Chapter 33 Dream Homestead

"Hunting devourers with special cores?"

Chen Shijin repeated Feng Tianhuo's words, pondering for a moment before recalling the gourmet cookbook from the Gourmet Capital. "Because it can yield special items of gratitude?"

Feng Tianhuo couldn't help but chuckle twice: "It's indeed less taxing on the brain and less likely to drive you mad to just listen to someone talk."

"Exactly, the devouring monsters of the Gourmet Capital are the devourers with special cores. When you initiate a world quest and defeat its core, you'll receive something extra besides massive energy.

Like the gourmet recipes gifted by the unconsumed remnants of souls in the world."

He spoke with an indescribable expression: "Having passed through two worlds, you must have encountered those remnants of souls, right?"

Chen Shijin thought of the uncle selling fried chicken, the person addicted to crying trapped inside a cellphone, the truly fragrant and arrogant citizens of the middle-schooler city, and those two who loved wearing tailcoats.

"Are they really existing entities or are they illusions like the devouring world?"

Chen Shijin asked this question and then answered it himself before Feng Tianhuo could reply: "They still have their own consciousness."

Feng Tianhuo chuckled, "That depends on the situation."

"Some low-level devourers create very small devouring worlds, maybe only as big as a toilet, or perhaps a gym. They don't devour many humans; these stage devourers follow instinct, craving energy, so what's devoured is devoured, without wasting any energy to preserve human remnants for anything.

Thus, they also don't have the opportunity or enough time to learn and observe human intelligence and thoughts, to increase their own intellectual evolution."

"But it's different for some high-level devourers that have existed for a long time. They have devoured countless humans in this land of exile for who knows how long, and their evolution of power may have reached its peak, or a bottleneck.

They find that devouring more energy doesn't allow them to become kings, gods, or even rulers without difficulty. So, they start looking for other ways to evolve, like—learning from humans.

Learning, observing, imitating, everything about different people from different worlds."

As he said this, Feng Tianhuo suddenly laughed eerily and looked at Chen Shijin: "Little Jin, there's a theory about the origin of the land of exile, do you want to hear it?"

Chen Shijin raised his eyebrows, "Let's hear it."

"First of all, the people who come to the land of exile aren't from the same world. You can understand that, right?"

Chen Shijin nodded: "The parallel worlds theory. The three thousand worlds concept."

Feng Tianhuo laughed heartily: "Exactly! Although those who fall into the land of exile are all humans, we might not come from the same world.

And this place is the gap abandoned by the 'three thousand worlds'."

"Because it's forever dark, without light, no plant or life can survive here, only a vast nothingness. Because all joy, happiness, and hope cannot last here, but anger, sadness, jealousy, hatred, and despair can crazily grow, making it a place of extreme evil."

So, the world abandoned it.

Thus, it became the land of exile. A land of exile not accepted by all the myriad worlds."

Feng Tianhuo chuckled mischievously: "You see, from this perspective, the land of exile itself is also an abandoned 'exile'."

"We're all the same, stray dogs, hahaha!"

In this dark world, Feng Tianhuo's laughter seemed to stir the gloomy winds around, and suddenly, the wind became angry and desolate.

Chen Shijin frowned, feeling an uncomfortable gaze on him again: "...Get to the point."

Feng Tianhuo stopped laughing: "So, those high-level devourers seeking evolution, observing and learning from humans, wouldn't devour all the humans completely.

They construct a world, preserve some human remnants, and then observe them.

When the number of humans they devour reaches a certain threshold, or a significant portion of the devoured humans share common traits, the devourers observing humans and the world learn or absorb some characteristics, completing a 'trait evolution'.

Becoming higher-order devourers."

"So, you're right in your judgment.

Whether it's the City of Cell Phones or the Gourmet Capital, those humans are self-aware remnants with souls that haven't been completely devoured."

"But don't think those people can be revived." Seeing Chen Shijin's expression change, Feng Tianhuo directly interrupted his thoughts: "Those are 'remnants of souls', meaning leftover bits of incomplete consciousness, fragments. Not to mention their bodies are long gone, even as ghosts, just with those remnants of consciousness, they couldn't form a complete ghost."

"And they are entirely at the mercy of the devourers. Understand? Completely."

"They can exist as long as the devourers wish to observe them, but once the devourers decide, those remnants in the devouring world will unreservedly sacrifice themselves or madly attack you."

"They are no longer human. Don't harbor any pity, trust, or expectations for them."

Feng Tianhuo's expression was extremely cold as he spoke the last sentence, "Countless exiles have died at the hands of the city's residents. They all became vengeful spirits."

Chen Shijin nodded silently, understanding that killing those devourers was the ultimate liberation for these imprisoned souls.

"So, the devourer of the Gourmet Capital is... evolved by devouring a lot of people who loved gourmet food?" Chen Shijin said, feeling a bit peculiar. "This devourer must have loved eating a lot."

Feng Tianhuo rolled his eyes: "Humans have gluttons and big eaters, so why can't a devourer be gluttonous."

"However, the evolution of a devourer's special core also depends on its own desired direction of evolution, the influences it's subjected to, and even its mood at the time."

"In any case, don't get hung up on how they evolve. You just need to know one thing, our next target should be those devourers with special cores."

"Only by doing this can we build the strongest city in the shortest time possible."

Chen Shijin could somewhat understand but needed clarification: "What use is the gourmet cookbook?"

Feng Tianhuo laughed again, looking genuinely pleased: "I really, hahaha, it's been so long since I've met someone so agreeable who doesn’t drive me mad!"

"Of course, the gourmet cookbook is useful! In the land of exile, a place where not even wild grass can grow, how could we survive without food!"

"Even food is made from converting our own energy, but you must have heard the science, right? This conversion is quite difficult. If you don't fully understand the composition and elemental characteristics of what you want to convert, you might end up using 100 energy points to make bread worth only 10 energy points!

Laughable, feeling even hungrier after eating bread."

"You, newbie to the land of exile, haven’t yet experienced the hardship of having no food to eat! Even though I am a level five, well, now level four big shot, I can only afford to eat ten meat-stuffed buns a day!"

Chen Shijin: "..."

"Meat-stuffed buns are what I’m best at converting, turning 5 energy into 8 energy worth of buns is the limit. To enjoy a meal of braised pork, I have to spend 50 energy, and yet the energy value of the pork is only 30."

Feng Tianhuo sighed deeply: "All these years, the more I eat, the weaker and poorer I become."

Chen Shijin: "Wait, you mean to say you haven’t destroyed the Gourmet Capital over all these years?"

At this moment, Feng Tianhuo took out his gourmet cookbook and began to transform braised pork according to the recipe. Hearing the words, his bushy-browed, scarred face showed a rare hint of embarrassment.

"Cough. I only started looking for devourers with special cores three years ago. After all, I had to struggle before that. And I entered the Gourmet Capital five times in those three years, but I never managed to initiate a world quest."

"You must understand, killing a devourer with a special core from the outside won't grant you the gratitude gift from the remnants of souls within the devouring world."

Chen Shijin: "So you chickened out five times."

Feng Tianhuo: "..."

"How can you call that chickening out! You should know I have the strength to solo the Gourmet Capital! I just didn't flaunt it by initiating world quests like you did!!"

Chen Shijin raised his eyebrows: "Watch your words. That's not flaunting, it's wisdom, okay?"

"Tsk, anyway, you're more cunning and crafty. I'm just an honest madman."

"In any case! Having the gourmet cookbook makes transforming energy into food much simpler! And it's very unlikely to end up with a situation where 10 energy points are transformed into 8 energy points worth of buns."

"Just this one gourmet cookbook alone can make the citizens of our Tianhuo City cry tears of joy and excitedly fight tooth and nail in the construction and struggle!"

"Food is paramount to the people. Only with a full stomach can one have the strength to fight, you know!"

Chen Shijin: "I disagree with calling it Tianhuo City."

Feng Tianhuo: "Damn. Why do you always focus on the unimportant details?"

Chen Shijin offered a polite smile: "No, this is the most important thing."

Feng Tianhuo: "...Alright, alright, alright. Tsk. Whatever you say it should be called. Geez, Tianhuo City sounds so good though."

Chen Shijin rolled his eyes speechlessly: "We don't even have a shadow of a city yet, so let's not rush the naming."

"Firstly, where do we build the city? Secondly, how do we build it?"

In Chen Shijin's mind, building a city was a massive project that on Earth would require batches of construction crews working day and night, perhaps taking a year or more to see any initial shape.

Whereas in the land of exile, it might be simpler, perhaps only needing four or five exiles with special abilities in steel or earth.

But Feng Tianhuo gave him an answer he hadn't expected at all—

"Hehehe, hehehehe."

"I've already thought about this, food and clothes are settled, and clothes can be worn for a long time, next up is housing!"

"Let's go take down that Dream Homestead! The devourer that especially loves making people build houses and then destroys them."

Chen Shijin: ????

Thus, Chen Shijin was grabbed by the madman once again, and they traversed through the earth.

This time he really couldn't bear it: "Can't you change the way we move?"

Feng Tianhuo didn't even turn his head: "This is the only 'space contraction' transformation I know, and I exchanged it with my 'explosive fireball' transformation method."

"Be content, you should know that using skills with different energy attributes is much harder than converting food. Those below level four don't have the ability to use powers across attributes. I'm one of the top powerhouses among the exiles!"

Chen Shijin: ...

So his mouth is all-energy then.

"Kid, I've never quite figured out your ability. It must be some fantasy or mental power. But definitely not the simple kind of trash talk, and since cursing and praying are mutually exclusive negative and positive powers, it's not those either."

Feng Tianhuo, while pulling on Chen Shijin's arm and facing away from him, chuckled: "You, my boy."

"It's word spirit, isn't it?"

Chen Shijin's brow twitched, but he didn't answer directly.

But Feng Tianhuo had already made up his mind: "Hey, you're the second word spirit I've encountered."

"But I feel you're more powerful than that girl."

Chen Shijin raised his eyebrows, smiling: "Ah. I think you're right in your feeling."

Feng Tianhuo burst into laughter: "Hahaha, I just love a straightforward and genuine handsome young man like you!"

"At least that girl couldn't summon the Four Pillars of Heaven or such a fearsome fire of revenge."

Word spirits rely on the power of speech to launch attacks, the more forceful the words and the more emotional power they contain, the stronger the verbal attack.

But correspondingly, more powerful words require more energy supply.

And the half-blood word spirit girl Feng Tianhuo knew couldn't produce fireballs half the size of his.

In the Gourmet Capital, the energy of the fire of revenge conjured by that one speech from Chen Shijin momentarily soared to the level of a ruler.

How terrifying.

And he's just a newcomer who's recently arrived in the land of exile.

How exciting!

And he's just a newcomer who's recently arrived in the land of exile!

At this moment, Feng Tianhuo thought of his conversation with that old turtle who always shrank his head—

"Ridiculous! So many people in the land of exile! Tens of thousands! Millions! Over the years, tens of billions! How could there not be one who became a god?!"

The old turtle solemnly said: "Perhaps there once were, but they ultimately did not succeed. Or perhaps, they didn't have the fate."

"You still believe in fate after arriving in the land of exile?!"

"No, it's like some are born intelligent, some are born foolish, and most are born ordinary. But there are always some, born with the power to break through shackles."

"That's a fleeting brilliance among billions, a sudden burst of hope in the darkness."

"It's just that we've never found him in the land of exile. Or maybe he appeared once but ultimately fell."

"So what you need to do is find hope, then do everything in your power to change the world with him."

Feng Tianhuo snorted.

"Probably, you, my boy, are that fleeting brilliance. Just don't die halfway through."

Chen Shijin: ???

"Alright! I've got a feeling! I feel like the building fanatic is nearby!!"

Suddenly, Feng Tianhuo's grip on Chen Shijin's arm tightened, and with closed eyes, he sniffed around like a tracking dog. Then, with eyes brightening, he dragged Chen Shijin into a sprint in one direction.

"My intuition tells me that guy is straight ahead! Little Jin, get ready! Our goal is to initiate a world quest, to get the special core and the gratitude of the citizens!"

"Wait, I still—"

Before Chen Shijin could finish his sentence, he was pulled by Feng Tianhuo into a flurry of shocked exclamations.

"Everyone be careful! This is a high-level devourer, Dream Homestead!"

[You have been targeted by the devourer!]

[Power assessment: ...You may turn around and leave.]

[Would you like to leave?]

Chen Shijin raised an eyebrow; this devourer was much more polite than the previous ones. But thanks, no thanks, I came here on purpose.

[Do you wish to leave?]

[Refuse to leave.]

[You will enter the world of the Devourers in three minutes.]

[…Last inquiry, do you wish to leave?]

[You have been devoured by the Devourer!!]

[Welcome to "Dream Haven"!]

*

Upon opening his eyes, Jin Chen found himself standing in an open area, surrounded by dozens of exiles with anxious expressions. In front of them stood a foreman wearing yellow overalls and a safety helmet,

who immediately showed an impatient expression upon seeing them:

"The materials are all at the construction site ahead! You must build your own house within five days! The house must be sturdy enough! Sturdy enough! There will be an inspection after five days. Those who fail will stay as laborers without pay!"

Chen Shijin inhaled sharply on the spot.

If that office drone were here on the weekend, hearing this would probably knock him out cold on the spot.