Chapter 644: Sub-Legendary Blueprints

“How many flying mounts do we have here?” Nie Yan asked Elegy of the Knight.

“There are three. Most of the flying mounts have been taken away,” Elegy of the Knight replied. Most of the frontline members who had flying mounts had already changed classes, so only three remained.

“Have them search the skies in this area for flying mounts and report back to me. We’re starting to capture flying mounts,” Nie Yan said.

Elegy of the Knight hesitated slightly. Capture flying mounts? How? Yet he had no doubt about Nie Yan’s orders. He had the three flying mounts in the guild take off to search the nearby skies for active flying creatures.

“You guys find someone to cut some wood and bring it over.”

Under Nie Yan’s arrangement, the players of Bull Tribe began bustling about. Some players gathered materials on-site and constructed simple cages. Others gathered in nearby open areas to provide defense. They were all quite puzzled about Nie Yan’s intentions.

About half an hour later, everything was ready. Nie Yan arrived at the open area and summoned his Darkwing Dragon. After so much time, the Darkwing Dragon had recovered from its minor injuries.

The Darkwing Dragon immediately drew everyone’s attention. Its massive body radiated immense pressure. Covered in gray-black scales that reflected a dull luster, it looked as if it were forged from steel.

“Boss Nieyan, it seems like the Darkwing Dragon has grown a lot bigger.”

“It didn’t have scales before.”

The Bull Tribe players couldn’t help but exclaim in astonishment. Nie Yan’s last battle against the flying mounts of the Mage Alliance had already made the Darkwing Dragon famous. Seeing it up close now, they felt deeply impressed once again.

“It evolved,” Nie Yan said with a faint smile.

The Bull Tribe players were stunned. The Darkwing Dragon evolved? They remembered that even before evolving, it had already been a level six creature. Now that it had evolved, wasn’t it level seven?

It seemed that apart from the Darkwing Dragon, the highest-ranked flying mounts they had seen were only level five.

Nie Yan was a legend. Everything about him, including his Golden Earth Dragon, Darkwing Dragon, and Zennarde’s Sword, was widely discussed.

There was a ranking list on the official website. Unquestionably, the top spots in the rankings for pets, flying mounts, and weapons were the Golden Earth Dragon, Darkwing Dragon, and Zennarde’s Sword.

Everyone was admiring the Darkwing Dragon when Nie Yan received a message: a wind serpent was discovered to the south.

Nie Yan mounted the Darkwing Dragon. The dragon flapped its wings and took off, flying southward.

A few minutes later, a Bull Tribe player riding a Venomous Dragonfly approached.

“Boss Nieyan.”

“Beitian, where is the wind serpent?” Nie Yan asked.

Beitian pointed in a direction. Nie Yan looked and saw a massive wind serpent coiled around a tree in the mist. It was much larger than an ordinary wind serpent, with mottled patterns covering its body and transparent wings like a dragonfly. On the tree was a nest with two large white eggs.

Nie Yan’s eyebrows lifted. It was a level five wind serpent, and even better, there were two eggs. This was a great deal.

There were two ways to obtain a flying mount: either acquire its egg and have a tamer hatch it, or directly tame the flying creature itself. However, the latter was much more difficult. Unless you could fully control the flying creature, it would never submit. Flying creatures were extremely powerful and wouldn’t obediently allow themselves to be tamed.

“Remember to collect the two wind serpent eggs after I capture the serpent,” Nie Yan said, guiding the Darkwing Dragon toward the wind serpent.

“Understood,” Beitian replied. He was curious about how Nie Yan planned to capture the wind serpent.

Sensing the approach of the Darkwing Dragon, the wind serpent instantly raised its head in alarm, locking its gaze onto the dragon and Nie Yan. It hissed, flicking its crimson tongue while emitting a warning sound.

The Shadowwing Dragon let out a deep draconic roar. This low-level wind serpent actually dared to challenge its dragon majesty. An overwhelming draconic aura surged forth, sweeping across the land.

The Wind Serpent’s imposing aura immediately weakened, showing signs of fear, yet it stubbornly refused to leave the treetop.

Nie Yan leaped off the Darkwing Dragon and landed on the ground. After entering stealth mode, he swiftly approached the Wind Serpent and climbed up the large tree.

After Nie Yan was promoted to Shadow Dancer, his hidden attributes significantly increased, so the Wind Serpent failed to detect his presence. It focused all its attention on the Darkwing Dragon in the sky above.

Nie Yan suddenly leaped up, his body darting forward as he aimed for the Wind Serpent’s neck. With a swift sweeping kick, his foot connected with a loud “bang,” sending the Wind Serpent flying backward from the heavy blow to its neck.

Stun effect!

Nie Yan’s ambush proved to be highly effective. Having honed his combat skills for so long in the ancient world, his attacks were precise and well-executed. He could easily take down creatures of the fifth or sixth tier.

Just as the Wind Serpent was trying to get up, Nie Yan executed a Spine Break, striking its back. With two bone spikes now in hand, he drove them deep into the serpent’s body with brutal force. Two muffled thuds followed as the spikes buried themselves in the flesh—unless someone cut open the wound with a dagger, there would be no way to pry those bone spikes out.

These two bone spurs severely restricted the Wind Serpent’s movement, making it unable to move freely.

Before the Wind Serpent could react, Nie Yan activated the Web Spell scroll. A massive net descended from above, enveloping the serpent and tightly binding it in place.

Nie Yan maneuvered the Darkwing Dragon to descend from the sky, seized the net, flapped its wings to ascend, and lifted the Wind Serpent into the air.

Nie Yan mounted the back of the Darkwing Dragon and commanded it to fly toward the location where the Bull Tribe players were gathered.

At this moment, the players from the Bull Tribe were gathered together, discussing how Nie Yan planned to capture flying creatures.

With the mist dispelled, their vision was relatively clear, and they spotted the Darkwing Dragon appearing in the distant sky.

“Boss Nie Yan is back.”

“Look, the Darkwing Dragon seems to have dragged something back.”

After a while, they finally saw clearly that what the Darkwing Dragon was holding in its claws was a wind serpent. The wind serpent was trapped in a net, unable to move.

They were all utterly astonished—how had Nie Yan managed to accomplish this? Controlling a flying creature was no simple feat. Some had tried similar methods, using Web spells to ensnare flying mounts, but their webs were instantly torn apart by the creatures. What they didn’t know was that Nie Yan was using an enhanced Ring of Web. This was a secret Nie Yan would never reveal. If guilds like Angelic Dominance found out, many would scour the lands for Rings of Web, and they might actually succeed—after all, the Ring of Web wasn’t unique.

Nie Yan slowly descended with the Darkwing Dragon, placing the Wind Serpent into the cage. Then, a group of players from the Bull Tribe closed the cage. Though the cage appeared sturdy, it couldn’t truly restrain a flying creature. However, with two bone spikes piercing the Wind Serpent and layers of spider silk binding it, combined with the reinforced cage, the creature had virtually no chance of escape.

“Knight, you tame this wind serpent,” Nie Yan said to Knight’s Elegy.

“Me? No thanks, let others go first.” The Knight’s Elegy quickly shook his head and said.

“Hurry up, no more nonsense. Others are waiting,” Nie Yan said decisively.

The Knight’s Elegy dared not disobey Nie Yan’s words and walked over to the cage to begin taming the wind serpent. Under normal circumstances, taming a flying creature to become one’s own mount would take at least one to two hours, and with bad luck, it might even require most of the day.

In addition to this wind serpent, Beitian handed the two wind serpent eggs to Nie Yan, who then distributed them to capable and loyal players within the guild. Of course, to obtain a flying mount, one had to sign a binding contract with the Bull Tribe—there was no way around it. After all, flying mounts were guild resources. If an ordinary player acquired a flying mount and then left the guild, the Bull Tribe would suffer a loss. Every guild had similar rules, so Nie Yan’s conditions weren’t considered overly harsh.

Nie Yan continued capturing flying creatures, one after another being locked into cages. After roughly two hours, a player from the Bull Tribe successfully tamed a flying mount. Meanwhile, the Elegy of the Knight was in the process of taming a Wind Serpent, a fifth-tier creature, which made the taming process considerably slower.

Nie Yan spent the entire day helping the players of the Bull Tribe obtain flying mounts, and the results exceeded his expectations. In total, they managed to acquire thirty-six flying mounts, three of which were fifth-tier. Most of these flying creatures were captured and transported using the Web Ring, sustaining relatively minor injuries. Some, however, had numerous bone spikes embedded in their bodies and were carried back by the Darkwing Dragon’s claws. After being tamed into mounts, these creatures were sent to the guild’s beastmasters for treatment. Some required one or two days to recover, while others needed at least five or six days.

One after another, the flying mounts were tamed by the players of the Niu Ren Tribe, and the ranks of their aerial steeds gradually expanded.

As evening approached, Nie Yan received a message from Xie Yao—her Phoenix had also hatched, adding another sixth-tier creature to the Bull Tribe.

I wonder what kind of phoenix Xie Yao’s is—we’ll have to wait until she returns from her job transfer to find out. I’m curious about what happened during her transfer that actually led to the phoenix hatching.

During this time, Nie Yan accidentally killed a fourth-tier flying mount, which truly pained him. As he picked up the items dropped by the mount, he realized it was actually something quite valuable.

Crossbow Weapon Improvement Plan Blueprint: Sub-Legendary Grade.

The diagram depicted a series of patterns. After studying this blueprint, one could enhance crossbow-type weapons, significantly improving their attack power and attributes. Nie Yan immediately thought of his Headless Horseman Doro’s Riding Crossbow. The attack power of his Headless Horseman Doro’s Riding Crossbow had become very low, but he had never found a suitable replacement, so he had no choice but to keep using it. If he could upgrade the Riding Crossbow, he wouldn’t need to look for another crossbow.