Fey Evolution Merchant (Web Novel)
chapter-2699

From what Liu Wencheng said, the members of the younger generation fully understood the perils of this test.

The best option for them would be to rush to the leaders and seek their protection so they could set up defenses against the waves of dead spirits together!

Hence, during this Radiance Hundred Sequence selection, the participants did not immediately begin cutting each other down. Instead, they tried their best to form alliances and groups with those around them so they could prevent themselves from befalling any danger before they met up with the leaders.

This was extremely different from last year's Radiance Hundred Sequence selection, where fights started breaking out immediately after the participants entered the test ground and resulted in many strong participants being eliminated at the beginning.

Those who were weak would not brashly fight the other competitors right out of the gate.

This year's test might seem as though the participants were safe as long as they could band together and move through the area together. However, there were no lull periods. Aside from the air being concentrated with death aura, endless waves of dead spirits appeared even before the major explosion of dead spirits that would take place a day later.

Regardless of how strong the young spirit qi professionals were, they did not have much experience with outdoor survival, especially in such extreme environments.

Each time there was a new wave, the dead spirits that had been killed would contribute to the concentration of death aura in the environment.

In actuality, there would not be many participants who would be able to make it to Lin Yuan and the other leaders before the main part of the dead spirits crisis began.

Lin Yuan was not worried because he could protect the Radiance Hundred Sequence's members in such an environment.

However, it was likely that Liu Wencheng, who designed this test, had already discovered that he had set the bar too high.

Firstly, the test ground was twice as large as the previous year's. This would make it even more difficult for the participants to search for the leaders.

It was acceptable to fill the environment with death aura. Still, Liu Wencheng clearly had not considered that the concentration of death aura would rise rapidly as more dead spirits and dimensional lifeforms died.

The Dead Decay Earthworms placed around the main areas were far from enough to lower the concentration of death aura.

The dead dimensional lifeforms were not truly feared because of their power but because of how they could affect the environment.

Just as Lin Yuan thought, Liu Wencheng soon realized that things were going wrong.

But at the same time, he knew that he could not stop this test now. If he did, it would be a huge blow to the Radiance Federation!

All of the Radiance citizens were watching the Radiance Hundred Sequence selection.

If he had another week to prepare, he would definitely have figured out through his testing that such an issue would arise. However, he had given up on testing due to the tight timeline.

Liu Wencheng's heart pounded like a drum, and he was terrified that this test would leave no survivors.

The other members of the Radiance Federation's royalty had also realized this.

Cicada Song sent a message through the Thoughts Letter Paper to ask Liu Wencheng about how things were going, and Liu Wencheng responded honestly.

Cicada Song could understand how Liu Wencheng was feeling. He wanted to use the Radiance Hundred Sequence selection to show the Radiance citizens the severity of the dead spirits crisis. However, he had been too heavy-handed.

Nonetheless, Cicada Song was not overly worried because he knew of Lin Yuan's capabilities in handling the dead spirits.

If things were truly going awry, it was likely that Lin Yuan would release demon insects into the test ground to clear out the dead spirits.

It was not just Lin Yuan. Night Leaning Moon's disciple also controlled some insect-species carcinoma feys that could ameliorate an environment filled with death aura. Night Leaning Moon had mentioned this during a previous imperial meeting.

It seemed that the success of this test now depended on Liu Jie and Lin Yuan.

…

On the first day, even teams of hundreds or even thousands of participants had their numbers greatly reduced whenever they encountered dead spirits.

Even if they started out with light injuries, their bodies would have already been infected with death aura that would continue to decay their muscles.

Regular healing-type feys were not effective in healing such injuries. Hence, every team that had tried to fill their ranks with healing-type spirit qi professionals eventually suffered major losses.

With no medical aid, many teams composed of hundreds of people were eliminated, while those composed of thousands of people winnowed down to only a few hundred members.

This was in spite of the fact that many of the teams were even working together.

All members of the teams were in extremely bad states and had ghastly faces. Blood dripped from their noses and ears in an almost never-ending stream. Those with more serious conditions were showing signs of losing their teeth despite only being around 20 years old.

The high concentration of death aura even made breathing a challenge.

Ever since Lin Yuan entered the test ground, he instructed the Source Sand to release a large amount of Close Guard Sand and Overlord Sand before creating more sand underground. The flowing sand beneath the test ground became Lin Yuan's eyes and helped him to detect the environment.

Once Lin Yuan used the Source Sand to check on how the other teams were doing, he saw that things had already reached a severely terrible state. He knew that he had to step in.

However, he did not summon Red Thorn's eight-winged fairy form.

An eight-winged fairy had never been seen in the main world before. Moreover, Red Thorn had not even reached Creation Breed.

Hence, revealing Red Thorn to the rest of the world would cause too much of a shock.

Red Thorn was a secret weapon Lin Yuan kept to himself.

Regardless of what the secret weapons were, they should not be revealed without careful consideration.

Hence, Lin Yuan waved his hand and released Red Thorn's spores.

The spores were scattered around Lin Yuan, and carnivorous plants rapidly pushed out from the ground before continuing to elongate.

There were many specially mutated plants in the flowerbed that were spreading spores. The sea of flowers spread in a semicircular formation toward the other leaders.

Lin Yuan had noticed some time ago that the plants produced by Red Thorn could absorb death aura from the air and transform some of the special properties into the complex components of their digestive fluids that would help Red Thorn to digest entities consumed by the Mouths of Relinquish.

Red Thorn was unable to allow the sea of flowers to spread freely as it would also affect the environment and occupy the living space of other lifeforms. Otherwise, Lin Yuan would have used the sea of flowers to manage the dead spirits crisis.

Once the sea of flowers was established, the gill-shaped flower petals of the large red flowers growing on the carnivorous vines opened and closed. Consequently, the concentration of death aura in the environment started to fall.

As a result, Wang Fan, Shi Xu, and the rest noticed that the air they were breathing had become cleaner and no longer felt as suffocated as before. However, they realized that their bodies had already become weaker due to being infected by death aura.

Long Tao had already instructed the Sea King Chalk Mosasaurus to create a territory of water that enveloped him and helped him fend off the death aura.

Xia Qing also used the Suck Burst Oxygen Toad and Misfortune Fighter to create a territory of fire to burn up the death aura in the environment.

Long Tao and Xia Qing were both bringing out their unique skills, but they knew they would be unable to hold on like this for too long.

Lin Yuan's sea of flowers would be essential in helping them break free from the death aura's invasion.

The sea of flowers could be considered Lin Yuan's signature. It was what he had used to capture the attention of the masses when he had been Black.

Black had used the sea of flowers to handle the wave of alien insects in Millstone Town. He had also used the sea of flowers multiple times during his battles on Star Tower.

During the last Radiance Hundred Sequence selection, the waves of dimensional lifeforms had only been restrained through the coordination of the seas of sand and flowers.

Naturally, Lin Yuan's action immediately stoked enthusiastic debate on Star Web.

[No Wind or Rain]: Wow! Black has once again summoned the sea of flowers! With this sea of flowers, there is no way the dead spirits will be able to invade! If the participants are lucky enough to reach Black, they will definitely be able to rely on his defense to survive the dead spirits!

[Beach]: I have been waiting for the sea of flowers to appear. I have been his fan for the past two years! When I first became his fan, I was already certain that he would be able to make it into the Radiance Hundred Sequence. With the sea of flowers, all the participants need to do is hide behind it, and they will make it to the end.

[Ringing Cat]: Weren't any of you paying attention to Lord Liu Wencheng when he read out the rules? There will be a lot of stress if they choose to stay around Black! How will they distinguish themselves if they don't need to do anything? Dying on Star Web will not lead to dying in real life. As long as they demonstrate themselves during this test, they will likely be picked by the Spirit Guards. At the very least, they will become popular enough to become a combat host on Star Web.

[Look at Your Bearish Appearance]: I agree! The stronger the leader they join, the more difficult it will be for them to demonstrate their abilities. Look at Lord Liu Jie's area, things are happening!

…

Like Lin Yuan, Liu Jie carefully investigated the environment and realized the irregularities. Liu Jie did not come up with a plan immediately. Instead, he asked Lin Yuan questions through the Thoughts Letter Paper.

Liu Jie only began acting after he learned of Lin Yuan's decision.

Liu Jie summoned the Hypha Tapeworm again, and the carpet of fungi began expanding rapidly in front of Liu Jie.

The carpet of fungi formed a ring and linked up with the sea of flowers, shielding the four members of the Radiance Hundred Sequence that Liu Jie was in charge of protecting.

The carpet of fungi formed by the Hypha Tapeworm only created a combat area that was suitable for the activities of the army of insects.

If any insect was injured or died, the tapeworms could immediately make use of the insect bodies.

Liu Jie had two feys that could transform death aura. They were the Earth-Wrecking Old Burial Insects and Death-Drawing Bladderworm.

The Earth-Wrecking Old Burial Insects were also insect-species carcinoma feys that could alter their environment.

The two Diamond/Legend Earth-Wrecking Old Burial Insects began reproducing on the carpet of fungi. They transformed the various types of energy in the air and soil into soil that was beneficial for insects.

Death aura was also considered a type of energy.

Although the Earth-Wrecking Old Burial Insects' ability to transform energy was not strong, they did manage to significantly lower the concentration of death aura in the surrounding environment.

After all, the large-scale explosion of dead spirits had yet to happen.

But even if it did happen and the large number of dead dimensional lifeforms released death aura into the environment, Liu Jie would not panic.

In actuality, Liu Jie was even more capable at treating death aura than Lin Yuan because he had the insect-species carcinoma fey called the Death-Drawing Bladderworm.

The Death-Drawing Bladderworm was an insect-species carcinoma fey that the Spirit Guards had collected, and its danger level was only B. This meant that it had been assigned the lowest danger level possible.

The Radiance Federation began had developing the Pestilence Marsh in the west. They had intended to use the poisonous miasma and death aura from the large number of dead lifeforms that were present in the Pestilence Marsh to nurture special feys.

But before the base was built, a strange phenomenon had occurred.

All of the death aura had disappeared from the Pestilence Marsh, and only poisonous miasma had been left.

This had affected the Radiance Federation's plan to nurture special feys.

The Spirit Guards had sent out a Guard Envoy and two special teams. Eventually, they discovered the Death-Drawing Bladderworm.

The Death-Drawing Bladderworm could absorb death aura and use the strong cystic membrane in its body to envelop the death aura. It would then compress and purify the death aura before storing it.

The Spirit Guards had not believed the Death-Drawing Bladderworm to pose significant danger.

They only collected the Death-Drawing Bladderworm because it was an insect-species carcinoma fey.

When Liu Jie and Night Leaning Moon first started selecting insect-species carcinoma feys, they had not considered the Death-Drawing Bladderworm at all.

The Death-Drawing Bladderworm only stood out from the rest of the insect-species carcinoma feys and was selected to be controlled by Elegance after the dead spirits crisis descended.

Night Leaning Moon hoped that Liu Jie would turn the Death-Drawing Bladderworm into a fairy so it could treat the death aura-concentrated environment.

After all, regular Diamond insect-species carcinoma feys could not be compared to Suzerain/Myth insect-species carcinoma feys.

However, Lin Yuan had stopped Liu Jie.

This was not because Lin Yuan did not acknowledge the Death-Drawing Bladderworm's abilities.

The Death-Drawing Bladderworm's ability to absorb death aura was powerful. However, it could not reproduce in large numbers.

Even when the Death-Drawing Bladderworm evolved to Myth Breed, it could only produce an army of thousands of offspring.

As a result, it would only be able to lower the concentration of death aura in a small area and would not be able to make a large impact on the dead spirits crisis.

Rather, it would be a waste of one of the Firefly Demon Fetuses.

Turning the Death-Drawing Bladderworm into a fairy would not increase Liu Jie's power in the slightest.

A Suzerain/Myth Death-Drawing Bladderworm would only be comparable to a few thousand of the Dead Decay Earthworms.

The Dead Decay Earthworms were extremely skilled at reproducing. The army of Hundred Questions Beasts were also continuing to do research into feys that could treat death aura.

Hence, there was no need for Liu Jie to make such a sacrifice.

After listening to Lin Yuan's suggestion, Liu Jie did not transform the Death-Drawing Bladderworm into a fairy.

However, with the size of the Star Web test ground, a Suzerain Death-Drawing Bladderworm could be extremely effective.

The Death-Drawing Bladderworm's mother body was around the size of a palm, and its body was translucent and gray. It looked like an exquisite art piece.

When it absorbed death aura, the Death-Drawing Bladderworm's abdomen expanded continuously.

The concentrated gray and black death aura would be compressed while the Death-Drawing Bladderworm grew until the vesicle case eventually expelled it.

Liu Jie carefully collected the vesicle filled with death aura to prevent the death aura within from contaminating the environment again.