Damn it! Let’s smash the darkness together!
Chapter 485 - 124 Xu Shu: Danger! (Seeking Monthly Votes)

Chapter 485: Chapter 124 Xu Shu: Danger! (Seeking Monthly Votes)

End of New Calendar Eighteenth Year, Sector D8B3, northern Wasteland, Shelter (1,19), 3rd floor, a relatively clean and tidy single suite.

Beside the bed, there were piles of fist-sized white papers scattered about, densely covered with formulas and a vast array of numbers that could make one dizzy at a glance.

A young man lay sprawled out, deeply sunken into the sheets, completely stiffened.

His limbs had already gone cold, and his pupils still retained traces of fear and despair.

The man’s name was Xu Shu, and he was eighteen years old.

He was dead.

...

In the realm of the Transcendents, there was a well-known fact.

It was the law of leveling known as "Peer Rank PK Winner Advances."

Every Transcendent had a Curse Seal within them, one Seal for the First Order, two for the Second, and three for the Third, and so on.

They were linked in their respective distinctive ways.

By enhancing the erosive level of the "Curse Seal," the bearer could significantly increase the curse power they could wield.

The method was simple, which was to devour other objects that also possessed erosive curse power, such as an Erosion Crystal.

And by the law of "Peer Rank PK, Winner Advances," it tells everyone that any Transcendent of any rank must devour an Erosion Crystal of the same rank in order to elevate their Curse Seal to the next level.

For instance, a newly promoted third-tier Transcendent, whose first and second-tier Curse Seals were of course maxed out—at least level 16 (excellent)—and whose third-tier Seal was at level one.

After a period of training and once his erosion level was full (i.e., the experience bar was maxed), he must devour another third-tier Erosion Crystal to evolve from level 1 to level 2.

Now the question was, where did third-tier crystals come from?

They weren’t just conjured from thin air; they existed within third-tier monsters!

First and second-tier bizarre creatures, whether they were demons, alien species or evil spirits, mostly remained primitive, liked to cluster, but were unusually numerous. Just a short walk beyond the border and diving into the wilderness could easily yield many kills—just like harvesting leeks.

However, monsters of the third-tier and above were different. They possessed strong territorial instincts, were usually cunning and elusive, and although they were not infrequent, hunting them incurs a great cost. One slight oversight, and the roles of hunter and prey could swiftly reverse.

This led to a notable slowdown in the leveling speed of Transcendents who reached the third-tier compared to those in the first and second tier.

Simply put, the resources were too difficult to come by!

It’s worth mentioning that.

If a Transcendent chooses to be backward compatible, like a third-tier Transcendent devouring a first-tier or second-tier Erosion Crystal, it was also feasible.

While it couldn’t provide the critical step of "leveling up," it still could offer a base erosion curse power (experience bar).

However, its enhancement effect would be diluted to a terrifying extent.

As for attempting to jump up a tier, say, a second-tier Transcendent devouring a third-tier crystal to train?

Not to mention whether that was just a fool’s dream, even if it could actually be done, it was plainly suicidal.

It was the same path, devouring a crystal, essentially a "PK."

If one were greedy and reckless enough to devour across ranks, at best, the host’s body would be damaged, experiencing auditory hallucinations, concussions, internal bleeding, bone softening, organ fibrosis, cellular mutations, etc.—to put it plainly, the Transcendent’s Curse Seal failed in the PK against the monster’s Erosion Crystal, suffering backlash.

At worst, the curse power would spiral out of control, causing their body to disintegrate, resulting in immediate death.

In summary, a First Order required devouring a first-tier crystal to level up, at Second Order, a second-tier crystal was needed, and at Third Order, a third-tier was required, and so on. This was the most conventional method of cultivation for humans currently.

The higher the rank, the more fierce the competition.

It was said that at the fourth-tier, consuming a second-tier crystal hardly provided any experience boost, and even a third-tier crystal might not be useful to them.

After all, those at the fourth-tier were already termed "demigods," and in terms of life form, there was a significant gulf between them and ordinary Transcendents.

Perhaps the demigods needed to consume another demigod daily to level up.

It was somewhat similar to raising gu (a legendary venomous insect).

But this principle was essentially the same at lower levels.

Didn’t First Order Transcendents also hunt First Order monsters? Hunting the Erosion Crystals of the same rank definitely involved significant risks; the death rate for human Pioneer teams was never low, one could only be thankful to the Life Mother Goddess that they could still live.

Fortunately, humans are social creatures; where there are people, there is Jianghu, and where there is Jianghu, transactions would occur.

The value of first-tier Erosion Crystals typically ranged from thirty to forty thousand to about one hundred thousand.

The price of second-tier crystals, the cheaper ones started around three hundred thousand, and the more expensive ones could even reach over a million, basically increasing tenfold.

Selling the low-tier crystals in hand for Contribution Points to buy higher-tier crystals for leveling up could naturally greatly enhance the efficiency of lower-tier Transcendents’ promotions.

After all, higher-tier Transcendents consumed Contribution Points like running water, spending thousands to tens of thousands of points in the blink of an eye, possibly on some unknown item.

Lie Zhenzi’s "official store" was indeed a money pit.

However, it’s a case of using one’s strength to offset weaknesses, and that is the unique economic mode of humans.

Yet, the higher the quality of the color, the greater the price fluctuation.

If the quality is higher, such as blue or purple Erosion Crystals, selling them directly to Lie Zhenzi’s might be a bit of a loss, better suited for sale to large trading organizations to gain some extra margins—a first-tier blue crystal could sell for around two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand, while a first-tier purple crystal could fetch over a million easily; despite being perpetually out of stock and in high demand.