Chapter 329

"The game's difficulty has increased?!"

That was a bolt from the blue for everyone. To most people, it was already very difficult to obtain points by killing bugs. With the increase in difficulty, many people might not even be able to earn merit points.

Hearing the old man say that someone had more than 10 billion merit points, many people's first reaction was that someone must have cheated. That was what everyone thought, including Star.

However, the old man did not care about what the crowd was thinking. He continued, "Everyone has three days to adjust. After three days, the difficulty of this ruin will be upgraded from one star to one and a half stars. There are a few main changes."

"First, the exploration rate of 5% will be increased to 10%, which means the number of bugs will double.

"Second, all bugs in the hives in the open areas will awaken and no longer be in a state of hibernation.

"Third, all bugs will enter a berserk state, and their combat power will increase tenfold.

"Fourth, a mutated Queen Mother will awaken, and it will produce 1,000,000 mutated 5-star soldier-level bugs every day, including 10,000 mutated elite bugs and 100,000 mutated special-type bugs. The mutated bugs' combat power will be tenfold of bugs of the same level.

"Fifth, the Queen Mother will have three bug commanders around her, all of which are 5-star intermediate deities, and their combat power is comparable to a 1-star higher deity. However, these three commanders will never leave the Queen Mother's side, so you don't have to worry about them attacking.

"Of course, apart from the bugs, there will also be some changes to the rules of the game.

"First, everyone's merit points for killing insect beasts will be doubled from the current basis."

"Second, in three days, the plaza and the Hall of Merit in the city center will not be open for free. For every hour you stay, 10,000 merit points will be deducted. Those who don't have enough merit points will be kicked out.

"Third, the number of items in the Hall of Merit will increase by a few times.

"Fourth, there are two ways to end the game. The first is to survive until the ruin closes. The second is to kill the Queen Mother. As long as the Queen Mother is dead, the game will end completely, and the person who kills the Queen Mother will be rewarded handsomely.

"Fifth, there's one more thing to remind everyone. I can see what's happening in everyone's territory. You can use your territory to fight, but if you try to hide in it, I'll seal your territory ability and throw you into the group of mutated elite bugs.

"I've said what I wanted to say. Everyone, enjoy these three peaceful days …" The old man's voice faded away.

For a moment, the crowd was filled with noise.

The Insect Beast Rampage meant that the One-Star Soldier Rank Insect Beasts would have the battle prowess of a Three-Star Soldier Rank Insect Beast. As for some people, their attack prowess would barely reach Three-Star Soldier Rank, and some might not even reach Three-Star Soldier Rank. The difficulty for them to obtain Merit Points would greatly increase.

Moreover, whether it was the increase in the map, the awakening of the Bug Beasts in the hive, or the awakening of the Queen Mother, it meant that the number of Bug Beasts would increase significantly.

The most terrifying ones were the Elite Mutated Bug Beasts. Their combat prowess was comparable to a 2-Star Intermediate Deity. Among the powerhouses who had come this time, there were probably less than 20 of them with such combat prowess. However, due to the existence of the Queen Mother, the number of such powerful Insect Beasts would increase by 10,000 every day. It sounded like the end of the world.

The Queen Mother was protected by three powerful Bug Beast Commanders. If any of them attacked, they could easily wipe out all the humans in the ruins. Therefore, killing the Queen Mother was an impossible mission.

Even the TOP1 members, who had always been conceited, frowned when they heard the news.

Gu Ding felt a slight headache when he heard the change.

"This rule …" Lilliath, Elsa, and Dockett were also a little depressed. Their current Attack Power was only comparable to three and a half stars. With the increase in difficulty, the combat prowess of the 1-Star Bug Beasts had increased by three stars. The three of them could only deal with the 1-Star Bug Beasts. They would not even be able to defeat the 2-Star Bug Beasts.

In the dark house, Biggie quickly came out after choosing his items. As expected, the 4-Star God item longsword and another 3-Star God item longsword appeared in his hands. "Did you all hear about the increase in difficulty just now?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Three days' time is a little short …" Gu Ding felt that the time was a little rushed.

"Everyone, enter my Territory. My Territory can accelerate time. It can accelerate time ten times faster than the outside world. In that case, we should have enough time." It was the first time Robert had mentioned the effect of his Territory.

"Tagore, hurry up and choose your items. Once you're done, we'll enter Robert's Territory together," Gu Ding turned his head and said to Tagore.

"There's no need. I don't want anything. Those Bug Nuclei are enough." Tagore did not care what he could exchange for in the little dark house.

"In that case, let's go in together!" Robert said as he pulled everyone into his Territory. However, he found that Gu Ding was still standing in front of him. However, Robert quickly understood the reason. "Your Territory level is higher than mine. I can't pull you in. You have to enter on your own," Robert said as he displayed the entrance to his Territory.

As Robert spoke, he displayed the entrance to the domain. Gu Ding had no choice but to step into it, and Robert followed behind him.

Unlike Gu Ding's Territory, which was barren, Robert's Territory was very clean. The ground was all metal, and the sky was so clean that there were no clouds.

Everyone sighed for a while, then found a place to sit cross-legged.

Lilliath and Dockett swallowed the Heavenly Soul Crystals that Gu Ding had given them. Both of their Soul Spaces began to change dramatically.

Elsa, on the other hand, injected a tube of dragon blood directly into her body. Her body soon began to change as well.

Biggie, on the other hand, sat cross-legged in a position far away from everyone else. He swallowed a source energy crystal, closed his eyes, and began to transform his God Body.

Even Robert sat down and stuffed several source energy crystals into his chest. It looked like he was trying hard to digest the energy inside the source energy crystals.

Gu Ding, on the other hand, chose an open space and took out all the bug carcasses so that Tagore could dig out the Bug Nuclei himself. As for himself, he swallowed a source energy crystal and quickly replenished the God Source in his body. The energy in the source stone was no longer enough for Gu Ding. The energy contained in a source energy crystal was more than three thousand times that of a source stone, and its value was equivalent to ten thousand times that of a source stone.

Gu Ding bought three thousand and gave Robert one thousand and five hundred. He, Tagore, and Biggie kept five hundred for himself. Lilliath and the others could not withstand the energy contained in the source energy crystals at the moment, so they were not distributed to them.

After swallowing a source energy crystal, a large amount of energy escaped wildly, and the God Source in Gu Ding's body was quickly replenished. It was like a dried-up lake meeting a torrential downpour. After being nourished by the energy, Gu Ding felt very comfortable all over. Not only was his God Source replenished, but even the flame in his soul space was slowly recovering.

After consuming a source energy crystal, Gu Ding's God Source was more than half replenished. He quickly swallowed another one and continued to sit cross-legged on the spot to absorb the energy.

On the other hand, Tagore spent most of the day extracting all the Bug Nuclei. He found a place to lie down, grabbed hundreds of Bug Nuclei at once, and sucked them into his mouth. Then, he began to fall into a deep sleep.

It was peaceful in Robert's domain.

Two days passed quickly. Gu Ding was the first to wake up. The others were still in a state of cultivation. Seeing that Tagore had fallen asleep, Gu Ding knew that the Bug Nuclei had been selected. In his palm, a black engulfing flame spewed out and instantly covered nearly ten thousand bug carcasses around him. Waves of Vitality energy were constantly fed back into Gu Ding's body by the black flame and integrated into the cultivation of Emperor Body of Nature Manifestation. Gu Ding's Emperor Body of Nature Manifestation was also rapidly improving …

Another six days passed, and hundreds of thousands of bug carcasses were finally completely devoured by Gu Ding. Emperor Body of Nature Manifestation's thirty-five times permanent enhancement of the body had also been increased to sixty times. Gu Ding had been consuming source energy crystals and engulfing at the same time these days, so although the speed of engulfing was slower, the God Source in his body was not damaged.

"Biggie's God Body has condensed to ninety percent. Basically, only the heart and brain have not been energized, but they have also reached a bottleneck. Therefore, he has begun to comprehend the legacy of the three-star God longsword. Ayesha has injected herself with four tubes of dragon blood, and her aura is very stable. I don't know if she will break through to demigod this time. The others are basically still in the same state of cultivation, and nothing unusual has been found. "Seeing that Gu Ding had woken up, Neptune briefly explained the situation.

Gu Ding, on the other hand, took out the Star Fire tinder, his eyes shining.

Gu Ding was no stranger to Star Fire. Originally, under normal circumstances, the fire produced by the Sun Scripture in his body should be Star Fire. However, due to the mutation of the Sun Scripture, the fire produced in the end became the Devouring Flame.

"In the current situation, the Astral Fire is the most helpful to you. This is because after Fen Tian devours the Astral Fire, it will greatly increase the upper limit of your God Source, making your group killing ability even stronger." The Sea Emperor was actually quite glad that he could find the Astral Fire in such a place.

"Hmm." The corner of Gu Ding's mouth twitched slightly. He held the tinder in his palm and opened up his soul space. Suddenly, he exerted force and pressed it against his forehead, blasting the tinder into his soul space. This method was extremely dangerous. If one was not careful, it was very likely that the entire soul space would be destroyed, and one's soul would be destroyed. However, this method was also recorded in the Burning Heaven technique. After the tinder entered the soul space, it was about to run around, but it was surrounded by two flames, one green and one black, and could not move.

Gu Ding hurriedly blasted the soul imprint on the tinder according to the Burning Heaven technique. However, as recorded in the technique, the failure rate of this method was extremely high. Gu Ding struggled for a whole day and tried more than three hundred times before he finally succeeded.

After successfully capturing the tinder, Gu Ding began to take the beast blood again. The beast blood bred under the spirit soil contained infinite energy and vitality, and was the best nutrient for nurturing the God Fire. Under the nourishment of the beast blood, the tinder quickly grew from a spark to the size of a thumb, then to the thickness of an arm, and then to a few meters high …

After a full twenty days, Liliath and the others had woken up. Only Gu Ding and Ayesha were still sitting cross-legged in Robert's domain.