Cave Refuge

From the information Zachary extracted from their souls, the Giant God Soldiers were not built after the disaster; it seems that related research already existed before the disaster struck Blue Star. However, before the disaster, there were no creatures of such massive size on Blue Star,

so the initial method of control was seemingly through the use of chips. But due to various reasons, this research continually encountered problems and was at one point shelved and classified. It was not until the ancient creatures descended, especially the giant ones, that this research resurfaced.

This intel was something Jack had picked up in casual conversations with others, and since he wasn't particularly interested, he didn't delve into the details.

After the flood, unlike Rabbit's Home which built ships, the Life Foundation took control of a turtle-like Giant God Soldier and established their headquarters on its back, making the Life Foundation's headquarters mobile.

After learning about the situation on Eagle Sauce's side from the two men's memories, Dong Tianyu noticed an interesting phenomenon: it is said the poor rely on mutation, while the rich rely on technology.

Looking at just Rabbit and Eagle Sauce, the once world's most advanced Eagle Sauce is now relying on mutant creatures, while the once numbers-dependent poor Rabbit has become a technological powerhouse. Both sides have morphed into the image of their former adversary.

Having confirmed that there was no other useful information in the two men's memories, Dong Tianyu put away the Hundred Ghosts Banner, as well as the Wave Rider beneath him. Now that he knew the destination, Dong Tianyu immediately took to Sword Flight.

Besides seeking revenge for the hijacking of his spoils, Dong Tianyu's main purpose was to confirm that by disassembling those two Giant God Soldiers, dissolving the special organs within the giant creatures could significantly enhance the upgrade progress of his Cave.

The speed of Sword Flight was much faster than that of the flying Giant God Soldier, Eagle King. So Dong Tianyu spent only about two-thirds of the time taken by the Eagle King to find the Giant God Soldier construction factory in the Arctic Circle.

Unlike the clean, neat, and futuristic robot production facilities shown in movies and TV shows, this place looked more like a small workshop.

Two Giant God Soldiers held the captured giant creatures still while another Giant God Soldier, assisted by some humans, remodeled the controlled beast.

The body of the controlled giant creature was submerged in water, but precisely because of this, humans needed only to take a vessel to reach the creature's neck for the remodeling.

Upon arriving, Dong Tianyu didn't immediately take action for revenge. Instead, he calmly hid in the clouds and observed every action below with his Divine Sense.

Since the other party was remodeling in the open, Dong Tianyu didn't mind attempting to steal some techniques; after all, one cannot have too many skills, and learning a bit more always comes in handy.

After watching continuously for three days and carefully scrutinizing the entire remodeling process, Dong Tianyu concluded that manufacturing Giant God Soldiers was not cost-effective for him.

Not only was the cost-effectiveness not high, but also the combat capability wasn't as strong as Dong Tianyu had imagined.

However, this was only in comparison to him; for ordinary people, Giant God Soldiers were still quite formidable.

After observing for three days, Dong Tianyu also noticed that although Giant God Soldiers didn't require fuel or electricity like pure robots, they needed to feed.

The reason there was no shortage of food for the Giant God Soldiers was the low success rate of the transformations, so many failed modifications became food for the successfully altered Giants.

As long as other Giant God Soldiers continuously transported giant creatures for modification, theoretically, there would never be a shortage of food here.

Dong Tianyu's decision to remain hidden for only three days and not to continue was not due to a lack of patience. It was because he noticed that the successful Giant God Soldiers could consume approximately one-third to one-half of a failed modification at a single meal.

Dong Tianyu had originally come here to scavenge for benefits; during their modifications, those people below didn't destroy the special organs within the giant creatures.

So, regardless of whether those giant creatures below could successfully be transformed, to Dong Tianyu, it didn't make much difference. However, those Giant God Soldiers that were successfully modified, although they ate infrequently, each meal would typically consume three to five giant creatures.

Furthermore, after observing, Dong Tianyu noticed that the Giant God Soldiers who went out to capture giant creatures didn't do so frequently, and even if they were successful in each expedition, they only brought back one giant creature.

Therefore, Dong Tianyu did not want to continue waiting like this; every meal of those Giant God Soldiers was a significant loss for him.

When Dong Tianyu decided to take action, it meant that those below had lost their chance to continue living.

One should not be fooled by the presence of several successfully modified Giant God Soldiers below; the battle this time was even shorter than the last.

Hidden within the clouds, Dong Tianyu directly dispatched Fierce Ghosts from the Hundred Ghosts Banner to strike at everyone below simultaneously.

Under the action of hundreds of Fierce Ghosts, it took less than a minute for everyone below to fall into unconsciousness.

Besides the pilots inside the bodies of the Giant God Soldiers, who required Dong Tianyu to make a concerted effort to extract them, he dumped the other people onto a ship below.

Then Dong Tianyu began to collect each Giant God Soldier from the water into his Cave, to disassemble them. As each Giant God Soldier vanished from the water, the previously calm surface began to show ripples.

After collecting and disassembling all the Giant God Soldiers into the Cave, Dong Tianyu suddenly realized that there was less than twenty percent progress remaining before the evolution of the Cave.

With a bit of luck, finding two items similar to the one obtained from the Merfolk nest, or with less luck, disassembling twenty or so more giant creatures with special organs, could also lead to evolution.

Looking at the progress bar now less than one-fifth full, Dong Tianyu's expression became somewhat excited.

However, in the end, Dong Tianyu calmed his mind and then landed on the ship full of unconscious people.

At this time, Dong Tianyu couldn't be bothered to wake them up one by one for questioning; he decided, all or nothing, to send them directly to join the others in the Hundred Ghosts Banner.

Perhaps the preferred nourishment for the Demon Path Treasures were humans themselves—as opposed to the souls of Fishmen or Merfolk absorbed in the past—human souls were more helpful in promoting the advancement of the Hundred Ghosts Banner.

Hundred Ghosts—Thousand Souls—Ten Thousand Spirits.

This was the normal progression of the Hundred Ghosts Banner. Storing a hundred souls was still the Hundred Ghosts Banner, and storing nine hundred ninety-nine souls was still the Hundred Ghosts Banner; as long as the number didn't reach a thousand, it was still classified as a Hundred Ghosts Banner.

However, the Hundred Ghosts Banner isn't inherently weaker than the Thousand Souls Banner. The terms "hundred" and "thousand" represent only the number of Ghost Creatures contained within the Soul Banner, not the power of the Ghost Creatures themselves.

After all, even a Thousand Souls Banner with nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine ordinary Ghost souls might not be able to defeat a Hundred Ghosts Banner with only a hundred Fierce Ghosts.

Of course, if the quality of the Ghost Creatures residing in the Soul Banners is the same, then the one with more souls is certainly stronger.

The reason why human souls are considered the best nourishment is that, unlike other humanoid creatures that require multiple souls to devour each other to become a Wandering Soul, the lowest-tier resident of the Hundred Ghosts Banner, each of the human souls Dong Tianyu has collected so far has transformed directly into a Wandering Soul upon entering the Hundred Ghosts Banner.

While the main combatants in Dong Tianyu's Hundred Ghosts Banner at this time are Fierce Ghosts, the Wandering Souls already possess the abilities of Invisibility and Intangibility; they are Dong Tianyu's most frequently used Scout Soldiers.