Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 361 The Astral Collector

A strong person is someone who can freely carry out their will.

Because of that powerful force, they are able to freely carry out their will, so in addition to doing some important things, they are also able to satisfy some of their own private quirks—for example, the snake god worshipped by the Ignivas has the unique preference of only eating mammoths.

The other powerful beings in the Star Sea have even more quirks.

Some people like to plant trees and let greenery cover one planet after another. Even those so-called silicon-based life forms with steel cities are filled with flowers and plants. Others like to raise fish, and some even go so far as to use a wild planet as a fishpond. As for those who like to collect things, there are even more.

For example, in the star sector that the Ignivas destroyed and which was occupied by the Ghost Cultivators, their leader had a penchant for collecting powerful individuals.

However, this kind of collection was not about bringing experts under one's own command, but about turning experts into corpse puppets for one's own control—in a sense, this could indeed be considered as enhancing one's own combat power. However, under the indiscriminate cremation of the Ignivas, those corpse puppets were eventually turned into glass along with the so-called sect's grand formation.

However, this time, the Ignivas are not facing ghost cultivators from some remote star system.

They will face monsters on an even higher level.

"The Collector" Upo Salas, that's what the monster is usually called in the Star Sea. Of course, this is not the monster's real name. No one knows its real name. As for the name Upo Salas, it comes from a race that once saw the monster.

In that race that was mainly composed of various golems, "Upo Salas" means "all-encompassing heaven".

Whether this collector truly achieved comprehensiveness is unknown, but he was certainly infamous—simply because this monster's favorite pastime was to feign friendliness and offer support to unfortunate souls.

Although this support seems to be free, fate has already secretly marked the price for everything. When those unlucky souls recklessly wield that power, that's when they'll have to pay back everything, with interest.

Of course, that's not the point. The point is that these unfortunate souls don't even qualify to be collected; they can only serve as bait to lure out what the monster truly wants.

The most typical example is the classic case known as the "Demon Castle Incident".

It was a planet that wasn't exactly barbaric. The people there had begun to master magic and even had the ability to communicate with the astral plane. Although, due to limitations in technology, the race known as the High Elves hadn't yet been able to explore the stars, it was clear to the naked eye that they would soon be able to build their first spaceship.

It was at this time that Upo Salas set his sights on them.

And so, an unlucky fellow suddenly gained power. He was a high elf convict with whom the high elves outside the prison had a life-or-death feud. But on the eve of his execution, this convict suddenly gained the power to manipulate corpses, escaped from prison on the spot, and even quickly raised an army of the undead.

The former hardened criminal has transformed into a demon king who destroys everything. The high elves immediately mobilized their troops, but it turned out that such a large-scale battle was meaningless to the demon king. After all, war inevitably results in casualties, and those wounded soldiers would immediately become undead, which would become the demon king's fighting force.

The number of soldiers on the front lines dwindled with each battle, while the Demon King's undead army grew larger and larger. At this point, anyone with common sense could see that without changing their tactics, they had virtually no chance of winning.

Fortunately, the high elves reacted quickly enough.

The original large-scale battles quickly transformed into guerrilla harassment by small units. Even if there were losses, they were only small units, rather than sending hundreds or thousands of undead soldiers directly to the Demon King. If there was any problem, it was that this adventure team mode placed extremely high demands on individual combat capabilities and team coordination.

Fortunately, these high elves have an extremely strong learning ability.

Just as they had quickly grasped magic before, they also swiftly understood how to conduct small-scale raids in squads. One or two warriors handled close-quarters defense, one or two healers provided logistical support, and two core mages provided artillery cover. The once formidable demon army was routed. In the end, even the demon king himself was surrounded and killed by the high elf adventurer squad within his castle.

However, just when these high elves thought they had slain the demon king and could restore their former lives...

Their planet was frozen.

From the ruins of the Demon King's castle to the old towers of the high elves, and to the adventure teams still celebrating their victory, everything was frozen in that instant.

After that, these jubilant high elves were collectively included as collectibles in the museum of the collector Upo Salas.

As for why such a thing, which could be considered genocide, could still be reported, it is because these high elves have the ability to contact the astral plane—in other words, there are already beings in the starry sea who have been watching them and want to bring this promising race out and then bring them under their control.

But who could have imagined that, with just a moment of carelessness, his entire clan would be wiped out by Upo Salas.

And there are far too many cases like this. In some ways, Upo Salas's reputation is even worse than that of the Ignivas—after all, no matter how much the Ignivas wander, at least in battle they always win fair and square.

As for Upo Salas...

Often, this Collector is equated with some god of conspiracy, and there are even rumors that a certain mysterious god known for his intrigue was once deceived by this Collector.

"In short, this is probably the kind of monster we're facing this time."

After the relevant information was given, the people from afar made a mental summary.

“Since you’ve been targeted, it means your clansmen have been targeted as well. That damned collector hasn’t failed yet, so we must be careful.”

"I know."

The singing bowl responded calmly.

It's nothing more than a crisis of annihilation. It's not that this is not serious, but the Ignivas have experienced too many similar crises, and each time they are the ones who have the last laugh.

Moreover, there was a vague premonition about the singing bowl.

He always felt that the collector's target was not actually the Ignivas.

"Instead, they are some more valuable goals."

For some reason, the singing bowl reminded him of the wooden figure and the giant snake.

(End of this chapter)