Monsters Are Coming
Chapter 59: Taboo Shielding

Chapter 59: Chapter 59: Taboo Shielding

Through Duan Xing’s narration, Zhou Xiao roughly understood his origin.

The Guidance depicts a world background where Emperor Zhao has fallen, lying dormant beneath the ground of Imperial Tomb Village. The players are inheritors of the Emperor’s Power, and their world-level main mission is to help Emperor Zhao retrieve the lost Source and gain the power to resist the Horror Black Tide.

As for what exactly happened during the ten thousand years after the fall of Emperor Zhao, Guidance did not provide a detailed answer, leaving players to explore and understand on their own.

But with Duan Xing, he found some expansion to the world’s background plot.

Reverse Tide Army is a power established on the Pale Continent after the fall of Emperor Zhao, which quickly developed and grew strong, becoming one of the most powerful forces in the Monster World at this stage.

In the development process, it gathered a large number of racial forces that once served Emperor Zhao, and the Sky Talisman Clan behind Duan Xing is one such racial force serving the Reverse Tide Army.

Their conversation was naturally also heard by Qi Sheng, who was behind the scenes.

He was also very curious about the organization known as Reverse Tide Army.

It is certain that this god who calls himself Reverse Tide is one of the gods who once served Emperor Zhao.

Through the teachings of the four Servants, he learned that before his self-resolution, Emperor Zhao had established a world supervisory authority in Monster World, which was divided into five levels.

Each person within it possessed a formidable power that was superior to the mundane.

Among them, the strongest under Emperor Zhao were collectively known as the Four Gods, who mastered the insight into the world’s origin, even wielding the powerful power to alter the laws of the world’s operation.

They were the creators of the Challenger System, now serving him under the names Guidance, Jiuyin, Yan Ming, and Superdimension.

Below the Four Gods were called the Eight Extremes Gods. Qi Sheng thinks that the "Reverse Tide God" described by Duan Xing must be one of the Eight Extremes Gods, but it is not yet possible to determine which one.

As for Ice Blade who left the cross-century gift, it was not a part of the world supervisors but could only be considered a demi-god level regional overlord owning a fief.

They belong to the strongest among the mundane, possessing the strength to initially challenge the fifth-level world supervisors.

Thinking of this, Qi Sheng turned to the Guiding Water Ball floating beside him and asked with a smile:

"Last time I listened to the conversation between Earth Thought Evil Spirit and Evil Eye, the Reverse Tide Army seems very powerful; they have repeatedly killed high-level war units bred by the Horror Black Tide. Obviously, they are doing much better than you, as former Four Gods, what do you think?"

Hearing this, Guidance sighed despondently:

[Boss, the craziest phase of the Black Tide was when we four were fighting upfront. It was our sacrifice that allowed other forces to develop and catch their breath. I guess the Reverse Tide Army was established during that period, and it seems to have developed well now, having gathered numerous loyal racial forces. Their success has our contributions behind it.]

"How about your relationship with the Eight Extremes Gods?"

[Not so great. Although our world supervisory authority is higher than the Eight Extremes Gods, the Eight Extremes only follow Emperor Zhao’s commands... it’s kind of mutually disdainful, but there are often cooperations under our management, and many races even follow a polytheistic belief, believing in both us Four Gods and the Eight Extremes Gods, hence we occasionally exchange the energy materials collected.]

"Exchange energy materials? I don’t understand."

Hearing this, Guiding Water Ball continued to explain:

[Emperor Zhao possesses the Essence Energy ’sacrificial power’ that can transform all things, while the gods under Him manage lesser energies, and the races they manage often sacrifice energy to worship the gods. To reduce the conversion loss of energy, we often exchange the energy that non-managed races sacrifice to us.]

At this point, Guidance paused for a moment, a thoughtful expression emerged on the surface of the water ball, then continued after organizing the language:

[Simply put, like how Buddha enjoys incense offerings from abroad on Earth, this part counts as foreign exchange energy revenue. Buddha can directly consume this revenue, but converting this foreign exchange revenue incurs energy loss. Therefore, Buddha may choose to directly exchange foreign exchange with Jesus, reducing the energy conversion loss.]

Guidance’s explanation left Qi Sheng speechlessly amused, but it also straightforwardly clarified the relationship between the world supervisors in the Monster World.

Under the reign of Emperor Zhao, different deities supervise various regions of the Monster World. Although there are strengths and weaknesses among them, and the control over the world’s rules also varies significantly, there is no direct subordinate relationship between them.

In specific situations, higher-level supervisors hold greater authority.

Having not received detailed information about the Reverse Tide from the Guidance, Qi Sheng shifted his gaze back to Zhou Xiao.

...

"So your shuttle has most likely been sacrificed to Emperor Zhao, and there’s no chance of getting it back. Give up on that idea."

Zhou Xiao patted Duan Xing’s shoulder and said with a regrettable expression.

At this moment, Duan Xing looked puzzled:

"What did you say just now?"

"I said, once something enters a player’s pocket, don’t even think about getting it back, let alone something that has been sacrificed to Emperor Zhao. Unless you have the capability to go to Imperial Tomb Village to demand it from Emperor Zhao, or have the backing of the Moon Eclipse Clan to return the decomposed item to you, but that’s simply impossible."

When Zhou Xiao mentioned "Imperial Tomb Village," the Zhou Xiao in Duan Xing’s eyes suddenly shut his mouth, and then added "this is simply impossible."

This was one of the series of taboo information set by Qi Sheng to protect the secrets of Imperial Tomb Village. Zhou Xiao unintentionally triggered the taboo, and his spoken words were automatically blocked and retracted by the Challenger System.

But to Duan Xing, it sounded like the conversation didn’t connect well, clearly missing an important description.

After asking several times and receiving only disappearing answers, Duan Xing was completely baffled.

"God of Wealth, is your brain not functioning well? My words are easy to understand, do I need to repeat them three times?"

With an expressionless face, Duan Xing looked at the depressed Zhou Xiao and stopped asking further, instead curiously saying:

"Emperor Zhao self-resolved, and the Four Gods who once wanted to inherit the Emperor’s Power have also vanished. Your persistence is meaningless, but your Player Clan has a better choice... join the Reverse Tide Army."

"Are there any benefits?"

"By joining the Reverse Tide Army, your Player Clan will receive the protection of the Reverse Tide, fear no invasion from the Black Tide, and numerous Reverse Tide Warriors will guard your people. The best among you will even have a chance to become a Reverse Tide Army Soldier, learning supreme power."

"Are there any tangible benefits, like the Purple Soul Ore in your hand?"

Duan Xing: ...

Zhou Xiao’s response left Duan Xing speechless.

He found that this group, calling themselves players, constantly spoke of their faith in Emperor Zhao, but in reality, they only had eyes for benefits and gains; their conversation was completely off-tune.

Duan Xing couldn’t help but sigh, then pulled out a green Information Stone from his arm guard and handed it to Zhou Xiao:

"Fate is a curious thing. This Information Stone contains a set of basic combat skills from my Sky Talisman Clan. The Crystal Energy inside can alter your body’s structure, helping you to cultivate our clan’s combat skills. I gift it to you."

After Zhou Xiao took the Information Stone, Duan Xing transformed into a beam of light and flew towards the sky, leaving Zhou Xiao with a puzzled face staring at the Information Stone in his hand.

[Information Stone]

Item Quality: Special.

Item Description: A storage device that records memory information fragments. It can be used to access internal memory information.

[Challenger Tips: Do you wish to use the Information Stone? This item is a one-time consumable and will disappear after use.]