Chapter 97: Extra Benefits of the Technical Flow (Requesting Monthly Tickets)

Meng Yuan Chu Altar.

Through the Guide's description, Qi Sheng understood the Serpent Ancestor's origins.

Unlike the status and power of a regional overlord in the Ice Blade region, the Serpent Ancestor was merely the leader of an ordinary clan among the billions of races in the Monster World who worshipped Beneath Di Zhao.

Of course, the Guide did not know the Serpent Ancestor.

As one of the Four Gods, his status was transcendent above the mundane; how could he possibly contact an ordinary clan leader?

This information was obtained by analyzing the content of the murals inside the temple.

Many murals depicted scenes of the Serpent Ancestor kneeling and praying before a mass of scarlet-red flame.

This burning scarlet-red flame represented Beneath Di Zhao.

From the text records on many murals, and from the analysis of the damaged murals, it could be discovered.

The Serpent Ancestor's faith in Beneath Di Zhao was shaken during the corruption of the Black Tide world.

The murals described the Colored Mist Coast suffering under the light of the Evil Moon, where life was devastated, green plants withered on a massive scale, and resources were devoured by rampaging evil spirits.

Countless prayers and sacrificial activities failed to bring the True God down, so the Serpent Ancestor finally decided to attempt to reclaim his homeland through his own efforts.

During this period, the Serpent Ancestor initiated the Blood Trial.

This was the temple trial that many players were currently challenging, screening for warriors with potential and granting them powerful strength to fight against the Black Tide.

What happened afterward could not be extracted from the murals for more information.

But Qi Sheng could foresee the subsequent development.

The Serpent Ancestor led his people in resisting the Black Tide, but it ultimately ended in failure.

This period was obviously also the stage where the Guide and the other four Servants fought fiercely against the Black Tide Demon God.

The Colored Mist Coast, already penetrated by corruption energy, regained vitality after the "Catastrophe War" described by the Evil Eye ended; large scenes occupied by the Evil Moon were shattered, but the Serpent Ancestor and his people were already dead, unable to witness the return of their homeland, leaving only a dilapidated temple standing to this day.

But the trial the Serpent Ancestor set up to screen for potential warriors continued to operate.

Inside the temple, the Guide detected an energy source.

Due to the presence of significant energy impurities, after the Guide's calculation, it could yield approximately 10.864 million Shou Shou Jili after conversion.

However, unlike the energy sources collected by the Ice Blade clan members controlling Iron Shell Beetles, this energy source was sealed with multiple layers of seals and defensive measures; apart from forcibly breaking it open with brute force, it could only be obtained according to the preset program.

Qi Sheng had considered trying to crack it, but unless the main body went there, a player's avatar simply could not break this seal.

So he gave up the idea of extracting the core of this energy mass.

So when players completed the trial, they were actually helping him extract the energy core.

But in terms of energy distribution, he made modifications.

Normally, upon completing the Serpent Ancestor trial, the challenger would receive the Serpent Ancestor's energy feedback, condensing a Serpent Ancestor Mark within their body, which would purify the player's body while simultaneously increasing their growth potential.

But this Serpent Ancestor Mark, in Qi Sheng's view, was utterly useless.

The player's body is constructed from Shou Shou Jili; it is pure inside with no impurities, not to mention that their growth potential has no bottlenecks.

Ordinary creatures in the Monster World face life shackles during their growth that require arduous breakthroughs, but players have no such restrictions.

They only need to acquire enough Evolution Points to increase their Painful Painful Minghun level, allowing their strength to grow.

This single setting alone endowed players with infinite growth potential.

Placing the Serpent Ancestor Mark on a player could only be a decoration, utterly meaningless.

The energy consumption to condense the Serpent Ancestor Mark became a waste.

So he filtered and converted the "Serpent Ancestor Mark" obtained by players after completing the trial, distributing it directly to players in the form of Shou Shou Jili; he deducted a 30% service fee, which was 600 points of Shou Shou Jili, leaving the players with 1400 points of Shou Shou Jili.

When players completed the trial challenge, they were also indirectly extracting the energy core left behind by the Serpent Ancestor for him.

Colored Mist Coast, Serpent Ancestor Temple.

After two days of exploration, Ding Yu, who still had not completed the trial challenge, came to the temple again.

Compared to when the temple was first discovered, the number of players coming to challenge had clearly decreased, and many players gave up decisively after challenging only once or twice.

The reason lay in the difficulty of the trial levels.

To date, only 33 players had successfully passed the challenge; forum players had been crying out hungrily for a long time, yet not a single player had provided a detailed walkthrough guide.

After consecutive setbacks, a large number of players abandoned the torment of challenging the Serpent Ancestor Temple.

But for Ding Yu, the challenge had only just begun.

Entering the temple, he followed the familiar route around the Serpent Ancestor statue and arrived at the first level.

Having already found a convenient route, he jumped forward quickly and calmly; in less than 3 minutes, he crossed the abyss and arrived at the second trial platform.

The difficulty of the second level rose sharply; many players fell at this level and lost the motivation to continue challenging.

But after two days of exploration, Ding Yu had already found some patterns.

The rhythm of the ground spikes appearing did not follow a time pattern; instead, timing began the moment the challenger stepped on them, changing with every step entered, with an attack appearing after a delay of roughly 1 second.

He fell in this level 5 times.

In total, he spent 50 points of Shou Shou Jili to resurrect, plus 25 points of Shou Shou Jili consumed by teleportation.

This expenditure made him feel a sting of pain, but thinking that completing the trial would yield 1400 points of Shou Shou Jili in profit, this expenditure could be fully compensated by the reward.

Dodging, jumping, crouching... his mind remained tense throughout the advance; after narrowly escaping trap attacks several times, he arrived at the third platform at the end.

Ahead was the third level of the temple trial, a maze that switched paths at any moment.

It tested the challenger's observation and judgment; the spirit runes on every wall in the maze differed slightly, and taking a wrong step could lead directly to the trap zone and instant death.

It could be seen that the process of the temple trial was filled with the risk of death.

In Ding Yu's view, the Serpent Ancestor's behavior was not selecting potential warriors; it was simply slaughtering his own clan's juniors.

He did not think deeply about this issue.

It could be understood as the game setting of the Moon Eclipse Clan.

Ding Yu tried this stage four times and had gained some understanding, so he walked without hesitation toward the maze's starting point.

After continuous analysis and judgment, Ding Yu reached the fourth trial platform fifteen minutes later.

The difficulty of the fourth stage rose sharply.

In the challenge area stood a giant circular disc over a hundred meters in diameter, its surface carved with intricate patterns; at its center was a deep recess, seemingly the origin of energy convergence, and whenever a faint glow flickered, the entire disc trembled slightly, as if responding to some call.

Along the disc's edge were twelve evenly spaced doorways, each engraved with a different totem—roaring beasts or flying divine birds—embedded with crystals that shimmered in harmony with the glowing spirit patterns on the disc.

This was Ding Yu's first attempt at this stage.

According to forum players' descriptions, this stage required defeating twelve Illusion monsters, each representing a different attribute.

The monsters were neither physical nor energy constructs, but more like projections.

Their attacks inflicted no real damage; the challenge resembled rock-paper-scissors, requiring the challenger to predict each monster's attribute and stand before the totem that countered it, nullifying the projection's attack.

If the judgment was wrong, a wave of energy would erupt from the disc's center and dissolve the challenger.

It could be understood as the Five Elements' mutual suppression—wood overcomes earth, earth overcomes water, water overcomes fire, fire overcomes metal, metal overcomes wood.

The player must stand at the disc's center and, upon seeing any totem light up, swiftly move to stand before the totem door that countered its attribute.

At first glance, the challenge seemed simple.

The difficulty lay in the fact that, as the challenge progressed, multiple totems would light up simultaneously, forcing the player to rapidly shuttle between different totems, timing their movements to cancel the attacks in rhythm.

Control over movement speed and rhythm was the key to passing this stage.

As for how to determine the totem attribute suppression relationships, the guide had already provided the answer.

Simply memorizing the suppression sequence given in the guide would allow easy judgment.

On his first attempt, Ding Yu failed without suspense.

One hour and twenty minutes later, he returned to the temple to continue his unfinished challenge.

Failure, the Black Room, resurrection, spatial teleportation, continue the challenge… this cycle repeated endlessly; each failure cost him 15 Shou Shou Jili.

Another three days of death loops.

Ding Yu had spent a total of 645 Shou Shou Jili, and finally reached the tenth stage.

The ultimate stage of the temple trial.

Before the platform rose a stone wall extending upward without end; the challenger had to scale the nearly vertical cliff, precisely timing his steps on the extending and retracting stone slabs until reaching the peak of the trial.

During the challenge, sudden crises would erupt—gravity suppression, bone-chilling ice, blazing fire jets, howling storms.

The tenth stage challenge consumed Ding Yu twenty-seven hours, during which he constantly experimented and explored.

He died eleven times in succession before finally reaching the summit.

The moment he stood atop the trial's peak, a beam of light shot from the Serpent Ancestor statue before him and connected with his body.

A challenger notification echoed simultaneously in his mind and the regional channel:

【Challenger Notification (Regional): Congratulations, player "Time of Yu," you have completed the Serpent Ancestor's Trial and received a reward of 1400 Shou Shou Jili.】

The grueling trial was finally complete; Ding Yu stood atop the cliff, arms outstretched, shouting in exhilaration toward the below.

Emotions surged.

The taut nerves of many days released at once; the joy of victory flooded in like a tide.

An indescribable sense of accomplishment rose within him—all his effort and perseverance had been repaid.

Ding Yu's lips curled upward involuntarily; his eyes sparkled with excitement and pride—a validation of his countless falls and unwavering persistence.

At the moment of completion, his heart felt reborn after overcoming himself.

In truth, the rewards from this challenge were modest; he had wasted days of hunting time, dedicating every moment to clearing the trial.

The expended energy, the pain endured, bore no proportion to the gains.

But the sense of accomplishment and joy from completing the challenge was something hunting demons and insect swarms could never provide.

He called up the forum, took a screenshot of the success notification, and posted it on his personal homepage—his first milestone success in the Monster World, worthy of remembrance.

Perhaps to others, his actions seemed utterly foolish.

But this was how he played the game.

It was also why, after Liu Wan Fa emerged, he immediately changed his Star Vein combination to a Liu Wan Fa build.

Low error tolerance wasn't a problem; he believed he could, through countless practice sessions, move as elegantly among insect swarms as the assassin players in the video clips.

Just as he prepared to leave, a connection prompt suddenly popped up.

With curiosity, he accepted the connection.

NurseAlsoCrazy: Bro, I saw your guide before and followed you; just now I saw you updated your profile—congrats on clearing the temple trial! (Envy. jpg)

TimeOfYu: Thank you. What do you need?

NurseAlsoCrazy: qvq I want to clear the temple trial too—can you guide me through it?

Upon hearing the request, Ding Yu decisively shook his head.

He was about to refuse when the next sentence from the other player stunned him:

NurseAlsoCrazy: Bro, please just guide me once—after clearing, I'll give you all the Shou Shou Jili reward after subtracting the resurrection cost.

The player's reply instantly stirred Ding Yu's interest.

After all these days of effort, he had mastered the rhythm and techniques to complete the trial.

But these techniques became useless after completion, since each player could only attempt the trial once—the information was recorded by the Serpent Ancestor statue, making it impossible to farm rewards by repeating it.

Hearing NurseAlsoCrazy's idea, a thought suddenly surged in his mind.

Many players on the forum had abandoned the Serpent Ancestor trial precisely because its difficulty was too high and demanded excessive energy.

Could he, then, earn a percentage fee by guiding others to clear it?

That way, other players wanting to complete the trial could earn Shou Shou Jili, and he could earn extra income using the techniques he'd painstakingly discovered.

With the idea formed, he immediately replied:

Time's Yu: No problem, but I have one request. I cannot guarantee that I can get you through the Temple while carrying you; failure during the process is unavoidable. Since you have decided to let me carry you, you must persist throughout, experiencing failure after failure. But after success, I will not charge you any fees.

Healer Goes Crazy: No problem, thanks, bro!

Time's Yu: Come to the Temple. I'll wait for you at the entrance. Form a party first; later you can see your position on the map.

【Challenger Notice: Healer Goes Crazy requests to form a party with you. Agree: Yes/No.】

Consciousness touched the option in his mind, and the party-success notice popped up.

Ding Yu also walked toward the teleportation array beside the Snake Ancestor Statue at this moment.

The instant he stepped on it, intense weightlessness struck.

When his vision cleared, he found himself on the stone platform at the Temple entrance. Beneath his feet lay the already-blurred one-way teleportation array, and beside him stood a Snake Ancestor Statue.

He walked out of the Temple and summoned the map.

He discovered that no teammate marker appeared on the map.

This proved the other person was still in the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range region and had not yet passed through the spatial teleportation to arrive at the map of the Colorful Mist Coast.

Time's Yu: Where are you?

Healer Goes Crazy: Bro, I'm on the way back home from the Blood Plain. It should take about half an hour. I'm currently playing a magic-defense build; my legs are short and I can't run fast. Don't worry; I'm sprinting with all my might.

In the voice channel, Healer Goes Crazy spoke with panting, obviously in a running state.

Time's Yu: It's fine. I'll wait for you. No rush.

Healer Goes Crazy: Thanks, bro.

Half an hour later, a blue light dot appeared on the map.

The location was the node teleportation zone near the coast.

It was currently moving rapidly toward his position.

After waiting for a long time, Healer Goes Crazy appeared in Ding Yu's line of sight.

He looked about eighteen years old. Sweat slid down his slightly youthful yet already angular cheeks. Wisps of white mist gathered into his mouth with each breath, obviously because he had embedded the Painful Painful Minghun that eats Qi.

"Bro, I'm here."

Seeing this, a smile appeared on Ding Yu's face:

"Don't rush. Sit down and rest properly. I'll take you in to challenge the trial soon."

"Mm, mm." While nodding, the youth took a piece of roasted Spirit Fish Meat from his spatial bag, tore it in half, and handed one half to Ding Yu:

"Bro, I haven't eaten yet. Eat something first. This Spirit Fish Meat is especially delicious. You try it too."

Seeing this, Ding Yu did not decline; he took the fish meat and stuffed it into his mouth.

Time passed while eating. Night unfolded slowly over the land like a delicate scroll, and the sunset glow penetrating the tree canopy faded away.

The air around became increasingly humid. Insects glowing like fireflies quietly lit up in the darkness; a single glance made them look like scattered stars. The rainforest at night possessed a dreamlike beauty that the real world did not have.

At this moment, Ding Yu stood up and looked at the youth who had just finished his third can:

"Let's begin."

"Let's go." The youth nodded vigorously, his attitude humble.

One day later, after eight consecutive failed challenges, Ding Yu led the youth to the peak of the Temple trial on the ninth challenge.

A beam of energy shot out from the Snake Ancestor Statue and merged with the youth's body.

The Challenger Notice then sounded in the youth's mind and in the regional channel, and the youth cheered and jumped for joy.

A smile also appeared on Ding Yu's face.

At this moment, a trade notice popped up:

【Challenger Notice: Player "Healer Goes Crazy" requests to trade with you.】

Ding Yu chose to refuse without hesitation.

Accompanying the youth to challenge the Temple trial was more to test whether he could clear it while carrying a burden.

Facts proved that although the difficulty had increased considerably, it was entirely feasible.

With this test concluded, Ding Yu already had confidence.

That day, the appearance of a new post on the forum attracted the attention of many players.

【Carrying players to clear the Temple trial of the Colorful Mist Coast.】

Poster: Time's Yu.

Content: Charging to carry players through the Temple trial of the Colorful Mist Coast. Can basically guarantee clearance within five attempts. Charging 70% of the clearance rewards: 980 points of Shou Shou Jili (can be paid after clearance). Brothers who want to clear, private message to book (under smooth conditions, clearance within 1 hour 50 minutes). Only one requirement: listen to my commands in the voice channel throughout the entire process. Do not wander or move recklessly. Those who do not obey commands will have cooperation cancelled immediately.

(Attachment: Screenshot of carrying a player standing at the peak of the trial.)

The appearance of the order-post made many forum players exclaim in disbelief.

In the eyes of most players, clearing the Temple trial alone was already difficult, yet they never expected that a player could already accept orders to carry other players through.

And only charging 70% of the profit; this deal was obviously a guaranteed win with no loss, with both sides gaining rewards.

A huge number of cooperation orders flooded toward Ding Yu like snowflakes. Within a short time, he received fifty orders, which frightened him into decisively rejecting subsequent player applications.

He planned to finish these fifty orders first before considering future orders.

Yu De Cheng Gong also gave some skill-based players ideas.

The emergence of the revenue model for carrying players through made them see the possibility of earning huge amounts of Shou Shou Jili in the short term.

One player meant 980 Shou Shou Jili in revenue. Even after deducting possible resurrection costs, there would still be over 900 Shou Shou Jili in revenue. Ten players would mean over 9,000 Shou Shou Jili in revenue.

Such terrifying money-making effects made many players envious.

Players confident in their own skills flocked to the Temple, eager to familiarize themselves with the trial levels as quickly as possible, then follow Shi Yu's example by taking on clearance orders on the forum to make a fortune.

After all, the Temple's reward distribution is limited; the first batch to try the crab will inevitably reap a huge profit.

Ten thousand words finished. Please vote for monthly tickets~

……

Recommending a friend's new book.

Book Title: "Martial Saint Agent: Starting with the Seventy-Two Ultimate Techniques"

Synopsis: From Agent to Martial Saint.

Chen Sansheng, a youth from Earth, died unexpectedly in a car accident and transmigrated to the Great Liang Republic, beset by internal strife and external threats, where he became an agent of the "Special Affairs Bureau."

"I barely watched a few spy thrillers in my past life, yet now I'm made a spy and even captured by the Japanese devils?"

"Oh!"

"So there's a cheat?"

"Then it's fine!"

"Deep Blue! Add points!"

……





(End of Chapter)