He hurriedly took out a Recovery Potion from his Space Bag and chugged it down.
The Healing Potion slid down his throat, carrying a warm stream meandering through his body, rapidly repairing the internal injuries caused by the gene seed.
During this, the pain intensified continuously, but Xia Sheng was still gritting his teeth and persevering.
Because he clearly knew, this was the only way for a player who lacked skills and wealth like him to rise quickly.
As a Solo Player, their ways of earning sacrificial power were limited.
To save sacrificial power, he and his brothers chose the most painful method—gaining Body Refining Experience by consuming gene seeds.
They had thought about obtaining Body Refining Experience through other channels.
But mainstream ways to acquire Body Refining Experience were very expensive.
For example, gaining Body Refining Experience through consuming spiritual materials, spirit fish meat, and similar dietary methods was indeed enjoyable, but also the most expensive option.
The increase in Body Refining Experience from spiritual materials and spirit fish meat resulted in a net loss, costing even more than directly converting sacrificial power into Body Refining Experience.
After several version improvements, now each gene seed could bring about cost price +15% Body Refining Experience, making it the most cost-effective method of acquiring Body Refining Experience.
That’s why a very few players chose the route of swallowing gene seeds for Body Refining.
He and his good brother were two of these very few.
Players like them were jokingly referred to as Genetic Beasts or Genetic Supermen on the forums.
In other players’ eyes, they were a bunch of fools who would stop at nothing to save sacrificial power.
They thought that enduring intense pain to save a few bits of sacrificial power was not worth it—better to kill a few more Evil Spirits to earn enough sacrificial power to offset the investments in gene seeds.
Xia Sheng, however, had a different opinion.
Swallowing one gene seed really earns only a 15% increase in Body Refining Experience, but what if it’s two seeds? Three? Ten?
If you don’t earn enough, make it up in quantity.
Killing Evil Spirits only earns a bit of money; I brag about the Body Refining Experience I earn from a handful of gene seeds, which is more than what you earn from a day of killing Evil Spirits.
This is just a game, nobody dies for real, so since you can’t really die, why fear the pain from the gene seeds?
Besides elevating the New Life Soul or increasing the Star Vein Level, any extra sacrificial power should be flaunted on gene seeds.
The 15% increase in Body Refining Experience is sufficient to keep them ahead of most players.
This is also why they can be listed on the Body Refining Level list, and why the management of the Divine Hall Guild invited them to join the Purification Campaign.
The assault of pain continued.
It all started with one, followed by a second, a third...
Under the stimulus of intense pain, both ignored the stunned looks from passing players and writhed in agony on the beach.
When their health was nearly depleted, they would take out another Recovery Potion from the Space Bag to drink, thus combating the physical damage during the gene seed enhancement process.
hours later, the two nearly debilitated men sat in front of the campfire, curling up with weak expressions.
Their pale faces looked as if they had just survived a severe illness.
"This is too hard, next time let’s save more sacrificial power before buying more, maybe there will be a new version of gene seeds in stock, might suffer a bit less."
Hearing Jiang Cheng’s suggestion, Xia Sheng nodded weakly:
"Okay, save more next time... Also, after we recover our physical strength, let’s catch some crabs to eat; I’m so hungry."
"I’m hungry too," Jiang Cheng curled up, trembling lips nodding in agreement.
While they were chatting, a dark shadow suddenly appeared next to the campfire, stirring up a breeze that caused the fire to flare wildly, sparks scattering in all directions.
Xia Sheng and Jiang Cheng looked up.
They saw an elderly man with white hair standing by the campfire, wearing a tattered armor with a half-broken sword hanging from his left waist, covered in rust, his profound eyes carefully observing them, his face bearing a slight smile, corners of his mouth slightly raised.
Just one look, and they could tell that the old man was not a player.
Although he had a humanoid appearance and wore equipment that seemed to be assembled from the Ancient Battlefield region, there was no game name above the old man’s head that would belong to a player.
Even if players hide their game names, you could still see the crimson flame symbol representing their faction above their heads.
Their gaze focused, and the old man’s analysis info emerged in their minds:
Hunting Level: 79 (Note: The target’s physical functions are severely declined, causing a significant drop in Hunting Level evaluation)
Target Introduction: The last Clan Leader of the Great Yan Clan of the Colorful Mist Coast Region, also the last remaining member of the Great Yan Clan, devoted his life to the study of "pseudo-rule" abilities. His overly aged body can no longer sustain the progress of his research projects, and he is near death due to aging.
Seeing that the old man’s Hunting Level had reached 79, Xia Sheng and Jiang Cheng were startled.
"Damn, Jiang Cheng, this old man is quite strong."
"What I care more about is that the old man is close to death; can we find a chance to finish him off? This is level 79; think about how many gene seeds we could brag about." Xia Sheng spoke excitedly on the voice channel.
Just then, the old man suddenly spoke, his lips parting to reveal uneven teeth:
"The energy material you just ate, can you give me one?"
The old man’s inquiry made Xia Sheng and Jiang Cheng cursing in the voice channel.
A fourth-generation gene seed costs 350 sacrificial power points in the Trading House. In their view, the old man’s request was equivalent to bluntly asking them for 60,000 dollars, which was outrageous.
Seeing they were not responding, the old man seemed to think they didn’t understand the common language of Monster World, and after a moment of thought, he switched to another language to continue asking.