Chapter 59: Forbidden Shield |
Through Broken Star’s account, Zhou Xiao roughly understood his background.
The world background depicted by Guide is that after the fall of the Emperor’s Sign, he lies dormant beneath Emperor’s Mound Village. The players are the inheritors of the Emperor’s Sign’s power, and the world-class main quest is to help the Emperor’s Sign retrieve the lost Primordials and gain the strength to resist the terrifying Black Tide.
As for what exactly happened during the ten thousand years after the fall of the Emperor’s Sign, Guide does not give a detailed answer; the players need to explore and discover it for themselves.
But here, with Broken Star, he found part of the extended plot of the world background.
The Anti-Tide Legion was a power established on the Pale Continent after the fall of the Emperor’s Sign. During its development, it rapidly grew to become one of the strongest powers in Monster World at present.
During this growth, it gathered many racial forces that had once pledged allegiance to the Emperor’s Sign. The Celestial Rune race behind Broken Star was one such force serving the Anti-Tide Legion.
Their conversation was naturally also audible to Qi Sheng, who was observing from behind the scenes.
He, too, was quite curious about the organization known as the Anti-Tide Legion.
What was certain was that the god who called himself Anti-Tide must have been one of the many gods who had once served the Emperor’s Sign.
Each of those within it possessed power that transcended the mundane.
Among them, the strongest beneath the Emperor’s Sign were collectively called the Four Gods, who grasped the power to perceive the world’s origin and even alter the laws by which the world operated.
They were the ones who created the Challenger System and now serve him: Guide, Nine Yin, Yan Ming, and Transdimensional.
Below the Four Gods were the Eight Extreme Gods. Qi Sheng believed that the ‘Anti-Tide God’ Broken Star described was one of the Eight Extreme Gods, though he could not yet analyze which one.
As for Iceblade, who left the cross-era gift, he was not part of the world regulators but merely a demigod level regional overlord with a fiefdom.
He was the strongest among mortals, possessing the initial strength to challenge the fifth level world regulators.
At this point, Qi Sheng glanced at Guide floating beside him and asked with a smile.
“Last time, when I overheard Dinian and the Overseer Eye talking, they mentioned that the Anti-Tide Legion seemed very strong. They’ve killed many high-level combat units bred by the terrifying Black Tide multiple times, clearly doing much better than you guys. As one of the former Four Gods, what’s your take?”
Hearing this, Guide sighed in frustration.
[Boss, during the Black Tide’s most frenzied phase, it was us four who fought on the front lines. It was thanks to our efforts that other forces had room to develop and catch their breath. I guess the Anti-Tide Legion was also established during that time. Now it seems to have developed quite well, drawing many racial forces to pledge allegiance. But behind this success lies our contribution.]
“How was your relationship with the Eight Extreme Gods?”
[Not great. Although our world regulatory authority was higher than the Eight Extreme Gods, they only took orders from the Emperor… you could say we weren’t on friendly terms. But the races we governed often cooperated with theirs. In fact, many races practiced polytheism, worshipping both us Four Gods and the Eight Extreme Gods. So sometimes, we would exchange collected energy resources.]
“Exchange energy resources? I don’t quite get it.”
Upon hearing this, Guide’s water sphere continued explaining:
[The Emperor controlled the pure energy of all things called ‘sacrificial power,’ while the gods beneath him controlled secondary energy. The races they governed often offered energy sacrifices to the gods. To reduce the loss from energy conversion, we would sometimes exchange energy offered by races outside our own jurisdictions.]
At this point, Guide paused, a thoughtful expression floating on the surface of the water sphere. After organizing his words, he continued.
[Simply put, it’s like this: imagine Buddha receiving incense offerings abroad. That portion counts as foreign exchange energy income. Buddha can directly absorb that income, but converting this foreign exchange incurs energy loss. So Buddha might choose to directly exchange it with Jesus to reduce the loss from conversion.]
Guide’s explanation made Qi Sheng chuckle, but it very straightforwardly illustrated the relationship between Monster World’s regulators.
Beneath the Emperor’s Sign, different gods governed different regions of Monster World. Although there were clear differences in strength and control over world laws, there was no direct hierarchy between them.
Only under certain circumstances did higher-level regulators have greater authority.
Having failed to obtain detailed information on the Anti-Tide from Guide, Qi Sheng shifted his gaze back to Zhou Xiao.
—
“So your shuttle has most likely already been sacrificed to the Emperor’s Sign. There’s no way to retrieve it. Just give up on that idea.”
Patting Broken Star on the shoulder, Zhou Xiao spoke regretfully.
At this moment, Broken Star looked bewildered.
“What did you just say?”
“I said that once something enters a player’s inventory, you can forget about getting it back, let alone something that’s already been sacrificed to the Emperor’s Sign. Unless you have the ability to enter Emperor’s Mound Village and petition the Emperor’s Sign for it, or the Lunar Eclipse race operates behind the scenes to send you the disassembled item, but that’s simply impossible.”
When Zhou Xiao spoke the words ‘Emperor’s Mound Village,’ his mouth suddenly went silent, and then he continued with, ‘but that’s simply impossible.’
This was one of the many taboo pieces of information Qi Sheng had set up to protect the secret of Emperor’s Mound Village. Zhou Xiao had unintentionally triggered the taboo, and the Challenger System automatically censored and retracted the content he tried to say.
But to Broken Star, it sounded disjointed, clearly missing a critical part of the statement.
After asking repeatedly but getting only the same censored reply, Broken Star was completely baffled.
“God of Wealth, is your brain not working? What I said is easy to understand, do you need me to repeat it three times?”
Expressionless, Broken Star stared at the frustrated Zhou Xiao. Instead of pressing further, he curiously asked.
“The Emperor self-dissolved, and the Four Gods who once sought to inherit its power have also disappeared. Your persistence is meaningless. But your player race still has a better option… join the Anti-Tide Legion.”
“What benefits are there?”
“By joining the Anti-Tide Legion, your player race will receive Anti-Tide’s protection, fearless against Black Tide invasions. Countless Anti-Tide warriors will guard your people. The outstanding among you may even become Anti-Tide Legion warriors and gain supreme power.”
“Any real benefits? Like the Purple Soul Crystal in your hand.”
Broken Star: “…”
Zhou Xiao’s response left Broken Star speechless.
He found that these so-called players constantly talked about their faith in the Emperor’s Sign, but in reality, they only cared about profit and loss. They were not even speaking on the same wavelength.
Broken Star couldn’t help but sigh, then retrieved a green information stone from his bracer and handed it to Zhou Xiao.
“A stroke of fate. This information stone contains a set of basic combat techniques of my Celestial Rune race. The crystal energy inside can alter your body structure and help you cultivate our combat techniques. I gift it to you.”
After Zhou Xiao accepted the information stone, Broken Star transformed into a stream of light and flew into the sky, leaving Zhou Xiao staring in confusion at the information stone in his hand.
[Information Stone]
Item Quality: Special.
Item Description: A storage item that records memory information fragments. Using it allows you to read the internal memory information.
[Challenger Notification: Do you wish to use the Information Stone? This item is a single-use consumable. It will disappear after use.]