preserving the wisdom of humans, yet increasingly identifying with the nature of monsters.
"Only by absorbing dark magic elements can humans become monsters..."
Hol read the contents of the notebook.
"By taking potions, each dose brings one's body closer to the dark magic elements..."
"Allowing dark magic elements to replace the functions of one's blood, replace the functions of one's internal organs, replace the functions of one's brain..."
"To build everything upon dark magic elements."
"When dark magic elements fill one's being..."
Hol's eyes grew more frenzied, his heart filled with growing delight.
"That will be the day I become a god!"
"What is the old man's longevity compared to that?"
"He probably only gained some benefits from the ancient tower, perhaps the potions within. After all, hasn't he always clamored to find witchcraft artifacts?"
"I surmise the witchcraft artifacts he found were the potions from the ancient tower?"
"Perhaps potions infused with the bloodline of vampires or bats."
"This has granted him longevity, but that is all."
"I am destined to become a true divine being!"
In Hol's eyes, the difference between him and the old man was akin to giving a man a fish versus teaching him to fish.
One merely obtained a few bottles of potions and witchcraft artifacts.
The other, however, obtained the method to create potions, the path to becoming a sorcerer, capable of continuously producing potions and witchcraft artifacts.
The difference was immediately apparent.
Having both visited the ancient tower.
Compared to the old man's harvest, he had profited immensely.
This was further confirmed when he later learned that his brother, Kyle, had gained nothing after emerging from the ancient tower. Hol chuckled inwardly.
It was not easy to obtain items from the ancient tower.
If Hol himself had not found a way to escape the dreamscape of the ancient tower and had instead been killed by the monsters within, thus automatically exiting the dreamscape, he would have survived, but all his spoils and gains would have vanished.
...
In the night sky.
A young boy with curly golden hair, exceptionally handsome, clad in a form-fitting black robe, appeared in a certain location in the United States of America.
This golden-haired boy was Fang Ming.
Fang Ming used the Heavenly Yuan Jade to cast illusions, naturally allowing him to change his hair from black to gold, and his style from an Eastern-styled handsome youth to a Western exotic-styled handsome youth.
This was merely the application of illusion.
Illusion was also a Dao, a Dao that could transform the false into the true, achieving truth through falsehood.
If wielded well, it was no less than any other Great Dao.
After completing the operation for the Water-Repelling Pearl's emergence in the East, Fang Ming mused that if the East had extraordinary items appearing, the West should not be without them. Thus, he came to the West, adopted a different style, and continued to harvest emotional value, fabricating new appearances of extraordinary items.
This directly caused some individuals and forces searching for Eastern Sword Immortals to come up empty-handed. They had not anticipated that Fang Ming would have already traveled to the Western fantasy nation of America, adopting a new style and weaving new extraordinary deeds.
Of course, even if they had guessed, it would have been futile.
In this modern society, possessing illusionary arts was far more powerful than brute force. With millions of emotional value points, Fang Ming no longer feared any force on Earth.
It was merely for more effective harvesting of emotional value that Fang Ming paid no mind to their various actions; it was not that Fang Ming greatly feared them.
Such planetary-level early-stage technological civilizations were too reliant on logistics and their individuals were too fragile.
They were easily targeted—referring to manipulative illusions and mental illusions.
Due to his unbalanced development, Fang Ming never considered civilizations of this caliber a threat.
Of course, for civilizations that reached the stellar level or above, considered mid-tier technological civilizations, it was a different matter entirely.
Their weaknesses were basically compensated for, and they were not afraid of decapitation tactics.
Recalling the technological worlds he had encountered in numerous worlds within the Void Sea, Fang Ming shook his head slightly.
Strictly speaking, this world was also a purely technological world.
There were also aliens with advanced technology—but they were all in galaxies beyond the Milky Way, with not a single member within the Milky Way. They did not place importance on this place.
Therefore, for a short time, there was indeed no need to concern oneself with them.
"I have already constructed the second extraordinary item—the Ancient Tower."
The obedient and cute young boy murmured softly.
While the Water-Repelling Pearl was an extraordinary item, it only possessed the characteristic of water control.
Strictly speaking, if an individual found this Water-Repelling Pearl, it would not be of great use—which was why the local wealthy man in the coastal cities of China directly handed it over to the state.
This was because the profit was not significant enough.
If it could grant individuals extraordinary power, or even items that could lead to godhood, it was estimated that very few people would have the inclination to hand it over.
For someone already wealthy, the Water-Repelling Pearl held no meaning in being sold. Clearly, handing it over was the choice that maximized profit, rather than keeping it.
The Ancient Tower, however, was different from the Water-Repelling Pearl.
In Fang Ming's creation, the Ancient Tower was a tower where a large number of monsters gathered.
Numerous monsters, low-level monsters possessed only instinct, while slightly higher-level monsters possessed intelligence comparable to humans.
The Ancient Tower consisted of fifty floors, with a multitude of one-star and two-star monsters. Monsters like green and red slimes, white skeletons, and yellow skeletons were only considered one or two-star monsters.
The truly powerful monsters were three-star existences, capable of completely dominating, even destroying, worlds in ancient times. This was the power of a three-star city-breaking level.
Within this Ancient Tower, there existed five three-star city-breaking level monsters, who were also the lords of many monsters.
Five lord-level monsters.
The highest hypothetical entity, the creator and controller of the Ancient Tower, the true ancestor of the blood race, this monster was to be played by Fang Ming himself. This was because a million emotional value points were barely enough to sustain the power of a four-star expert.
Fang Ming naturally could not create another four-star monster—even if he did, it would only last a few minutes before the million emotional value points were depleted.
That would be useless.
A four-star monster was capable of destroying all life on the surface of Earth's biosphere in a direct confrontation. It was more potent than nuclear weapons, and naturally required an immense amount of emotional value to sustain its existence.
Fang Ming did not have that much emotional value to expend for no reason.
Therefore, within this Ancient Tower, although there were numerous monsters created by Fang Ming using emotional value, strictly speaking, the extraordinary rank of this tower was only at the peak of three-star.
This was significantly higher than the two-star early-stage Water-Repelling Pearl.
But only just.
Of course, this was barely sufficient on Earth.
The various national powers on Earth considered even a single Water-Repelling Pearl as an extraordinary item, attracting much attention.
Within this Ancient Tower, any potion, any monster, would likely be considered an extraordinary item comparable to the Water-Repelling Pearl in the eyes of the various powers on Earth.