[Challenger Notice: The Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range region will soon leave the Waning Crescent phase and enter the Waning Crescent phase. Players, please prepare!]
Waning Crescent Scene Introduction: The second-strongest of the five phases of the Evil Moon. Its duration is unknown.
Change: Large numbers of evil creatures found only in the Waning Crescent scene will descend upon the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range region as the moon phase changes. Evil creatures from the Waning Crescent scene will disappear.
Change 2: The terrain will change.
As the notification sounded in the players' minds,
the scenes in every area of the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range changed.
The Ancient Battlefield.
The scene, once strewn with corpses, warped and faded away. In its place appeared countless Blood Corpses, their bodies bright red and their skin covered in black fur.
The Crimson Plains.
The red plants that had blanketed the plains vanished in the wind. Countless twisted vines, withered ancient trees, and evil creatures appeared in their place.
Spirit Artifact Valley.
A rushing river now flowed through the center of the valley. Alongside the monsters and Primal Monsters that had already been there, countless twisted cores appeared, floating in midair with dense tentacles covering their bodies.
But as soon as these evil creatures appeared, the artifact spirits swarmed them.
As the Waning Crescent shifted to the Waning Crescent, it was as if an entire unknown space had been merged into the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range. The terrain changed, and large numbers of new evil creatures emerged.
When the earth-shaking changes ended, the dim light cast by the Waning Crescent turned a brilliant blood red, and the energy particles drifting through the air grew five times more concentrated.
Players exploring the various scenes suddenly found themselves surrounded by evil creatures.
The bloodthirsty evil creatures attacked every target with vital signs within their line of sight—or perception range—including players.
The Ancient Battlefield was hit especially hard. Most players were there, hunting Cursed Soldiers.
Before the moon phase changed, evil creatures did not spawn often. Players had to wait for Black Tide energy to build up inside the corpses before they could turn into Cursed Soldiers.
After the players' frenzied hunting in recent days, Cursed Soldiers had gradually stopped spawning quickly enough to keep up with the kill rate. Every new spawn triggered a scramble, forcing many players to venture deeper into the Ancient Battlefield to find targets farther away.
When the Waning Crescent turned into the Waning Crescent, the advantage between players and evil creatures was reversed.
Vast numbers of Blood Corpses surrounded the players and launched fearless, bloodthirsty attacks.
Moreover, the Blood Corpses spawning under the Waning Crescent had hunting levels of 8–15, making them several times stronger overall than the level 1–3 Cursed Soldiers.
Outnumbered and outleveled, players were at a complete disadvantage against the empowered evil creatures.
The number of players online in Qi Sheng's mind plummeted before his eyes. Countless players were killed and logged out.
Meanwhile, the regional chat channel erupted.
"So this is the moon-phase shift the beginner's guide said might happen. I thought each region had a fixed moon phase, and only different major areas had different ones. And this is only the Waning Crescent phase, yet it's already this intense. Terrifying!"
"The Blood Corpses are way too strong! They've got tons of health and high defense. Our team spent ages killing one, and then a whole pack showed up and surrounded us. My teammates are all dead. I've given up resisting and am just waiting to die..."
"Help! I'm surrounded! I don't want to be stuck with a one-hour respawn cooldown (sobbing uncontrollably)."
"This moon-phase shift is terrifying. The monsters are several times harder. If this is what the Waning Crescent is like, what level will the evil creatures be under the Full Moon or Great Evil Moon? Over a hundred?"
"The twisted plants on the Crimson Plains are mostly level 12 or higher. I'm so done. It's hard even to run away. Just waiting to die!"
"You all kept complaining that there weren't enough monsters to fight. Well, there you go. Still not enough? Just wait until we enter the First Quarter Moon phase (Dog Head)."
After the moon phase shifted, players in the Gloomy Cave were the only ones left unscathed. All the others were attacked by empowered evil creatures.
This was due to the special nature of the Black Tide. Things that were not evil creatures did not change with the moon phase.
The Iron Shell Bugs inside the Gloomy Cave neither vanished nor transformed into stronger monsters.
The players outside, however, were not so lucky.
In a short time, the number of players online plunged from over 9,800 to fewer than 1,000.
Qi Sheng had been prepared for this.
The different phases of the Terror Black Tide could be understood as five separate layers of space. When the Waning Crescent shifted to the Waning Crescent, the Waning Crescent space was replaced by the Waning Crescent space, and everything in the scene related to the Black Tide changed along with it.
For example, the Cursed Soldiers on the Ancient Battlefield did not disappear for good. They would reappear when the moon phase shifted back to the Waning Crescent.
At this stage, the players clearly could not handle the intensity of the Waning Crescent scene.
But there was nothing he could do about it.
The moon phases changed in response to the tides of the Terror Black Tide. When the phase would shift back to the Waning Crescent was completely unknown.
One thing was certain: the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range region was not at the heart of the Terror Black Tide's corruption, so stronger moon phases appeared there only rarely.
In his five hundred years in the Monster World, he had seen the Full Moon, the fourth phase, only once in the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range.
He remembered the Full Moon scene as a chaotic dance of demons.
Abyssal Great Demons, Void-Eroding Insects, Tentacles of Terror... A single glance revealed countless super evil creatures with hunting levels above 100.
Evil creatures blotted out the sky and swept across the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range like locusts. Few living beings survived in their wake.
As for the "Great Evil Moon," regarded as the Terror Black Tide's ultimate form, only the four peak-era attendants had experienced it. He had never seen it with his own eyes.
[Boss, the moon-phase shift might not be a bad thing.]
He turned to look at the Guiding Water Orb floating beside him. Qi Sheng smiled and nodded.
"Indeed."
He understood what Guidance meant.
Compared with the Waning Crescent scene, the Waning Crescent scene was far more intense, but the energy in the world had also grown much more abundant.
The Waning Crescent scene nurtured large quantities of Black Tide spirit plants. Many Black Tide spirit objects had also been produced after the Black Tide swallowed other worlds and fused them into the Monster World, where its corrosive energy refined them. These things could all be purified into pure Sacrificial Power by burning them on an altar.
The danger was greater, but players could also find more unexpected rewards while exploring outside.
Although the sudden moon-phase shift had forced countless players offline, Qi Sheng was certain they would soon adapt to the intensity of the Waning Crescent and continue generating more Sacrificial Power for him.
Once the players who had logged off came back online and left Newbie Village, they would surely find a way to deal with it.
If they weren't strong enough, they could team up.
Hunting was harder, but the rewards for killing Blood Corpses were also several times greater than those for killing Cursed Soldiers.
After evaluating hunting efficiency, hunting difficulty, the probability of opportunities, and other factors, Guidance calculated that the Waning Crescent's overall returns were 1.3 times higher than the Waning Crescent's.
And that figure was only temporary.
As the players grew stronger, the overall returns brought by the Waning Crescent would continue to climb.
Before you continue