[Challenger Prompt: The Emperor Tomb Mountain Range region is about to leave the Crescent Moon phase and enter the Waning Crescent phase. Players, please prepare!] Waning Crescent scenario introduction: The second intensity stage among the Evil Moon's five major phases. Duration unknown. Change: Large numbers of Evil Spirits Lifeforms found only in the Waning Crescent scenario will descend upon the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range region with the phase change. Evil spirits from the Crescent Moon scenario will disappear. Change 2: The terrain and environment will change.
As the notification sounded in the players' minds,
the scenery across the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range changed with it.
In the Ancient Battlefield,
the landscape originally littered with skeletal remains dissolved amid spatial distortions, replaced by large numbers of Blood Corpses, crimson all over with black hair growing across their bodies.
On the Blood Plains,
the red plants covering the plains scattered on the wind, replaced by countless twisted vines and withered ancient trees, along with large numbers of Evil Spirits Lifeforms.
In Weapon Spirit Valley,
the valley became level ground. Besides the monsters and Primordial Monsters already present, large numbers of Twisted Cores also spawned, floating in the air with dense masses of tentacles growing all over them.
The transition from Crescent Moon to Waning Crescent seemed to merge an entire unknown space into the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range. As the terrain changed, large numbers of new Evil Spirits Lifeforms emerged.
Once the earth-shattering changes ended, the dim light shed by the Crescent Moon turned a dazzling blood-red, and the free-floating energy particles in the air increased fivefold.
Players exploring the various areas immediately found themselves surrounded by evil spirits.
The bloodthirsty Evil Spirits Lifeforms attacked any target with signs of life within sight or sensing range, including players.
This was especially true in the Ancient Battlefield, where the vast majority of players were hunting Cursed Soldiers.
Before the moon phase changed, evil spirits had spawned infrequently, as skeletal remains needed to accumulate Dark Tide energy before transforming into Cursed Soldiers.
Recently, under the players' frenzied hunting, the Cursed Soldiers' spawn rate had gradually fallen behind the players' kill rate. Every spawn sparked a scramble, and many players could only venture deeper into the Ancient Battlefield to seek targets farther afield.
With the Crescent Moon becoming the Waning Crescent, the roles of attacker and defender reversed between players and evil spirits.
Vast numbers of Blood Corpses surrounded groups of players and launched bloodthirsty attacks without fear of death.
Moreover, the Blood Corpses spawned under the Waning Crescent had Hunting Levels of 8-15, making their overall strength several times greater than that of the level 1-3 Cursed Soldiers.
Outmatched in both numbers and levels, the players were completely on the back foot against the strengthened evil spirits.
The online player count in Qi Sheng's mind fell at a visible rate as large numbers of players were killed and forced out of the game.
Meanwhile, the Regional Chat Channel erupted.
"So this is the Lunar Phase Shift the Newbie Guide said had a chance of happening. I thought each region had a fixed moon phase, and only different major regions had different phases. This is only the Waning Crescent, and it's already this intense. Scary!"
"These Blood Corpses are way too strong. Tons of health and defense. Our squad fought forever just to kill one, only for another bunch nearby to surround us. Now all my teammates are dead. I've given up resisting and am waiting to die..."
"Help! I'm surrounded! I don't want to sit through a one-hour respawn cooldown (Storm Crying)."
"The Lunar Phase Shift is terrifying. The monsters are several times harder. If this were the Full Moon or Great Evil Moon phase, wouldn't the evil spirits' levels break a hundred?"
"The twisted plants on the Blood Plains mostly have Hunting Levels of 12+. I'm so done. Even running away is hard. Just waiting to die!"
"Serves you right for always talking big and complaining there weren't enough monsters spawning to fight. Got enough now? If not, wait for the Waxing Crescent (doge)."
After the Lunar Phase Shift, only the players inside the Dark Cavern remained safe. All the others came under attack from strengthened evil spirits.
The reason lay in the Dark Tide's special nature: things that were not evil spirits did not change with the moon phase.
The Iron-Shelled Insects inside the Dark Cavern neither disappeared nor became stronger monsters.
The players outside, however, were not so lucky.
Within a short time, the online player count fell from over 9,800 to fewer than 1,000.
Qi Sheng had already prepared himself for this.
The Terrifying Dark Tide's different moon phases could be understood as five separate layers of space. When the Crescent Moon switched to the Waning Crescent, the Crescent Moon space was replaced by the Waning Crescent space, and everything related to the Dark Tide within the scenario switched along with it.
For example, the Cursed Soldiers on the Ancient Battlefield had not vanished completely. They would reappear when the moon phase switched back to Crescent Moon.
For players at their current stage, the intensity of the Waning Crescent scenario was clearly more than they could handle.
But he had no way to resolve this.
The moon phases changed under the influence of the Terrifying Dark Tide's tides. Exactly when it would switch back to Crescent Moon was entirely unknown.
What was certain was that the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range region was not a core area of the Terrifying Dark Tide's corrosive energy, so stronger moon phases had an extremely low chance of occurring here.
In his five hundred years in Monster World, he had seen the fourth-stage Full Moon in the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range region only once.
In his memory, the Full Moon scenario could only be described as demons running rampant.
Abyssal Archfiends, Void Devourers, Touches of Fear... A single glance revealed large numbers of super Evil Spirits Lifeforms with Hunting Levels above 100.
Evil spirits blotted out the sky and ravaged the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range like a passing swarm of locusts. Few living things survived in their wake.
As for the "Great Evil Moon," regarded as the Terrifying Dark Tide's ultimate form, only the Four Devoted Servants at their peak had experienced it. He had never witnessed it himself.
[Boss, this Lunar Phase Shift might not be a bad thing.]
Turning toward the Guide Water Orb floating beside him, Qi Sheng smiled and nodded.
"True."
He naturally understood Guide's thinking.
Compared with the Crescent Moon scenario, the Waning Crescent scenario was far more intense, but the energy between heaven and earth had also become more abundant.
The Waning Crescent scenario nurtured large numbers of Dark Tide Spirit Plants. There were also many things incorporated into Monster World after the Dark Tide swallowed other worlds, which produced Dark Tide Spirit Relics through refinement by the Dark Tide's corrosive energy. All these things could be purified into pure Sacrificial Power through Sacrificial Altar Burning.
Along with the high risks, players exploring outside could also find more surprising rewards.
Although the sudden Lunar Phase Shift had forced large numbers of players offline, Qi Sheng was certain they would soon adapt to the Waning Crescent's intensity and continue generating more Sacrificial Power returns for him.
Once this wave of logged-out players returned and left the starter village, they would surely find ways to cope.
If they lacked strength, they could act in groups.
Hunting had become harder, but killing Blood Corpses also yielded several times the rewards of killing Cursed Soldiers.
After evaluating hunting efficiency, hunting difficulty, the probability of opportunities, and other factors, Guide's calculations concluded that the Waning Crescent's overall rate of return was 1.3 times higher than the Crescent Moon's.
And that figure was only temporary.
As the players grew stronger, the overall rate of return brought by the Waning Crescent would continue to climb.
Before you continue