35: Breath of suffering, evil

When it comes to cultivating solely for the purpose of increasing one's cultivation level, even if it consumes a lot of resources, the total resources consumed are fixed; each level requires a fixed amount of energy.

One billion federal currency in resources can allow an ordinary person to cultivate to the Fourth Order.

Ten billion federal currency in resources can produce a Fifth Order late-stage martial artist.

One hundred billion federal currency can produce a Sixth Order late-stage martial artist.

One trillion federal currency, as long as one's aptitude is not limited, it’s quite simple to produce a Seventh Order martial artist.

Money makes the world go round. With abundant resources, becoming a high-order martial artist is only limited by aptitude; resources, ironically, become less important.

The Federation has a large number of martial artists stuck at the Fifth Order, Sixth Order, and other ranks. They are very wealthy, but their aptitude limits them, causing them to be stuck. Even after decades or centuries, consuming countless resources, they may not be able to break through to the next realm.

Most of these martial artists will establish families, diligently have children, and expand their families, all for the sake of betting on a God Seed.

Once a family cultivates a God in the future, the family will not only instantly become a God Family, with incomparably noble status, but their own bloodline will also be purified to a certain extent, approaching a Divine Bloodline.

Therefore, having children is something Federation people are very enthusiastic about; three children is the starting point, and ten or twenty children are not uncommon.

Lin Chen was an only child only because his parents were too young and passed away before they could enter the period of settling down to have children, so they didn't leave Lin Chen any younger siblings.

Getting back to the main topic, Lin Chen has no aptitude problems, and even less resource problems; he already possesses the potential of a strong individual from birth.

If all goes well, within a year, Lin Chen will be able to raise his acquired aptitude to its limit, and he will only be short of 800 billion federal currency.

With his Fifth Order peak-level combat power, exploring dimensional fragments and earning several billion federal currency a day is relatively easy. If he's lucky, he could gain hundreds of billions or even a trillion federal currency.

In at least half a year, he will be able to complete the aptitude improvement task and enter a stable period of cultivation advancement until he reaches his aptitude limit.

— — — — ● ) o ( ● — — — —

“Brother Chen, Xiao Fanzi, my bloodline is warning me.”

“Dongfang, what kind of warning? Do we need to run away?”

The first thing Lin Chen thought of was running away. Although he is a Copy Body now, he doesn't really want to die, after all, death is not a good experience.

“It’s just very uncomfortable. It seems the surrounding environment has changed, and there are many discordant places, but I can’t perceive what the problem is.”

“Retreat!”

“Let’s run.”

Lin Chen and Lin Fan's first thought was to run away.

Based on their simple understanding, they felt that for such a major problem that even Divine Blood couldn't perceive, running away immediately was the optimal solution.

Suddenly, Oriental Red Sleeve unleashed her bloodline pressure, indiscriminately covering a one-kilometer radius.

As Oriental Red Sleeve’s bloodline pressure enveloped the area, the surrounding environment began to change. The originally lush forest instantly transformed into a place of Decay and desolation, and blurry wandering figures let out painful shrieks.

Countless painful shrieks assaulted the trio's eardrums, and wisps of suffering aura attempted to corrode them.

All three had their own methods to resist the suffering aura.

old dengs book on Lin Chen’s body manifested, expelling the invasion of suffering aura.

Beside Lin Fan, four small pagodas arranged themselves in a Four Symbols formation, continuously refining the suffering aura.

The pressure around Oriental Red Sleeve was dissolving the suffering aura, drawing nourishment from the suffering.

The three each displayed their unique abilities, but Lin Chen was clearly a step behind, only managing to resist and unable to gain any benefits from the suffering aura.

Lin Chen actively protected the two. As time passed, the suffering aura grew thicker and thicker, and more gray shadows manifested from afar, interspersed with some human exploration teams with pained expressions.

Innumerable gray shadows advanced towards Ruins City. As they passed by the trio, they were either expelled or refined, but this did not affect the gray shadows' progress; they would automatically avoid this area.

“This is a grand spectacle. You two, should we join the fun, or should we retreat and flee?”

Lin Chen gave the choice to Lin Fan and the other. He didn't care; as a Copy Body, he was fine with either adventuring or retreating.

Lin Fan and Oriental Red Sleeve had clearly gained significant benefits from the suffering aura. They decided to follow the gray shadows to Ruins City, believing that going there would definitely lead to great rewards.

As the three moved forward, Lin Fan and Oriental Red Sleeve occasionally extracted and stored the suffering aura from the corrupted human exploration teams, rescuing one team after another.

Lin Chen, on the other hand, used Mirror Teleportation to send the exploration teams to the portals located at the four corners of the world.

Mirror Teleportation had already been upgraded by Lin Chen to the Fourth Order, with a maximum teleportation distance of ten thousand kilometers, sufficient for use within the Divine Ruins. However, without preparation, it still couldn't penetrate the Divine Ruins' barrier for internal and external teleportation.

Each rescued exploration team left behind more or less Divine Power Crystals; the valuable ones were worth tens of billions, while even the less valuable ones were worth over a billion.

It is reasonable to receive compensation for saving people; this is a principle recognized by everyone. Lin Chen and the other two saved people out of kindness and sympathy for their own kind, and the rescued teams paid compensation out of public morality and virtue.

An hour later, Lin Chen and the other two saw Ruins City in the distance. At this moment, Ruins City was enveloped in a gray suffering aura, entering a state of mist.

Within the Divine Ruins, it wasn't just Lin Chen and his two companions who were unaffected; many other teams also survived the erosion of the suffering aura, and when they had the spare capacity, they would also rescue other teams.

In the face of disaster, humanity will spontaneously unite.

After countless years of development, this attitude of united effort against external threats has become an inherited instinct. As long as you are a member of the human race, you will spontaneously contribute your strength in the face of disaster.

What a simple concept. Fortunately, this concept has been passed down and was not altered by the chaos of the early 21st century during the age of Dharma's End, before the era of spiritual energy recovery.

During the age of Dharma's End, humanity was almost annihilated.

Divided ideologies, lost morality, twisted laws, opposing genders, inactive upper echelons, and desperate lower classes were the underlying tones of that era.

Fortunately, spiritual energy later recovered, and a group of idealistic people stood up, building a new ruling class to extend humanity's lifespan and mend the moral heritage damaged by the era.

(No allusions intended, just a normal description of the age of Dharma's End)

Outside Ruins City, all the clear-headed teams did not rashly enter the mist of suffering, but instead rescued the exploration teams outside the city that were being eroded by the suffering aura.

The eroded exploration teams were actually very clear-headed, but they inexplicably felt sorrow, recalling the hardships of their lives and the hardships of the era over and over again.

If they did not receive treatment, they would sink into their memories, becoming gray shadows that could only emit painful shrieks, losing their memories, losing everything, with only pain remaining.

Lin Chen and the other two's rescue efficiency was particularly high. Lin Fan and Oriental Red Sleeve expelled, absorbed, and stored the suffering aura, while Lin Chen activated Mirror Teleportation to send away one exploration team after another.

The portals at the four corners of the Divine Ruins were still usable and had not been eroded by the suffering aura. The suffering aura also could not erode the portals empowered with human luck.

At this time, in front of the four portals, armies formed battle formations, protecting the portals and isolating the suffering aura from leaving the Divine Ruins.

The army responsible for guarding and suppressing dimensional fragments is called the Town Guardian Army.

The Town Guardian Army is solely responsible for dimensional fragments.

“Commander, this thing is somewhat like a Godfiend, one that has initially broken through its seal and is wantonly changing the world.”

“Good thing it’s a Godfiend, not a God Spawn.”

Godfiends are to be exterminated by everyone; they are the enemies of all worlds and races. Even the most evil races deeply detest Godfiends.

Evil races are bad people; Godfiends are foolish people.

One plays within the rules; winning or losing will not destroy the rules, only cause the rule structure to change.

The other destroys rules, even desiring no rules, with the instinct to destroy rules, devour, and assimilate everything.

“Apply for a Godfiend Breaking Pearl. With a Godfiend as the foundation of a new city, this new city will definitely develop very well.”

“I’ll go apply right away.”

The adjutant immediately submitted an application to the Federation Godfiend Research Institute.

As soon as the application was submitted, a small hand tore open space, and a small boy wearing a white lab coat stepped out from within.

“Where is the Godfiend? Take me to see it.”

“Dr. Jin, please follow me.”

The adjutant was very pleasantly surprised. Although the Godfiend Breaking Pearl was good, destroying a Godfiend and containing it to build a city would still require some cost, as Godfiends wouldn't obediently wait to die.

Now that a Dr. Jin from the Godfiend Research Institute had personally come, a small Godfiend would be easily dealt with, unable to cause any trouble.

Don't let Dr. Jin's small stature deceive you; he is a Ascension to God at the ninth step, a powerhouse infinitely close to a God. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to tear space directly from the Central Continent to the South Continent.

Within the Divine Ruins, as the last team was teleported away by Lin Chen, only five teams remained outside Ruins City.

Besides Lin Chen's team and Wang Yuan's team, the other three teams consisted of two Federation teams and one civilian team.

The Federation teams, one belonging to the Administration Department and one to the Town Guardian Army, were both top-tier seven-person exploration teams, capable of handling most problems.

The civilian team was composed of nine Fifth Order late-stage martial artists who had reached their cultivation limit. They were luxuriously equipped and thoroughly prepared, solely for the purpose of obtaining treasures sufficient to improve their aptitude during the process of exploring dimensional fragments.