Chapter 8: The Price of Power

The revelation of the Universal Credit Exchange Rate had been a physical blow.

Ao Yetian stared at the number flashing on the CEO card interface: his fifty million Spirit Coins, enough to buy a minor noble title in Glory City, were barely equivalent to the daily upkeep of a common mercenary in a mid-level ATG realm.

The card wasn't just expensive; it was impossibly demanding.

He had less than seventy-two hours before the card would begin siphoning his Profound Core again.

He needed not just wealth, but raw, concentrated spiritual essence—the energy that existed before it was refined into currency.

The most volatile, accessible source in this entire doomed realm was the very thing destined to destroy it: the Demon Beast Mountain Range.

The plan that formed in his mind was cold, brilliant, and utterly barbaric.

He would not just hunt; he would farm.


Ao Yetian spent the rest of the day meticulously sketching. His knowledge of TDG Inscription Arrays combined with his understanding of ATG Profound Energy circulation allowed him to conceptualize a completely new system.

What if he could design a massive inscription array that didn't purify or guide Soul Force, but acted as a colossal spiritual vacuum cleaner?

It would draw out the turbulent, unrefined spiritual essence from high-level Demon Beasts upon their death, condensing it into a usable fuel for the card.

This process was extremely dangerous; the spiritual essence of Demon Beasts was chaotic, polluted with killing intent, and inherently unstable.

But for the card, it might be perfect—raw "Realm Energy," no matter how impure.

He needed materials that were rare and powerful, capable of withstanding the immense, chaotic spiritual pressure.

He drew upon his new wealth, instructing a trusted, highly discreet middleman (a minor noble Ao Yetian had intimidated into loyalty) to procure the essential components.

Black Iron Ore for the framework, large quantities of Demon Crystal Shards to act as initial energy buffers, and, most critically, Soul Binding Grass, a rare herb that could briefly contain wild spiritual energy.

By midnight, his kit was ready. He also crafted several smaller, defensive inscriptions—not for fighting, but for camouflaging his energy signature.

He couldn't afford to have a Legend Rank expert like Ye Zong discover the dimensional anomaly he was about to create.

Ao Yetian moved under the cover of the deepest night, his figure gliding through the trees outside Glory City.

He carried a heavy pack containing his materials and walked with the focused intensity of a man carrying a time bomb.

His destination was deep within the Demon Beast Mountain Range, a high-risk area where Silver Rank and occasional Gold Rank beasts roamed.

These beasts possessed the dense, chaotic spiritual cores necessary for his project.

He chose a secluded valley, surrounded by sheer, rocky cliffs—a natural bottleneck.

This offered both protection from the elements and a confined space for his array.

He spent the next twenty-four hours in a state of relentless, high-speed labor.

His Profound Energy was the perfect tool.

He didn't need clumsy shovels or picks; a precise pulse of energy could carve deep, perfect channels into the bedrock.

He used the Black Iron Ore to build the central focusing mechanism, etching complex, interwoven TDG inscriptions that would act as filters and funnels for the raw spiritual essence.

The process demanded almost as much energy as the card itself was demanding to maintain stabilization.

Ao Yetian pushed his body to the absolute limit, sustaining himself on medicinal herbs and sheer willpower.

He knew he was gambling with his very life; a single mistake in the inscription matrix could result in a massive spiritual explosion, reducing him and the entire valley to ash.

On the second night, with only hours left on Xiao Ning'er’s temporary anchor, the Spiritual Extraction Array was complete.

It was a dark, pulsing heart of metal and stone, glowing faintly with the captured moonlight.

Now comes the test. Ao Yetian needed a high-level beast.

He moved silently through the dense forest, his senses magnified by his Profound Energy.

He located a massive Silver Rank Shadow Wolf, a beast known for its strong, pure Soul Force.

It was hunting a pack of smaller beasts.

Ao Yetian didn't engage in a drawn-out fight.

He moved like a dark phantom, relying on his superior speed and the shocking power of a single, concentrated burst of Evil God's Profound Energy.

The attack was instantaneous, overwhelming the wolf’s spiritual defenses and crushing its core.

The massive beast dropped with a soundless thud.

The moment the beast died, the array activated.

A deep, hungry hum emanated from the central matrix.

A thick, dark-grey mist—the raw, violently expelled spiritual essence of the Shadow Wolf—was instantly pulled toward the array, funneled through the inscribed channels, and concentrated into the central Black Iron Core.

The core began to glow with a sickly, internal purple light.

It wasn't the clean spiritual essence of a cultivated expert; it was the raw, chaotic energy of the TDG realm, laced with the beast's savage killing intent.

Ao Yetian rushed back to the core, pulling out the CEO card. He held it close to the pulsating core, pushing a mental command to the system.

“Consume available energy sources.”

The card reacted immediately, a thin, almost invisible tether of dark purple light shooting out and connecting to the core.

[ALTERNATIVE FUEL SOURCE DETECTED: UNREFINED REALM ENERGY (HIGH IMPURITY).]
[CONSUMPTION RATE: HIGH. EFFICIENCY: LOW.]

[STABILIZATION DURATION ADDED: 48 HOURS.]

Ao Yetian slumped against the rock face, breath rattling in his chest. Forty-eight hours.

The immense spiritual essence of a Silver Rank Demon Beast had only bought him two extra days.

The card’s appetite was monstrous.

He looked at the remaining carcass of the Shadow Wolf, then at the vast, dark expanse of the mountain range.

He wasn't just hunting for survival; he was beginning a systematic slaughter.

He needed to build more arrays, and he needed to target Gold Rank and perhaps even Black Gold Rank beasts.

His heart was ice. There was no time for morality. Only calculation.

The fate of his memories, his power, and his very existence depended on turning the entire Demon Beast Mountain Range into a spiritual battery.

The Demon Beast horde was coming, but Ao Yetian was now their most efficient, and most dangerous, predator.