Chapter 355: Stop, You Wretch! The Mindset Explodes

Monster World, the Broken Sand Halberd.

A figure, wrapped in thunderous fury, darted swiftly through the swarm of monsters.

Just before a monster could strike, the figure always sensed the attack's trajectory in advance and dodged with speed.

With a raised hand, a fierce wind fused with surging thunder power roared and swept forth.

And this figure was none other than Brother Ming Hou.

At this moment, he was locked in a fierce battle.

He had barely left behind some guiding information when the Fate Book, unable to wait, descended upon Earth according to his fate's trajectory.

Sand grains trembled and rattled within the thunderous fury; Brother Ming Hou's silver-white hair, already soaked in monster blood, still danced wildly in the wind and sand.

Continuous high-intensity combat left no time to swallow potions.

The thunderous fury swirling around him had dimmed; of the twelve wind pillars released just moments ago, only three remained spinning and cutting.

Just then, to tear through the cluster defense wall of the "Sand Prison Worms," his spiritual power had already reached its limit.

No sooner had he broken free than he was besieged by an even stronger horde of monsters.

Such is the Monster World; even in barren lands, countless powerful monsters lie in ambush.

Feeling waves of dizziness brought on by the exhaustion of his spiritual power, even his breath carried the scent of burning.

Yet the movements of his hands did not cease in the slightest.

Raising a hand, he released spiritual power to stabilize the thunderous fury tornado on the verge of dispersal, then condensed a thunderous fury drill with his right hand, piercing precisely into the eye socket of the "Crystal-Armored Sand Lion" ahead.

Immediately, a deafening roar erupted beside his ears, and the massive body of the Crystal-Armored Sand Lion crashed to the ground with a boom.

But the horde of monsters ahead surged forward like a tide.

Every Crystal-Armored Sand Lion bore crystallized wings, flying at incredible speeds, leaving no room to dodge.

Brother Ming Hou let out a low shout and chose to charge directly into the monster tide.

Thunderous fury exploded around him, weaving silver and blue flames; each collision tore apart several monsters.

Yet more claws and fangs still breached the thunderous fury defense swirling around him.

A Sand Lion's tail stinger sliced through his shoulder blade, while below, the crystallized insects born alongside the Sand Lion spat acid that corroded his lower leg.

Just then, a Sand Lion with a hunting grade of 48 rushed forward swiftly, slamming hard into his chest.

The sound of bones shattering was clearly audible; Brother Ming Hou was sent flying like a severed kite, crashing into the rock wall below.

He opened his mouth, coughing up a mouthful of blood foam; his vision began to blur, yet his heart held no fear.

Immediately, he mobilized the scant spiritual power remaining within him, causing the thunderous fury to accumulate and surge within his body.

"If you want to eat me, see if you have the stomach for it."

Under extreme compression, the two energies emitted a piercing hum as they fused; the silver-blue flames no longer exploded outward but seemed gripped by an invisible hand, gathering along the veins toward the heart.

Using his heart as the fusion point, Brother Ming Hou converted all his spiritual power into thunderous fury and suddenly raised his head.

His gaze locked onto the direction from which the Sand Lion horde was pouncing.

"For me, explode!"

As his words fell, his body transformed into a brilliant light projectile.

The silver-blue thunderous fury broke free from the bonds of flesh and blood; the shockwave it unleashed plowed a circular trench several li wide across the sand, and the monsters that had rushed close were torn apart by the intense light before they could even scream.

The hard crystal armor of the Sand Lion Lord melted like butter in the raging thunderous fury.

It tried to block with its claws, but the thunderous fury drilled into the gaps between its claws and ground its bones to dust.

When the wind and sand cleared, only a charred deep pit remained on the earth.

One hour later, at the spatial node of the Broken Sand Halberd.

Brother Ming Hou's figure appeared alongside a flash of Bai Guang.

His first exploration of the Monster World as a player ended so lightly, as if brushed aside.

He looked down at his intact palm; the tearing, excruciating pain in his chest seemed to linger in his nerve endings.

Death was no longer an end for him, merely a brief wait before setting out again.

Once honored as a Fate Lord, yet every exploration outside had been like walking on thin ice.

Though the power of the Ban Shen Jing realm was strong, one still had to constantly dread potential fatal traps from the outside.

The Monster World, as a whole environment, has always been a case where one mountain towers over another.

Even a Ban Shen Jing could be ambushed and slain by unknown dangers.

And death meant that a lifetime of cultivation and effort would be wasted, and that one's fate trajectory would be utterly severed.

Back then, even when facing opponents weaker than himself, he had to proceed with extreme caution.

He dared not take any risky actions.

But now, the destruction of the body was no longer a concern.

Feeling his vitality restored to its original state, Brother Ming Hou felt his heart and mind suddenly open up.

This was the confidence of being a player; even death could be used as a bargaining chip.

In this Monster World, what was there he dared not venture into?

At this moment, the equivalent-betting merchant who once hesitated and paused before unknown risks vanished completely with the self-explosion of the Broken Sand Halberd.

Now, reborn within the Bai Guang, was a player who dared to turn his body into a weapon, dared to trade death for victory, and dared to calmly start anew after destruction.

He turned and walked toward the teleportation center, his steps light as if he had shed a thousand-pound yoke.

Through teleportation, Brother Ming Hou's figure appeared in the central square of Di Zhong Village.

Unlike the shabby environment of the Broken Sand Halberd spatial node, the scene in Di Zhong Village was incredibly bustling.

Everywhere were figures of players from different races, and the spiritual energy content in the air had increased by more than tenfold.

Various strangely shaped vehicles roamed unchecked throughout this city.

Brother Ming Hou summoned the map, confirmed his location, and walked straight toward the vehicle factory.

Next, he planned to craft a simple flying vehicle for himself.

Although controlling the evil wind to fly is convenient, it requires continuous consumption of mental energy during flight.

With the limited speed of mental energy recovery in the early stages, the importance of a vehicle cannot be replaced by abilities.

Before long, he arrived at the vehicle processing factory.

Entering the space, he selected the popular "Hoverboard" vehicle template from the forum and consumed Shou Shou Jili to generate it directly.

After completing the vehicle's creation, Brother Ming Hou went to the Cultivation Tower and consumed Shou Shou Jili again to embed a Spirit-grade Cultivation Combat Technique.

With the combat technique's support, the Body Tempering level only needs to consume Shou Shou Jili to grow 24 hours a day, saving Shou Shou Jili expenditure on Body Tempering level upgrades.

After finishing all this, Brother Ming Hou's next target was the Pet Shop.

Before entering the game, he had carefully reviewed the data on various growth-type pets and the analysis posts by strategy-focused players on the forum.

He, who had once been an equivalent-traveling merchant, walked the world.

After seeing the introduction information for the Treasure-Seeking Rat, he had already determined it was the pet he would cultivate in the future.

The Treasure-Seeking Rat's "Spiritual Perception" talent was simply custom-made for him.

In the future, traveling the world, whether venturing deep into dangerous lands or exploring those forgotten ancient clan ruins, having the Treasure-Seeking Rat by his side would bring unexpected surprises.

The prompt for successful adoption rang in his mind, and Brother Ming Hou turned and left the Pet Shop space.

The next stop was the crafting of Rune Resonance weapons.

He planned to forge a weapon similar to the Scepter of Fate for himself, allowing his abilities to release with doubled power under the bonus of a Rune Resonance weapon.

During this time, the prompt for successful sales on the Trading Hall kept ringing in his mind.

Resources "gifted" by the Fate Book were continuously being purchased by other players.

After touring the various functional buildings in Beneath Di Zhao Village, the Shou Shou Jili in his spatial bag had not only not decreased but had broken through one million Shou Shou Jili.

Moreover, it continued to grow as the items kept selling.

As for at what price the resources should be sold, he had already thoroughly understood this aspect before entering the game.

He had memorized the item information organized by the Gold Coin Merchant Guild and the "valuation formulas" for different types of items in his mind.

Although he already understood the value of different types of resources.

But before descending to Earth, he knew nothing about the value of resources within the player camp.

It can be said that the valuation system within the player camp has an essential difference from the outside world.

For example, combat resources of the weapon type.

Except for the Rune Resonance weapons produced by their own side, other types of weapons, even the Ban Shen Jing weapons left behind in the hands of a "Great Emperor," are merely transitional weapons in the eyes of players.

They simply cannot be measured by the resource value of the outside world.

If one sacrifices Beneath Di Zhao, the value of the item must be cut in half again.

He, who had once been an equivalent-gaming merchant, knew that trading was an important channel for resource income, so he would not make any mistakes in trading.

Resources can be sold slowly, but never sold cheaply.

The Monster World was not a game in his eyes; for the rest of his life, he would continue to explore it as a player.

If one knows nothing about item prices, one must pay a higher price to buy items or sell precious resources at a low price.

This unnecessary waste, accumulated over time, would cause serious Shou Shou Jili losses.

As the most core channel for player trading, item intelligence information was, in his eyes, more important than most strategies on the forum.

After fully arming himself from head to toe, Brother Ming Hou came to the teleportation point in Beneath Di Zhao Village again.

Entering the teleportation zone, a dynamic map of all space nodes appeared in his mind, which could be swiped with consciousness.

This time, he chose the map "Ground Roar Coast," which was also open for recruitment in this round, as the area for exploration and hunting next.

After a few seconds of waiting, he appeared at the Ground Roar Coast space node.

The situation here was no different from the Broken Sand Halberd space node.

Everywhere were the figures of players returning from resurrection, and Bai Guang kept flashing on the teleportation square, obviously players whose resurrection cooldown had ended returning again.

Just as Brother Ming Hou was preparing to summon the flying skateboard to fly over the heads of novice players.

He suddenly thought that he had played too immersively and had not yet arranged reception matters.

He decisively chose to log off at this moment.

As the countdown ended, Brother Ming Hou's consciousness returned to his physical body.

Just as he stood up, the harsh air environment of Earth made him frown involuntarily.

But he immediately realized something was wrong.

He had already built an energy barrier covering the entire city in the City of Fate; the heavily polluted external air should not have entered the city.

With doubts, he expanded his perception, scanning the City of Fate.

He discovered that inside the city, besides the 32 qualified clan members still lying in the game pods, all other clan members were nowhere to be found.

Even more bizarrely, many buildings inside the city had been destroyed by external force.

Even the energy barrier covering the city had been shattered by external force.

"Not good!"

Brother Ming Hou suddenly realized a possibility.

Half an hour ago.

Earth, 1 AM.

Under the night, the Trading City was like a lurking giant beast, with millions of lights being the scales flashing on its back.

Neon lights were like blood, winding and flowing between high-rise buildings, soaking the entire city in a mottled light mist.

Floating vehicles streamed endlessly along the streets, while virtual figures in holographic billboards tossed electronic confetti into the night sky.

At this moment, on an observation deck atop a building in the Trading City, a figure stood overlooking the city's night view.

The hem of his silver robe was whipped up by the high-altitude night wind, rustling loudly like spread eagle wings.

The staff in his hand rested against the marble floor, the crystal embedded in its head reflecting the city's outline.

A silver mask covered his face, mirroring the shifting neon lights of the city.

The newcomer was the Book of Fate, descended to Earth according to the fate trajectory of Brother Ming Hou.

"That's not right."

The light and shadow on the mask shifted, finally settling on an expression of slight helplessness.

Just now, he had thought there was a problem with the coordinates during the interdimensional teleportation.

After all, the world beneath his feet was far too barren.

It had not even been able to nurture the veins of heaven and earth's spiritual energy.

Thinking of this, he extended his index finger and made a slight slash in the void.

There was no expected ripple of energy, no spatial tremor, only dry, lifeless air flowing through the gaps between his fingers.

This world was as barren as a dried-out skeleton with its marrow drained; it could not even stir the most basic elemental resonance. Here, one could only consume the energy within the body, yet find it difficult to replenish it from the outside.

The panoramic city view reflected in the crystal ball gradually resolved in his eyes.

Those metal boxes streaming endlessly could only float by relying on the most primitive magnetic repulsion, without rune guidance or spiritual energy propulsion.

They moved entirely by the crude physical properties of this world.

The holographic projections between the skyscrapers were merely clumsy techniques of mirage and water moon, not even worthy of being called the lowest-grade illusion arts.

And the carbon-based life forms shuttling through the streets were so weak they lacked even the most basic spiritual meridians, their lifespans as short as mayflies.

Among the billions of worlds in the void, a world that could not even manifest the contours of its rules was a lowest-tier minor world.

Without tides of spiritual energy and without cycles of rules, how could it possibly nurture opportunities to transcend the shackles of life?

It was like a stinking swamp; it could not nurture a true dragon.

He could be certain this was absolutely not the world he sought, and the Dragon Sparrow Fate Lord would never take this world as his future.

Therefore, the teleportation coordinates he had set must have been wrong.

But the problem was, through the rule imprints derived within his body, he had repeatedly compared the trajectory coordinates left by the Dragon Sparrow Fate Lord.

Every spatial node and every dimension marker was precise and error-free.

The void anchor point for the location was indeed locked onto this barren world.

"Could the coordinates left by the Dragon Sparrow Fate Lord themselves be flawed?"

Recalling what the Dragon Sparrow Fate Lord had mentioned at the time: Fate is impermanent, and opportunities are hard to predict.

It decided to swap the order of these coordinates and then perform another interdimensional jump.

In doing so, it would search for the minor world where the Dragon Sparrow Fate Lord resided.

But before doing so, the Book of Fate turned its gaze to the city beneath its feet.

The vast majority of worlds in the void are barren worlds, lacking both life and spiritual energy meridians; the process of searching and jumping would inevitably consume a massive amount of energy.

The spiritual resources carried on his person had all been given to the Dragon Sparrow Fate Lord.

There was no way to replenish energy from them.

Yet, although the world beneath his feet was barren, it at least possessed resources on the material level.

For instance, the energy of blood and qi.

The blood and qi of the billions of living beings in minor worlds could indeed replenish some of the consumption.

He decided to use this world as an energy replenishment station; it would not waste much time.

With his intention clarified, his figure turned into a streak of light and sped toward the depths of the Pacific Ocean.