475: Star Fiend!

Hearing the name Star Fiend mentioned, many people present couldn't help but shudder.

In the eyes of the players, Star Fiend's strength wasn't anything special; he was merely a Golden Core True Person who had failed his Breakthrough and was barely clinging to life within a golden body statue.

However, the impact he had on the players was immense.

Back in the era when players had no Golden Core and even their cultivation depended on the whims of the natives, Star Fiend Immortal Master provided the players with a shortcut:

The path of the Evil Cultivator.

There was no need for secluded bitter cultivation; as long as one plundered flesh and blood Qi, or directly refined people into Great Pills, one's cultivation would soar rapidly.

Furthermore, since players back then could use their Lifespan to accelerate cultivation, the shortcut gains of being an Evil Cultivator were amplified.

For a time, the Evil Cultivator playstyle became a craze, and Evil Cultivator organizations became the number one power among players.

Some players who were unwilling to follow the path of the Evil Cultivator suffered immensely, lying low for a long time until the Evil Cultivators finally collapsed.

After the collapse, many Righteous Path players conducted a reckoning against the Evil Cultivator players, leading to a period of great turmoil... It could be said that Star Fiend, as a soul body, had a far greater impact on players than any other native, and even today, people still remember his name.

However, everyone had originally thought he had perished along with Midnight Gao Sou, or perhaps even earlier when Midnight Gao Sou was attempting his Breakthrough.

No one expected that he had actually survived and was even about to break through to the Nascent Soul realm?

“This... this is not good.”

A Golden Core Players frowned and looked toward Wen Xinghai, saying, “Sect Master Wen, Star Fiend is an Evil Cultivator. Judging by these phenomena, his Nascent Soul Formation Method is bound to be an Evil Cultivation Method.”

“If we really let him succeed in his Breakthrough and create a Nascent Soul Evil Cultivator, will our future days be any good?”

The other players nodded one after another, the worry on their faces impossible to hide.

Even the players who had most anticipated the descent of the Grotto-Heaven to divide the spoils were now forcibly snapped back from their joy, forced to consider a much larger problem, causing their upturned lips to suddenly freeze in a somewhat comical manner.

Wen Xinghai was also frowning deeply, momentarily unsure of how to handle the situation.

After thinking for a moment, he looked at Wang Long and asked, “Must we pull the Grotto-Heaven down right now? Can it be delayed?”

Those who could reach the Golden Core Realm, especially at this stage, were naturally not fools.

The players immediately understood what Wen Xinghai wanted to do:

He wanted to seize the time to find the secluded Star Fiend and eliminate him immediately!

“It is best not to delay.”

Wang Long shook his head. “Now is the best opportunity with the highest success rate. Besides...”

He looked toward the Green Emerald Mountains and suddenly laughed, saying, “I assume you all have searched for Star Fiend these past few days, haven't you? Did you find him?”

The players sighed, and some began to complain:

“We were looking in the wrong place before; we were always searching for the Ancestor of Duankong Cave.”

“With Xiang Qing's help, we knew that the Ancestor of Duankong Cave might have a Nascent Soul Formation Method, so we were searching based on the terrain, investing a lot of energy and resources.”

“Who knew that the one breaking through wasn't the Ancestor of Duankong Cave?”

“If we want to start looking for Star Fiend now, I'm afraid there won't be enough time.”

“The phenomena have already appeared. At the latest, he will emerge from seclusion in a few months. We know almost nothing about his cultivation method, so how are we supposed to find him?”

“We only know it's an Evil Cultivation Method, possibly related to blood evil qi, but the Great Love Sect previously piled up flesh and corpses; those accumulations should be enough to compensate for the terrain. It won't be easy to find.”

Amidst the discussion, everyone gained a clear understanding of the current situation:

First, Wang Long and the Moon Abyss behind him needed to seize the timing of the heaven and earth phenomena to pull down the Kongming Dao Lineage Grotto-Heaven.

This timing was hard-won and provided a high success rate. Once missed, they couldn't guarantee another similar opportunity would arise later.

Second, Star Fiend's place of seclusion was difficult to find. Many players had searched the Green Emerald Mountains over the past month but found no Immortal Cave.

Some even speculated that the Green Emerald Mountains were just a distraction, and the location of the seclusion might not be the same as where the phenomena began.

Thus, considering the time, everyone had no choice but to let Wang Long continue pulling the Grotto-Heaven, focusing their attention on it rather than searching for Star Fiend.

As for the other Golden Core Playerss who were not present, upon hearing about this, they didn't feel that Star Fiend's threat was truly that great.

“Star Fiend? The head of the Evil Cultivators? Please, times have changed, okay?”

“The state-stabilizing seal is already at the Nascent Soul level, and our Newbie Village has a Fourth-Rank Spirit Beast. That serves as our safety net; we're not afraid of Star Fiend going crazy and trying to slaughter us.”

“The Yuyao Kingdom has more than one Fourth-Rank Expert, and the paths to the Eastern and Central Regions have been opened. The situation is unpredictable; even if Star Fiend breaks through, how would he dare to act recklessly?”

“Don't be afraid, he won't be able to stir up any major waves.”

Many players had very low vigilance.

But there was one exception.

That was Midnight Gao Sou, who had once spent day and night with Star Fiend.

By now, Midnight Gao Sou's cultivation had fallen far behind the top players, and his savings had long since been drained; he had essentially faded into the crowd.

However, after hearing that Star Fiend was about to break through, he immediately posted on the Forum, calling for everyone to search for the seclusion site together and strangle this Evil Cultivator at the first opportunity.

[Back when Star Fiend was residing in my body, he had many schemes. Now it seems that everything he plotted was for his own Breakthrough.]

[If such a figure is left unchecked, something big will definitely happen!]

Midnight Gao Sou repeatedly emphasized that Star Fiend was different from other natives.

He believed that Star Fiend was a hunter appearing in the form of prey.

When he resided in his body, he was almost the perfect Old Grandpa, providing Legacies step by step and even helping him with Core Formation; he seemed flawless.

But thinking back, Star Fiend had been calculating against him from beginning to end, and even calculating against all players, letting vast numbers of players help him complete the preparations needed for Forming Nascent Soul—

Although Midnight Gao Sou couldn't be certain what specific preparations were made, his intuition told him that the series of activities by the Great Love Sect back then must have helped Star Fiend a lot.

A native who could quietly utilize players and get the player community to help him do things without them even knowing was truly terrifying.

Of course, Midnight Gao Sou did not yet know that the state-stabilizing seal had behaved similarly, as had the various Sects of the Eastern Region, and even the Yuyao Kingdom was doing the same thing. The extent to which natives utilized players was beyond his expectations.

He only knew that a figure like Star Fiend absolutely could not be left unchecked.

From the perspective of an Evil Cultivator, he was indeed not wrong; Star Fiend was truly different from other natives.

The impact of Evil Cultivators on players was still too great.

Regrettably, now that his words carried little weight, he possessed no influence at all, and his post quickly sank to the bottom.

Meanwhile, in the eastern part of the Green Emerald Mountains, amidst the Red Rain, Wang Long and the others had set up an array platform. With Moon Abyss possessing Wang Long and cooperating with many Golden Core True Persons to cast the spell, they formally began to pull the Grotto-Heaven.