Gu Ding Team's Collective Seclusion
"The game difficulty has been increased?!"
This was a bolt from the blue for everyone, because for most people, it was already difficult to earn points by hunting insects and beasts. With the difficulty increasing, many people probably wouldn't even be able to earn Merit Points.
When the old man mentioned that someone's Merit Points over 10 billion, many people's first reaction was that someone must have cheated. This was the opinion of many, including Stda.
But the old man ignored everyone's thoughts and continued, "Everyone has a three-day adjustment period. After three days, the difficulty of this site will be upgraded from one star to one and a half stars. The main changes are as follows."
"First, the exploration progress will be increased from 5% to 10%, which means the number of insectoid beasts will double."
"Secondly, all the insect beasts in the insect hives in all open areas have awakened and are no longer in a dormant state."
"Third, all insect beasts enter a berserk state, increasing their combat power tenfold."
"Fourth, a mutated Mother Queen has awakened, producing 1 million mutated Five-Star Soldier Rank insect beasts every day, including 10,000 Mutated Elite Insect Beast and 100,000 Mutated Special Insect Beast. The Combat Strength of the mutated insect beasts is ten times that of insect beasts of the same level."
"Fifth, the Mother Queen has three Insect Beast Commander by her side, all of whom are Five-Star Mid-rank God, with Combat Strength comparable to One-Star High-rank God. However, these three commanders will guard the Mother Queen closely, so there is no need to worry about them taking the initiative to attack."
"Of course, in addition to the changes in the insect beasts, the rules of the game have also changed somewhat."
"First, the merits for everyone who hunts insect beasts will be doubled from the current level."
"Secondly, after three days, the City Center square and the Merit Hall will no longer be open to the public for free. For every hour you stay, 10,000 merit points will be deducted. If you don't have enough Merit Points, you will be automatically kicked out."
"Third, the variety of items in the Merit Hall will increase several times over."
"Fourth, there are two ways to end the game. The first is to survive until the ruins close. The second is to kill the Mother Queen. Once the Mother Queen dies, the game is completely over. And whoever kills the Mother Queen will receive an exceptionally generous reward."
"Fifth, there's one more thing to remind you of. I can see what's happening inside everyone's domain. You can use your domain to fight, but anyone who tries to hide inside their domain will have their domain ability sealed and be thrown into the mutated Elite Bug swarm."
"I have said everything I need to say. Everyone, please enjoy these three peaceful days..." The old man's voice quickly faded away.
For a moment, a commotion arose from the crowd.
The insectoid beast riot means that insectoid beasts that were originally One-Star Soldier Rank will have the Combat Strength of three stars, while some whose attack power is barely three stars, or even less, will find it much more difficult to obtain Merit Points.
Moreover, the increased map openness, the awakening of the insect beasts in the insect hive, and the awakening of the Mother Queen all mean that the number of insect beasts will increase significantly.
The most terrifying are the Mutated Elite Insect Beast. Their Combat Strength is comparable to a Two-Star Mid-rank God, and among the powerful individuals who have come this time, there are probably fewer than twenty people with this level of Combat Strength in total. However, due to the presence of the Mother Queen, the number of insect beasts of this strength will increase by ten thousand every day, which sounds like the end of the world.
The Mother Queen is also guarded by three powerful Insect Beast Commander; any one of them could easily wipe out all the humans in this ruin. Therefore, hunting down the Mother Queen is an impossible task.
Even the usually arrogant top-ranked member frowned upon hearing the news.
Gu Ding felt a headache coming on when he heard about these changes.
"These rules..." Liliath, Elsa, and Dokter were also somewhat frustrated. Their attack power was currently only comparable to a three-and-a-half-star beast. With the increased difficulty, even one-star insect beasts had their Combat Strength increased by three stars, meaning the three of them could only deal with one-star insect beasts. They couldn't even defeat two-star insect beasts.
Inside the Black Room, Bigge quickly emerged, having chosen his items. He now carried the Four-Star Divine Object longsword and another Three-Star Divine Object longsword. "Did you all hear about the difficulty increase just now?"
Everyone nodded.
"Three days is a bit short..." Gu Ding felt that the time was a bit rushed.
"Everyone, enter my domain. My domain has time acceleration, which can accelerate time to ten times that of the outside world. That should be enough time." This was the first time Robert had mentioned the effect of his domain.
"Tagore, hurry up and choose your things. After you're done, we'll all go into Robert's territory together," Gu Ding, turning to Tagore.
"No need, I don't want anything, those Insect Core are enough." Tagore didn't care what he could exchange for in the Small Black Room.
"In that case, let's all go in together!" Robert said, pulling everyone into his domain, only to find Gu Ding still standing in front of him. But Robert quickly understood why, "Your domain level is higher than mine, so I can't pull you in. You have to enter on your own."
As Robert spoke, he revealed the entrance to the domain. Gu Ding reluctantly stepped inside, and then Robert followed him in.
In stark contrast to the desolation of Gu Ding's domain, Robert's domain was impeccably clean, with a completely metallic surface and a pristine sky devoid of clouds.
After a moment of reflection, everyone found a place to sit down cross-legged.
Liliath and Dokter swallowed the Heaven Soul Crystal given to Gu Ding, and their Soul Space began to undergo drastic changes.
Elsa injected a vial of dragon blood directly into her body, and her body soon began to change.
Bigge sat cross-legged at a distance from the others, swallowed a Source Energy Crystal, closed his eyes and concentrated, and began the transformation of his divine body.
Even Robert sat down and stuffed several Source Energy Crystal into his chest cavity, seemingly trying to digest the energy inside the Source Energy Crystal.
Gu Ding then chose an open space, retrieved all the insect corpses, and had Tagore remove their Insect Core. He himself swallowed a Source Energy Crystal to quickly replenish the loss of divine energy within his body. The energy within the Source Stone was completely insufficient for Gu Ding's needs, while a Source Energy Crystal contained over three thousand times the Source Energy of a Source Stone, and its value was equivalent to ten thousand times.
Gu Ding bought 3,000 crystals, gave 1,500 to Robert, and kept 500 for himself, Tagore, and Bigge as reserves. Liliath and the others were not yet able to withstand the energy contained in the Source Energy Crystal, so they were not given any.
With a Source Energy Crystal inserted into his abdomen, a surge of energy erupted, quickly replenishing the depleted divine energy within Gu Ding's body. It was like a parched lake receiving a torrential downpour. After this energy's nourishment, Gu Ding felt completely refreshed. Not only was his divine energy replenished, but even the flames in his Soul Space slowly regained their vitality.
With one Source Energy Crystal consumed, Gu Ding's divine source replenishment was more than half complete. He quickly swallowed another one and continued to sit cross-legged and absorb the energy.
Meanwhile, Tagore spent most of the day removing all the Insect Core. He found a spot to lie down, grabbed hundreds of Insect Core at once, sucked them into his mouth, and then fell into a deep sleep.
In Robert's domain, all was peaceful.
Two days passed quickly. Gu Ding was the first to wake up, while the others remained in their cultivation. Seeing Tagore already asleep to one side, he knew the Insect Core selection was complete. Ink-black devouring flames erupted from his palm, instantly engulfing nearly ten thousand insect corpses. Streams of blood energy were continuously fed back into Gu Ding's body by the Black Flame, merging into the cultivation of his Myriad Manifestations Emperor Body. Gu Ding's Myriad Manifestations Emperor Body was also rapidly improving...
Six more days passed, and the hundreds of thousands of insect corpses were finally completely devoured by Gu Ding. The Myriad Manifestations Emperor Body's permanent enhancement of the physical body from thirty-five times was also increased to sixty times. Gu Ding had been consuming Source Energy Crystal while devouring these days, so the devouring speed was only a little slower, and the divine source in his body was not damaged.
"Bigge's divine body has condensed to ninety percent, with only his heart and brain remaining unenergized, but he has reached a bottleneck. Therefore, he has begun to comprehend the inheritance within that Three-Star Divine Object, the longsword. Elsa has injected herself with four vials of dragon blood, and her aura is currently stable. I wonder if she will break through to the Demigod Realm this time. As for the others, they are basically maintaining their original cultivation state, and I haven't noticed anything unusual." The Sea Emperor briefly explained the situation of everyone after seeing Gu Ding wake up.
Gu Ding, on the other hand, took out the spark of the Starfire, his eyes burning with intensity.
Gu Ding was no stranger to the Starfire. Under normal circumstances, the Sun Sutra within his body should have generated the Starfire. However, due to the mutation of the Sun Sutra, the flame that was eventually generated became the Devouring Flame.
"Under the current circumstances, the Starfire will be of the greatest help to you, because after the Burning Heaven Technique devours the Starfire, it will greatly increase your Divine Source Limit, making your group killing ability even stronger." The Sea Emperor was actually quite fortunate to have found the Starfire in such a place.
"Hmm." Gu Ding's lips curled slightly as he held the fire seed in his palm. His Soul Space opened, and with a sudden burst of force, he pressed it against his forehead, blasting the fire seed into his Soul Space. This method was extremely dangerous; a single misstep could destroy the entire Soul Space, causing one's soul to scatter. However, this technique was recorded in the Burning Heaven Manual. After the fire seed entered his Soul Space, it was about to wander aimlessly when it was surrounded by two flames, one blue and one black, rendering it immobile.
Gu Ding hurriedly followed the instructions in the Burning Heaven Incantation, blasting his soul imprint towards the fire seed. However, just as the incantation stated, this method had an extremely high failure rate. Gu Ding struggled for a whole day, trying over three hundred times, before finally succeeding.
After successfully capturing the spark, Gu Ding began consuming Beast Blood. The blood of the beasts nurtured beneath the Spirit Soil contained boundless energy and vitality, the best nourishment for cultivating the divine fire. Under the nurturing of the Beast Blood, the spark rapidly grew from a Mars to the size of a thumb, then to the thickness of an arm, and finally to several meters tall...
Twenty days have passed, and Liliath and the others have all awakened. Only Gu Ding and Elsa remain seated cross-legged within Robert's domain. (To be continued...)