Chapter 203: Chapter 203: Wait, My Enemies Got Intercepted?
Before the Pure-bloods from the Level 3 Frosty Noble Sanctuary arrived, Qi Suian was already studying the Corpse Ghost General’s Fire Seed.
Compared to the Rivet Knight’s Fire Seed, the Corpse Ghost General’s Fire Seed was naturally more valuable.
Its higher level meant the encryption covered a smaller area.
Coupled with his previous data and experience, his research on the Corpse Ghost General’s Fire Seed didn’t hit any bottlenecks. Instead, he studied it all the way up to the encrypted area.
The Corpse Ghost General’s Fire Seed, like the Rivet Knight’s Fire Seed, possessed an attribute panel recognized by the doomsday game.
It also had the two traits of Sanctuary Land and Symbiotic Armor. The only difference was its slightly higher quality, ranging from D~A instead of E~A.
This verified Qi Suian’s theory: the quality of a Level 1 Fire Seed didn’t fluctuate—it was a straight A-Grade.
As for a Level 1 Fire Seed reaching S-Grade, that was probably unrealistic.
He estimated that only the Fire Seeds of Eden, triumphant among the twelve great Sanctuaries, would be of S-Grade quality.
’The structure is more complex and refined, and its applications in every respect are far superior to a Level 4 Fire Seed.’
’Furthermore, compared to the Rivet Knight’s Fire Seed which is still in a developmental stage, the Corpse Ghost General’s Fire Seed is already in its complete form.’
’To advance further, it needs a Level 3 Fire Seed to lift its restrictions.’
’But... this involves a very serious problem: a higher-level Fire Seed cannot raise a lower-level Fire Seed to its own level.’
’So, for the Corpse Ghost General’s Fire Seed to become a Level 3 Fire Seed, the higher-level Fire Seed that it split from would need to reach Level 2 first.’
’This has prevented the Corpse Ghost General’s Sanctuary from ever advancing. Its superior is blocking its path to promotion.’
With two Fire Seeds to compare, especially since they were from the same lineage, Qi Suian reached these conclusions as easily as a fish in water.
It was precisely for these reasons that such a strict hierarchy between Sanctuaries was forged.
He estimated that since the beginning of the Wasteland Era, probably very few Sanctuaries had successfully been promoted.
Because if you wanted to level up, you had to level up your superior first. This was something basically no normal person could achieve.
A Level 1 could not promote a Level 2, only support a Level 3.
However, it was no easy feat for a Level 3 Sanctuary to even catch the eye of a Level 1 Sanctuary.
More importantly, promoting a Sanctuary incurred a cost, and compared to that expense, it was better to just split the Fire Seed directly.
A Level 1 could just directly create a Level 2, one that would have a close relationship with the Level 1.
As for a Level 3, there was always a Level 2 in between. How close could they really be?
Under the influence of numerous factors, the number of Sanctuaries that successfully leveled up was truly few and far between.
Especially since the Sanctuaries were more like independent city-states rather than having a relationship like a capital and its local governments.
Theoretically, there was no subordinate-superior authority between them.
Therefore, they had no obligation to help or take responsibility for each other.
At most, there was only communication between them.
"Sanctuaries of Level 4 and above can communicate. It’s a shame I can’t deploy this Sanctuary, or I could go fishing," Qi Suian said with some regret.
He wanted to, but the Corpse Ghost General’s Sanctuary wouldn’t listen to him at all and was constantly rejecting him.
But now that it was in its Fire Seed form, it was simply powerless to resist, allowing Qi Suian to study it as he pleased.
Being studied passively was one thing, but it definitely wouldn’t offer active help.
"Still, the level of intelligence has definitely increased. ’A Level 1 Fire Seed doesn’t have a true artificial intelligence, does it?’" Qi Suian muttered.
He then went through the data again. This time, his greatest gains, aside from the Corpse Ghost General’s Fire Seed and a large amount of fuel, were the complete data on the Fire Seed splitting process.
The Corpse Ghost General’s Fire Seed had, of course, split off other Fire Seeds several times. Where else would the Riveting Knight Sanctuary have come from?
In the recorded cases, they were all Elders who voluntarily left the Sanctuary to pioneer new territories.
These types of Elders were generally ambitious people with no real power.
Of course, most were actually caught up in internal power struggles; few looked outward to expand.
But as long as there was one, a new, lower-level Fire Seed could basically be born.
An Elder who went out to pioneer would receive a considerable amount of resources and could also take a portion of the Pure-bloods who volunteered to leave as their first batch of personnel.
These were usually commoners with few prospects for advancement. After leaving with the Elder, they could basically all become Warriors.
The price, however, was that for ten years after the new Sanctuary was established, they had to pay ten percent of their profits to the parent Sanctuary.
This wasn’t considered a lot, since you did leave with both manpower and resources.
Of course, for the parent Sanctuary, this was actually a win-win situation.
They got rid of an ambitious rival, shed a resource-consuming population, and could also receive extra resources.
Both the Elder and the Sanctuary won big, hence it being called a win-win.
This kind of pioneering, driven by the desire to be a big fish in a small pond, was actually quite rare.
Don’t just look at the fact that success would make one a powerful Grand Elder; in reality, the pioneering period was fraught with danger.
Attacks from irradiated creatures or mutants were a hassle, not to mention other problems like the irradiated environment, initial food and water supplies, and so on.
Many failed; only a small portion succeeded.
Of course, even so, it couldn’t stop many from wanting their independence.
"Fortunately, it’s not all bad news," Qi Suian said, tossing both the Rivet Knight’s Fire Seed and the Corpse Ghost General’s Fire Seed directly into the Melting Furnace.
’At least it’s taught me there’s no need to hoard these things.’
Ever since Qi Suian arrived in the Wasteland World, the fuel income for his Tai Sui God had been lukewarm. It wasn’t that the combustion value of Pure-bloods and mutants was nonexistent, but evolving the Tai Sui God was not something that could be accomplished overnight.
The Fire Seeds, on the other hand, could definitely be burned for a great deal of evolutionary energy.
Not to mention anything greater, just the Level 5 Rivet Knight’s Fire Seed alone would produce an amount of evolutionary energy no less than that of a Sun Puppet.
These two Fire Seeds were enough to grant the Tai Sui God three evolutions.
They just might not burn for very long in the Melting Furnace.
’Three evolutions. The cloth armor, cloth shoes, and shortsword I got from the last batch of survivors can serve as the modules.’
If he had a Level 3 Fire Seed, he estimated he could get two more.
This Wasteland World was high-difficulty for Qi Suian, no doubt, but that also meant the quality of the fuel it produced was high.
[The Pure-blooded Warriors from Frosty Noble Sanctuary have arrived. Proceed with action?]
"So soon? I thought they were still about two days out." Qi Suian was a little puzzled.
’Even if they arrived early, they shouldn’t be a full two days early, right?’
[One moment. It seems something has happened.]
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"This bunch of Pure-bloods... aside from their impressive Fire Seed Armor, only their Sanctuaries are strong. In every other way, they’re pathetically weak."
Cummings, a mutant with two heads, four arms, and a ferocious glint in his eyes, smashed the combat armor of a Pure-blooded Warrior before brutally strangling him to death.
The remaining few mutants, each with a different appearance, had also killed their targets.
These Pure-blooded Warriors were all from the Frosty Noble Sanctuary. They had come to rescue the Corpse Ghost General’s Sanctuary.
Third Elder Watson had misjudged the combat armor produced by the Level 3 Frosty Noble Sanctuary, which was why he had miscalculated their travel time.
That was why they were two days early.
Unfortunately, it was precisely because they arrived early that they encountered the mutants of the Steel Brotherhood from the south.
As vanguards, this group of mutants was incredibly powerful, able to hold their own even against Warriors from a Level 1 Sanctuary.
To say nothing of a group of Warriors from a Level 3 Sanctuary, whose combat armor was no match for them at all.
"We had intel earlier that a Level 5 Sanctuary in this area was wiped out. Rumor says mutants did it."
"There must be other brethren in the north who couldn’t stand the oppression and fought back," remarked Lien, a mutant whose body was covered in a thick hide, twisted and deformed like a lizard’s.
"A shame we don’t have enough intel. If we could find them and make them members of the Brotherhood, our foothold in the north would be much more stable," Cummings said with regret.
In terms of information flow, the Steel Brotherhood was indeed inferior to the Sanctuaries. After all, once a Sanctuary reached Level 4, it could contact its superior Sanctuary.
Through this line of communication, a rudimentary information network could be formed, though it was easily disrupted.
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"The Fire Seed of the Corpse Ghost General’s Sanctuary... has been destroyed."
"How... how is that possible?"
Inside the Frosty Noble Sanctuary, Grand Elder Sloan, wielder of the Level 3 Fire Seed Armor known as "Frosty Noble," was utterly shocked.
A Fire Seed being extinguished didn’t mean it had vanished. If it could be recovered and reignited, it would inherit everything it had before.
But if a Fire Seed was destroyed, that meant it was gone for good.
As Grand Elder, Sloan had never in his life seen a Fire Seed be destroyed. After all, the Pure-bloods had always been the dominant power, and it was rare for a Fire Seed even to be extinguished.
Even when it did happen, it was usually due to migration, not annihilation.
’The Steel Brotherhood? No, not them. They’re just a bunch of mutants.’
’They’re strong, certainly, but I doubt they have the power to destroy a Fire Seed.’
After much deliberation, Grand Elder Sloan decided to report this matter to the Level 2 Sanctuary from which the Frosty Noble Sanctuary had split.
If the enemy truly possessed the power to destroy a Fire Seed, then they were an enemy of all Pure-bloods.
Without their Sanctuaries, wouldn’t the Pure-bloods lose everything?
They were already at their wits’ end because of the resource crisis, and now this had to happen. A sense of crisis welled up in Grand Elder Sloan.
Using the communication device connected to the Fire Seed, he quickly contacted the Grand Elder of the Level 2 Sanctuary.
After he explained the situation, the person on the other end was silent for a long time before finally speaking.
"To be honest, I’d like to tell you to drink in moderation."
"But I know you don’t drink."
"So I’ll send people to help you. Cooperate with them to capture this unknown enemy as soon as possible."
"One more thing. If I’m not mistaken, their next target will likely be your Frosty Noble Sanctuary."
"So, take care of yourself." With that, the communication was cut.
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