Chapter 725: Divine Artifact – The Reaper’s Blade!

The rewards for defeating the Lich Bodman were evidently astounding.

Legendary class items are heights that ordinary players can hardly reach. Even top-tier classes like Archmages and Holy Swordsmen are no match for a Legendary Mage.

Nie Yan’s gaze shifted to his left hand. He had just acquired something using the spider silk.

Looking closely, he found it was a dagger. The dagger was about three inches long, entirely dull and unremarkable, with strange ancient runes engraved on its surface. Occasionally, a faint glimmer of cold light flickered across the ancient blade, sending chills down one’s spine, as if being targeted by a venomous snake.

A chilling coldness seeped through the palm of Nie Yan’s left hand, making it slightly numb.

It felt as if the weapon were trying to break free from his grip. This weapon exuded a strange kind of sentience.

Nie Yan seemed to sense that a soul resided within the dagger—a powerful and terrifying entity, possibly even stronger than the Lich Bodman.

He checked the dagger’s attributes.

Scythe of Death: Artifact.

Requirements: Strength 50,000, Dexterity 15,000, Divine Power 300 (unusable).

Item Description: Off-hand item, a treasure of Hades, the key to opening the gates of Hell.

Attributes: Attack 37,000, 50% chance of 30x critical strike, 60% chance of causing instant death, inflicts thirty 20th-level dark curses, increases all dark magic skills by 10 levels, comes with the skill Death Storm, which summons an apocalyptic storm dealing devastating damage to the target unit, with range determined by Divine Power strength.

Note: This item cannot be stored and will be dropped upon death.

Looking at the Scythe of Death, Nie Yan’s eyes widened in shock. What exactly was this Scythe of Death? Its attributes were simply too outrageous.

Nie Yan struggled to imagine who could possibly stand against someone wielding such a weapon.

However, this item was clearly not meant for ordinary players. Strength of 50,000 and Dexterity of 15,000—when would anyone ever reach such stats? Even reaching level 200 would still fall far short. As for Divine Power, he had never even heard of it before.

Therefore, Nie Yan decided not to dwell on the Scythe’s attributes for now. After all, its power was irrelevant to him. His attention turned to the item description: a treasure of Hades, the key to opening the gates of Hell. What did that mean?

Could this Scythe of Death lead him to another world?

Was it the legendary Hell?

But thinking about it now was pointless. Nie Yan placed the Scythe of Death into his backpack.

Soon after, Nie Yan received a message.

System: Seek out the Archangel Tyrode with the Scythe of Death, and you will uncover some clues. Until then, keep the Scythe of Death safe, as dark creatures from Hell are searching for it everywhere.

Looking at the message, Nie Yan’s expression turned contemplative. It seemed the Scythe of Death was no ordinary item. Finding Archangel Tyrode would be extremely difficult. Although it was known that Tyrode guarded the passage to the underworld, no one knew his exact location.

This was undoubtedly a very difficult quest, likely with many follow-up steps. He would have to deal with it later.

At this moment, the Darkwinged Dragon slowly descended nearby, stopping beside Nie Yan and letting out a low mournful cry.

Nie Yan examined the injuries of the Darkwinged Dragon. It had sustained severe wounds, with many parts of its body corroded by necrotic energy. He estimated that the Darkwinged Dragon would not recover anytime soon. The severity of the injuries made its survival itself a miracle.

He carefully examined the wounds on the Darkwinged Dragon. The wounds were strange, with the flesh blackened, different from the usual effects of necrotic energy. On its black skin, new flesh seemed to be growing.

A thought struck Nie Yan, and he decided to recall the Darkwinged Dragon into his pet space first.

At this time, the surviving players from the Bull Tribe nearby began to clean up the battlefield.

On a distant mountain peak, Qin Han kept his eyes fixed on the Crips Fortress. Seeing the massive mushroom cloud from the Bone Dragon’s self-destruction, he felt a surge of satisfaction. The Bull Tribe’s headquarters must have been destroyed!

Although he understood that he had already lost and would soon be fully wanted by the Granland Empire, hunted down to level zero, he still wanted to drag someone down with him—at least ensuring the Bull Tribe would remember him!

However, after a long while, he heard no news of the Bull Tribe’s guild headquarters being downgraded, nor did the guild fall into chaos.

More than twenty minutes later, players in the Granland Empire received a message: the Bull Tribe’s headquarters had been relocated to Okolen City an hour before the Bone Dragon’s self-destruction, which would now serve as their new base.

Calculating the timing, it was just over an hour before the Bone Dragon’s explosion.

Upon hearing this news, Qin Han nearly spat blood. He had wanted to drag the Bull Tribe’s headquarters down with him, but Nie Yan had not even given him that chance. A deep sense of despair rose from the bottom of his heart. Rogue Nie Yan, you’re ruthless—you even anticipated this.

In this confrontation, he had been utterly and completely defeated.

Qin Han finally disappeared from the mountain peak and logged out of the game. If he stayed any longer, Granland Empire guards would soon arrive.

The Zhen Shen Zhi Jian, Guang An Empire, and Shen Sheng Shou Hu factions also learned of the battle outcome and were left speechless. When the Bone Dragon exploded, they had secretly felt relieved, thinking the Bull Tribe would fall into chaos, giving them a chance to breathe. However, they never expected the Bull Tribe to evade the Bone Dragon’s explosion in such an incredible way.

With over six million skeletons wiped out, they could hardly imagine any guild capable of challenging the Bull Tribe. If they truly wanted to fight, they clearly couldn’t match the Bull Tribe’s strength.

“I wonder whether Rogue Nie Yan relocating the guild headquarters was a coincidence or a calculated move. If it was planned, that would be terrifying,” Shen Jian Wushuang said in the party chat.

“It’s probably not a coincidence. They clearly prepared in advance. They must have anticipated Qin Han’s attempt to destroy the Bull Tribe’s headquarters, so they relocated beforehand, using the Crips Fortress to lure the skeleton army and trap them there before executing a clever escape plan,” Guang An Yong Zui analyzed.

Saint Flame and others thought about it and agreed with Guang An Yong Zui’s explanation, a deep sense of fear arising in their hearts. Nie Yan’s foresight was simply too profound.

“Alright, we have to admit defeat,” Saint Flame sighed. During their confrontations with the Bull Tribe, they had suffered too many losses.

Their group could only submit to the Bull Tribe, or else the Bull Tribe would target them one by one. After the Mone Capital Group withdrew its investment, per the contractual agreement, they had taken away most of the guild’s assets and caused them significant trouble in other areas. They probably would never regain their former glory.

The Bull Tribe had swept away all obstacles in the Granland Empire, and now the land was theirs to expand freely.

The Bull Tribe and its various branches began reclaiming lost territories and rebuilding from the ruins.

To fully unify the Granland Empire and occupy the majority of its strongholds would take at least one or two months. However, Nie Yan no longer needed to worry about immediate threats to the Bull Tribe and could proceed at a leisurely pace.

In the following month, the Bull Tribe, War God Tribe, Kuang Zhan Alliance, Holy Roman Empire, Jialan Temple, and Guang Ming Sheng Yan divided their spoils, capturing eleven cities and over 270 strongholds, of which the Bull Tribe received 162.

Among these 270 strongholds, 96 were developed by the Longyue Capital Group, over 130 by the Tianxia Group, and later the Zhengrong Capital Group, led by the Xie family, joined in, developing over 50 strongholds. Despite the immense financial resources of these two capital groups and the Tianxia Group, they still couldn’t support the simultaneous development of so many strongholds, so they brought in many other capital groups and companies, forming a strong and stable alliance of interests.

In the vast Granland Empire, nearly half of the territory was under the Bull Tribe’s control, with the remaining cities already infiltrated by the Bull Tribe’s influence, reaching the peak of its power.

The Bull Tribe’s scale was rivaled only by the Angelic Dominion of the Sa’thern Empire.

Additionally, the Starlight Pharmacy expanded rapidly, generating staggering daily profits. Initially fluctuating, it later stabilized at around seven million gold coins. With strong capital backing, Nie Yan began expanding into other industries, hiring numerous high-level alchemists, enchanters, and engineers with generous salaries. Currently, about 30% of the alchemical items on the market came from Starlight General Store, and 20% of enchanting services were handled by them.

With control over such a large market share, Nie Yan had sufficient leverage when negotiating with upstream raw material suppliers, enabling him to purchase raw materials at lower prices and sell at higher prices the market could bear, significantly increasing profit margins.

The Granland Empire had stabilized. With the influence of the Great Prophet and Lord Abernathy, Nie Yan secured an extremely high status for the Bull Tribe in the Granland Empire. The Bull Tribe successfully advanced to an 8th-tier guild, expanding to over 300,000 members. Meanwhile, the NPC forces in Okolen City had grown from over 3,000 to over 8,000. The expansion of various branches was also remarkable.

These achievements greatly satisfied Nie Yan. Before formally engaging with the Angelic Dominion and Century Capital Group, Nie Yan’s capital was rapidly accumulating. One day, it would shake the two giants of the Sa’thern Empire.