Chapter 58: Against the Tide

In the north of the Ancient Battlefield lies the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range.

"1, 2, 3... Petrification."

Accompanying Zhou Xiao's shout, his body was quickly coated with a layer of black substance. At that moment, the Blood Corpse's sharp claws struck, slamming onto his shoulder, making his body sink, yet causing no substantial damage.

Seizing the gap in the Blood Corpse's attack, Zhou Xiao decisively canceled the petrification trait, sidestepped the Blood Corpse's close-range pounce and bite, twisted his hips to generate leverage, and delivered a heavy punch that smashed hard into the Blood Corpse's neck.

"Crack!"

A crisp sound of bones shattering rang out, and the Blood Corpse crashed to the ground.

"It worked!"

At this moment, the Blood Corpse was not yet completely dead; its broken neck merely caused the corrosion core within its brain to lose control over its lower body. He immediately seized the time to launch a storm of punches against the Blood Corpse's head.

Several minutes later, Zhou Xiao stopped, panting and collapsing onto the ground.

The fallen Blood Corpse was also at that moment having its flesh and blood energy extracted, turning into black mist that merged with his body.

【Challenger Notice: Killed the evil lifeform Blood Corpse, gained 118 Evolution Points, Shou Shou Jili reward: 23 points】

Just half a day ago, while browsing the forum, he saw a strategy post that mentioned a specific technique for the Painful Painful Minghun's petrification: output glitching.

The video was shot by the poster from another player's combat perspective.

In the footage, a player who chose the initial Gargoyle form utilized the trait of freely activating and deactivating skills to glitch the Blood Corpse's attack intervals for output, successfully killing the Blood Corpse while being four levels lower.

This video shocked Zhou Xiao greatly.

They had both chosen the Gargoyle, but compared to the player in the video, it felt like they weren't playing the same game; he felt like a clumsy hand.

The output glitching technique in the video tutorial also sparked his interest.

After repeatedly watching the video and calculating the attack interval times, he decided to personally try the output glitching combat mode.

The result was gratifying.

After ten minutes of grinding down the health, constantly switching between petrified forms, he successfully broke the Blood Corpse's neck, achieving a solo kill while being two levels lower.

Glancing at the Blood Corpse's remains on the ground, Zhou Xiao felt a full sense of accomplishment.

Before entering the Dark Lands, his favorite games were soul-like games; although the process of challenging the difficulty was painful, the joy brought by every victory afterward made him feel happy.

The Dark Lands, with its perfect simulation, was even more so; the satisfaction of completing a challenge and the reward feedback were simply exhilarating.

After resting for quite a while, Zhou Xiao stood up and decided to find the next hunting target.

Just then, a black shadow suddenly appeared before him, blocking his path.

Focusing his gaze, Zhou Xiao was stunned in his heart:

"God of Wealth?"

Hearing Zhou Xiao call him God of Wealth, Duan Xing remained expressionless, though his heart was incredibly depressed.

He couldn't remember how many times he had heard these mysterious creatures call him God of Wealth.

Every time they met, this group of mysterious creatures would greet him from afar with a familiar expression, wave at him, and then shout: God of Wealth.

After days of observation, Duan Xing discovered he could not find any trace of the shuttle.

By today, he decided to take the initiative.

The mysterious creature whose path he had blocked right in front of him was his target.

"Tell me, where did the shuttle go?"

"Shuttle? What shuttle?"

In the eyes of the mysterious creature who claimed to be a player, Duan Xing saw not a shred of fear. Realizing that intimidation would have no effect whatsoever, his tone softened slightly as he continued coldly:

"The shuttle that arrived with me, where did your people hide it?"

"How would I know where it's hidden? Besides, what does that have to do with me?"

"He is one of your people, so naturally it concerns you." Duan Xing continued coldly.

Hearing this response, Zhou Xiao's face was full of question marks:

"That's unreasonable. Whoever took it, deal with them. I didn't get any of the benefits, so I have to bear joint responsibility for the bad things?"

"As a member of a group, how could you possibly stand aside?"

"God of Wealth, that's unreasonable..." Hearing such bizarre words, Zhou Xiao rolled up his sleeves, adopting a posture as if he must explain the reasoning clearly to him.

Zhou Xiao and Duan Xing finally sat on the ground, engaging in a debate on a wilderness covered in white plants.

Two thoughts from two worlds collided during the argument.

Unlike Earth, the world where Duan Xing resides treats the group as a single unit, where the group's interests are inextricably linked to all its members.

But the players' mindset was different.

During the argument, neither could convince the other. Finally, Duan Xing cut off Zhou Xiao's speech, took out a purple crystal from his chest, and handed it to Zhou Xiao:

"Find the shuttle for me, and I can pay you a reward that will satisfy you."

Through his interaction with Zhou Xiao, Duan Xing discovered that this group was not united internally; members of the group simply did not care about the interests of other members.

He had noticed this point before; this group of self-proclaimed players frequently erupted into internal conflicts, fighting so fiercely that they showed no mercy against their own people, with every move being fatal.

He no longer wanted to argue this issue with Zhou Xiao; he only wanted to find the shuttle as quickly as possible and leave this place.

Zhou Xiao looked down at the purple crystal, and analysis information floated up:

【Name: Purple Soul】

Spirit Mine Grade: 7

Description: A refined crystal containing concentrated soul power, usable for consumption in sacrifices, weaponized vehicle crafting, etc., or can be eaten directly to gain body-forging level growth experience.

Seeing that the God of Wealth was holding a Grade 7 Spirit Mine, Zhou Xiao's eyes went straight.

Since the Dark Lands launched, the highest-grade Spirit Mine players had encountered was Grade 5, which once triggered the first large-scale conflict among players.

Who would have thought the God of Wealth would casually produce a Grade 7 Spirit Mine with a flick of his hand.

But Zhou Xiao did not reach out to take it.

Although this was merely the game world, even if he reneged after obtaining it, he would suffer no loss.

Yet his principle in playing games was not driven by profit; he preferred to treat the game world as a real world, with his own principles and worldview.

A Level 7 Spirit Mine was not enough to make him break his principles.

Thinking this, Zhou Xiao shook his head:

"Sorry, I cannot do it."

"Is my offer insufficient?" Duan Xing frowned slightly.

"You misunderstood. It is not that I disdain the offer as insufficient, but that no matter how much you offer, I cannot do it... If I am not mistaken, the shuttle you mentioned was long ago sacrificed by other players—that is, my clansmen—to Beneath Di Zhao."

"Sacrificed to Beneath Di Zhao?" Hearing the words Beneath Di Zhao, disbelief surfaced in Duan Xing's eyes.

"Your clansmen still worship Beneath Di Zhao?"

"Is there a problem?" Zhou Xiao turned his head to look at Duan Xing.

"Beneath Di Zhao vanished ten thousand years ago. Although He was once the sole faith in the hearts of countless races and factions in the Monster World, in this era, it is already very difficult to find any race or faction that still worships Beneath Di Zhao."

Realizing that his conversation with Duan Xing could reveal part of the worldview, Zhou Xiao immediately became interested:

"Since you do not worship Beneath Di Zhao, whom do you serve?"

"Ni Chao."

"Who is this again?"

Facing the question, Duan Xing subconsciously recalled the scene he had seen when accessing the memory images left by his ancestral warriors before joining the reserves.

In the scene, a towering figure sat upon a Blood Wang Zuo, his face blurred beneath a shroud of crimson energy.

Below the Wang Zuo stood countless solemn warriors of the Ni Chao Legion.

This was Ni Chao, and also the faith in his heart.

Although the memory fragments never clearly revealed Ni Chao's features, Ni Chao's voice remained etched forever in Duan Xing's mind:

"Beneath Di Zhao has dissolved, the Four Gods have fallen; we have completely lost hope of rekindling the fire of Beneath Di Zhao, but I have not given up. I will lead you to continue fighting the Black Tide until we reclaim our homeland... I do not need to inherit Beneath Di Zhao; I will surpass Beneath Di Zhao!"

The domineering declaration of war sparked a response from the warriors below like mountains roaring and seas surging.

Thus, the Ni Chao Legion was born.

The era of Beneath Di Zhao ended; thereafter, Ni Chao became the sole faith in the hearts of the myriad races of their Pale Continent, and becoming a Ni Chao warrior was the dream in his heart.

Considering changing the update time recently.

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(End of this chapter)