Volume 5: Protracted War Chapter 31: Minor Heavenly Tribulation
In such a huge "World", there are definitely more than a few hundred or even thousands of expert players who dare to take risks and sign contracts with higher-level players. Of course, Afeng is not the only lucky winner. As far as I know, Long Xing Tian Xia and Desert Eagle, the two top magic knights, have also successively obtained speed dragons as pets and become magic dragon knights. Another vice speaker, the elf witch from the northern continent, Qingwu Feiyang, although she did not choose to strengthen the "pet scroll", is said to have successfully subdued a two-headed skeleton ghost king as a pet. It seems that she has also undergone a mutation and her strength should not be underestimated. Even if she had signed a "soul contract" before, she also succeeded with great difficulty and almost wasted the "pet scroll". In order to maintain their respective positions in the "Resistance Alliance", they all had to take risks and make such choices. Everyone is striving to be the first, and if they don't advance, they will retreat!
There are many successful examples, but there are also many rumors of failure. According to the news from Long Xing Tianxia, within the Council, by the end of June, there were nine people who tried to sign contracts for higher-level players. Even though they were all elite players, three people failed. One was a dark-class magic knight, and the other two were neutral-class players, a knight and a fire magician. They were lucky to get the pet egg of the seventh-level monster earlier than others, but unfortunately they ended up with such an unfortunate ending. In the latest comprehensive evaluation to be announced on July 1, the three of them will definitely drop in the rankings and will have to withdraw from the Council. It is said that the three of them have already applied to withdraw from the "Resistance Alliance" and have probably made up their minds that if they fail, they will choose to switch to the light profession so as not to become a "waste person". Their starting point may be good and positive, but the final result is a big blow to the strength and reputation of the "Resistance Alliance", which has a negative impact on the alliance and the players.
This is the case for an organization of only tens of thousands of people. If we apply this to all players, the success rate of leapfrogging contracts is not optimistic. According to a survey conducted by Tianmei, players with super strength have the highest success rate, about 60%, while general master players can barely reach 30%. For ordinary players, the success rate is basically below 10%. In order to protect the interests of the majority of players and prevent them from being blinded by temporary temptations and making blind decisions, Tianmei has published official announcements in prominent locations every day, reminding players that "leaving-level contracts should be cautious, as the cost of failure is too painful." After all, not all professions are suitable for choosing to switch to the bright profession, and not all players can endure the torment of starting over.
Therefore, after the initial enthusiasm and witnessing many failed examples, players gradually became more rational and suppressed their desire to sign contracts with higher-level players. They turned their attention back to the orthodox method and paid more attention to getting a powerful level 6 monster as a pet. This was the safest way. After all, there were only a few players who were both capable and ambitious. Not many people would be willing to play with such a high-risk investment.
So far, our Tongxin League has only succeeded with Afeng. According to his experience, it is a bit difficult for Xue Wuxia to "challenge" the magic dragon with his strength. Therefore, the focus of the search is on other level 7 magic beasts, so the success rate of leapfrogging contracts should be higher. Although Long Kong saw Afeng's success, he also witnessed the failure of the unlucky magic knight in the council who was about the same strength as him. After careful consideration, he finally gave up the idea of leapfrogging contracts and decided to challenge the Iron Armored Elephant, one of the most powerful level 6 magic beasts. His current mount is a mammoth. He has fallen in love with the majestic feeling of riding an elephant, and he chose an elephant family pet. Yue Linglong likes agile mounts, so I gave the opportunity to capture the bloodthirsty mad bear to the Heart Guardian. Although a bloodthirsty mad bear pet egg can also sell for a lot of money, who knows when the mad bear couple will be able to get pregnant with a second child. I don't have time to watch them every day, so it's better to give the opportunity to my companions, which can be regarded as a favor to him.
As for me, I still stayed in the "Dead Soul Space" every day, working hard to satisfy the "greedy" Wu Ma and Tao Tao. After ten days of soaking in the "Hell Magma Pool", Tao Tao achieved very significant results and felt that he was close to the edge of evolution. I guess I don't have the time and energy to find a new powerful pet before the "World Hero Conference". I have to compete with a group of top players who have newly obtained the seventh-level magic pet. In order to make me and the Tongxin League hope to advance to the "Top Ten", Tao Tao's strength improvement is also a crucial link, and it must not be neglected. Wu Ma is a little better, as long as he continues to provide mental power, Tao Tao's appetite is getting bigger and bigger. In the first few days, he could barely "swallow" the Horror Giant Bear Knight, but later it couldn't. The "tonic" gradually upgraded, and now the lowest level is the Horror Mad Lion Knight. It doesn't even look at anything below this level. I really don't know why there is such a problem. It has never been so "picky" in the previous evolutions.
This is really too difficult for me. Even if there are hundreds of Horror Giant Bear Knights and Corpse Witches, they have to divide the territory. Small-scale "hunting" is fine, but I definitely dare not take them to the area where the Horror Lion Knights are more active. The ones gathered here are all relatively powerful Horror Knights. From time to time, I can see some Horror Bull Knights and Horror Earth Dragon Knights passing by. These guys like to fight in groups and join in the fun. They often come out to meddle in my behavior of bullying the few with the majority. Once the battle starts, if it is delayed for a long time, it will often get bigger and bigger, and more and more participants will gather. In the end, it will be out of control and turn into a big melee. The first ones to suffer are naturally the Horror Giant Bear Knights and Corpse Witches under my command who are not strong enough. They are beaten by everyone and become the objects of "bullying" by all the strong men. After suffering several losses, I naturally restrained my actions and became more and more careful. Every time, I would select an elite team to sneak in, select the target and suddenly launch an attack, trying to make a quick decision and avoid unnecessary trouble. The efficiency of doing so is naturally not very high. Even if I try my best, it is only enough to fill my stomach. The life is too "full" and it is difficult to steal a moment of leisure. The former owner can only be reduced to a "coolie", not to mention how difficult it is.
After darkness comes dawn. When the hard work finally paid off, Wu Ma gradually began to slow down the speed of absorbing my spiritual power until it finally stopped. According to past experience, this means that it has evolved and is about to break out of the chrysalis. Since I met it, although I didn't plan to keep it as a pet, I still rushed over to witness its birth with my own eyes. This is also a form of comforting the newborn Wu Ma as soon as possible, deepening the relationship between us, and allowing it to work harder for me. According to the experience exchanged between some undead wizards, this kind of individual that has evolved with the help of the master often has a higher IQ and thinking. If it is well cultivated, it can better play its "subjective initiative" in battle.
The big pupa continuously transformed into a black light, which was sometimes bright and sometimes dim. When it was bright, it seemed full of spirituality, as if it was about to hatch. A shadow could be faintly seen inside. When it was dim, it completely lost its light, as if it was just a black dead object. This huge visual contrast seemed to have been seen on the body of the Hell Nether Dragon King. Now it appeared on the big pupa formed by the horseless, which was quite weird. I couldn't help laughing again. No matter how alienated it was, a dark knight who had lost his mount could not be associated with the extremely powerful Hell Nether Dragon King. How could I suddenly have such an absurd idea? It was too whimsical.
Although I didn't have high expectations for Wu Ma, I spent a lot of effort on it, so I still had some expectations. At least it should be better than the ordinary giant bear knight. After shining for a while, the big pupa began to expand and contract rapidly, but it expanded more and contracted less, and it looked more and more bulging. Suddenly, with a "bang", the big pupa exploded, and a thick black smoke came out. Really, even the way it appeared was so weird, different from Tao Tao and Hong Xing. My spirits suddenly lifted, and my expectations in my heart increased a little. Could it be that Wu Ma was really going to give me a surprise?
The smoke cleared, and I looked at it. I could hardly believe my eyes. Was this the evolved Muma? Why did it look almost the same as before the evolution? Was there something wrong with the system? This was too disappointing.
The body is still the same size as when he was a dark knight, and there seems to be no obvious change in appearance. He is still as black as before, but he has become a congenital knight, with a mount under his crotch, but it is not a rare spider or scorpion, it looks like an ordinary skeleton horse, with a shield in his left hand and a knife in his right hand, which is not related to the horror knight. But I have never heard of evolution failing. After taking so many supplements, could it be that Wu Ma's physique is not good and he is too weak to take the supplements? After evolving once, he still cannot escape the category of dark knight?
But after a closer look, it seems a little different. Although it is not as red as the Horror Knight, it is also different from the ordinary Dark Knight. The armor and helmet wrapped around its body look crystal clear, flashing a dazzling black light. The texture seems to be better than that of the Horror Giant Bear Knight, and it is closer to the Red Star. The bone shield is also twice as big as that of the Dark Knight and looks much thicker. Although the black and shiny saber is only a one-handed weapon, its size is not smaller than that of the Horror Knight's two-handed saber. Even the mount that looks like a skeleton horse under its crotch is covered with a layer of dense scaly bone material on its body surface, and it looks like it is also wearing a one-piece armor. This shape is really weird. The Dark Knight does not look like a Dark Knight, and the Horror Knight does not look like a Horror Knight. Could it be that a freak has evolved?
"Boom", a thunder suddenly sounded in the sky, which scared me. I was only paying attention to observing Wu Ma and didn't pay attention to other things. I looked up and saw another strange thing. In just a moment, the sky that was originally lifeless and without any abnormalities had rolled with dark clouds, and a vortex covering dozens of square meters was formed above us, and it had a tendency to expand. Not only did thunder burst out, but there were also purple lightning of varying thicknesses shuttling through it. It felt like it was gradually lowering in altitude, tumbling and circling with me as the center, and slowly pressing down.
I instinctively felt something was wrong. This didn't look like a natural phenomenon. It looked a bit like the "heavenly calamity" mentioned in the Undead Creatures Encyclopedia. After a closer look, I realized that the vortex was not rotating, expanding, and pressing down around Wu Ma, not me. Wu Ma's behavior was also very strange. After completing the evolution, he didn't immediately restore spiritual contact with me. Instead, he stood still, looking up at the sky, as if he had a premonition of what was about to happen, and was silently waiting for the "heavenly calamity" to come.
What happened to Wu Ma? He was just a low-level dark knight, and he was born with it. How could he trigger a "heavenly calamity" that only extremely powerful undead creatures could trigger? Although judging from the size of the vortex, it should be a "small heavenly calamity" with the lowest power, the power of heaven and earth is by no means so easy to deal with.
Because Wu Ma hasn't resumed contact with me, there is no way for me to check its status information or communicate with it for the time being. I can only try my best to recall the information about "Heavenly Tribulation" recorded in the "Encyclopedia of Undead Creatures" to see if I can explain what is happening before my eyes.
Oh, I got it, I remembered, the Destruction Knight, in the "Dead Soul Space", there is a very rare type of Destruction Knight that can trigger a "heavenly calamity". Among all the undead creatures, the Destruction Knight can be regarded as an extremely evil existence. To be more precise, it is because they are extremely bloodthirsty, not bound by any rules and legal principles, acting recklessly, killing all the undead creatures weaker than themselves, devouring their soul energy to strengthen themselves, they are crazy and unreasonable, taking their own extreme strength as the ultimate goal, and not caring about anything else. Moreover, because the Destruction Knight has almost unlimited growth, as it devours more and more soul energy, it will gradually become more powerful through repeated plans. For any type of undead creature, it is an extremely dangerous enemy that will be faced now or in the future, and no one will welcome their existence. To put it more directly, the Destruction Knight is the public enemy of almost all undead creatures. The weak try their best to avoid them, and the strong chase them madly. Everyone hates them, and ghosts hate them, and they are not tolerated in the world.
Moreover, the system will not allow the Destruction Knights to develop freely. Once they are strong enough, they may threaten the balance between species in the "Dead Soul Space". The "Heavenly Tribulation" is a harsh test set up to restrict their evolution. Every time they evolve and gain more powerful power, they must first face a "Heavenly Tribulation". The Destruction Knights who can survive safely are truly considered to have evolved successfully and have gained the right to continue to survive.
