Wei Huan hadn't eaten anything. He simply sat beside Mu Zhong, listening to everyone chat and laugh.
No one disliked a lively atmosphere—at least, the people of Daxia loved it.
In the hearts of Daxia people, liveliness meant peace in the world. Only when life was good and fulfilling could people relax and joke around.
Now, however, the mood had turned quiet. Everyone stared eagerly at Wei Huan, waiting for his decision. Those who still lacked a profession training ground were especially hopeful that their own profession's training facility would finally be unlocked.
Wei Huan already had an answer in mind, but the burning anticipation in everyone's eyes was almost too much for him to bear. In the end, he swallowed the profession name that had been on the tip of his tongue.
Instead, he asked, "Why don't you all share your thoughts first?"
After a few seconds of silence, Captain Wang broke the ice. "Everyone knows how important profession training grounds are. The appearance of the 'Beast Pen' has already proven they can change the tide of large-scale battles. So I think we should prioritize the profession with the highest number of awakeners."
Liu Xiaotian added, "The classic warrior-priest-mage iron triangle is currently crippled. Only the Farmer sequence has a training ground right now; the other two are still limping along. The whole structure is unstable."
Captain Wang continued, "If we're also considering the bigger battlefield picture, I agree we should strengthen the Sage."
The few Sages present widened their eyes.
Mu Zirui was visibly nervous—he desperately wanted to speak up but was afraid of saying the wrong thing. His legs shook so hard under the table they left after-images.
Someone else had a different opinion: "Too many Sages get eliminated in the lower tiers. Even with national support and protection, very few make it far. Their usable power in a Tier-5 world is still limited right now.
Personally, I'd recommend opening the Prayer (healer) training ground. I don't need to explain how vital healers are, do I?
Healers are the last line of defense for every frontline fighter's life."
"No, ranged damage is better."
"I still say healers."
"Hey, hey, what about Thieves? Thieves have the highest burst in the game—insane DPS!"
Li Xue shamelessly promoted her favorite, recommending herself. When she realized she couldn't out-argue the others, she winked at Wei Huan and smiled.
"Captain, you've already made up your mind, haven't you? Stop keeping us in suspense. Just cut the Gordian knot so I can accept it and move on."
The others immediately stopped arguing and turned to Wei Huan, nodding in agreement.
"Whatever you decide, we'll follow."
"Yeah, any choice is fine. This diamond chest is definitely getting opened by Daxia."
"Just tell us already!"
Wei Huan looked at Mu Zhong.
Mu Zhong nodded. "Let me explain. Wei Huan and I have already discussed this, so I won't beat around the bush. We've decided to open the Criminal sequence training ground."
"The Criminal sequence?"
"Brother Qiang?"
"Oh, right! How did I forget? Brother Qiang is already this strong—if he gets a training ground, won't he become the world's number-one damage dealer?"
Xu Qingqiang just smiled without saying anything. He had known about the decision beforehand, which was why he hadn't joined the discussion.
When people looked at him questioningly, he simply glanced at Mu Zhong.
Mu Zhong continued, "This decision does take our own circumstances into account to some degree, but it's mainly based on the bigger picture.
The Criminal sequence has the highest number of awakeners among the dark sequences, yet because of their instability, the legions outright refuse to recruit them. Right now, Daxia alone has over a million Criminals registered as 'external personnel.' That's a massive waste of power, and leaving Criminals outside the system also creates security risks.
And then there's the profession training ground—it's not as easy to obtain as you might think."
After saying that last sentence, Mu Zhong paused to let everyone digest the information.
When the statistic of over a million external Criminals had first come out, even Mu Zhong had been shocked. Daxia had such an enormous untapped force.
Moreover, Criminals possess extremely strong individual combat ability and are perfectly suited for exploring ruins. If even a thousand of those million Criminals could follow the legions into a Tier-5 world, humanity might already have started developing high-level ruins long ago.
It was precisely the lack of this close-combat capability that had slowed human ruin exploration to a crawl.
That was why they had to take the gamble now: bet that the Criminal training ground would not only boost combat power but also grant them the ability to control their own wills.
The others might not fully grasp everything right away, and Mu Zhong could explain slowly later.
But after giving them time to absorb the first point, he immediately moved to the second, equally crucial reason.
"Obtaining a profession training ground is extraordinarily difficult," Mu Zhong said. "On a team level, we had to kill a hundred thousand dark beast lords to earn a random battlefield diamond chest. On an individual level, whether it was Wei Huan, Captain Fang, or Aglis, all of them are exceptionally gifted and survived countless life-or-death trials just to open a diamond chest. And how many challengers do you think have quietly died trying to open one in secret, without anyone ever knowing?
Everyone knows why we're choosing Brother Qiang: he's only Sequence 4, yet his combat power rivals—or even far exceeds—an ordinary Sequence 5. If there's anyone on this convoy with a higher chance of successfully claiming a profession training ground, the only person I can guarantee is him."
Xu Qingqiang exhaled a puff of smoke and straightened his back proudly.
Surrounded by everyone's gazes, his peach-blossom eyes narrowed, the corners of his brows lifted, and an evil, wildly charming smile curved his lips.
Everyone was stunned by that bewitching, arrogant grin.
After a long moment, Li Xue spoke up. "Fine, just this once—because you're handsome and you really can fight—I'll let it slide."
She turned to Mu Zhong and Wei Huan, nodding. "I'm fully convinced. From every angle, Brother Qiang is the best choice."
Although Mu Zirui had been a little disappointed at first, he quickly realized that if he were the one opening the chest, he probably wouldn't survive the trial.
Countless challengers had died silently before a diamond chest's trial; only a tiny handful had succeeded.
"I agree too. Brother Qiang definitely has what it takes."
Mu Zirui had thought it through and gave his full support.
The rest of the group felt more or less the same.
With hard facts, Mu Zhong easily convinced everyone.
Still, he cautioned, "Brother Qiang, don't get careless. We don't know what your trial will be. When we fight the diamond chest monster, you might have to face it alone. You have to come back alive."
Brother Qiang flicked his cigarette and laughed scornfully. "Relax. It's no big deal."
The matter was settled, and all combat personnel were assembled.
Everything was ready—only the east wind was missing.
They just needed Wei Huan's final batch of undead to finish recovering. Only a fully restored Wei Huan could give them a real chance of defeating the diamond chest monster.
However…
"There's still the possibility it's a Relic chest," someone pointed out. "A diamond-tier Relic would be terrifying. We have to prepare for the worst."
Unfortunately, even though Wei Huan had searched everywhere and found the diamond chest, he hadn't located another single gold chest.
That had stalled his progress in proving the Relics' sinister conspiracy.
As a result, any challenger whose conviction wasn't rock-solid could easily waver under a Relic's mental corruption.
To counter this, everyone repeatedly watched training videos to strengthen their beliefs, and every war vehicle was decorated with banners:
"Challenging the world's core means war and resistance."
"Relics can only ever be enemies."
"If one person is deceived, the whole vehicle suffers."
"The cunning sea serpent is its true form."
Such slogans were everywhere.
Finally, that day, good news arrived.
The White Tiger pioneering corps had successfully opened a gold chest.
They were lucky—they encountered a Relic trickster. This time, the exact same deceptive speech was clearly captured on mobile cameras and immediately sent to Wei Huan.
In the footage, the Relic that emerged from the gold chest first appeared as a colorful sea serpent before transforming into a form designed to make people hesitate to attack.
Thanks to extensive pre-opening Relic training, the White Tiger team had seeds of doubt planted beforehand, so the Relic made a huge mistake this time.
The appearance it assumed was identical to the beautiful mermaid Wei Huan had seen in his own trial world—even the detail of tears turning into pearls was perfectly replicated.
That only confirmed it had the ability to peer into people's minds.
And once they were mentally prepared to see the same face, all the charm and pitiful vulnerability lost its power in a life-or-death moment for humanity.
The instant Mu Zhong received the video, he forwarded it to every vehicle.
All vehicles conducted last-minute emergency training to ensure no accidents during the real battle.
Still, to be absolutely safe, on the day of the official opening, Wei Huan made extra arrangements.
All war vehicles waited six li (about 3 km) away. Each vehicle carried one large kobold and at least four small kobolds on standby.
Every vehicle that had reached Tier 5 was required to join the fight, with ranged attackers stationed on the war platforms, ready for battle at any moment.
Between the vehicles and the diamond chest, Wei Huan's undead army filled the sea like a dense wall.
The fully revived "Dot Mom" was ecstatic. She strode elegantly across the seabed, and with every step of her eight legs, massive numbers of Broodmothers and face-huggers poured out.
The Azure Dragon warriors who saw Dot Mom for the first time were first stunned by her enormous size, then awed by her terrifying ability—like a mobile arsenal.
It was hard to imagine how much it would cost to kill a beast like that.
If she had appeared during the beast tide at the Azure Dragon supply point, Wei Huan alone could probably have easily dealt with that gold-tier monster.
The subterranean insect branch was truly impressive, perfectly adapted for underwater movement and combat. The undead army emerging from the portal afterward skillfully rode or clung to the face-huggers.
Especially the Shura Horses paired with face-huggers—they looked like underwater jet skis, zooming away while blowing streams of bubbles.
No wonder Boss Wei had waited until this branch was fully restored before fighting.
It really was that important.
After finishing the troop deployment, Wei Huan shifted his vision into an "eyeball" that had grown muscular blood vessels.
This eyeball was utterly sinister. Originally, a Demon Eye Lord only had one pair of wings and some black veins on the eye. Now it was completely different.
The black veins had grown outward, extending from the back of the eyeball into several meters of tangled, chaotic blood vessels and muscle tissue—like a half-rotten placenta.
The eyeball Wei Huan currently inhabited belonged to this Demon Eye Lord.
It was also the only one in the entire swarm with this unique appearance.
Of course, that was because it was an elite.
Most of their recent time had been spent traveling, with relatively few battles. Whenever he had spare time, Wei Huan focused on cultivating undead elites.
He had first raised an elite flying monkey, then an elite green wisp, and finally… or rather, he hadn't deliberately cultivated this particular Demon Eye Lord. Only after it evolved did Wei Huan realize that most of the time he spent linking his vision in battle, he had been using the exact same one.
Because of the prolonged will-connection during combat, this Demon Eye Lord had finally evolved into an elite form.
It looked incredibly ugly, but the practical effects were enormous.
Now, through this elite Demon Eye Lord, Wei Huan could not only see the battlefield ahead—he could also hear, smell, and even receive vague tactile sensations.
All of that came from the messy bundle of blood-vessel muscles at the back, functioning like additional antennae.
Another pleasant surprise was that those muscular vessels dramatically increased the Demon Eye Lord's swimming speed.
From a distance in the water, it somewhat resembled a big-headed octopus.
Longer vision range, clearer sight in the dim seabed—all of that was now standard for its advanced form.
In short, once Wei Huan's vision settled and the eye floated on the sea surface, gazing a thousand meters down to the seabed, the preparatory phase of the battle was complete.
Then, the most important person took the stage.
Xu Qingqiang was escorted forward by his "grandchildren" kobolds until he stood before the chest.
In his full demonic form—cyan face, protruding fangs, body covered in black demonic runes, two short horns and one long horn sprouting from his head—all his buffs were stacked. Apart from Bloodlust, he was in his strongest state.
Just to be safe, Wei Huan also placed ten Shura Horses around him as living batteries for instant recovery.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, the black-skinned, long-limbed demon lifted his head toward the elite Demon Eye where Wei Huan's vision resided.
He looked like he was awaiting orders, but his hand—wild and unrestrained—had already landed on the dazzling, rainbow-shimmering treasure chest.
…
The small chest opened. A burst of seven-colored brilliance instantly illuminated the entire seabed, spreading all the way to the surface in a cascade of radiant clouds, like a sacred treasure emerging in an immortal cultivation novel.
Inside the war vehicles positioned on the sea, every crew member inhaled sharply.
So this was what opening a diamond chest looked like? Truly worthy of being the highest tier below divine. Seeing it once in a lifetime was worth it.
Yet while most people marveled at the fairytale-like beauty, a deep shadow suddenly engulfed the seabed.
From Wei Huan's viewpoint floating on the surface, everything went dark the moment the light vanished—like entering thick fog or being covered by a dome.
Without hesitation, Wei Huan ordered the Demon Eye Lord to dive into the darkness.
It should have been moving quickly through the darkness, yet Wei Huan felt a strange disconnection in time. After all, only his left-eye vision was linked to the Demon Eye Lord; his real body was far behind in the war vehicle.
In his perception, the rapidly swimming Demon Eye Lord felt frozen in place from his main body's perspective, suspended motionless in the middle of the black fog for ages.
Wei Huan commanded it to accelerate; the muscular vessels behind it spun like propellers.
But compared to his other eye, it was still crawling forward at an excruciatingly slow pace through the fog.
Wei Huan switched his vision to other Demon Eye Lords.
He discovered that every Demon Eye Lord inside the black fog experienced slowed time, while those outside were unaffected.
"What's wrong?" Mu Zhong noticed Wei Huan's grim expression and asked worriedly. "Is Brother Qiang okay?"
Wei Huan shook his head, explained the situation, then said, "…It is a diamond chest, after all. Anything can happen. Trust Brother Qiang. If even he can't handle it, anyone else would be in far greater danger."
Mu Zhong nodded. "Right. Criminals have the strongest solo survival ability, and Brother Qiang is the best among them. Others might not know, but he'll definitely be fine. What about us? What is this black fog? What should we do?"
Wei Huan tapped on the virtual screen.
New temporary items appeared in the warehouse: diamond-grade strength potions, diamond-grade spirit equipment—proof they had indeed opened a diamond chest.
There was also a crucial material: the core component needed to upgrade to a Tier-6 vehicle.
In theory, platinum chests could drop core materials; diamond chests guaranteed them.
There were also two pieces of "Eternal Gold Stone" labeled "Gift from the Titans"—high-grade materials whose use was still unknown but undoubtedly valuable in the future.
Once a chest was opened, these items couldn't be lost unless the opener died, but they remained locked and unusable until the chest monster was killed.
Wei Huan ordered the Demon Eye Lords outside the fog to fly up and survey the area. He confirmed the black fog covered a radius of roughly ten li—an enormous zone.
If the fog itself was the monster, that didn't quite fit.
Several minutes had passed, yet it showed no signs of aggression. The only effect was that anything entering the fog experienced drastically slowed time—roughly 100 times slower than the outside world.
The one saving grace was that the fog only blocked vision; it didn't sever Wei Huan's connection to his undead.
Under his command, all the undead already inside the fog struggled forward. Progress was invisible in the short term, but as long as the fog had an end and time wasn't completely stopped, they would eventually uncover its secret.
"Use the undead to probe. Test whether we can still recall them inside the fog," Mu Zhong suggested, always thinking of escape routes first.
After Wei Huan confirmed recall still worked, both men breathed a sigh of relief.
Mu Zhong said, "So moving deeper is restricted, but leaving isn't. It's like some kind of protective barrier that manipulates time laws."
Wei Huan nodded.
By now, a suspicion was forming in his mind.
A black mist with time-law properties wasn't something he'd heard of in his previous life, but a protective barrier resembling black fog… that rang a bell.
If his guess was correct, it perfectly matched the difficulty of a diamond chest.
"What did you think of?" Mu Zhong knew Wei Huan too well.
Wei Huan wasn't sure how to explain yet. "Just a hunch. Let's keep probing."
"What about the others?"
"Stay on full alert. No one approaches the fog yet. Hold position."
"Got it."
Eager to confirm his theory, the moment Wei Huan finished speaking, his vision snapped back to the elite Demon Eye Lord.
At the same time, under his summons, a massive flock of ghost crows carrying Nether Flame bombs poured out of the portal and dove straight into the fog.
When it came to pure speed, nothing beat the ghost crows.
If something was fast enough, it could break through the time barrier.
The diving crows formed a continuous black spear plunging into the seabed, pressing deeper and deeper.
Time ticked by. Finally, Sister Crow's fragmented message reached his mind:
"…Made it…"
"…Inside…"
"Bomb now?"
"Bomb."
Wei Huan flicked his tongue lightly, instantly transmitting the order through thought.
Sister Crow faithfully carried it out.
But…
Wei Huan waited several seconds.
The sea remained perfectly calm; the fog showed no reaction.
Even deep underwater, a Tier-4 Nether Flame bomb explosion would create some disturbance.
This eerie stillness was unnatural.
Wei Huan thought for a moment and commanded mentally, "Keep going—drop them all!"
Sister Crow was the fastest; the rest arrived a little later, but soon hundreds, then thousands of ghost crows reached the depths.
At Wei Huan's order, they spat out the Nether Flame bombs they carried.
The moment the bombs left their ethereal bodies and touched the water, they detonated violently.
BOOM!
BOOM! BOOM!
Quantity finally brought qualitative change.
Even from the seabed, Wei Huan heard the thunderous roar like an erupting volcano.
Under the massive explosive force, the black fog was finally torn and churned; the power of time began to weaken.
At a certain moment, unable to withstand any more, the fog burst with a "pfft," revealing the hidden secret at its heart.
Light suddenly flooded the view—like the arrival of dawn.
Wei Huan's vision had already switched to the elite Demon Eye Lord the instant it happened. Through its eyes, he clearly saw the city that abruptly appeared on the seabed.
Yes—a city built on the ocean floor.
Golden and white lines outlined the city's contours. Distorted by the water's ripples, it shimmered with dreamy, milky-white light—everything perfectly visible.
There were houses and towers, bustling streets, and living beings inside.
Pearl-crafted street lamps illuminated every road. Residents lived inside coral reefs, floating in the water surrounded by colorful fish.
It wove a lively, vibrant scene full of life.
But at this moment, the beautiful underwater city's inhabitants huddled together, looking up with pitiful, pleading eyes at the dome that had protected them—now gone.
Or rather, at the undead army that completely surrounded the city.
On the wide ocean boulevard, a squad of guards armed and mounted on seahorses—looking just like human warriors—poured out of the magnificent palace in a grand, fantastical display.
Far in the rear, Wei Huan's real body opened and closed his eyes, a knowing smile appearing.
Mu Zhong, who had been watching him closely, asked curiously, "What did you find?"
Wei Huan replied, "I found it—a Sea Serpent nest."