Fear of food

Currently, even though the Nightmare Clan has accumulated enough energy to upgrade in all its polluted areas, they dare not upgrade.

The nail that sticks out gets hammered down; whoever stands out will die.

Therefore, the Nightmare Clan throughout the world fell into a temporary calm, without causing any new disturbances or the emergence of any third-stage contaminated zones.

But this calm is only temporary. If the Nightmare Clan does not want to sit idly by and wait for their demise, they must seek an opportunity to break the deadlock.

Chen Qi understood this as well. He knew that the Nightmare Clan would not obediently wait to die and would definitely launch a counterattack.

Therefore, he dared not relax and planned to rest briefly in the country before going abroad again.

This time, Chen Qi didn't even go home or see his teammates. Instead, he traveled around the country to observe the pollution situation in various places.

It was found that the phenomenon of pent-up desires in China has been significantly improved and is no longer a major concern.

Look at the Nightmare Clan members he released; they're all working diligently.

Chen Qi then rushed to Chunyu Street.

After entering the Nightmare Clan world from Spring Rain Street, he first observed the current state of the Nightmare Clan world.

He released more than two thousand Nightmare Clan members in two separate instances.

From a cursory observation, it seems to be generally normal, but it is somewhat different from when there were 180 Nightmare Clan members.

Now these three types of Nightmare Clan members have begun to divide up territory.

Furthermore, a small portion of the Nightmare Clan is currently being resurrected.

This indicates that a conflict broke out between the three races, and it was after this conflict that the three races formally divided their territories and defined their own domains.

When the Nightmare Clan was less numerous, the vast open space made it difficult for the three races to even meet, so there was naturally no conflict.

Now, with over two thousand Nightmare Clan members, war has broken out.

Chen Qi could imagine that if he released all 30,000-plus Nightmare Clan members he had captured, the Nightmare Clan world would soon be engulfed in its first world war.

It should be noted that the Nightmare Clan used to number less than 10,000, and the three clans had been fighting each other for countless years.

These 30,000+ Nightmare Clan members, shouldn't you beat their brains out?

Considering the stability of the Nightmare Clan's world, Chen Qi had no choice but to temporarily abandon the plan to release the remaining Nightmare Clan members, as they still needed to remain stable and continue to digest the polluted energy.

The main reason is that there is no need to rush to release them. The current number of more than two thousand Nightmare Clan members is enough to digest the accumulated desire energy in the country.

As for overseas areas, the contaminated areas must be cleared first before it becomes necessary to arrange for the Nightmare Clan to digest the energy of desire.

With the existence of polluted zones, the energy of desire produced abroad is absorbed by the pollution sources in these zones, leaving little remaining energy to penetrate the Nightmare Clan world.

After inspecting the Nightmare Clan world for some time, Chen Qi discovered an interesting phenomenon: the Nightmare Clan world had also begun to have class divisions.

In the past, in the Nightmare Clan world, all Nightmare Clan members were of the same generation, with no difference between them and at the same level of strength.

However, among the Nightmare Clan that Chen Qi has released, there are no first-generation Nightmare Clan members, but there are second to seventh generations.

Differences in strength, with some being high and others low, have led to the formation of different classes.

The higher-level Nightmare races rule over the lower-level Nightmare races, leaving all the dirty and hard work to the lower-level Nightmare races. Even when racial conflicts break out, the lower-level races are always the first to rush to the front lines as cannon fodder.

This is precisely why the casualty rate in the Nightmare Clan War has increased.

Previously, they were all members of the Nightmare Clan, and their strength was roughly equal, so it was rare for the Nightmare Clan to suffer casualties in battles.

Currently, due to the disparity in strength, high-level Nightmare Clan members can easily kill low-level Nightmare Clan members, resulting in inevitable casualties whenever a battle breaks out.

If all 30,000+ Nightmare Clan members were released, a large-scale battle would inevitably break out, resulting in countless deaths and injuries.

Although the dead Nightmare Clan can be resurrected, it takes time, and once the war begins, it is difficult to stop in a short period of time. Before the dead Nightmare Clan can be resurrected, new Nightmare Clan members will continue to die in battle...

Furthermore, since the Nightmare Clan focuses their main energy on war, their ability to digest desire energy will certainly be affected.

It is unrealistic to forcibly intervene and prevent a war from breaking out between the three Nightmare Clan races.

Chen Qi could stop them for a while, but it was to no avail. This was an inevitable process. Only after a long period of war could the three races find a relatively stable way to coexist.

So how many Nightmare Clan members need to be deployed to maintain a relatively stable balance?

This is a question with no answer.

Considering that the Nightmare Clan has no reproductive ability, and it is uncertain whether these second to seventh generation Nightmare Clan members have an endless lifespan like the first generation Nightmare Clan members.
No matter how Chen Qi adjusts things, there will always be hidden dangers, and problems may arise in the future.

Chen Qi discovered that there were far too many unstable and uncontrollable factors in his plan.

The wars between the Nightmare Clan and the birth, aging, sickness, and death of the Nightmare Clan members are all things that Chen Qi cannot control.

If these hidden dangers erupt during his lifetime, he can still remedy them; but if they are left until he dies of old age, the world may be destroyed as a result.

Although even if a great flood were to occur after his death, it wouldn't affect him, Chen Qi didn't want the world to be destroyed by his own hand, nor did he want his future descendants to experience the pollution of desire once again.

Chen Qi couldn't help but start to think again: Is there a better way?
-
A few days later, when Chen Qi went abroad again to clean up the pollution, a piece of news came unexpectedly.

Multiple contaminated areas in several countries around the world simultaneously upgraded their pollution levels to the third stage!

This was clearly premeditated; these contaminated areas had accumulated enough energy and conspired to escalate their pollution levels on the same day.

The purpose was clear: to keep Chen Qi from having time to deal with the situation.

If only a single contaminated area is upgraded, it will be the first to be targeted by Chen Qi and eliminated.

But now more than a dozen third-level pollution zones have suddenly appeared around the world, and they are all located in different countries. Which one should Chen Qi clean up first?
No matter how capable he is, he is only one person, and ultimately he cannot be in two places at once.

Just to travel through all these contaminated areas, ignoring the time needed to clean them up, and only considering the time spent on the road, it would take at least a month!

Every day that the third-stage contaminated zone exists has a huge impact on the local area, continuously turning ordinary people into Nightmare Clan members.

With so many Tier 3 contaminated zones, who knows how many Nightmare Clan will be created once Chen Qi cleans them all up!
Chen Qi knew the situation perfectly well, but he didn't have any good solutions.

I can only console myself: at least it's abroad, and it hasn't harmed my own country.

He still had to clean them one by one.

The Nightmare Clan had indeed planned this in advance; the locations of all the Tier 3 contaminated zones were distributed in a very regular manner across different countries in various directions.

Chen Qi couldn't even find a convenient route, and could only waste a lot of time traveling.

Moreover, it's conceivable that new third-order contamination zones may emerge in the future.

He had just cleared the polluted area in the east, but by the time he got to the west, a new polluted area might have appeared in the east.

He will be led around by the Nightmare Clan, constantly on the move.

Knowing this, they still had no choice but to do it. The Nightmare Clan's scheme was a blatant conspiracy, and one that used their own lives as a bargaining chip. Chen Qi had no good way to break the deadlock.

Requests for help are pouring in from countries around the world. Even India is struggling with the third stage of pollution, let alone other countries.

Even the usually proud Americans softened their stance this time, willing to spend a fortune to invite Chen Qi to help them resolve the Stage 3 pollution in Los Santos. Chen Qi could only rely on his domestic think tank to plan the most reasonable, time-saving, and nationally beneficial route, flying to each of these countries to clean up the pollution.

As global pollution enters its second stage, and pollution in some regions enters its third stage, the pollution caused by desire is no longer a secret.

Online discussions about this topic have exploded, making it almost the only trending topic at the moment.

Online, there's a deluge of comments and speculations.

The truth, however, is obscured by the many speculations and conflicting opinions.

The two main theories are that the pollution is caused by a new type of virus, or that it is the work of an alien invasion.

Actually, the latter is closer to the truth.

However, officials from various countries seem to have reached a consensus not to personally intervene or reveal the concept of "Nightmare Clan".

Compared to "viruses" and "aliens," the Nightmare Clan's existence is more abstract, harder to understand, and more like "ghosts" and "demons," which may cause greater panic.

Even so, for a time everyone was on edge, and panic was spreading... except in China.

Domestic netizens checked the accounts and discovered that the pollution in their homes had already been cleaned up.

Residents from the previously contaminated areas shared their experiences, recounting how their cities were polluted and how they went from being contaminated to returning to normal.

Netizens then realized that there are talented people in China!

As Chen Qi continued to fight against the Nightmare Clan abroad, liberating one contaminated zone after another, news about him spread rapidly on the internet.

He is known by foreign netizens as the "mysterious Oriental Superman," a superhero who knows "kung fu."

When the news reached China, coupled with revelations from some informed sources, people realized that China's ability to maintain safety and stability and remain unaffected by pollution was entirely due to Chen Qi's efforts.

This made Chen Qi a household name!
His home in Jinghai City has been so popular that the threshold has been worn down by visitors.

There are too many people who have been saved by Chen Qi, too many people who are grateful and want to express their thanks to Chen Qi.

The world was buzzing with excitement for Chen Qi, but Chen Qi himself was unaware that he was traveling by plane across different countries, repeating the same thing—eliminating the Nightmare Clan!
Just as he expected, after he cleared out a third-order contamination zone and flew away, a new third-order contamination zone would be created.

The Nightmare Clan kept Chen Qi occupied and wasted his time by constantly upgrading to new Tier 3 Contaminated Zones.

The Nightmare Clan paid a heavy price for this.

Every time Chen Qi destroys a Tier 3 contaminated zone, a large number of Nightmare Clan members die or are subdued by him.

The source of pollution will also be eliminated by Chen Qi.

Chen Qi's safe house was already crammed with Nightmare Clan members.

His ability as a Pagan had also improved after consuming two third-tier sources of pollution.

However, just like the Dream Thief's ability, it still cannot complete the fourth qualitative change in ability.

The Nightmare Clan paid such a heavy price just to delay Chen Qi's progress, so they will definitely make good use of this hard-won time to do something.

Chen Qi also tried to find out about the Nightmare Clan's secret plans, but he didn't get any results.

And so, Chen Qi spent a month working abroad.

More than twenty Level 3 contaminated zones were destroyed!

Later on, no new third-order pollution zones appeared.

"Have I already destroyed the Nightmare Clan's foundation?"

The absence of new Tier 3 contaminated zones may indicate that the Nightmare Clan is no longer able to sustain the costs of upgrading contaminated zones.

However, while more than twenty contaminated areas may seem like a lot, they are still insignificant compared to the total number of contaminated areas covering the entire globe.

Chen Qi did not believe that the Nightmare Clan was incapable of upgrading to create new Tier 3 contaminated zones. They might be feeling the pinch and not wanting to lose such top-tier contaminated zones again.

Or perhaps they have already achieved their goal?
After cleaning up the last few third-stage contaminated areas, Chen Qi returned to China.

However, as soon as he returned, he sensed that something was wrong.

In some areas of China, a small amount of desire energy has accumulated again.

This shouldn't happen under the stable operation of the Nightmare Clan world.

Could it be... that something is wrong with the Nightmare Clan's world?
Chen Qi immediately rushed to Chunyu Street, preparing to enter the Nightmare Clan's world to take a look.

But when he arrived at Chunyu Street, he was dumbfounded again.

The energy of desire that had accumulated on Spring Rain Street for many years has suddenly disappeared!

This remains a weak point, but all the erotic energy accumulated over the years has vanished.

This couldn't possibly have been done by the Nightmare Clan's Enchantress.

While the energy of desire can permeate both worlds, it cannot be completely eradicated.

After all, they need to rely on the way the Nightmare Clan grows "crops" in their world to cultivate sources of pollution in order to extract excess energy from the human world's desires.

This method cannot completely eliminate the energy of desire, leaving not a single trace.

The only explanation is that someone removed this polluting energy from the human world.

Among humans, apart from a very few individuals with special abilities, most people do not possess this ability.

Only the Nightmare Clan can do that, and only the Nightmare of Love!

Only a nightmare can absorb this erotic energy, and absorb it so completely.

"So during the time I was abroad, a nightmare secretly slipped in."

There have never been any romantic relationships in China; they can only be smuggled in from abroad.

"No wonder they kept me hanging abroad through those third-level contaminated areas, their purpose was to prevent me from returning to China."

Chen Qi had already guessed the general idea.

His biggest worry was that the Nightmare Clan had found a way to return to the Nightmare Clan World, and it seems that they may have already done so.

There's probably already something wrong in the Nightmare Clan's world.

The accumulation of desire energy within the country indicates that the Nightmare Clan there is no longer functioning normally and has likely been released.

The Nightmare Clan absorbed all the remaining erotic pollution in Spring Rain Street in order to create obstacles for Chen Qi to enter the Nightmare Clan's world.

This also suggests that the Nightmare Clan likely understands the principle behind Chen Qi's entry into the Nightmare Clan's world, knowing that he exploited Spring Rain Street as a weak point.

Chen Qi wants to enter the Nightmare Clan's world, so he has to find another way. (End of Chapter)