Chapter 638: The Secret Art of Shadow Dance

The team from Splendid Temple had not yet arrived, when Nie Yan suddenly darted forward and attacked the Black Magic Puppet.

Nie Yan appeared behind the Black Magic Puppet, leaping into the air with a fierce, sweeping kick.

His speed was so great that it left only a trail of afterimages. This kick, swift as lightning, carried immense force.

With a loud thud, Nie Yan’s foot struck the back of the Black Magic Puppet.

The Black Magic Puppet staggered a few steps, roaring furiously. It turned around, spotted Nie Yan, and swung its massive fist down toward him.

Just as the Black Magic Puppet was about to land the blow, a flash of light appeared—Nie Yan had vanished into thin air. The puppet’s punch missed and slammed into the ground. Confused, it wondered how Nie Yan had suddenly disappeared.

In that brief moment of hesitation, Nie Yan had already circled behind the puppet and delivered a spine-shattering blow to its back.

With a metallic clang, Zeinard’s Sword struck its back.

Two damage numbers, each in the five to six thousand range, floated above the puppet’s head.

Its defense is really high! Nie Yan was slightly surprised, but his assault didn’t stop.

No matter how the Black Magic Puppet counterattacked with its punches, it couldn’t land a single hit on Nie Yan, who was simply too fast.

Nie Yan gradually entered a rhythm. To him, the puppet’s attacks felt painfully slow. No matter how it attacked, Nie Yan could easily evade and continue dealing damage.

The puppet’s aggro was locked onto Nie Yan. It furiously punched and stomped, trying to hit him. Just as it locked onto Nie Yan’s position and swung its fist, the latter vanished again. One-on-one, this mutated boss was helpless against Nie Yan.

At that moment, Xing Zhihui arrived with his team. Seeing the scene in the plaza’s center, his eyes widened in shock. Nie Yan had actually dared to fight the Black Magic Puppet alone—and was holding his own effortlessly. How was that even possible!

The players from Splendid Temple couldn’t even see Nie Yan’s movements clearly. They only saw a series of blurry shadows flickering around the puppet, like strobe lights in a bar—impossible to track, yet strangely rhythmic.

The flickering figures danced gracefully.

This is Shadow Dance!

Everyone from Splendid Temple was deeply impressed. Nie Yan had perfectly embodied the term “Shadow Dance.”

Shadow Dance attacks could actually be this spectacular.

At that moment, including Xing Zhihui, everyone felt a deep sense of awe toward Nie Yan.

Crazy Rogue Nie Yan truly was incredibly strong!

Even though Nie Yan was alone, he could easily defeat the Black Magic Puppet. This was the absolute power of a top-tier class!

Xing Zhihui couldn’t help but feel a sense of admiration. The top-tier rogue class, Shadow Dancer, was this powerful. He wondered how strong the top-tier warrior class must be.

“Don’t stand there. Let the mages deal damage. Warriors, stay back,” Nie Yan whispered to Xing Zhihui.

Still stunned, Xing Zhihui snapped back to reality. He was here to help Nie Yan fight the puppet, so he quickly ordered the mages to form up.

The players from Splendid Temple were quite efficient. The mages quickly spread out, surrounding the Black Magic Puppet. Waving their staves, streams of magic flew through the air, slamming into the puppet with booming explosions.

The mages’ damage output immediately contrasted sharply with Nie Yan’s. Their attacks dealt only around one thousand damage at most, with most hitting between five to eight hundred. Meanwhile, Nie Yan’s attacks consistently hit five to six thousand, occasionally spiking to over ten thousand on critical strikes. The difference in damage was worlds apart.

Seeing this, Xing Zhihui was at a loss for words. At this rate, even without tanks drawing aggro, the mages from Splendid Temple could safely unleash their full damage without worrying about pulling aggro from the puppet.

Time passed minute by minute. Within about two minutes, the Black Magic Puppet’s health had dropped to around 60%.

When the puppet’s health reached 60%, it would usually unleash its “Earth-Shattering Tremor” skill, stunning all units within ten yards for nine seconds. This skill was extremely powerful. Earlier, Xing Zhihui and his team had been defeated precisely because of this ability.

“Nie Yan, be careful of the puppet’s skill!” Xing Zhihui warned in a private chat, worried that Nie Yan might get caught by the skill. But what happened next completely shattered his expectations.

The puppet raised its right arm, which turned bright red, preparing to slam it down onto the ground. At the last moment, Nie Yan leapt into the air and delivered a powerful downward kick to the puppet’s neck. The force sent the puppet staggering backward, interrupting its skill.

What kind of skill was that?

Xing Zhihui was stunned. He had never seen an attack capable of interrupting a mutated boss’s skill before. It was just too absurd.

In the following moments, whenever the puppet tried to use Earth-Shattering Tremor, Nie Yan precisely timed his attacks to interrupt it. The puppet’s skill was always interrupted halfway through casting. Nie Yan’s timing was simply impeccable.

The players from Splendid Temple watched in stunned silence. Nie Yan’s abilities had long surpassed anything they could comprehend.

After eight minutes of continuous attacks from Splendid Temple and Nie Yan’s relentless assault, the Black Magic Puppet finally collapsed to the ground. Until its very end, it never managed to use Earth-Shattering Tremor.

With a thunderous crash, the puppet fell, scattering into a pile of rubble.

Even after the puppet was defeated, the players from Splendid Temple couldn’t believe their eyes. Was the Black Magic Puppet that had previously defeated them so easily taken down?

Comparing the two encounters, the first time they tried to ambush the puppet, the warriors had to draw its attention while the mages hesitated to unleash their full damage for fear of pulling aggro. As a result, the puppet’s health barely dropped while the warriors suffered heavy losses. Then, when the puppet used Earth-Shattering Tremor, many warriors were wiped out, leaving the mages with no protection and forcing them to hold back even more. But when Nie Yan drew the puppet’s aggro, they had no such concerns. No matter how hard they attacked, the puppet’s aggro remained locked on Nie Yan, whose damage output was several times higher than each of theirs. Moreover, Nie Yan’s timing was absolutely perfect, interrupting every single skill attempt from the puppet. This was something no ordinary player could achieve. Only Nie Yan could push a rogue’s potential to such an extreme.

With Nie Yan’s overwhelming support, the Black Magic Puppet was defeated almost effortlessly.

Nie Yan picked up the few dropped items from the ground. His eyes fell on a ring—it was a special item he had been searching for!

The ring was silver-white in color, covered with a web-like pattern of scratches.

Ring of Webweaving (Copper Grade): A special item that grants the Advanced Webweaving skill. It can release a large net to bind an opponent for two minutes, with a cooldown of thirty minutes.

The webweaving ability from this ring was identical to that of a webweaving scroll, immobilizing the opponent. However, while bound, the opponent could still attack and cast spells.

After being upgraded, the Ring of Webweaving would strengthen the webs, making them more durable and harder to cut through.

This was exactly what Nie Yan needed—reinforced webs.

Looking at the loot, besides the Ring of Webweaving, there were several level-100 Rare items. To Nie Yan, these were just ordinary gear—commonly found in Bull Tribe—but they were valuable to Splendid Temple. He decided to give them to Splendid Temple as a reward for their assistance.

“I’ll take the Ring of Webweaving. The rest of the loot is yours,” Nie Yan said.

Xing Zhihui wanted to decline, as Nie Yan had already helped them defeat the Black Magic Puppet and revive their fallen teammates, which was more than enough for them. However, under Nie Yan’s insistence, Xing Zhihui accepted the loot.

“I have something to attend to. I’ll take my leave first,” Nie Yan said, bidding farewell to Xing Zhihui before dashing into the distance.

As Nie Yan’s figure quickly disappeared at the end of the street in Puppet Castle, a thought crossed Xing Zhihui’s mind, and he made a decision. After returning from Puppet Castle, he would have Splendid Temple join Bull Tribe. He had a good eye for people, and someone like Nie Yan would never mistreat his allies. Joining Bull Tribe would offer Splendid Temple players much better prospects than staying in their small guild.

By then, Nie Yan had already dashed over six hundred yards away and naturally had no idea what Xing Zhihui was thinking.

Nie Yan used his Recall Scroll to return to Carol City, then upgraded the Ring of Webweaving to Rare quality. The enhanced Webweaving ability was far superior to that of the scrolls. With this ring, he could now capture flying mounts.

Once all preparations were complete, Nie Yan was ready to head to the Griffon Lands. Just then, he suddenly received a message from Guo Huai, informing him that Xu Yan’s team had been ambushed outside Carol City. Nie Yan suspected it was probably Zhao Shiyu, Fu Guangtao, and Bai Jun’s group.

“Should I send someone to help?” Guo Huai asked. Having learned from Nie Yan that Xu Yan was his classmate, he contacted Nie Yan immediately upon receiving the news.

Nie Yan thought for a moment and replied, “No need. I’ll go myself. It’s on my way.”