Nie Yan entered through the door and proceeded upward along a massive spiral staircase behind it toward the upper levels of the castle in Gold City.
After climbing to the third floor, he entered a corridor where level ninety Molten Blacksmiths occasionally patrolled. Fortunately, they were all moving alone.
Seeing a Molten Blacksmith approaching, Nie Yan stealthily crept up behind it, sneaking right up to its back. He struck its head with a stealth attack, followed by a Backstab and a Disembowel. As the Molten Blacksmith was about to awaken, Nie Yan circled around to its front, used Cheap Shot to stun it, then executed a Mutilate. After finishing this round of attacks, Nie Yan immediately ran away, prolonging the fight and relying on the Bleed damage to kill it.
Each of Nie Yan’s attacks only dealt a few hundred damage, with the highest reaching around 500 to 600. However, the Bleed damage was quite significant, enough to eventually kill the Molten Blacksmith.
Nie Yan continued forward, traversing a spiral corridor nearly five to six hundred yards long, eliminating around twenty to thirty Molten Blacksmiths along the way. He then entered a dark grand hall. Around the hall stood massive golden statues—demons, monstrous beasts, and other terrifying figures. Occasionally, tall figures moved about beneath these statues.
Looking toward the front of the hall, Nie Yan saw a colossal giant statue standing atop a circular platform. It stood five yards tall, resembling a warrior monk clad entirely in golden armor, with six arms, each wielding a different weapon: a hammer, a scythe, a shovel, a staff, a great axe, and a flail.
Seeing this statue, Nie Yan felt a chill in his heart. This was the mining slave, Yiglin. Normally, it was just a statue, but once any living being approached, it would awaken and transform into a powerful level ninety boss.
It would take at least a two-hundred-man team of level eighty players to defeat it, and even then, the tank warriors’ defense had to be sufficiently high.
Nie Yan observed the hall and estimated there were at least twenty to thirty Molten Blacksmiths wandering among the statues. These Molten Blacksmiths were much taller and more terrifying in appearance compared to the ones he had previously encountered.
Nie Yan stealthily approached a statue and cast a Scout spell on a distant Molten Blacksmith.
Demon Molten Blacksmith: Level ninety elite, HP 50000/50000.
It would be very difficult to deal with these Demon Molten Blacksmiths. Nie Yan considered whether he could bypass them while remaining undetected to search for the Abak Set. It would be best to avoid provoking these elite monsters if possible.
Nie Yan hid behind a statue, using it as cover while cautiously advancing deeper into the hall.
In a distant corridor, six rogues were moving along the spiral corridor toward the grand hall where Nie Yan was located. As they advanced, they kept discovering the corpses of Molten Blacksmiths lying on the ground—there were at least twenty to thirty bodies in total. The more they saw, the more alarmed they became.
“Boss Tianfa, are all these corpses the work of Rogue Nie Yan? He’s too impressive. He’s clearing monsters all the way while we’re tracking him, yet we haven’t even caught a glimpse of him,” one rogue remarked. Despite being rogues themselves, the gap between them and Nie Yan was simply too vast.
“We should follow him first. Obviously, Nie Yan is beyond our capabilities. Later, Captain Chiyen will bring a group of people, and the guild leader has ordered us to seize the opportunity to strike Nie Yan for a potential big gain. Remember, we must not reveal our identities. If discovered, just claim we’re from the Mage Alliance. That’s a direct order from the guild leader,” Tianfa explained. Their group had temporarily left the guild and wore black cloaks to hide their identities, all to avoid being recognized.
There were many who had their eyes set on Nie Yan. Not only did he possess top-tier gear, but the combined bounties placed on him by the Mage Alliance, Holy Guardians, and Angel Dominion guilds amounted to a staggering 30,000 gold coins. Such a reward was enough to entice many players. Numerous players had long desired to assassinate Nie Yan, but they had never had the chance since he was always like a dragon seen only by its head—elusive and rarely spotted. However, today was different. Many had witnessed Nie Yan entering Gold City alone, and naturally, some opportunists had started planning.
The reason they were hiding their identities was to avoid retaliation from the Bull Tribe guild after hunting down Rogue Nie Yan, as the Bull Tribe’s strength alone could easily destroy their guild.
Initially driven by profit, they had followed Nie Yan for a while, but now each of them was feeling uneasy and had sent out requests for backup.
Unknown to Tianfa and the others, more people had entered Gold City after them—entirely rogues. Both the Mage Alliance and Holy Guardians had arrived as well.
Their sole target was Rogue Nie Yan!
Nie Yan was still inside the grand hall. Looking ahead, he saw many Demon Molten Blacksmiths moving about in the distance. It would be extremely difficult to bypass them, especially since these enemies possessed ranged abilities. Using skills like Crawler’s Ring would also easily expose him.
Nie Yan retreated, gritted his teeth, and made a decision. He moved to a corner and summoned his Golden Earth Dragon. He also hired a level ten Holy Knight named Rayment and took out his Headless Horseman Darrow’s Crossbow. He fired the crossbow at the ground to create noise, gradually luring a Demon Molten Blacksmith toward him.
Dealing with just one would be manageable. Nie Yan led the Demon Molten Blacksmith to the corner and circled behind it, delivering a stealth strike to its head.
The Golden Earth Dragon opened its mouth and released a stream of dragon breath. With a loud boom, the fiery breath struck the Demon Molten Blacksmith. Holy Knight Rayment activated his Battle Shout and charged toward the enemy.
Under the combined assault of Nie Yan, the Golden Earth Dragon, and the Holy Knight, the Demon Molten Blacksmith’s HP steadily dropped. It began to awaken and opened its mouth to shout, attempting to summon other Demon Molten Blacksmiths.
Cheap Shot!
Nie Yan struck the Demon Molten Blacksmith’s forehead, stunning it.
Necrotic Ritual!
Since the Demon Molten Blacksmith was a dark creature, Nie Yan attempted to summon it. However, the system indicated the Necrotic Ritual had failed. He tried again—it still failed.
The Demon Molten Blacksmith awakened and swung its hammer at the Golden Earth Dragon. Upon impact, the dragon staggered backward, taking over 3000 damage. Fortunately, the Golden Earth Dragon had high defense and massive HP. If it were an ordinary pet, it wouldn’t have survived a single hit from the Demon Molten Blacksmith.
Necrotic Ritual!
System: Necrotic Ritual failed.
The Demon Molten Blacksmith opened its mouth, emitting a sharp scream as it prepared to call for help.
If the Demon Molten Blacksmith summoned reinforcements, Nie Yan wouldn’t be able to handle two or more of them.
Just as the Demon Molten Blacksmith was about to shout, Nie Yan kicked it in the stomach, interrupting its cry. The sounds it had begun to make were abruptly cut off.
The Golden Earth Dragon released several bursts of dragon breath, striking the Demon Molten Blacksmith and causing damage numbers to float above its head.
Holy Knight Rayment cast several Purify spells, beams of white light illuminating the Demon Molten Blacksmith.
Enraged, the Demon Molten Blacksmith swung its hammer repeatedly at the Golden Earth Dragon. Nie Yan instructed Rayment to continuously heal the Golden Earth Dragon from behind, allowing it to tank the Demon Molten Blacksmith’s attacks. Whenever the Demon Molten Blacksmith attempted to call for help, Nie Yan would interrupt it with a Kick. Fortunately, the Kick ability had a short cooldown.
Through their combined efforts, the towering Demon Molten Blacksmith finally collapsed heavily to the ground.
Nie Yan checked the Golden Earth Dragon’s HP, which was down to about 20%, and he let out a slight sigh of relief.
As the Demon Molten Blacksmith fell, the Zennarde Sword in Nie Yan’s hand suddenly radiated a brilliant glow. A powerful force surged toward him, causing his heart to race. He quickly opened the Zennarde Sword’s attribute page to examine its properties.
Sealed Zennarde Sword: A divine artifact of Karando.
Item Description: This divine artifact was ordered by King of Dragons, Zennarde, to be forged by the god of forging, Karando. Infused with dark magic by Zennarde, it became a divine weapon. If you lack the power to control it, you will suffer its backlash. The sword was sealed with six layers of holy seals by the War God Kuro. Seals remaining: 5/6.
Item Attributes: Attack 830-812, Critical Hit +50, 20% chance to deal 5x critical damage, Ignore Level +15, Ignore Armor. Additional Skills: Infernal Execution—when the enemy’s HP is below 20%, this skill has a chance to instantly kill them, with success rate depending on level and defense. Cooldown: 3 seconds. Requires 50 energy. Inferior Calamity—when attacking enemies, it applies five curses: Weaken (level 3), Disable (level 3), Plague (level 3), Fear (level 3), and Corrosion (level 3), lasting 5 minutes. Cooldown: 1 hour.
Additional: Curse of the Undead Nightmare—holders of the Zennarde Sword suffer from the Undead Nightmare Curse, resulting in a 30% reduction in all attributes (reduced to 15% due to suppression).
Usage Restrictions: None.
Nie Yan examined the Zennarde Sword’s attributes. One of its seals had been broken, significantly enhancing its power. It now had attack power comparable to a level ninety epic weapon, with other attributes also greatly improved.
After all this time, the Zennarde Sword had finally become stronger. This upgradable weapon—Nie Yan could only wonder what its final form would be like.
The black flames on the Zennarde Sword burned even more intensely than before. Sparks flew as Nie Yan swung it, creating a terrifying aura.
Nie Yan picked up the loot dropped by the Demon Molten Blacksmith and retreated to a corner with the Golden Earth Dragon to restore HP. He had Holy Knight Rayment continuously heal the Golden Earth Dragon while he applied a bandage. Soon, the Golden Earth Dragon’s HP fully recovered.
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