Chapter 182: Chapter 182: Limited-Time Event: The Death of Cold Energy
’What the hell? Why did a limited-time event suddenly start? Is it because I got the Taiyin Red Blood Stone?’ Qi Suian was a little baffled. ’No, that can’t be right. If it was because of me, it should have appeared the moment I picked it up.’
’It’s been half an hour since I got the Taiyin Red Blood Stone. This probably has nothing to do with me.’
Qi Suian looked at the limited-time event, realizing that something he didn’t know about must have happened.
[Limited-Time Event: The Death of Cold Energy]
[Objective: Within one month, maintain a minimum of 1 point of Cold Energy.]
[Reward: New World Pass]
The event’s cryptic message and objective made Qi Suian’s eyes narrow.
’Maintain one point of Cold Energy... It seems there’s a problem with Cold Energy itself.’
’For me, this couldn’t possibly be simpler.’
Qi Suian had no such thing as a "Cold Energy" value to begin with.
This generation of survivors did have an energy attribute similar to Magical Power or Magic Power.
This attribute was tied to the quality and level of their supernatural abilities.
Due to the unique nature of the apocalyptic Cold Winter World, these abilities had become a special stat panel, functioning as a cross between a skill and a talent.
Therefore, they had not only a quality rating but also levels that could be increased.
A level 1 ability passively increased one’s Cold Energy by 100 points, but it could also be increased through a Qi Cultivation Method.
’Then again, there’s no "survive" condition. Does this mean that once a survivor’s Cold Energy is depleted, they just die?’
’It’s not some kind of natural backlash, is it? That would be terrifying.’
Qi Suian indeed possessed no Cold Energy, but if this ’threat’ was indiscriminate, consuming him would be no great matter.
He could handle life forms on a human level, but if he were up against a terrifying existence like the Blood Moon, he would be no match for it.
’If worst comes to worst, I’ll just kill the protagonist and we’ll flee to outer space. This Cold Winter World only has so much value left to exploit anyway.’
Qi Suian wasn’t confident. When he knew he could win, he acted without restraint. Even against an opponent who was stronger—but not outrageously so—he could rely on his protagonist’s halo to close the gap before going for the kill.
But if he were to truly face existences like the Blood Moon or the Golden Light Man, he had very little confidence he could even escape with his life.
A counter-attack was completely out of the question.
[Your line of thinking is not flawed, but where will you find the protagonist among this batch of survivors?]
[No one can be certain when you might encounter them.]
[Furthermore, you should understand that this is a global crisis. What if the danger comes from the sky, or even the cosmos?]
The AI dealt Qi Suian a blow. He could run, but not like that.
"That makes sense..." Qi Suian sighed, then said, "Looks like I’ll have to make some preparations before I run."
Qi Suian thought for a moment. Since the problem was with Cold Energy, if he tried to tackle it from that angle... that didn’t seem to work either.
’If the problem was that Cold Energy had mutated, I could probably deal with it.’
’But from the looks of things, it seems Cold Energy itself is dying. There’s nothing I can do. It’s not like I can just go and save it.’
’If I had that kind of power, what would I have to fear?’ Qi Suian was trapped in a loop.
Not solving the problem meant potential danger; potential danger meant he had to solve the problem; but he couldn’t solve it.
As for handing over the Taiyin Red Blood Stone? If the danger was truly that great, he wouldn’t be against giving it up.
The problem was, he had no idea where to turn it in.
Besides, Qi Suian had a feeling this limited-time event didn’t really have much to do with him.
After mulling it over for two minutes, he set the matter aside for now.
He would wait for half a month. If, after two weeks, he still hadn’t encountered the protagonist, found no solution, and the severity of the danger became clear...
...then Qi Suian would flee to space for refuge.
Staying here might mean death, so he might as well drift through the cosmos. At least the universe was vast; he wouldn’t have to worry about running into any random nonsense.
At most, he’d have to deal with some asteroids and maybe run into some aliens... no, wait. They would be the natives. He, Qi Suian, would be the alien.
As for the AI’s advice? ’Favorable winds, trust the AI. Headwinds, trust myself. Desperate straits, trust the protagonist’s halo.’
The AI was, after all, just an artificial intelligence. Its conclusions were cold, and it couldn’t create miracles.
It was a good thing it was just an auxiliary. If it had been the one in charge, it would have judged Qi Suian worthless and abandoned him at the very beginning.
Back then, considering his potential, intelligence, and physical condition, Qi Suian had been as good as dead.
Precisely because it was an auxiliary and not the one in charge, it had no decision-making authority when it came to Qi Suian’s fundamental interests.
The simplest example was installing modules. Even though it would be an effortless task for the AI, it had no authority to do it.
It could only let Qi Suian perform the installation himself, rather than doing it directly.
The AI was merely a module of the Tai Sui God, and the Tai Sui God was just a suit of armor, designed to serve its user.
Thus, its limitations were significant. It was utterly powerless in the face of adversity or desperate situations.
In favorable situations, however, it was incredibly effective.
Take dealing with the Venerable-level Cold Energy Monsters, for example. At first, they were surrounded and forced into a passive defense.
But with the help of the zombie horde, the tables turned. Adversity became advantage. It was like going into Dynasty Warriors mode, taking down a Venerable-level Cold Energy Monster every two minutes.
It fully leveraged every advantage at its disposal.
Fortunately, Qi Suian rarely faced adversity. Thanks to his protagonist’s halo, most of his encounters were favorable, and desperate situations were even rarer.
"How are we doing with capturing those Cold Energy Monsters outside? How many got away?" Qi Suian changed the subject.
When he had come to retrieve the Taiyin Red Blood Stone, he had ordered the AI to use the zombie horde to capture Cold Energy Monsters—as many as they could get.
One wasn’t too few, and ten thousand wouldn’t be too many.
He guessed the haul would be mediocre, though. After all, the agility and reflexes of the Mutated Zombies were worryingly poor.
Using them as cannon fodder to stall Venerable-level Cold Energy Monsters was one thing—that could be done with sheer numbers—but actually capturing them was another matter entirely.
Worse, they were drawn to the aura of living things and would try to feed, meaning they’d probably start eating whatever they caught.
[This operation...]
The AI delivered its report immediately.
Qi Suian scanned it and got the gist.
"Have the zombie horde escort these Cold Energy Monsters into the Melting Furnace in an orderly manner."
The zombie horde had served its purpose, so Qi Suian decided it was time to get rid of the tools.
Their movement speed was too slow, they were missing limbs, they required constant control... If not for these flaws, Qi Suian would have sent them out to hunt on their own.
He could have harvested their gains every few days and then, in the end, thrown the whole lot into the Melting Furnace—a multi-layered profit.
Unfortunately, the overhead costs just didn’t make it worthwhile.
He was better off hunting by himself; he’d probably get a better yield anyway.
Once Qi Suian gave the order, the AI began methodically controlling the Mutated Zombies, which escorted large numbers of Cold Energy Monsters forward.
The Tai Sui God skillfully dispatched them and fed them into the Melting Furnace. The captured Cold Energy Monsters witnessed this, of course, and began to struggle frantically to escape.
But it was too late.
Once you were caught in the zombie horde, how could you possibly get away?
These struggling ones were the minority, however. Most of the Cold Energy Monsters were already just corpses.
The Mutated Zombies weren’t exactly gentle creatures; they were corpses reanimated by a virus combined with Cold Energy. Even with the AI’s control, managing such a vast number was far from a perfect science.
Capturing targets alive was much harder to manage. Only a few lucky ones survived the process; the vast majority of the Cold Energy Monsters were already dead.
Fortunately, they hadn’t been dead for long, so their value as fuel hadn’t diminished too much.
Even if their value had dropped, Qi Suian wasn’t about to complain. To him, it was all free stuff anyway.
There was another reason, too. The total combustion value of this batch of Cold Energy Monsters was honestly a bit low when considering the number of evolutions the Tai Sui God had already undergone.
So, the small amount of lost value really had no significant impact on the overall total.
It was true that quantitative change leads to qualitative change, but only if the quantity is large enough to begin with.
This amount didn’t even come close to the "quantitative" part of that equation.
"The Tai Sui God is a real Gold-devouring Beast, but why is it such a picky eater? It seems only the top powerhouses of a world can provide enough energy for a high-intensity evolution," Qi Suian said, exasperated.
[The Tai Sui God is not a picky eater. Its growth rate is simply too fast. Only the absolute top tier of Extraordinary Life can provide sufficient energy for its evolution.]
Being a Gold-devouring Beast and having a fast growth rate weren’t contradictory at all; in fact, they were practically synonyms.
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’What’s happening? Cold Energy is dying?’ A chill ran through Tang Qing’s heart.
The sudden limited-time event had caught him completely off guard.
More importantly, the reward was a New World Pass, which meant he would have to leave his home world in a month.
But he understood that first, he had to survive.
The condition of maintaining one point of Cold Energy, as simple as it looked, surely concealed a terrifying danger.
’For me, there is a way. I just need to break through to the sixth level of the Taiyin Refining Technique. Then I can forge Cold Energy into my very foundation.’
’Then, as long as I live, I can preserve that final point of Cold Energy.’
But could it really be that simple?
’I have to find a way to complete that last mandatory mission first.’
He suspected that the Cold Energy Source was likely the "???" that his Celestial Mandate: Taiyin required.
After all, the two mandatory missions had appeared together as a set, and both their objectives and outcomes were beneficial to him.
’But before that, I need to break through to the sixth level.’
’I may not have the Red Dragon Pearl, but I do have the pure Cold Energy that was dispersed upon the Taiyin Celestial Monarch’s death.’
’Using it as a substitute for the Red Dragon Pearl shouldn’t be a problem.’
’The only difference is that while the Red Dragon Pearl allows for a breakthrough upon direct consumption, this pure Cold Energy needs to be refined first.’
In Ancient Times, Cold Energy this pure wasn’t called "yin qi," but "immortal qi."
The Red Dragon Pearl contained a wisp of this immortal qi, which was precisely why it could be used to break through to the sixth level of the Taiyin Refining Technique.
This also served as indirect proof that his master, the Taiyin Celestial Monarch, was the very same Red Dragon that had died all those years ago.
That was why the Cyan Dragon Daoist, by merely observing the Red Dragon Corpse, could only comprehend the *Cyan Dragon Refining Technique*.
Only the Taiyin Celestial Monarch, who had been the Red Dragon itself, was able to forge the six-level Taiyin Refining Technique.
