[Great Demon Wasteland.]
Four big characters flashed in front of Jiang Cheng's eyes.
When you open the map, you will find that this is an area that has never been explored, except for their location on the map.
Other areas are shrouded in fog.
In the distance is an endless desert, with snowfields stretching behind you.
From here, the snow layer on the ground thins, revealing the gray-brown frozen soil underneath.
The wind was still cold, but it no longer carried dense snow flakes, only a few scattered ice shards floated, which melted without a trace before they hit the ground.
Further forward, gravel and gravel were exposed on the ground, and the snowflakes disappeared.
The environment here is harsh, the land is parched and cracked by the sun, and a few clumps of withered yellow hard grass creep out from the cracks, trembling in the wind.
The chill in the air is still there, but it's also mixed with a hint of heat.
After walking for a while, the wind here blew the fine sand and brought with it waves of heat.
There is no normal gradual change in the environment. It is like passing through the wall of air in the game and suddenly coming to another world.
Jiang Cheng was also very puzzled by this.
Monster World In order to pursue authenticity, it stands to reason that the environmental changes in each region should have a gradual scene change.
Out of curiosity, I asked Guidance and the explanation I got was.
The territory of Monster World is composed of different nodes as the core. It is like a huge world puzzle, and there are also a large number of territories that have been crammed in by advent forces.
This also results in different regions of Monster World having completely different environmental and climate performances.
Regarding Guidance's explanation, Jiang Cheng's understanding is: game settings.
"Overbearing Sword, where is the Blood Storage Cauldron you mentioned?" Xia Sheng on the side asked at this time.
"It's the end of the desert, there's still some distance to go."
When he said these words, Overbearing Sword's heart was bleeding.
Now it is running out of gas and has no ability to act on its own.
Although it is very satisfied with the condition of this host, it cannot produce any energy at all, and it does not know what the problem is.
The only thing you can do is to go to the resource library and drink the reserved Qi and Blood energy directly.
This resource bank was also left behind by the previous host. After the host died, it was used as an energy transfer station.
Before it grows into its complete form, the artifact's rules and characteristics affect it, causing it to be able to exert its full power only when held by the host.
Without a host, its power would be greatly suppressed.
So it needs to constantly change hosts.
This is the double-edged sword of rules. If you want to gain the power of rules, you must abide by the operating logic of the rules.
It is said that the top rules have no restrictions, but at least it has not been seen with my own eyes.
This time going to the resource library, you can imagine that everything in it will be taken out and used.
It doesn't care about those junk things.
The only sad thing is that almost all the power earned by the previous host was consumed by this current host.
It just hopes that there will be generous rewards later, so that it can enjoy a feast of negative emotions.
On the way, Overbearing Sword was also thinking about a question.
What went wrong, causing its body to be unable to absorb Qi and Blood energy, or even negative emotional energy.
This kind of incident has never happened before.
If you really can't find the reason, you may have to return to the clan and seek help from the elders in the clan.
After driving for most of the day, until sunset, Jiang Cheng and Xia Sheng arrived at the destination of their trip based on Overbearing Sword's Guidance.
In the distance, a square building made of black stone stands abruptly among the sand dunes.
Looking closer, the outer wall eroded by the wind and sand is covered with honeycomb-shaped holes, making a whimpering sound in the wind and sand.
From the outside, there is nothing special about it.
It's more like the dilapidated ruins left behind by a certain ethnic group before they migrated.
Coming closer, there is a statue placed at the entrance of the building, which is a sword-wielding warrior who has lost his head.
The sword in its hand is exactly the same shape as Overbearing Sword.
"Here it is, thrust me into the hole in front of the door." Jiang Cheng heard this and without hesitation, stretched out his hand to call Overbearing Sword to his right hand.
Holding the hilt of the sword, insert the blade of Overbearing Sword into the groove in the center of the stone door. Suddenly, there was a muffled sound like the rotation of gears inside.
The thick black stone door slowly sank, raising a cloud of yellow sand mist.
Behind the door is a staircase going down. It is pitch dark inside and the end cannot be seen clearly.
Pulling out Overbearing Sword and carrying it behind him, Jiang Cheng took the lead and entered first, followed immediately by Xia Sheng.
This passage is like the esophagus of some giant beast, and the air is filled with the smell of old blood, mixed with the smell of metal oxidation.
A faint Dark Red colored halo can be seen at the end of the stairs, like a ball of solidified blood mist suspended in the darkness.
As we walked down, the bronze lamps hanging around the rock wall lit up one by one.
Under the firelight Reflection, dense carvings appeared on the wall.
With automatic translation, the information described in the text can be understood at a glance.
[Pain is strength, I enjoy it as if it were sweetness.]
The first text that caught my eye was traced seven times on the rock wall of the passage.
Black blood scabs condensed on the edge of the writing, and a long tail hook was drawn out of the last stroke, as if the sword holder was still enduring some kind of severe pain at the last moment when writing.
Continue walking down.
[So what if you peel the skin off and remove the bones? I just want power!]
[The pain in my body is not even one thousandth of the hatred in my heart.]
There were five clear fingerprints left under the writing, cracks had been scratched out of the rock, and a few pieces of Shatter's nails were embedded between the fingers.
At the corner of the passage, written in blood:
[Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!]
Under the words of dried blood, the words "kill" were densely carved, each one penetrating the rock wall, as if to nail all the hatred into the cold rock wall.
[Vow to kill all Cangyan Clan!]
As we walked along, all the words contained murderous intent.
Jiang Cheng You can imagine the hatred in the heart of Overbearing Sword's host at that time.
But the content of the text gradually becomes gentler as it goes deeper.
Until he came to a paragraph of text, Jiang Cheng stopped:
[Auntie, my heart hurts so much.]
This sentence was roughly scratched out with a sharp instrument, but the original strokes can still be seen in the gaps between the scratches, like a wound that cannot be healed.
These words made Jiang Cheng suddenly realize that the revenger's initial hatred was not that strong.
Apparently he was constantly beguiled and transformed by Overbearing Sword, and eventually turned into a killing machine filled with hatred.
A few minutes later, they came to the end of the passage, and in front of them was a bronze door.
Overbearing Sword's sword blade passed through the crack of the door, blood flashed on the surface, and the heavy door slowly opened inwards.
"Who can this broken door block? Why is it so complicated to go in?" Xia Sheng couldn't help complaining on the team voice channel.
"Stupid, the door is not to prevent thieves, but to prevent the spiritual energy of the things inside from leaking out and attracting external forces. Secondly, it is also to prevent specific resources from deteriorating during the storage process... You can think of it as a refrigerator. I usually go to the forum to learn more knowledge."
"It makes sense!" After listening to Jiang Cheng's explanation, Xia Sheng nodded suddenly.
The two passed through the heavy door at this time.
The area inside the door is not large. It is a hemispherical stone chamber with an area of more than 100 square meters. The uneven rock walls are covered with fine sword marks, and the ground is covered with a layer of Dark Red-colored dust, which is like the powder generated after blood coagulation.
There are three levels of stone niches carved out of the rock wall on the left. The top level is stacked with yellowed bone slips, tied with faded red ropes.
There are more than a dozen Xiao Ci bottles lined up on the middle floor, half of which are broken.
There were several rusted weapons scattered on the lower floor, and half of a rotten leather rope hung on the sword grid of one of the daggers.
A white skeleton can be seen curled up in the corner of the wall. The surface of the skeleton is covered with cracks, with a large number of red marks remaining on it. The finger bones are dug deeply into the ground. The head is looking up at the dome at a twisted angle, as if he endured extreme pain during his lifetime.
The analysis is swept away, and relevant information emerges:
[Sword Heart(Death)]:
Analysis of the target: When the cultivation reached a critical stage, Overbearing Sword forcibly drained the body of essence and blood, causing the physical body to collapse. Overbearing Sword deliberately delayed the death process and converted the extreme pain at the time of death into his own energy. The pain lasted for three days and died.
"Tsk, this broken sword is so vicious, kill it if it has no use value."
After reading the analysis, the origin of this stone chamber can be easily revealed.
It can be concluded that it was left behind by the previous host of Overbearing Sword. It had practiced and grown here and vowed to avenge its people.
But in the end, under the deception and temptation of Overbearing Sword, he went to a dead end for the sake of strength, and finally became the nourishment of Overbearing Sword.
Eyes turned to the front.
In the center of the stone chamber stood a black square tripod, which was covered with spiderweb-like cracks, and strong Qi and Blood fluctuations came from inside the tripod.
Overbearing Sword automatically detached and flew to hover above the cauldron.
The sword trembled slightly and made a low hum.
The solidified black substance in the cauldron suddenly began to squirm, and a wisp of thick plasma rose from the cauldron and wrapped around the sword like a living thing.
The cracks on the sword's spine greedily sucked energy, and the spiderweb-like cracks on the sword's body closed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Blood Pattern flows on the sword, as if it has been injected with life again, and the originally dim sword edge gradually glows with a cold light.
As the absorption progressed, the coagulated blood clots in the cauldron quickly dried up and cracked, turning into Dark Red colored dust and falling rustlingly. At the sword grid of Overbearing Sword, the vertical pupils that had always been closed suddenly opened.
The red pupil shrank to the size of a needle tip, and several blood threads extended from the end of the sword hilt, piercing into the cauldron like roots, squeezing out the last bit of essence.
When the last drop of blood was absorbed, Overbearing Sword suddenly erupted into a burst of dazzling blood.
However, Jiang Cheng, who used analytical observation, discovered that Overbearing Sword's hunting level had not been restored.
It can be judged from this that Overbearing Sword used its own original power to assist it in its cultivation.
This part of the power cannot be repaired by swallowing external energy at all, it can only grow according to the logical requirements of the rules.
The Qi and Blood energy in the cauldron is similar to the blood-restoring potion in the player's system, while Overbearing Sword's own growth can only be obtained through hunting after being "held with a sword", and even through painful emotions.
If it were before the "Seize Artifact Rules" plan was launched, Jiang Cheng would definitely not have given Overbearing Sword the chance to swallow Qi and Blood's energy.
Overbearing Sword will be completely out of their control after its strength is restored.
Instead of risking losing control, it is better to directly inflict real wounds and kills to gain hunting benefits.
But now they have bigger goals.
Until the coordinate address of the group behind Overbearing Sword is obtained, Overbearing Sword still has value.
At this time, Overbearing Sword, which had recovered some of its strength, automatically returned to Jiang Cheng's hands.
Looking around, Jiang Cheng decided to take away everything in the stone room.
But there doesn't seem to be anything good here. It's not a real treasure house of resources, but more like a gas station on the way to Overbearing Sword's deception.
Store a copy of Qi and Blood in different regions for emergencies.
"Overbearing Sword, can I take away the elixirs and items refined here?" Jiang Cheng asked before leaving.
"Of course." Overbearing Sword agreed without hesitation.
In fact, the things in the stone chamber were left behind by the third host, so they have no meaning.
The only valuable thing is the Qi and Blood energy in the stone tripod.
This is what it asked the host to create back then, with the purpose of assisting the host in practicing a method with extremely strong side effects.
After it sucks the host dry, the remaining blood in the cauldron is used as a transfer station. The idea is that he is active in the Pale Continent area. If he encounters a crisis in the future, he will build a few more resource rooms that can be used to heal and hide.
But I didn't expect that it would actually be used this time.
After hearing Overbearing Sword's promise, Jiang Cheng acted decisively.
Turn on analysis and sweep, and put the things on the three-story stone niche into the space bag.
Even if you can't use it yourself, you can still put Trading House on the shelves, and you can still exchange Sacrifice Di Zhao for Sacrificial Power with a guaranteed guarantee.
Preliminary estimates suggest that the items here are worth about 10,000 Sacrificial Power. Compared with the Blood Pool treasure house discovered by Little Mage, and even the Darkborn Space treasure house found by Headmaster, the difference is not even a tiny bit.
But it's also a huge amount of extra income.
Seeing Jiang Cheng taking away the items on the stone niche, Overbearing Sword asked curiously:
"Do you have space props?"
Facing the inquiry, Jiang Cheng, who had packed everything into his space bag, nodded:
"This is my Heavenly Fire Clan's only remaining treasure. It can store items."
As he said that, Jiang Cheng pointed to the ring in his hand, but in fact it was Rune Resonance Weapon.
Overbearing Sword's perception swept towards the ring, and then he was shocked to find that there was something that seemed to be regular energy on this thing.
But what it is specifically cannot be parsed through perception.
This suddenly made greed appear in his heart.
I had thought about it, and after I killed Jiang Cheng, I would take this ring with part of the power of the rules into my pocket.
After leaving the resource library, Overbearing Sword once again had the idea of hunting.
It wanted to test whether it could gain strength through hunting after recovering some of its strength.
If you still can't succeed, you may have to return to your clan to find a solution to the hidden danger.
"Since senior wants it, let's continue hunting." Jiang Cheng agreed with a respectful nod.
Although he promised, he still had no intention of letting Overbearing Sword absorb a trace of Qi and Blood energy.
The goal now is very clear, which is to find the specific coordinates of Overbearing Sword's clan.
When faced with unsolvable problems, normal thinking is to seek help from elders, relatives, and friends.
Even their players are like this.
If you encounter a problem that cannot be solved, the first thing you think of is to post on the forum to ask for help.
Therefore, he will not let Overbearing Sword succeed and must continue to create difficulties.
Let Overbearing Sword completely despair, give up the idea of continuing to try, and instead seek help from the tribe.
At that time, he will have the opportunity to come into contact with the artifact clan.
With the specific coordinates in hand, it is only a matter of time before we take down the artifact rules.
Not long after, they found their hunting target in the desert.
A giant scorpion that hunts level 28.
When Overbearing Sword pierced the first Dune Scorpion and the corpse exploded, the flesh and blood essence automatically acted as blood mist and was absorbed by Jiang Cheng.
But in Overbearing Sword's eyes, it was a different scene. The scorpion seemed to be crushed by some invisible force, turned into powder and flew into the distance following the yellow sand, disappearing in the hot wind.
Strange!
Overbearing Sword's dissipated mood swings reveal anxiety.
Now that it has recovered half of its strength, I thought this hunting would go smoothly.
Unexpectedly, the problem has not been solved yet.
It's not even clear how to solve this problem.
What is clear is that it can still absorb Qi and Blood energy to restore its own strength.
There is only a problem with hunting and negative emotion intake.
Thinking about it this way, the problem most likely lies in the imprint of the artifact derivation rules.
Perhaps the "derivative rule imprint" in the body underwent some unpredictable change due to the purple-skinned evil devil's palm, causing the derived rule imprint to malfunction.
This problem may only be solved by returning to the clan.
Jiang Cheng, who had completed the kill, pretended to be concerned and asked:
"Senior, is your recovery going well?"
"Try again."
"Okay."
Jiang Cheng decisively agreed.
Overbearing Sword wanted to try, so he asked Overbearing Sword to try as much as he could.
When I tried Overbearing Sword, I doubted whether I was useless.
The most desperate thing is not that there is no chance to try, but that it still ends in failure after countless attempts.
It proves that it's not that there are no opportunities, but that you can't seize them even if they are given the opportunity.
Thinking of this, Jiang Cheng started to continue hunting.
Killed the second and third prey...
Every time he hunts, Jiang Cheng will release the characteristics of Monster Soul, causing the energy that should have been absorbed by Overbearing Sword to "evaporate" strangely the moment it touches the sword body.
During this period, he accelerated the pace of hunting, giving Overbearing Sword ample opportunities to feel the despair of every futile effort.
When the seventh desert monitor lizard also turned into fly ash, Overbearing Sword's sword began to buzz unsteadily.
Those newly repaired cracks reappeared, and Jiang Cheng and Xia Sheng could clearly sense the chaotic emotions emanating from Overbearing Sword.
Confusion, anger, and... a hint of despair.
This puts Jiang Cheng and Xia Sheng in a happy mood.
He wanted to trick their players with just this broken sword, and he didn't even ask whether the player's portable analysis ability would agree.
There is a set of rules and regulations behind their players.
If you want to trick their players, you're far from it.
Overbearing Sword obviously doesn't know that the prey in its eyes is not within its scope of cognition at all.
What is the player? It is an infinitely expanded talent monster that can contain even Primal Monster, which represents the basic rules of the world.
It can rely on the "resurrection mechanism" to fight against the hidden natural disasters Black Tide and Insect Tide.
Overbearing Sword's method of confusing people may be useful to Monster World's ordinary NPCs, but not to their players.
Sorry, they don't want plot killing.
All of Overbearing Sword's confusing lines are, in the eyes of Jiang Cheng and Xia Sheng, just skippable plot content.
Essentially, Overbearing Sword is not even qualified to be an opponent.
From beginning to end, it is a little game of pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger.
If Overbearing Sword wasn't still valuable, it would have died of despair in the extreme pain inflicted by "Pain Touch".
Maybe the materials have already been put on the Trading House shelves and were snapped up by a player at a high price.
After repeated attempts failed, Overbearing Sword, who was completely desperate, also said the words that Jiang Cheng and Xia Sheng had been waiting for for a long time:
"Tianhuo, I have something to ask of you."
"Senior, please tell me."
"I have been sleeping for three thousand years, and my body seems to have undergone some unexpected changes. Now I may need to go to the clan for recuperation, but the journey is quite far. Are you willing to escort me there?"
"No problem." Jiang Cheng nodded in agreement without hesitation, but in fact he felt happy.
A lot of time was wasted with Overbearing Sword, this is their core appeal.
Find the old nest and wait for the opportunity to blow it up!
It is impossible to buy, only robbing can solve the problem.