The Tyrant of the Living Hell and the Daoist Dinosaur

Before I properly completed my anti-intellectualism build, I went through several transitional phases.

The one I invested the most time into was a build that fused magic with the creation of yokai or monstrous beings, then used those powerful monsters to conquer enemy worlds.

It's a build I've completely abandoned now, but the strategy of pressuring opponents with powerful monsters instead of intelligent beings, and with powerful magic and unique custom creations instead of civilization, was actually quite effective. At least until the mid-to-late game.

Once it reached the extreme late game, though, the enemy would simply arm an absurd number of troops with the power of Technology and Industry, then start lobbing nuclear bombs and the like. It was utterly helpless. The ceiling of the Life and Mystery combination was clearly lower than the harmony between Technology and Industry.

And the top-ranked players, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, mixed Technology, Mystery, and Industry together to create magical nuclear bombs that scoured entire planetary surfaces clean before hurling them at their foes.

How was I supposed to compete with that? No matter how strong a creature was, it was still just a creature.

From the moment an enemy's Technology level crossed roughly 23, no lifeform could withstand the assault of an advanced civilization. Even if you poured every last point into monster abilities, the absolute limit was around level 26.

The only things that could hold out at that point were my unique custom creations that had been raised to comparable levels, but even they had their limits. No matter how strong a unique creation was, it couldn't overturn an entire civilization on its own.

Of course, that only became relevant in the extreme endgame. But since I was aiming for the finals, I couldn't afford to use a build that became useless after level 23. So I pivoted to a different direction.

Still, the experience from that time remains with me.

I had simulated the act of creating abnormally powerful monsters thousands of times within the game. Naturally, I'd also created countless fantasy-like ecosystems. I'd tested the harmony between monsters and civilization, as well as fantasy civilizations built around living creatures, multiple times.

If their world was a xianxia setting, then I would simply create a world tailored to xianxia.

"It looks like your world will bring more hardship than abundance. Does that not matter to you?"

"Oh? Hardship, you say."

"Not simple disasters. Hardships that will temper your heroes and make them even stronger."

"In that case, it doesn't matter at all. Do as you please."

Good. Permission for the general direction secured.

First, I examined the opponent's world more closely. Since this wasn't my world, Deity-World Oneness didn't apply, so I had to check things directly.

And from observing this world, I reverse-engineered the build of Mihun, the dinosaur Daoist immortal.

What mattered most in the game were a few transcendentally powerful top-tier entities. Since this was xianxia-style, I suppose they could be called cultivators?

At this point, the strongest hero across all worlds was probably this world's [Yeondan-u], the dinosaur cultivator.

His stats were 2.5 times those of Yogur-tosoth. And Yogur-tosoth could wipe out an entire civilization by himself. With a monster of that caliber, there would be no one capable of standing against him in either defense or offense.

And if Yeondan-u was closer to a 'supremely ordinary cultivator' who trained alone, then the narrative-tier level 5 cultivators were forming sects, raising disciples or children, and having them compete against one another. When you considered that these people hadn't even escaped Neolithic-level technology, it was honestly ridiculous.

Surprisingly, though, some of their buildings were constructed quite properly.

By 'properly,' I meant structures with actual architectural integrity. The ones building them were a race that looked like giant hermit crabs, but they weren't beasts—they were intelligent humans.

"That race over there seems to be treated differently from the others."

"You noticed? They ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠are the race of one of my assistants. I handed over a few cultivation methods and hired workers from their world."

I see. So that assistant of his had some expertise in Industry and Technology.

Anyway, the magic these cultivators learned was absurd. It required Stamina, Dexterity, Intelligence, Charm, Mental Fortitude, and Mana—all six stats at once.

Normally, even magic only required one or two stats, but this demanded every single one. It was ridiculously difficult to learn, but in return, it was just as ridiculously powerful.

In this world's impoverished civilization, what sustained these powerful heroes was the high-level terrain. The level of the terrain features embedded throughout the world was so high it was almost incomprehensible.

"I'd like to confirm something. Did you use a trait to strengthen the terrain?"

"You noticed? I purchased a mythic-grade trait during the store phase. Even so, it was still far from enough to display this immortal's original physical abilities, but it helped quite a bit."

Ah. This. It was the trait people used when doing wildland-nature preservation playthroughs. I'd wanted to get it if possible, but it looked like he'd snatched it first.

In short, by barely cultivating the world at all, he was receiving an insane level bonus. The few places that were cultivated only had the bare minimum of agriculture.

In a way, his starting point was similar to mine. First raise the terrain level, then use that as a foundation to grow the most powerful lifeforms possible. The only difference was that I raised many different kinds in large numbers, while he focused intensely on raising just a few.

When terrain levels were this ridiculously high across the board, the mana drawn from the terrain itself would be beyond imagination. That was how he grew the cultivators while also covering the enormous mana consumption and maintenance costs those high-level cultivators required. His build really was similar to mine.

"You didn't create a Spiritual Realm?"

"Why would one use crutches when one's legs are perfectly fine?"

Sesaisa, that guy, feels like the type to amputate perfectly healthy legs and turn them into cybernetic prosthetics.

Now that I understood the build itself, I examined the biological species of this mountainous terrain.

Because he hadn't cultivated the land at all, nature itself was healthy, but the ecosystem was not.

A god fragment (a term that felt a bit silly to use now) only provided about ten square kilometers of land, so there was no way for a diverse array of species to appear.

I would increase the number of species inhabiting this place by at least 150 times. That would be the first step.

The most notable terrain feature here ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would be...

No matter how many times I think about it, I still can't decide if Gongcheong Seogyu is a good translation or not.

Anyway, it was the kind of spiritually potent cave that would appear in a wuxia or xianxia world. Even An Yeon-woo—no, Yeondan-u, the strongest entity in this world—was training here.

Unlike the Nectar Well, it didn't provide nutrition, but it was a place that produced spiritual medicine capable of dramatically raising a character's stats. I would focus on using this location.

I began by creating insects. Insects that had been almost nonexistent in this world—not because they were useful, but simply because they could live there.

These insects would feed on the resources of this bountiful mountain range, which sat between terrain levels 7 and 10. In other words, they would consume the mana of the ecosystem known as a mountain.

The ones on the Sky Islands would burrow into the hard clouds, while those on the ground would suck nutrients from crops in the fields. Most importantly, they would sip the dew of Gongcheong Seogyu inside the caves and evolve into a type of magical creature.

The key was that while they consumed, they only took the excess mana that the terrain couldn't properly condense. It would defeat the purpose if they harmed the terrain's primary function.

Then I evolved them en masse. Fifteen different species. I then split each of those fifteen into at least twenty subspecies, creating three hundred distinct insect species.

This way, instead of one species becoming an overwhelmingly dominant apex, the foundation would be solid. I could extract everything possible while minimizing consumption of the precious spiritual medicine.

"Um... what is the point of creating such insignificant creatures?"

Just wait. I haven't even started yet.

Next, I increased the plant species as well. And these weren't ordinary weeds.

They were organisms that drew power directly from the earth and stored mana within their bodies. The important part was making sure they extracted the earth's nutrients without taking too much, while still extracting enough.

"Are you artificially creating spiritual herbs? The attempt is admirable, but no matter how you do it, it won't have much—"

Hey. Just wait a second, will you?

Since he called them spiritual herbs, I'd call them that too. Plants that contained magic within their bodies, or things with properties similar to medicinal herbs.

Normally, even if you created such organisms, they would simply be outcompeted in nature's struggle for survival.

Just because they stored magic inside their bodies didn't mean they could suddenly shoot fire or anything. They would simply become strange lifeforms that pointlessly hoarded mana.

That's why the insects I mentioned earlier were necessary. The insects would nibble away at the spiritual herbs' mana and exert magic in their surroundings.

Since the insects themselves lacked the ability to synthesize mana, they depended on the spiritual herbs. From there, I boldly accelerated their evolution so that the insects would instinctively become farmers that managed the spiritual herbs.

It wasn't unnatural. Some species of acacia trees have evolved to house ants within their bodies. They do this because the ants will automatically clear away surrounding weeds and catch other pests.

Some ants even practice mushroom farming. Real farming. They instinctively regulate the temperature and humidity inside their nests to create the optimal environment for mushrooms to grow, then eat those mushrooms.

I made these insects do that kind of farming with the spiritual herbs. The insects possessed weak willpower but could wield magic, using powerful spells for courtship, survival, and hunting. They did everything with magic.

As a result, the delicate spiritual herbs gradually adapted to the insects and began storing more mana for their sake. The insects evolved like crazy (I accelerated their evolution as well), and in the end, a symbiotic system of noble spiritual herbs and the insect legions that protected them was born.

Naturally, the spiritual herbs grew primarily inside the Spiritual Cave.

The spiritual herbs here consumed Gongcheong Seogyu and stored more powerful mana than anything else. Moreover, their roots drew in the very flow that produced the Gongcheong Seogyu, increasing the total amount produced.

"Oh! Incredible! So spiritual herbs could be cultivated in this manner?"

And the insects that consumed these spiritual herbs and stored magic were then eaten by newly created mid-tier predators—lizards, bats, and the like. These mid-tier predators that ate the magical insects also became magical beasts.

These mid-tier predators ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠were then eaten by even larger predators. Birds that ate bats, foxes that ate lizards, and so on. They too would store even higher-quality magic.

I repeated this process. Although it was called one mountain range, the actual distance one could travel was limited. Each specific region of each mountain grew its own unique spiritual herbs, and each area formed its own distinct ecosystem.

They didn't even have to be spiritual herbs. There were minerals and special beasts as well.

The high Mana generated by the terrain. When living creatures consumed and reproduced it, the number of intermediate steps increased, which should have continuously lowered energy conversion efficiency. Yet strangely, both the production rate and total volume of energy kept rising.

This was the power of Life.

I repeated it again. Repeated it, repeated it, and repeated it. The important thing was maintaining balance. If the balance broke here, all the spiritual herbs and spiritual medicine I was aiming for would simply be devoured by other creatures.

By the time it was finished, every famous mountain and important spiritual site in the world was filled with spiritual herbs containing the world's most powerful magic, along with the insect legions that guarded them, the creatures that preyed on those insects, and all sorts of unique and powerful top-tier entities protecting the spiritual herbs.

Just these top-tier entities alone formed a kind of defensive line that protected the world. An average world wouldn't even be able to set foot inside.

It was a world filled with magic-using tigers, magic-using bats, giant crocodiles, and all kinds of yokai and spiritual plants. It looked less like humans were the masters of this world and more like the yokai were. In a normal world, they would simply threaten civilization.

But that was fine. The hero entities of this world—the cultivators—would hunt them down. Even if they were criminals of this world, if they happened to defeat one and obtain spiritual medicine, they might be able to enter the path of cultivation.

In other words, I'd taken a world that seemed boring because it only had people and made it more like a proper xianxia world. A world overflowing with yokai and spiritual medicine. Thanks to this world's ridiculously high Culture and terrain levels, they were popping up like weeds.

As a result, the world's Life and Mystery scores had each risen by nearly 20,000 points. The terrain levels had increased by a total of 7, which also raised the Faith level. Military had risen dramatically as well.

"I don't think I need to explain any further. If your heroes defeat those unique and powerful entities, they'll obtain spiritual medicine. Consuming that medicine will be of tremendous help in their cultivation. Traveling to the most dangerous parts of the mountains to harvest the spiritual herbs directly will also serve as a form of training."

Mihun seemed genuinely impressed. He spread his fan wide and let out a hearty laugh.

"This is truly magnificent! If you had simply sucked up the earth's energy to produce spiritual herbs and then bragged that you 'made spiritual medicine for me,' this immortal would have accused you of insulting him."

Even if I had, what more could you do besides pick me in the next match? I don't go down that easily.

"And yet you increased the amount of spiritual medicine without harming the earth's energy in the slightest—in fact, while actually increasing the earth's energy! This transcends mere technique and has become a true immortal art!"

"The mechanism for increasing production itself is simple, but balancing the ecosystem is no easy task. It could easily go wrong. Call me whenever that happens."

Mihun seemed extremely pleased as he leisurely fanned himself and spoke in a relaxed tone.

"Heh heh. I never imagined an ecological advisor could be this excellent. I thought I would be the one doing you a favor by solving problems in your world, but it seems the debt has been flipped entirely."

Well, these things happen.

But then Mihun suddenly expressed a strange doubt.

"In that sense, I must ask—while observing your world through your avatar, I noticed something. You possess the ability to improve this immortal's fragments, so why have you not taught the Ji-do-gong-bop to anyone in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠your world?"

"In my ecosystem, where intelligence is low and mental strength is even lower, magic is impossible. Charm-based magic puts far too much stress on them, so they can't handle it."

"No, no, I'm not talking about magic or sorcery. I mean the Ji-do-gong-bop. Ah, I see now. You have the guardian deity of the Nectar Well, so it's not that you don't know how to use it at all. But that is only natural since it is a land-bound guardian deity... You have spiritual territories and fully connected ley lines, yet you seem to be doing something else?"

"...?"

What the hell is he talking about...? As I stared at him blankly, Mihun suddenly flashed an incredibly refreshing smile on that tyrannosaurus face of his.

"Even beasts without intelligence can learn the Yo-su-gong-bop, and even if they cannot read the heavens, if they comprehend geography, they can learn the Ji-do-gong-bop. Well then, would you like to learn it and teach it to your world?"

......Maybe my monster build could go a little further than level 23 after all.