Chapter 347: The Main God Space (Part 3)
The crowd's expressions changed. No one dared to act rashly anymore. It was clear that killing each other inside this room would trigger something terrible.
"Besides, killing him won't do you any good," Sun Wang added. "The Main God Space has already raised the difficulty of this mission. Even if you kill him, the task won't become any easier."
Sun Wang shrugged.
Someone cried out in despair, "So you're just sending us to our deaths?"
Ordinary missions already had a ninety percent death rate. The difficulty of higher ones could only be imagined. Total annihilation would not be surprising.
Sun Wang shook his head. "Higher-level beginner missions do have higher death rates, but those who survive receive ten times the reward points. An ordinary beginner mission gives ten points, while a difficult-level one gives one hundred.
"Moreover, completing a difficult-level beginner mission often attracts recruitment from major powers. The benefits far exceed a mere hundred points. If you can clear a difficult-level beginner instance, it won't be long before you reach my level of strength."
Only then did the group calm down. After all, great rewards required great risks. They might as well take the gamble. What if one of them was the chosen one?
Even a veteran like Sun Wang only earned ten points for guiding a group of newcomers.
Although the others abandoned the idea of killing Su Chen directly, they still kept their distance. The young man wore ragged, blood-stained clothes that reeked of slaughter. Apart from his face, he seemed completely worthless.
Handsome? Could looks fill their stomachs?
In the midst of the heavy silence, a steel door appeared in the room. A white, hazy membrane covered its center, blocking any view of the world beyond.
"Once you pass through this door, you will arrive in another world. Each of you will receive a different mission. Complete your task and you may return to this room, officially join the Main God Space, and become one of its divine envoys. Good luck to all of you!"
The moment Sun Wang finished speaking, the burly man covered in runes rushed forward and stepped through the door. His figure vanished into the space beyond.
The others immediately scrambled after him.
Su Chen glanced at the door, then calmly walked through it.
After everyone had entered, the door remained open.
Sun Wang frowned. "Is there still someone left?"
Normally, once everyone passed through, the door should have closed and disappeared.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, he noticed a young man in blood-stained clothes standing beside him. The youth dragged a long blade behind him, its surface covered in fresh blood as if he had just returned from a brutal battlefield. His eyes were cold and devoid of emotion.
Danger!
Sun Wang's heart jolted. He had not sensed the blood-clothed youth approach at all.
The youth seemed unaware of him—or simply ignored him entirely—and dragged his blade through the steel door.
The instant the blood-clothed youth entered, the door began to close. Red liquid suddenly seeped through it from the other side.
Sun Wang realized what it meant and whispered in horror, "Nightmare-level beginner instance. It's actually a nightmare-level beginner instance!"
He had encountered the legendary nightmare-level beginner mission. Its death rate reached a terrifying ninety-nine point something percent. Running into it was no different from receiving a death sentence.
Sun Wang felt a pang of regret.
"Looks like this trip was a waste."
Even the blood-clothed youth would find it nearly impossible to clear a nightmare-level beginner instance...
...
Su Chen opened his eyes. He found himself in a desolate wasteland. He had arrived in another world.
Unlike the Transmigrator Alliance, which replaced a person's identity, the Main God Hall transported the body directly to complete the mission.
"The spiritual Qi in this world is extremely thin. The martial path barely exists here," Su Chen sensed.
With such turbid energy, the strongest martial artists in this world likely had not surpassed the Spirit Gathering realm.
Su Chen shook his head inwardly.
Conventional cultivation in this world would be impossible.
A holographic screen appeared before him, displaying two messages.
The first was the Main God Hall's mission. His team needed to obtain the twelve divine artifacts of the Great Yin Dynasty. Each artifact granted one hundred points.
Twelve artifacts meant one thousand two hundred points in total.
"This is definitely not a difficult-level instance," Su Chen concluded.
He had not asked Sun Wang for information about the Main God Space. In his previous life, he had dealt extensively with it and understood its rules far better than Sun Wang ever could. There was no need to inquire.
One thousand two hundred points during the beginner phase represented an enormous fortune. It could elevate an ordinary person to the heavens and instantly turn them into a Spirit Vein realm expert.
The second message concerned his team. Besides himself, four others had been pulled into a chat channel. Each had an avatar that matched their appearance. Su Chen felt quite satisfied with his own handsome face.
Among the four, one was the burly man he had seen earlier, and another was the heavily made-up woman.
The remaining two were a man and a woman. The team consisted of three men and two women.
He opened the chat box.
[Burly Man: What rotten luck, stuck with that jinx. If you drag us down, I'll kill you first.]
[You have been @'ed by Burly Man.]
[Heavily Made-up Woman: Big Brother is so powerful. Can you protect me? I can do anything~]
[No Makeup: It's so dangerous here. If you're a real man, hurry up and protect us soft, fragrant girls.]
[Glasses Guy: Honored Godfather, I recommend you as the team captain.]
[Burly Man has @'ed you.]
[Burly Man: See that? If you want to live, you'd better listen to me.]
Su Chen closed the chat window with an expressionless face.
These fools were no different from dead men walking.
In the desolate wilderness, Su Chen heard faint rustling from the distant woods, mixed with the howl of the wind. A rotting corpse lunged toward him. Its speed far exceeded ordinary human limits.
Su Chen moved unhurriedly. He picked up a dead branch and flung it out. The branch shot forward like a sharp sword. In an instant, the rotting corpse's head exploded, and the force sent its body flying dozens of meters away.
To Su Chen, everything in the world could be turned to his advantage. Even with a mortal body, he far surpassed ordinary cultivators.
Chapter 348: The Main God Space (Part 4)
Su Chen stepped closer to the rotting corpse. He discovered that a special substance had infected it.
"This is demonic qi… A powerful demonic cultivator must have fallen here, contaminating the entire world with demonic energy and causing mutations."
Su Chen remembered that every nightmare-level beginner instance contained hidden rewards.
The unexpectedly fallen demonic expert was likely the hidden harvest of this instance.
"I cannot continue cultivating the Undying Nether Emperor Scripture. I must forge an entirely new path."
In his previous life, Su Chen had not concealed his origins. Every method and technique he once possessed had probably been thoroughly investigated by various forces. Continuing with his old cultivation methods would be no different from walking into a trap.
A thought suddenly flashed through Su Chen's mind.
His eyes turned cold. In an instant, a dark, shadowy current slowly emerged within him.
The current flowed smoothly. With a single thought, Su Chen stepped onto the cultivation path and entered the Spirit Awakening realm.
He pointed casually. A tiny black particle landed on the rotting corpse. Within three breaths, the corpse shriveled completely and dissolved into a puddle of foul liquid. The black particle doubled in size, returned to Su Chen's body, and transformed into surging vital energy and blood.
Su Chen's cultivation advanced from the first layer of Spirit Awakening to the second layer.
Such methods were undoubtedly demonic techniques, reviled by the world.
To Su Chen, however, whether grand and righteous or despised demonic arts, they were merely paths to greater strength. Worldly moral judgments held no meaning in his eyes.
...
Great Yin Dynasty, Year 53.
Fifty years had passed since the outbreak of the demonic disaster.
Scenes of scorched earth, ruined walls, and people resorting to cannibalism were commonplace throughout the Great Yin Dynasty.
Some said the current ruler had seized the throne through unjust means and defied heaven's will, provoking the heavens' wrath and bringing down the demonic disaster to destroy the dynasty.
There was truth to those words. The ruler of Great Yin had broken his oaths, murdered his Ruler, and usurped the throne. Within three years, the once prosperous and peaceful nation had turned into a living hell.
This world originally lacked the power to fight thousands alone, and heroes from across the land had united against the Great Yin Dynasty.
But one day, twelve individuals appeared within the dynasty. Each wielded a different weapon and claimed to be one of the Twelve Divine Artifact Envoys. With their artifacts, they could easily fight a thousand—or even ten thousand—enemies. A single strike from them could shatter seemingly impregnable city walls. Their godlike power suppressed all opposition and stabilized the Great Yin Dynasty's rule.
From then on, life for the common people grew even harsher. No matter how hard they struggled, they could not topple the dynasty. With the Twelve Divine Artifact Envoys guarding it, the Great Yin Dynasty stood eternal.
Then came the day of the heavy snowfall.
The demonic disaster erupted.
This was the history of the Great Yin Dynasty that Su Chen knew.
In his view, the dynasty had likely discovered the corpse of that fallen demonic expert long ago and tried to uncover its secrets. They had succeeded, but they had also failed. The demonic expert had been at least at the Profound Connection realm—far beyond what a group of mortals could control. In the end, the leakage of demonic qi triggered the disaster.
Su Chen casually handed a piece of broken silver to an old man. The elder clutched the silver, about to offer thanks, but when he looked up, the handsome young man had vanished. It felt like a dream, except for the silver in his hand that proved it was real.
"Good heavens! This old man must have encountered an immortal today!"
Chapter 348: The Main God Space (4)
The old man widened his eyes and muttered to himself, "An immortal… It must be an immortal descending to the mortal world. The Great Yin Dynasty has provoked heaven's wrath and the people's resentment. The immortal will surely seek justice for us common folk!"
The old man kept murmuring.
Su Chen, of course, did not hear him. He had already left the city far behind.
He was no righteous immortal who upheld justice.
The tragedies of this world were merely one among countless others in his eyes. They stirred no ripples in his heart. On the contrary, to cultivate the demonic path and increase his strength, he had casually killed many so-called "experts" of this world.
"It's you?"
Not long after Su Chen left the city, four disheveled figures trudged together along a desolate road.
They were precisely Su Chen's "teammates."
Compared to the four ragged and wretched individuals, Su Chen wore clean white clothes with a sword hanging at his waist. He looked like a young noble out on a leisurely excursion.
The burly man spotted Su Chen and shouted loudly. Jealousy and greed filled his eyes.
Su Chen felt somewhat surprised that these four fools had survived this long. Judging by their tattered clothes, some even stupider fools must have helped them block a disaster.
"Why are you so selfish? You clearly have a better way to survive in this world, yet you refuse to share it. Are you even a man?"
The woman with the pure-looking avatar, who had been hiding and fleeing for over half a month without a proper bath, now looked no different from the refugees in the wilderness. She had endured enough sleepless nights. Seeing Su Chen's starkly different condition, jealousy burned in her heart. She took the moral high ground and tried to threaten him.
Su Chen confirmed his earlier thought: fools remained fools. Even after repeated beatings, they never changed.
A flash of white light passed. A head flew into the air as a body collapsed, kicking up dust. The remaining three froze in place as if petrified, unable to move. Hot blood splattered across their faces and bodies, yet they felt only bone-chilling cold, as if they had fallen into an icy abyss.
"B-Big Brother…"
The other woman's voice trembled, but before she could finish, she met the same fate.
The burly man turned to run in terror, but before he could escape, he saw a headless corpse. It looked exactly like his own body.
Only the bespectacled young man remained, standing frozen in place.
"You… you actually dared to kill your teammates? Aren't you afraid of punishment?"
He sounded utterly confused.
Su Chen's expression remained cold as he casually sent him on his way as well.
Killing a teammate would deduct one hundred points at the end of the beginner instance. Insufficient points meant erasure by the Main God Space. For others, earning even one hundred points in a beginner instance was extremely difficult, let alone losing four hundred.
To Su Chen, however, the so-called twelve divine artifacts of this world were already within his grasp. Spending four hundred points for peace and quiet was a small price to avoid carrying four dead weights.
After killing the four, Su Chen looked in the direction they had fled from. His mind stirred. He sensed an aura that clearly did not belong to this world.
"Interesting."
As the four corpses dissolved into puddles of foul liquid, Su Chen had already vanished without a trace.