruptly.

Originally, the technological civilization creations within the domain—steel battle armor, energy cannon arrays, mechanical legions—in an instant crumbled like dust and sand.

In their place, ten thousand feet of golden light poured forth from the pages; like the rising sun, brilliant and fierce, it rapidly reconstructed the domain's scenery.

The opening of the book page read: "When extreme yin breeds evil qi, and filthy earth erodes the heavens; when eternal night swallows the starry dome, and deathly mist obscures the sun and moon, there shall be light in this world."

As the text of the prologue continuously transformed into golden light permeating Shu Yan's domain.

Amidst the golden light, the Holy Legion from the novel "Demon Extermination" formed ranks and emerged.

They wore platinum battle armor engraved with ancient holy runes, every line flowing with scorching purification power.

The warriors held light-forged long spears, their tips burning with eternal fire; wherever the light shone, all things revived.

Mountains and rivers rose from the ground.

The golden light continued to surge; ancient characters on the pages floated into the air like living creatures, transforming into burning inscriptions hanging in the sky canopy.

Every character weighed as heavy as a mountain range, every stroke containing absolute suppression over evil demons.

The laws within Shu Yan's domain were rapidly rewritten; the air, saturated with holy power, condensed into liquid light, and the earth was paved with gilded holy rune formation diagrams.

The first figure to step out from the golden light was the Holy Flame Avatar of the protagonist of "Demon Extermination."

He wore Huangji Battle Armor forged from demon-exorcising light, his shoulder guards inlaid with Evil-Breaking Crystals; with every step he took, ripples of light were triggered within the domain.

On the thousand-zhang light wings unfolding behind him pulsed the "True Mantra of Demon Exorcism" recorded in the world of "Demon Extermination."

Following closely was the Holy Radiance Demon-Extermination Group.

They recited oaths with justice as their bone and faith as their blood as they appeared, mounted on Holy Light Pegasi and holding Spears of Judgment.

At this moment, the sound of chime bells rang out from the sky, and thirty-six Heaven-Patrolling Holy Statues descended from the golden light.

These war weapons that suppressed evil demons in "Demon Extermination" were rapidly materialized.

At the very front of the legion, twelve six-winged holy statues slowly unfolded their light feathers; as their wings spread, holy hymns echoed through heaven and earth, the sound waves spreading like solid matter.

A line of text immediately floated up on the Rule Book: "Extreme yin entities must be suppressed by extreme yang."

As the voice fell, the Holy Legion shouted in unison; their battle formation advanced like a torrent, standing ready at the edge of the domain.

Based on the life aura of the Mingwu Clan detected by perception, Shu Yan selected a legion that countered extreme yin power, preparing to welcome the impending cross-world war.

The entire Shu Yan domain had now transformed into the materialized barrier of the "Demon Extermination" novel; those warriors, weapons, and holy traces emerging with the golden light all carried special attack attributes targeting extreme yin existences.

The birth of the Inspiration World granted Shu Yan countless stories.

Every page of the Rule Book bore a legion system; one only needed to flip the page to rapidly switch and generate them.

Shu Yan, who initially could barely fight the Ascension Clan, had today grown to a new height.

If not for the arrival of the Mingwu Clan, the defeat of the Ascension Clan was already sealed.

The current Shu Yan was like a librarian standing upon the annals of war history.

A casual flip of a page was the thunder of civilization's succession; whenever a chapter opened, a new era would be born within the ink of the old era not yet dry.

Those armies and seas of stars solidified between the lines, amidst the gentle breeze raised by turning pages, rapidly transformed into concrete storms sweeping through the domain.

Wars with the Ascension Clan in the past were also like this.

Every tremor of the book pages resembled a universe reboot.

The hero wielding a sword in the previous story still maintained the afterimage of a charge, yet the mech legion of the next page had already broken out of its cocoon from the story chapter whose ink was not yet dry.

Those civilizations imprisoned by words, using the Zhi, Bi, and Shu created by Shu Yan as their stage, vied to enact glorious chapters in the intervals of page-turning, connecting into epic stories capable of swallowing mountains and rivers.

And the binding thread of the Rule Book was the rift dividing parallel worlds.

At this moment, facing the invasion of the Mingwu Clan, whose strength exceeded that of the Ascension Clan, Shu Yan felt no fear in its heart, only surging battle intent.

Since the day it gained consciousness, it had been the Heavenly Dao of a small world, ruling over the cycle and succession of all things.

One thought could burn the heavens; one thought could capsize the seas.

But ultimately, it was only the Heavenly Dao of a small world.

Choosing to come here, its goal was to become the Heavenly Dao of the Monster World, once again rising above billions upon billions of races.

Having once been the Heavenly Dao, it shall be the Heavenly Dao again.

Facing the invasion of the Mingwu Clan, both the Ascension Clan and Shu Yan had made preparations to confront the impact head-on.

The confrontation between the three forces was about to unfold.

Qi Sheng, observing from the shadows, upon seeing the great battle about to begin, believed that the Ascension Clan and Shu Yan would inevitably defend their territories, resisting the Mingwu Clan's incursions in separate regions.

During this period, the two forces would not infringe upon each other.

This was not an alliance, but the wisest choice when facing a powerful enemy.

Each would bear the pressure from the Mingwu Clan on different front lines.

The first round of tentative collision between the three forces began with the Mingwu Clan's vanguard legion attacking the Ascension Island, and the opening of Shu Yan's domain.

In Qi Sheng's mind, data information provided by the Guide immediately floated up.

Among these three forces, the one with the most perfect legion system was Shu Yan; the Rule Book it controlled was like a vault freezing civilization embryos.

It could switch legion systems at any time, optimizing war strength.

But at the level of war systems, the Mingwu Clan completely crushed the Ascension Clan and Shu Yan.

Because the Mingwu Clan also mastered the Cultivation Mode of gathering strength for battle, allowing Mingwu warriors to explode with terrifying combat power through energy connection and resonance.

Neither side had deployed Half-God Realm combat strength, but in the collision of the vanguard legions, the Mingwu Clan, fighting one against two, still held the advantage.

The Ascension Sea Domain front line.

Millions of Mingwu warriors formed a hexagonal array on the sea surface, the spacing between each unit arranged according to a special formation method.

When the elemental torrent of the Ascension Clan's great army crashed into the formation, all warriors acted simultaneously.

The elemental torrent instantly completed distribution through the entanglement network constructed by the connected Mingwu.

The elemental torrent that should have instantly evaporated large swathes of Mingwu warriors was decomposed into a million shares of minute damage, merely causing a few ripples to rise on the bodies of all Mingwu warriors.

As the battle formation rotated, the Misty Fog Commander at its center waved the banner.

In an instant, the entire legion transformed into a resonant cavity, gathering scattered energy into a single Misty Fog Spiral Cannon that crashed thunderously onto the Ascension Island.

The elemental torrent barrier, the pride of the Ascension Clan, shattered layer by layer like glass under this strike, which combined the power of a million Misty Fog warriors.

This single blow instantly forced the Ascension Clan's top experts to enter the fray.

The Shu Yan Domain front line.

The Sacred Legion's light spears poured down upon the Misty Fog Legion like a rainstorm.

Just as Shu Yan had predicted, the life structure settings of the Sacred Legion possessed traits that countered the Misty Fog Clan's Death Whisper bodies.

However, the advantage gained from this counter was extremely slight.

Under the blessing of the Death Whisper rules, Misty Fog warriors were not essentially undead lifeforms, but rule-based lifeforms.

Only the inherent extreme yin attribute of the Misty Fog Clan itself could be countered; it had no suppressing effect on the Death Whisper bodies.

Whenever a Misty Fog warrior was pierced by holy light, their dissipating death energy was immediately absorbed by comrades behind them, entering the Death Whisper reconstruction phase and spreading across the battlefield as black mist.

For every Misty Fog warrior who died, the power of the other Misty Fog warriors increased by a fraction.

This was precisely the amplification brought by the Misty Fog rules.

It turned the fallen into new energy nodes, making the living warriors burn even more fiercely.

Death Whisper plus Misty Fog; two rules complementing each other, erupting with terrifying combat power.

The inability to die in any true sense meant Misty Fog warriors fought in war without any concerns about consequences.

The frontmost Misty Fog warriors even chose to self-detonate, forcing Shu Yan to reveal stronger combat capabilities.

The resulting Misty Fog storm was not dispersed by the holy light; instead, it contaminated the holy power within the domain.

The second echelon of Misty Fog warriors advanced over the corpse-mist of their comrades; with every step they took, rune power shared by the dead manifested beneath their feet.

Under the relentless bombardment of the Misty Fog Clan, cracks like a spiderweb appeared in the light barrier within Shu Yan's domain.

In areas unseen by both the Ascension Clan and Shu Yan, Qi Sheng also observed.

The energy ripples from the two battlefields were conducting to each other through gray veins beneath the deep sea.

Every elemental torrent impact released by the Ascension Clan, when its intensity exceeded the limit, would conduct to the Shu Yan Domain front line.

This resonance tactic, transcending space, gave the Misty Fog Clan the full capability to fight on two fronts with the strength of a single clan.

The war potential displayed by the Misty Fog Clan already possessed the preliminary framework of the Counter-Black Tide Legion; it was a war system truly tempered by countless battles.

The Guide had once said that the system construction of a war legion was divided into two modes.

The first Cultivation Mode was: nurturing the strong with the weak, fighting with the strong.

This system was essentially an elite centralization war system.

It required concentrating the entire clan's resources to support a few strong individuals, crushing the enemy with absolute individual martial power.

The lower-tier races were responsible for resource gathering and logistical support, the middle-tier warriors filtered out the elite, and the supreme powerhouses at the very top bore the entire civilization's war potential.

Under this system, a single peak powerhouse could constitute an army alone, causing heaven and earth to collapse with a wave of their hand, even deciding the outcome of an entire battle with their personal combat strength.

This Cultivation Mode required sacrificing the weak to raise the ceiling; the weak became nutrients, while the strong devoured the fortune of the entire clan to grow.

Ultimately, it gave birth to war machines that transcended conventional life levels.

The Zerg followed this war system; of all resources plundered by Zerg nodes, the Main Brain kept only a portion, transmitting the rest to the Supreme Main Brain.

As for the Zerg warriors, they were not essentially independent, complete individuals.

They possessed no independent thought but were war forces bred as node extensions of the Supreme Main Brain's power.

One could view the entire Zerg race as a single massive individual.

It was just that the Main Brain in the Emperor Tomb Mountain range was somewhat special; not only did it not need to transmit plundered resources to the Supreme Main Brain, but it could also obtain unlimited resources from the Supreme Main Brain.

Shu Yan's development model was similar to that of the Zerg.

Shu Yan warriors were not essentially independent individuals; they were all extensions of Shu Yan's power and will.

It was just that the current Shu Yan was still too weak, far from reaching the height of the Zerg; it could only optimize legion power but could not optimize the growth potential of combat units by collecting pheromones.

The second Cultivation Mode was the one the Misty Fog Clan was currently using: merging the many into one, defying heaven against the odds.

The core logic was that the weak connected through battle formations, rules, resonance, and other means, erupting with collective combat power far exceeding that of individuals.

Under this system, the weak were not cannon fodder but network nodes of the whole.

Through precise coordination, their power could be superimposed and amplified, thereby triggering a qualitative change.

For instance, under the dual blessing of the Misty Fog Clan's Death Whisper and Misty Fog rules, the power of the fallen would be inherited by the living warriors, creating a snowball effect of growing stronger with every battle.

These two systems could coexist.

The Counter-Black Tide Legion was the perfect template for the coexistence of both systems, combining the characteristics of nurturing the strong with the weak and merging the many into one.

The underlying architecture of the Counter-Black Tide Legion was: the weak as the foundation, supporting the strong. Resource gathering and logistical support were all handled by low-tier races; the Four-Eyed Clan, the Dragon Spine Clan, and the races familiar to players were all members of this logistical support.

It was just that the trainees they saw were all elites filtered out from these lower-tier races.

These lower-tier races did not need to participate directly in war; their survival safety was guaranteed in all aspects, maintaining the operation of the Counter-Black Tide Legion through production, construction, and energy transmission.

Meanwhile, the elite screening mechanism continuously selected talented individuals from the lower tiers.

They were sent to the "Counter-Black Tide Training Camp" for trials, where the superior survived and the inferior were eliminated, ultimately giving birth to true warriors.

At this stage, they could be considered the middle tier.

The middle-tier architecture of Counter-Black Tide was: battle formation resonance, the weak defying the strong.

The battle formation system covered the entire Counter-Black Tide Legion; even the most ordinary warrior could conduct and superimpose their power through the battle formation network, erupting with combat power far exceeding that of an individual.

Therefore, the individual was merely a part of the collective power, with no possibility of becoming cannon fodder.

The high-tier architecture of Counter-Black Tide was: the strong ruling, dominating the battlefield.

Every Legion Commander of the Counter-Black Tide Legion possessed combat strength at the Demi-God Realm, and above them stood Counter-Black Tide God, this peak combat power.

The entire Counter-Black Tide Legion possessed an incompletely perfect war deployment.

From the lower tier to the high tier was a growth channel, not a fixed class.

Even the weakest warrior, as long as they could hold out until the end in high-intensity warfare, could become a powerhouse of the Demi-God Realm.

The Counter-Black Tide Legion had already forged an assembly line for cultivating powerhouses; every living being in the legion had its value.

Powerhouses, elites, and the weak all had clear positioning within this system; none could be missing.

The similarity between the Misty Fog Clan and the Counter-Black Tide Legion lay in the utilization of the weak's power, having individuals contribute strength to the collective through resonance.

But in other aspects, they were far inferior to the Counter-Black Tide Legion.

Precisely because the weak could also provide assistance to war, the Misty Fog Clan had previously followed a pure war-plunder model.

There was no model of logistical support or upward nurturing; they obtained resources to support the entire clan by constantly launching wars, plundering wherever they went.

Shu Yan occupied one of these two models, but was still in the initial stage.

The Ascension Clan occupied neither.

They possessed neither a war system of "defying heaven against the odds" that gathered power, nor a nurturing system of "nurturing the strong with the weak."

They only had an elite cultivation model, and their understanding of war was still relatively shallow.

Placed in a minor world, this system was feasible.

But in the Monster World, where the span of strength intensity was extremely high, the weak could only become cannon fodder, utterly worthless.

Faced with the Misty Fog Clan, a war machine tempered by countless battles, the Ascension Clan suffered a one-sided collapse.

Shu Yan could at least gain a slight advantage in war structure by changing systems, whereas the Ascension Clan was at a disadvantage in every aspect: numbers, war Cultivation Mode, system counters, and so on.

In the initial clash, the Ascension Clan could only dispatch their clan's powerhouses to take the lead.

At this preliminary contact stage of the war, Qi Sheng could roughly judge the future trend.

There were only two paths left for the Ascension Clan.

Abandon their clan lands and breeding farm worlds, even the resources stored on the islands, and flee into the outer seas.

Or march toward destruction under the Misty Fog torrent.

As for Shu Yan, Qi Sheng always felt it was a small faction with great potential.

From being the disadvantaged party back then, it had now become the dominant party suppressing the Ascension Clan, plus it possessed the Inspiration World, a base with a perfect system.

In terms of future potential, it was even stronger than the Misty Fog Clan.

Although Shu Yan followed a war path of sustaining war through war, pursuing breakthroughs in desperate situations, it was not foolish.

It was only after failing to resist the Black Black Tide back then that it jumped to the Ascension Sea Region to seek development.

If it could not defeat the Misty Fog Clan, Shu Yan would very likely close its book again and flee, changing to a new region to fight.

When Shu Yan chose the Ascension Clan as its challenge target back then, it seemed rash, but in reality, it had already investigated relevant information about the Ascension Clan, even penetrating into the Ascension Clan's breeding farm worlds.

It only initiated war against the Ascension Clan when it believed it had a chance of success.

By not leaving temporarily, Shu Yan was obviously also testing the war potential of the Misty Fog Clan, searching for any possibility of a fight.

As long as Shu Yan found a plan for a protracted war, it would rapidly grow by absorbing the nutrients of the Misty Fog Clan, just as it did against the Ascension Clan back then.

If Shu Yan truly withstood the pressure, the "Ascension Clan," the great villain in the Rule Book stories, would then become the Misty Fog Clan.

News of the three-way great war quickly spread to the player forums.

Players had three great hobbies: eating melon (watching drama), picking up leaks (scavenging), and bumping into opportunities.

Facing such an important major event, players from all walks of life set sail overseas, and war correspondents quickly activated their live commentary Cultivation Mode.

In the eyes of other races, this was a battle for the rise and continuation of civilization.

But in the eyes of players, this was a delicious piece of melon (drama); ideally, it would be fought until rivers of blood flowed.

The more intense, the better; absolutely do not stop.

Some players even formed battlefield scavenging groups to move out, wanting to get a share of the pie amidst the chaotic situation.

The players of now were long no longer the weak players who could only watch the confrontation between the Ascension Clan and Shu Yan while hiding in the domain mist to lie low and scavenge.

The players in the first echelon already possessed the strength to join the fray.

Although they could not contend head-on with the three factions, the players had never intended to fight directly; scavenging relied on the principle that when the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman profits.

Finishing off low-health targets, scavenging the battlefield, stealing kills amidst chaos... this was where the joy of scavenger players lay.

The more chaotic it became, the more profitable it was.

During this period, the number of inlays within the Oath Space increased dramatically.

Because this Soul Skill could be called a divine artifact for battlefield scavenging.

A large number of Assassin Flow and Arena Faction players equipped and used it, then headed to the battlefield to seek low-health targets.

Especially for Assassin Flow players, who previously had to worry during surprise beheading attacks about whether they could kill the target and escape unscathed afterward.

But with the Oath Space, this problem no longer needed worrying about.

With the support of the newly launched "Quantification" rule, who was low on health was obvious at a glance.

One only needed to quickly close the distance, activate the Oath Space to forcibly drag the low-health target into an independent space, and then it was harvest time.

As for whether one would be ambushed and killed after emerging, this problem also did not need worrying about.

In the chaotic battle situation, combat units from all sides were moving every minute and every second; even if their own members disappeared, it was impossible to camp and wait.

After ending the battle, Assassin Flow players returning to the battlefield only needed to activate Twilight Shadow, enter stealth form, and search for the next low-health target.

The only thing that gave players a headache was the direction of the main front; some warriors of the Mingwu Clan possessed a damage-sharing characteristic similar to a life link.

This made it very difficult to find low-health targets on the main front, forcing them to abandon the most fiercely contested main front and choose other battle lines to scavenge.

Mingwu Warriors, Shuyan Warriors, Ascended Warriors... these were all scavenging targets in the players' eyes.

To quote a certain Assassin Flow player on the forum: "As long as you're low on health, you belong to me to kill!"

This was also the reason players liked chaotic situations.

Besides low-health units, weapons and equipment lost in the sea during war, as well as the wreckage of war machines floating on the sea, were also part of the profits.

The arrival of war allowed many players to see an opportunity to become wealthy.

The great battle continued, but it was far too early to determine a winner.

Paying no excessive attention to the sea battlefield where the three factions were locked in a melee, Qi Sheng's gaze rapidly ascended, piercing through the cloud layer to return to the map interface.

His gaze then shifted toward the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range region on the map.

His perspective descended through the thick black mist in an overhead view, landing on the platform of the Evil Eye Tower.

The Nian Evil Spirit and the Evil Eye were like two mascots, forever staying in this small patch of land, only observing the outside world through perception.

[Boss, it seems we are too.]

Qi Sheng: ...

At this moment, three allied warbands were simultaneously launching yet another charge against the Evil Eye Tower.

Perseverance was not the players' nature; the reason was the ability to gain Sacrificial Power profits.

Fundamentally, failure had never knocked the players down because every failure also resulted in Sacrificial Power being credited.

Facing the assault of three player legions, the Nian Bully combined with the Evil Eye and activated combat command Cultivation Mode.

In the blink of an eye, the black mist surrounding the tower surged and swept across the land, raining down evil spirits like drops of rain.

After the tactical upgrade, the level of disgust the Nian Bully inspired in the players' eyes had increased again.

Especially the newly debuted Demon Seed Legion (Black Tide of Pain).

Players suspected this was a new evil spirit troop type created by the Nian Bully specifically to disgust them.

Although its lethality was not strong, it possessed the ability to inflict continuous painful emotions upon targets.

Despair, pain, sorrow, anger... the Demon Seed Legion was a existence even more beastly than calamity-type troops in the players' eyes.

Although the influence of emotions would be completely erased by the purification system after the player died, leaving not a trace of negative emotion even upon recollection, the combat process itself was incredibly torturous.

The stacking of various emotions doubled the players' suffering.

Originally, the Black Tide of Pain tactic was still somewhat bearable.

Although emotional damage was terrifying, the players themselves had a mental safety line.

As long as they gritted their teeth and endured the early torment, they could trigger the protection of the purification system and completely exempt themselves from the pain brought by emotional damage.

It was like the fatigue felt during a long-distance run; as long as one broke through the extreme point, one could instantly feel relaxed.

But the most terrifying aspect of the Nian Bully was that it would collect war data and then improve its combat plans.

It would make mistakes, but it would not continue making them.

After observing that the players had a "pain overload" that completely neutralized emotional damage, the Nian Bully initiated pain testing experiments.

It conducted detailed observations using different players as reference targets.

Eventually, it found the safety threshold line for player pain.

It discovered that as long as the threshold was not touched, the pain inflicted upon the players could persist continuously.

The next step was for the Nian Bully to weaken the output intensity of the Demon Seed Legion.

It did not seek to bring players extreme pain; what it wanted was a steady, enduring flow.

As long as players came to attack, they would have to endure unceasing pain.

In response, the players cursed loudly, angrily denouncing the Nian Bully as too disgusting, asking what difference this behavior had from that of a beast.

It had already fought against hundreds of factions.

In the eyes of other races, killing efficiency was always one of the highest priorities in war.

But in the eyes of the Nian Bully, it was different; knowing the players could not be killed off completely, it would rather sacrifice output efficiency to make "disgust" the top priority.

Abandoning the method of killing players through emotional shocks, it aimed to make players feel continuous assaults of pain.

This was also one of the reasons why, in the players' eyes, no other faction was as terrifying as the Nian Bully.

The beastly bully truly had a "Player Strategy Guide."

And it was a strategy manual that updated synchronously with the development of the player faction.

No matter what the players had, the Nian Bully could always quickly find a counter-plan.

While both sides felt the other was disgusting, their mindsets were actually quite similar.

In the players' eyes, they were the chosen ones of this Monster World game, born with cheats and destined to rule this world.

The monsters in the novice village should be easy to kill, provide reasonable profit yields, and help newcomers grow quickly.

As a result, they had actually been entangled with a novice village boss for two years and still hadn't won.

What kind of shitty monster was this? Its strength was too overpowered.

Only the two words "disgusting" could most aptly describe the growth of the Nian Bully.

Looking at the mindset of the Nian Bully, it was the same.

In its own eyes, it was a member of the Black Black Tide Legion that devoured myriad worlds, born to bring death and destruction to countless worlds as a calamity.

As one of the strongest new-generation evil spirits to graduate from the Abyss Trial, pride was carved into its bones.

Although it knew the Monster World was vast and boundless, containing countless terrifying lives and powerful clans.

The player clan was merely its first small goal upon entering the Monster World; it should have been easily crushed, allowing it to begin climbing to the peak of the Monster World and embark on the peak path of contending with various powerful clans.

Yet it never expected that after so much time had passed, it was still fighting players.

It was simply endless.

This first threshold, it had crossed countless times, yet stubbornly could not cross it.

Its own abilities were improving, the Black Black Tide's intensity was improving, the Evil Eye's perception and calculation capabilities were improving... but the opponents were still that bunch of beastly players.

Every time the Black Black Tide's intensity increased, there was absolutely no sense of accomplishment.

Because the moment the increase happened, it knew the opponents were still the same group, with no change whatsoever.

Compared to the evil spirit warrior stage before taking command, as its strength grew, it would go on to challenge stronger opponents in minor worlds.

Killing opponents that were once difficult to defeat brought it a full sense of accomplishment.

Different levels of strength would have different opponents.

But in the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range region, when the controlled Black Black Tide's intensity was at the First Palace, it fought against idiotic players; now that it had advanced to the Ninth Palace, it was still fighting against idiotic players.

So, the increase in strength was for nothing.

Disgusting, disgustingly bad!

Both sides felt the other was unreasonably strong, believing there was a problem with this setting.

In the players' eyes, a novice village boss should not have this level of strength; the officials should have nerfed it long ago.

In the Nian Eye's eyes, this was its first battle as a command-type evil spirit; the Monarch should have assigned it a reasonable growth environment, just like Ghost Tooth, Iron Spine, and Blood Vein, whose growth followed a gradual process.

Instead, what it encountered was some heaven-defying monster.

Being difficult to deal with was one thing, but there was absolutely no resource output; every war resulted in negative profits.

Even winning brought only negative emotions.

Especially within the player clan, there was a commander even stronger than the Evil Eye.

Was this an opponent a newcomer commander could handle?

Fight your mother!

Every time it compared its starting treatment to that of other allies, the Nian Bully would feel incredibly stifled.

There was a sentence in its heart it had to spit out:

Idiotic Monarch, where the hell have you sent me? Fight your mother!

(End of Chapter)