The Primordial Sacrificial Altar.
Qi Sheng summoned the Function Panel and began browsing player posts.
Over the past two days, the number of players posting and exchanging ideas on the Forum had continued to grow.
The hottest topic was a discussion of the functions of Emperor Tomb Village's newest structure, the Testing Tower.
The newly built Testing Tower included 729 Primordial Abilities known to Yan Ming. Players could inlay different types of monster Life Souls in a simulated environment, mixing and matching them to construct their preferred growth builds.
After two days of testing, quite a few powerful builds had already been developed and shared by players on the Forum.
At that moment, Qi Sheng was browsing the most popular strategy-sharing post.
[After playing with the simulator for two days, I'm sharing a few Star Meridian School combinations I put together.]
Posted by: Long Night
Content: The competition for monsters outside is insane, and a newbie like me can only tremble in fear, so I spent two days in the starting village running simulated build tests. Here are three powerful combinations to share with everyone. Since my Body Tempering level is 0, the highest simulation setting only lets me combine eight monster Life Souls, so each build consists of eight monster Life Souls. Once my level is higher, all three builds will have more room for expansion and improvement.
First is a build centered on the Gargoyle. I call it the "Unkillable Turret Build."
(Attachment: video file.)
Qi Sheng clicked the video, and a screen of light immediately popped up in the Forum interface.
In the video, the player with the in-game name Long Night was performing Star Meridian Inlay.
Into the eight Star Meridian inlay slots, he inserted Gargoyle (contained), Taunt (contained), Revival, Thorns, Ice Bone, Bloodthirst, Fire Sickle, and Black-Armored Snake (contained), in that order.
After completing his Star Meridian setup, Long Night turned toward the camera:
"First, I'll show everyone the specific effects of each Primordial Ability, so it'll be easier to follow their performance in the simulation tests afterward."
The camera zoomed in on the Star Meridian Enhancement interface:
Petrification (active): Upon activation, enter an immobile petrified state, greatly reducing damage from all forms of attacks. The specific effects depend on physical attributes. Taunt (active): Release a psychic shock wave centered on yourself. Targets struck will briefly experience a large number of scenarios adapted from their own memories (the release range can be controlled). The caster will become part of these altered memories (effective only against intelligent life above level 1). Revival (passive): Activate your life potential, greatly increasing the body's self-healing efficiency. The specific effects depend on monster level. Thorns (passive): Protected by the power of thorns, reflect a portion of physical damage taken back at the attacker. The specific effects depend on bodily strength. Ice Bone (passive): When taking damage, inflict a freezing effect on the target, slowing the attacker's movements. Bloodthirsty Brand (passive): Centered on yourself, the Bloodthirsty Brand continuously absorbs blood and vitality lost by nearby targets, converting it into healing energy to repair bodily injuries. The Bloodthirsty Brand's coverage depends on bodily strength. Fire Sickle (active): Continuously burn nearby units in an area centered on yourself. The specific damage value depends on bodily strength. Deadly Poison (passive): All forms of physical damage carry a poisoning effect, dealing continuous damage to the target. The specific effects depend on the level of the Black-Armored Snake form.
"The idea behind this build is to draw aggro with Taunt, attracting nearby targets to attack me, then activate Petrification to drastically reduce the damage I take. After that, Revival provides continuous healing, Thorns reflects damage taken, and Bloodthirsty Brand absorbs blood and vitality from nearby injured units to keep healing me. Ice Bone provides area crowd control, while Fire Sickle and Deadly Poison deal continuous damage."
"I want to highlight the Black-Armored Snake's Deadly Poison trait here. Its effect adds poison to all forms of physical damage. In this Star Meridian build, Thorns reflects a portion of the physical damage taken, so combining Black-Armored Snake with Thorns lets you poison attackers while taking damage."
"Next is a simulated combat demonstration."
With that, Long Night opened the simulation interface, summoned 100 Blood Wolves, and entered combat mode.
Facing the Blood Wolves charging ferociously toward him, Long Night immediately activated Taunt. A Psychic Illusion automatically formed around him, and the Blood Wolves' eyes instantly turned bloodshot.
Next, Petrification activated. A layer of black substance enveloped Long Night's body, leaving him unable to move.
Under the Blood Wolves' fierce assault, red damage numbers and green healing numbers popped up above Long Night's head at the same time.
Every time a nearby Blood Wolf bit Long Night, another wound appeared on its body. Three types of elemental damage-poison, freezing, and burning-popped up above its head, along with white damage numbers from Thorns' reflection.
The blood flowing from the Blood Wolves' wounds was drawn by Bloodthirsty Brand, turning into thin strands of blood that drifted toward Long Night. Green healing numbers then popped up above his head.
Throughout the combat demonstration, Long Night's health bar fluctuated between 98% and 100%. The Blood Wolves' fierce attacks posed no threat to him.
In less than five minutes, all the nearby Blood Wolves were dead, while Long Night's health bar had returned to 100%.
Long Night looked toward the camera (Guide Water Orb) and grinned:
"That's why I call this Star Meridian combination the Unkillable Turret Build. Pretty strong, right?"
The video demonstration ended there, and a large number of players left comments beneath it:
Bard: That's insane! With this build, just head wherever the most monsters are. You can kill nearby targets without moving an inch.
I Choose Black-Armored Snake: I'm stunned. What kind of god-tier build is this? It's a dream come true for lazy people. Just stand somewhere packed with monsters, then browse posts and watch videos on the Forum while you level up.
Strongest Newbie: Holy shit, I want this build so badly. Too bad that aside from Black-Armored Snake, Taunt, and Gargoyle, the other five monster Life Souls haven't been contained yet. No idea where to find Primordial Monsters with those Trait Abilities.
Closing the video page, Qi Sheng continued browsing the rest of the post.
Aside from the much-discussed Unkillable Turret Build, Long Night had provided two other builds in his post.
He called them the Shadow Legion Build and the One-Hit Kill Build.
The Shadow Legion Build was constructed around "Shadow Summoning" from the Life Soul library.
Shadow Summoning's effect was to summon Shadow Warriors imprisoned in the Shadow Realm by Emperor Zhao to fight for the user. The number and strength of those summoned depended on the user's mental strength.
With that as the core, Long Night selected seven Life Souls with group enhancement effects to inlay.
The combat approach was simple.
Start by summoning a group of Shadow Warriors, then apply Evil Blade (weapon enhancement), Cloud Dragon (movement speed enhancement), Dread Armor (defense enhancement), Frenzy (physical attribute enhancement), and so on to them in sequence...
By stacking enhancement effects, he greatly increased the Shadow Warriors' combat power, multiplying their strength several times over.
This build was also a dream come true for lazy people. Once the enhancements were stacked, the user could watch the Shadow Warriors perform without having to fight personally.
Many players left comments beneath the video expressing their love for the build.
The final build, the One-Hit Kill Build, was a Star Meridian School constructed around "Deterioration" as its core Life Soul.
Deterioration's effect greatly enhanced the effects and duration of various types of damage over time.
The defining feature of this build was that once you hit a target, you could immediately run away. The target would suffer a series of ongoing damage effects, including continuous deterioration, poisoning, and Death Corrosion, eventually dying as time worked on it.
In the combat demonstration, Long Night struck a level 28 Fallen Sickle Monster with a basic slash, then immediately ran away.
Negative damage notifications kept popping up above the Fallen Sickle Monster's head. Its wounds rapidly festered and spread across its entire body, and before long, it collapsed and died.
In a very short time, the post rose to first place on the Forum's popularity rankings.
It sparked a strong interest in constructing Star Meridian Schools among many players.
Large numbers of players followed suit, joining in to construct all kinds of Star Meridian builds in the simulated environment.
What the players found regrettable was this.
The initial Star Meridian setup in the simulated environment only allowed eight Life Souls to be inlaid. They could not inlay more Life Souls to construct stronger builds.
Moreover, the vast majority of Life Souls in the simulation library had not been contained. Players had no idea where to hunt Primordial Monsters possessing those abilities.
Still, the emergence of all these builds gave players something to look forward to in their future growth paths.
According to the simulation library's descriptions, the 729 Primordial Abilities were only a portion of the power Emperor Zhao had split off. Far too many unknown Primordial Monsters still awaited discovery and containment by the players.
It was foreseeable that as the game continued to update, more fully developed Star Meridian School combinations would emerge.