"Who would undertake such a thankless and laborious task as eradicating the source of disaster? Moreover, in the entire Broken Sea domain, besides our Four Overlords, who else possesses such capability?"
The allied forces of the Four Overlords, having gathered and dispersed hastily, returned to their oases, still somewhat bewildered.
Upon deeper reflection, eradicating the source of disaster seemed illogical. It would require specialized exploration instruments and weapons capable of defying rules, as well as facing formidable powers from the evil god's faction.
The entire endeavor would be costly and perilous, yielding only some sinister components and a pile of useless polluted divine crystals. These meager spoils wouldn't even cover the travel expenses of the demigods, let alone compensation for those who perished.
Furthermore, the lack of significant battles in the Broken Sea recently contradicted any theory of "eradication" or "combat." Even the demigods who initially speculated that the "source of disaster had been eradicated" felt embarrassed, realizing their words were ill-considered.
"The source of disaster has, for some unknown reason, vanished entirely."
"Hmm... this is good news for our Broken Sea, but..."
Given the information gathered recently, the disappearance of the disaster's source could be a prelude to something else. Perhaps the evil gods were on the verge of awakening, and their released power was naturally returning to them. Further investigation into the depths of the sea of filth was necessary!
In Liuyue City, one of the prominent commercial hubs in the Broken Sea, the Mission Guild buzzed with activity. Awakened ones in various combat attire bustled to and fro, creating a lively atmosphere.
Despite its relatively recent establishment in the Broken Sea, the Mission Guild had rapidly grown and garnered a loyal customer base and workforce, thanks to its welcoming service and an array of rare items unobtainable elsewhere. Even awakened ones from prominent families and off-duty mercenaries frequented the guild. After all, the people here were pleasant, the offerings delectable, and the experience more comforting than home.
With a steady influx of high-level awakened ones, the Mission Guild naturally became a hub for rumors and whispers, especially in its major city branches. However, recent events had left many sixth-awakening powerhouses and elders of influential families utterly perplexed.
"Within our Ancient Moon Dynasty, we've frequently witnessed streaks of divine light these past few months. Demigods, rarely seen before, have appeared more than ten times recently. What could be happening?"
"It's not just our Ancient Moon territory; Red Lotus, Seven Stars, and the Great Mi Chaos Archipelago are experiencing similar phenomena. There are even reports of demigods crossing into outer territories... The Four Overlords must be up to something. Could they have discovered a Kandara treasure map in the trial grounds and are now searching for it?"
"Elder Chen, aren't your Chen family related to the Heavenly River Chen clan? Haven't you gathered any internal information?"
The elder surnamed Chen offered a wry smile. The Chen family of Liuyue City was undoubtedly a prominent clan, with its current patriarch being a renowned titled expert among the sixth awakenings. They did indeed share a distant connection with the Heavenly River Chen clan, one of the four great families of Ancient Moon. However, compared to the heavens, even the grandest families appeared minuscule. Such was the case for the Chen family of Liuyue City.
To avoid being caught unaware by any major shifts, the Chen family had diligently sought information through various channels. Yet, other major powers found themselves in a similar predicament, unable to comprehend the actions of the supreme overlords. He had even discreetly inquired with an old steward of the Heavenly River Chen clan, only to receive the response, "That is not for you to know."
At this moment, numerous family elders, mercenary group leaders, and organization chiefs realized that despite considering themselves high-ranking, they were still separated from the true upper echelon by an unbridgeable chasm.
The frequent movements of the Four Overlords' demigods were indeed related to "Kandara treasures." They were searching for any ruins connected to Kandara. As for why so many demigods were mobilized, it was linked to the recent disaster eradication mission. They had painstakingly persuaded the demigods to emerge from their secluded cultivation, and after the mission concluded so swiftly, it would have been a waste to disband them. Calling them back later would involve considerable trouble. Thus, the demi-god leaders decided to dispatch the assembled demigods to explore ruins.
The Four Overlords had accumulated vast knowledge of potential ruin locations over the years, some within the Broken Sea and others in outer territories. However, most of these sites were too dangerous for ordinary awakened ones to explore thoroughly. Now, with demigods leading the expeditions, their efficiency soared, and they quickly overcame numerous obstacles.
Half a month later, Semi-God Xiguang ventured into an outer territory, penetrating a ruined area. "This is the style of the Kandara Empire."
Kandara ruins, naturally, included many dilapidated and broken remnants, far less valuable than intact ruins. In the past, the Four Overlords hadn't paid them much attention, but now...
Gazing at the surrounding walls coated in thick filth, Semi-God Xiguang's brow furrowed. He turned and pinned down a seven-star grotesque that suddenly appeared. This was an "assassin-type" seven-star grotesque, only a few times larger than a human, rendering it inconspicuous amidst the towering, broken walls—a natural talent for assassin-type grotesques. Semi-God Xiguang only noticed it when it leaped out. As the grotesque unleashed a terrifying surge of energy, he let out a hum and pressed his palm down. His palm, like a boundless world, absorbed all the released energy, preventing further damage to the surrounding ruins.
A few breaths later, Semi-God Xiguang dropped the corpse of the grotesque for collection and continued deeper. The area appeared to be a palace, its former grandeur still faintly discernible. However, the palace was now largely in ruins, its internal defense systems completely destroyed, with hardly a glimmer of treasure to be found. If anything, the main structural materials held some value. Semi-God Xiguang observed that the primary pillars were made of epic-grade stone, and the surrounding walls were constructed with extraordinary materials, allowing them to endure the ravages of time. The sheer size of the ruined palace meant that its disassembled materials would be quite valuable, at least to ordinary major powers.
Semi-God Xiguang, however, was not interested in mere materials. He had personally come here because the palace contained hidden information! His divine sense swept over and landed on a partially damaged instrument. He probed, navigated, and activated it. Instantly, with a crackling sound, beams of light intertwined, projecting onto a dusty stone wall nearby.
"Indeed, it's a special recording device unique to the Kandara Empire. Such high-level recording devices must be activated by divine sense, meaning the owner of this palace was at least a demigod... though that's stating the obvious. Anyone who could build such a luxurious palace would, at the very least, be a demigod."
After a period of crackling noise, the blurry light finally resolved into a map. It read:
"Cloud-Mist Province?"
The device was too old, and the characters were indistinct, but Semi-God Xiguang was certain. He had seen it in other documents: the Kandara Empire had dozens of provinces, and Cloud-Mist Province was one of them. Furthermore, any province during the Kandara era would have a land area far exceeding the territory of their Ancient Moon Dynasty.
"Some records indicate that the Kandara Empire did not exist as a collection of oases. Their entire territory was bathed in radiance, with mountains outside the cities also receiving sunlight." This map corroborated that. Towns were scattered across it, and crisscrossing lines connected them, likely representing the Kandara Empire's transportation network. They possessed a level of convenient transportation far surpassing the current era.
However, at the edges of this Cloud-Mist Province map, darkness like ink was slowly seeping in, like ink spilled on white paper, consuming everything in its path. "...They... awaken... filth... is spreading..."
"Darkness devours light, we have nowhere to retreat..."
"Our Xiaguang City... must stop... the spread of the Filth Scar, otherwise... the entire province will be consumed, and the land will see no more sunlight."
"The filth is here!" "Crackle, crackle—" "Crackle, crackle—"
The light flickered and finally extinguished with a click.
"That's it? What happened to Xiaguang City? Was it swallowed by the evil gods' army?" a demigod grumbled. This was no different from being cut off mid-sentence! Damn it!
As the light faded and the instrument broke, Semi-God Xiguang remained staring at the desolate wall, lost in thought for a long time. He pondered: Was the fall of the Kandara Empire due to the spread of the Filth Scar? How did this filth differ from the current Grotesque Realm? Was it related to the awakening of the evil gods? Were the evil gods currently awake or asleep? Too many questions, and too little information.
"Let's go, to the next location."
Through the Mission Guild, the Spark of Hope had also discovered several ruins. These ruins were explored through missions assigned to nearby teams. Upon reaching their destination, exploration teams would conduct preliminary investigations. If possible, they would proceed deeper; otherwise, they would report the situation. Subsequently, the mission level would be elevated, and Spark of Hope elites would take over. If the danger level around a ruin exceeded the capabilities of the elite teams, demigod experts would be dispatched. Otherwise, if everything were handled by An Jianyou and her colleagues, they would be overwhelmed, even if they could duplicate themselves.
Currently, however, no ruin had necessitated the personal intervention of a demigod. Naturally, Spark of Hope hadn't found much valuable material or information from these ruins. Among them were Kandara ruins, but not all Kandara ruins were high-grade. A remaining residential house from Kandara was still considered a Kandara ruin.
"With slow excavation, we will eventually find some useful information."
"Though, to piece together Kandara's history from these ruins, it would be easier to rely on gacha draws for ancient Kandara artifacts."
At least, he could roughly confirm that the demise of the Kandara Empire was due to the God Slaying War. He shook his head and opened his panel, pulling up his own status. He hadn't been idle these past few days. He had originally planned to wait until Hei Dao, An Jianyou, and others had cultivated an epic skill to expert level before condensing a skill seed to learn it. Then, he would combine multiple skills into himself. After all, the prerequisite for skill fusion was that the source skills were possessed by the same person. He couldn't extract material A from An Jianyou and material B from himself to fuse them.
But now, he was in charge of the Trial Secret Realm. Instructor Fang spent a lot of time in the secret realm, receiving inheritances skill by skill. To be honest, the process was not easy. It was easy at the beginning, became strenuous during the inheritance, and by the end, he had to grit his teeth to withstand the sheer volume of information.
"Inheritance has weight. Receiving too much inheritance in a short period can easily crush a person's soul. You can receive all sixteen inheritances in such a short time... Monster! Freak!" the trial officer exclaimed in surprise. Instructor Fang also wished for an easier method, but time was of the essence; he needed to accumulate more skills before the dungeon began.
After lying in the level 6 dormitory for a few days to alleviate the soul pressure, Instructor Fang began attempting skill fusion. "First, cultivation-type skills!" He mastered four epic cultivation skills: Gluttonous Body Tempering, Flash Spirit Body Tempering, Thunder Bear Body Tempering, and Dragon Snake Body Tempering. Cultivating a second skill didn't increase physical fitness but granted additional epic skill characteristics, such as spatial phasing from Flash Spirit Body Tempering, thunderous burst stimulation from Thunder Bear Body Tempering, and boneless flexibility from Dragon Snake Body Tempering. But if he could fuse these skills into a legendary body tempering skill, then... He immediately input the materials, but the result was not entirely unexpected.
"Hint: Fusion failed."
Failure, but not complete failure. He had vaguely grasped the key—the number of source skills was insufficient, and they might not have complementary factors. He would likely need eight or nine skills to fuse a legendary skill. It wasn't enough now. The four skills of the mental-type Empty Realm Contemplation also couldn't be fused. As for mixing mental and physical types? It was undoubtedly a failure, akin to asking whether Tofu Pudding was savory or sweet.
"Where can I find more epic skills of the same type? This is difficult!" Fang You turned his attention to normal-type skills. The fusion of these skills depended purely on imagination and combinations. Sometimes, a dozen epics might not fuse into a single legendary skill, while other times, two epics could fuse into a legendary... perhaps.
He began to experiment. Fusing "Meteor Shower" and "Gravity Art" resulted in a more powerful skill, "Super Meteor Shower," but its rating remained epic. Clearly, such a combination wasn't enough to break through the legendary barrier. "This skill is worth keeping, or rather, replacing Meteor Shower... Hmm, that girl Ilosi seems to have cultivated Meteor Shower to expert level without eating or drinking?" But Meteor Shower was becoming obsolete.
Afterward, Instructor Fang conducted over twenty more attempts, most of which failed, but a few resulted in the creation of useful skills. He sacrificed "Eternal Ice Coffin," "Seal Lock," and "Thread Control" to create the epic skill "Eternal Seal." He sacrificed "Eternal Ice Coffin," "Fire of Life," and "Super Regeneration" to create "Life Ice Coffin," a skill that sealed himself, placed him in a pseudo-invincible state for a short period, and rapidly restored his condition. He sacrificed "Seal Lock," "Thread Control," and "Life Drain" to create "Seal Drain." These were all epic skills, but they didn't incorporate all the characteristics of the source skills. They couldn't be considered superior versions of the source skills but rather entirely new skills.
These three skills looked good, yet... they couldn't fuse into a legendary skill! Unfortunately, his Spark of Hope's skill library was not deep enough. Despite possessing over a dozen purple-grade skills and dozens of blue-green skills, the combinations available for fusion were too few. Not enough materials. Instructor Fang was like a cook with no rice to prepare a meal.
The inheritance skill library of the Kandara Empire far surpassed that of the current Spark of Hope. If he could obtain even a fraction of it for fusion materials, he might not be so troubled.