The first thing that catches the eye is the old tree at the village entrance. It still stands there with its intertwined roots, but beneath it lie several shriveled corpses, drained of blood, lying haphazardly. Their faces are twisted, eyes wide open, as if witnessing an unspeakable terror in their last monts of life. One elder, gripping a sickle tightly, has fingers turned white from the effort, seemingly resisting before death.
Walking along the narrow dirt road, most of the farmhouse doors are half open. By the threshold of one house, a young figure lies hugging a child closely, the child nestled tightly in the young one’s arms. Both bodies are similarly drained of blood.
"What a beast!"
"Who the hell did this? Attacking a peaceful force, it’s too evil."
Upon seeing this scene, the players spoke up in the team voice channel.
With a darkened face, Captain Fang Zhi led the team to the center of the village.
They saw an Earth-eating elder, face full of despair and eyes vacant, dragging corpses and stacking them in the village center to burn.
The "smoke" they saw was indeed from the burning corpses rising up.
Standing before the elder who was dragging the corpses, Fang Zhi stopped his path and asked solemnly:
"What happened here?"
The Earth-eating elder slowly lifted his head, recognizing Fang Zhi as soone from a frequently visiting foreign force. His eyes regained so clarity, but the despair in their depths remained, and he explained in a hoarse voice:
"We were invaded, all the tribe’s resources were plundered, and even the tribespeople beca the food for the invading force... all dead."
As he spoke, the elder’s lips trembled uncontrollably, and his hollow gaze held endless fear.
"Where’s the Clan Leader?"
"Dead."
Upon hearing this, Fang Zhi’s expression turned grim.
He then inquired in detail about the specific circumstances from the Earth-eating elder.
He learned that just half a day ago, a foreign force clad in black armor suddenly attacked. The Earth Eater Clan Chief tried to offer resources for peace, but the attacking force ignored the request and slaughtered everyone, draining them dry, then took away all the spirit plants in the spirit field.
The explaining elder was hidden in the food storage cellar, spared from death.
Having learned the details, Fang Zhi ground his teeth in hatred, then asked why the elder was burning the clan’s bodies.
The elder explained that in the Earth-eating Clan’s tradition, the souls of the deceased were confined to their bodies, and only through burning with fierce flas could their souls be elevated.
The remaining ashes would be made into stone walls and sent to the cetery, which is their way of mourning the dead.
Understanding the reason, Fang Zhi couldn’t help but sigh:
"Brothers, lend a hand, we know them through affinity, let’s help out."
Facing the leader’s suggestion, mbers of the team agreed, and started gathering the corpses from the village, suppressing their grief and anger to drag them to the central ground for cremation.
Hours later, looking at the raging flas on the ground, Fang Zhi sighed internally.
Although it’s just a ga, witnessing such a tragic scene touched him deeply, making him feel powerless.
Turning to look at the elder standing aside, whose tears had dried up, Fang Zhi asked:
"What are your plans?"
Hearing this, the elder took out a gemstone, radiating brilliant light, from his pocket and handed it to Fang Zhi:
"The Clan Chief had hide in the cellar to protect this inheritance treasure. Now that they are all gone, living alone is aningless, I wish to follow them... if possible, I’d like to ask you a favor, you can refuse of course."
"Speak." Fang Zhi did not take the gemstone, nor did he activate decomposition.
"My tribe has a cetery 16 kiloters north built, which is also where our ancestors first arrived in Monster World. I request you to bury the stone wall made from our cremated tribe mbers there."
"And you?"
The Earth-eating elder shook his head, gazing at the still-burning fire ahead, muttering.
Fang Zhi wanted to comfort him, but didn’t know what to say. Words like "it’s better to live" seed hollow and weak, in the end, he could only nod and say:
"Alright, we promise you."
"Thank you." With that, the elder stood up and placed the luminous gemstone into Fang Zhi’s hand:
"I had foreseen this day would co. In this world, weakness is a sin. This inheritance treasure is for you."
As he said this, the elder seed to have made so kind of decision.
Not long after, the fla went out.
Standing before the gathered ashes, the Earth-eating elder beca a figure of fla, as his Qi-Blood burned within him.
The surrounding ashes under the elder’s control converged into his body, eventually forming into a stone slab nearly ten ters high.
With a sigh in his heart, Fang Zhi looked down at the gemstone in his hand.
[Earth-eating Gold]:
Item Quality: 49
Item Description: A spiritual material created by the Earth-eating Clan over generations, recording vast amounts of their historical information and technical data, usable for weapon and equipnt forging or for sacrifice to Emperor Zhao.
...
A quality 49 material is already very high.
At this stage, the highest quality item players have encountered is Liver Emperor Group’s "Tongzi"’s necklace, with a quality of 285.
Common player-used weapons and equipnt have a quality of about 20.
Sacrificing this quality 49 item to Emperor Zhao would yield more than ten thousand sacrificial power points.
With a sigh in his heart, Fang Zhi put the gemstone into his space bag, deciding to lead his team to complete the Earth-eating elder’s last request.
Looking up at the stone slab, its size clearly cannot fit into the space bag.
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