Fey Evolution Merchant (Web Novel)

Faith was a one-sided action.

The faith that came from being saved would involve the individual being saved having to endure suffering.

In the Sky Beyond the Clouds, even the most inferior individual could implicate an enormous entity as long as it involved faith.

The elderly man who was overseeing the ritual in the village had to have the support of a World Emperor/Divine Kingdom expert.

Hence, the act of saving another came at a large cost. It was not something that anyone would dare to do flippantly.

Rather than saving indiscriminately, it might be easier to perform the rescue of a self-manufactured crisis. This would essentially negate the costs.

In all the schemes meant to obtain faith power, the weak would have to endure increasing suffering. There was no question about this.

Having just arrived, Lin Yuan needed information to begin rolling out his operations. Hence, he needed to make a move on this elderly man.

He could easily save hundreds of millions of the Sky Beyond the Clouds' regular lifeforms.

Lin Yuan was willing to do so.

Firstly, once he saved them, they would be able to provide him with an endless stream of faith power. Secondly, it also related to his innate personality and character.

Summer relayed what she had sensed to Lin Yuan.

From what Summer found, Lin Yuan learned that the elderly man had only just reached the spirit fire level, putting him on the same level as Lin Yuan.

However, Lin Yuan was pinnacle spirit fire and could easily overpower the elderly man.

Lin Yuan raised his hand, and the amber-button-shaped Source Sand landed by his feet.

Source Sand had reached World Emperor/Divine Kingdom long ago. However, Lin Yuan had yet to find special metal spiritual ingredients it could absorb through Metal Consume Manifestation.

Lin Yuan checked on the Source Sand.

[Fey Name]: Source Sand (Amber Button)

[Fey Species]: Elemental/Sand

[Fey Grade]: World Emperor (1/10)

[Fey Type]: Earth

[Fey Quality]: Elementary Divine Kingdom

[Divine Kingdom Grade]: Miniature

Exclusive Skills:

[Sand Control]: Increase the contractor's control toward the Source Sand and also reduce the spiritual power consumption when controlling the Source Sand.

[Metal Consume Manifestation]: Consume a type of metal into the Source Sand and allow the Source Sand to possess characteristics of the metal that was consumed. At the same time, the Source Sand can rapidly condense the metal within the gravel, forming a specified form (Ferromanganese/Chain Blade) (Day and Night Spirit Silver/Feathers) (Red Lotus Soft Gold/Trigone Strands).

[Gravel Spirit Acceptance]: The Source Sand can consume a type of fey or dimensional lifeform. The consumption will be determined by the lifeform's energy and genetic model complexity.

[Overlord Sand Control]: A special type of sand will be produced. It will be the command center of the sea of sand and be able to exert strong control over the sea of sand. The special sand can control a type of metal. Once the metal has been absorbed, the entire sea of sand will be boosted by that specific metal.

[Sand Protection]: Use the metal attributes under its control to fortify the grains of sand. The grains of sand will form tight shields that will protect targets. The protection of targets can be strengthened, and the energy in the grains of sand will reflect the damage suffered by the target.

[Reverse Sand]: The sea of sand will form a reverse whirlpool. The dead or injured target in the sea of sand that pass through the whirlpool will revert the target to the condition it was in before it engaged in combat.

[Sea of Sand Tempering]: The lifeform's body will be placed within the sea of sand. The sea of sand will dissect the target's body before gathering and refining the energy. The refined energy can then be used.

Divine Kingdom Abilities:

[Sea of Sand Forbidden Fruit]: Its sand bloodline will be transformed into forbidden fruit in the sea of sand. When fed to earth-type lifeforms, they will be changed into sand-type and be under the Source Sand's control.

The Source Sand had always consumed various earth-type spiritual ingredients and heavenly-maiden-grade elemental pearls. Currently, it consumed hundreds of earth-type heavenly-maiden-grade elemental pearls daily.

It was unlikely there was any other elemental fey in the world that could obtain the same volume of resources.

The Source Sand was an extremely special elemental-type fey. It did not come with abilities like other elemental-type lifeforms did.

In order to form a contract with it, two Willpower Runes had been needed.

However, compared to elemental-type lifeforms that came with abilities, the Source Sand's exclusive skills were much more versatile.

In the process of its evolution to World Emperor, the Source Sand had gained three new exclusive skills and a divine kingdom ability.

Sand Protection was the Source Sand's new elemental ability.

Being at the Divine Kingdom level, the Source Sand could absorb metal-type spiritual ingredients of extremely high levels and in enormous quantities.

Lin Yuan had not picked metal-type spiritual ingredients from the main world for the Source Sand to absorb because it was very tedious to swap out the metal-type spiritual ingredients that were absorbed through Metal Consume Manifestation. It would be better to wait until they arrived at the Sky Beyond the Clouds before picking the high-grade spiritual ingredients from there.

Once the Source Sand absorbed a large amount of high-grade metal-type spiritual ingredients, the metal attributes under the Source Sand's control would be unimaginably powerful.

When the metal attributes were activated to protect targets, the protection could extend to damage caused by rolled-grade attacks.

The Source Sand's defensive abilities were already excellent when it was protecting others.

But when the Source Sand used Sand Protection to protect Lin Yuan, the defensive abilities could even be strengthened and enhanced. It would even be able to reflect the damage inflicted on the target. Those who attacked Lin Yuan would be killed without Lin Yuan having to use his attacks.

Compared to Sand Protection, Sea of Sand Tempering had a stronger focus on function.

Reverse Sand was a timed ability. Targets in the sea of sand that died or were injured would be reverted to the same state they were in before combat.

Once the Source Sand used it and there was sufficient aid prepared for the battle, it could eliminate all casualties.

For example, the lifeforms formed through Metal Consume Manifestation that were killed could be swallowed by the sea of sand and enter the whirlpool before being reverted to their complete states. They would then be able to continue battling.

Compared to Reverse Sand, the effects of Sea of Sand Tempering were not bad at all.

Sea of Sand Tempering gave Lin Yuan an extremely good method of dealing with corpses.

The Source Sand would dissect the energy of the corpses.

The energy in corpses was related to the type of energy controlled by the corpse. It could be elemental energy, spirit qi, or death aura.

Lin Yuan had no lack of such energy.

However, World Emperor/Divine Kingdom lifeforms that were dissected and refined would produce a large amount of faith power.

Once the faith power was refined, the Source Sand could either absorb the faith power itself or give it to Lin Yuan to use.

This would be unrelated to the Source Sand's divine kingdom ability. Sea of Sand Forbidden Fruit transformed earth-type lifeforms into sand-type lifeforms, which would still supply faith power to the Source Sand.

Sea of Sand Forbidden Fruit was considered a production-type divine kingdom ability, the most valuable type. However, its actual value was not extremely high.

In Lin Yuan's arsenal, this divine kingdom ability was only considered mid-range. He felt that it was less valuable than Sea of Sand Tempering.

Lin Yuan knew that he had this impression because his standards were rising.

After being summoned by Lin Yuan, the Source Sand did not immediately sink underground and begin creating sand like it usually did.

The Source Sand currently had the intelligence of an adult and could communicate on a normal level.

However, the Source Sand did not like to speak much and was rather closed off. Despite having the appearance of a fresh and beautiful girl, it had the personality of a dignified and haughty gentleman.

Since Lin Yuan had not given the Source Sand any new metal-type spiritual ingredients to absorb, his wings were still made of the Day and Night Spirit Silver.

Lin Yuan injected energy into his wings, and they immediately turned pure white. The influence from the spirit qi caused the wings to glow.

Lin Yuan rose into the sky and began flying toward the statue.

Lin Yuan was wearing a moon-white robe. He resembled a godly being when paired with the 12 flapping wings on his back.

Lin Yuan did not retract his aura. Hence, all the villagers and the elderly man on the ground noticed his presence.

A panicked expression appeared on the elderly man's face when he saw Lin Yuan.

He had been in this village for a long time and oversaw everything within it. However, he was not as uncultured as the rest of the villagers.

Every once in a while, the elderly man would offer some of the faith power stored within the sculpture to that Lord.

That Lord's aura caused the elderly man's knees to buckle. However, this young man with six pairs of white wings did not give the elderly man that same feeling. This meant that this young man was much weaker than that Lord. Nonetheless, the elderly man knew that he was still no match for this young man.

After a momentary shock, the elderly man calmed down.

With his position, the elderly man could not appear weak in front of the lifeforms from which he was harvesting faith. Once he came off as weak, his image of being infallible would crumble, and the amount of faith they supplied to the sculpture would undoubtedly fall.

Recently, the Lord had been displeased with the amount of faith power he had been receiving. He had reproached the elderly man for offering a decreasing amount of faith power.

If the elderly man continued to supply such a low amount of faith power, he was at high risk of being swapped out.

The elderly man enjoyed the power he wielded in the village. Thus, he would raise the quantity of faith power even if it meant utilizing radical methods. After all, the Lord had never been bothered by the purity of the faith power.

Hence, despite knowing that Lin Yuan was stronger than him, the elderly man still rose to the sky and walked toward Lin Yuan before saying sternly, "I do not know where you come from, but this village is under the protection of the Quiet Rain Evil Crows.

"The Quiet Rain Evil Crows have more than one Divine Kingdom member! You better think your actions through before enacting them!"

The elderly man spoke sternly to preserve his pride. However, he was only brave enough to threaten Lin Yuan but would not actually employ force to chase Lin Yuan away.

The elderly man's source of support was the lifeform represented on the sculpture.

If Lin Yuan tried to kill him, the sculpture would be triggered instantly, and Lin Yuan would find himself face to face with the Quiet Rain Evil Crows' Divine Kingdom experts.

In a small village like this, there was nothing that could catch the eye of this 12-winged expert. There were plenty of villages like this in the Sky Beyond the Clouds.

Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow when he heard this.

He was unbothered by the elderly man's threat.

He had many Divine Kingdom lifeforms under him as well as four individuals who were above the Divine Kingdom level. The Quiet Rain Evil Crows were considered a small species.

Lin Yuan checked on the living conditions of the lifeforms living in the village.

After an extended period of servitude without proper nourishment, the lifeforms' eyes were cloudy, and their skin yellow.

Lin Yuan had not expected food to also be a scarce resource that needed to be fought for in the Sky Beyond the Clouds.

But after thinking about it, Lin Yuan understood why this was.

As Lin Yuan's power grew, his ingestion of energy also increased. Hence, the quality of his food also improved.

The low-level resources in the Sky Beyond the Clouds could fill one's stomach but could not provide the energy one needed.

Lin Yuan felt that the three escapees had had a better quality of life than these villagers.

Lin Yuan laughed coldly. "The Quiet Rain Evil Crows instructed you to absorb faith power using the sculpture made of storage stone. That is despicable behavior. The Quiet Rain Evil Crow experts have yet to show up, but your actions of forcing these living lifeforms to give their faith to a sculpture are incorrigible!"

Once Lin Yuan was done speaking, he waved his hand, and the Perfect Touch Wisteria appeared in front of him.

Three vines trapped the elderly man in midair.

Green Vine was the first of Lin Yuan's feys to reach World Emperor/Divine Kingdom. Restraining a spirit fire lifeform was like taking candy from a baby.

When Lin Yuan summoned the lifeform that was even more powerful than himself with a wave of his hand, the elderly man realized that Lin Yuan was far from weak.

The elderly man had come across spirit contractors in the past. There was a spirit contractor among the Quiet Rain Evil Crows.

However, this was the first time the elderly man was seeing a spirit contractor who could contract a lifeform that was stronger than he was!

The aura of this girl who could control vines was similar to that of the Quiet Rain Evil Crow with whom he was in contact.

It was no wonder that his intimidation attempt had been ineffective. It turned out that this young man could not care less about the Quiet Rain Evil Crows!

The lifeforms who had been waiting to continue supplying their faith to the sculpture looked excited when they saw all that had just unfolded.

However, the older lifeforms in the village had terrified expressions.

They had experienced similar scenarios in the past.

It was likely that ownership of the village would be changing hands today!

Still, having a different owner was not always a good thing!