I Don't Agree to the Terms

Little White naturally hopped off to find the Azure Dragon, since the Azure Dragon was unoccupied anyway.

Compared to the White Tiger, Little White was more familiar with the Azure Dragon, since when the Azure Dragon was born, it was also a small deer, essentially growing up together as playmates.

Gu Shanhai wasn't so idle; instead, he took out the Transcendent ability orb named "Ocean Affinity" to investigate.

"It seems like there's no difference from the feedback given by the Tributed Divines."

At first glance, it seemed so. If Transcendent abilities were categorized into low, high, and top tiers, then the Ocean Affinity he held was like a quasi-Divine level of a Sea Beast, belonging to none of these tiers, but rather to a more special and powerful category.

With Ocean Affinity, all attributes increased by 10% while above the sea, and all Transcendent ability costs, power, and the like also gained a 10% reduction and enhancement. More importantly, it also improved luck, yielding extra gains every time, and there was a 10% chance that the quality of tributes given to Divines would increase.

This was just above the sea surface; in shallow waters, all bonuses would increase to 20%. This granted the ability of Ocean Protection, which could provide a shield of protection for oneself. In deep-sea areas, it even exaggeratedly reached 50%, granting the Ocean Favor ability, which allowed some control over seawater.

Thus, although it was a single Transcendent ability, it was more like multiple combined abilities that had been fused together.

"How should I put it, working hard definitely doesn't bring as much benefit as taking a big gamble."

Gu Shanhai understood why the deep-sea whirlpool was seen as a shortcut for ocean dwellers to skyrocket to success, as one could glimpse hints from this emergent Transcendent ability.

With this ability, as long as one also equipped the basic underwater breathing, one could start hunting Sea Beasts for tributes and begin snowballing.

Underwater breathing, among all Transcendent abilities, was an accessory; otherwise, if it was just underwater breathing alone, it would merely be a low-tier Transcendent ability, and even the lowest kind at that.

In a world dominated by the ocean, this was considered an essential ability; any sea dweller who had trouble underwater because of this would be quite embarrassing.

"Besides the different strengths, the Transcendent abilities produced by the deep-sea whirlpool and those obtained from Tributing Divines are no different; they are the same."

Gu Shanhai quickly reached this conclusion.

"Which means that both sources are the same, so if I can grasp the corresponding traces of the deep-sea whirlpool, perhaps I could also catch the traces of the Divines." Gu Shanhai still thought of using Divines to set an example through a killing spree.

Using the deep-sea whirlpool as a breakthrough into the Divine Phase was merely a backup plan for him.

Having better choices, of course, he would choose the better ones, as it wasn't a big deal.

'If possible, using the entire ocean era as my breakthrough material would be even better.' Gu Shanhai was ambitious, striving for the best instead of just picking anything.

Essentially, this was a line; deep-sea whirlpool - Divines - ocean. Even Gu Shanhai, if slightly greedier, could continue enhancing and expanding this line to the highest level—yes, the world itself.

He had become indescribable, and plotting against the world itself was a normal thing.

Carefully analyzing the Ocean Affinity talent, Gu Shanhai felt it had its merits, such as refining his Druid-related abilities.

It was, after all, part of nature.

"Upon transcending the Divine Phase and encountering an Abnormal God, one can begin utilizing the sky, ocean, and earth to further enhance the Druid's upper limit."

The Druid had long reached its limit, though it had also improved, but this improvement wasn't about breaking the existing limits but rather about increasing by a percentage.

What Gu Shanhai needed to do was to increase that percentage.

Just like his mark, nowadays, fixed value increases were of no use, thanks to the legendary mark being incorporated into the Mana aura, otherwise, with its original strength, it simply couldn't keep up with Gu Shanhai.

"Too bad I didn't get the Ocean Druid's inheritance back then," lamented Gu Shanhai. "Otherwise, with this ocean-affinity transcendental ability, I might have been able to derive some divine arts."

Gu Shanhai was particularly mindful about divine arts because they were indeed very useful.

It just wasn't suitable for Gu Shanhai, but if it were possible, he might have been able to build his own server.

"Forget it, don't think too much. It's better to stay grounded."

After recording the data of this ocean-affinity transcendental ability, he stored it away. Through this, Gu Shanhai also understood why the players were experiencing diminished powers in this world.

The reason was simple: the cost was just too high. Moreover, because of the commercial district, "the First Era" directed it towards a commercial path rather than a production one.

Of course, the cost wasn't paid by "the First Era" but by the Azure Sea World itself, hence directly reducing the power effects available to the players.

Wanting to perform wasn't an issue, head to the oceanic regions, then other worlds' oceans would supply the energy.

On land, though, they wouldn't bother; the effects and properties would be significantly more potent than those of the same type, at the end of the day, you can make cuts, but you need to balance it out elsewhere; otherwise, "the First Era" definitely wouldn't agree.

You, a colonized area skimping on costs to skim resources used to sustain colonist soldiers by the colonizers, what face do you have to just watch that happen as a colonizer?

Regarding this, Gu Shanhai could only say that if you're not powerful, just stay modest, and don't try anything fancy, or else you'll get thrashed.

"Little White, how did you and Azure Dragon manage the ingredients?" Gu Shanhai, after finishing his work, turned to check outside.

"Yo!" Little White answered with a sound, indicating everything was prepared, and even the pots and pans were cleaned by Azure Dragon, just waiting for him to start the fire.

"You little rascal, when it comes to eating, you're more diligent than anyone." Gu Shanhai joked.

He suspected that if Little White went to some gourmet worlds, it could play the part of those connoisseur diners, being able to taste and differentiate all kinds of good from bad.

Azure Dragon... let's not even go there; it's clueless, chewing everything felt like chewing raw beans.

"Yo." Little White signaled to hurry over as it was all ready, being diligent was quite normal.

Gu Shanhai then walked over leisurely, Azure Dragon did indeed almost finish preparing the ingredients; the meats were fine, but the vegetables were quite tricky—they could move, and sometimes they even tried to run away.

It was evident that both Little White and Azure Dragon had wrestled with those vegetables before finally getting them ready.

They had certainly won; if they had lost, the vegetables would have run away, and they would end up chasing them all over the island.

But the most troublesome task wasn't the vegetables; it was cooking rice, each grain once served as a vessel for Heart Demon Dao Soldiers and was much more active than the vegetables, even possessing some of their abilities.

In his case, if you lacked the strength, you wouldn't even be able to defeat a single grain of rice.

If Gu Shanhai hadn't become indescribable, having a meal wouldn't mean combating with rice and vegetables; those items, although Spirit Plants, did not have their sentience.

But after Gu Shanhai became indescribable, these items occasionally acted up with Heart Demon Dao Soldiers or Guardian Demons, and with the capabilities Gu Shanhai gained after becoming an Abnormal God, them turning into various weird yet robust entities was quite normal.

Luckily, there were benefits too; after activation, not only were they more nutritious, but they also tasted better—the only issue was they were hard to handle.

However, with Gu Shanhai present, these derivatives he spawned couldn't cause much trouble; once in the mouth, they're just food, and once swallowed, they're nutrients and vitality.

There was a limit to the consumer group, aside from Gu Shanhai and those he recognized, if others ate it, it wasn't the people eating the vegetables, but the vegetables eating the people.