Chapter 878: Purple-Eyed Earth Dragon

Nie Yan raised his head and looked toward the cliff. Midway up the cliffside was a cave, and near the cliff, enormous dragons were moving about. Their scales shimmered like crystals, refracting a dark purple hue under the sunlight.

“Have you figured it all out? Just how many are there?” Nie Yan asked. Judging from their coloration, these dragons should be purple dragons. Purple dragons weren’t particularly strong defensively or in physical attacks, but they possessed formidable magical abilities. From what Nie Yan remembered, there was supposed to be a nest of Violet-Eyed Earth Dragons nearby, though he wasn’t sure if this was the same one.

“We’ve spotted seven Violet-Eyed Earth Dragons so far, but we don’t know if there are more inside the cave,” Silver Night replied.

“How can you be sure these purple dragons are Violet-Eyed Earth Dragons?” Nie Yan asked.

“We’ve followed them when they went out to hunt or drink water. Based on their characteristics, we’re certain they are Violet-Eyed Earth Dragons.”

Hearing Silver Night’s response, Nie Yan nodded in approval. Their work had been thorough.

Convinced of their accuracy, Nie Yan decided to go up and take a closer look. His target was the dragon eggs inside the Violet-Eyed Earth Dragon nest.

In his past life, there were stories about the Violet-Eyed Earth Dragons. It was said that several large guilds had surrounded an injured Violet-Eyed Earth Dragon, only for a warrior to swoop in and snatch the egg it dropped. That player obtained the dragon egg, hatched it, and quickly rose to become a top-tier player, rapidly climbing the ranks. Several guilds, resentful over losing the egg, repeatedly sent people to hunt down that player, only to be utterly defeated each time. The Violet-Eyed Earth Dragon thus gained immense fame, ranking among the top three pets overall.

In his previous life, flying mounts were rare, and players didn’t level up as quickly as they did in this life. Once certain pets reached higher levels, they could stand on their own.

Later, players discovered the nest of the Violet-Eyed Earth Dragons, and several major guilds organized large teams to try and kill one or two of them to obtain their eggs. However, they all failed, with countless wipeouts. Later, there were rumors that someone had successfully stolen an egg from the Violet-Eyed Earth Dragon’s cave and hatched it, but Nie Yan was unsure whether those rumors were true.

Nonetheless, these past events were enough to prove that the Violet-Eyed Earth Dragon was extremely powerful. Compared to the Golden Earth Dragon, its melee capabilities might be significantly inferior, but in terms of magical prowess, it was unrivaled, far surpassing the Golden Earth Dragon. In his previous life, the Golden Earth Dragon could barely make the top ten, while the Violet-Eyed Earth Dragon consistently held a top-three position, never being displaced. It was no wonder Nie Yan was tempted.

Back then, players went to great lengths, even sacrificing themselves, just to obtain a Violet-Eyed Earth Dragon. This time around, obtaining its egg wouldn’t be an easy task either.

The Violet-Eyed Earth Dragon belonged to the earth dragon family, not a flying mount. Although it had some flight capability, it could only fly for about five or six minutes and couldn’t attack while airborne, as flying was an extremely strenuous activity for them.

Nie Yan and Silver Night observed from below the cliff for a while. Every so often, one or two Violet-Eyed Earth Dragons would emerge to forage, but there were always at least three guarding the cave.

These Violet-Eyed Earth Dragons were level 200 mutated bosses, boasting formidable combat prowess. Any single one of them would pose a significant challenge to Nie Yan and his team. The difficulty of stealing dragon eggs from their nest was beyond imagination. Nie Yan couldn’t help but wonder how players in his past life had managed to pull off such an incredible feat.

As Nie Yan prepared to formulate a plan, a nearby rogue suddenly shouted, “Boss Nie, watch out!”

“It’s a level seven dark-element Sandstorm Scorpion!”

“Damn, it’s coming down!”

Nie Yan looked up and saw a giant scorpion with black wings diving from the sky, its approach creating a howling wind and a swirling black sandstorm in the air.

“Boss Nie, quickly dodge!” Silver Night, Su Yue, and others quickly moved aside.

“Dark-element flying creature?” Nie Yan’s eyes narrowed, a slight smile forming on his lips. Why should he run?

As the Sandstorm Scorpion dove down, Nie Yan stood his ground without dodging.

Silver Night and Su Yue anxiously tried to call out to Nie Yan to escape, but before they could finish, a loud boom echoed out. Darkness engulfed Nie Yan’s position, followed by a powerful sandstorm that swept through. Silver Night, Su Yue, and the others instinctively covered their faces with their arms and stepped back a few paces.

They were horrified. In such a violent sandstorm, Nie Yan’s chances of survival seemed slim.

How could a single player possibly fight against a level seven flying creature?

Nie Yan had to admit that the Sandstorm Scorpion’s sandstorm was incredibly powerful. Just as it was about to crash into him, Nie Yan activated his Swift Step and utilized his Shadow Step technique, narrowly evading the attack by sliding past the scorpion’s side.

The Sandstorm Scorpion landed and began scanning for Nie Yan, its hooked tail raised high, ready to strike.

At that moment, a figure suddenly leapt onto its back.

Feeling someone on its back, the scorpion thrashed violently, creating an even more intense sandstorm.

With a *plop*, Nie Yan’s Bloody Dagger plunged into the scorpion’s head. The scorpion swung its tail in pain.

Nie Yan dodged the tail attack and, with a low shout, slashed the dagger across the scorpion’s back. A jet of black liquid sprayed out, splattering onto Nie Yan.

A series of damage numbers, each in the tens of thousands, floated above Nie Yan’s head. He quickly took out a high-grade antidote from his bag and drank it, neutralizing the poison.

No matter how violently the scorpion thrashed, it couldn’t shake Nie Yan off its back.

After a while, the scorpion’s movements gradually slowed. Nie Yan reached into its skull and pulled out a black crystal core. The item was now his!

Outside, Silver Night and Su Yue were in a panic. The sandstorm caused by the scorpion was too intense for them to get close. They could feel the scorpion thrashing violently at the center of the storm.

They were confused—what exactly had happened?

It had only been a moment—perhaps less than two minutes—when the sandstorm finally began to subside.

“The storm has stopped!”

“Quickly, find Boss Nie!”

If anything had happened to Nie Yan, they would bear the consequences.

Silver Night looked up and was stunned. The Sandstorm Scorpion lay motionless in the sand, its head oozing black blood that seeped into the surrounding sand, clearly dead.

As the dust settled, Nie Yan casually walked toward them, his body only slightly stained with black liquid and sand.

Silver Night, Su Yue, and the others looked from Nie Yan to the scorpion’s corpse behind him, their breath catching. They couldn’t describe the shock they felt at that moment. That was a level seven flying creature, and yet it had been cut down like nothing more than grass beneath Nie Yan’s dagger.

Seeing Nie Yan approach, Su Yue finally understood what Silver Night had meant before—this was the path of a king! With my dagger, if I say you die, you won’t live to see the next second—whether it’s a person or a massive flying creature like the Sandstorm Scorpion!

Nie Yan casually tossed the dark-element crystal core to his Ghost Dragon in the pet space, letting it digest it.

“Boss Nie, Sandstorm Scorpions are social creatures. More might come soon,” Silver Night warned.

Nie Yan nodded and smiled. “I was hoping they would come.” After all this time, the dark-element crystal cores in his bag had been mostly consumed by his two gluttonous pets, the Ghost Dragon and the Darkwing Dragon. He needed to replenish his supply, and level seven crystal cores were quite valuable.

Silver Night thought for a moment and realized he had been overthinking. Nie Yan clearly didn’t take the Sandstorm Scorpion seriously. He had always admired Nie Yan, but today, he was once again deeply impressed.

In the following period, Nie Yan scouted the area around the Violet-Eyed Earth Dragon nest and used his climbing skill to scale the cliff, hiding behind protruding rocks to observe the cave’s interior. Inside, several large Violet-Eyed Earth Dragons moved about vigilantly. The cave was dimly lit, with faint flickers of firelight—likely geothermal flames. Dragons generally preferred to nest near volcanic activity, as it was ideal for hatching their young.

Infiltrating the cave would be difficult. During this time, however, many Sandstorm Scorpions arrived, offering Nie Yan ample level seven dark-element crystal cores.

After consuming several of these crystal cores, the Ghost Dragon in Nie Yan’s pet space grew significantly in size. Due to its spectral nature, the Ghost Dragon had a stronger absorption and digestion ability for dark-element crystal cores than the Darkwing Dragon. Being only level six, ingesting several level seven crystal cores immediately produced visible results.

Nie Yan could sense the Ghost Dragon’s aura rising to the peak of level six, nearing the breakthrough to level seven. If it successfully evolved into a level seven dragon, he wouldn’t have to fear creatures like the Flame Phoenix anymore.

Unlike the Darkwing Dragon, which was a close-combat flying mount whose stats improved significantly with evolution but gained few new skills, the Ghost Dragon, upon reaching level seven, would learn two new skills. Nie Yan couldn’t help but feel excited.