The strange world of demon cultivators

The reason Ji Yao hadn't directly exchanged information with them before was actually quite simple: a lack of sufficient understanding and trust.

After all, in this precarious and dangerous end-of-world scenario, even the slightest negligence could lead to fatal consequences.

Therefore, acting cautiously became the way to survive.

To this end, Ji Yao had been secretly observing those individuals meticulously for the past few days.

He discovered that in such a harsh environment, these individuals were not only able to support each other and cooperate closely,

but also obeyed commands without question, with no one arbitrarily leaving the group or running around recklessly.

Even the seemingly weakest and most petite girl in the group behaved quietly and never caused trouble.

This rare stability and excellent teamwork in the apocalypse were undoubtedly crucial.

Anyone who has read apocalyptic novels knows that in this world full of despair and death, people are anxious and act independently as the norm.

A team like this that can maintain unity and act in an orderly manner is truly a miracle.

Ji Yao knew very well that the tacit understanding between these people could not have been cultivated overnight.

Undoubtedly, they must have experienced countless life-and-death tests and hardships before gradually developing such a highly coordinated team spirit.

This also indicated that each of them had emerged from a brutal selection process and survived to this day.

In addition, these individuals behaved relatively gently in their actions.

They did not exhibit insidious or ruthless mentalities and adhered to certain behavioral principles.

Compared to those who abandoned the bottom line of humanity and acted recklessly as soon as they entered the apocalypse, they were worlds apart.

Due to these factors, Ji Yao, after careful consideration, believed that he could try to engage in trade with them.

After all, based on the current observations and understanding, these individuals were at least trustworthy.

the actual situation within each country was very different from the world he had previously been in.

In particular, it should be pointed out that here, China was no longer called China but Xia.

Although the evolution of the two countries' civilizations was basically the same,

when time progressed to the modern era, their development paths diverged significantly.

Xia did not experience a long feudal society and the rule of the last feudal dynasty like many other countries.

On the contrary, it actually skipped this period of history due to a peculiar mineral resource—black scale ore—and directly entered a new era of technological civilization.

However, to everyone's surprise, the mysterious mineral buried deep underground and painstakingly mined

was not what people expected it to be, a new energy source that could replace oil.

On the contrary, it was the source of this global crisis!

From the day this mysterious mineral was discovered, the whole world gradually fell into chaos and fear.

Initially, those bizarre and terrifying incidents only occurred occasionally, appearing once or twice every year or two.

At that time, governments still had enough power and resources to deal with these emergencies and control them within a certain range.

But as time went on, the situation became more and more uncontrollable.

More and more bizarre and strange events followed one after another, like floods that had burst their banks, leaving various countries exhausted and overwhelmed.

Then, 30 years ago, a shocking global bizarre event completely broke the original peace—a peaceful and harmonious small country was destroyed overnight!

This tragedy was like a heavy hammer, hitting the hearts of all mankind hard and triggering unprecedented panic.

However, in the face of such a surging disaster, people's panic seemed pale and weak.

Unprecedentedly large-scale bizarre events broke out one after another, as if there was no end to them.

They relentlessly eroded human living space, squeezing it to the limit bit by bit.

Until ten years ago, the once proud concept of the country had disappeared, replaced by the five giant survivor bases that still existed in the world.

There is a base within Xia, controlled by the military.

They came out of that heavily guarded base.

In order to survive in this strange and unpredictable world, each base racked their brains to formulate corresponding countermeasures.

These strategies were like solid lines of defense, doing their best to ensure the survival rate of the base.

Among them, the three most basic iron laws were—the lottery system, the trial system, and the final distribution system.

These systems were all tested with countless lives.

The most important first system was because people discovered.

As long as a fixed number of people were sent to the ghost domains scattered around on time every year.

Those gloomy and terrifying ghost domains would cease to expand their territory arbitrarily.

As a result, a far-reaching lottery system came into being.

According to the regulations, at the end of each year, a grand lottery ceremony would be held in all areas of the base.

Each district must draw a certain number of ordinary people according to the regulations.

They were the stable sacrifices of the ghost domains.

The second system was because every year, a small group of lucky people would suddenly awaken their hidden ghost domain abilities for various bizarre reasons.

But not all people with this special ability have their special abilities useful in the ghost domain.

Only those who have a certain degree of strange ability and have passed many tests are qualified to lead the team deep into dangerous places.

As a result, a strict bizarre trial system was established and became the only way to select leaders.

The third system promoted by the base was the crucial distribution system.

All kinds of resources and items successfully brought out from the mysterious and terrifying ghost domain must be subject to unified allocation and distribution.

The base would conduct a rigorous assessment of the contribution of each member and use it as an important basis for resource allocation.

In this way, it can not only ensure that resources are fairly and reasonably distributed to each member, but also encourage everyone to actively participate in the construction and development of the base.

As for those awakened people with extraordinary abilities, they can obtain various items containing strange and wonderful abilities brought back from the ghost domain according to the specific situation of their completion of specific tasks.

It is worth mentioning that these items have been given a common and unique name—"Ghost Artifacts".