Chapter 628: Cinderclast Golems
The sky was torn open, the damage stretching as far as the eyes could see.
Everyone could only stare in horror as another eight massive rifts suddenly appeared and the fiery balls started to descend down from the sky, shrieking all the way as they came down toward the ground below.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
When the fiery balls exploded, the Cinderclast Golems inside it began to spill out
With these new additions, the Cinderclast Golems had more than doubled in numbers!
Everyone was starting to feel despair!
Liu Xue let out a shrill, ear-piercing command, "Prepare the spatial seals, stabilize the rifts here!"
The one in charge of managing the machinery, Wang Chen, was sweating bullets.
"We need five minutes to prepare spatial rift stabilizers!"
"Hurry up, hurry up!" Fengli's captain, Guo Guan was getting anxious.
They did not have time to wait for five minutes.
Up to thirty kilometers away, the sky looked like it had been broken into a sieve. After those eight fiery balls had landed, it still was not the end of it. There were still things coming out.
The peoples' hearts were heavy.
All of a sudden, some of them spotted Qin Feng standing on a slope.
"Wait, the president. The president and the vice president are still there!"
Their gazes immediately shifted over to the screen and saw Qin Feng and Bai Li standing side by side as if they were enjoying a meteor shower. They were even chatting as if they were not in a dire situation at all.
After seeing this, those who were still anxious suddenly no longer felt worried, as if all of their fears and doubts had been wiped away.
"The president can destroy an insectoid nest all by himself. They say that there are tens of thousands of insectoids living in a nest and their queens were at least emperor-rank. However, when we're comparing them to these beasts, it might not be enough!" said a person who was still a little uncertain.
Zhou Hao on the other hand seemed rather calm.
"It'll be okay. With President Qin here, all the problems will be easily solved. You must believe that there are people out there in this world who can make miracles happen!"
Afterward, he sent a direct message to Qin Feng asking if they should lock down the space.
Qin Feng very quickly issued a reply.
Zhou Hao seemed more confident and said, "Cancel the spatial stabilization and calm the civilians down. Call back the sentries twenty kilometers away and lock the city down. Gunners, grab your biggest most powerful guns and prepare for battle!"
The moment Zhou Hao's voice rang out, everyone immediately snapped to attention and loudly responded with,
"Yes!"
The senior staff began to mobilize quickly.
One by one, the gunners grabbed their weapons and climbed onto the city walls, preparing to take on the newly appearing ultra beasts.
Meanwhile, thirty kilometers away, Qin Feng watched the broken sky above as hundreds of fiery balls rained down from it!
In other words, he could see thousands of Cinderclast Golems moving in front of him.
The good thing was the giant fiery balls in the sky seemed to have stopped and the sky was returning to its original state.
The sky would return to normal, but that would take months before it would be completely fixed.
After all, this kind of destruction was the equivalent of getting a massive knife wound in your gut.
That was not all, the space here was extremely unstable. It would eventually cause more rifts to appear, which meant more ultra beasts.
"Based on my memories, this has never happened before!"
That was not surprising. Back then Qin Feng had never built a city. Naturally there was not an immediate investigation. When they were discovered, the Cinderclast Golems had already consumed everything and became a huge threat to Qin City!
"Bai Li, seal the cracks!"
"On it!"
Bai Li lifted her hand and countless rays of silver light flew out toward the sky.
The twisted rifts in the sky quickly recovered with the help of this silver light, becoming smaller and smaller before completely disappearing.
The sky returned to its original blue shade, as if the giant fiery balls had never appeared.
It did not take long for the Cinderclast Golems to notice Bai Li and Qin Feng's presence.
Perhaps it was because they sensed that these two were a threat and sent up ten golems over to deal with them, among them was a B1 Cinderclast Golem.
Boom boom boom!
Their massive bodies meant that they were slow. It took them five minutes before they reached the hillside where Qin Feng and Bai Li were at.
At that point, Qin Feng had already discovered that the remaining golems were all gathered under a large tree. One of the B-tier golems held up a scarlet flame with two hands before placing it on the tree.
The big tree was immediately turned into charcoal before he could even blink, but the fire still burned on it as the tree's leaves turned into flickering embers.
The other golems spread out and searched their surroundings for objects. Whether it was grass or stones, they chucked them into the burning tree.
As the tree burned, it continued to grow and in the blink of an eye the tree had grown from ten meters to twenty meters.
They continued to add in more objects into the tree, even nearby ultra beasts that they managed to catch. All were tossed into the flames and burned to a crisp.
A flaming flower began to grow on one of the burning tree's branches before blooming into a meter large fruit that quickly fell to the ground.
As soon as the fruit met the ground, a small golem was born!
That was the moment when all the golems began to cheer.
They spread out again, even digging up the ground as they looked for more objects to add to the fire to make it grow even bigger!
"A Cinder Pine? Fire beasts are indeed a strange bunch!"
Qin Feng thought out loud, and at this time, the Cinderclast Golems who had set out to look for threats before had finally reached him.
He pulled back his gaze and turned it toward the golems.
When the golems saw Qin Feng their scarred faces all cracked into smiles, just like the ones who went out gathering.
The B1-tier golem raised its hand and pointed forward, inciting the rest of the golems to charge forward as they tried to catch Qin Feng.
Qin Feng did not move from his spot and pulled out a rune weapon that glowed with golden light.
Naturally, he had asked Liu Zhenshan to make him a side weapon.
The Verdant Emperor Saber was his trump card and it was not something he should be using on every occasion.
This time, he did not use his Burning Sword Style, but pure internal force was added into the rune equipment, causing it to exude a powerful aura.
The blade swept forward.
Ssskkk Rrrr!
It sounded like a knife scraping against stone as the ferocious Cinderclast Golems fell one after the other.
They had their legs cut off, leaving only their upper bodies still functional. Yet, they did not seem to be affected by pain as they continued to attack Qin Feng, and some of them unleashed their fire-type abilities.
Chapter 629: The Floor is Lava
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
A massive fiery ball, followed by seven or so smaller fiery balls were sent toward Qin Feng.
"Start retreating!"
Qin Feng said before channeling his internal force and blocking the incoming fiery balls.
Boom!
The fiery balls might have seemed like a standard fiery ball attack, but he realized that it was actually a ball of magma and carried with it a massive force. Even if Qin Feng was prepared for the attack, he still let out a gasp when he tried to stabilize himself.
If any ordinary ancient warrior were to meet these creatures, they would have stood no chance against such force.
These golem might not be very smart and were not very fast, but their power in battle was nothing to make light about.
The moment the fire attack hit him, even though it did not do any damage to his body, it also splashed onto the ground around him and turned the floor into lava.
Soon after, several fiery balls that missed their mark plopped onto the ground nearby and turned into more pools of magma.
"Raaagh!"
The Cinderclast Golem let out a roar as even the C-tier ones who were missing their legs began to advance with full force.
Qin Feng did not hesitate and sped toward the monsters, slashing off one of their heads.
Only then did the huge body finally stop moving, and melted into a puddle of magma.
The Cinderclast Golem beside the defeated one immediately submerged itself into the magma and in the next moment it instantly transformed into a fiery giant. Its body reached up to three meters tall and burned with intense flames. Its fearsome visage twisted into a snarl as the giant plunged its hands toward Qin Feng.
The giant's hands had an incredible reach and expelled fire all around it, completely shrouding Qin Feng's body.
His internal force was getting eaten away.
This was the moment that the Cinderclast Golem proved itself to be a dangerous opponent.
Qin Feng smirked and suddenly dispelled the internal force around his body, and all of a sudden another gout of flame burst forth.
He too was a fire user.
"Flaming Cloak!"
A layer of flame wrapped itself around his body, merging with other fire runes and increasing his fire resistance.
He stepped onto the lava and with a sudden surge of internal force, his golden blade pierced through the skull of the large Cinderclast Golem!
Shunk!
The Cinderclast Golem immediately collapsed to the ground, its body melting away into lava and adding more of it to the ground.
Soon after, three more golems rolled into the magma before instantly becoming more powerful.
They surrounded him in a triangular formation.
For anyone else, this would have been an incredibly dangerous situation.
However, Qin Feng did not try to hide and instead also burst into flames.
"Fire Dragon Style!"
"Raaagh!!!"
An inferno blazed and wrapped around the three Cinderclast Golems!
The golems were naturally not afraid of fire, but they did not have the strength to resist the fire dragon.
The fire dragon spun in a circle, wrapping its body around the golems and restricting their movement before tightening its loop, sending the three Cinderclast Golems careening toward Qin Feng.
His blade flickered through the air.
Slash!
Three heads dropped into the lava.
The magma pool began to expand even more, and even covered the remaining six golems.
It was at this moment, something even more terrifying happened.
Anyone with this inferno surrounding them would have already been burnt to a crisp.
However, this inferno was also Qin Feng's weapon.
"Magma Pillar!"
Bang bang bang bang!
The Magma Pillars erupted and by conglomerating the flame runes he sent these Cinderclast Golems flying up into the air.
Even though the move seemed simple, the use of consciousness along with the ability of rune manipulation was not an easy task.
Not only that, this was supposed to be the Cinderclast Golems' preferred combat environment!
"Fiery Rampage!"
Swish!
A cold glint of light shone as another Cinderclast Golem was beheaded!
"Another!"
Qin Feng spun through the air, bouncing from the bodies as he swung for the kill with his golden runeblade.
It was as if he was a well placed cannon shot, none of the golems managed to survive before dropping to the ground.
At that point, the magma on the ground had already spread up to a hundred meters.
"Raaaagh!!!"
The B1 Cinderclast Golem let out a roar, its body beginning to grow.
Originally he was the tallest among the group of golem, but with the empowerment of the lava he grew up to twenty meters tall.
The golem raised up its hands and slammed them down, splashing the magma forward and causing it to move like a tidal wave.
If that wave of lava were to wash over anything, it definitely would not be good!
Qin Feng's eyes glinted, this kind of new ability was something he had never used before. This was pretty much the next level of the Magma ability!
However, this was not the time to be thinking of such things.
A pair of blue flaming peacock wings sprouted from his back and carried him aloft, avoiding this incoming wave.
"Magma Pillar!"
Boom!
A huge bang sounded but the Cinderclast Golem was too big, meaning that the Magma Pillar move was not enough to knock it up into the air.
"Raaaagh!"
The Cinderclast Golem had its own moves. As soon as it raised its hands, a burst of magma rocketed toward Qin Feng at a high speed.
He quickly formed a flame shield with his hand to deter the blow.
Both sides were trying to push forward only to get pushed back.
These Cinderclast Golems were stubborn ones!
When compared to something like the insectoids, the insectoids seemed harmless and adorable. For Qin Feng, killing them was like slaughtering chicken. These golems on the other hand were difficult things to get rid of.
It was at this moment, Bai Li who had retreated a hundred meters away could not stand it any longer!
It had been ten minutes since the beginning of the two's battle. It was considered a long time for Qin Feng, who liked his battles to be over quickly.
As such, Bai Li found this unacceptable.
In that instant, a black spatial rift appeared near the Cinderclast Golem's neck. He had been focusing on Qin Feng and did not expect anyone else to join the fight. It had been chasing Qin Feng down through the lava with considerable speed compared to its slow movement before its transformation.
However, with how fast it was moving, it might as well have deliberately run its head into a blade.
Pop!
The Cinderclast Golem burst past the rift and his head slid off his shoulders!
Boom!
The massive head crashed into the lava, sending up another crimson wave before sinking down into it. Then the huge body began to sink down into the bubbling lava as well, joining its head.
By this time, the magma had reached up to three hundred meters. Enough to cover up a plaza!
Not only that, this magma pool had been gradually releasing fire runes, slowly cooling down at the edges. These fires were red hot and added to the searing heat of Qin Feng's own fire, compared to the previous fire runes he absorbed before.
"Ability, Absorb!"
His ability core began to spin rapidly.
Afterward, the magma seemed to have accelerated in its cooling speed as streams of red energy flowed toward Qin Feng's body and embedded themselves in his ability core.
Chapter 630: High Profit Turnout
Qin Feng consumed all of the runes in the blink of an eye, leaving behind orange soil on the ground.
Lying among the soil were several bright red crystals.
These were crystals left behind after the Cinderclast Golems were destroyed and due to the fact that these beasts all died in the lava their energies merged together and left behind crystals that were about the same size as each other. There were about thirty of them in total.
These crystals were the equivalent to a crystal core of a C1 tier fire type beast king and were worth about 30 billion each.
How was this scary?
How many golems were still out there? At least tens of thousands and they would all net 300 trillion.
Qin Feng had been busy in the last month, bravely facing death as he destroyed twenty eight insectoid hives. The spoils of war combined with the rewards he gained were about the same amount.
For other people, getting rid of an insectoid hive was too difficult but killing a Cinderclast Golem was easy enough.
Not only that, the Cinder Pines that these beings were making infinitely increased the number of these golems.
They were simply cash cows.
Before his rebirth, the North Sea state became an area frequented by high-tier aptitude users because of this. This place was originally occupied by an ancient warrior family who first appeared near the Water Tower before countless B-tier bosses appeared and wanted a piece of the pie. Following that were the Dark Coalition's people who also began to appear in the area.
After killing the golems and people dying in the process, the area became a massive magma field.
Even after all the Golems had been wiped out it did not matter, the humans opened up a spatial rift right into their realm.
Perhaps it was not because humans did not have the ability to fight, it was because they only fought to gain more profit.
From what he understood, the most successful attempts of humans invading other realms were those who had ample access to spatial passages. Those were usually B-tier bosses of large organizations.
What Qin Feng had to do now was control this spatial rift and be the one to reap the benefits.
It was going to be bad news for the rest, because the moment Qin Feng got his hand on this resource there was no possible way that he would be willing to share it!
Besides that, it was clear that the Golems were not very intelligent. As Qin Feng continued to hunt down the ones in his area until it was dusk, the main group never even sent one to go and investigate.
For the Cinderclast Golems, even if they died they would turn into lava and allow those who were at least C1 tier beast kings to be able to consume the magma and become even stronger.
As such, they did not fear death.
Moreover, the Cinder Pines they made could spawn more golems.
Qin Feng looked into the distance and activated his communicator to contact the administration hall of the new city.
When his image appeared on the big screen, many high ranking officials were awaiting his command.
"Start up an aircraft and prepare a large number of freezing missiles. Restrict their movement and surround this intelligent species!"
Upon hearing Qin Feng's words, everyone became more alert!
"Yes!"
"We'll move now!"
"Move it, let's exterminate these things!"
"Where are the warehouse people? Go get the special cryomissles!"
A large number of people began to mobilize to board the aircraft and approached Qin Feng's position.
Meanwhile, he took a helmet out from his spatial rune equipment and put it on.
The Sacred Armor was complete!
"Maybe we can go even faster like this!"
He wrapped his arm around Bai Li's waist and leapt forward.
The Sacred Armor unleashed its full force, causing Qin Feng to move so fast that he reached the Cinderclast Golems' territory in the blink of an eye.
Thirty meters away, he could see the shape of several golems moving about in the woods.
They uprooted a big tree and lumbered away with it, planning on making the Cinder Pine even bigger.
Qin Feng raised a hand and shot out a beam of light, transforming his internal force into pure energy.
Boom!
This beam of light instantly pierced through the head of one of the golems.
Boom!
The golem immediately collapsed and turned the floor around it into lava.
At this moment, there were more than twenty golems in the area that immediately turned their attention onto Qin Feng. Their eyes lit up and all came at him with fang and claw.
"Raaagh! Raaagh!"
They continued to roar as they made their slow advance and eventually stumbled through the lava pool, violently transforming into a different beast.
Qin Feng did not need to experiment this time, that would be too much of a hassle.
"Die!"
He unleashed beams of light from his hands and fired all around him.
Bang bang bang bang bang!
Several of the empowered Cinderclast Golems suddenly had a hole blown through their heads.
This caused more magma to spread to the surrounding area, forming into a huge magma pool that more Cinderclast Golems hopped into.
"Yaaaah!!!"
Qin Feng did not try to dodge as the Sacred Armor's energy floated into the air above him and unleashed a constant volley of attacks on these Golems.
It was an endless slaughter!
By then, three aircrafts had already arrived on scene!
They had detected this scene from their scanners earlier and even saw Qin Feng's battle. They had already put their blind trust in Qin Feng's strength.
This crisis did not seem to be that big of a deal.
However, when they truly arrived at the site many of the lower level aptitude users felt sick from the Cinderclast Golems' aura and lost a huge portion of their control. Guo Guan had to pull back several kilometers before they were at a safe distance.
Qin Feng sounded his orders again.
"Fire immediately, aim for the magma pools!"
Inside the aircraft, Guo Guan relayed the order through the aircraft.
Outside the aircraft, black holes began to appear underneath.
The low level aptitude users loaded the shells, managed the cannon's alignment and locked onto their targets.
"Fire!"
Swish swish swish swish!
More than a dozen missiles were launched.
There was already a huge patch of magma behind Qin Feng. The moment these missiles hit the lava, it caused massive blooms of ice to erupt from the explosion and covered up to ten plus meters but the ice soon became mist and evaporated!
After all, this magma pool was incredibly hot.
With the application of the cryomissles, the lava began to cool rapidly and Bai Li swept across the scene with her consciousness to sweep up the fire crystal cores with her space.
The people on the aircraft could see all of this, but they were not able to detect more due to their distance. Whatever Bai Li picked up were definitely valuable objects.
Qin Feng did not rush toward the Cinder Pine, instead he rounded the perimeter and took out as many Cinderclast Golems as he could find. Within a few hours he had already hunted down more than five hundred of them.
However, during this period of time more wood, stones and even ultra beasts had been added to the Cinder Pine.
The tree was getting bigger and bigger. It had reached up to be more than eighty meters tall. In this wilderness, it soon reached the clouds. Of course, with how intensely the fire burned it would have instantly evaporated all the surrounding clouds close to it. There was no way moisture would exist near such intense heat.
As the tree continued to grow, more and more Cinderclast Golems were born.
It could be said that what Qin Feng had hunted down in a few hours did not compare to the sheer amount that the tree continued to produce.
Chapter 631: Hou Family's Decision
The Cinderclast Golems' territory was getting larger and larger.
When that Cinder Pine had reached about one hundred meters tall, it looked like it was large enough to blot out the Sun.
Upon calculating this, a bad feeling began to seep into people's hearts.
Of course, only Qin Feng looked relaxed and not at all anxious.
Everything was still under control.
"Pull back the aircraft and swap the crew, bring in another group of people!" Qin Feng ordered.
"Of course!" Guo Guan looked at those who managed to resist the pressure pushed on them by the ultra beasts' aura. They had been fighting for six hours and looked like they were about to collapse. Naturally he was ready to set off and return.
Due to having prior experience, the next captain would be Wang Chen and he brought along with him E-tier aptitude users.
Following that were other D-tier aptitude users who were ready for action, and the most indispensable thing in the Fengli Organization were definitely gunners!
Qin Feng had been fighting all the time. He was a resolute leader with a series of unyielding troops.
Through this tactic, after three days, Qin Feng had hunted down and killed up to seven thousand or so Cinderclast Golems.
However, the Cinderclast Golems' territory continued to expand. The surrounding land around the Cinder Pine was originally flat land, but as its surroundings were constantly getting emptied out, not even soil was left untouched. The bit of flat land shifted to a small hill then became like a mountain.
Everywhere else was completely bare!
The Cinderclast Golems had spread their activities up to five kilometers away.
"Qin Feng, you don't need to fight like this. You can still ask people for help, if we're the only ones we can't take down those golems!" Zhou Hao said with a hint of worry in his voice over the communicator.
Qin Feng smirked and said, "I haven't given it my best yet. I'm just keeping things under control. You want to know why for these past few days I haven't revealed the Cinderclast Golems' crystal cores to you guys?"
Zhou Hao obviously did not understand.
"I don't know! No matter how good something is, staying alive is also important. Don't overexert yourself!"
Qin Feng said, "It's almost the equivalent of a C1-tier fire-type beast king, it's worth about 30 billion…"
"30 billion, even if it's 50 billion…Eh? Wait, what did you just say? I think my ears are hallucinating!"
Qin Feng smiled and continued, "Every C-tier Cinderclast Golem drops that kind of crystal core. The B-tier ones drop ones that are ten times or even twenty times larger. You can calculate how much I've earned these past few days."
Zhou Hao felt like his mind was short circuiting as he tried to envision the numbers, which only just flooded his vision. Not only that, when he tried to convert that number into power credits he felt as if he was floating through an ocean made out of it.
He had a share in the Fengli Organization and the money he received from it was a terrifying amount, something that was impossible for a D-tier to own. That amount was only one out of a thousand of what Qin Feng earned.
"I need to sit down for a minute, I seem to have been completely blinded by money!" Zhou Hao felt like his mind was spinning at a hundred kilometers per hour.
"You should get some rest and try to calm down the residents of the new city. Xue Xingfu can't come so all that is in your hands. You've been busy for a long time, so don't worry about me!"
"…Okay, what the heck, now I see why you've been working so hard because it's worth it!"
"Haha, of course it's worth it! This is big money!"
Qin Feng was not tired at all. Every time he killed a golem, he gained back the energy to replenish his body and what he consumed added to the power of the Sacred Armor. He did not suffer much damage to his own body.
What was more, it was common for him to be unsightly for long periods of time before his rebirth. The last time he went to Dusan was not as ostentatious as it was now. Of course, nowadays his performance far surpassed people's expectations!
As for now, Qin Feng had not unleashed his full strength just yet. He was managing it and waiting for something.
People did not fight because they wanted to save the world, what Qin Feng was doing might be considered unethical by all means but aptitude users were prone to taking on what the world threw at them as well as each other. It was not too different from that!
He continued his hunt for four more days. All of the original Cinderclast Golems that popped out from the sky had been killed off. The ones remaining were the new ones, hardly over two meters tall. They had not started growing yet.
By this time, the spatial crack invasion had been going on for so long that other people had caught wind of it.
The first ones to know were naturally the ancient warrior families.
After all, these families were the streetwise locals at best and local tyrants at worst. With their direct lineage combined, they numbered about a few hundred people in total. These three ancient warrior families also had other disciples that depended on them and even then their subordinates were no more than organizations created by C-tier aptitude users.
With the existence of these people who had come to experience what the new city had to offer, how could they not have discovered the crisis here?
Within the Hou family headquarters, a meeting was taking place. The head elder of the Hou Family, a C-tier aptitude user known as Hou Ming had returned to the North Sea state.
"Great elder, what I say is true. If they aren't good things then why would Qin Feng go out there and fight on for seven days in a row? Without taking breaks even?"
"This is indeed a strange situation. It's a pity that all the people we've planted in the new city aren't very powerful and can't go out at all. However, from what they've seen, the aircrafts flying over the city, the eight hour rounds and how they're all equipped with freezing missiles, missles that cost up to 20 billion each! If there wasn't any profit, why would Qin Feng invest so much?"
"Yeah, Qin Feng must have grabbed some kind of resource!"
"We can't let him enjoy it alone and let him expand even further, what with him hovering over our heads all the time."
Everyone had something to say, and plenty of it was laced with resentment, envy and frustration.
The relationship between the Hou family and Qin Feng was not very good. In addition, when he took over the North Sea state he even started asking the ancient warrior families to pay taxes and that shocked Hou Ming.
He also remained silent about Qin Feng's power. He understood that Qin Feng was an iron wall that they could not afford to take on!
However, wanting everyone in the family to pay taxes was like tearing a chunk of flesh out of Hou Ming.
Now that Qin Feng looked like he was gaining some benefits again, as the sensitive party in this relationship, the Hou family did not want Qin Feng to have it easy. If the other party had benefits, it was natural to share with the rest.
"I'll investigate this later, maybe we can discuss this with the Tieh family!" Hou Ming said.
The eyes of everyone in the room lit up, they were all only D-tier and they would never receive news from the front line. In their opinion, Qin Feng was only C-tier and their elder was a C-tier, and had been one longer than Qin Feng had been alive. Surely that would mean that Qin Feng was no match against their elder.
They had wanted to teach Qin Feng a lesson for a long time. It would be best if their elder got rid of him, after that would the North Sea state not be an easier place for them to continue living in?
Hou Ming knew what these people were thinking of but could not bring themselves to say, he then asked Hou Yangjiao and seven other D-tier aptitude users to prepare to head out.
Meanwhile, the Tieh family and the Yang family were also discussing this matter.
Chapter 632: Scheme and Be Schemed
Tieh Yuanjiu, a C-tier aptitude user of the Tieh family, was also contemplating. Below him, the D-tier elders of the family were anticipating his decision.
"Chief, why are you still hesitating? Since the predecessor of the Hou's family has invited us, why don't we go and have a look?"
"That's right. This could be a fate-changing opportunity!"
"If we allow Qin Feng to keep growing, our family would eventually have a difficult time in the future too!"
"Whatever it is, we won't simply rock the boat."
"Sigh! The North Sea used to be our turf. Since when have we become such a coward? How are we going to prosper here if this goes on?"
The elders were divided in their opinions. There were two different perspectives. Those younger ones, such as Tieh Lei who befriended Qin Feng, did not wish to go against the governor.
But Qin Feng's existence had greatly threatened the older folk's interest. This side favored going and wished to get a share of the cake.
Tieh Yuanjiu spun the iron ball in his hand and finally declared, "Since the Hou family has invited us, let's go and take a look. If they were to offend Qin Feng, we will just put the blame on them."
Some nodded approvingly, while others accepted the decision with a heavy heart.
***
The Yang family was equally bustling at the same time.
Yang Zhoutian had returned to the North Sea. His family hideout resided at Tangshan Mountain, near the foot of the mountain where the Blue Flame Peacock Emperor previously habituated. Though the strongest beasts here are only D-tiers, Yang Zhou would still come home every year in case a beast wave occurred near the mountain areas.
The reason why the Yang family had selected this location was the energy mine they had found here. Though the mine was small, it was filled with ample raw energy accumulated from the atmosphere. As long as they were based here, all the descendants of the Yang family could be nurtured by it.
Thus, they could not afford to lose their headquarters.
Inside the family hall, more than fifty persons had gathered to discuss the matter. The attendees included D-tiers and E-tiers as well.
"The Governor has fought by himself for seven days straight and did not call for backup. I believe he has his own reason. It's inappropriate for us to barge in right now."
"The reason is he is trying to hide something valuable from us. We shouldn't let this chance pass."
"We have to be very careful though. Our family has been maintaining a good relationship with the governor. We better not screw this up."
"We are just there to take a look. Take it as us voluntarily helping the governor to get rid of a threat. I believe there's no reason that he would reject our help."
"Wait, the Tieh and Hou families seem to have left their base. They are probably going to the governor."
After they received the news, everyone turned to Yang Zhoutian.
Yang Zhoutian smirked cunningly. "Then, let them do the scouting for us. We will know the good and bad once they reach there. It's just a matter of a day or two, we won't lose a lot."
He made a good point. The others nodded without objection.
Under close surveillance by the Yang family, the Tieh and Hou family had rendezvoused and were headed toward the newly built city together.
A few hours later, they passed through the city and reached the territory of the Cinderclast Golem.
Qin Feng had received the news right when they departed.
From the perspective of the Human Alliance officers in Fengli, Qin Feng already had enough trouble dealing with the golems alone. They felt obliged to inform Qin Feng when they found out that someone was trying to jeopardize his mission.
This time, it was Guo Guan who helped Qin Feng to cool off the lava using the hovercraft.
"President, do we need to restrict their movement when they arrive?" Guo Guan asked.
If it were needed, he would not hesitate to kill them all. To Guo Guan who came from the City of Death, those so-called prestigious ancient warrior families were just a bunch of clowns.
Qin Feng, unexpectedly, smiled and said, "Restrict them? Come on, they are here to help!"
Guo Guan looked at Qin Feng oddly. Things were not as simple as it seemed.
However, he did not ask another question and followed Qin Feng's order and did not take any further action. Besides, the territory of the Cinderclast Golem was rather huge. The two families would not be so ignorant to show up in front of Qin Feng's face.
They had purposely steered clear from Qin Feng and his hovercraft. Not even that but they also tried to conceal their presence with consciousness shields and dark runes.
These tricks were not able to escape Qin Feng's eyes.
He gave it a glance and ignored them. Instead, he told Guo Guan, "Alright, we have been busy for a few days now. Though we failed to control the number, at least there are no more B-tier Cinderclast Golems around. C-tiers have reduced a lot, too."
As for those two-meter-tall golems, though they were indeed stronger as compared to when they were just born, they were only at D5-tier at the moment.
Guo Guan was again surprised by Qin Feng's decision. And again, he carried out the order and drove the hovercraft back.
The Hou family was monitoring Qin Feng closely. They were puzzled when they saw Qin Feng's aircraft leave the scene.
"Predecessor, Qin Feng is leaving!"
"Eh?" Hou Ming was a little surprised.
"He has been battling for seven days, after all. He probably knows we are here and decided to pass the baton to us," Tieh Yuanjiu guessed.
"I guess so…" Hou Ming could not think of any other explanation.
"We shouldn't slow down then. Let's not betray Governor Qin's trust!"
"Hahaha, yea!"
Actually, both of them had the same thought.
'Let's see what treasure he is trying to hide from us!'
They were both powerful aptitude users. But the golems roaming at the perimeter were all C-tiers. The D-tiers could only be found further in. To be safe, they ordered a gunner to lure a Cinderclast Golem over.
Thump!
A golem stomped toward them sluggishly.
Everyone was staying on high alert. Hou Ming was the first to attack, launching the two-meter-long stick in his hand.
"Shadowless Quell!"
The long stick turned into one after another afterimage. His internal strength dispersed following the circling motion and whirled like a blender.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
The stick hit on the golem and raised sparks. Stones were seen falling off from the golem's shoulder thumped by the stick.
"Roar!" The golem stared at Hou Ming furiously and slapped his giant hand down on Hou Ming. The latter tried to block with his stick but was instead sent flying back. His internal energy shield hummed piercingly under the impact.
"Ironcleave Palm!"
Out of nowhere, a dark giant palm came down and landed on the golem. The palm then proceeded to grip the golem firmly in place.
The other aptitude users quickly followed up and assaulted the golem with their respective melee weapons. The gunners also opened fire from a distance using D-tier frost bullets.
Soon, the golem was unable to withstand the bombardment and faltered. A D-tier landed the finishing blow by cutting off its head.
Unexpectedly, the dead golem immediately exploded the next moment.
Those near the golem were impacted by the explosion and blasted to the ground, which had promptly turned into a lava pool.
"Argh!! Argh!! Argh!!"
Painful shrieks were heard non-stop.
Chapter 633: Ravaged
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The lava melted away the ancient warriors' internal energy shield very quickly. After all, these ancient warriors were only at D-tier. It was rather impossible to defend against the lava of C-tier Cinderclast Golems using a D-tier's shield.
Luckily, the lava stopped splashing after the explosion. The golem was truly dead.
"Up!"
Hou Ming dragged the aptitude users bathed by the lava away to safety with his long stick.
These aptitude users had suffered large burn areas. One of them was heavily injured and could no longer fight.
The turn of the event caught them by surprise. Hou Ming and Tieh Yuanjiu became more vigilant.
"Why do the golems turn into lavas after being killed?"
"That's right. What's there to be collected in this case?"
"Predecessor, I saw that Qin Feng's hovercraft was not aiming the frost blaster at the golem but the lava on our way here. Perhaps there's a reason behind such action?" One of the gunners chimed in and cleverly proposed.
"We should give it a try!"
Everyone fell back a little. Several gunners took out the frost blaster and promptly fired at the lava. The frost immediately vaporized the lava upon contact.
The lava pool dried up not long after. A breeze of cold wind cleared away the vapor and revealed the orange igneous rock underneath it. Within it, an egg-sized crystal beamed mesmerizingly.
Heat was still radiating from the crystal. The ice around it melted much faster than the rest of the area.
Hou Ming reached to it first. He caught the crystal core in his hand and quivered in excitement as soon as his fingers touched the warm stone.
"This core!!!"
Tieh Yuanjiu walked up to him and stared at the crystal core too.
"This is impossible!"
"No wonder!" Hou Ming exclaimed, "Now I understand why Qin Feng hid this from us."
Hou Yuanjiu understood why Hou Ming said so. The energy within the core was almost equivalent to a C-tier fire-type beast king. The price of such a core could go up to 30 billion in the market
Besides, they only needed around ten minutes to finish off a Cinderclast Golem. Though some of the D-tier aptitude users were injured in the process, it was because they still did not understand the golem's attacking nature.
Overall, the golem was relatively easy to bring down. Not only that but the return was a hundred times more lucrative than other beasts of a similar level.
For a brief instance, their eyes expressed greed. But it faded off quickly.
After all, these beasts were all over the mountain.
They quickly hid their true expression but were coincidentally having the same thought.
'It's better to work alone rather than share the loot with him.'
But Tieh Yuanjiu was unwilling to let go of the crystal core in Hou Ming's hand this easily.
"Governor Qin is rather selfish in keeping this to himself. Now that we have learned his secret, let's not waste time and keep hunting. This time, I should take the loot, okay?"
"Hahaha, naturally." Hou Ming made no objections. They were going to work independently after this so he did not mind collaborating for one last time.
Without any delay, they had the gunners lure more golems over. Unexpectedly, they simultaneously attracted one giant and two smaller golems.
The two small golems were only D5-tiers. To aptitude users, a different tier represented a different form. They believed that the two D-tiers would be exterminated quickly. They could then share the loot evenly with no dispute.
"Stall the big guy!" Hou Ming directed the order at Hou Yangjiao. They had little trouble facing the giant golem since it moved extremely slowly, to begin with.
Hou Ming and Tieh Yuanjiu concentrated on the two smaller golems. They felt confident since they had grasped the weakness of the Cinderclast Golems.
The golem would die once beheaded.
Almost simultaneously, they finished off the two smaller golems.
Boom! Boom!
Just as before, the golems exploded and turned into lava. It then spread out into a lava pool of about thirty-meter in diameter.
Both of them were prepared for the explosion this time. They used qinggong to evade the explosions and lunged agilely toward the giant golem without any delay.
The giant Cinderclast Golem growled angrily when it saw that the two small golems had been killed.
"Rawr! Rawr! Rawr!"
It paced forward aggressively and stepped onto the pool.
Boom!
A giant flame soon emerged on the golem's body. It then extended its hands and wrapped them around Hou Ming and Tieh Yuanjiu.
The giant hands that looked like fire were actually solid rocks underneath it. The fiery aura torched their internal energy shield.
Crack! A crisp shattering sound was heard, like how a bulletproof glass was being cracked into a spider web shape.
Poof!
Surprisingly, their internal energy shields were instantaneously shattered.
Everything happened too quickly. Before they could react, they were already surrounded by the fire. All they felt next was a burning sensation and enormous pressure.
The giant golem's hands were gripping on their waists.
"Argh!" Hou Ming shrieked.
The sound of fire crackling was heard. Hou Ming wore a C-tier beast king inner armor, which bought him some time to struggle.
"Let me go!" Hou Ming pulled his stick and infused his internal force in it. He then thumped the stick heavily on the golem's wrist.
But the golem was entirely covered in fire. Hou Ming's internal force was offset by the flame.
On the other hand, Tieh Yuanjiu bellowed angrily too. He gripped the giant rocks around his waist and tried to pry them apart.
It became a game of tug of war.
D-tiers around them were stunned by the development.
"Quick! Stop standing around. Save our chief with frost bombs!" Tieh Lei yelled.
The others reacted and launched the frost grenades frantically. This was not the time to worry about whether the bombs might hurt their chiefs.
"Roar!"
The Cinderclast Golem was currently unstoppable. A giant fiery ball appeared and intercepted the frost grenades midair. At the same time, he punched down and drowned the two C-tiers into the lava.
Gulp!
Bubbles fizzled up from the burning lava as if those were the last breath of their chiefs.
"Predecessor!"
"Chief!"
The rest of the users were utterly stunned.
Bam!
The two hands of the golem had detached from its main body and pinned the two humans dead inside the lava pool. The golem then turned to look at those D-tiers who had attacked him earlier and opened its maw.
This Cinderclast Golem was way more horrifying than the slo-mo golem from earlier.
Bam!
Lava poured out from the golem's mouth and drowned the D-tiers like a giant wave!
Chapter 634: We Can't Stop Someone Else's Death Wish
The lava waved forward rapidly and instantly submerged more than ten users.
The temperature of the lava was extremely high. Most of the drowned users were ancient warriors, who tried to resist the lava with internal energy shields. However, the shields lasted only less than a second and collapsed. The scorching lava soon ran over their face and body.
Runic equipment on them was being burned away rapidly and lethally exposed their bare skins.
"Argh!"
The users shrieked in horror but the shouting vanished rapidly. This was because the lava had gushed into their throats.
"Gulp!"
One after another user was charred by the lava and fell to their deaths.
In the blink of an eye, more than ten aptitude users were killed, including the Hou family's chief Hou Yangjiao, and the Tieh family's Tieh Lei.
Those who escaped were gunners that attacked from long range.
However, the giant golem did not plan on letting them go. It raised its hand and a giant fireball abruptly zoomed toward the gunners.
"Argh! I don't want to die!"
The gunners fired at the fireball while retreating desperately. They had completely forgotten about their predecessor and chief that were still trapped underneath the lava pool.
Boom!
The fireball exploded and rocks in it dispersed everywhere. Three gunners were hit and immediately sustained serious injuries.
"Save… save me!"
Unfortunately, another fireball landed, exploded, and sank the three persons.
The C-tier Cinderclast Golem was not something they could handle.
Splash!
At the pool where Hou Ming and Tieh Yuanjiu were initially drowned, two figures emerged in terrible shape.
They still had some tricks up their sleeves to stay alive in such a dire situation. Even so, they were both heavily injured as well.
Dreadfully, the golem had finished dealing with the flies and was turning back to finish off the two main dishes.
Roar!
The Cinderclast Golem once again extended its arms and grabbed on the two C-tiers' heads.
Crack!
Their necks were snapped with little resistance. Their death was certain this time.
The pillars of the two largest ancient warrior families in the North Sea had fallen gracelessly in the hand of the golem.
In the end, the crusade that arrived mightily was left with only two escaping gunners.
The Cinderclast Golem did not stop there. It opened its maw and began to swallow the fire runes within the lava. The rate of its absorption was even faster than Qin Feng's ability.
The two cores from the smaller golems were consumed by the giant golem in the end.
In that short span, the giant golem evolved from C6 to C7-tier. Not only that but more than ten corpses appeared on the ground after the lava was gone. Miraculously, the bodies were not melted but were instead wrapped around by a layer of rock.
The golem opened its hand and leashed out a fiery chain. The chain fastened the bodies up and the golem put the "package" on its back. It then paced slowly back to where he came from.
It finally reached the Cinder Pine after a twenty-minute walk. The golem stacked the bodies right beside the tree trunk. It did not take long for the bodies to catch fire and burn brightly.
Intriguingly, a mysterious force began to merge with the giant Cinderclast Golem.
"Roar!"
The giant golem growled intensely. Its power skipped a few levels and directly reached B-tier.
Furthermore, more than ten fruits were dropped from the Cinder Pine and transformed into mini golems.
The sacrifice of other intelligent species seemed to accelerate the growth of the golem's offspring.
Such an evil ritual was captured by the drone and transmitted to Qin Feng's communicator.
Even some higher-ups had seen the process too.
They all gasped in shock.
"Qin Feng, should we intercept the two D-tiers that had escaped? More people would come rushing once they hear the news!" Zhou Hao said.
The others could not tell what the egg-sized crystal cores were from such a far distance. But judging by the excited looks on Hou Ming and Tieh Yuanjiu, anyone would understand it had to be something valuable. If the two D-tiers spread the news once they got out of here, a lot of desperados or valiant users would swarm this place in no time.
Qin Feng replied expressionlessly, "Let them go. Why should we stop someone else's death wish? The more the merrier. It just means more fertilizer for the tree."
Fertilizer?
They immediately thought about the scene where the golem sacrificed the human to the Cinder Pine.
Did Qin Feng intend to use the aptitude users to nurture more Cinderlast Golems?
What a terrible and inhuman thought!
On the surface, Qin Feng mostly appeared as a gentle leader that often opted for a more lenient approach. Now only did they realize that Qin Feng had a dark side that they had never discovered before.
Qin Feng could not care less about what they thought of him. He continued, "I will name this city after Cinderclast from today onward."
There was no objection raised.
"I will go to rest now. Wake me up if anything happens." Qin Feng promptly left with Bai Li.
"Yes, Governor!"
"I will see you out."
"Have a good rest!"
The rest nodded and said nothing. But after Qin Feng had left, discussions buzzed up once again inside the aircraft. Out of sympathy, they paid close attention to the news the whole time.
The Hou and Tieh families were naturally the first rocked by the news. The two C-tiers were one of the few remaining top-class users in the family. They now only had two to three C-tiers guarding their base.
They were in full panic mode.
"Qin Feng did this on purpose. He didn't warn us even though he knew how dangerous that place is. He even left the scene when our troops arrived. What a heartless man!"
"That's true. He has long wanted to rid us from the North Sea."
"We cannot let him get away with this."
"Put the news up on the battle net. The price of a C1-tier fire-type beast king core is going to send the world into a frenzy."
They thought that this was the best way to handicap Qin Feng so they spread the news while ignoring the consequences. The news soon broke out and caught a lot of peoples' attention.
Those inside the Cinderclast City who was still awake had apparently received the update too.
Some were compassionate enough to issue a warning about the enormous dangers of this place. They kind-heartedly warned the users not to rush over recklessly unless they were a B-tier.
However, their warnings were largely ignored. Worse still, their kind warning was being chastised.
"These people are from the North Sea. Is the governor there trying to monopolize the resource?"
"When will humans ever improve collectively when everyone is trying to hide the good stuff?! Do you know how many people would be saved when all users evolve together? This is no different from murdering the human race!"
"F*cking b*tches who only care about self-interest!"
Of course, not everyone was as radical. Some agreed and felt that they should be more cautious dealing with unknown creatures.
But seeing one radical comment out of ten was still pretty infuriating.
"We tried to warn them and this is their response?"
"Our boss is right. Why should we stop them if they seek death?"
"I don't care anymore. If they want to be fertilizers so badly, so be it!"
Chapter 635: C7-tier Conscious Power
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Qin Feng slept for 12 hours straight. Aptitude users generally had better recovery rates than normal people. It had been a while since Qin Feng had slept for this long.
He felt relaxed after the extended rest. More so, he could vaguely sense that his consciousness was breaking through soon.
Without any delay, Qin Feng took out the fire-type crystal core equivalent to that of a C1-tier beast king and gripped it tightly.
"Ability, absorb!"
Instantaneously, the crystal core vanished in Qin Feng's hand.
To Qin Feng's surprise, the crystal core also contained the earth-type element. It flowed into Qin Feng's Diamond Starglobe along with the fire runes.
'My Absorption Ability has probably evolved after the Hell Stone was destroyed.'
In the past, Qin Feng needed to use the Hell Stone to convert the fire runes first before assimilating them. Now, the conversion ability of the stone seemed to have merged with his Absorption Ability. Or perhaps, this had always been the unique nature of dark ability.
Now, the fire runes could directly enter the Diamond Starglobe without any hindrance.
'This is great. There's even an earth-type rune now. I wonder whether I can use other runes this way.'
Qin Feng was enthused.
He took out another ability core. This one was purple in color.
Thunder type!
This element type was the fastest and the most destructive force. It was even faster than the wind type. Qin Feng would benefit greatly if he could master this new ability.
"Ability, absorb!"
The ability core again disintegrated rapidly. Numerous runes flowed into his conscious realm.
However, these runes could not be imprinted onto his starglobe. Instead, the runes were disseminated into the environment.
It had failed.
This meant that Qin Feng had wasted a valuable crystal core. But at least he had successfully upgraded his tier—C7-tier consciousness.
Qin Feng's consciousness spread out extensively to cover the entire city.
If he molded the consciousness into a thin line, it could even extend up to ten kilometers.
It was at this range that he saw a lot of hovercrafts currently heading toward the Cinder Pine way.
Qin Feng retracted his consciousness. He fell into deep thought after the initial euphoria of breaking through passed.
'Perhaps this crystal core is a mixed-type? That's why I obtained an earth-type rune?'
'I could obtain fire-type runes in the past because Hell Stone comes with mutated fire naturally. Maybe there's a connection here?'
'If I want to obtain other abilities, does it mean that I have to find mixed-cores that simultaneously possess fire runes or dark runes with other elements?'
Based on this logic, Qin Feng could probably control all elements one day.
Nevertheless, such dual-type cores were extremely rare. It would usually be mutated spontaneously during development.
But everything was possible in this strange world. Qin Feng vowed to pay closer attention in the future. If anyone could pull this off, it would be Qin Feng.
If he wished only to advance at a normal pace, Qin Feng could easily upgrade now by swallowing a few more crystal cores. But Qin Feng's ultimate goal was to become Immortal. He was only at emperor tier now but some A-tier beasts could already be a deity.
If that were so, there must be a deity class among humans too.
The more he considered, the more convoluted it became. Qin Feng had never met a beast deity in his previous life.
There were so many things to consider. Way too many!
"Sigh! I should stop thinking about it. Let's go and check out the situation."
Qin Feng got up and did not see the little fox around. Something felt odd.
He switched on the communicator and called Bai Li. After Bai Li answered the call, Qin Feng figured that she was currently inside the office.
"Why are you over at the office and not resting?" Qin Feng asked.
"I am not sleepy. Someone is looking for trouble here." Bai Li rarely felt exhausted. Besides, Qin Feng had frequently asked Bai Li to rest in the aircraft throughout the past week.
Qin Feng furrowed at the second sentence. "What's the matter? Who is looking for trouble?" Qin Feng said coldly.
Bai Li answered, "Probably from the Dark Coalition. A C-tier was here with some random guys and didn't pay for their meal. I gave them a good beating and threw them over to the Cinder Pine!"
"Hey, my little fox is unexpectedly capable!" Qin Feng complimented Bai Li with a grin.
Bai Li raised her chin and said, "Of course! They are messing with the wrong person!"
Qin Feng almost laughed out loud but he held it down. "I will be there soon. You help me to take care of things over there first!"
"Okay. I am keeping a close eye over here." Bai Li nodded with all seriousness.
Inside the hall, everyone was looking at each other helplessly. They asked for Bai Li's help earlier and she proceeded to kill a C-tier aptitude user with ease.
Within the next twelve hours, more ability users popped up in the city trying to gather intel about the Cinder Pine.
A few hot-tempered users were being rude toward the citizens. Bai Li turned up and instantly beat them down. They needed to know who the boss was around here.
Aptitude users had great responsibility so it was common for them to be arrogant toward commoners. Bai Li's unconventional act had surprisingly garnered a lot of praise and gratitude.
Hence, Bai Li returned to the office building very much satisfied and waited for another troublemaker to show up in front of the surveillance camera.
After Bai Li flexed her muscles, aptitude users that came to the city started behaving better, especially the D-tiers.
Even Qin Feng had praised her despite not knowing what happened in the city. Bai Li was especially proud of herself.
After hanging up, Qin Feng went to shower and then walked out from the newly built villa. He reached the office of Cinderclast City in less than ten minutes.
Along the way, Qin Feng could see that the city had been set in motion. A lot of people were busy but putting up a bright smile. The life around here seemed to be commendable.
This was owing to good confidentiality measures done by Qin Feng's management group. Though there was some chaos when the rift first appeared, things had turned back to normal in recent days.
If the city was really in grave danger, the calamity would have long befallen them. But seven days later and they had not heard the alarm once. They reckoned it was probably not a huge threat.
Life inside the city went on no matter how dangerous the outside world might be. People in here had seemingly forgotten about the dangerous creatures currently lingering around the border.
They were happy enough to have so many aptitude users visiting the city. Income had grown exponentially especially for restaurants and hotel owners. Aptitude users had always been generous despite being hard to please.
Chapter 636: Crowded
'A greater boom is coming for this city in the future!'
Qin Feng had reached the city surveillance room as he thought so.
One of the walls in this room was fully lined with monitors. They were showing the live feeds of the Cinder Pine from all angles.
The pine might be conscious but it paid no attention to the drones. The Cinderclast Golems were not very bright so they ignored the drones too. This allowed the humans to set up a complete surveillance system.
In the meantime, a few groups had entered the golems' territory.
"Another batch here to die!"
"Hmph. Those from the Hou and Tieh family did this on purpose. They didn't reveal the nature of these golems. This put others in grave danger!"
"I wouldn't have told them too. They have to bear the risk themselves."
"These few over here are from the Dark Coalition. They didn't pass through our city."
"Take note of them. Don't let them enter the city during restoration."
People in the room were exchanging words softly. They saluted Qin Feng when they saw him walk through the door.
"Governor!"
"President!"
"Have you rested well?"
"They are here already?" Qin Feng nodded back and asked, "Help me to ring Xue Xingfu and ask him about the production of frost bombs. Is the production line set up? This is a good time to sell them!"
Qin Feng had been secretive about this place so there was no factory set up near Cinderclast City. However, he had ordered Xue Xingfu to manufacture the bombs beforehand and had them delivered here. The high demand for this product here would boost its price by several folds as compared to the outside market.
This would make a good business once the place was crowded with aptitude users from all over the world.
"The first batch just reached not long ago. The promotion is already ongoing. The production is up and running too," Guo Guan answered.
Qin Feng was pleased as he nodded. The others greatly admired Qin Feng's business mind. He did not sell the end product, fire core, but instead supplied the tool, frost bomb. What a brilliant idea!
Wang Chen walked over and said, "Governor, the deaths of the chiefs of the Tieh and Hou family have been confirmed. It's only a matter of time that the two families will crumble now without a strong leader. Should we take over their businesses and assets? I heard that the Yang family is eager to do something."
Qin Feng frowned and said coldly, "What a large appetite. Don't let them get any of it. Besides, ask them to pay up all the taxes they owe us."
Unlike the others, the Yang family was maintaining a good relationship with Qin Feng. However, they had been testing Qin Feng's patience recently. For instance, they had not been very cooperative on the tax payment and kept delaying. Now that there was an opportunity, they had the face to want a piece?!
'Am I Santa Claus?'
Them hoarding the resources was the major reason why the North Sea was so underdeveloped. Qin Feng would no longer tolerate such selfish behavior!
"Yes, Governor. I will deal with it now!" Wang Chen tended to the matters immediately.
Qin Feng turned back to the monitor. After his twelve hours of sleep, the number of Cinderclast Golems had expanded to three thousand. Furthermore, another one thousand golems had grown into four meters and entered C-tier. B-tiers had increased by twenty too.
They must have caught more humans and sacrificed them to the sacred tree.
The most troublesome part was that the golems' territory had enlarged by another one kilometer. Rocks and trees around the area were almost wiped clean.
These golems had been working day and night and showed little sign of lethargy.
The Cinder Pine had grown up to two hundred meters. As it grew exponentially, so did the number of newborn golems.
"Set three aircrafts to guard the city. Bai Li will stay here too. I will go do the sweeping alone."
"Roger that, President!"
"Please be careful!"
"We will fully support you from the backline."
Qin Feng nodded and went up to the rooftop. He then headed to the territory in the Sky Dweller.
The humans inside the territory were still relatively sparse. But when he approached the Cinder Pine, Qin Feng saw that a golem was about to offer a human to the tree.
The tree absorbed the life force from the human and erupted.
It was like a glorious firework.
Qin Feng stopped short as the Sky Dweller was a little too close to the tree.
Numerous sparks from the burning tree sprinkled up to the air and then plummeted rapidly. It hit on the ground and did not transform into mini golems this time. Instead, the sparks turned into one after another large lava pool.
The empty land immediately turned into a large scale lake filled with not water but red hot lava.
The Cinderclast Golems seemed to like the new environment a lot. They eagerly jumped into the lake and bathed in it.
Qin Feng quickly turned to one of the smaller lakes and launched a frost grenade.
The lava pool was frozen rapidly and turned into orange soils. A quail egg-sized crystal core appeared in the middle of the frozen lava.
This was the concentrated energy of the spark. All lava spurted out by the Cinder Pine contained its energy. Once cooled off, the energy would crystallize into a core of this size.
Though smaller, each core still contained enough energy to equal a C-tier core. Its price was one over five the golem's core, but still worth roughly 5 billion.
Besides, these pools were not at all dangerous as compared to the Cinderclast Golems.
It was basically free to take.
Qin Feng was perhaps the only one that knew this info right now.
In his memory, this was exactly the magnificent scene he saw on the battle net in his past life.
Lava pools were all around the place. Aptitude users threaded through these lakes carefully. Several Cinderclast Golems might suddenly pop up from the lakes if they ever let their guards down.
Eventually, all the lakes disappeared in the end and the Cinder Pine was also demolished. But it would take several months from now for that to happen.
Right now, Qin Feng wanted to use this natural advantage to lure more people to this "gold mine". His purpose was to accelerate the development of Cinderclast City.
A few months from now, Qin Feng believed that this place would become a location even more popular than Longchuan.
But that was in the future. Right now, he would gain as much profit as possible. After all, he was the first to start this gold rush in this life.
Qin Feng surveyed the area from the top and saw a few figures after a half-lap around the tree.
These people were the Dark Coalition members they saw through the surveillance cam earlier.
Their aptitude user badges were black in color. The communicators on their wrists were different from the normal ones too. They did not bother to hide their actual identity and walked out brazenly. Their sights were set on none other than Qin Feng.
Chapter 637: Undesirable Kill
Obviously, those people did not know who Qin Feng was.
Although Qin Feng was equipped with luxurious combat armor that was made from the Magical Tesseract as well as the Sacred Armor, in the eyes of the others, those were absolutely not rune equipment. He was just seen as a gunner that had weaponries on each hand, a hand grenade and a decomposing blaster.
There was only a C-tier badge on his chest, meanwhile, everyone from the group that approached were all above C3-tier.
"Little kid, did you just spend half a day here? Seems like a rewarding loot you have there!"
The group that approached provoked Qin Feng as they realized that he was holding onto a decomposing blaster, obviously, they were a little fearful.
Qin Feng frowned.
He took a glance at those people and noticed that they were all aptitude users from the Dark Coalition, and it had instantly diminished his intention to maintain any act of politeness.
Qin Feng raised the hand grenade on one hand while he aimed the blaster toward his opponent and pulled the trigger.
Boom!
A frosty blue bomb was instantly blasted out.
Those people from the Dark Coalition were caught off guard by Qin Feng's bold move, and were instantly infuriated by his sudden attack.
"Little kid, you have got the guts!"
"This is just pure snobbery, take this…ah??"
Among those people from the Dark Coalition, there was a C4-tier ability user, and two C2-tier gunners, and they thought that it was as easy as pie for them to take Qin Feng down.
As soon as the bomb was blasted out at a moderate speed, all three of their conscious energies tried to invade and interfere with the frost bomb and repulse it back.
Unfortunately, as the bomb got closer, they did not even have the time to proclaim the first word of their command!
Bad move!
Their conscious energy was definitely incomparable against Qin Feng's!
"Damn, what are you guys doing?" Several ancient warriors noticed that their comrades were bottlenecked with their reddened faces, yet the bomb was still closing in. They instantly realized that the situation had gone wrong and they began to yell at the top of their lungs.
Meanwhile, their internal strength shields were instantly activated, and the frost bomb was just a blink of an eye away.
Boom!
The sound of explosion from the frost bomb was much more deafening than other ordinary bombs, the area was then shrouded with frosty ice that rained down like ice shards.
The frost bomb that was used by Qin Feng was obviously different from those common ones that were widely accessible. Despite its seemingly limited power, Qin Feng only needed one for every of his attacks to put off the magma pools, it was definitely overpowered!
Swoosh!
Crack!
The constant chaotic icy shards rained down echoed along with angry curses from the others. Although it was already winter, the freezing effect from the frost bomb felt like it was colder than the surroundings by tenfold.
All of a sudden, everyone was completely frozen on their own spots.
Their internal strength shields were crushed, the aptitude users were incapable of escaping. The gunners were frozen still, despite being equipped with countless numbers of bombs and versatile conscious energy, it was surprising that their fingers were unable to react and reach the triggers.
Qin Feng raised up his decomposing blaster.
Vroom!
An array of glittering light sparked and formed into the shape of a fan as it swept across horizontally.
"Get out of my way!"
Qin Feng mocked with an emotionless tone.
There were already more than ten dead enemy bodies before him.
Meanwhile, members from Cinderclast City who were observing through the surveillance recordings had witnessed the scene. Although Qin Feng's face was not clearly seen, they were all shocked by Qin Feng's machinery skills that had exploded instantly.
It was quick, powerful, and unavoidable.
All of them had been doubtful of the rise of professional gunners, and Qin Feng seemed to have done it effortlessly.
"Continue the surveillance, stop the hesitation, if it was not because of such a great amount of conscious energy from the president, the bomb would have been taken over and repulsed!" Wang Chen explained.
All of a sudden, the crowd came to a moment of realization and understood that Wang Chen was right.
Qin Feng activated his conscious energy and collected all the runes from the dead members of the Dark Coalition, while their corpses were ignored and left on the ground.
Qin Feng tried to make every second count and continued to seize small-sized magma pools; soon, the dead bodies that were left on the ground were discovered by the Cinderclast Golems and taken away as offerings.
For Qin Feng, the sudden fall of magma was definitely a free reward for him. However, the others had not noticed the difference in the magma, and all they cared about was the Cinder Pine that was idle and their opportunity to venture deeper.
However, the next Cinderclast Golem that they had encountered was totally different from those that they had encountered before!
The ad hoc team that was formed by several C-tiers was just passing by a magma pool, the surrounding was dead silent, while the path was in poor condition and filled with potholes, but there was nothing else there to block their vision.
They felt slightly relaxed as they had not noticed the presence of any other creatures around.
However, as they were about to walk past the magma pool, a sudden magma wave rose up and slammed onto them. They were drowned by the wave that was then drawn back, dragging them into the magma pool.
"Ah! No!!!"
"Run!"
"I do not want to die!"
The few of them cried out, and without caring about the others, they began to run out as fast as they could.
However, there were three gigantic Cinderclast Golems that had appeared from the magma pool.
"Roar!"
All three of the golems were howling while flames were spitting out from their widely opened mouths.
All three corners were targeted and the entire area was covered by flames that were spit out, there was no way for them to escape!
Rune equipment was shattered, internal strength shields were destroyed, and the energy within their machinery shields were instantly depleted!
In the absence of all of their defence mechanisms, all they could do was to wait for death to come upon them.
Such bizarre and unexpected scenes were constantly repeated.
There were less than seven teams that had gone to the territory of the Cinderclast Golems, and there were about eighty of them, however, there were only about twenty of them who had managed to survive by keeping a safe distance and remaining cautious.
The others were all dead.
All of a sudden, everyone that had come with excitement felt like they were shamed and got a massive slap on the face.
The Cinderclast Golems were indeed easy targets to kill, provided that they were alone and not within the magma area.
Unfortunately, after the Cinder Pine had blasted out the pools of magma, the people no longer had the chance to easily secure their victory.
Qin Feng circled around the territory of the Cinderclast Golems and he had seized more than a hundred magma pools in varied sizes.
But it was impossible for Qin Feng to completely hide his movements from the others, the remaining teams that had fortunately survived also began to spread out and look for magma pools to secure their wealth.
For the C-tiers, it would only require ammunition that was worth a billion to freeze a magma pool, however, the instant return from it was worth five billion, and it was not associated with any risk at all.
It was a trade that could yield a return of a whopping five folds, who would not be tempted by such a lucrative deal?
Hence, despite the significant death counts, the number of people that flocked to Cinderclast City was still growing. Everyone was striving to be the first, and some had even started to acquire spatial waymarks so that they could be the fastest to arrive.
Qin Feng certainly knew about the situation. Since it was still not too crowded, he continued with his slaughter and tried to get as much profit as he could.
The annihilation that lasted through day and night went on for twenty hours, Qin Feng had killed more than a thousand C-tier Cinderclast Golems to put a halt on their growing numbers, only then he went back to Cinderclast City to get some rest.
Meanwhile, a powerful figure had emerged within the Cinderclast City.
A B-tier aptitude user had appeared.
Chapter 638: Probing of B-tier
Qin Feng was able to recognize the first batch of B-tiers that was there as they were stationed at Beihua City, the city had spatial waymarks that were used to support the other thirteen states. It was no surprise that they were first to be there as they had been panic buying spatial waymarks.
Surprisingly, three of them were acquaintances that were well known by Qin Feng.
Fu Wenjue, He Liming, and also the guardian of the abyss, Yang Bei.
It turned out that all three of them were involved in practical missions. Fu Wenjue was heavily injured from a previous besiege mission, although he was still recovering, there should not be a problem for him in handling a C-tier ultra beast.
He Liming had been staying within Beihua City for months.
Meanwhile, Yang Bei had been stationed at the northern region abyss, and since Qin Feng's departure from the abyss, it had been exceptionally peaceful. Any brief investigation would definitely reveal that Qin Feng's excessive killings had transformed the northern region abyss into a quiet place. Since Yang Bei was no longer needed there, he immediately took up the opportunity and left the abyss.
However, as soon as they arrived, there were three gigantic aircrafts that were above in the sky labelled with the name of Fengli, the appearance of the aircrafts had caught them off guard.
"Seems like Qin Feng is already here?"
"Why do I feel something unusual?"
"The North Sea state is under Qin Feng's territory, and it's normal to have his organization's aircraft here."
However, as soon as they had checked into the hotel, secret whispers between the staff were overheard by them.
"Oh my, did you see that? A B-tier aptitude user!"
"Wasn't that just an ordinary looking person? With one nose and a pair of eyes!"
Three of them were left speechless by the conversation. However, it was understandable that the commoners might not have seen any B-tiers in their entire lifetime. All three of them were much older and well-mannered, they would not be bothered about the commoners.
"Stop this nonsense, they are all human beings. However, it is unclear when compared to Governor Qin, who would be more powerful."
"It has to be the governor, I have heard about Governor Qin going against B-tiers, and he could kill any of them easily!"
"So powerful!"
"Of course, or else how could he establish this city single-handedly? Some have even described the horrifying situation outside the city, and the governor was able to withstand the threat for seven days straight!"
"Feels like there is still a lot for me to learn, fortunately, the governor has built such a city, and from now on, we can be within the safe zone!"
For a rural state that did not have any threats, even the appearance of a C-tier would already be considered as a rare occasion.
Ever since the residents that originated from around Cinderclast City had moved into the city, it was definitely an eye-opening encounter for them. It was no wonder the two young ladies would be caught up in such a continuous chatter that was filled with excitement.
Cinderclast City was no longer the same, C-tiers were roaming around, and the number of D-tiers was in excess.
With the presence of B-tier aptitude users, the commoners who originated from small-sized colonies that had been fearful of E-tier aptitude users and looked up to F-tiers would no longer view them in the same way!
It was an indication of the strengthening of the city.
Of course, they were still being respectful toward the aptitude users, but there was not any fear, as it had been overcome by their strong sense of belonging. They would view them as their reliable support instead.
And it was exactly because of Qin Feng.
Meanwhile, the three B-tiers who had overheard the conversation of the ladies were shocked.
"Such a coincidence, this city, built by Qin Feng?" Fu Wenjue's expression turned as white as a sheet as he frowned and asked.
"It must be, we were also rushing over from Qin City, this city looks new and clean, and it is not connected to any spatial waymark!" He Liming was also struck dumb.
"What an inscrutable turn of events!"
Yang Bai could only exclaim his lament on the chosen one, the one who had fate in his favor. Upon his return to the North Sea state, he was able to randomly establish a city where an unexpected opportunity had then descended from above.
Was that not extraordinary luck? What could be more extraordinary?
"Let's get in touch with Qin Feng! Since we are already at his place!"
Among the three of them, He Liming was the closest to Qin Feng, therefore, he was the one who contacted Qin Feng's communicator.
Qin Feng quickly answered the call, and he was not surprised to hear about He Liming's arrival.
Qin Feng answered, "Brother He, please wait for a short while, I'll be there right away!"
Actually, Qin Feng had already been informed by his subordinates on the arrival of the B-tiers, however, Qin Feng did not mind about their intention on resource looting. He was just afraid of putting his old acquaintances in an awkward situation, hence, he had chosen not to reach out to them proactively.
However, it appeared that all three of them were being transparent.
The timing was just right, Qin Feng was not out hunting and within ten minutes, he was already at the hotel booked by the three of them. They were seated at the lobby while getting a grasp of the situation via their communicators.
They had also immediately noticed Qin Feng's arrival.
It had only been three months since they last saw Qin Feng, however, now that they were meeting him again, all three of them were sensing immense pressure from Qin Feng.
Three months earlier when Qin Feng was at Beihua City to stop the beast wave, he was only a C2-tier aptitude user.
However, he had now achieved B-tier ancient warrior internal strength, C7-tier conscious energy, and his well-built physical appearance was already at C6-tier.
There were at least four tier differences between C2 and C6-tier. As the B-tiers recalled, it had taken them more than tens years to complete the advancement journey, and surprisingly, Qin Feng had done it within four months.
Such a talent was insanely shocking!
"Brother Qin, your current capability is really unpredictable!" He Liming immediately said.
Qin Feng shook their hands and greeted all three of them, "Brother, you look good, also Master Fu, and General Yang!"
Fu Wenjue forced a smile and shook his head. "You are really kidding me, I definitely do not look good now!"
"You are still able to move around freely, that is definitely good for you!"
"Haha, true, I feel fortunate to still be alive now!" Fu Wenjue seemed to still be traumatised by the past events.
Qin Feng smiled and continued, "Forget about the hotel, in this newly established city of mine, I do have some villas available, I can permanently reserve one for all of you."
"That's a good idea, it really feels annoying to stay here, let's go!" He Liming did not hesitate to accept the generous offer, after all, they were different from other C-tiers. Also, the others might have different opinions on them if they were to be seen there, and they might be caught up in unnecessary problems!
Qin Feng arranged a villa to accommodate all three of them, and they then casually visited Qin Feng's manor, they seemed to have ignored the ongoing external threats.
However, all three of them had still asked Qin Feng about his situation.
Qin Feng was also truthful and direct, and they were then struck dumb by Qin Feng's answer.
"Surprisingly, the battle net was publishing the truth, how could those ordinary Cinderclast Golems produce C1-tier beast king ability cores? This is…"
Qin Feng explained, "Those are just common items for B-tiers, but it is the total opposite for C-tiers, and it would solely depend on their luck; as the current geographical situation is still complicated over there, the place that was previously a heathland is still hidden with unidentified number of dark influences. It could even be the grey area that is under the control of the Dark Coalition!"
Hence, it was the reason that had driven the unbridled activities of the members from the dark organisations.
He Liming frowned and exclaimed, "It seems like this would not be a peaceful place in the future, what are your thoughts, Qin Feng?"
Actually, all three of them were concerned about Qin Feng's intention to keep the opportunity to only himself!
With Qin Feng's capability, he could possibly do so!
Chapter 639: Human Offerings
Qin Feng's plan was obviously to conquer everything by himself, but it was still not the right time.
Therefore, Qin Feng explained, "That Cinder Pine looks suspicious, it can devour anything, and after absorbing dead human bodies, it can even produce Cinderclast Golems. In my opinion, in such a situation, the best way is to take it down as soon as possible to cut short the suffering!"
All three of them were assured by the statement, it seemed like their trip there was not wasted.
He Liming continued, "That's great, I'm afraid that there are a bunch of people that would like to gain some benefits from this!"
Qin Feng understood the hint, but he remained calm in his answer. "Yes, I only hope to eliminate the threat as soon as possible, nothing else!"
The three of them carried on with their discussion, and perhaps it was because of the huge temptation, three of them could not wait to take a look outside. Hence, all of them went out without much of a delay.
Qin Feng stood on the second floor of the villa, his expression seemed calm, but his heart was pounding.
"If only the situation is that simple! Perhaps, they are not expecting things to have evolved so drastically!"
It had proven that all three of them were too naïve.
Gathering of people with different interests would often bring clashes, and when profits were associated, killings would take place.
On the first day, He Liming and the others were swift in their killings, although they were not as powerful as Qin Feng, it was still easy for them to take down two hundred C-tier Cinderclast Golems each.
It was a whopping six trillion each day, when recalled in the early days of Quong Po, it was equivalent to all he had. Not only that, he would be left with nothing after the purchase of a B-tier beast emperor material.
Meaning to say, with all that money, all of their rune equipment could be switched and upgraded to the next level.
Such an upgrade would definitely bring shocking results.
Also, it was just the first day.
However, there were another five B-tier aptitude users that had arrived the next day.
Another nine on the third day.
Another thirteen on the fourth day.
Within just four days, the Cinderclast Golem territory was already packed with approximately thirty B-tiers, and it was insanely horrifying.
Even at the Dusan Basin, during the peak season of the spring insectoid wave, there were only ten B-tiers present at a time!
The Cinderclast Golems were definitely valuable and highly sought after, however, there were only about ten thousands of them.
What would be the solution then?
A resolution was swiftly made by the B-tiers, the three-kilometre area would be equally divided, and each of them would have their own designated area to hunt.
Any B-tiers that joined in later would have to fight for their slot.
It was because not every B-tier would take part in the matter of occupying territories.
There were sixteen B-tiers from the Dark Coalition, fourteen from the Human Alliance, and the newcomers would have to fight for the territories of their opponents, and every encounter would then lead to the eruption of a battle.
Under such a complicated situation, most of them were engaged into battle, although they were still being cautious and restricted, there were still two deaths that had occurred.
Within four days, the Cinderclast Golem territory had become unexpectedly smaller compared to the previous three-kilometre radius, only the surrounding area of the Cinder Pine was left, and almost all of the Cinderclast Golems had been killed.
The grounds were devastated with unpleasant looking pot holes that were left from previous magma pools, and the aftermath of the disaster was revolting.
B-tiers that had arrived earlier would have definitely benefited, and those that came later could only hold on to their resentment and the completely scavenged area.
Meanwhile, within a private room of a luxurious hotel in Cinderclast City, sixteen people had gathered together. Fourteen of them were B-tiers, and it was a contradicting moment when two of the remaining C-tiers were sitting on the chairman seats, they were none other than Qin Feng and Bai Li.
"Everyone, now that the Cinderclast Golems have disappeared, only the Cinder Pine is left behind, with its current gigantic size of approximately three hundred meters in height, I often feel that evolvement of the outcome would go out of control, why not we join our forces to take down the Cinder Pine?" Qin Feng suggested.
Some of them agreed, while some of them were obviously unhappy about it.
Although they knew nothing about the reward that might come after the eradication of the Cinder Pine, however, they were certainly dissatisfied about the current situation.
"Governor Qin has his point, it is because of Governor Qin and Miss Bai that we are able to sustain our competition against the Dark Coalition. However, the Cinder Pine is a bizarre and rare encounter!"
"Yes, the Cinder Pine is able to grow by consuming offerings, surprisingly, it can consume anything as well. Perhaps if we move in and offer some rocks, it could even reproduce something else in large amounts!"
As soon as the sentence ended, everyone seemed to be intrigued by the idea, and some were even tempted to try it.
However, Qin Feng let out a mocking laugh and answered, "Is that true? Perhaps all of you might not have noticed the sudden spike in temperature that has taken place recently!"
"Oh? Has it?"
"I don't think so, perhaps the beginning of the spring season is near!"
It was only February, and the North Sea state would usually be at negative ten to twenty degree Celsius, it should be in its winter season with occasional snow. However, the temperature had already risen to about positive ten degree celsius. Aptitude users who were unaffected by temperature change would definitely be unaware of it, but the clothing attire of the commoners have changed.
Bai Li had also taken the opportunity to change into her butterfly emperor long dress, and she looked even more stunning in it. Everyone present were B-tiers that knew her true powers, even those two B-tiers that had died were both killed by Bai Li.
Qin Feng explained, "To be honest, eradicating the Cinder Pine would be for a good cause, and I believe all of you are familiar with my girlfriend's capabilities and her excellent spatial ability. Even without it, we could still trail back to the previous traces of the rift to activate the spatial passage, bear in mind that it would be equivalent to exploring another unknown region, if that unknown region is also filled with such creatures…"
By that time, they could kill as many as they wished.
Hence, the B-tier aptitude users were a little convinced by the idea.
It was at that moment; Qin Feng was alerted by the sudden beeping of his communicator.
"Qin Feng, something bad has happened!" All of a sudden, Zhou Hao shouted.
Qin Feng was stunned, and before he could ask further, Zhou Hao had already poured out everything that he wanted to say.
"It is the group from the Dark Coalition, they are bringing at least five massively-sized passenger hovercrafts, they are all filled with people, and they are now dumping them down in the direction of the Cinder Pine!"
Qin Feng's expression instantly changed.
"Understood, I'll be there immediately!"
Qin Feng did not hide that information from the others, and all of them were also shocked to receive such sudden news.
All they had thought of was to throw in stones and trees, and they had missed out the idea of throwing in humans!
However, the enhanced effect of the intelligent species on the Cinder Pine would undoubtedly be insanely impactful.
"Bai Li, let's go!"
Qin Feng had no time to care about the varied views of the others, and he did not wish to continue the discussion with them either, he immediately commanded Bai Li and teleported.
Swoosh!
Qin Feng and Bai Li had already left the hotel, they were instantly relocated to a pitch-black surrounding in the wilderness.
Under the dark sky, there was a brightly lit area at a far off distance, and when looked from afar, the umbrella-shaped tree was still visible.
Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh!
Within the blink of an eye, Qin Feng had already gotten close to it.
There were indeed five massively-sized passenger hovercrafts that were in the sky, they were about the same as the hover trains, one of them could carry at least a hundred passengers.
The cabin doors of the hovercrafts were then opened up, and shadows of human bodies were being dumped continuously onto the Cinder Pine!
"Ah ah ah!"
Horrifyingly miserable shrieks echoed across the night sky.