Chapter 194 : A Super Feast! Frenzied Harvesting! Hang Yu Earns So Much He Overflowed with Wealth!
Chapter 194: A Super Feast! Frenzied Harvesting! Hang Yu Earns So Much He Overflowed with Wealth!
Hang Yu was observing the battlefield.
Although it was merely a small vanguard force—
Because Cao Ang personally led it, its combat strength absolutely could not be underestimated.
The players had no chance of victory in a direct confrontation.
The annihilation of the entire army was already a certainty set in stone.
And beginning just moments ago—
A long-anticipated harvesting feast had officially begun!
【Player “A Sword Comes From the West” has died. Essence Qi +12500……】
【Player “Street Slayer” has died. Essence Qi +15000……】
【Player “Sword God of Shilipo” has died. Essence Qi +6400……】
【Player “Blind Swordsman” has died. Essence Qi +8000……】
【……】
Players continued dying one after another.
This mission granted three free revivals along with immunity from Essence Qi loss penalties.
The Heavenly Dao Rubik’s Cube could revive players directly.
The energy consumed came from the players’ own lost Essence Qi.
In reality—
No additional contribution points needed to be spent at all.
After all—
Contribution points themselves were merely a virtual numerical value created by Hang Yu.
The reason he imposed revival cooldown times—
Was mainly for player protection.
Frequent deaths within short periods would cause certain levels of mental and soul exhaustion.
Secondly—
It functioned as a fixed taxation method for recovering liquidity, ensuring that distributed contribution points would not spiral into inflation while simultaneously strengthening the value and utility of contribution points.
As players’ levels continued rising—
Their souls and minds gradually became stronger, allowing them to withstand higher frequencies of death.
Meanwhile—
Methods and channels for recovering contribution points became increasingly plentiful.
As a result—
The importance of this “death tax” gradually diminished for Hang Yu.
Precisely because of this—
Whenever large-scale events were launched, in order to let players fight without worries, Hang Yu usually provided free revival benefits and even free Blessed Point teleportation.
The purpose was simple—
To increase efficiency, allowing players to risk their lives and throw themselves into danger with even fewer reservations.
However—
The benefit of reducing Essence Qi loss upon death was a first.
Losing a portion of Essence Qi upon every death was a mandatory expense.
To waive that penalty—
He could only subsidize it himself.
Still—
The issue was not significant.
When a second-tier player died once, the Essence Qi they lost generally amounted to only 5% to 10% of the total experience needed for their current level-up.
Yet—
During the death process, the Heavenly Dao Rubik’s Cube could generate five times that amount of Essence Qi income for the territory.
Hang Yu made a rough estimate.
If the entire force was wiped out once during this operation—
It would generate approximately seven million Essence Qi income!
He only needed to spend around 1.5 million Essence Qi compensating the players.
The remaining five million plus Essence Qi—
Would become pure profit from a single total annihilation.
The revenue would be slightly affected.
Players would also become even more reckless because of it.
But Hang Yu’s gains were not limited to player deaths alone.
Drops from large-scale battles were also extremely lucrative.
The Calamity Army had been at a disadvantage throughout the battle.
Although they managed to inflict some casualties upon the Abyssal forces—
Overall, they were still being overwhelmingly suppressed.
Under such circumstances—
There was no opportunity to clean up the battlefield.
Operating under the principle of wasting nothing—
【You examined the loot. Abyssal Essence Qi +36000, Magic Stone Fragments +38303, Stone-Winged Demon Soldier Longsword +1, Petrification Curse Talismans +10!】
【You examined the loot. Abyssal Essence Qi +42000, Magic Stone Fragments +58600, Tiger Cavalry Demon Soldier Great Axe +1, Tiger Cavalry Demon Soldier Armor +1!】
【You examined the loot. Abyssal Essence Qi +42000, Magic Stone Fragments +57900, Leopard Cavalry Demon Soldier Necklace +1!】
【……】
The battlefield overflowed with loot.
Each Stone-Winged Demon Soldier dropped 36,000 Essence Qi.
Each of the two types of Demon Cavalry dropped 42,000 Essence Qi.
It had to be said—
“Humanoid monsters” truly provided astonishing Essence Qi drops!
The Essence Qi Hang Yu reimbursed to the players—
Could easily be earned back with interest just from scavenging battlefield loot alone!
He noticed that the battle was gradually approaching its conclusion.
Under the combined assault of Old Wan City’s three major Abyssal troop types, alongside several Corrupted beings—
The Calamity Army had only resisted for around ten minutes before facing total annihilation.
Defeat carried no suspense whatsoever!
Yet the results were still quite abundant!
Hang Yu roughly tallied the numbers.
The players had killed a total of:
51 Stone-Winged Demon Soldiers,
21 Tiger Cavalry Demon Soldiers,
23 Leopard Cavalry Demon Soldiers,
And 1 Corrupted general.
A total of 96 kills!
Trading nearly 2,000 deaths for 96 enemy kills—
In any normal battle—
Would unquestionably count as a catastrophic defeat!
Although the vanguard force led by Cao Ang was not especially large—
It still numbered around one thousand troops.
Their total losses did not even reach one-tenth of their army!
Yet for the Calamity Army—
This battle was a massive profit!
Their own strength had originally been far inferior to the enemy’s.
Furthermore—
They suffered greatly due to having absolutely no understanding of the two Demon Cavalry mechanics beforehand.
Even so—
They still achieved nearly one hundred kills, including a Corrupted being.
What was there to be dissatisfied about?
The players had practically paid no price at all!
The false casualty ratio was 2000:96!
The true casualty ratio was 0:96!
To the Calamity Army—
This battle was a victory!
And not merely a victory—
But an unquestionable and tremendously fruitful triumph!
During the chaotic battle—
The players only managed to grab fifteen loot drops.
All the remaining loot orbs floated upon the battlefield.
These loot drops belonged exclusively to this territory.
Therefore—
Only Starsea units under Hang Yu’s territory could see or collect them.
Besides them—
Whether Abyssal Corrupted beings, native inhabitants, or even other Starsea factions—
None could see or touch these drops.
Among them—
One orb was Green quality.
All the others were White quality.
If these loot drops were not collected quickly—
The Essence Qi contained within them would rapidly dissipate.
Since that was the case—
Hang Yu naturally showed no restraint.
He immediately activated the Relic Treasure Gathering Pearl and collected the Essence Qi!
He was making a killing!
Another tremendous harvest!
The players had only managed to loot fifteen drops amidst the chaos.
In other words—
There were still eighty-one loot drops left on the battlefield.
Among them—
One had been dropped by the Corrupted Lü Chen.
The others came from Stone-Winged Demon Soldiers shot down across the battlefield, or Tiger and Leopard Demon Cavalry Soldiers killed through concentrated assaults.
Of these—
45 came from Stone-Winged Demon Soldiers.
35 came from the Tiger and Leopard Demon Cavalry.
A total of 3.09 million Essence Qi!
Hang Yu glanced at the Green-quality loot orb.
This was the drop obtained after Street Slayer, Midnight Pig Slayer, and the others jointly killed the Corrupted Lü Chen.
【You examined the loot. Essence Qi +640,000, Magic Crystals +3000, Carnage Battle Blade +2, Tier-Three Corrupted Gem +30!】
For a Tier-Three Commander-Class Corrupted being—
These drops were actually rather average.
However—
Lü Chen had been a minor nobody lacking in Fate Luck.
Even after falling into an Abyssal Citizen, his strength remained fairly mediocre.
Although he reached the Commander tier—
He was still merely a bottom-tier Commander.
Thus—
It was normal for his drops to be relatively poor.
Otherwise—
Midnight Pig Slayer and Street Slayer would never have stood a chance against him, even using underhanded tactics.
Lü Chen had dropped two identical Green-quality Tier-Three battle blades.
【Carnage Battle Blade】Tier-Three Equipment, Green Lower Grade. Attack +69, Strength +22, Agility +12, Negation Penetration +20, Critical Damage +20%, attached skill “Carnage,” Durability 21/60!
Although only Green Lower Grade—
Its attributes and attached skill were actually quite good.
【Carnage】Equipment Skill. Consumes 50 Mana to activate, then consumes 5 Mana per second. Every successful kill increases the weapon’s attack power while restoring a certain amount of Mana and Health.
A lifesteal blade, huh?
Looks pretty good!
It would perform excellently during large-scale battles!
Theoretically—
As long as one could continue killing enemies—
One could keep fighting forever, becoming stronger and stronger with each battle!
This time—
Two Carnage Blades had dropped.
Hang Yu could absolutely take one away.
The players would never notice a missing weapon.
After brief consideration—
He still chose not to do so.
Such a weapon provided only very limited improvement for him.
Besides—
As the mastermind behind the scenes, he generally would not personally participate in chaotic group battles.
Forget it.
Better leave them for the players.
Street Slayer had already cultivated the top-tier Green blade art “Fierce Tiger Berserker Blades.”
If he managed to obtain these two blades through loot distribution—
Then his strength would undoubtedly rise to an entirely new level.
Hang Yu collected all the Essence Qi.
In total—
He gained 3.73 million Essence Qi from the loot alone!
If the portion contributed through player deaths was included—
Then just this single battle had already generated roughly 9 million total Essence Qi profit!
Excellent!
And this was only the beginning!
The scale and quality of Old Wan City’s forces exceeded expectations!
The output from just one vanguard force alone already surpassed the combined yields of Centipede Gorge and Dragon Horse Valley where Jueying had been located.
Of course—
That comparison applied only to Essence Qi drops.
From the perspective of economic profits—
It was an entirely different dimension altogether.
………………
Outside Xinye City.
Cao Anmin said:
“Brother, the Starsea hounds have all been exterminated!”
Xu Ci said:
“For a human Lord to build such a force likely required no small amount of time and effort. Now that they’ve all been buried here, that Lord has probably suffered severe losses to his vitality.”
Zhang Cun said:
“That Starsea Lord really knows how to endure. Even after his troops were slaughtered, he still refuses to show himself.”
Xu Ci sneered.
“Hmph, what do you mean by ‘knows how to endure’? Do you realize how many resources a human Lord must spend to cultivate such a force? I’d say it’s because Lord Cao Ang is present and intimidating him, so the Lord is too frightened to reveal himself!”
“Reasonable!”
Cao Ang expressed no opinion.
He merely felt deeply disappointed.
Among the countless Starsea races—
Humans truly were among the weakest lower races.
How could such pitiful strength possibly stand against Dian Wei?
However—
At that very moment—
“There’s a change!”
“How did all the corpses disappear?!”
Several Corrupted beings discovered that the corpses of the two thousand Calamity Army members—
Or rather, the remains left behind—
Had all dissolved into faint light and vanished into the air.
Not even the slightest trace or aura remained.
Cao Anmin immediately said:
“Brother, this Starsea Lord and his Starsea Offspring may not be simple. They seem to possess some sort of rapid revival ability.”
The Abyssal flames within Cao Ang’s eyes flickered intensely.
“Then I would very much like to witness it personally.”
The march continued.
When they reached the outskirts of Xinye City—
Before Cao Ang and the others could even enter Xinye—
A force suddenly blocked their path.
And after clearly seeing this army—
The Corrupted beings Xu Ci and Zhang Cun both revealed expressions of shock.
Not just them—
Even Cao Ang, the second-in-command of Old Wan City, had the Abyssal flames in his eyes violently surge.
Although he had already heard related information from Cao Anmin—
Seeing it personally still filled him with astonishment.
“HAHAHAHA!”
“I, Hu Hansan, have returned again!”
“Surprised? Unexpected?”
“You people can never defeat the Fourth Calamity!”
“Cao Ang, stop wasting your effort. No matter how many times we fall, we will neither lose nor be defeated!”
“Our Calamity Army follows the Lord to save the world! How could we possibly be defeated by trash like you!”
“I advise you to stop your reckless evil while there’s still time!”
“……”
They had truly revived!
Less than a quarter of an hour after the battle ended—
The two thousand members of the Calamity Army had reappeared completely intact!
Ye Li Meng, Little Bell, Black-Eyed Rui Ge, Mad Blade Old Wang, Lone Boat, Street Slayer, Midnight Pig Slayer……
The dozen or so Calamity Army experts who had displayed extraordinary performances during the previous battle, only to ultimately die beneath Cao Anmin and the Abyssal troops—
Now stood before Cao Ang and the others once again.
Each of them stood proudly, utterly fearless.
“This is impossible!”
The generals of Old Wan City were completely stunned.
The Starsea undoubtedly possessed methods capable of reviving the dead.
Moreover—
These Offspring themselves were special individuals directly created from the Starsea Will.
Yet—
Starsea lifeforms and Abyssal lifeforms were fundamentally different.
At its core—
The entire Abyssal world was the dream of the supreme Abyssal Will.
Within the endless cycles and reincarnations of this dream—
Abyssal lifeforms could truly achieve immortality.
But the Starsea could not!
Even if a Lord possessed revival tools or methods—
Normally they could only revive one or two especially important individuals.
How could an entire army possibly be summoned back?!
That was not an ability a Starsea Lord should be capable of wielding.
Especially not a human Lord whose rank did not even appear especially high!
Revival methods always carried some sort of price or side effect.
Even Abyssal lifeforms—
If their Fate Luck was insufficient or their willpower weak—
Would gradually become increasingly crazed and distorted through repeated nightmare reincarnations until ultimately merging into mindless Corrupted monsters.
Yet—
This Starsea force showed absolutely no signs of side effects!
At the very least—
Not a single person’s aura or rank had declined because of revival!
From this perspective—
The abilities and threat posed by this force were far more extraordinary than imagined!
Cao Ang was deeply shaken.
Based on his understanding of Starsea Lords—
Raising a human troop type to pseudo Tier-Three required enormous resources and at least hundreds of thousands of Essence Qi.
No matter how much effort was spent—
No matter how many years of labor—
Even if one painstakingly built an elite army capable of sweeping across all directions—
One mistake or defeat could instantly destroy everything.
A thousand years of cultivation destroyed in a single day!
That—
Was the greatest tragedy of lower races like humanity!
But if this weakness could be overcome—
Then this force might not differ much from the armies of higher races.
They might even possess greater advantages!
If that were truly the case…
Then perhaps—
This human Starsea faction could actually be worthy of hope!
Cao Ang gradually became interested and asked:
“Interesting. It seems I underestimated you. But I am curious—how many more times can you revive?”
“Hahaha!”
“Of course countless times!”
“The Calamity is impossible to kill or erase!”
“We are immortal and eternal! We will never fall!”
“We will purify every corner of this world corrupted by the Abyss!”
Cao Anmin snorted coldly.
“Ridiculous boasting and utter nonsense. Mere Starsea creatures could never be truly immortal. I refuse to believe you can revive again!”
Without further nonsense—
Battle erupted once more!
Cao Anmin, Xu Ci, and Zhang Cun attacked again.
The Stone-Winged Demon Soldiers, Tiger Cavalry Demon Soldiers, and Leopard Cavalry Demon Soldiers rapidly advanced.
Cao Ang still did not personally move.
However—
The giant scythe in his hand slowly rose.
A mass of gray-black aura spread outward—
Gradually covering the battlefield and everyone upon it.
What was he trying to do?
The Calamity Army immediately became vigilant.
At this point—
They had basically figured out the combat mechanics of these troop types and Corrupted beings.
Only Cao Ang had never personally acted from beginning to end.
Thus—
Nobody knew exactly what his abilities were.
And such unknown information naturally carried enormous uncertainty and risk.
However—
There was no time for thought or observation.
The Abyssal army had already charged once more.
“Everyone be careful!”
“Stay alert!”
“Fight according to the established plan!”
“Everyone pay attention to commands and follow instructions at all times!”
“……”
The Calamity Army clashed with Old Wan City’s vanguard once again!
【Player “Ironhead Kid” has died. Essence Qi +3000……】
【Player “Moose Girl” has died. Essence Qi +5200……】
【Player “Zhajiang Noodles” has died. Essence Qi +12500……】
【Player “Nuclear Hotpot” has died. Essence Qi +4000……】
【……】
Here it came!
Another round of harvesting had begun!
Under the observation of Hang Yu’s Lord Vision—
Although the Calamity Army still remained at a complete disadvantage—
After experiencing the previous battle—
This battle was fought with noticeably greater structure and coordination.
Meanwhile—
Old Wan City’s Abyssal forces had already lost nearly one hundred troops and one fairly powerful Corrupted being.
Their overall combat strength had inevitably declined somewhat compared to before.
As one side weakened while the other improved—
The Calamity Army naturally gained opportunities to achieve greater breakthroughs.
First—
The defensive line formed by the Calamity Army temporarily blocked the hundreds of Stone-Winged Demon Soldiers and Tiger-Leopard Demon Cavalry.
Then—
They deliberately lured several Abyssal Corrupted beings directly into the battlefield.
At this moment—
Twenty top-tier players alongside over a hundred elite players launched a simultaneous ambush.
Their chosen targets were Xu Ci and Zhang Cun.
Although these two Corrupted beings also possessed Tier-Three Commander-level power—
Combined together, their strength was roughly equivalent to Lü Chen’s.
At most—
They could only be considered bottom-tier Abyssal Commanders.
Furthermore—
Because they specialized in magic—
Their mobility and defenses were comparatively weak.
The moment they came under siege from dozens of Calamity Army experts—
They immediately suffered heavily.
“Damn it!”
Xu Ci manipulated hundreds of wind blades that rained across the battlefield like a storm.
Ye Li Meng, Mad Blade Old Wang, Salted Fish Thrust, Street Slayer, and several other powerful warriors were blasted backward on the spot.
However—
Before Xu Ci could continue casting—
Sword flashes suddenly attacked him from all directions.
These sword flashes infused with sword qi all struck Xu Ci’s shield.
The already unstable barrier shattered completely under the barrage—
While Xu Ci himself also suffered multiple injuries.
“Get lost!”
Black-Eyed Rui Ge was blasted away by a wall of qi.
Xu Ci was just about to cast another defensive spell—
Yet at the final instant before completion—
A sword covered in blood-red cracks pierced through his body from behind.
-1612 (Critical Hit!)
Lone Boat’s sneak attack had succeeded!
Not only did it strike a vital point and inflict heavy damage—
It also interrupted Xu Ci’s spellcasting.
Perfect opportunity!
The other players immediately focused all firepower!
Xu Ci’s health instantly dropped to the brink of death amidst the bombardment.
The moment he realized he was about to die—
He immediately activated a self-destruction-type skill.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion erupted.
Lone Boat, Black-Eyed Rui Ge, Salted Fish Thrust, Street Slayer, and the others nearby were all taken down together.
“It worked!”
“Although the losses are a bit heavy…”
“We killed another Corrupted being!”
The remaining members of the Calamity Army all revealed ecstatic expressions upon seeing this!
Meanwhile—
Cao Anmin continuously fired arrows from the air, successively killing top-tier players like Midnight Pig Slayer, Mad Blade Old Wang, Little Bell, and several others.
Yet even this could not stop the players who fought without fear of death!
Under their frenzied assault—
Zhang Cun soon became unable to endure.
In the end—
Only through a berserk final counterattack before death did he manage to take down Toasting the Moon, Dawn, Chimera Wraith, and several other experts.
Brutal!
Far too brutal!
Players collapsed one after another!
It could even be described as heroic tragedy!
Yet—
The morale of the Calamity Army only continued rising higher and higher!
“Holy shit!”
“This round was awesome!”
“We killed two Corrupted beings in one go!”
“Hahaha! We’ll have something to brag about after this!”
“Don’t start celebrating too early! There are still two troublesome ones left! Kill Cao Anmin, that pimp bastard, first—then we’ll deal with Cao Ang, that poser who only knows how to strike cool poses!”
“……”
Ye Li Meng, Artist Pai Zong, Brother Xiao Ma, Niu Shisan, and the others began reorganizing and gathering the remaining elites.
They were not satisfied with the current results.
Thus—
They prepared to expand their achievements even further!
Suddenly—
A terrifying aura that caused hearts to tremble enveloped the vast majority of people present.
【You have been marked by “Void Death Scythe”!】
Marked?
What was happening?
Some kind of curse skill?!
That Cao Ang who had been coldly observing from the sidelines—
It seemed he had finally grown tired of watching.
Gray-black shadowy outlines slowly spread above the heads of numerous players.
“Not good!”
“The strongest one is finally making his move!”
“Don’t be scared! He’s not Dian Wei! At worst he’s just a stronger Commander!”
“What’s he trying to do?”
“Who cares!”
“Kill him!”
“Let’s go!”
“Everyone attack together!”
“……”
Although they had no idea what Cao Ang intended to do—
Everyone felt an ominous premonition.
Ye Li Meng decisively abandoned Cao Anmin and immediately led players in an assault against Cao Ang.
He activated Army-Breaking Charge, rushing at the very front while swinging his gigantic hammer in a violent attack.
However—
Facing the attack—
Cao Ang displayed absolutely no reaction.
He merely casually swung the scythe in his hand.
Yet the moment this seemingly ordinary slash cut through empty air—
A horrifying scene unfolded!
The shadowy substance above the heads of several hundred players suddenly twisted into the shape of giant scythe blades.
Then—
At speeds impossible to react to—
They slashed downward toward the players!
This was a lock-on attack!
Completely unavoidable!
In nearly an instant—
Two to three hundred players were struck simultaneously.
-4533 (Lethal Critical Hit!)
-6533 (Lethal Critical Hit!)
-5587 (Lethal Critical Hit!)
……
Every single person suffered a fatal strike that could not possibly be blocked!
Ye Li Meng’s giant hammer halted directly before Cao Ang.
Because he too had been marked and targeted—
The Void Scythe sliced from his left shoulder through to his right abdomen, splitting his entire body into two halves!
-4644 (Lethal Critical Hit!)
Even someone equipped as heavily as Ye Li Meng—
Could not withstand Cao Ang’s attack!
And—
With just this single strike—
Several hundred players were slaughtered!
Furthermore—
Those killed were primarily the elites!
Once these backbone forces were wiped out by Cao Ang’s single blow—
Only scattered remnants of the Calamity Army remained.
They could no longer form any effective resistance.
Within only a few minutes—
They were completely swallowed up.
Total annihilation!
Another total annihilation!
……
Even Hang Yu watching from behind the scenes felt surprised upon witnessing this.
Although Cao Ang was also merely a Tier-Three Commander unit—
His strength vastly surpassed Cao Anmin’s.
Furthermore—
His attack method appeared to combine both curse and spatial properties into a large-scale assault.
So that was it!
Cao Ang had not delayed acting merely for showboating.
Although he had not immediately attacked—
He had already been preparing for it the entire time.
Throughout the battle between the Abyssal forces and the Calamity Army—
He had secretly been marking targets.
And every marked target—
Would inevitably be struck by that attack.
With one slash—
Hundreds of marked targets—
Regardless of distance—
Were all slain instantly!
The players did not even understand what had happened!
“Pretty impressive!”
“But well done!”
Hang Yu was extremely satisfied with Cao Ang’s efficiency!
This battle alone—
The players contributed another five million plus Essence Qi.
However—
Compared to the previous battle—
The players killed even more targets this time.
96 Stone-Winged Demon Soldiers,
54 Tiger Cavalry Demon Soldiers,
61 Leopard Cavalry Demon Soldiers,
And 2 Abyssal Corrupted beings.
Magnificent results!
The players managed to loot only a small portion amidst the chaos.
At least eighty percent of the loot remained on the battlefield.
Naturally—
Hang Yu accepted everything with a smile.
The Essence Qi dropped by ordinary Elite monsters alone totaled around six million.
The two Corrupted beings contributed another 1.2 million.
The total Essence Qi gained this round reached roughly 12.8 million!
And if combined with the previous round’s 9 million—
Hang Yu had already harvested approximately 22 million Essence Qi from this battle alone!
Before this battle began—
He still had roughly 18 million Essence Qi in reserve.
Yet after only two rounds—
The territory’s total Essence Qi reserves had already reached a staggering 40 million!
40 million Essence Qi!
What kind of concept was that?
The projected budget for this mission had only been around 30 million Essence Qi!
Although he had long known this mission would produce a huge harvest—
Even he had not expected gains this absurdly enormous!
Thanks to Cao Ang!
Not only because his scythe was fast enough—
But also because if Cao Ang had not advanced ahead with a small vanguard force—
How could the players possibly have calmly suffered two consecutive annihilations like this?
Not to mention killing so many Old Wan City troops during the process!
One had to remember—
Although the players had already been wiped out twice—
The Abyssal forces still had not truly breached the defensive line.
Both battles had occurred outside Xinye’s defenses.
Which meant—
The true defensive battle was only just beginning.
And by now—
Dian Wei should also be arriving soon.
Thus—
The feast had only just begun!