Chapter 238-4: Darkborn Inherited Soul, Daddy Healer Begins (4) |
Tong Xin picked up a stone from the ground, weighed it twice to test the heft, then twisted his hips and hurled it at the soul beast.
Crack.
The stone smashed the soul beast’s head and burst into scattering shards.
A low growl rumbled in the soul beast’s throat as its gaze locked on Tong Xin. Its body sank slightly.
Roar.
With a low snarl, the soul beast burst forth like a beast from its cage, lunging at Tong Xin.
Tong Xin decisively fell back to open distance.
He kited the soul beast toward where the Darkborn warriors were.
Enraged during the chase, the soul beast suddenly leapt, tracing an arc through the air. Its sharp claws sliced the air with a sound of shearing wind.
The claw strike thudded against the Rock Shield. Tong Xin only felt the shield tremble slightly, without losing even a single point of health.
This kind of trash damage output was exactly what he wanted.
Retreating as he walked, he soon neared the Darkborn warriors’ area.
After issuing commands through the Faith Link, the five hundred Darkborn warriors turned into black phantoms, swiftly closing in on all fours and surrounding the soul beast.
Anshui, at the head, suddenly leapt, his figure ghostlike as he pasted himself to the soul beast’s side.
His claws were like sharp blades, accurately piercing into the beast’s fur. Blue blood gushed out at once.
But Anshui’s hunt level was only 18. His damage was limited, and after a few inches his claws could not go any deeper.
The soul beast, stung by pain, twisted its body sharply to counterattack.
But Anshui had already withdrawn.
Then a second Darkborn warrior closed in. A talent brand surfaced on his forehead. His claws were gilded with a dark red gleam as he slashed swiftly across the soul beast’s hind leg, leaving a wound deep enough to see bone.
Next came the third, the fourth. The Darkborn warriors surged like a tide, each strike precise and lethal.
They adopted a hit-and-run tactic. Their movements were so fast they dazzled the eyes, like a group of well-trained tiny assassins with flawless coordination.
The soul beast’s roars grew faint. Wounds multiplied across its body, and the ground was stained with dim blue blood.
In the end, a Darkborn warrior leapt down from above the soul beast’s head. After a talent brand surfaced on his forehead, his speed spiked and his sharp claws stabbed straight into the soul beast’s neck.
As his figure flashed past, a blood line remained on the soul beast’s neck.
The soul beast convulsed violently a few times and crashed to the ground, motionless.
The entire fight took less than a minute. The soul beast did not even have a chance to counterattack before it was executed by the Darkborn warriors.
When the battle ended, the Darkborn warriors did not move. They lay obediently on the ground, waiting for Tong Xin’s order.
“Eat.”
At once all the Darkborn warriors raised their heads and sucked from afar with open mouths.
The blood on the ground and the blood at the soul beast’s wounds turned into wisps of blood mist and were absorbed by the Darkborn warriors, boosting their combat strength again.
But spread across five hundred Darkborn warriors, it was a drop in the bucket.
Tong Xin stood to the side, quietly watching this scene, the corner of his mouth lifting in a faintly satisfied arc.
The coordination of this group of Darkborn warriors was truly excellent. Their combat potential had not yet been fully tapped.
Only after they grew to youth state could they showcase the charm of an assassination legion.
“Well done,” he murmured in praise.
The Darkborn warriors said nothing, staring silently and waiting for the next order like a band of emotionless killing machines.
Tong Xin then stepped forward, took a dagger from his spatial satchel, opened the soul beast’s chest, and took out a pale blue crystal from inside.
Analysis swept over it and the relevant info poured into his mind.
[Soul Crystal]
Material Analysis: The energy core of a soul beast, containing a faint remnant of Rule power. (Sacrificing to the Emperor’s Sign yields 289 points of sacrificial power.)
—
The returns were decent.
Besides training the Darkborn legion’s growth, hunting soul beasts could bring an extra income.
“Hold position and do not move. Wait for daddy to come back and feed you.”
With that, Tong Xin set out again.
After initial testing, he decided to pull several soul beasts at once to improve hunting efficiency.
Outside the village, his gaze quickly locked on a lone soul beast. He picked up a stone to draw aggro, then did not rush to leave, dragging this soul beast along while searching for new targets.
His main Inherited soul, Rock Shield, was already level 59, fully capable of withstanding attacks from multiple soul beasts.
When he returned to the Darkborn warriors again, three soul beasts followed him.
Before issuing battle orders, Tong Xin decisively activated Taunt, keeping the soul beasts’ attack target fixed on himself.
“Go.”
The Darkborn legion moved out at once, their small figures flipping through the air.
Like piranhas in the water, they swarmed the soul beasts, taking turns to strike, swiftly executing and absorbing the three.
He called up the interface to check, and the levels of the 500 Darkborn warriors had all risen.
Among them, the fastest growth in hunt level was from the legion commander Anshui.
Although the vitality energy absorbed was about the same, the difference in power had already shown.
Ranking each Darkborn warrior named Anshui by growth potential with an average growth potential set at 1 point, the legion commander Anshui’s growth potential was about 5.4 points.
Which means that for the same vitality absorbed, Anshui’s power growth rate was more than five times that of the other Darkborn warriors.
But the Darkborn legion is strong as a whole. Raising only Anshui’s power makes no sense.
After executing the three soul beasts and extracting and sacrificing their crystals, he continued scouting into the village.
Pulling mobs and focusing fire. Relying on Taunt to bear damage, Tong Xin began running around the clock.
The number of soul beasts in the village gradually decreased through hunting.
The Darkborn legion’s average hunt level had already reached level 23. During this time, apart from logging off to swap nutrient canisters, Tong Xin did not rest at all.
He was so exhausted it reminded him of the days when he worked high intensity jobs to buy a qualification for Dark Land.
The difference was that although his body was tired, his spirit was incomparably joyful.
Watching the Darkborn legion grow and their combat power soar, the process of striving was full of achievement and anticipation.
Even better, the faith progress bar rose rapidly during the feeding process.
It would not be long before the first batch of Tier 2 Faith appeared. By then the speed of obtaining faith power would increase significantly.
He was not bluffing. At this pace, he would surely stand at the pinnacle of the player camp.
Creating a marked gap with ordinary players.
Relying on faith power alone, he could gain more than ten thousand sacrificial power per day. As the Darkborn legion expanded, his power growth rate would rise exponentially.
Now that the Darkborn legion had been crafted into an Inherited soul, there was no need to worry too much about death.
The only problem was where to hunt next after this village’s soul beasts were exterminated.
It had to be not too strong, yet with sufficient vitality to absorb.
Few environments meet both conditions.
As for the Boundless Forest Domain, once this area was cleared he would have to leave.
Although the environment here was nice and the air fresh, the monsters were generally plant-type and yielded no vitality.
It was not that there were no vitality-type monsters at all. Farther west in the Boundless Forest Domain lay one of the territories of the Soul Return race, where there must be a great amount of lifeforms with vitality.
But the Darkborn legion did not even qualify to fight against the Soul Return race’s war legions.
The Soul Return race is a people that can oppose the Anti-Tide legion. Their core battle strength on the battlefield could casually pull out any one fighter to wipe out the Darkborn legion.
It was foreseeable that after players finished pioneering the Boundless Forest Domain, they would face the challenge of the Soul Return race directly.
By then, the player camp would officially step onto the hegemony stage of the Pale Continent.
After a bout of random thoughts, Tong Xin looked ahead.
Five soul beasts were firmly aggroed on him, while the Darkborn legion’s ghostly figures crisscrossed around.
They were like nimble assassins, striking once and withdrawing, with new Darkborn warriors stepping up to add damage.
Soon, the five soul beasts collapsed to the ground, drenched in blood.
“Stop. Dinner time.”
To prevent soul beasts that had come into contact with him from being absorbed by the player system, Tong Xin decisively called the children to feast while the soul beasts were in near-death state.
The devouring of vitality took only a few seconds. Tong Xin moved in to harvest the Soul Crystals and sacrifice them to the Emperor’s Sign, then led the Darkborn legion to continue roaming the village in search of prey.
This village covered a considerable area, but he had almost fully explored it.
Only one place remained shrouded in fog, which was also the direction of his next exploration.
Leading the Darkborn legion toward the fog area, they passed ruins everywhere along the way.
One could easily imagine what had happened.
Soul beasts are intelligent lifeforms.
For ordinary races, the most terrifying thing about soul beasts is not their combat power, but their perfect disguise.
They imitate memory and habits and are hard to distinguish without Analysis ability.
A soul beast will integrate into the race as the possessed individual, waiting for a chance to act, little by little devouring the whole race or replacing everyone with soul beasts of their own side.
Possessing at the racial level is a strike of dimensionality reduction.
Even the Anti-Tide legion cannot easily resist the possession of the Soul Return race. On the battlefield, battle power often becomes a part of the Soul Return race.
As for why the soul beasts in this village had not been recalled by the Soul Return race, the most likely reason is that the soul beasts here were too weak to be valued by the Soul Return race.
When he reached a dry well, Tong Xin suddenly stopped.
Standing at the well mouth, he shouldered aside the large stone covering it and looked down.
Finding nothing but well water, Tong Xin shook his head.
One of the forum’s exploration tips is to kick apart every bottle and jar you pass, and to check wells and rooms and the like. You might stumble upon a surprise.
But not this time.
Thinking it through, that made sense. If there had been anything good, the soul beasts with memory would have long since absorbed it. There would be nothing left for him.
Just as Tong Xin was about to continue exploring the fog area, a sharp sound of sundered wind suddenly came from afar.
He jerked his head up to the sky. A dazzling ghostly blue light streaked toward his position at extreme speed.
Tong Xin did not hesitate even a second and shouted decisively.
“All of you get into the Darkborn space. Run.”
With that, Tong Xin decisively activated the Darkborn Legion Inherited soul and opened a channel in front of him that linked to the Darkborn space.
At once the Darkborn warriors returned like swallows to their nests, diving swiftly into the spatial channel.
In less than a dozen seconds, the five hundred well coordinated Darkborn warriors had all vanished.
Tong Xin immediately closed the spatial channel.
Boom.
A ghost-blue figure landed at that moment. The impact kicked up sand and dust, pelting him with gravel and building debris.
From the dust walked a humanoid figure whose blood-red, bloodthirsty eyes stared straight at Tong Xin.
Tong Xin activated Analysis at the same time.
When he discovered the other party was a Soul Return race warrior with a hunt level of over 120, the tension in his body suddenly eased.
He realized he was about to be forced by the anti-addiction system to rest for one hour.
Beat up the small fry and the boss shows up.
But it was not a big problem. As long as the Darkborn legion was safe, he could die.
As a player, who does not die a thousand or eight hundred times in this life.
But this grudge would be remembered.