The Extraordinary Survivors from the various nations were helpless against the individual might of the Tai Sui God, a power that skewed toward the technological.

In just three short days, their losses were innumerable.

At first, they had plenty of confidence, but now, if not for Qi Suian’s protagonist halo propping up their morale by nerfing their intelligence, they would have collapsed long ago.

Just think about it: for twenty-four hours a day, wherever the Armored Man flew, people disappeared.

Watching it for ten minutes might have been fine, but who could withstand experiencing it for seventy-two straight hours, never knowing if they would be the next to vanish?

Eventually, even the intelligence nerf couldn’t hold them, and they were forced to retreat.

Many things can mitigate or suppress the effects of an intelligence nerf—fear, grief, and so on. Of course, if there really is an intelligence nerf, those very emotions are more often caused by it.

In that situation, these emotions don’t lead to recovery. Instead, they work with the intelligence nerf, further strengthening its effect.

Tens of thousands came, but only a small fraction returned. The vast majority had already ended up in Qi Suian’s Melting Furnace.

Over those three days, the Tai Sui God hadn’t rested for a single minute. This was fuel delivered right to its doorstep, and Qi Suian naturally wouldn’t let it go to waste.

The quality might not have been as high as the first-tier survivors from before, but Qi Suian wasn’t about to be picky with free fuel.

Gathering fuel was secondary; the main goal was to weaken the survivors.

Who knew if there was a late bloomer among them who might slip through the cracks, grow stronger, and deal a fatal blow to Qi Suian later on?

Therefore, whenever there was a chance to kill survivors, Qi Suian would not pass it up.

"What a shame. I wonder when the next opportunity this good will come along," Qi Suian sighed.

Then, he turned his attention to the memo his AI had prepared for him.

"Good thing they retreated today. If they had held on for a few more days, I would have missed the Celestial Spirit Venerable’s ’breather’."

"Say, do you think all the Extraordinary Survivors on the Ice Continent combined could let the Tai Sui God evolve two more times?" Qi Suian asked.

Right now, after three days of harvesting and the two cores taken from the Celestial Spirit Venerable, the Tai Sui God was on the verge of evolution. He estimated it would only take three to five minutes to finish the job with his growth-booster trio.

[The time cost is too high for you.]

[The Tai Sui God can work 24/7, but you need to experiment and research. That path won’t allow you to get stronger quickly.]

What Qi Suian said wasn’t wrong, and neither was the AI. However, unless Qi Suian took off the Tai Sui God and let it hunt on its own, he couldn’t have the best of both worlds.

But that was impossible. He had built up the Tai Sui God to protect himself, not to get his priorities backward by focusing on the Tai Sui God’s development.

It wasn’t a good way to do things, sure, but he had the confidence to back it up.

He had a protagonist halo, after all. Even unreasonable things could be optimized through it.

Just like now. He was indeed short on fuel, yet the Tai Sui God’s evolutions hadn’t slowed. All sorts of high-quality fuel would show up at his doorstep from time to time.

And it didn’t take much time. Just as the Tai Sui God had said, the time cost was too high.

In the current situation, it wouldn’t even take thirty minutes to catch a Venerable-level Cold Energy Monster for fuel.

After hearing this, Qi Suian dropped the matter. He waited, bored, until the Tai Sui God’s armor value reached 34 points, completing its twenty-sixth evolution.

With an extra module slot now available, Qi Suian immediately cut open his own head and forcibly ripped out his Pineal Gland.

This Pineal Gland was no longer just a pineal gland; it was also the vessel for his S-rank ability, Feast.

So, what he was really taking was his own ability.

He jammed the ability directly into the newly acquired module slot, giving the Tai Sui God an ability module.

[SSS·Glutton’s Greedy Feast]

As the module was installed, the ability immediately evolved, creating a synergy with the Viral Bloodline Armor and the Seal of the Profound Dominator.

"Why haven’t the stats changed? I remember Feast was supposed to increase two stats by fifty percent," Qi Suian said, noticing the problem after checking the data.

[Correct. The ability module needed to adapt to the Tai Sui God, so it underwent certain changes upon becoming an SSS-rank module.]

[The original passive buff has disappeared. Instead, it now fully enhances the original Banquet Fare ability.]

"So, in essence, the Banquet Fare effect was turned into an SSS-rank module." As soon as Qi Suian finished speaking, he had the AI initiate termination.

After all, with a giant hole in his brain and his ability gone, dying and coming back to life was the best solution.

[Correct. This is more suitable for the Tai Sui God. The principle is rather complex, but based on your description, it can be seen as damage that ignores any damage reduction, mitigation, etc.—commonly known as true damage.]

"The word ’any’ is a bit absolute. Try having the Tai Sui God use the Feast ability to cut through a Floating Cannon’s Dark Energy Web," Qi Suian retorted.

[Being able to deal damage doesn’t mean the user is invincible. The attack still has to land. A Floating Cannon is fundamentally a weapon, not a defense.]

[Of course, you are right. The word ’any’ is too absolute.]

The AI called out Qi Suian’s smart-aleck comment but smoothed it over afterward.

It was like receiving criticism that was actually pleasant.

"Is this ability active or passive? Can the Floating Cannons be augmented with the Feast ability?" Qi Suian asked curiously.

The first question was just casual, but the second one was crucial.

For good reason. The Floating Cannons’ Dark Energy Beams and Ghost Energy Storms had always been his trump cards. Since their debut, the only things they couldn’t instantly kill were the Blood Moon and the Golden Light Man.

Anyone else would die if they were even grazed.

If they gained true damage on top of that, Qi Suian couldn’t imagine how powerful they would become.

[The ability module only needs power from an Energy Module to remain active continuously.]

[The effect applies to the Tai Sui God itself and all weapon modules. Furthermore, if you wish to possess it, the Viral Bloodline Armor can grant you the ability to deal true damage as well.]

"What use would I have for it? If my leg twitched and I kicked the circulation device, I might accidentally land a critical hit on the Tai Sui God. That’d be bad."

"But I remember the original Banquet Fare ability wasn’t true damage, was it? It was more like an effect of plunder, extraction, and devour, right?" Qi Suian asked again.

[You are correct. As the module evolved to SSS-rank, it underwent integration and absorption, which ultimately changed its resulting effect.]

The AI briefly presented Qi Suian with a pile of data.

Qi Suian read through it and said nothing more.

This wasn’t a bad thing at all; in fact, it was a great thing.

If the Tai Sui God’s ability module effect was true damage, then Qi Suian’s own Feast energy enhancement could also take effect.

A direct port of the original ability would certainly have been unsuitable.

As for the future evolution of the Feast ability on Qi Suian’s own body, it definitely wouldn’t turn into the true damage-dealing Glutton’s Greedy Feast.

He wasn’t suited for that version of the ability. It was more appropriate for him to let his own Feast continue improving with its current attributes and effects.

Qi Suian didn’t need to be a frontline combatant. Survival, growth, and getting stronger were his goals. Staying alive had always been his unwavering principle.

’Interesting. But it makes sense. The Tai Sui God isn’t me, so of course it can’t perfectly adapt to the ability I created.’ After reading, Qi Suian didn’t pay it much more mind.

The main reason was that although there was a lot of data, it was all just data detected by the AI. It wasn’t very useful, at best serving as reference material for when he wanted to upgrade his Feast ability to SS-rank in the future.

But for now, he couldn’t think about upgrading. Not only was Qi Suian’s strength limited, but so was his knowledge. Whether it was his S-rank talent, Person of Profound Darkness, or his S-rank ability, Feast, he couldn’t even find the threshold to SS-rank.

So, he could only shelve it for the time being.

He did have this SSS-rank module as a reference, but there was a catch-22.

When he lacked sufficient strength and knowledge, he was unable to study and research it. But once he had sufficient strength and knowledge, the perceived difficulty of the SSS-rank module would decrease. The problem was, he needed to study and research the SSS-rank module to increase his strength and knowledge in the first place.

After going in a circle, Qi Suian decided to ignore this method of getting stronger.

Right now, when it came to SSS-quality equipment, items, or even talents and skills, he wasn’t even at the foundation-building stage; he was still at the "introduction" level.

---

"Nothing. This is impossible." Tang Qing emerged from the bottom of Longling Lake. With a shake of his body, he shattered the ice that had formed on him from the freezing water.

He then threw on some clothes, an unceasing look of confusion on his face.

"Still haven’t found it? Don’t tell me someone beat you to it," the Dragon Roar Daoist said. "But that shouldn’t be possible. Such a huge corpse, miraculously preserved... but who would come to such a high altitude to retrieve it for no reason? It’s not like it’s some great treasure."

"I remember... the Transgressor was here," Tang Qing’s face suddenly darkened.

He quickly made a connection. He had noticed something before but hadn’t thought about it in this way.

After all, the number of people who knew about the Red Dragon Corpse at the bottom of Longling Lake on Celestial Pillar Mountain could be counted on one hand.

Not to mention the Red Dragon Corpse was at the bottom of the thousand-meter-deep lake; an ordinary person would never even imagine it.

Tang Qing had just assumed the Transgressor had come to Celestial Pillar Mountain to grind mobs for rewards.

When he arrived, he had noticed that the Cold Beasts on Celestial Pillar Mountain weren’t just scarce—they were nonexistent.

The only one who could have done that was, of course, the Transgressor.

"You think he’s the one who took it?" Hearing this, the Dragon Roar Daoist just laughed. "Then I’m afraid you can forget about getting it back."

"You yourself said before that he could face the armies of every nation alone. Can you do that?" the Dragon Roar Daoist asked.

Tang Qing shook his head. "I can’t. But..."

Without the Red Dragon Pearl, how was he supposed to break through to the sixth level of the Taiyin Refining Technique?

For this very reason, he had been intentionally holding himself back at the fifth level, waiting for a single, decisive breakthrough.

He was still wary of the Taiyin Celestial Monarch, and by extension, he was even on guard against the Dragon Roar Daoist.

He had been mentally prepared for this ever since the Daoist had been unwilling to reveal his name.