The end of the world is approaching, I'm handing myself over to the country.

Qian Hua stared at the huge, ugly face that had come closer, and remained silent for a few seconds.

Then, he chuckled softly.

"I have to say, you have a really strong will to survive."

Having lived for decades, San Shi is inherently greedy and cunning. The fact that he knelt down to pledge his loyalty without hesitation shows that he had clearly realized the meaning behind the look he had just given San Shi.

He was genuinely afraid of being disemboweled and having his heart removed on the spot.

"But you are sensible," Qian Hua said slowly, his tone neither warm nor cold.

When San Shi heard this, his heart jumped into his throat.

It’s over.

The grotesque giant face twitched slightly, forcing a fawning, even obsequious, expression despite being covered in cold sweat.

Qian Hua turned around and casually pushed the A-level source weapon on the forging table aside.

"I won't stand on ceremony with you." Qian Hua patted the metal shavings off his hands, his gaze returning to San Shi. "My forging skills have hit a bottleneck, and I really need your help from now on."

Upon hearing this, San Shi felt a chill run from the top of his head to his heels.

My blood felt like it was freezing.

This is like they're going to drain your heart's blood!

For lord-level monsters, ordinary bloodletting only weakens them for a few days, which can be recovered by eating more meat.

But if you disturb the core, it will destroy your foundation! At best, you'll fall and become useless; at worst, you'll die.

Cold sweat seeped from the gaps in the scales on San Shi's back, dripping onto the scorching metal floor and hissing as it evaporated.

But he didn't dare to refuse.

The very essence of our soul is still in their hands.

If he resists now, the other party won't even need to lift a finger; a single thought will be enough to obliterate him.

By complying, one might at least be able to survive and prolong their life.

"To be able to share the burden for my master is my good fortune." San Shi lowered his head, his hoarse voice sounding somewhat strained, but he didn't dare to show the slightest disobedience.

"What is it, Master? Just tell me."

Qian Hua keenly caught the slight tremor in San Shi's voice and sneered inwardly.

"This monster really thought I was going to kill him for materials."

Qian Hua certainly considered using the Lord's Core as a harmonizing agent.

But that's a one-time deal; he never does things that are short-sighted and lose money.

A living, obedient lord-level monster is far more valuable than a dead corpse.

If he dies, where will he find such an obedient and perfectly healthy material again?

Qian Hua looked at the trembling San Shi, and the coldness in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by a casual ease.

"Don't worry, since I promised you, I won't take your life."

San Shi suddenly raised his head, his vertical pupils filled with astonishment.

Don't you value your life? Then what do you value?

Qian Hua didn't waste any words. He raised his right hand and flipped his wrist.

Palms facing up.

In that instant, the air in the forging room suddenly froze.

It wasn't that the lights dimmed, but rather that an extremely large and eerie invisible force field instantly emptied the surrounding oxygen and energy.

A gray-black round bead lay quietly in Qian Hua's palm.

The surface of the bead has no luster, but is covered with naturally formed dark patterns.

The oppressive sense of destruction, belonging to higher-dimensional beings, rippled outwards from the bead like layers of a tide, even causing the surrounding metal scraps to emit subtle resonant cries.

With just one glance, San Shi was completely stunned.

His dark yellow vertical pupils dilated to their maximum size in an instant, and his breathing completely stopped.

His body, already weakened by repeated bloodletting, began to tremble violently and uncontrollably.

"This, this is..." San Shi's tongue was tied in knots, his huge body was shaking like a sieve, and his mouth was so wide open that it could fit a cow.

"King-level Core!"

He completely lost control of his facial expressions.

That large face, which had been filled with fear and fawning, now only showed fanaticism, disbelief, and an extreme greed that seemed to bulge its eyeballs out of their sockets.

King-level Core!

These four words are the most deadly poison to any monster that fails to reach the summit.

For a Lord-level being to cross that insurmountable chasm and advance to the King-level, the key is not the accumulation of energy, but rather an understanding of the rules.

This thing not only contains the boundless energy accumulated by a king-level being throughout his life, but more importantly, it also contains the remnants of that being's understanding of authority!

For San Shi, this is a ticket straight to the throne.

As long as he can swallow it and survive the backlash from the fusion of power, he will have a chance to comprehend authority.

Even if one cannot fully inherit the throne, as long as one crosses that threshold and becomes a quasi-king, it is like a carp leaping over the dragon gate, a true qualitative change!

San Shi's heavy breathing echoed in the room.

He stared intently at the bead, his teeth grinding together, desperately suppressing the primal urge to pounce and snatch it.

If he weren't afraid, he would have pounced on them by now.

Qian Hua stood still, his gaze calmly sweeping over the round bead in his hand, but his mind was racing with calculations.

He knew the value of this thing better than anyone else.

If it were recycled, the price would be an astronomical figure that would make anyone faint.

"But so what?" Qian Hua scoffed inwardly.

"The situation has already changed. What good would forcibly cultivating a near-king or king-level fighter do?"

The scale of the monsters' arrival grew larger and larger, and unknown calamities emerged one after another.

In this constantly collapsing world, relying solely on a so-called king-level combatant has too low a margin for error.

How many beasts can a King-level being kill in the face of a beast tide?

"My approach has never been to cultivate individual fighters."

Qian Hua narrowed his eyes slightly.

"The authority of wisdom grants me absolute analytical and reconstructive abilities; my battlefield is the forging table."

These past few days, being stuck in a dead end with A-level source soldiers has made him fully aware of his weaknesses.

San Shi's blood is indeed useful; the lord-level essence blood has raised his forging ability to the threshold of A-level.

But that's the limit.

The energy density of lord-level blood cannot suppress the violent repulsive force of those top-grade ores, and it is simply unable to bear more complex spiritual imprints.

"I need a more advanced harmonizer."

Qian Hua looked at San Shi as if he were looking at a gold mine that was still in its early stages of development.

"If San Shi can absorb this core, even if he only has one foot in the door of the King level and becomes a Quasi-King..."

"Then the purity of the energy in his blood will definitely increase more than tenfold!"

By then, he will have a "super forged blood pack" that continuously produces quasi-king-level or even king-level liquid!

Once the problem of material repulsion is solved, and with the calculations of the intelligent authority, this room full of top-grade ores can be transformed into genuine S-class source weapons!

"An S-grade weapon might not change the course of the battle."

Qian Hua's breathing became slightly heavier: "But what if I could get it onto the assembly line?"

"If I could forge a hundred or a thousand S-class source weapons and equip them to thousands of A-class combat experts."

With the inherent destructive power of the source soldiers, their organized and devastating force could absolutely crush those arrogant alien races into mincemeat.

This is the real trump card that should not be underestimated.