Three hours later.
Flames roared inside the cave.
The Taunt's howls continued, but most players had run out of Sacrificial Power and could no longer keep up their attacks.
Just as the players were about to give up in frustration, the Taunt's howls inside the cave gradually weakened, until they finally fell silent.
They didn't dare approach, but they couldn't help feeling hopeful.
More than ten minutes later, a notification sounded in the minds of all players who had taken part in the battle:
[Challenger Notification: Second Generation Primal Monster "Taunt" slain. All participants share a reward of 20,000 Sacrificial Power and receive permission to unlock the next Astral Veins slot for free (for Astral Veins levels 0–3 only).]
The sound was music to the players' ears.
They summoned the Astral Veins Enhancement panel from the function menu and checked the newly contained Primal Monster Soul.
[Taunt (Second Generation Origin)]
Monster Trait: Releases a Spirit Shockwave centered on itself. Any target struck will briefly experience numerous rewritten events based on their own memories. The caster will become a part of those rewritten memories (effective only on intelligent life forms above level 1).
Guidance Tip: After using this ability, you can't imagine what role you'll play in the target's memory Mirage. You might be the murderer of their father, or the old Wang next door—but none of that matters... Look, their eyes are bloodshot, and they're charging at you! Brace yourself!
Purchase Cost: 3,000 Sacrificial Power.
Compared with the First Generation Origin Soul, the Second Generation Origin Soul cost three times as much, reaching 3,000 Sacrificial Power.
Its description also included a new line: a guidance tip.
Although it was expensive, Taunt Soul had already become the must-have second Monster Soul for Stone Gargoyle players.
The combination of Petrification and Taunt promised to be incredibly powerful in actual combat.
Beneath Emperor's Tomb Village.
From the players' post-battle discussions, Qi Sheng gathered two important pieces of information.
When discussing Taunt's monster trait, the players couldn't help complaining that the game lacked a feature for testing Astral Veins combinations.
Qi Sheng felt this idea was entirely feasible.
He could use Yan Ming's spatial abilities to create a simulation environment where players could freely edit their Astral Veins, then try out their customized abilities in simulated combat.
As more Primal Monsters were contained, the simulated Astral Veins feature could greatly improve players' ability to develop, combine, and use monster traits.
The second important piece of information was that players felt the game needed a forum-like feature to make discussion and guide-sharing easier.
Qi Sheng agreed that this feature was essential.
Unlike the regional, team, and other chat channels, guides and discussions couldn't be saved.
But a forum could archive players' guides and other posts for future players to reference, which would greatly benefit the game's future development.
Before adding these two features, however, he needed to make some preparations.
Once he had the idea, Qi Sheng immediately ordered Guidance to create an in-game forum, then contacted Yan Ming and explained in detail what he needed for the simulation space.
After Yan Ming left to get to work, Qi Sheng, seated cross-legged on the altar, began pondering a problem.
How could he retrieve the Energy Crystals from the underground palace in Gloomy Cave ahead of time?
His true body couldn't go there. Every second it spent outside came at a tremendous cost.
Earlier, while discussing the testing space with Yan Ming, he had mentioned the need to create a customizable simulated body for players. That had suddenly given him an idea.
Back then, he'd had no choice. Now, with the Challenger System, built from the power of all four attendant servants' rules, he could completely control a player's body to explore the outside world.
Creating an Avatar for himself, however, wasn't an option.
After fusing with Di Zhao's solidified Origin Source, he could project his consciousness outward, but he couldn't split it off or copy it.
With that idea in mind, Qi Sheng immediately got to work.
He closed his eyes, and the Challenger System appeared in his mind.
Among the players in the death cooldown, he selected one player's flesh-and-blood body and spent Sacrificial Power to speed up the reshaping process.
Flesh Reshaping consisted of three main stages.
First, the All Things Extraction function made by Hyperdimension extracted all the matter from the dead player. Then the spatial system made by Yan Ming sent it back to Emperor's Tomb Village, where the village's territory trait recreated it on a one-to-one basis. Guidance then reinstalled the Data System, and finally, the power of space transported the reshaped body from underground to the respawn point on the surface of Emperor's Tomb Village.
The entire process worked like an assembly line. Just 10 Sacrificial Power was enough to drive it, with no additional energy loss.
Even if a player's monster form reached level 100, the cost of Flesh Reshaping would remain unchanged.
When Qi Sheng opened his eyes again, his consciousness had already switched to the selected player's body.
But this wasn't the perfect control of a fused consciousness. It was more like remotely operating a marionette.
At that moment, his true body called Yan Ming, who was in the underground space, and gave him the teleportation coordinates.
A Space Teleportation Array appeared beneath the player's feet. Space warped around him, and after a brief sensation of weightlessness, he arrived in the palace on the fifth underground level of Gloomy Cave.
Ahead stood Ice Blade's shattered remains.
Qi Sheng walked around the remains and crouched beside the Spirit Gathering Array, reaching out to touch the golden crystal.
A torrent of energy immediately flowed through the player's body, pouring into the Sacrificial Power Pool beneath Emperor's Tomb Village.
Above the nearly empty pool, it was as if a floodgate had opened. A rushing stream of golden energy poured down, purified and transformed into crimson energy in midair, then mingled with the other Sacrificial Power.
The conversion process involved some energy loss.
This was due to the special nature of Sacrificial Power.
The Energy Crystal Ice Blade had left behind was extremely pure, but it didn't possess the all-purifying purity of Sacrificial Power. It needed to be refined before it could be converted into Sacrificial Power.
The Purification Array left behind by Nine Yin spun into action.
One minute later, the golden crystal had been drained and turned transparent.
Qi Sheng also received a notification from Guidance:
[Sacrificial Power Pool]: Stored Sacrificial Power: 13,333,842.
Absorbing the Energy Crystal had earned him more than 13 million Sacrificial Power.
With this fortune in hand, he could significantly speed up the recruitment of players.
Qi Sheng stood and walked toward the rear of the palace.
Beyond the Burial Ground, the earth was covered in a layer of moss that looked like flesh. Ahead lay the area where the Domain Node crystal floated. He could see a massive tumor, its black tendrils wrapped around the Domain Node crystal.
Just then, the tumor—formed from Black Tide corruption energy—seemed to sense his presence. One of its black tendrils shot toward him at tremendous speed.
The player Avatar's body wasn't fast enough to react. Qi Sheng was struck in the chest and hurled backward, finally pinned to one of the palace's support pillars.
The tendril then rapidly spread from the player's chest to the rest of his body.
After a wave of intense nausea and dizziness, the player's body was corrupted and dissolved, while the Challenger System drew Qi Sheng's consciousness back to his true body.
[The player body you controlled had a strength of only level 8. Clearly, you can't complete the task of occupying the Domain Node with this Avatar.]
Hearing this, Qi Sheng nodded.
The Black Tide core that had taken over the Domain Node crystal clearly possessed its own consciousness and would attack nearby life. The task of purifying the node would have to be completed by a group of players working together.
He was already satisfied to have returned from this trip with 13 million Sacrificial Power.
(The End)
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