Chapter 152-2: Story Reshaping, Great-race Strife (2) |
At present, the greatest output of Ink Power comes from the fifth story being written, the one with Hongyun Fantian as the protagonist.
And this time Written Word set up the scene near the Ascension race’s territory, most likely having designs on the Ascension race, wanting to obtain extra Ink Power by devouring the Ascension race.
Doing so proves that Written Word is confident about taking the Ascension race down and has likely conducted prior reconnaissance.
Just as Qi Sheng was puzzled by this, the Wielder and the Pen in the space suddenly moved.
Below the fifth story, a line was written: Story reshaping; self-devouring feedback.
In Qi Sheng’s view, this was undoubtedly a declaration of halting updates.
In other words, the book-spirit voluntarily abandoned the fifth story’s framework.
As the order was issued, the scene constructed by the fifth story collapsed, and the Ink Power was drawn back like a receding tide to the scene where Written Word resided.
The Wielder and the Pen traced in the air toward the Rule Book, and the sixth story was rapidly taking shape.
The protagonist of the new story is a cultivator named Da Ri.
During the years of cultivation and growth, he discovered that the cultivation world looks prosperous on the surface but actually hides a colossal secret.
Beings of the Upper Realm bewitch the beings of the lower realm in a parasitic manner, like shepherds herding sheep, controlling everything in the cultivation world.
They set the cultivation rules for cultivators, guiding the direction of life’s tiers, letting cultivators continually pursue higher realms along the track they delineate, and the ultimate purpose of all this is to make the cultivators who have struggled to grow become targets for the Ascension race to seize their bodies and complete incubation by borrowing those bodies.
When he saw the three words Ascension race through analysis, Qi Sheng realized Written Word’s purpose.
This fellow had clearly investigated the system architecture of the Ascension race, and weaving this story was meant to uproot the Ascension race.
Barring accidents, this story will be implanted by Written Word in the penned small worlds of beings bred by the Ascension race in the form of projections, sowing seeds of doubt.
[A good idea. First cut off the subsequent damage output of combat power for the Ascension race, then wage a war of attrition with the Ascension race by linking domains. During this process, Written Word can obtain continuously produced Ink Power from other small world projections. But if the Ascension race lacks combat units produced by small worlds, they will inevitably be devoured in a prolonged war by the story world under Written Word’s control.]
[But this tactic has a premise. The intensity of the story scene Written Word composes must be able to withstand the first few waves of the Ascension race’s attacks. The premise of fighting a protracted war is to have the strength to contend, and only then do the subsequent combat power and resource supply affect the protracted war.]
Qi Sheng was also curious about the issue Guide raised.
Just as Qi Sheng was about to analyze in depth how much Ink Power Written Word possessed, Guide suddenly drew his consciousness out of the pitch-black space where Written Word resided and brought it to the outside world.
The original magic world scene had already disappeared. At this moment the world in the scene was like a canvas splashed with all kinds of colors. Space and time here were kneaded into a tangled mess with no rules to speak of.
A normal world is structured by countless basic elemental light points and rule lines, but the current Book World scene was a state of chaos before the birth of all things.
As the Wielder and Pen wrote, Ink Power continuously poured into the scene world.
As if chaos were first opening, black currents snaked and wound like spirit serpents, gathering and condensing.
In an instant, a blinding flash of light swept past, as if a creator deity had swung the first axe to split heaven and earth, and space expanded rapidly.
Amid the stirring of chaotic qi, it was as if an invisible giant hand gently stirred it.
A wisp of light, intangible breath was nurtured in the scene. This breath was light and free, bound by nothing. This was the nascent form of wind.
The breath of wind shuttled through the chaotic scene, bringing the first trace of motion to the world.
As the wind danced, tiny droplets of water condensed within the chaos and gathered in midair, finally turning into a fine, continuous rain, moistening this not-yet-formed scene world. The breath of water was generated at this moment.
After wind and rain intertwined, a dazzling light split the sky. The breath of thunder was born at this moment.
With the continuous generation of the basic elements that make up the world’s framework, the material world began to be established. A majestic, towering giant peak rose first from the ground, piercing straight into the clouds. Its summit was hidden in swirling mists. The mountain was composed of a spirit rock that emitted a ghostly glow, and strange spirit plants grew between the cracks.
After that, various living beings were outlined by Ink Power. Some were shaped like phoenixes spreading their wings to fly, some like flood dragons winding and swimming.
At the foot of the peaks, spirit springs gushed forth to form a vast spirit lake. Then gorgeous spirit clouds, like blazing flames, appeared in the sky. White mists turned into ever-changing spirit clouds, at times like galloping steeds, at times like blooming flowers.
On the broad plain by the lake, spirit grass grew in profusion, and mundane beings generated by Ink Power entered the Stone Age on this land.
Under the continuous infusion of Ink Power, their growth was like a film with the fast-forward button pressed. In a blur, their numbers increased more and more.
Before long, mortals comprehended the rules of heaven and earth and set foot on the path of cultivation.
A few minutes later, the caves of cultivators were scattered in an orderly fashion along the mountainsides. Some were carved out of the mountain body, with powerful defensive restrictions set at the cave entrances, spirit light circulating. Others hovered in midair, wrapped in layer upon layer of spirit mist, like jade towers in a celestial realm. Thus the cultivation era descended.
After this, streaks of escape light occasionally flashed across the sky as cultivators rode magic treasures to roam heaven and earth.
From time to time one could also see enormous spirit birds carrying cultivators as they soared across the firmament. Their wings stretched several zhang wide, and each flap raised gusts of fierce wind.
At this moment, a splendid band of multicolored clouds surged across the horizon.
The protagonist Da Ri of the story scene was about to be born.
Seeing this, Qi Sheng felt a bit embarrassed. He noticed that the protagonists in every story Written Word wrote always descended with auspicious omens from the heavens.
But he did not dwell on this issue.
The multicolored clouds were like brocade meticulously woven by a weaving maiden, spread across the entire sky. Golden light glittered within the clouds as if countless stars leaped within, dazzling to behold.
With a baby’s cry, Da Ri was born.
The story swiftly moved to Da Ri joining a cultivation sect and beginning his quest for immortality.
In fact, Da Ri in the story had already been endowed with spiritual intelligence, but he did not know that he was merely the protagonist of a story and that the trajectory of his life was controlled by Written Word with power comparable to the Heavenly Dao.
Seeing this, Qi Sheng suddenly thought of many novels he had read before he transmigrated.
In those stories, the Heavenly Dao that controls the world always appears as a villain.
Written Word’s actions perfectly align with this setup.
The plot continued to accelerate. With the continuous infusion of Ink Power, Da Ri’s hunting level kept rising and in the blink of an eye reached level 24.
In the scene, Da Ri came to the village at the foot of the mountain. He kowtowed before his parents’ tombstones. At the moment he turned to leave, he severed his ties with the mortal world, devoted himself to the Dao, and pursued the elusive yet yearned-for method of immortality.
The consumption of Ink Power intensified, and the story on the stage kept advancing.
During this process, the world framework, that is, the scene, kept expanding.
Sect trials, secret-realm treasure hunts, fortuitous encounters, the road of revenge. Each story beat would increase the area of the world scene, and the Ink Power that needed to be invested multiplied.
Before long, starting from the area around the first-born peak, a bizarre and colorful small world was generated.
By this time, Da Ri was already the sect’s Grand Elder. His hunting level had reached level 109. He no longer concerned himself with sect affairs. In his heart there was only the path to immortality. He sought to prove the Great Dao before the Five Decays of Heaven and Man and ascend to the Celestial Realm.
But as his realm improved, Da Ri in the story gradually discovered problems with cultivation.
He detected that the spiritual root in his body seemed to conceal a great secret.
The time acceleration then slowed, and the story content began to be finely carved.
Besides enhancing the story’s appeal, this was also to reduce the consumption of invested Ink Power.
When the story advanced to the point where Da Ri discovered clues about cultivation and felt shocked, he began to lay out an opening strategy to oppose the antagonist force set in the story: the Ascension race.
Through a series of studies, Da Ri strangled the parasite the Ascension race had planted in his body and united with various forces to prepare to defy the heavens.
When the story reached this point, the scene suddenly froze.
It was clearly that Written Word had stopped controlling the Wielder and the Pen.
Just as Qi Sheng wondered about this, the scene suddenly trembled. Large numbers of Ascension race members broke through the scene’s mist and appeared, attacking once again.
This time Written Word was facing an Ascension race that had come prepared.
Subsequent content was then automatically generated on the Rule Book, inserting the text description: Peering into the secrets of heaven is an unforgivable sin. The Ascension race strikes.
Clearly, the story had set up foreshadowing in advance, waiting for the Ascension race to invade and unfold the subsequent plot.
The great war between Written Word and the Ascension race began anew.
Only this time, the combat system under Written Word’s control underwent earth-shaking change.
It shifted from swords and magic to a cultivation system, and the story entered the stage of resisting the Ascension race.
Meanwhile, a post sparked heated discussion on the player forum.
[Accidentally discovered during exploration that the Ascension race and the newly arrived Written Word race are fighting. Any brothers want to watch a live broadcast?]
This post immediately drew a large number of players into the livestream room to watch the drama.
It was also the first time players had seen a peak showdown between powerful races.
Before this, although they had also seen clashes between Champion Fighters and Ascension members in livestreams, those could only be considered small-scale fights, hardly worthy of being called a war.
During this time, there were also players who mainly specialized in Control-type inherited souls that set out to sea toward the livestream location, wanting to camp near the two races’ battle points and pick off low-health targets.
The server’s first level 75 pet was obtained through the Ascension race, making countless players envious.
Now that a large-scale war had finally arrived, the first thought of players who mainly specialized in Control-type inherited souls was to join the fun. Perhaps a low-health monster would fall from the heavens and land right on them, letting them also have a powerful good brother.
Secondly, there were also player teams that wanted to scavenge on the battlefield by last-hitting.
Although it is fundamentally impossible to penetrate the defenses of high-hunting level monsters, in a near-death state the monsters’ bodily functions will not self-repair and will only worsen.
When that time comes, equip the Bloodburn inherited soul that deals true damage and get rich in one wave.
A major power struggle that other races shun as a plague is, in players’ eyes, a treasure land brimming with opportunities everywhere.