Seeing the public announcement from Lei Su, Nie Yan thought to himself that this guy was indeed arrogant. However, Lei Su did have the foundation for such arrogance. At this point in time, very few people could defeat him.
Nie Yan had Guo Huai send people to seek out and contact Lei Su. He wanted to see how strong Lei Su had become after advancing to the rank of Holy Swordsman.
They would deal with contacting Lei Su first. Nie Yan teleported to Krips Fortress.
Xie Yao was already waiting at the entrance of the guild headquarters. Seeing Nie Yan approach, she immediately walked forward to greet him.
Xie Yao was enveloped in a halo of holy light, continuously radiating a powerful sacred force. The soft glow illuminated her fair face, making her appear even more charming.
Seeing the dazzling Xie Yao, Nie Yan felt a stirring in his heart.
As he approached Xie Yao, a wave of holy aura greeted him. At this point, Xie Yao already had seven legendary equipments. Combined with her recent advancement to the rank of Holy Magus, Nie Yan was curious about her current strength.
“Didn’t Tang Yao come?” Nie Yan asked Xie Yao, looking around.
“He went to the warehouse to pick up something. He’ll be here soon,” Xie Yao replied, her bright eyes gazing at Nie Yan with tenderness.
After a while, Tang Yao hurriedly ran over from a distance.
“Sorry for being late,” Tang Yao said, scratching his head.
Nie Yan glanced at the Arcane Sprite beside Tang Yao. The sprite floated beside him, still blowing bubbles and emitting rings of magical aura.
“Damn, the Arcane Sprite is already level six?” Nie Yan exclaimed in surprise, noticing that Tang Yao’s Arcane Sprite had grown significantly larger than before.
“Six and a half,” Tang Yao grinned.
Nie Yan was stunned. A level six Arcane Sprite was already quite strong. Due to the massive experience required, the experience bar barely moved at all. However, there were rumors from past experiences that some players had managed to raise their Arcane Sprites to level six and a half. While level six and a half didn’t significantly improve the sprite’s attributes, it did grant an additional “Spiritual Ascension” attribute, allowing its master to learn two additional forbidden spells beyond what ordinary magi could.
Typically, a magus could learn three forbidden spells, with at most one being an area-of-effect destructive spell, which was already a formidable capability. However, a level six and a half Arcane Sprite broke this limit, increasing the number of forbidden spells a magus could learn from three to five, including two area-of-effect destructive spells.
The cooldown times for most forbidden spells were extremely long, often lasting ten to fifteen days, and some powerful forbidden spells could even have cooldowns of one or two months. The significance of gaining two additional forbidden spells for a magus was thus evident.
“Not bad! You’ve managed to level up your Arcane Sprite so quickly. Try to reach level seven,” Nie Yan said. Tang Yao had definitely raised his Arcane Sprite faster than anyone else in either his past or current life. Now at level six and a half, there was even a chance it could break through to level seven.
Nie Yan wondered what level seven Arcane Sprites would be like. For a magus, they would probably be akin to divine artifacts.
“Yeah, the experience for the Arcane Sprite is getting harder and harder to increase. Plus, there’s a bottleneck between level six and seven. I’ve calculated that it will probably take at least half a year to reach level seven,” Tang Yao said. His insights into cultivating the Arcane Sprite were definitely more extensive than anyone else’s.
Tang Yao had invested a great deal of effort and emotion into his Arcane Sprite, unlike many players who treated it merely as a tool. Perhaps this was the key to the rapid growth of his Arcane Sprite.
“Let’s go and grind some skeletons together. In a few days, people like Daoguang and Sun should be ready to come out,” Nie Yan said. The upcoming period would be the time when the number of top-tier professional players in Bull Tribe would increase the fastest. They could deal with things once everyone was ready!
Xie Yao and Tang Yao were already aware of the situation with the lich Bodman and understood the severity of the current circumstances.
Qin Han’s skeletons had already spread rapidly and were no longer content with attacking villages and small towns. They had begun to assault the players’ most concentrated leveling areas and the surrounding instances, then expanded toward other cities. The situation of their expansion was gradually becoming uncontrollable, with some skeletons even entering the territory of Carol City.
No matter what, they had to kill as many as possible. Bull Tribe was preparing to defend the major strongholds when the undead skeletons arrived. It would be unwise to directly confront the skeletons head-on. They would wait for the Grinland Empire and the Holy Sanctuary to respond by sending armies to clear them out. Relying on NPCs to eliminate the lich Bodman was the most prudent choice. Nie Yan’s role was to preserve his strength as much as possible before the “Undead Vengeance” expansion pack was released.
The three of them teleported to Emerald City. Suddenly, Nie Yan thought of something and said, “Follow me.”
Nie Yan led Xie Yao and Tang Yao toward the Holy Sanctuary in Emerald City.
When they arrived at the entrance of the Holy Sanctuary, Xie Yao and Tang Yao were somewhat puzzled. Why had Nie Yan come here?
They entered the Holy Sanctuary together. Upon seeing Nie Yan, an NPC steward dressed in white robes approached and greeted him, “Your Grace, the Holy Shadow Dancer, greetings.”
The NPC steward was extremely polite and respectful, speaking entirely in the tone of a subordinate addressing a superior.
Hearing the steward address Nie Yan with this title, Xie Yao and Tang Yao were surprised. Nie Yan’s title was Holy Shadow Dancer, a rank higher than the ordinary Shadow Dancer.
“I need assistance,” Nie Yan stated his intention and prepared to recruit paladins.
“Here are the paladins available for recruitment at the Holy Sanctuary. Please take a look.”
A list appeared before Nie Yan. This list contained at least seven or eight hundred paladins. With the Holy Shadow Dancer title, Nie Yan could recruit up to thirty paladins to serve him. Of course, Nie Yan would have to pay some compensation after the task was completed, but the cost was very low—only a few thousand gold coins for several days of service.
Nie Yan examined the attributes of these paladins. Most of them were over level 120, with a few reaching level 150. They were all elite-level warriors with strong combat capabilities.
Nie Yan recruited sixteen level 150 paladins, while the rest were mostly level 140+.
After a while, a group of paladins poured into the hall of the Holy Sanctuary—thirty in total, arranged in six columns and five rows. All were clad in silver-white standardized armor, their movements perfectly synchronized, like a well-trained small legion. Their armor was excellent, and each of them had at least 200,000 to 300,000 hit points. Their combat power was indeed formidable.
“Your Grace, the Holy Shadow Dancer, we are willing to serve you.”
“May the Holy Light be with you.”
Each of these paladins had a fanatical gleam in their eyes. They had absolute faith in Nie Yan and obeyed his will without question. Nie Yan could command them to do anything, even including suicide.
Seeing so many paladins, Tang Yao was so astonished that his jaw nearly dropped. He asked, “Are they all your mercenaries?”
Wow! Hiring more than thirty at once, and all of them were level 140+ elites. This was just too outrageous!
“Yeah, they seem to have decent combat power. I just wonder how efficient they’ll be when grinding monsters,” Nie Yan glanced at these paladins. Each of them was very strong and well-equipped.
Tang Yao thought for a moment. Since the beginning of the game, Nie Yan had continuously surprised him one after another. As time passed, Nie Yan’s strength kept growing stronger, but so far, he still couldn’t fully grasp Nie Yan’s true power. Smiling slightly, Tang Yao said, “You always manage to surprise people.”
Xie Yao stood quietly beside Nie Yan. Seeing Tang Yao’s astonished expression, she smiled slightly. She had long since become accustomed to this.
After completing the recruitment, Nie Yan walked out of the Holy Sanctuary together with Xie Yao and Tang Yao.
Looking at the neatly lined-up paladin legion behind him, Nie Yan led this group through the streets of Emerald City. It was too conspicuous. Mercenaries hired from NPCs couldn’t be stored away like summoned creatures, which was quite inconvenient. Although these paladins couldn’t avoid the players’ gazes, Nie Yan and the others could!
Nie Yan ordered the thirty paladins to proceed ahead, leading the way. He, Xie Yao, and Tang Yao quietly followed behind, wearing cloaks.
The orderly formation of these thirty paladins immediately drew the attention of the players. The appearance of such a group of paladins in Emerald City was indeed quite astonishing.
“Could they be sent by the Holy Sanctuary to deal with the skeletons?”
“Probably.”
The players murmured among themselves, but they didn’t notice Nie Yan, Xie Yao, and Tang Yao quietly following behind the paladins.
Nie Yan noticed some players with unusual expressions following the paladins—they were members of the God-Slaying Sword!
Qin Han’s side had definitely noticed these paladins and would likely take action.
However, Nie Yan wasn’t worried. Even if they were ambushed when leaving the city, with two magi present, what was there to fear? The magi could easily overwhelm their enemies with any spell they cast. Moreover, Emerald City wasn’t solely under the control of the God-Slaying Sword. If a battle broke out, the Furious War Alliance could provide immediate support.
The thirty paladins marched along the streets, exiting Emerald City and heading eastward.
At this point, Emerald City had already become a place of white terror. Outside the city walls, skeletons roamed everywhere. Many players no longer dared to leave the city, and many had left Emerald City to level up in other cities. As a result, the city’s population had significantly decreased in recent times, becoming much quieter.
Nie Yan, Xie Yao, and Tang Yao followed these paladins outside the city. Not long after, a large number of skeletons appeared on the distant hillside. They covered the mountains and fields, densely packed without any visible end, like an endless tide.
Undoubtedly, the God-Slaying Sword had locked onto the paladins’ position and quickly dispatched a large number of skeletons. These guys acted swiftly.
Nie Yan looked at Xie Yao and Tang Yao and said, “This time, it’s up to you two. With so many skeletons, we should be able to grind to our hearts’ content.”
“Okay,” Xie Yao nodded.
“Don’t worry. Bring them on! I was just worried about not having a place to practice my skills,” Tang Yao said excitedly, rolling up his sleeves in preparation.
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