Since killing the remnant body of the Prison of Corpses Forest until now, Li Xuan had obtained many pieces of intelligence regarding the second version, among which no less than ten were related to the Earth Dragon.

Especially after they hid underground, the frequency of obtaining Earth Dragon intelligence increased somewhat.

Based on Li Xuan's deduction of the patterns of intelligence refresh, their current location was closer to the Earth Dragon, hence the increased probability of obtaining related intelligence.

Second version, humans classified mutated animals into grades, to be precise, this grading system applied to all supernatural beings.

It wasn't simply divided into Ordinary-grade and Elite-grade;

there were more detailed classifications.

Level 1-10 were Ordinary-grade. Don't underestimate them because of the term "Ordinary-grade." Level 1 represented the strength of an adult male, Level 2 was lion/tiger level, Level 3 was rhinoceros/elephant level.

Mutated animals above Level 5 could easily tear apart lions and tigers, hunt rhinoceroses and elephants, truly stepping into the supernatural realm.

Level 11-20 were Elite-grade. Once reaching this level, they escaped the category of second version weaklings. Elite-grade ability users were high-level figures in small survivor bases, and even in large survivor bases, they were elites standing above others. This was also the origin of the Elite-grade name.

Every Elite-grade mutated beast had the strength to slaughter a fully armed, hundred-person squad containing double-digit Ordinary-grade ability users!

The most crucial point was that Elite-grade mutated beasts all possessed intelligence no less than humans. They could learn human actions and knowledge, open doors, fire guns, practice techniques, and set traps to lure humans into falling for them!

When humans fought mutated beasts of the same level, it was difficult to rely on wisdom to win;

they could only compete with abilities, physical strength, and techniques.

Level 21-30 were Leader-grade. Ability users of this level could serve as leaders of small bases. Leader-grade mutated beasts could command other mutated beasts, occupy territory, and become bosses.

Level 31-40 were General-grade. Most leaders of medium-sized survivor bases were General-grade. They possessed extremely powerful strength, capable of single-handedly slaughtering through Leader-grade mutated beast territories, one person worth ten thousand.

Level 41-50 were Lord-grade. The territory range of mutated beasts at this level was extremely vast, no smaller than the area of R City before the apocalypse. Under their command were multiple General-grade and Leader-grade underlings, and numerous Elite-grade mutated beasts.

As for Ordinary-grade?

They were all treated as food by them.

There was also a hierarchy among mutated beasts. Ordinary-grade mutated beasts that hadn't developed sufficient intelligence were seen as food by high-level mutated beasts, not considered their own kind.

The girl codenamed Bear King from Z City, who awakened dual abilities in the future, was a Lord-grade ability user by the mid-version, a top combatant of Z City, protecting over one hundred thousand people.

Level 51-60 were King-grade!

Every King-grade mutated beast was synonymous with power and terror!

Medium-sized survivor bases simply couldn't block King-grade mutated beasts;

only large bases had the ability to repel them!

To kill a King-grade mutated beast, even powerful large bases had to pay a significant price!

Bear King with dual abilities only touched the threshold of King-grade by the end of the second version, barely stepping over it. One could imagine how powerful King-grade was!

It was precisely because Bear King touched the King-grade threshold that she was invited to participate in the operation to besiege the Earth Dragon, leading to her demise.

Level 61-70 were Emperor-grade!

The Bloodthirsty Demon King with A+-grade ability, who grew stronger by killing, ultimately reached Emperor-grade!

Level 71-80 were Legendary-grade!

Every ability user of this level was a living legend, with only a few existing globally.

Legendary-grade mutated beasts were even called 'Embodiments of Calamity.' Each appearance brought terrifying disasters, causing destruction like natural calamities!

The Earth Dragon was Legendary-grade! Its level was as high as Level 73!

Beyond Level 80 was Epic-grade!

Some also called this level Demigod!

It was the peak of the second version!

Li Xuan hadn't obtained any news about Epic-grade ability users or mutated beasts, unsure whether it was his bad luck or that Epic-grade didn't appear in the second version.

Over a hundred ability users besieged the Earth Dragon: over 130 King-grade, over 20 Emperor-grade, and three Legendary-grade ability users!

Li Xuan initially thought the ability users alliance lost, but later he obtained a piece of intelligence about an Emperor-grade ability user and learned they won.

A pyrrhic victory against the Earth Dragon!

Of over a hundred people, less than ten remained. One Legendary-grade was lost, another was severely injured, and one lost a leg. King-grade ability users were completely wiped out. The surviving Emperor-grade ability users were all on the verge of death;

if not for the medical personnel's swift support, the Emperor-grade would have been completely wiped out too.

Initially, when Li Xuan saw the Earth Dragon's level intelligence, he was somewhat stunned, unable to understand why King-grade ability users were brought along to besiege the Legendary-grade Earth Dragon.

There was still an entire Emperor-grade between King-grade and Legendary-grade!

The Earth Dragon was Level 73 Legendary, seemingly just broken through to Legendary, but actually, the levels of powerful individuals around the world might not even be as high as the Earth Dragon's.

No matter how powerful the talent, it required time to develop!

Later, as Li Xuan obtained more and more intelligence, he roughly understood why ability users from various places wanted to besiege the Earth Dragon.

The Earth Dragon was injured!

It battled another Legendary-grade mutated beast, gained the upper hand, and after the other admitted defeat, it continued attacking, wanting to kill the other.

Legendary-grade mutated beasts had extremely tenacious vitality, difficult to kill. The other Legendary-grade mutated beast couldn't defeat the Earth Dragon, but it wasn't something the Earth Dragon could casually slaughter either. In their deadly battle, the Earth Dragon won, but gained dozens of wounds on its body, with severe places even revealing bone and internal organs.

Ability users relied on their abilities;

ability grade almost determined an ability user's upper limit, with only a few ability users able to break through this limit.

Ability grades were extremely difficult to improve through training. Ability users stuck at their levels heard that the Earth Dragon's heart blood could enhance ability grades, and with three Legendary ability users leading the siege, they all took action, joining in, wanting to advance further.

In the end, no one anticipated the Earth Dragon to be so powerful, its vitality so tenacious that even severely injured, it could suppress ability users of the same level.

The siege of the Earth Dragon caused heavy casualties, but there were gains. The Earth Dragon's heart blood allowed all surviving Emperor-grade ability users to evolve, and Legendary-grade ability users advanced further, their levels increasing.

Within Xia Country, two more Legendary-grade ability users actually appeared!

The overall strength didn't decrease but increased instead!

Li Xuan wanted to use his only fusion opportunity on the Earth Dragon, to seize the Earth Dragon's genes and strengthen his Giant Beast form!

This way, his Giant Beast form would be guaranteed to become Legendary-grade in the second version!

Afterwards, he just needed to find ways to enhance the level of his human form.

According to intelligence, Bear King had dual B-grade abilities, barely touching the King-grade threshold by the end of the version. Xue Lian with A+-grade ability advanced to Emperor-grade by the end of the version. Combining with intelligence about other ability users, it could be roughly guessed:

A-grade (dual B-grade) potential limit was initial entry into King-grade.

A+-grade potential limit was initial entry into Emperor-grade.

S-grade potential limit was Emperor-grade peak, that is, Level 70!

S+-grade potential limit was Legendary-grade.

The Earth Dragon's potential limit was approximately equivalent to SS-grade.

Far more powerful than S+-grade!

Li Xuan looked at Huo Lingling. Her snake form was A+-grade, human form was S-grade, potential limit was Level 70.

This level was already very exaggerated, mainly because Huo Lingling's ability wasn't combat-oriented but purely auxiliary, involving spatial power.

A Level 70 auxiliary ability user's importance was even higher than a Legendary-grade combat ability user!

Another point, Huo Lingling's human form had absorbed many supernatural characteristics. Her growth speed in the second version would far surpass other ability users, with a chance to break through the limit and step into Legendary-grade.

A Legendary-grade auxiliary ability user!

No need to say more, anyone understood how high the value was!

Meanwhile, outside.

The sun silently set.

The new version arrived.

Eternal Night! Blizzard!

Infinite darkness swept across the globe!

Dark clouds condensed, snowflakes drifted down, and the ground temperature gradually dropped.

Skeleton-like zombies emitted continuous roars, their outer skin and bones becoming harder, running speed further increasing, like a group of night demons.

At a certain official survivor base.

Several soldiers were guarding the base entrance, lips chapped, exposed skin darkened.

"If the temperature keeps rising, we truly have nowhere to hide anymore;

everyone will die."

"Speak less, save some moisture." Another soldier said hoarsely.

The base was severely short of water;

soldiers couldn't get much water either. Many survivors had collapsed;

people couldn't tell whether they died of thirst or heat.

"I heard Old Li say the exploration team found an underground water source. The base sent out over ten people yesterday;

why haven't they returned yet." The soldier licked his lips, a few drops of blood oozing from the cracks, falling on his tongue, actually giving him an impulse to bite his lips.

"Not returning for a day means either they died outside or found the water source and didn't want to return."

"Sigh~ If I had known, I would have gone with them. Staying at the base is just waiting for death."

"Stop bragging, why didn't you step forward when they were recruiting yesterday."

Several footsteps sounded. The two soldiers turned to look and found several people carrying a person covered with a cloth approaching.

"Dead? Who is it." The soldier was accustomed to it. After nearly a year of apocalypse survival, all survivors had grown accustomed to death.

"The old man who could brew alcohol. He gave the water at home to his grandson, endured without drinking himself, and died of thirst."

The soldier lifted the cloth cover, saw the old man's skin-and-bones appearance, didn't say anything, waved his hand, "Go quickly and return quickly, the outside temperature can heat people to death."

The several people nodded, carried the corpse out.

Shortly after, the two soldiers heard excited shouts from outside.

"It's snowing! The sky darkened! Hahaha!"

"So cool snow! So refreshing! Wuwuwu~"

The two soldiers heard this, glanced at each other, hurriedly walked out. Snowflakes were drifting in the sky, falling to the ground and melting into water.

The ground temperature was too high;

snow couldn't accumulate for a while.

A snowflake fell on a soldier's hand. The soldier quickly licked it, a frosty sensation rushing from his tongue to the top of his head.

Refreshing! So refreshing!

Even more refreshing than drinking an icy cold soda on a hot day!

"Finally... saved." The soldier wanted to both cry and laugh.

The other soldier looked at the corpse on the ground, feeling sorry for the other. If he had held on a little longer, not giving his last water to his grandson, the old man could have held on until now.

"I'll go notify the Base Leader. You watch the gate, be careful of zombies. When the heavy rain ended, zombies learned to run. Now zombies might have evolved again."

"What! Zombies can still evolve?"

Similar scenes played out around the world. No one knew how many people died just before the heavy snow arrived.

Countless people cheered, excited, just like when the heavy rain first stopped.

A small number of smart people looked at the continuous heavy snow, feeling uneasy in their hearts.

If the heavy snow kept falling, the harm it could cause was greater than the heavy rain!

Low temperatures could freeze people to death!

Especially after experiencing extreme heat, survivors had long discarded warm clothing. If they couldn't find warm clothing and shelter in time, the death toll would surpass the previous two extreme weather events.

[Ding~ Intelligence has refreshed!]

[Clown Train: A train where hope and despair intertwine! Boarding the train, is it stepping toward hope or stepping into the abyss?

Ten days from now, at 15:00 sharp, a train that traverses worlds will arrive. The ticket price is one unit of local currency. One can ride the train to travel around the Eastern Continent. It will stop at major cities along the way. Getting off early requires paying one million units of local currency. The train provides food and water, which passengers can purchase using local currency.

The train's final destination is the otherworld 'Heavenly Ox Island Soul King Village.' The train stays for ten days. Those who don't board on the return day will have their lifespan reduced by twenty years.

Note: The otherworld possesses martial arts. During the third version, the otherworld merges with Blue Star!

Note: The flow of time differs between the two worlds;

Blue Star's time flow is ten times that of the otherworld!]

Li Xuan's pupils constricted. He carefully read it several times, finally understanding why the train was called Clown. The intelligence indicated it was an intertwining of hope and despair.

From the moment survivors saw the train, the clown began to toy with them. With the apocalypse having lasted so long, people had long forgotten about local currency. Who would still carry local currency with them?

Frantically searching, before they could even find any, the train would depart.

Survivors would inevitably feel regret.

Some people acted quickly, happened to have local currency nearby, and could smoothly board the train. But who could have thought that food and water on the train also required local currency to purchase?

Couldn't afford water and food, wanted to get off early?

Only by producing one million units of local currency!

This was the second act of toying.

The train arrived in the otherworld. What would survivors feel upon seeing scenery untouched by the apocalypse?

Excitement, thrill, happiness, etc. After finding the village on the island, discovering the people here practiced martial arts, what would they feel then?

How many would ultimately be willing to leave?

How many would choose to stay even at the cost of twenty years of lifespan deducted?

This was the third act of toying.

The survivors who stayed perfectly missed the second version, missing the chance to awaken abilities. When the third version arrived and the otherworld merged with Blue Star, they returned to Blue Star once again. What would they feel then?

Discovering their former companions and friends had awakened powerful abilities, even with the world merging, they had self-preservation strength. They themselves hadn't even made a name in martial arts training. Their mood plummeting from the clouds into the abyss, how many could stabilize their emotions without breaking down?

Later, discovering the time flow differed between the two worlds, ability users on Blue Star had developed for several years, with the strong almost touching the realm of gods, while survivors who stayed in the otherworld had only practiced martial arts for a few months, not even laying a solid foundation. What kind of mood would that be?

This was the fourth act of toying!

Clown Train, from the moment survivors boarded, they had already become the train's playthings.

One wrong step, every step wrong.

The abyss was right before their eyes!