Chapter 1598: 407: The Weight of Upper Narrative_3

Stealthy figures sneaked into the debris-filled "buffet" driving various types of vehicles. The regional channel was flooded with excited shouts about bargain hunting, scavenging, and finding things to eat.

"I’m rich, I’m rich, grab everything you can, don’t worry about its use, whether it’s trash or not, we may not digest it, but Brother Emperor Zhao has a good appetite, he can eat anything, so take everything you see!"

"Hey, brother in front, let me through, your broken vehicle is blocking my fortune, be careful or I’ll sink it."

"Hiss, I’ve fished out an arm of an Ascension Clan member, how much is this worth in the Trading House, should it count as trafficking human organs?"

"I slapped my thigh, watching the Magic System use telekinesis to salvage debris, I have to swim down there, the gap is too wide, save some for me."

...

Stealing is the traditional skill of the Player Faction.

Not only stealing, but accepting anything that comes their way.

As long as there’s a bit of spiritual resource, it can be converted to sacrificial power.

The behavior of the players gradually became reckless, from carefully picking trash at first to almost frenzied zero-cost shopping.

The number of players attending continued to grow, as various peculiar vehicles carried players swiftly into the scene.

From all directions, they joined the feast of resources originally meant for the Mingwu Clan alone.

This brazen looting crossed the tolerance line of the Mingwu Clan.

The Mingwu warriors responsible for the aftermath spread out, driving Fog Beasts, wielding condensed Fog Blades, starting to chase away the "flies" in their eyes.

But the players, who usually spew profanities and stubbornly stick to the end.

Showed surprising qualities, with no intense resistance as the Mingwu Warriors expected.

Instead, the regional channel was filled with last words:

"Damn, don’t hit me, let me eat two more bites, just two bites."

"It’s tough, they’re chasing me while I just want to eat quietly, is it necessary to be so ruthless for me picking up some resources, they promised a share?"

"Didn’t eat my fill before being hit back to the Little Black House, seeing you all getting rich, I’m really upset, stop picking up."

"Brother, please be kind, let me pick up this debris and I’ll leave, I swear... your mother XXX, still hitting, do you really think I’m a sick cat?"

"Damn, this dog is really ruthless, fortunately I made a blood profit before, dying without loss."

...

The style on the Ascension Sea became abstract after the players entered.

Facing the Mingwu Clan’s pursuit, the players didn’t engage at all, focusing on escaping and dodging.

At the same time, their hands moved quickly, aiming to gather as much as possible.

Even when pierced by a Fog Spear or bitten by a Fog Beast, many players’ last actions weren’t to fight back, but to desperately stash the last bits of material into their Space Bag before dying, with a satisfied smile on their face, then dissolving into mist.

The Mingwu Clan was already familiar with the abstraction of the Player Clan.

Unlike the "regular Player Clan" of the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce.

The players encountered outdoors show no behavior logic.

To the Mingwu warriors, the most direct impression was: these are eerily primitive beings driven purely by instinct.

They seem to lack all higher intelligent race’s fears, dignity, and basic logic for self-preservation.

Behavior logic was chaotic and baffling.

Sometimes greed to the point of heinousness, daring to charge for mere insignificant resource gains.

Sometimes inexplicably cowardly, scattering at the slightest disturbance.

Unable to communicate, unable to intimidate, unable to understand.

Their behavior logic seems to follow only a primitive impulse, in succession: see, want, rush, grab, die, okay.

The presence of players made the scene chaotic and comical.

On one side was the Mingwu Clan’s efficient clearing, on the other was the players’ wailing, cursing, and scavenging of resources.

During this, deaths occurred continuously, but more players surged from all directions.

For the players, this trip wasn’t for fighting.

At this moment, the Ascension Sea was like a zero-cost shopping mall.

Before dying, grabbing a few more pieces is pure profit.

The frustrated Mingwu warriors were forced to play cat-and-mouse with the players.

Yet during the dredging, players couldn’t help but express their sentiments, as an old faction that "accompanied" the Player Faction for over two years, came to an end.

The Ascension Clan’s rise Chapter in Monster World had come to a complete closing after the main island shattered, and the leader Chi Yan perished.

But the impact of the top-level narrative’s conclusion had not ceased.

Invisible ripples were transmitted layer by layer, eventually crashing into the Cultivation Mini Worlds nourished and dominated by the Ascension Clan.

In the past, the Ascension Clan’s roots were deep in the resource-rich soil of Monster World.

The extracted nutrients were continuously transported to the Cultivation Mini Worlds, supporting thriving cultivation eras.

Now, the roots are broken, the supply abruptly stopped.

For the Cultivation Mini Worlds that thrived on Ascension Clan’s nutrient delivery, it signaled the end of the golden era.

Thus began the long decline era.

Nature’s spiritual energy would gradually thin, Taoist rules become obscure, heavenly treasures harder to find... once clear paths to ascendance would slowly clog, the world’s energy levels inevitably enter a downward trend.

They will face a reality of gradually depleting resources and a dimming future.

The Chapter towards the End of Dharma Era was opened after the fall of the Ascension Clan.

Future cultivators will be less capable than the previous generations.

Only struggle for survival in increasingly barren realms.

They might read ancient accounts of the Ascension Clan’s miracles, such as Spiritual Energy tsunamis, daytime ascensions.

Thereby, glimpse the resource-boundless golden age.

But those records, to future generations, seem more like distant, ephemeral, even unbelievable myths.

They cannot comprehend why ancestors could "extravagantly" squander spiritual energy, cannot imagine the world abundant with Spirit Grass and opportunities.

Their cultivation paths will gradually degenerate from seeking Tao to scrambling for increasingly scarce leftovers.

Taoist skill inheritance will decline due to spiritual energy scarcity.

Slide from cultivation era to weak law era, to martial arts era... in the long times, slowly reaching an end.

This is the weight of the top-level narrative.

To millions of beings in the Cultivation Mini Worlds, they might know nothing about "Ascension Clan’s" existence.

Nor know about the shocking war in Monster World.

In their eyes, nature remains unchanged, sun and moon continue to revolve.

Knowing nothing, doing nothing.

Yet the ripples from the broken top-level narrative silently penetrate world barriers, quietly rewriting the foundations of world progression.

Spiritual energy decline, Taoist disappearance, aren’t things Mortal World beings can resist or understand.

This transformation can even be understood as: destiny.

In their cluelessness, the world changes its appearance.

The once prosperous cultivation age will eventually fade into disbelief myths in ancient books.

Them, and their descendants, will be forever trapped on this timeline sliding towards silence, until completely forgetting the skies were once so vast.

This is the helplessness of the lower-level narrative.

The destruction tolls for others, but its aftershocks are endured for a lifetime by them.