[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-monsters-are-coming":3,"chapter-the-monsters-are-coming-monsters-are-coming-chapter-338":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Monsters Are Coming",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2250187,4069,"Chapter 338: Burial Stele for All Realms, Multitasking (Requesting Monthly Votes)","monsters-are-coming-chapter-338",338,"\u003Cp>Another great war had ended.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yin winds howled across the scarred battlefield, emitting a mournful wail.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bright crimson moonlight pierced the thin black mist, draping a veil of blood-red gauze over this deathly silent battlefield.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the platform of the Evil Eye Tower, Di Nian Evil Spirit's laughter continued.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It slowly raised its right arm, watching the crimson moonlight winding around its battle armor; no longer the sickly dark red of the waning moon of the past, but the bewitching red unique to the first quarter moon, moving across the surface like a living creature.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Finally waited for this.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its five fingers suddenly clenched, crushing a wisp of moonlight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Countless fragments of memory flashed back in Di Nian Evil Spirit's mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Player Clan's mockery, oppression, and humiliation... this was undoubtedly a difficult period.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If not for the subsequent establishment of the Evil Spirit Alliance and the acquisition of external resource support, it clearly could not have overcome this hurdle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The struggle during the Waning Moon Stage was like an unbearable winter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But at this moment, a power it was nearly unfamiliar with drifted in the air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spreading its arms, Di Nian Evil Spirit felt the dense Black Black Tide particles in the air; its mood was like a thawing ice river, finally awaiting the spring flood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Taking a deep breath, it let Black Black Tide particles fill its chest cavity, every muscle resonating and trembling under the wash of energy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The suppressed sense of humiliation from the past now spread across its tongue like sweet poisonous wine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It finally tasted the gift of waiting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The days and nights of lying low during the Waning Moon Stage, the shame and anger of every time its Turtle Tactics were mocked, were all compensated twofold in the brilliance of the First Quarter Moon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It suddenly realized that pain could also ferment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The nausea forcibly swallowed had, through the cellaring of time, brewed into the richest joy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The corners of its mouth silently split open beneath its dark red eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was the instinctive pleasure of a predator finally waiting for its prey to step into a trap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those years shackled by the Waning Moon seemed like a layer of withered old skin peeling away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He felt reborn.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Boss Di Nian, congratulations. The environment you are currently in has the strongest lunar phase; let the upcoming plundering war center on your node.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Haha, finally bitterness ends and sweetness begins. At the current stage, the Player Clan is no longer a threat; it is time to sing loudly and charge forward to begin expansion...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The voices of Ghost Tooth and other allied evil spirits rang out in its mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Di Nian Evil Spirit smiled and nodded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After forming the alliance, their expansion strategy prioritized efficiency.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among these, the lunar phase was the most important reference indicator; the stronger the lunar phase, the greater the amplification the Black Black Tide received.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Selecting environments with high lunar phases to launch plundering operations allowed for higher efficiency in using Black Black Tide energy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It could also generate stronger Evil Influence troop types under the same consumption.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Crimson moonlight poured down like a waterfall; the base of the Evil Eye Tower began to tremble, extending black fangs toward the sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Black Black Tide surrounding the tower boiled and surged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, four pitch-black pillars of light tearing through heaven and earth ripped apart the firmament, descending via the Evil Moon as a relay, weaving together on the platform atop the tower into four domineering projections of evil spirits, standing suspended on either side of Di Nian Evil Spirit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Blood Pattern, Ghost Tooth, Iron Spine, Rotten Heart—the four War Gods of the Bully Alliance, as known by the players, arrived simultaneously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Boss Di Nian, fortune turns with the times; congratulations again,\" Ghost Tooth's hoarse voice came.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The First Quarter Moon hangs high; the Black Black Tide shall rise,\" Rotten Heart said with a smile and a nod.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Boss Di Nian, your territory should expand.\" Blood Pattern lightly tapped its finger; a crimson crack spread from beneath its feet toward the Evil Moon, activating resource transmission Cultivation Mode.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Next, we will aid your expansion.\" Iron Spine's declaration was short and loud, like a war hammer striking down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Subsequently, the four evil spirit projections simultaneously raised their hands; behind them, Evil Eye projections appeared, connecting to their bodies, releasing beams that connected with the Evil Moon in the sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Black Black Tide energy, like a surging River of Nether, passed through the Evil Moon as a relay, transforming into four pitch-black torrents that crashed into Di Nian Evil Spirit's tower.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Boom!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The tower trembled violently; every rune on the tower body lit up with blinding crimson light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The energy level of the Black Black Tide climbed rapidly; the surging power transformed into rings of Black Black Tide ripples spreading outward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Di Nian Evil Spirit did not answer; in the turn of a thought, the endless Black Black Tide surrounding the tower, like a unleashed ferocious beast, pushed westward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Black Black Tide surged, dyeing the long night ink-black.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wherever it passed, the earth corrupted and the sky dimmed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The earth was the first to emit a wail.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The land, which had just regained fertility during the Waning Moon Stage, rapidly lost its color like a receding Black Tide.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fertile black soil faded to a ghastly white; the soft surface layer instantly hardened, then cracked open with countless spiderweb-like patterns.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thick black mist seeped from the cracks, like putrid blood flowing from severed vessels after the earth was slashed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Towering trees along the path shook violently; tree bark contacting the Black Black Tide shriveled and curled at a speed visible to the naked eye, swallowed completely in the blink of an eye. Withered leaves not yet fallen carbonized mid-air, turning into black snowflakes that drifted down and merged into the Black Black Tide.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the push speed increased, the Black Black Tide soon crossed the node of the Giant Domain from that time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not long after, it encountered a mountain range blocking the way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Di Nian Evil Spirit adhered to the Black Black Tide's characteristic of not detouring, controlling the Black Black Tide to pounce on the mountain range.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hard rock walls, upon contacting the Black Black Tide, softened like candles, melting at a speed visible to the naked eye like butter under a hot knife.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mountain ridge collapsed first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rocks that had endured wind and frost for millions of years, like sand sculptures meeting water, rapidly shed their surface layers into turbid mud.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Black mist surged into the mountain's fissures; huge cracks spread like a spiderweb.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At mid-mountain, a protruding cliff suddenly slid down as a whole.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But before hitting the ground, it had already disintegrated in mid-air into countless gravel, subsequently transforming into a puff of pitch-black dust.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Waterfalls in the mountain ravines backflowed into their springs; the water flow solidified the instant it touched the Black Black Tide, as if an invisible greedy giant mouth was swallowing the mountain spring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Originally sharp peaks were gnawed away as if by an invisible giant mouth, vaporizing into black mist and merging into the surging Black Black Tide.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The collapse of the entire mountain was neither a sudden crash nor a slow subsidence; it was like throwing a sugar cube into boiling water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only this process was accelerated a thousandfold; in just a few minutes, this once towering mountain range was reduced to a large pit emitting black smoke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Black Black Tide under Di Nian Evil Spirit's control did not stop, continuing to push toward farther directions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the Black Black Tide swept over the city-states established by the Descended Clans, death began to have temperature.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sturdy city walls crumbled crisply like biscuits; defending warriors, still frozen in poses of terror, merged into the Black Black Tide the next second.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The divine statues worshipped day and night within the city revealed their pitiable essence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were merely silent stones, unable to save their believers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The \"God King Statues\" crafted from crystal stones vanished first in the Black Black Tide.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Followed by the collapse of the guardian statues.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This colossal statue, polished smooth and shiny by countless believers' touches, even as its base shattered and it fell, collapsed in the direction of the fleeing believers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The benevolence on its Iron Face, amidst the Black Black Tide's devouring, briefly turned ferocious due to the damage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Black Black Tide soon reached the War God Statue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This majestic statue, pierced all over with various sacrificial weapons, still offered not a shred of resistance, quickly being devoured completely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The priests kneeling before the divine statue in prayer also failed to escape death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Black Black Tide mercilessly swept over the altar, devouring both the divine statue and the believers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There were no divine miracles, no redemption, only the physical process of the stones forging the divine statues returning to their most primitive energy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Di Nian Evil Spirit coldly watched all this, not a ripple stirring in its heart, nor caring how heavy a history this race once possessed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nor how much effort they had expended to come to the Monster World.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Black Black Tide under its control would devour everything equally.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It cared nothing for the acts of faith, courage, and sacrifice enacted within the city-state.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the cries and wails they emitted, they were no different from the moans of wind blowing through ruins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was like watching a boring performance: neither excited nor disgusted, only indifferent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everything was inferior to the jumping feedback information of Black Black Tide energy gains in its mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as humans do not feel guilt for crushing a fallen leaf.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the Black Black Tide completely covered this city-state, Di Nian Evil Spirit's gaze had long looked toward farther distances.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It would not remember what civilization once existed here, nor care how many living beings had lived here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To it, this was merely a piece of scenery on the Black Black Tide's path of advancement, to be forgotten in the blink of an eye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The only things truly capable of making him remember were that bunch of bastards back home.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now, the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range was its stage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If those bastard players dared to come, they must die.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If those bastard insect races dared to come, they too must die.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the current Emperor Tomb Mountain Range, it would set the rules of the game.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Di Nian, the players are coming.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as Di Nian Evil Spirit felt high-spirited, the Evil Eye's voice suddenly rang out in its mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its body subconsciously trembled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Just kidding, they aren't coming. I just wanted to test whether your inner feelings toward the players have changed during the First Quarter Moon Stage... Proof shows the stress response still hasn't disappeared.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You spicy-numbing @#$%&.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, the Earth Chant Evil Spirit, who was manipulating the Black Black Tide's advance, felt an impulse to turn around and punch the Evil Eye into smithereens.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This broken eye is simply defying the heavens.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Black Black Tide continued surging westward, turning everything in its path to void.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This gluttonous feast encountered an obstacle two days later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a desolate plain; within the Earth Chant Evil Spirit's perception, a forest of steles stretching beyond the horizon appeared.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The gray-white stone steles stood like withered bones, each displaying a rough texture eroded by time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some steles leaned at angles, others were already fractured, yet all stubbornly took root in the cracked soil.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The stele surfaces were carved with unfamiliar scripts, and stains of different colors had settled within the engraving grooves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no wind on the plain, yet faint sobs echoed between the steles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As perception swept across, a blurred silhouette curled up inside every tombstone, each with a different form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The deeper one went, the stranger the shapes of the steles became.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some steles were wrapped in rusted iron chains, with broken teeth hanging from the links.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Others were covered in scratch marks left by fingernails, the deepest groove nearly splitting the stone in half.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still others had strange sacrificial offerings piled upon their bases.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The perspective of perception swiftly swept past, arriving at the very center of the stele forest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Here stood seven colossal stone pillars, their surfaces densely covered with inscriptions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A hunched figure sat cross-legged in the center of the stele forest, holding a bone lantern in his left hand, inside which the faces of living beings from various races could be seen flickering.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"An aura of Rules?!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Earth Chant Evil Spirit focused its gaze on the lantern held by the elderly figure, speaking with confusion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Correct, it is Rules. Based on the environment and the information dissipating from the tombstones, I can roughly judge this to be a power of Rules possessing the trait of devouring other civilizations. It seems to bury those civilizations through some special method to achieve a logical framework of Rules, causing that civilization to appear within the stele forest in the form of tombstones, transforming into a trait capable of providing it with power.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having spoken, the Evil Eye initiated a more detailed analysis.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Invisible waves of perception spread out from the Black Black Tide as a starting point, sweeping over the entire stele forest like ripples.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instantly, dense energy meridians surfaced on the layer of every stele, each tombstone acting as an energy node.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those stains settled in the carving grooves were, in fact, refined dregs of civilizations condensed by Rules.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dark red represented killing intent tempered by the fires of war, ink green signified decay from natural demise, and deep brown embodied madness bred within destruction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The internal structure of the steles materialized completely within the Earth Chant Evil Spirit's mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Layer upon layer of memory lattices compressed information from civilizations of different eras like a thousand-layer cake.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire stele forest resembled a vast formation, with the seven giant pillars at its center serving as the formation eyes; from the bottom extended energy conduits like a spiderweb, converging three hundred meters underground into a massive consciousness aggregate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this was not a living being; rather, it was more like a deformed fusion of the dying wills of countless civilizations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And this special creature was connected to the Rule Lantern held in the elderly figure's hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scene revealed by the analysis reminded the Earth Chant Evil Spirit of the Bastard Player Clan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They too possessed similar abilities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By contacting Primordial Monsters, they could acquire the power traits of those Primordial Monsters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What stood before them, however, involved containing destroyed civilizations to acquire the powers those civilizations once possessed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this faction clearly could not be compared to the Bastard Players.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since much of the information was interfered with by Rules, the Evil Eye could only roughly deduce the characteristics of this faction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its method of combat should involve using tombstones as Rule nodes to awaken the refined powers of civilizations destroyed in the past to join the battle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This model could be called invincible in other worlds; as the Rules devoured more and more embers of civilizations, it could summon the forces of lost civilizations to fight simply by raising a hand through the tombstones.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But in the Monster World, the importance of mechanisms and potential far surpassed the quantity of fighting forces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how many miscellaneous troops were contained, they were ultimately just miscellaneous troops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the eyes of the Earth Chant Evil Spirit, this faction was simply natural nourishment for the Black Black Tide.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unable to investigate this faction's combat strength in detail, it decided to directly engage in exploratory contact.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the blink of a thought, evil spirits rapidly generated within the black mist, falling upon the stele forest like raindrops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Boom!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the tentacles of the Black Black Tide touched the edge of the stele forest, the entire plain suddenly trembled violently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The hunched, elderly figure sitting cross-legged in the center of the stele forest slowly raised his head, then lifted the lantern in his left hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In that instant, the carving grooves on the surface of every tombstone lit up simultaneously, and the stains transformed into viscous liquid that began to flow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Rule energy dormant within the steles was activated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Crack!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first tombstone exploded, its fragments fusing in mid-air into a figure composed of bronze and fire; with every step it took through the air, it left behind burning footprints resembling molten lava.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its head was a bronze mirror covered in inscriptions, the mirror's surface reflecting the lingering shadow of a long-extinct civilization.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Immediately after, the second tombstone shattered, and a mechanical giant composed of gears and steam formed from the fused wreckage of the broken stele; thirty-six interlocking brass gears rotated within its chest cavity, and countless miniature factory phantoms floated in the steam it exhaled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The third tombstone, covered in claw marks, cracked in quick succession; flying gravel reconstructed themselves, gradually condensing into a figure clad in feathered robes, shaped like a sacrificial priest.\u003C\u002Fp>",2839,"2026-06-19T09:20:37.851Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","1228dabbf6654b7881e697db10d7445f3b7023dea4ae792af34c9155270ae9e6","monsters-are-coming-chapter-339","monsters-are-coming-chapter-337",393,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fmonsters-are-coming-cover.jpg"]