Chapter 848: The Annihilated History

Not knowing how long had passed, Nie Yan slowly opened his eyes. Howling cold winds surrounded him, stinging his face painfully.

Where was this place?

Nie Yan glanced sideways and was completely stunned by a spectacular sight. It was a vast, boundless plain, possibly an ancient battlefield. Looking into the distance, he saw corpses scattered everywhere, extending all the way to the horizon. Broken chariots, abruptly standing flagpoles, various rusted weapons and equipment, and the corpses intertwined together, creating an especially tragic and heroic scene.

A system notification sounded.

System: You have discovered the Dead Plains, an ancient battlefield.

Dead Plains? Nie Yan searched for information related to the Dead Plains and the ancient battlefield. A passage appeared before his eyes: During the reign of the dictator Abak, the Lich King Insol launched six campaigns, all of which failed. To seek revenge, the Lich King Insol initiated an apocalyptic war. The war lasted more than sixty days, and with the combined efforts of over sixty legendary figures from the Human Empire, they finally defeated the Lich King’s army. However, the Human Empire’s forces were also completely annihilated.

Before his death, the Lich King Insol cast a forbidden spell called Eternal Silence, submerging the ancient battlefield underground.

Regarding that battle, only fragmented descriptions remain. Many details have been lost in the river of history. With the fall and subsequent condemnation of dictator Abak, the great achievements of Abak in that battle were completely destroyed and ultimately forgotten by people.

Following the tide is a common human trait. When everyone is madly shouting, rare opposing voices will be drowned out by the fervor of ignorance.

There were some giant scavengers active on the battlefield. They were five to six yards tall, hunched over, with sharp spines protruding from their backs, and had extremely hideous appearances. Occasionally, vultures flew down from the sky.

It seemed this was already another space.

After withdrawing his gaze, Nie Yan suddenly realized he had died once and revived using his Reincarnation ability. His heart skipped a beat—where was the Scythe of Death?

He quickly looked down and saw the Scythe of Death, the Paternoster Hammer, and several Scrolls of Order scattered across the ground.

Nie Yan hurriedly picked up all the items. Fortunately, aside from some experience loss, the damage wasn’t too severe.

After recovering slightly in place, Nie Yan stood up and suddenly noticed five vultures landing about ten yards away. Their greedy eyes stared at Nie Yan. Wherever Nie Yan moved, their gaze followed.

Damn it! These vultures actually saw him as food!

He cast a Super Insight on one of the vultures. It was a level 180 normal monster.

Under normal circumstances, he could easily defeat these vultures. However, after suffering the Lich King’s curse and suffering a drop in attributes, it had become somewhat difficult.

Nie Yan lunged toward one of the vultures, intending to eliminate a few first, but before he could get close, the vultures took flight into the air.

They showed no intention of fighting Nie Yan at all.

Nie Yan picked up the Headless Rider Doro’s Crossbow, pulled the trigger, and shot at the vultures. After taking a few hits, the vultures quickly flew beyond Nie Yan’s shooting range but continued circling in the sky.

Nie Yan activated Dash Step and sprinted across the plain for over a thousand yards. Looking up, he saw the vultures still persistently following him.

They could see through invisibility!

If he couldn’t shake them off, it would be troublesome!

Moments later, two more vultures joined from the sky, making a total of seven circling overhead.

Nie Yan checked his status and found that the Golden Earth Dragon’s loyalty had dropped too low. It would require a long time of feeding to restore. His only summonable companion now was the Paladin Livers, but the paladin’s attributes were tied to Nie Yan’s own. With Nie Yan’s significant attribute reduction, Livers’ abilities were also greatly diminished. Summoning him now would likely only result in his death. The Shadow Assassin skill was still on cooldown, and the Darkwing Dragon could not be summoned either.

For the first time, Nie Yan felt a sense of helplessness, unable to use any skills.

Cawing sounds came from the vultures, seemingly transmitting some sort of message.

Nie Yan’s heart jolted and he looked ahead, noticing some scavenger creatures gathering toward his location.

Trouble was coming!

Nie Yan sprinted rapidly, evading the scavengers’ encirclement. Although these scavengers were merely level 180 normal monsters, Nie Yan’s current attributes made it impossible to fight so many of them.

As the vultures continued their low-pitched cries, the scavengers kept chasing after Nie Yan relentlessly.

The number of scavengers kept increasing, and with the vultures in the sky accurately reporting his position, they would eventually surround and kill him!

Watching the growing number of scavengers behind him, a sudden thought flashed through Nie Yan’s mind—right, how could he have forgotten this skill?

Nie Yan glanced at the “Undead Offering” skill in his skill bar. He hadn’t used this skill in a long time.

These scavengers were dark-type creatures, making them suitable for the Undead Offering command!

While running, Nie Yan adjusted his position. Twenty-some scavengers chasing him gradually gathered together.

It was almost ready. Nie Yan’s eyes lit up. He took out an Ice Scroll from his backpack and activated it. With a “Boom,” the scroll dissipated into the air.

The scroll’s skill was triggered. The surrounding temperature dropped sharply. Within a thirty-yard radius ahead, numerous ice spikes emerged from the ground. Upon contacting the scavengers, the spikes exploded, instantly freezing the scavengers’ feet with layers of white ice, rendering their bodies stiff and immobile.

A top-tier freezing skill—Frostbind!

With the scavengers immobilized, Nie Yan immediately used Undead Offering on the frontmost one.

System: Undead Offering failed.

Nie Yan continued using Undead Offering. His Undead Offering skill had reached its maximum level, with a very high success rate. Moreover, the summoning cap had increased from three to ten. Although his attributes had declined after the curse, his skills had not been weakened!

After two more failures, a crisp system notification rang out.

Success!

Nie Yan checked and saw that he had successfully commanded one scavenger.

He immediately ordered this scavenger to retreat and continued commanding the second scavenger.

Approximately twenty seconds later, with a “Boom,” the ice beneath the scavengers’ feet shattered.

Before they could start moving, Nie Yan activated another scroll. The ground beneath their feet immediately became extremely muddy, causing them to sink in and making movement very difficult.

Nie Yan continued using Undead Offering. About ten seconds later, he successfully commanded another scavenger.

With over a hundred colored scrolls in his backpack, he could sustain this for a long time.

As time passed, Nie Yan commanded more scavengers, reaching a total of nine. These commanded scavengers had significantly enhanced attributes, approximately a 60% boost. The nine scavengers began slaughtering the ordinary ones. Under Nie Yan’s control, they understood teamwork and displayed formidable combat effectiveness.

After eliminating all surrounding scavengers, Nie Yan looked up at the sky. The vultures still hadn’t dispersed.

A thought flashed through his mind. Nie Yan gathered his nine commanded scavengers around him, pretending to attack himself. After a while, he fell to the ground, and the nine scavengers slowly scattered.

A long time passed without any movement as Nie Yan lay motionless on the ground.

The vultures circled for a while, looking confused. Eventually, unable to resist the temptation of food, they descended from the sky.

They slowly approached Nie Yan. Feeling no breath from him, they immediately spread their wings and pounced forward.

Pretending to be dead, Nie Yan waited until the vultures were close, then suddenly activated the scroll in his hand.

At the moment Nie Yan used the scroll, black vines sprouted from the ground. Before the vultures could react, they were tightly bound.

Nie Yan started using Undead Offering on one of the vultures while commanding his scavengers to attack the remaining ones.

System: Undead Offering successful.

After a while, the other vultures were all eliminated.

Mission accomplished!

Nie Yan surveyed the surroundings and felt quite satisfied with his work. The corpses of scavengers and vultures rapidly dissolved, and hundreds of white glowing points floated into the sky and disappeared.

Each glowing point represented a soul. Apparently, these scavengers and vultures not only consumed corpses but also devoured numerous souls. After Nie Yan eliminated them, these souls were finally liberated.

By chance, Nie Yan noticed the experience bar of the Holy Heart. It had moved slightly, which greatly excited him. The Holy Heart’s experience bar had been almost full for a while but hadn’t budged much lately. Now seeing it move, even if just slightly—nearly imperceptible upon casual observation—it still accelerated Nie Yan’s heartbeat. He wondered if he finally had a chance to obtain the Holy Heart!

After resting and recuperating, Nie Yan sent the vultures to fly above for reconnaissance, searching for other scavengers.

While Nie Yan was clearing out other scavengers, he received two messages. One was about a conflict between the Bull Tribe and Angel Tyranny’s elite groups in Sinner’s City. Fortunately, the Bull Tribe didn’t suffer significant losses. With Cui Can Dao Guang (Cui Can’s Blade Light) on their side, things should be fine. The other message was about the half-demon Angud. Somehow, the half-demon Angud had entered the underground passage and encountered some Bull Tribe players who were attempting to pass through. Over a thousand players were completely wiped out, with only a dozen or so escaping.

What was Half-Demon Angud doing in the underground passage?

Nie Yan suddenly felt an ominous premonition. Could it be that Angud was heading to the surface? If his guess was correct, then the Bull Tribe would be in serious trouble!