At night, Nie Yan and Xie Yao re-entered the game. During this period, Nie Yan wanted to use Radiant Gems to enhance several of his special items. He mentioned this to Guo Huai, and soon received a message from Guo Huai: Sun was currently completing a quest for Master Gem Artisan Peguit. Once Sun completed that quest, they would be able to use gem items to improve equipment quality with Peguit, and receive certain discounts.
Nie Yan thought for a moment and decided to wait. The effects of a Master Gem Artisan were completely different from those of a regular Advanced Gem Artisan. He wanted to maximize the effects of these five Radiant Gems and couldn’t afford to waste them. Those few special items were his treasures, and the better their attributes, the more useful they would be in the future.
During this period, Nie Yan’s equipment had become more complete compared to before. Next, he could do something more beneficial for the guild. Nie Yan thought of the Ironclad Catapult!
The combat power of the Ironclad Catapult was astonishing and it was extremely important in guild wars. Generally, players first obtained a level one Ironclad Catapult blueprint. The guild’s mechanist would continuously improve it to upgrade to higher-level Ironclad Catapults, somewhat similar to the Gnome’s Magical Cannon.
Such Ironclad Catapults could only be used on plains. They advanced using wooden wheels and could not move forward on rugged mountain paths, which limited their usage. Additionally, since Ironclad Catapults were mechanical units, killing monsters provided no experience and had extremely low equipment drop rates, almost nothing. Therefore, Ironclad Catapults were generally not used for grinding. However, on the battlefield, these Ironclad Catapults were considered extremely powerful. It wasn’t until players reached level 100, when defenses significantly increased and many top-tier professions emerged, that the effectiveness of Ironclad Catapults on the battlefield gradually weakened.
Suddenly, Nie Yan remembered there was a place that once dropped an Ironclad Catapult blueprint, and the catapult built from that blueprint was more advanced than the ones obtained by the Bloodthirsty Blade guild. That was the rare Frost Ironclad Catapult!
A regular Ironclad Catapult would launch a shell causing fire damage, but the Frost Ironclad Catapult would launch ice projectiles, freezing all nearby units. Against large creatures, the Frost Ironclad Catapult was significantly more powerful than the regular version.
Before reaching level 100, building one or two of these catapults would be an incredible weapon for killing enemies, especially during this period when the war between the War God Tribe and the Tuo Ba family was in full swing. If there were a few more Frost Ironclad Catapults, the War God Tribe would surely win decisively.
Although Nie Yan previously knew the location of the Frost Ironclad Catapult blueprint, he had never dared to go for it because his level and equipment were too weak before. Now, he barely met the requirements and could give it a try. If it didn’t work out, he could still use a random teleportation scroll to escape.
Nie Yan teleported to the Suoyu Scenic Town and bought ten scrolls, including two Intermediate Web Spell scrolls, three Advanced Vine Wrap scrolls, and five Intermediate Hate Dissolution scrolls. He thought he could use all of these. Additionally, Nie Yan went to the Starlight Pharmacy and picked up several bottles of Advanced Instant Recovery Potions and Advanced Ice Resistance Potions to prepare for the upcoming adventure.
Once everything was ready, Nie Yan informed Guo Huai and others that he would go searching for the Frost Ironclad Catapult blueprint, while still being able to remotely command guild affairs.
Nie Yan left Karol City, summoned his Falkner Warhorse, and rode northward through the vast wilderness.
Some regular players saw Nie Yan’s signature Falkner Warhorse and their opinions of the Bull Tribe and Nie Yan had changed somewhat. Previously, Nie Yan was merely the leader of the strongest guild in Karol City, but now he had become the de facto master of Karol City!
If these regular players wanted to develop in Karol City, they had to rely on Nie Yan. No one dared to speak of hunting Nie Yan or trying to loot his equipment anymore—it was practically a suicidal act. Nie Yan could easily summon a group of people to crush them so thoroughly that they would never dare to raise their heads again. Although Nie Yan himself wouldn’t do such things, for ordinary players, this was a powerful deterrent.
Nie Yan rode swiftly across the open grasslands, eventually entering a level 90 area. In the distance, the grasslands were covered with countless white tents, with a two-story building in the center, standing about three meters high. Its circular golden dome gleamed brilliantly under the sunlight—that was the base of the Crimson Shadow Legion.
On the Karons Grasslands, there were a group of heretics who had abandoned their faith in the Holy Light. These dark apostles lived by raiding the nomadic residents of the grasslands and were considered evil. Their leader was a level 90 lord, the Evil Crimson Shadow Mage.
Sometimes, he could even summon some low-level Crimson Shadow Bone Dragons, making him extremely powerful. Additionally, near the building at the center of the Crimson Shadow Legion’s base, there were seven Frost Ironclad Catapults. If players attempted to attack this area, those seven Frost Ironclad Catapults would often cause heavy losses.
The Holy Temple frequently dispatched some paladins to eliminate the Crimson Shadow Legion, having wiped them out several times before. However, they had revived multiple times and regrouped. Within the Holy Temple, there were specific paladin quests involving the killing of Crimson Shadow Legion members. Each time a certain number of Crimson Shadow Legion members were killed, players could earn a certain amount of Revered Honor.
Nie Yan wasn’t a paladin, so he naturally couldn’t accept those quests. However, if he could obtain the Evil Jewel held by the Crimson Shadow Legion’s leader, the Evil Crimson Shadow Mage, he could go to the Holy Temple to receive a reward. It was said that the reward was the Holy Laudation. After receiving the Holy Laudation, if one could still advance to Shadow Dancer, they would become a powerful Holy Shadow Dancer Rogue.
The difference between a Holy Shadow Dancer and a regular Shadow Dancer lay in their ability to cast blessings and perform some powerful divine spells. In a previous life, there was indeed someone who completed this quest, becoming the only Holy Shadow Dancer Rogue among all Shadow Dancers. That person was a thief named Xiaorong. According to the progress of a previous life, at this point in time, the Holy Shadow Dancer Rogue named Xiaorong had not yet entered the game.
Nie Yan’s appearance disrupted the game’s progression. In a previous life, at this time, most players’ levels were only around thirty to forty, but now, players at fifty or sixty levels were everywhere. This was all due to the impact of the sealed history being unlocked, creating a butterfly effect that spread outwards. Many people became stronger, while others exited the stage of powerful players. Nie Yan had changed many players and the entire landscape of the Greenland Empire. It was unknown when the thief named Xiaorong would appear.
If Nie Yan could obtain the Evil Jewel, he would also change the path of the Holy Shadow Dancer thief in the game.
Nie Yan slowly approached the tent area. Several patrolling Crimson Shadow Legion guards passed through an area more than ten yards away from him. They wore bright red outfits, held dark red greatswords, and radiated a bloody aura. They were some fanatical slayers.
Nie Yan cast a reconnaissance spell on one of the Crimson Shadow Legion guards.
Crimson Shadow Warrior: Level 90, HP 32000/32000.
These Crimson Shadow Warriors had extremely fierce attack power. During combat, they could also apply a bloodlust state to themselves, significantly boosting their attack power and absorbing life with their attacks, making them very difficult to deal with. However, one advantage was that although the Crimson Shadow Warriors were humanoid creatures, their intelligence was not high. They belonged to low-intelligence beings. Only their leader, the Crimson Shadow Mage, was a slightly higher mid-level intelligence being with relatively strong thinking abilities.
However, Nie Yan would not engage in a prolonged battle with these Crimson Shadow Warriors. His sole purpose was the blueprint for the Frost Ironclad Catapult and the Evil Jewel.
This mission was somewhat difficult for him at the moment, but it was not impossible.
Nie Yan looked toward the tent area. Ahead, some walls had been set up, and devices similar to magical cannons were placed there. The dark, menacing gun barrels pointed outward toward the plains. The defenses here were clearly very strong. If a large group of players approached, they would first suffer several cannon attacks.
Nie Yan avoided several approaching Crimson Shadow Warriors and reached the edge of the wall surrounding the tent area. He leaped, grabbed the top of the wall, and vaulted over into the compound.
He hid behind the tents and gradually made his way toward the center of the tent area.
In the open space between the tents ahead, six wooden pillars stood. These pillars were about one meter high, each adorned with a small red flag. The flags bore mysterious red patterns—the most famous and notorious item of the Crimson Shadow Legion, the Crimson Shadow Totems!
Players had some special methods to dismantle the Crimson Shadow Totems, but if they triggered them, it would be a headache. If the Crimson Shadow Totems were detonated, they would produce a splattering bloodlight effect. Any player who came into contact with it would suffer from a powerful corpse rot effect, drastically reducing their HP and defense. Nie Yan had experienced the power of these totems in a previous life. At that time, he was following two hundred-level raid teams to clear monsters here. Back then, he was a very ordinary mercenary. The two hundred-level raid teams were reduced to just a few dozen survivors, suffering heavy losses. It wasn’t until the team leader finally obtained the blueprint for the Frost Ironclad Catapult that some losses were recovered. More than two hundred people were reduced to only a few survivors, illustrating how brutal the situation was.
Nie Yan was somewhat familiar with this map, otherwise he wouldn’t dare to come alone.
Hearing some noise from a distance, Nie Yan quickly hid in the shadows of a tent corner.
After a while, a group of more than twenty Crimson Shadow Warriors walked across the open area. They scanned their surroundings but didn’t spot Nie Yan in the corner of the tents, and slowly walked away into the distance.
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