Chapter 301 – Heavenly Aberration, Eternal Life

A young Winged-People powerhouse departed in despair, leaving behind only the treasure offered as reward, still shimmering with an alluring radiance.

Dolai stored the treasure away and glanced around, noticing the Winged-People still appeared dazed and foolish. It fell into deep thought.

‘Could it be that I, Dolai, exerted too much force?’

‘But you were the one who told me to go all out.’

Dolai felt wronged.

Moreover, this fellow was rather weak—despite being a “half-step conceptualization-level” powerhouse, he surrendered after just a couple of moves.

“He seems weak, but it’s not due to lack of power. Rather, his combat will and combat experience are severely lacking.”

Through Dolai’s fragmented descriptions, Mu Yuan could roughly assess the situation.

Actions like “standing still after unleashing a major technique” and “only feeling fear when surrounded” clearly indicated this Winged-People’s combat experience was extremely limited.

His experience in life-or-death battles might be zero.

This wasn’t surprising. The Winged-People Kingdom had long been isolated, with no external interactions. Within the kingdom, the Winged-People population was actually quite limited, and martial culture didn’t appear to be prevalent.

Yu Baisheng’s numerical stats might not be bad—possibly comparable to the Demonflame King Rider—but his experience and willpower were far inferior to the latter’s.

Moreover,

“These Winged-People all appear to be native inhabitants rather than combat-class units.” Unlike combat-class units, they possessed self-awareness and had undergone years of learning, enabling them to handle numerous tasks beyond combat.

However, compared to combat-class units, they had disadvantages: no innate combat courage, and no unwavering heart dedicated to the path of battle.

For reference, consider Daisy.

When Daisy cultivates to Fourth Order Peak, her “numerical stats” will certainly surpass this Winged-People powerhouse, but her comprehensive combat prowess… shouldn’t be expected to match.

Mu Yuan actually wanted to establish an alliance with the Winged-People Kingdom. In these high-risk territories surrounded by monster factions, living-being factions were natural allies.

However, the Winged-People Kingdom didn’t seem interested in cooperation.

Not even mentioning alliances—they weren’t prepared to engage in basic trade either. This despite their kingdom’s small territory inevitably creating resource shortages, even if they were self-sufficient.

Mu Yuan could somewhat understand this stance.

This was the deep Wilderness. Mere survival was already an extraordinary achievement. After decades, centuries, or even longer, they had likely grown accustomed to this mode of existence.

However, this survival model could only guarantee temporary safety. In Mu Yuan’s view, it was merely slow death.

Of course, he was merely an outsider who didn’t fully understand the Winged-People Kingdom’s actual situation. Perhaps they were preparing some super plan?

“Legends say our Winged-People Kingdom was extremely glorious centuries ago, having established numerous Sky-Cities.”

Yu Rongyue recounted their kingdom’s glorious history.

Yet as he spoke of this history, he felt no tangible connection to it. His generation, including the previous and even earlier generations of elders, had opened their eyes to this world already within Yu Nation Village. The legendary, supremely glorious Winged-People Dynasty existed for them only as fragments in historical records.

They sometimes wondered: did such a world truly exist?It was precisely because they had glimpsed the vast world and expansive skies recorded in history that they were unwilling to remain confined to a small corner.

The Winged People were meant to soar high in the heavens.

Now, they were merely trapped in a spider’s web, like birds with broken wings.

“I truly wish to establish communication and exchange with your Tianyuan Nation, but Her Majesty the Queen has no such intention, and I dare not defy her.”

As he spoke, his gaze involuntarily drifted toward the direction Yu Baisheng had departed, peering into the distance.

This strongest of the younger generation, the leading figure of the radical faction, was among the very few who dared to disobey the Queen’s commands.

However, Yu Baisheng seemed to have suffered a heavy blow. Before leaving, he murmured despondently, “Dangerous… the outside world is truly too dangerous,” and similar phrases.

Judging by his state, not only would he no longer serve as the radical faction’s leader in the future, but he might even become more conservative than the conservatives themselves.

Several hours later, Dolai left the Yu Nation Village, carrying a communication token.

Behind it, faint ripples shimmered in space.

The entire entrance to the Winged-People Kingdom, along with the wilderness structure ‘Vitality Spring,’ had vanished without a trace. No matter how hard Dolai looked left and right, it couldn’t find the slightest hint of spatial incongruity.

Without the Guiding Compass for positioning, even Dolai would find it nearly impossible to locate that entrance again.

This demonstrated the sophistication of the Winged-People Kingdom’s concealment method.

“After all, the Winged-People Kingdom was a major nation before the Cataclysm.” While many Winged People were skeptical of their own history, Mu Yuan believed it.

Multiple verifications confirmed that a Winged-People Dynasty had indeed existed in history.

After the dynasty’s fall, this Yu Nation Village was likely one of the surviving remnants—and possibly the only remaining group.

Regardless of their current strength, they undoubtedly possessed profound heritage.

Lord Mu also expressed envy.

He currently wished to conceal the Tianyuan Territory, only emerging after Dolai, Deadbone, and his other commanders had advanced to the Legendary rank. Unfortunately, he lacked such heritage.

He could only focus on finding ways to pacify the unstable factors in the surrounding areas.

…

Winged-People Kingdom, the royal court.

A young female Winged Person entered with a complex expression.

She was the leading figure of the conservative faction among the Winged People. Like Yu Baisheng, she was a descendant of Her Majesty the Queen.

“Mother, are we truly not going to cooperate with this human force? This is the only living civilization we’ve encountered in decades. We can’t miss this opportunity!”

“Do you think… I am unaware…”

A hoarse voice slowly emerged from the depths of the court.

From the shadows, the Featherfolk Queen stepped forward. Her gait was elegant, her robes luxurious, and every movement exuded the dignity and nobility of a queen.

However, the wings behind her—which should have been sacred and magnificent white—were now mottled, ashen, and sparse. As she walked, feathers drifted down, shattering in the interplay of light and shadow.

Her face was also wrinkled, like dried tree bark. One could only infer from her silhouette that this queen might have possessed peerless beauty in her youth, but now, her charm had faded, leaving only age.

In truth, she was not old—merely over a hundred years. Winged People naturally had longer lifespans than humans, and advancing to the Legendary rank further extended one’s life. At her age, the Featherfolk Queen was, at most, considered a young adult.However, she had suffered severe injuries, wounds to her very origin.

To this day, they still haven’t healed.

Her lifespan has also been greatly reduced.

And this was the price of exploring the outside world.

“Overlord Snakemen and Overlord Gnolls are extremely terrifying. It’s hard to say whether this human faction can survive, or for how long. It’s possible they could be wiped out tomorrow. Cooperating with a living faction that could perish at any moment is meaningless and might even bring harm to our Winged-People Kingdom.”

“Let’s wait until they prove they can survive.”

This was one of the reasons she had Old General Ban reveal information about the surrounding factions.

Only those capable of surviving amidst the watchful eyes of several overlords would qualify to cooperate with their Winged-People Kingdom.

…

“Boom—”

Outside Stone Ridge Town, roaring sounds came one after another. The sky was filled with artillery fire as monster bodies continuously shattered into pieces, while new monsters emerged from the horizon, baring their ferocious fangs and charging toward the town.

“This is already the 26th large-scale monster wave we’ve encountered these days.”

“Additionally, 19 players have lost contact in the wilderness and are presumed to have met with misfortune.”

At the town command center, an official player reported.

Town Chief Cui Long’s expression turned grave.

These missing players were mostly those who had ventured out to explore without authorization. Despite Stone Ridge Town issuing various warnings and notices, some players who failed to join the official exploration teams still considered themselves exceptional and insisted on delving deep into the wilderness. There was no way to stop them.

“The situation of our Stone Ridge Town has likely been exposed to many monster factions. We cannot view these monster factions with old perspectives and outdated experiences.”

Facing the various Lords in the meeting, he paused before continuing, “Previously, the monster tribes we faced were mostly established for only a few years, and their leader monsters possessed limited intelligence. During the Crimson Mist disaster month, we confronted some high-level intelligent monsters, but those creatures were mostly corrupted by the Crimson Mist, having lost much of their rationality and retaining little wisdom. But now…”

“These intelligent monsters around us know how to mine, how to enslave, and even how to drill armies.”

“They might already be secretly plotting plans against us.”

Stone Ridge Town was quite large, with numerous buildings and towering city walls. Such a town suddenly appearing in the wilderness was naturally extremely conspicuous.

Even if Town Chief Cui Long wanted to implement concealment measures, there was no way.

Moreover, Stone Ridge Town contained many players who couldn’t be completely controlled. Players represented a powerful force, but their presence and the various traces they left behind would also expose Stone Ridge Town more quickly.

No matter what they did, players couldn’t be commanded with absolute discipline like military units.

However, precisely because Stone Ridge Town possessed numerous advanced players and experienced Lords, Town Chief Cui Long had quickly managed to investigate most of the surrounding area’s situation.

“Currently, we’ve discovered nine Taixuan Territories, with the farthest one being 390 kilometers from our Stone Ridge Town… but this distance is shorter than the pre-cataclysm distance between two places.”

“Additionally, we’ve found 26 monster tribes, three of which are exceptionally large in scale. Mad Blade Lord judges that these three major tribes all possess multiple Fourth Order BOSSes stationed within them.”

He projected several photographic images.The most striking feature was a city wall over twenty meters tall. The wall was entirely brownish-red in color, unevenly constructed as if piled up from countless pieces of broken flesh.

Not far from the wall, one could vaguely make out numerous eerie and towering flesh towers.

On this scale, it was clearly a monster city.

Many advanced players and experienced Lords were astonished. They had heard this was a large Tribe primarily composed of beastmen. They were accustomed to beastmen, but when had they ever seen such a bizarre beastmen Tribe?

It wasn’t a matter of size; it felt strange, unreasonable, and utterly eerie.

Town Chief Cui Long, Mad Blade Lord, and a few others were also seeing this type of monster force for the first time. However, due to their higher status and greater exposure to powerful figures, they had heard some rumors.

“Rumors say that monsters have their own factions.”

“Some monsters worship fallen gods and forge totem pillars—this is the fallen god faction.”

“There are also beings at the pinnacle of intelligent monsters who establish Monster Kingdoms, ruling over countless minions.”

“Among them, one Monster Kingdom claims to be ‘Heavenly Aberration Eternal Life.’ They revere flesh, believe in and pursue eternal life through flesh. The beastmen Tribe we’re facing is likely one of the minions of Heavenly Aberration Eternal Life. They are no longer quite like normal monsters; their corruption is more profound. Beastmen are merely their external shells; their true essence is probably that of aberrant flesh monsters.”

“And what Heavenly Aberration Eternal Life excels at… is creating amalgamated monsters.”

By the time Cui Long reached this point, many Lords and advanced players had already changed expressions.

They were people who had encountered amalgamated monsters and knew full well their terror.

The leader of the Silver Mercenary Group recalled their encounter in the Land Between Worlds over half a month ago. At that time, they faced a colossal entity amalgamated from thousands, even tens of thousands of Snakemen.

So the question arose: was that Snakemen settlement worshipping the Snake God, belonging to the fallen god faction, or had they integrated into the flesh, subordinate to Heavenly Aberration Eternal Life?

Town Chief Cui stated, “This Tribe is a minion of Heavenly Aberration Eternal Life. Even if there is no Legendary Realm existence inside, it must possess amalgamated monsters far surpassing Fourth Order Peak, even Dragon Gate List experts.”

“Even relying on several outstanding-grade defensive structures, it will be very difficult for us to hold.”

“For this reason, I plan to advance the promotion trial of Stone Ridge Town ahead of schedule. The remaining defense tasks will be entrusted to all of you.”

…

Deep in the Wilderness, within a vast Gnoll Tribe covering a large area, a burly Goblin adorned in magnificent Treasure Armor emerged.

Beside him stood an equally robust Gnoll.

However, compared to the vast majority of Gnolls in the Tribe, this Gnoll’s fur displayed an eerie crimson hue, and the muscles on its body seemed to writhe as if possessing a life of their own.

The Goblin Prince took a deep look at this Gnoll Legend and strode away.

“So it has come to this after all.”

“This Prince obtained a Nest Heart in the Land Between Worlds, yet to restore the glory of the Goblin Kingdom, relying on this Prince alone is far from enough.”

He had originally found an ally, but that ally was slain by a Legendary expert from Taixuan with a single Sword strike, leaving him alone once again in the blink of an eye.

He remembered this grudge.

He had also been chased all over by the Celestial River Sword Saint before.

Once again, he held a grudge.The Goblin Kingdom had also fallen at the hands of the Taixuan Alliance.

He had once again recorded a third great grievance.

Some time ago, the fusion of the two realms caused changes in the outer regions of the Taixuan Alliance. The Goblin Prince discovered he had been transported deeper into the wilderness, thus evading the pursuit of the Celestial River Sword Saint.

Clearly, destiny favored him.

“When the glory of the goblins is restored, it shall be the time for this prince to return and seek vengeance.”

“Until then, this prince has no choice but to borrow the power of Heavenly Aberration Eternal Life and become one with them.”

He did not wish for this.

Beneath the Crimson Mist, there were three types of factions.

First, the Fallen Gods; second, the Monster Kingdom; their Goblin Kingdom was the third type. They were originally living beings too, but after suffering a great defeat during the calamity, they were corrupted by the Filth and fell into depravity.

He had always believed they were fundamentally different from the other monsters born from the Foul Nests and Crimson Mist.

They were the true individuals.

And so, the Goblin Kingdom perished.

The Goblin Prince finally understood, “Only by embracing the flesh can one achieve eternity.”

“Next, this prince must find a suitable Treasure Land to plant this Nest Heart.”

He thought, striding southward.

(End of Chapter)