The Monster is Coming

Chapter 340 The Value of Existence, The Return of the Evil Eye
The Primordial Altar.

Qi Sheng's consciousness swept across the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range region.

He followed the entire ordeal of the evil spirit.

The guiding wisp of its own also monitors it 24/7.

The Earth Spirit's encounter was not due to recklessness, but rather to the limitations of the Black Tide system itself.

This war logic, based on the tenet of devouring, has always taught evil spirits to measure strength and weakness with force, never paying attention to unknown factors outside the present.

The Evil Eye's perception can accurately scan the energy level, war mode, system architecture, and so on of the current enemy.

It can even help evil spirit warriors accurately deduce the opponent's tactical logic.

But these things are ultimately calculations based on current information.

If the current information indicates that the evil spirit cannot be defeated, it will also retreat.

For example, when the newly emerged Earth Spirit encountered the Giant Transformation Domain, facing a vast number of giant beasts in the golden ocean, the Earth Spirit, after a preliminary investigation, decisively chose to temporarily avoid confrontation.

But this time the situation is different.

The temple guards hidden behind the Monument Abyss Clan are an "unknown factor" that is completely beyond the limits of the Evil Eye's perception.

No matter how powerful the Evil Eye's computing power is, it cannot capture any unknown factors that are completely inconsistent with the information provided by the current scene.

Unless there is a guiding analytical capability to provide a more detailed investigation.

But the evil spirits of the earth clearly did not exist.

This means that the war mode of the Earth Spirit Evil Spirit will always have an unknown risk.

This problem exists not only within the Black Tide system, but also among most factions in the Monster World, aside from players and a few with precognitive abilities.

The Black Tide Legion faces particularly serious risks in this regard.

As natural disasters that devour everything, they are always the ones that take the initiative to attack.

The evil warriors within the Black Tide system are all forces within the surging torrent of devouring.

Expansion, devouring, and growth—this is a cycle within the Black Tide system, and war is simply unavoidable.

Of all the factions players have encountered, the only one that has managed to avoid risks is the Elysian Clan under the rule of the Lord of Elysium.

The experience accumulated over many years made the Lord of Bliss clearly aware of a problem.

Behind every seemingly weak opponent may lie immeasurable war power.

Rather than risk fighting, it's better to give up and run away decisively.

This survival experience allowed the Lord of Bliss to perfectly avoid all risks, even if doing so would affect the development of the Bliss Clan, or even result in substantial resource losses.

This is also the core reason why the Lord of Bliss has been able to thrive in the monster world for so long.

However, the Black Tide system dictates that the Earthly Spirits cannot follow the path of the Lord of Bliss.

The core logic of this survival strategy is: when encountering an opponent, don't worry about whether you can defeat them, just run away and avoid potential risks.

Applying this question to the Earth Spirits, or even other evil spirit warriors, it becomes: If I don't fight this, and I don't fight that, then what is the meaning of my existence?
Choosing to retreat when in a position of advantage, without being able to assess any unknown risks, completely negates the very meaning of the existence of the evil spirit warrior.

Such "absolute caution" as that of the Lord of Bliss is completely inconsistent with their philosophy and system.

Therefore, facing the unknown is a potential risk that evil warriors under the Black Tide system must bear.

If we don't bear the burden, it means that development will be impossible.

Therefore, the death risk encountered by the Earth Spirit is essentially an environmental risk, an inevitable consequence of the clash between the Black Tide system and various forces in the Monster World.

The core logic can be summarized in one sentence: either evolve through the risky, all-consuming war, or stagnate by retreating.

In this war, the evil spirits of the earth face unknown risks.

Determining that the current situation is viable is already an actionable solution.

The result was the appearance of an enemy beyond the limits of the Evil Eye's computing power, which crushed the Black Tide controlled by the Earth Spirit Evil Spirit with overwhelming force.

As for the players' intervention, Qi Sheng had anticipated it entirely.

The information provided in the guidelines indicates that StarNet is about to get involved in this matter.

Switching our perspective to StarNet makes it easier to understand why StarNet intervened.

The guide analyzes StarNet's way of thinking and the logic by which it arrives at its answers.

Its decision to intervene is related to two issues.

The first question is, why is the evil spirit still alive?

Based on past wars discovered by StarNet, wars that pose a serious threat or allow players to directly extract benefits always involve player-versus-player missions.

For example, when the Heavenly Fire Dharma King and the Heavenly Fire Clan descended, it triggered a mission for all.

Two years ago, evil warriors descended on an island north of the Misty Coast, triggering a quest for all players to join the siege and nip them in the bud.

There are many other similar group tasks.

But the evil spirits of the earth are an exception.

Even though the players were completely overwhelmed by the civilized army and could have easily gotten a share of the spoils, the full quest still didn't appear.

This proves that, perhaps, the evil spirits of the earth have value in the eyes of the higher-dimensional deities who control the players.

The second question is, what is the value of the evil spirits associated with the earth?

A superficial analysis of this issue can be understood as follows: the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range, controlled by the Earth Spirit Evil Spirit, is a special scenario that can continuously generate profits.

It has cultivated a divine hall, as well as a large number of top guilds and top players.

It can be seen as an advanced version of Ale's training camp: a pool for incubating the strong.

War understanding, command ability, war cooperation... most of the combined battle group's capabilities were basically trained by the Earth Spirits themselves.

Secondly, the Earth Spirits are constantly evolving and will not be eliminated by players.

In a normal game, the monsters in the starting village provide assistance to players in the early stages of growth, but they are quickly eliminated due to their low strength.

However, the Earth Spirit is constantly growing rapidly, and each growth is accompanied by an upgrade in the strength of the Black Tide, which can bring players more war benefits.

The convenience of stepping out onto the battlefield, along with the ever-increasing war rewards, are two factors that greatly contribute to the development of a player's faction.

Therefore, the existence of evil spirits has practical value.

This may be why the higher-dimensional deities did not choose to target the evil spirits on Earth.

Prior to this, the higher-dimensional deities had actually taken action on several occasions.

For example, the early Yulu Agreement.

The players who participated in the game did not trigger a genocide hunt after losing.

However, later on, competitive players encountered members of the Law of the Underworld Association in the Ancient Gods Arena.

Perhaps it was just a coincidence, but more likely it was because the pursuit was interfered with by a higher-dimensional deity in some way, causing it to descend into the Ancient God Arena.

Factors that are completely beyond the player's ability to handle will be intervened by higher-dimensional deities.

The struggle between those who are poor and those who are destined for misfortune is also a good case study.

Therefore, the fact that the higher-dimensional gods did not intervene and even tacitly allowed the Earth Spirit Evil Spirit, a warrior under the Black Tide system, to grow under their noses proves that the higher-dimensional gods considered the Earth Spirit Evil Spirit a controllable factor.

This is the shallow layer.

The underlying reason may be related to the abnormal behavior of evil spirits.

As an evil spirit warrior, its behavior pattern has long deviated from the conventional logic of the Black Tide system.

It will harm other evil spirit warriors for resources, turning their own evil spirit warriors into its own growth nutrients.

They went even further, establishing a teleportation array in the Emperor's Tomb Mountains, thus creating what players called the "Bully Alliance".

These actions are not the kind of decisions a pure evil warrior would make.

Secondly, the Evil Eye, like the Earth Spirit, has clearly undergone some unknown change.

Otherwise, the local evil spirit will stop it the moment it makes a mistake, and even if it cannot stop it, it will quickly report the situation to its superiors.

Therefore, both the Earth Spirit and the Evil Eye, beings within the Black Tide system, have encountered problems.

Cognitive pollution, divine conflict, unknown transformation... the changes occurring on the Earth Spirit cannot be definitively explained.

It may even be an experimental product resulting from interference by higher-dimensional deities.

The logic provided by all the information ultimately leads to one point: the benefits of the Earthly Evil Spirit outweigh the drawbacks, and it is an existence tacitly approved by higher-dimensional deities.

This is the answer derived by StarNet.

After receiving a clear answer, it quickly contacted the God-King.

Then, the God King issued a call to action on the forum, summoning players from other regions to participate in the battle to defend against the bullies.

Here, the StarNet conceals the potential ideas of "higher-dimensional gods," amplifies the player's interests, and enhances the player's sense of immersion and faction honor.

So from the player's perspective, this issue is not that complicated at all.

The core logic is simple: the bully is dead, and his job is gone.

Players of the United Guild will face the same predicament as when Ale's Training Camp went bankrupt, becoming a war legion hunting in the monster world.

This does not necessarily mean that long-term gains will be negatively impacted.

Hunting offers potential for unexpected gains, perhaps even greater than those from playing as a bully.

However, in terms of stable returns, it is clearly not as good as the local bully, and secondly, traveling around wastes a lot of time.

Before mastering the ability to jump through space, the Earth Spirit Bully who occupied the Imperial Tomb Mountain region held an irreplaceable position.

Qi Sheng was very satisfied with the analysis of Xingwang.

In fact, even if StarNet doesn't intervene, it will still intervene to allow the Earth Spirit Evil to continue living.

He views problems from a more macro perspective.

The Earth Spirit is undoubtedly the most unique of all evil spirit warriors. It breaks through the inherent ideological constraints of evil spirit warriors, making itself increasingly independent.

Both their thought processes and their actual way of doing things prove this point.

Kuroshio has always been Qi Sheng's strongest opponent.

The unknown changes in the Earth Spirit might become a bargaining chip in the fight against the Black Tide. It seems it could become a wedge that tears apart the Black Tide's system.

What he had to do was continue to monitor the growth of the evil spirit and see how far it could go.

So even if StarNet doesn't intervene, he will still step in to temporarily protect the Earth Spirit Evil Spirit.

This is a demon warrior with great research value.

Even after "cutting" the guidance of the Black Tide Demon God, I have never seen it.

After learning more about the Earth Spirit's "Abyss Overreach" information, Qi Sheng's gaze returned to the Evil Eye Tower.

……

The Imperial Tomb Mountain Range.

On the dilapidated tower platform, the Earth Spirit stood still like a sculpture, its gaze fixed on the crescent moon hanging high above.

The black tide energy surged silently beneath its feet, suppressing the restlessness in its heart.

The mother of the Evil Eye, the "Thirteenth Divine Eye," has granted its overstepping request.

It has fought alongside us to this day, and is about to be reborn and return.

But it still couldn't help worrying about many issues.

Twilight Eyes said he'd be sent to the Monster World soon, but how long exactly is "soon"?

Is the resurrected Evil Eye still the same as before?

Thoughts surged, and all sorts of troubles followed one after another.

Taking a deep breath of the energy-rich air under the crescent moon, it decided to put these questions aside for the time being.

Next, it should focus on repairing the Evil Eye Tower.

What puzzled it was that the player group that usually frequented the site had completely disappeared in the past two days.

Similar situations have occurred before.

Players may occasionally disappear for a period of time, only to return one day in a more glamorous form.

This time, however, it seems that he is deliberately avoiding his weakest phase.

Players' erratic behavior is commonplace; it's too lazy to bother figuring out where the players are or why they're not taking advantage of the situation.

Now that the Evil Eye is gone, its combat power has plummeted, so it needs to repair the damaged tower first.

Even without players, danger can strike at any time.

The tower is key to its self-preservation.

Thinking of this, the evil spirit of the earth raised its hand at this moment.

Suddenly, black energy surged from the cracks in the tower, like viscous ink, slowly creeping up the tower's cracked outer wall.

Where the energy flows, the broken bricks and stones emit a low hum.

The repair process is very slow.

The tower has self-healing capabilities, but many of the intricate structural details still require manual intervention.

During this process, every crack needed to be carefully filled with black tide energy, and every damaged area needed to be restructured.

If the evil eye is present, it doesn't even need to worry about this process.

The Evil Eye will complete this incredibly complex repair project entirely on its own.

Without the precise calculations of the Evil Eye, it can only rely on its own observation to guide the flow of the Black Tide.

It only knows how difficult it is when it tries it itself.

During the repair process, the flow of Kuroshio energy can deviate significantly, accumulating into distorted nodules in certain areas. Sometimes, it may dissipate due to insufficient release at critical points, rendering the repair efforts in that area futile.

Without the evil eye, it is impossible to completely avoid errors.

But it is not impatient.

They began patiently smoothing out every uneven spot on the tower and reinforcing every vulnerable point.

Occasionally, it would stop moving and look up at the outside of the tower.

Even without the Evil Eye, it is still possible to project one's perception outwards.

However, it cannot expand its perception to cover the entire Imperial Tomb Mountain Range; its range is limited to its own surroundings.

Therefore, we choose to observe the situation in the distance with the naked eye.

This behavior is like a habit.

I had a feeling that a horde of savage players would come crashing down, so I couldn't help but want to take a look in the direction where the players were descending.

The fact is, the Imperial Tomb Mountain region has completely lost its players.

This unusual quiet made it feel a little uncomfortable.

Time flew by as the repairs were being carried out.

During this period, the four evil spirits that formed an alliance also sent over the black tide energy they had plundered.

It used all of this black tide energy on the repair of the tower, striving to restore it to its perfect state.

Two days later, the repairs were still ongoing.

The evil spirit of the earth stood in front of a huge gap at the waist of the tower.

This is the location where the civilized legion directly bombarded the tower; cracks almost run through the entire tower.

It pressed its hands against the edge of the gap, and the black tide energy spread from its palms like a spider web, weaving a temporary support structure in the void.

As energy was injected, the broken bricks began to wriggle and reassemble themselves as if they were alive.

The process was extremely difficult.

Blood mixed with dark red energy slid down its forehead, and the newly formed flesh trembled from the excessive strain.

Without the evil eye, life is practically devoid of evil spirits.

What the Evil Eye can accomplish in a tenth of a breath requires it to use primitive methods, repeatedly scanning, testing, and refining with mental power.

Many seemingly simple node repair processes actually involve complex details.

Energy flow values, structural thresholds, and the decay of Kuroshio energy repair... all of these have now become thorny issues.

This is only one of the problems.

The most serious problem is the lack of judgment.

It can't provide answers to many questions that it doesn't understand, unlike the Evil Eye.

You have to connect to the node database yourself to look up these information.

The sheer volume of information inside is beyond the comprehension of evil spirits; finding relevant knowledge requires repeatedly searching through different content.

Just looking it up would take a lot of time.

At this moment, the voice of the evil spirit echoed in its mind, a voice it desperately longed for.

With it, you can simply relax and do nothing.

After a quick repair, the Evil Eye will give you a brief feedback on whether the repair is complete.

Even with all the difficulties, the evil spirit did not stop, for it concerned its own safety before the arrival of the evil eye.

Only when the tower is repaired can it control the black tide to generate evil spirits.

Only after the gap was completely filled did he return to the tower platform, lie down, and gasp for breath.

A few minutes later, the evil spirit resumed its work.

This repair involves one of the most challenging core nodes, which is the conversion node between the tower and the "Temple of Destruction (Arsenal)".

The Black Tide can be generated quickly, and this node helps to freely transform evil units.

While attempting to repair it, the Earth Spirit realized that it couldn't understand the structure of this node.

This damned conversion node is like a tangled web; no matter how much Black Tide energy is injected, it's all in vain.

It gives him a feeling of having strength but nowhere to release it.

They didn't even know how to complete the repair project.

Just as it was about to ask its allies in other nodes for help in providing secondary vision, it...

A familiar voice echoed in its mind:

"I know this well, let me do it."

The evil spirit suddenly looked up and saw that the crescent moon above the tower was bursting with brilliant light, and the blood-red moonlight was pouring down like a waterfall, condensing into a rotating pillar of light in the center of the platform.

Countless tiny specks of light emerged from the pillar of light, repeatedly rotating and coalescing, gradually outlining the familiar contours of pupils and dancing tentacles.

This is precisely the evil eye that has been resurrected through overstepping its authority.

"Dinian, it's been a long time."

A greeting from the Evil Eye came from within the halo.

Upon hearing this, the Earth Spirit coldly replied:
"Now that you're back, get to work. The task of repairing the tower is yours."

The blood-red light dissipated at this moment, and the Evil Eye, through the Evil Moon, officially descended upon the tower platform, still looking exactly the same, without any change.

Faced with his command, Evil Eye blinked and nodded in a familiar tone:
"OK, I'll get it done in no time."

After speaking, the Evil Eye extended its tentacles and connected with the tower, causing the tower to tremble violently.

Like a dying behemoth suddenly regaining its heartbeat, the black tide rapidly swirled around the tower, healing the previously irreparable damage.

The black tide energy then surged toward other damaged nodes.

The evil spirit stood still, watching the busy figure, and the corners of its mouth unconsciously turned up slightly.

The player quotes used by the Evil Eye have proven that what has returned is still the familiar Evil Eye.

(End of this chapter)