Chapter 570: Blood Abyss Demon Sect (Part 1)
What left Lin Feng speechless was that the opponent's Grandmaster level had almost no weaknesses. Upon breakthrough, he awakened both strength and agility, and could fly at level 30.
In contrast, the gold-tier Nightmare faction members can only fly by taking the agility route.
In terms of systems alone, the other side is much more complete than this side.
The same applies to Celestial-level combat power. In a primary demiplane, the opponent can field a maximum of four Celestial-level combatants, while the Nightmare Knights on the Nightmare side can only field a maximum of three.
That's not all.
According to the records in "Tongxin Huiyin", the opposing side has an additional means of increasing attack power compared to the Nightmare faction, namely skill proficiency.
The higher the proficiency level, the higher the damage of the skill.
If skills and weapons are combined, the weapon's attack power and the skill's attack power are directly added together, almost doubling the power.
On the Nightmare faction's side, there is no such stacking mechanism at all. The only similarity is in their passive skills, which the opponent also possesses.
More importantly, we don't have such strong passive skills at lower levels.
Thinking of this, Lin Feng couldn't help but curse in his heart.
Well, not only have we boarded the Nightmare faction's pirate ship, but it's also a leaky, dilapidated one.
No wonder the "Union Guidance" advises lords to preserve their strength and, if necessary, to concede defeat.
The gamble was that the opponent wouldn't drop the complete Heart of the Plane. If it weren't for the fact that the high-end combat power of both sides gradually leveled up after level 40, the Nightmare faction would probably have been wiped out long ago.
Thinking of this, he instantly lost the desire to continue exploring the City of Eternal Night.
With a push of his feet, he soared into the air and flew rapidly towards the teleportation plaza.
...
Blood Abyss Continent, Blood Nest No. 73 of Ding.
At six o'clock in the morning, just as dawn was breaking, the air was filled with the pungent smell of earth and decaying plants.
Young Ashi lay on the hard earthen bed, with a bed of dry, blackened straw underneath him.
He stared intently at the blackened beam above his head, which was covered with spiderweb-like cracks.
He has lived in this mud-brick house for eighteen years, and he has counted every crack in the beams countless times.
As he counted, Ashi sat up in bed, moving very quietly, as if afraid of waking something.
But he knew there was no one else in the room. His parents had died a year ago, or more precisely, they had been bled to death.
Once a month, on the "First Blood Day," Bloodclaw Lieutenants would set up stone troughs in the central square of the Blood Nest and line up to bleed.
After most of their vital essence was extracted, the parents' bodies deteriorated rapidly.
First, they couldn't do heavy work, then they were out of breath even walking, and finally, on a winter night, the two of them leaned against each other and never woke up again.
Whenever he recalls that scene, Ah Shi feels as if an invisible hand is gripping his heart tightly, causing him unbearable pain.
His eyes welled up with tears, and he took a deep breath, forcing back the emotion.
He thought of his cousin. Two years ago, his cousin, just like him, hated the Blood Abyss Demon Sect. Every night, he would shrink into a corner and curse the servant disciples in dark red leather armor with him, cursing them for oppressing the people and sucking their blood.
Two months later, my cousin was selected to join the "Blood Claw Camp." When he returned wearing that dark red leather armor, the light in his eyes had completely changed.
He stood the iron rod upright at the doorway and coldly said to his former comrades who used to curse him, "What do you know? Cultivation is about eating people. How can you become stronger without eating people?"
From then on, my cousin never spoke to them again.
Occasionally, I would see my cousin in the distance in the blood field, holding an iron rod and scolding the mortals who were working, yelling, "Hurry up, you bunch of good-for-nothings!" He had become just like those menial disciples.
Some say it's a problem with the cultivation method; those who practice the "Blood Fiend Servant Chapter" will gradually lose their humanity.
However, some of the servant disciples were not as cruel as his cousin; at least they wouldn't beat or scold the mortals in their area.
No one knows the real reason, perhaps because even my cousin himself can't understand why things turned out this way.
All Ashi could do was practice the "Bone-Breaking Staff Technique" diligently.
Once you reach a certain level of proficiency and are 5 years old (after reaching adulthood at eighteen), you can become a menial disciple and escape the fate of being treated as a "walking medicine field."
He rolled out of bed, reached into the corner of the wall for the wooden stick that was glistening with sweat, walked to the center of the room, took a deep breath, and began to practice.
The first move of the Bone-Breaking Staff Technique is a sweeping motion, where the staff is pushed horizontally towards the knee.
The second move is the chopping stick, which is executed from top to bottom, targeting the shoulder and collarbone.
The third move, the stabbing stick, is aimed straight at the heart.
...
"call!"
The wind howled through the stick, carrying the boy's suppressed anger and resentment. His movements went from clumsy to fluid, and each swing of the stick seemed to cleave through the darkness before him.
Sweat slid down his cheeks, dripped onto the hay, and was instantly absorbed.
Suddenly, a warm current surged from his dantian, instantly flowing through his limbs and bones, and a clear prompt appeared in his mind.
【Minor Mastery of Bone-Breaking Staff Technique! Attack Power +15】
Ashi suddenly stopped moving, his eyes bursting with ecstatic light. Not only had he mastered the staff technique, but he had also gained a precious attribute point because he had reached level 5 ahead of schedule!
Without hesitation, he added his attribute points to Strength.
【Strength: 8】
He swung the gray-quality wooden stick again, and the stick emitted a slight hum.
With the wooden stick's inherent +5 attack power, combined with the +15 from the minor mastery of stick techniques, his attack power instantly reached 60 points!
"It's done! I can finally become a menial apprentice!"
Ashi shouted in his heart, trembling with excitement.
But he quickly calmed down, looked at the wooden stick in his hand, and his eyes became incredibly determined: "I will never become like my cousin. I will gain power, and I will change everyone's situation!"
He carefully put the wooden stick back in its place, picked up the hoe leaning against the corner of the wall, pushed open the door, and stepped into the Blood Nest, where the air was always filled with the smell of earth and blood.
It was already broad daylight outside, and people began to move around in the Blood Nest.
Most of those middle-aged people had hunched backs and heavy, slow steps, as if each step was expending their last breath.
Their faces were expressionless, like stones whose edges had been smoothed out.
Occasionally, someone would look up, glance at the boy carrying a hoe as he walked by, then lower their eyes again, as if they hadn't seen anything.
When the boy reached the central plaza of the Blood Nest, he heard the voices of several people his age talking.
A tall, thin boy was gesturing excitedly: "When I become a handyman disciple, the first thing I'll do is get a new set of clothes! That dark red leather armor is much more impressive than this tattered rag I'm wearing!"
A girl with a short ponytail was counting hoes with another girl nearby. She stopped what she was doing, straightened up and glanced at him, her eyes full of longing.
"I heard that if you become a menial disciple, you can eat a bowl of blood wheat porridge every day and get a small piece of monster meat every month!"