The team members revived and sat around to restore their health.
Nie Yan distributed contribution points to each member and then they took a brief rest.
Just as he was about to head to the Lava Cavern to rescue Countess Alicia, he noticed a slender figure approaching slowly. Her appearance was immediately recognizable to Nie Yan—it was Countess Alicia!
“Respected warrior, thank you for rescuing me and freeing me from that dreadful prison,” Countess Alicia spoke.
“My lady, it is my pleasure to serve you,” Nie Yan replied humbly.
Countess Alicia smiled gently, like a blooming flower, her enchanting smile captivating. Her gaze fell upon the Grima Necklace in Nie Yan’s hand and she said, “This Grima Necklace and the Grima Staff are both extremely powerful items. Legend has it that if you collect all of them, you will gain immense elemental power. As a token of my gratitude, I will help you lift their seals. The remaining two pieces of the Grima Set are deep underground far away, but they will guide you until you find the remaining two.”
Nie Yan checked and saw that the seals on both the Grima Staff and the Grima Necklace had been lifted.
“Thank you,” Nie Yan said, then asked about some clues related to the Grima Staff and Grima Necklace, recording them down.
“I must be off now. May the Holy Light protect you,” Countess Alicia said, bowing deeply with her right hand on her chest.
In terms of status, Countess Alicia was much lower than Nie Yan, so she was very humble in front of him. This was something that ordinary players would find surprising. When doing quests, they would cautiously watch every move and word when encountering any NPC, because these NPCs were of higher status. As the saying goes, a higher rank can be oppressive, and if they said something even slightly inappropriate, the NPCs would ignore them, making it impossible to complete the quest. But with Nie Yan, most NPCs would be very nervous when meeting him. Any title Nie Yan casually showed could overwhelm them. Showing them a little favor was seen as a great honor, so they dared not hide any clues. Therefore, Nie Yan’s questing was much smoother than that of ordinary players.
Countess Alicia turned and walked away, her back disappearing into the depths of the jungle.
“Who among you wants the Grima Set?” Nie Yan asked in the party chat. After lifting the seals on the two Grima items, their powerful attributes would surely attract all elemental mages. As for the remaining two pieces, they couldn’t go underground for them yet.
Players like Undead Bandit, Mo Jiu, and Desire Touched Youth were all elemental mages and likely needed them.
“I’ll pass. I’m only missing one piece of my semi-legendary set, so collecting the Grima Set is too far off,” Mo Jiu shook his head and automatically withdrew from the competition.
“Give it to Bandit,” Desire Touched Youth said.
“I also have a legendary item, which is part of a set, so I can slowly collect this set. The Grima Set is too much for me. Give it to Desire,” Undead Bandit shook his head.
Desire Touched Youth wanted to decline, as the Grima Set belonged to the guild, and taking it would make him feel awkward.
“Then it’s decided,” Nie Yan said, transferring the two Grima Set items and the clues to Desire.
Receiving the two pieces of the Grima Set, Desire was very excited. Although the Grima Set was slightly inferior to the Abak Set, it was still a legendary set. Collecting it would be significant for him.
Thinking about it, since he had taken the Grima Set, Desire decided to contribute something back to the guild as guild assets.
After deciding the ownership of the Grima Set and finishing everything here, Nie Yan led the players to fight other lords. The bosses and lords he chose were mostly demonic or mutated lords around level 120-130. These level lords usually dropped semi-legendary or legendary equipment, which Nie Yan used to upgrade the gear of the elite players.
In the next nearly five months, the elite team of Bull Man Tribe went all over the place, leaving their mark in many areas of both the Grendale Empire and the Sathen Empire.
During these five months, Nie Yan gained three levels, reaching level 153, and the other team members also gained levels, with an average level of 140.
During this period, the friction between Bull Man Tribe and Angel Dominion became increasingly intense, leading to chaotic battles across the Grendale Empire and the Sathen Empire. In these five months, there were more than 700 major battles and countless smaller ones. The Bull Man Tribe and its allied guilds suffered 900,000 deaths, while Angel Dominion suffered 2.3 million deaths.
The losses on both sides were staggering. In the prolonged chaos, Angel Dominion’s economy became strained. With so many players dying, the costs of equipment losses and player compensations overwhelmed them. On the other hand, Bull Man Tribe’s strong financial power showed its value at this critical moment. Bull Man Tribe and its major allied guilds provided three times more equipment loss compensation and player compensations than Angel Dominion. Additionally, Nie Yan announced that Bull Man Tribe would reward 20 gold coins for every player from Angel Dominion who was killed and was at least level 130.
In nearly five months, Bull Man Tribe’s war expenditures amounted to more than 90 million gold coins, but Bull Man Tribe did not face any financial strain. After all expenditures, they still had nearly 80 million gold coins in surplus. Meanwhile, Angel Dominion was at the brink of financial collapse, forcing Angel Wing and Cao Xu to invest huge amounts of money to buy gold coins to sustain their war expenditures.
The two sides formed a stark contrast.
Unlike Bull Man Tribe’s previous opponents, Angel Dominion and Century Financial Group had very strong resources and deep roots in the Sathen Empire. Nie Yan decided to continue exhausting Angel Dominion and Century Financial Group’s strength using this method, and then fight them in a decisive battle.
In addition to Bull Man Tribe, Angel Fall also sent a large number of troops to attack Angel Dominion’s strongholds, turning more than ten of them into ruins, causing significant losses to Angel Dominion.
The current situation should already have Angel Wing and Cao Xu in a state of panic.
During the five months that Nie Yan and others continuously cleared bosses, Angel Dominion had made significant progress in the World Barrier instance. The World Barrier dropped various high-level flying mounts, various building blueprints, the most advanced war machine blueprints, various equipment gems and crystals, and various high-level materials.
Angel Dominion used those building blueprints and high-end war machine blueprints to enhance the defenses of their strongholds, gaining some technological advantages.
With just a slight technological advantage, Angel Dominion began to covet the Abernathy Grasslands of Bull Man Tribe, but they were driven back by the NPC army of Oaklen City every time they entered Abernathy Grasslands.
Nie Yan looked at the current state of his team members. After nearly five months of careful cultivation by Nie Yan, most of the team members had obtained several pieces of equipment at semi-legendary level or above, and some had even acquired legendary equipment at level 120-130.
Nie Yan and others had a unique way of killing bosses. First, Nie Yan would sneak ahead, and then the group would use group teleport scrolls and other items to teleport to Nie Yan’s location, skipping the normal monsters and going straight for the boss, thus saving a lot of time.
According to player statistics, their group had killed at least 1,200 mutated or demonic lords at level 120-130, clearing out all the known mutated or demonic lords at that level on the map. The tens of thousands of group teleport scrolls collected at great expense by Bull Man Tribe were completely consumed, and the consumption of various consumables was also staggering, showing how massive this project was. In the previous timeline, no guild had ever cleared mutated or demonic lords on such a large scale.
The equipment level of this thousand-member team had reached an astonishing degree!
Seeing that the equipment level of his teammates was now nearly sufficient, Nie Yan finally gave the order for Cui Can Dao Guang and others to lead the team into the World Barrier. With the current strength of this thousand-member team, they would generally not encounter any major problems unless they faced very high-tier lords. He decided they should advance towards the center of the World Barrier first, and he would step in if they encountered any particularly difficult bosses.
Nie Yan analyzed the current situation. Although Bull Man Tribe was slightly behind in technology, once Cui Can Dao Guang and others entered the World Barrier, the technological gap would quickly be closed. The prolonged war had just begun, and it would depend on who could hold out the longest. Nie Yan intended to continuously drain the strength of the guilds under Angel Dominion and Century Financial Group without completely wiping them out, forcing them to invest more funds from the real world into the guild, an endless black hole, eventually wearing down Century Financial Group like a frog in slowly heating water. Of course, he also had to prevent them from making a desperate attack on Bull Man Tribe before their final collapse.
Cui Can Dao Guang and others entered the World Barrier first, while Nie Yan prepared to find a place to farm dark creatures to quickly obtain the Heart of the Sage and rescue the War God Kro. The three-year deadline for rescuing the War God Kro was drawing near. Failing to complete this task would be a significant loss for him.
Where would be a good place to farm dark creatures?
Nie Yan checked his quest log. He had never had the chance to claim the treasure of the Lich King Ensor, and there was also the Necromancer’s Talisman of the Spider Queen Phinas. Having a Necromancer’s Talisman of Phinas would give him an ace in the hole when fighting against Angel Dominion!
A thought flashed through Nie Yan’s mind—he should go underground!
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