Chapter 20 - Passive Income

Though Principal Yi Ping was a God, he was currently facing an unprecedented dilemma. He was at war with the Demonic Civilization, diligently guarding one of the key locations.

The war with the Demonic Civilization had dragged on for more than four years, and he had killed an uncountable amount of demonic beasts.

However, over time, as the war persisted, an issue he initially dismissed as trivial—the abundance of demonic corpses—had now become a major source of frustration. An overwhelming number of bones had completely blanketed the battlefield.

Despite constructing several incinerators to dispose of the broken bones, the process proved to be far too inefficient. Moreover, the frequent bone burning had polluted the air, consequently leading to a decline in the air quality within his divine realm and a reduction in the lifespan of his units.

And then, of course, there was the matter of the Flesh Golem corpses. Since Flesh Golem corpses weren’t flammable, throwing them into the incinerator was a slow, inefficient and tremendously wasteful endeavor, making such a solution very impractical. In addition, their flesh was so toxic that even the gluttonous Unique life form, the Wild Beast, could not consume them.

Nevertheless, ignoring the corpses wasn’t an option either. If left exposed, they would constantly release demonic energy, contaminating the environment and causing plague outbreaks.

He had tried sealing the corpses into cards, but he soon realized it was a waste of Divine Points because there was no way to dispose of them. Also, once the Divine Points on the card run out, the corpses would be released once again.

Principal Yi Ping sighed in frustration. Despite searching for so long, he had yet to discover a feasible solution.

Suddenly, an interstellar video call request popped up in front of him. Principal Yi Ping frowned upon seeing that the caller was one of the teachers from his school.

He wasn’t well acquainted with the teacher in question, so why was he spending so much money to make an interstellar video call?

Principal Yi Ping pondered for a bit and finally accepted the call, causing Tian Wen’s image to appear before him.

“Mr. Tian, is something wrong?”

“Principal, I apologize for calling you so abruptly. I wanted to inquire whether you might possibly be able to provide me with Flesh Golem corpses—my student would like to purchase them.”

The strange request drew Principal Yi Ping’s interest. “Why does your student need Flesh Golem corpses?”

Tian Wen answered truthfully, “He wants to use the corpses to feed his locusts, his Core race. During the qualifiers of the major exam, his locusts fed on the Flesh Golem corpses, and have shown no visible side effects till now.”

Tian Wen displayed a recording of Han Wu’s locusts feeding on the Flesh Golems, causing the principal’s eyes to light up with interest.

“Is he not the student who fought and won against the Demigod a couple of days ago? I never thought his locusts could do this!” Yi Ping exclaimed, completely astonished. “It’s a shame that the Demonic Civilization isn’t a suitable environment for his locusts to survive. If I could import some of his locusts here to feed on the corpses of the Flesh Golems, I could save quite a lot of Divine Points.”

The principal agreed to the request and immediately ordered his units to gather a million Flesh Golem corpses, proceeding to seal them into a card. After giving the card to Tian Wen, Yi Ping instructed him to inform his student that it was a gift from his principal, intended as a small sponsorship to aid his development.

One day later, the principal received another video call from Tian Wen. Apparently, Han Wu had exhausted the supply of corpses and needed more, even suggesting a potential long-term deal.

How many locusts does it take to consume a million corpses in a single day?

Yi Ping thought, surprised but secretly pleased.

He could, at least, finally solve the problem of the Flesh Golem corpses. For a continuous supply, however, a financial arrangement would need to be established as he could not afford to indefinitely provide them without charge—the Divine Points needed to seal the corpses into cards didn't appear out of thin air, after all. As a God, he also had a lot of units to take care of. The sheer amount of Divine Points he spent in a day was truly astronomical.

Nevertheless, Han Wu was the only buyer he could secure, so the principal set a fairly low and reasonable price. A hundred Flesh Golem corpses would cost one Divine Point, with a minimum order of one million corpses. This could barely cover the cost of the sealing and transportation of the corpses.

Han Wu was shocked at how low the price was. It was incomparably cheaper than the price of meat sold at the market!

Han Wu immediately bought 1 million Divine Points worth of Flesh Golem corpses that day. With the constant supply of food, the locusts in Han Wu’s divine realm grew rapidly, with a noticeable increase in both their numbers and ranks.

Han Wu now had a few hundred million Elite life forms in his divine realm. He used his Sacrifice skill the moment the population of his Elite locusts reached the maximum capacity his divine realm could maintain.

The giant array appeared in the sky as the lives of 12 billion Elite locusts were extinguished. Their life energy floated into the array and Han Wu was once again given three choices.

[Option 1: 5 Unique Giant Warriors.]

[Option 2: Rank 3 Skill, Gem Poison Explosion. After equipping it to the Core, the race can learn the low-tier Poison Explosion skill. Can also be taught to Heroic life forms. Highest tier: Ultimate Poison Explosion.]

[Option 3: Refiner. Disassembles items and refines them into pure energy.]

Han Wu was quite delighted with all three rewards after sacrificing 12 billion Elite locusts. They were all very rare rewards!

He felt very tempted to select the 5 Unique Giant Warriors. They were not just Unique life forms, but also members of the Giant race infamous for their destructive power.

A single Giant Warrior could sell for 10 million Divine Points at the very least. Of course, if he chose them, he would rather use them than sell them.

Han Wu really liked the second option too. After all, the Rank 3 Skill, Poison Explosion, complemented the Rank 1 Sacred Object Poison Orb very well.

He imagined a scene where thousands of Heavenly Demon Insects would charge into the ranks of enemies and explode, turning the surrounding area into a large field thick with poison and creating an environment so harsh that no living being could last long there! Just imagining such a ghastly scene gave him goosebumps..

There was still an issue though—his Core level was only level three. There was no space left to add the Rank 3 Poison Explosion Skill Gem, since he had already equipped the Rank 2 Sacred Object Law of Gluttony and the Rank 1 Sacred Object Poison Orb. If he decided to choose Poison Explosion, it would have to be a long time before he would finally get to use it.

The Refiner, on the other hand, caught his attention. After reading its description, he realized how powerful it actually was, despite its simple sounding name.

Does it disassemble items and refine them into energy stones?

He had heard of energy stones before and he recalled that they were a precious food source for races that could wield magic. Didn't that mean he could passively earn a constant stream of income just by choosing the Refiner?

After having carefully considered his options, Han Wu decided to choose the Refiner. After all, securing a steady income stream would benefit him a lot. The Refiner soon appeared in front of him, and in order to evaluate its usefulness, he had over five tons of iron ore brought over for experimentation. The machine began to spin vigorously after he fed the iron ores into it.

Five hours later, three fist-sized energy stones fell out from the Refiner. They were called Iron Stones, and they could be used both as food for specific races and as material for crafting equipment. Each Iron Stone was worth five Divine Points.

“Not bad. It should be able to generate a steady flow of income over time.”

Suddenly, a prayer from the Scorching Dwarves reached his mind. It was a function of the new Rank 1 Temple—it could allow the voices of the believers to reach him.

The Scorching Dwarves had been mining when an undead suddenly attacked them, injuring three of them. At the moment, the chief of the Scorching Dwarves, Divine Hammer, was battling the undead. The rest of Dwarves had escaped to the Temple to pray to their God for deliverance.

Han Wu was confused. Why was there an undead in his divine realm? Where did it even come from?