The Crescent Horn Flying Boat, emerging from the gray mist, was over sixty meters long, a considerable size among the many vehicles in the Guijie.
After all, the larger the body, the harder it was to resist the erosion of the gray mist, and the easier it was to provoke attacks from the strange evil.
This flying boat, spectacular in the eyes of Awakened ones, was sailing tens of meters above the ground. As it entered the oasis territory, it began to slow down and descend.
Passersby, opening their eyes to look, could see the flying boat more clearly.
“This seems to be… a Silver Moon Type II flying boat from the Ancient Moon Dynasty?”
“Could it be someone from the Ancient Moon Dynasty? But there’s no reason for it. Who would go on a trade run at this time? It’s a sure loss!”
“It might not be people from the Ancient Moon Dynasty. Don’t forget, the Silver Moon Type II flying boat is one of the models the Dynasty sells to outsiders. Other forces can also possess them, but only the extremely wealthy can afford them.”
As soon as the words fell, keen-eyed powerhouses from the Shattered Sea spotted the flag fluttering on the flying boat.
Indeed, the emblem engraved on it was not the symbol of the Ancient Moon Dynasty, but a slightly familiar ball of flame.
Wait, isn’t this the emblem of the Blazing Flame Merchant Association?
When the flying boat landed in front of the city wall, and figures in plain clothes, looking terrified, disembarked, the distant powerhouses were even more astonished.
Who were these people? How could they be so… weak?
Calling these people weak was an understatement. Many Awakened ones with sharp eyes or investigative abilities could tell that the vast majority of these people were… ordinary people!
Ordinary people, weaker than those who had just woken up.
But how could ordinary people afford to ride an epic-class flying boat like the Silver Moon Type II?!
The flying boat was not small, and it was packed with people. As passengers disembarked continuously, they gathered in the open space in front of the city gate.
Some Awakened ones counted over a thousand people.
Among these over a thousand people, there were indeed some Awakened ones, but they were also very weak. Judging by their attire, they didn’t seem to be from the Blazing Flame Merchant Association.
The soldiers of the Blazing Flame Merchant Association were maintaining order, their fiery red armor easily identifiable.
“Then who exactly are these people?”
Some powerhouses muttered, racking their brains but unable to come up with an answer.
Before they could ponder further, faint voices drifted over from a distance, carried by the wind, from the survivors who were still terrified, speaking in gasps, and looking like refugees.
He understood.
“They’re survivors from some small oasis!”
“The Blazing Flame Merchant Association actually deployed an epic-class flying boat just to bring back these ordinary, destitute mortals?”
They understood, but they couldn’t comprehend it.
The mottled marks on the Silver Moon Type II flying boat showed that the Blazing Flame Merchant Association’s journey had not been easy, perhaps with casualties and heavy losses of war materials.
But the purpose of doing so was to save a group of poor people?
No, even the poor were nobler than these people! The poor living in the slums of Starfall Bay, Great Mi Chaos City, and Falling Star City were truly considered poor, and these poor were always objects of envy for ordinary people outside.
The Blazing Flame Merchant Association had gone to great lengths, only to save people worse off than the poor?
It was truly incomprehensible.
Many powerhouses from super oases, holding noble statuses, shook their heads in confusion and a sense of waste. However, some Awakened ones who originated from small oases, and had later traveled to big cities to strive for a living, joining large merchant guilds and mercenary groups, now had complex expressions on their faces.
They opened their mouths, and finally let out a sigh.
An old scholar looked at the still somewhat desolate and sparsely populated Blazing Flame Merchant City, then at the distressed refugees disembarking from the flying boat. After pondering for a while, he said:
“Is there a possibility that the Blazing Flame Merchant Association is doing this for population.”
“As everyone knows, the Blazing Flame Merchant Association’s predecessor suffered a great disaster. The newly formed force is no longer a super oasis power, and can only be considered a merchant association. Such a merchant association, though not weak in strength, has a fatal flaw: too few people!”
“With only a few hundred people, reproduction might even be difficult. How can they restore their former glory?”
Indeed!
The strength of the Blazing Flame Merchant Association, in their view, was not even enough to maintain the order of the merchant city. It was entirely dependent on the presence of two Mythic-level beings and one Mythic-tier combatant.
Even the workers building the city walls were largely recruited from mercenary groups and idle Awakened ones.
This showed that the Blazing Flame Merchant Association was indeed short of people.
But even so…
“Even if the Blazing Flame Merchant Association wants population, they don’t need to take these poor people from small oases. Isn’t this polluting their noble bloodline!”
“Yes, most of these small oases are still native to the outer world, their status can’t get any lower.”
“If I were the president of the Blazing Flame Merchant Association, I would at least select people from the great oases. With the Blazing Flame Merchant Association’s conditions, they wouldn’t have to worry about attracting high-quality bloodlines.”
“…Indeed, so.”
The old scholar also sighed.
The advantage of bloodline was truly real!
Although most nobles valued symbolic noble bloodlines more, research indicated that the offspring of non-human powerhouses often possessed superior innate talent compared to those of ordinary humans, and were more likely to produce geniuses with innate talents.
If the offspring of non-humans had only a slight advantage, then the offspring of Mythic-level beings were entirely different.
It was rumored that children of Mythic-level beings were born with a trace of divinity, and their development abilities, skill cultivation, and ability to overcome awakening tribulations were vastly different from ordinary Awakened ones.
They were truly favored children of heaven.
However, it was extremely difficult for Mythic-level beings to have offspring. Firstly, their fertility rate was extremely low. Secondly, Mythic-level beings and those below them were entirely different life forms, and there was reproductive isolation.
For a Mythic-level being to have offspring, the partner must be another noble Mythic-level being!
This resulted in the extremely rare occurrence of these favored children of heaven.
From the topic of population, they moved on to favored children of heaven. The powerhouses shook their heads. But in the blink of an eye, they noticed that the flying boat, which had unloaded over a thousand refugees, had turned around and headed back out of the oasis.
“???”
…
The tentacles of Falling Star City spread throughout the entire great domain. The events at the Blazing Flame Merchant City were naturally not hidden from this overlord of the great domain.
Lord Beralzamon listened to the report and shook his head slightly.
“The Mythic-level beings of the Blazing Flame Merchant Association seem to be truly too young, actually doing something that is both taxing and detrimental to their own interests. Foolish.”
At this juncture, their Falling Star City had sealed off the city, doing its best to preserve every bit of strength.
Because no one knew how long this catastrophe would last, preserving more strength might become a bargaining chip for survival during the crisis.
What had the Blazing Flame Merchant Association done?
Their city defense construction was not yet complete, and their core strength was far inferior to that of their Falling Star City. Yet, at this time, they were still consuming their limited strength. Wasn’t this foolish?
However, among the three Mythic-level beings of the Blazing Flame Merchant Association, the Empress appeared very young, and the storyteller Qian Qiu was also a newly promoted Mythic-level being. As for the remaining golden-armored woman, Beralzamon had personally met her.
Ignorant and simple! That was his judgment.
These three were excessively young, possibly not even two hundred years old combined, and had likely spent most of their time in arduous cultivation. They were unfamiliar with various affairs.
It wasn’t surprising that the merchant association, under the leadership of three young and simple Mythic-level beings, would do some foolish things, Beralzamon thought.
He lectured to the younger generation before him, including the thirteenth King Beralzamon:
“Operating an oasis should prioritize stability. Only then can our oasis continue for thousands and tens of thousands of years.”
…
Operating an oasis indeed required prioritizing stability, but the Blazing Flame Merchant City was not the foundation of the organization. This was merely the second oasis, less important than the first, and far less significant than the main base, Blue Star.
Of course, Fang You also valued the second oasis. Rescuing some refugees at this critical juncture also aimed to supplement the oasis’s population.
The Blazing Flame Merchant City was different from the Spark Oasis. It was a window to the outside world. Furthermore, to distance itself from Blue Star, all personnel working and on duty at the merchant city were currently official members of the Hearthfire organization.
They were the elite of the elite from Blue Star.
Ordinary people from Blue Star were not suitable for working at the Blazing Flame Merchant City, but some basic positions precisely required ordinary people to fill them. Therefore, he had this idea.
It could save lives and bring in population resources, a win-win situation.
“The consumption of war power is not a major issue. If the Blazing Flame Merchant Association’s foundation was only such a small oasis, it truly couldn’t withstand the consumption, but it’s not. There is still Blue Star as a strong backing.”
Currently, sixteen base cities on Blue Star had established pharmaceutical factories and equipment manufacturing plants.
They used various modern machinery for assembly line operations, making production efficiency more than a hundred times higher than the hand-crafted potions and manually forged equipment commonly used in the Guijie.
After all, the environment of the Guijie could not accommodate these ordinary machines, and the rituals did not have such numerous and precise functions.
Of course, assembly line operations were only applicable to the production of low-level (white, green) potions and equipment. For Guipods, it required relying on the personal skill of experienced craftsmen.
Currently, besides Master Wang Chui, there were only a few ‘senior technicians’ like Long Junji and Han Xie who could forge qualified Guipods.
The path of forging, to reach a high level, was much more difficult than simply awakening and upgrading.
The pharmaceutical industry was also like this.
It required learning vast amounts of knowledge, precise and detailed manipulation of life energy, and also some suitable awakened abilities and Guipods to assist.
Currently, the number of ‘senior pharmacists’ was even less than that of senior technicians.
However, the majority of restorative potions needed for war reserves were low-to-mid-level potions. For example, Energy Restoration Potion Type II could replenish 25 points of life energy at once, which was sufficient for most non-human and even above non-human beings.
And this green potion could be mass-produced on assembly lines.
Low-level potions were available, and high-level rare restorative potions were also hand-crafted by Yin Ling. Moreover, they had a potion that had no side effects and could be consumed indefinitely – Water of Life!
Even after selling a small portion at the merchant city, and with the planting department being a large consumer, the organization had accumulated a considerable amount of Water of Life over several months.
This was their true confidence.
Mythic-level beings could also drink a can and throw it away… well, waste was shameful, but when a Mythic-level being needed it, drinking several large gulps was not a problem.
“However, we cannot place all our safety on defense. We must find a way to break or suppress the recovery ability of the strange evil.”
Fang You walked in the spacious library, deep in thought.
Xin Huo had conducted many tests on this type of mutated strange evil, including him venturing alone into the Guijie, Yiluo Xi bombarding from the front lines, and Yin Ling dissecting strange evils with her scalpel, and so on.
The first conclusion they reached was that, regardless of the environment, the recovery of mutated strange evil was… limitless!
Severely injured once, and it would fully recover in tens of seconds.
Severely injured a hundred times, and it would still fully recover in tens of seconds.
He couldn’t see the end of it, as if the conservation of energy had been thrown out the window. In this case, the strange evil was simply unkillable. Draining its recovery power through repeated severe injuries was completely infeasible.
Fang You also found it troublesome and terrifying.
The only good news was that after a day and a night of fierce battle with a seven-star strange evil, he discovered that its recovery speed was far less monstrous than that of a six-star one.
It took about three minutes to fully recover.
But three minutes was still too fast! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
This meant he had to obliterate a world-ending strange evil, whose size was immeasurable, into dust within three minutes.
Difficult, difficult, difficult!
Fang You could only continue to improve his strength and search for other ways to deal with it. For example, if it couldn’t be killed, could it be sealed or banished?
Unfortunately, there were no similar skills, nor had he seen such Guipods. Developing it from scratch, Master Instructor Fang had no clue.
The only strategy he could currently think of was a last resort – developing sufficiently high-energy war weapons.
Powerhouses would assist, restricting the strange evil’s movements, and then war weapons like Guijing Giant Cannons would deliver the fatal blow.
Such a strategy was not much different from that of other great oases and super oases.
However, they still had a significant advantage in this regard.
Fang You lowered his head and looked at a black six-sided cube suspended in his palm.
It resembled a Rubik’s Cube, composed of smaller cubes. As it slowly rotated upright, these smaller cubes would sometimes gather tightly and sometimes loosen. When loose, one could look through the gaps of the block into the interior, which seemed like a black hole, capable of devouring everything, and also containing everything.
This was the “Infinite Box.”
Fang You drew out a second one, which was the fifth red treasure he had drawn after the World Odd Stone. He regretted that it wasn’t a new red-grade item, and could only comfort himself that this Infinite Box could be considered a ‘war treasure.’
He had been drawing cards intermittently over the past few months.
After filling the huge holes of skill fusion, resource point upgrades, and channel construction, Fang You finally felt like his youth was returning, and he could once again draw cards with pleasure.
This was probably thanks to the disaster. The continuous impact of strange evil tides on the oasis had brought the organization a considerable amount of extra income.
The third oasis had recently been formally incorporated into the base system and could also enjoy kill rewards from the mission module. Currently, the daily income from the three oases for Xin Huo had surpassed that of the Blue Star main base.
This was nature’s gift.
Mr. Fang had also grudgingly restarted drawing cards, not drawing too many, about one hundred and twenty draws, he hadn’t counted precisely.
In addition to the red-grade Infinite Box, most of the gold-grade items were ‘Legendary Skill Cards,’ ‘Legendary Materials,’ and a smaller portion were ‘Secret Realm Stones,’ ‘Root Water,’ ‘Pure Divine Radiance,’ and occasionally a legendary Guipod or a strange object.
It wasn’t bad.
The ‘Gold-grade Skill Cultivation Card,’ which he had previously despised, had now become a scarce resource within the organization. Gold-grade skills required them when breaking through to the expert level, and for higher levels… he felt it was a bottomless pit.
Although An Jianyou, who was currently cultivating the fastest, had only barely managed to break through ‘Netherworld Impriser’ to the expert level.
For this, she had almost fainted.
In her words, it was tiring and painful, and it was no easier than awakening as a Mythic-level being.
Fang You, having never personally cultivated a legendary skill, couldn’t understand. He could only use the legendary skills that everyone else cultivated to proficient or expert levels for his own convenience.
…
The Blazing Flame Merchant Association’s deployment of two extremely precious epic-class flying boats to penetrate the gray mist and rescue stranded refugees from a small oasis had long spread throughout the entire merchant city.
Initially, people were astonished, confused, and even scoffed, but as time went by, they gradually became accustomed to it.
At least, the influx of a large population had indeed brought about many changes to the Blazing Flame Merchant City. Many basic positions – waiters in restaurants, receptionists in shops, ordinary workers transporting materials – finally had people to fill them, and the convenience of life had genuinely improved.
The Blazing Flame Merchant Association might have suffered significant losses, but they not only didn’t lose but also enjoyed the accompanying benefits.
This was a good thing!
“Good my ass! In this situation, what convenience of life is more important than safety! You only see the improvement in living standards, but have you ever considered that the Blazing Flame Merchant Association has depleted its war potential to save these refugees? What if, precisely because of the depletion of this potential, the Blazing Flame Oasis is breached, and we all die!”
“No, it wouldn’t be that bad, there are two Venerables guarding here, after all.”
“A few days ago, a large oasis city in the Shattered Sea was breached. Even with Mythic-level beings intervening, they could only save a few people.”
After speaking, both the speaker and the listener fell silent.
However, regardless of whether they were silent, supportive, or opposed, it could not change the plan of the Blazing Flame Merchant Association. Every two or three days, people could see the Silver Moon flying boats once again piercing the thick fog and landing in front of the oasis city walls, just like the previous times. But there were differences; the flying boats bore more mottled black marks, and even after several repairs, the scars of battle could not be completely concealed.
Also slowly but continuously changing was the tide of strange evil attacking the oasis.
“Rumble—”
Thunderous explosions echoed above the oasis. The piercing and nauseating roars of the strange evil, even after being weakened by the barrier and the long distance, still caused panic.
A beast hundreds of meters tall took staggering steps and fell heavily a few hundred meters away from the city walls.
The next moment, several Blazing Flame powerhouses attacked in unison. Killing blows enveloped the fallen giant beast from all directions, and the bombardment continued for several rounds before they stopped.
Another wave of strange evil was successfully repelled, but there was not much joy on people’s faces.
“This is the third wave of strange evil today, isn’t it? The attack frequency is increasing.”
“Yes, and the number of high-level strange evil appearing is also increasing. The Empress has even intervened twice in these days. If this continues, it’s not good.”
Although the high-level strange evil attacking the oasis had fallen before even touching the city walls. For more than half a month, the defending warriors had only suffered minor injuries, with only a dozen or so. It seemed that repelling the waves of strange evil was very easy.
However, only ordinary people and low-level Awakened ones with shallow vision would think so. Those with insight saw a key issue – consumption!
Defending warriors needed to consume a lot of potions to deal with the strange evil, right? Weapons and Guipods also wore out, didn’t they? With increased use of Guipods, side effects would accumulate, and pollution would worsen, right?
Not to mention, mutated strange evil could also bring pollution.
Wounded warriors could quickly heal their external and internal injuries with the help of potions and physicians, but the pollution rooted in the soul could not be treated. It would only accumulate until, like a balloon filled with air, it exploded with a “bang.”
Rituals and war weapons required a large amount of Guijing consumption. How long could the Blazing Flame Merchant Association’s meager assets last?
They hadn’t forgotten that the Blazing Flame Merchant Association had also sold many of its hidden treasures to earn Guijing.
“But the Blazing Flame Merchant Association still has Mythic-level beings guarding them. Those two Mythic-level beings haven’t made much of an appearance so far, have they?”
“Nonsense! If even the two Venerables had to act frequently, it would mean that the entire oasis was not far from being breached.”
A powerhouse taught the newcomers in his mercenary group, earnestly saying:
“If Hell-level and Catastrophe-level strange evil appear in large numbers, it means that the probability of us encountering World-ending-level strange evil is already very high. In such a crisis, if Mythic-level Venerables still consume a large amount of their power on ‘ordinary strange evil,’ what will they use to deal with the terrifying World-ending-level strange evil?!”
“We are now grasshoppers on the same boat as the Blazing Flame Merchant Association. For our own safety, we must kill as many of those Hell-level and Catastrophe-level strange evil as possible, so as not to let these strange evil waste the precious power of the Mythic Venerables!”
Perhaps seeing the increasingly fierce wave attacks, and hearing of the fall of several large oases, some powerhouses became restless and wanted to invite them to the patrol team’s post.
After registering their visit, they met a captain-level figure named Luo from the patrol team.
Luo Jianxing!
This person was incredibly fast and had repeatedly defeated six-star Catastrophe-level strange evil. He was a top-tier titled six-awakened. What was strange was that this Captain Luo had not yet received a title.
This was his business. The powerhouses who came together did not concern themselves with it. They only solemnly said:
“Captain Luo, we are willing to join the city defense forces to resist the strange evil tide.”
“Our mercenary group too, we only require 10% of the usual market price for compensation.”
“We’ll even work for free, as long as your merchant association can provide enough supplies, we are willing to assist in the defense… after all, our mercenary group doesn’t have many potions and items left.”
In large cities like Starfall Bay, when facing wave attacks, city defense officials would usually summon city mercenaries and idle Awakened ones to assist in the defense.
However, at that time, if the local forces did not offer high enough compensation, they might not even bother.
Now, the situation had changed. Not only did they come knocking on their door, but they were also willing to work for free, which was a huge loss.
They gritted their teeth, feeling as if they had made a significant sacrifice!
However,
“No.”
Captain Luo’s immediate response made the leaders of several mercenary groups stunned, suspecting they had misheard.
Luo Jianxing also came to his senses, placed his hands on the table, and said seriously and solemnly:
“We, the Blazing Flame Merchant City, can guarantee the safety of any guest. We also do not need your assistance in defense. Believe us, the strange evil will not step an inch beyond this line.”
The mercenary group leaders: “???”
This script was wrong!