As the Light-Darkness Holy Dragon was about to reach level 200, Nie Yan couldn’t help but feel excited. Level 200 was another crucial milestone. Upon reaching it, the Light-Darkness Holy Dragon would learn new magic, possibly even a legendary skill.
If it truly mastered a legendary skill, its combat power would be on a completely different level. Currently, the Light-Darkness Holy Dragon could easily take on Demon Prince Guards, but after reaching level 200 and acquiring new abilities, it might even stand a chance against a level 200 Dark Demon King!
Clearing such super bosses would boost the leveling speed to a new level. Monsters of this level would definitely drop better equipment or items.
Nie Yan’s desire to level up became even more urgent, and he eagerly sought out another Demon Prince Guard.
Now, Nie Yan’s strength had increased by more than 30%. Coupled with four pieces of Demon Prince Gem fragments in his backpack, which significantly weakened the Demon Prince Guards, Nie Yan could now defeat a Demon Prince Guard in about an hour and a half.
Under the fierce magical assault of the Light-Darkness Holy Dragon, the Demon Prince Guard screamed in pain, being pushed back by the concentrated magical bombardment. The Golden Earth Dragon and the Purple-Eyed Earth Dragon were no longer as helpless as before, steadily blocking the Demon Prince Guard’s path forward.
After defeating another Demon Prince Guard, Nie Yan scanned the ground and finally noticed a sparkling black gem fragment.
Another piece of the Demon Prince Gem!
Combined with the four pieces already in his backpack, he should be able to synthesize one now.
Nie Yan placed the fifth piece of the Demon Prince Gem into his backpack. The five fragments immediately emitted a brilliant glow, radiating a scorching black flame. They slowly moved toward each other, finally merging seamlessly. In an instant, the black light became dazzlingly magnificent.
After a while, the light gradually faded, and a black gem the size of a fist appeared in Nie Yan’s backpack—the complete Demon King Stone.
Demon King Stone: A special item. Can only be used in the Dark Death Zone, reducing the attributes of the Dark Demon King and Demon Prince Guards by 50%. If consumed by a dark-element creature, it grants an additional 10% attribute bonus.
50% reduction! Nie Yan raised his eyebrows. With this item, challenging the Dark Demon King would definitely be no problem. As for the 10% attribute bonus for dark-element creatures, he wondered if it would work on the Light-Darkness Holy Dragon?
The Light-Darkness Holy Dragon was a creature of both light and dark elements!
After a moment’s thought, Nie Yan took out the Demon King Stone and held it in his palm. A surge of dark magical energy radiated from the stone.
The Light-Darkness Holy Dragon immediately turned its gaze toward him, revealing a greedy expression.
Nie Yan seemed to sense the Light-Darkness Holy Dragon’s intense desire.
It seemed the Demon King Stone was indeed effective for the Light-Darkness Holy Dragon!
However, Nie Yan couldn’t give the stone to the dragon just yet, as he still needed it for now.
Should he challenge the Dark Demon King?
The mere thought made Nie Yan excited. Currently, throughout the entire Light Faction, there were definitely no more than three people capable of soloing a level 200 demonized lord. And there simply weren’t that many demonized lords for them to fight. Yet in this Dark Death Zone, Nie Yan had encountered a full six level 200 demonized lords, and with their attributes reduced by 50%, defeating them would be extremely rewarding, even if they didn’t drop anything great—just the experience gain alone would be amazing.
But after weighing his options for a moment, he hesitated again. Even with their attributes halved, a level 200 demonized lord was still no ordinary foe, its strength at least several times that of a level 190 demonized lord.
He decided to level up a bit more first.
After all, Nie Yan planned to stay in the Dark Death Zone for another two months. If he left now, where else could he find such a great leveling map? He had plenty of time and no need to rush.
A full month had passed since Nie Yan issued his challenge to Duo Duo, and the discussions surrounding it had gradually quieted down. After that PK battle between the two factions, both sides had been quietly grinding levels with determination, especially the two major guilds, whose tensions had escalated directly into fierce rivalries. Even large-scale PK battles involving hundreds of thousands of players had erupted repeatedly near underground passages like the End Canyon, creating a chaotic mess.
Guo Huai contacted Nie Yan. After learning that Nie Yan was searching for Void Metal, the top-tier experts of Bull Man Tribe had organized nearly 600 large-scale group expeditions into the Sword of War, gathering all the Void Black Iron he needed. They weren’t satisfied with that and continued forming teams, repeatedly raiding the Sword of War in hopes of obtaining better Void Silver.
Nie Yan’s use of Void Black Iron was merely a fallback plan. If he could obtain Void Silver or even Void Gold, the results would be significantly better. Upgraded Abak Sets with higher-grade materials would be far superior. However, so far they had only collected thirteen Void Silver ores. It took twenty to twenty-five Void Silver ores to refine just one Void Silver metal, making it extremely difficult to gather even a single piece.
Despite the challenges, the players of the Bull Man Tribe refused to give up. Members like Cui Can Dao Guang (Radiant Blade) and Shui Se Yan Tou (Smoke of Water Color) dedicated nearly 95% of their daily time grinding in the Sword of War dungeon, their efforts just as relentless as Nie Yan’s.
The deepest part of the Sword of War consisted of three areas: the Lake of Light, the Silver-Shining Peaks, and the Green Shadow Marsh. The Lake of Light was slightly lower in difficulty, while the Silver-Shining Peaks were currently only accessible to the elite teams of Bull Man Tribe. The elite team of Angel’s Fall had wiped out fifty to sixty times there, even with Duo Duo personally stepping in, but it was of no use—after all, Duo Duo was just one person and couldn’t elevate his entire team’s strength to the level of Bull Man Tribe. It was said that players like Radiant Blade and Smoke of Water Color refreshed the Sword of War five or six times a day while also exploring the Green Shadow Marsh. It was rumored that if one could enter the Green Shadow Marsh, the drop rate of Void Silver would be much higher, and even Void Gold might appear.
In addition to self-grinding, Guo Huai also dispatched people to purchase any Void Metals they could find.
Their only wish was to help Nie Yan return to his peak and defeat Duo Duo! For this, they were willing to pay any price.
Upon hearing this, Nie Yan couldn’t help but feel moved. Countless guild members were silently supporting him behind the scenes. If he failed to win, he would truly have no face to return to them.
Although the constant grinding left Nie Yan feeling extremely exhausted, he still gritted his teeth and persisted. So many brothers were tirelessly striving to help him—how could he not strive as well!
All the Void Black Iron had been gathered. If they could obtain even better Void Silver, that would be even better. However, under current circumstances, gathering enough for just one piece of Void Silver was already great. Gathering six pieces was impossible.
Nie Yan thought about the ancient ores in his backpack. These ores were clearly not part of the same system as the Void Metals, and they were also less rare. He didn’t know their purpose yet, but he had accumulated a total of 1,200 pieces so far, covering various types. If the level of these ancient ores could reach that of the Void Metals, that would be great—but of course, this was just wishful thinking. If all these ancient ores could turn into Void Metals, that would be incredible.
Besides reporting the situation of Bull Man Tribe, Guo Huai also mentioned the situation of Angel’s Fall. Since receiving Nie Yan’s challenge, Duo Duo had seemingly vanished into thin air. Their spies embedded inside Angel’s Fall hadn’t found any trace of Duo Duo’s whereabouts.
Duo Duo’s disappearance gave Nie Yan a sense of urgency. That guy must also be on a task. Nie Yan wondered how much Duo Duo could improve within these five months and whether he himself would have a chance of victory.
Additionally, in recent days, Xie Yao had also logged into the game. However, unlike Nie Yan, who was an abnormal freak, she hadn’t logged in for three years either. In the short term, her level was definitely far behind Nie Yan’s. It was said that she was currently grinding in the Black Magic Dimension, with a fastest completion time of about six hours per run, which was still far behind Nie Yan.
Nie Yan chatted with Guo Huai for a while before cutting off the voice chat and looking ahead. The Light-Darkness Holy Dragon was still continuously unleashing magic, charging forward.
Glancing at the Light-Darkness Holy Dragon’s experience bar, it had reached 97%, just a little short of level 200.
After walking south for about an hour, Nie Yan spotted a magnificent spire atop a distant mountain of corpses. The spire was entirely snow-white, as if carved from jade, somewhat resembling a pyramid. A long staircase stretched from the foot of the corpse mountain all the way to the top.
The presence of such a structure in the Dark Death Zone was definitely no ordinary occurrence—it might be the key to completing the task!
Thinking this, Nie Yan moved closer, but as he looked down at the foot of the mountain, he inhaled sharply. There were fifty to sixty enormous creatures moving about down there, their sizes even larger than that of the Dark Demon King!
More terrifying than the Dark Demon King, fifty to sixty of them gathered together!
They completely blocked the path forward, making it impossible for Nie Yan to bypass them and approach the towering structure!
In such a situation, Nie Yan dared not get closer. If discovered, he would certainly be finished!
Seeing this scene, Nie Yan couldn’t help feeling disheartened. He began to doubt whether he could complete this task. Fifty to sixty monsters no less formidable than level 200 demonized lords, all gathered together—how was anyone supposed to fight that?
After some thought, he decided that visiting that structure was a must, but for now, he had to avoid it.
First, he needed to let the Light-Darkness Holy Dragon reach level 200 and defeat those Dark Demon Kings. Just like how he had defeated the Demon Prince Guards to obtain the Demon King Stone, perhaps the Dark Demon Kings might carry some special items crucial for completing the task.
With this in mind, Nie Yan turned back. About half an hour later, a beam of white light fell upon the Light-Darkness Holy Dragon. Nie Yan’s heart skipped a beat—the Light-Darkness Holy Dragon had finally leveled up—level 200!
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