Calamity Messenger

Chapter 406: Chapter 336: Monster Lineup

Yan Qing, Ying Rushi, and Murong Hui gasped. They’ve been following Yan Qing in cultivating puppets and have a decent understanding of the mechanisms of the Demon Gathering Land. Naturally, they can see the strength of these three artifacts.

The "Ascension Altar" can steadily ascend a puppet every two days. Keep in mind, Yan Qing has only ascended one Ascension Dragon Attendant in three days!

Not only because Yan Qing was lucky enough to earn rewards that sped up the ascension progress on the first day, but also because he had decided early on to make Dragon Attendant the core card for the early stage, pouring all resources into it.

On the second day, he also played the Poop Bomb Pillar once, but did not receive any ascension progress reward, only an increase of 1000/1000 attribute for a random puppet card. So, even frequent visits to entertainment facilities don’t necessarily yield ascension progress.

For instance, at first, Yan Qing had the option of using Flesh Mutation, one of which allows one puppet to ascend, but can only be used once globally, whereas the "Ascension Altar" can ascend once every two days, showcasing its immense value!

As for the benefits brought by ascension... not to mention paper data alone, the Mountain Stone Demon’s health is at least a hundred times that of an Ascension Dragon Attendant, and its attack power can easily slay an Ascension Dragon Attendant. But the Ascension Dragon Attendant can defeat the Mountain Stone Demon, not only due to Yan Qing’s brilliant tactics but mainly because of the ascension trait [Soul Absolution].

Ascension, although not comparable to the Messenger’s quest for gold ascension, calling it an extra Foundation Establishment Divine Technique for puppets is not an exaggeration.

Yet it’s the artifact Yan Qing needs the least.

The reason is simple: Yan Qing doesn’t have any core puppet to ascend. This is an artifact that can accelerate the lineup’s snowballing, but Yan Qing has not yet decided on his snowball. Even if he chose the "Ascension Altar," he couldn’t use it immediately. And currently, all of Yan Qing’s puppets have fallen, so he can’t continue to collect advanced puppet cards, which means Yan Qing won’t find a suitable puppet to use [Flesh Ascension] until at least tomorrow.

If Yan Qing intends to delve deeply into this instance, the "Ascension Altar" would undoubtedly be the most rewarding option. But the fourth mission of the Thief’s House is in a few days, Yan Qing must return. No matter how great the Profound Mysterious Divine Techniques of True Demon are, they can’t be more crucial than the Thief’s House, not only because of the Pharmacist’s Wish and Shang Xinlei but because that is Yan Qing’s greatest sense of security.

However, Yan Qing remembered that there’s a puppet named "Inverted Immortal" which can trigger end-of-day effects twice. Paired with the "Ascension Altar," it means receiving two [Flesh Ascension] every two days... perhaps this is also a strategy.

The "Jade Purification Bottle" undoubtedly suits Yan Qing more, as three times [Fushang] a day means Yan Qing can engage in more battles. Just by selecting the "Jade Purification Bottle" and continuing with the Ascension Dragon Attendant strategy, he can have three more chances to challenge the Eight Demons today!

If the "Ascension Altar" accelerates the snowball’s pace, then the "Jade Purification Bottle" represents more opportunities!

Yan Qing was tempted, but quickly dismissed this option.

It’s simple, the Mountain Stone Demon is just an exception. Other Eight Demons can’t all be ’low velocity’ and ’no ranged attacks’ demons. The Ascension Dragon Attendant approach might not always work.

Moreover, his [Resurrection] mutation has already been used. Even if the Ascension Dragon Attendant is revived, only two Soul Dragon Attendants can be summoned. Fighting with four takes five minutes; fighting with two takes ten minutes, which increases unpredictability.

In contrast, the "Blood Demon Sect Exchange Order" is indeed the best choice for Yan Qing. Discovering two Fourth-Turn Puppets, Yan Qing is highly likely to find a core puppet and thus reshape his lineup, potentially starting to snowball today!

Yan Qing didn’t hesitate much and decisively clicked on "Blood Demon Sect Exchange Order." A flash of golden light appeared, revealing three puppet cards on his wrist:

"Fourth-Turn Dragon Race: Red Flame Celestial Dragon Priest"

"Initial Attack Power: 1500"

"Initial Health: 1300"

"Trait: Dragon King Divine Power: At the start of battle, all Dragon Race members receive a 1000/1000 attribute boost. Each time you use a transformation card, permanently increase the effect by 100/100."

/

"Four-Turn Corpse Demon - Drought Fiend"

"Initial Attack Power: 1000"

"Initial Health: 2000"

"Trait: Underworld: Every time a Corpse Ghost is summoned, all your Corpse Ghost puppets receive a permanent 200/200 boost."

/

"Four-Turn Alchemist Taoist"

"Initial Attack Power: 500"

"Initial Health: 600"

"Trait: Flesh and Blood Elixir: Ascend one puppet that is Three-Turn and below."

Yan Qing fell into deep thought.

They all seem promising, but each lacks something special.

The first one to be ruled out was the "Red Flame Celestial Dragon Priest." This puppet undoubtedly has immense potential, as long as Yan Qing finds enough transformation cards, the value of [Dragon King Divine Power] can quickly accumulate.

But it has two shortcomings: First, Yan Qing currently only has three puppet slots, while [Dragon King Divine Power] clearly needs seven puppet slots for maximum effect; Second, [Dragon King Divine Power] only applies at the beginning of battle, meaning after Yan Qing finishes the battle, the previous boosts will completely vanish.

The best comparison would be Ye Si’s mechanism lineup. All his puppets now can grow by 1200 attributes daily, whereas "Red Flame Celestial Dragon Priest" can only grow by 1000 attributes, not allowing accumulation. The gap is quite large. Relying solely on transformation card enhancements, the speed seems too slow.

Unless Yan Qing finds a puppet with a trait like [One Proof Forever], ensuring that attribute growth is never lost and permanently retains the attribute boost added at [Start of Battle], the "Red Flame Celestial Dragon Priest" holds no meaning.

The "Drought Fiend" is indeed much more straightforward. Yan Qing had previously discovered that Corpse Ghost race puppets often possess death rattles—either reviving or summoning other Corpse Ghosts—making it easy to build a Corpse Ghost lineup centered on the "Drought Fiend."

But it shares the same problem with the "Red Flame Celestial Dragon Priest": Only when all seven puppet slots are activated can the benefits be maximized, meaning their peak comes between the eighth and tenth days. However, Yan Qing should return on the seventh day no matter what.

In comparison, although the "Alchemy Taoist" is not a core card, its benefits are the most stable. At worst, Yan Qing can find another Dragon Attendant to ascend, which can always be immediately put to use.

Once his mind was made, Yan Qing chose the "Alchemy Taoist". The other two puppet cards dissipated, and then three more Fourth-Turn Puppet Cards appeared. This was the second choice. If he still could not find a core card, Yan Qing’s exploration for today would have to come to an end.

"Fourth Transformation of the Mysterious: Red-clothed Female Ghost"

"Initial Attack Power: 100"

"Initial Health: 100"

"Trait: Yin-Yang Convergence: At the start of battle, gain the attributes of all puppet cards in your hand."

/

"Fourth-Turned Elemental Spirit: Snow Mountain Guardian"

"Initial Attack Power: 500"

"Initial Health: 500"

"Trait: Snow Mountain Sacrifice: At the end of each day, receive one [Cumulative Avalanche]."

/

"Fourth-Turned Demon: Qiongqi"

"Initial Attack Power: 1000"

"Initial Health: 1200"

"Trait: Slaughter and Blood Sacrifice: Every time this puppet kills 3 enemies with over 1000 health, receive one [Blood Sacrifice]."

[Blood Sacrifice: Permanently increase the unactivated puppet card’s attribute by 100/100. (All puppet cards you obtain can receive this boost)]

Yan Qing was stunned, his eyes suddenly brightened!

The "Red-clothed Female Ghost" needs no further explanation, a very stable powerhouse card. As long as Yan Qing prepares seven or eight puppet cards in advance, it can soar to five or six thousand attribute values at the start of the battle. It’s a card with both high lower bounds and high upper bounds!

The "Snow Mountain Guardian" is even more of a dream-come-true avalanche machine for Yan Qing. Previously, he believed the "Storm Inheritor" had exponential growth potential, but he lacked a steady source for avalanches; now, it’s here!

Yet, Yan Qing chose the "Qiongqi" without hesitation!

Then Yan Qing immediately did two things: Using the last [Cumulative Avalanche], he stacked the Ascension Dragon Attendant’s 4800/3800 attributes onto the "Qiongqi", instantly boosting its attributes to 5800/5000.

The second thing was to activate the demon puppet card "Six-Eared Macaque" that he had previously scavenged!

"Third-Turned Demon: Six-Eared Macaque"

"Initial Attack Power: 600"

"Initial Health: 800"

"Trait: Secrets Not to be Shared with Six Ears: Each time you use a transformation card, another friendly demon randomly consumes a puppet card in your hand and gains its attribute values."

Upon seeing the traits of "Qiongqi" and "Six-Eared Macaque", Yan Qing immediately realized that these were the core puppet cards he had been waiting for! "Qiongqi" kills and gains [Blood Sacrifice], consuming [Blood Sacrifice] increases the attributes of the puppet cards in his hand, while also triggering the effect of the "Six-Eared Macaque", allowing "Qiongqi" or other demons to devour the puppet cards in his hand!

This was the snowball lineup he desired: as long as the killing was sufficient, "Qiongqi’s" attributes would rapidly inflate like a balloon!

The primary reason Yan Qing didn’t choose the "Snow Mountain Guardian" was that its effect was too slow, providing one avalanche per day. Even though the "Storm Inheritor" could double its attributes through avalanches, it would take at least two avalanches to double, four to quadruple, and six to octuple, with only the eightfold attributes having a chance to defeat a True Demon. But six avalanches meant six days.

If Yan Qing planned to stay in the Demon Gathering Land for more than ten days, then the Primordial Spirit doubling system would unquestionably be his best choice, but he did not have that much time.

In comparison, the demon system of "Qiongqi" and "Six-Eared Macaque" was undoubtedly more suitable for him because he was the only player in the entire Demon Gathering Land, allowing "Qiongqi’s" slaughter trait to be maximally utilized!

With the plan set, Yan Qing did not hesitate to use the "Alchemy Taoist" to ascend the "Six-Eared Macaque"!

"Three-Turned Demon: Ascending Six-Ears"

"Initial Attack Power: 1200"

"Initial Health: 1600"

"Trait: Secrets Not to be Shared with Six Ears: Each time you use a transformation card, another friendly demon randomly consumes a puppet card in your hand, gaining its doubled attributes."

"Ascension Trait: True and False Monkey King: At the start of battle, Six-Ears’ attribute value equals the greatest attribute value among friendly puppets."

Not only does the trait [Secrets Not to be Shared with Six Ears] become doubly rewarding, but also since [Secrets Not to be Shared with Six Ears] affects other demons only, Six-Ears himself wouldn’t be able to consume cards and grow in strength. However, the Ascension Trait [True and False Monkey King] perfectly compensates for this defect, making its attributes equal those of the largest puppet card!

Even if Yan Qing couldn’t find other demon cards, these two alone would be enough to roll the snowball!