Chapter 337

Upper-Wind Month, April 19th.

Valley of Despair.

For the past three days, the humans of the oasis have not dared to approach the central area of the oasis because the Hero is staying there.

Of course, they are not afraid of the Hero, but rather the dragon captured by the Hero; a terrifying pressure shrouds that area.

The mother who lost little Nick wanted to see the dragon that killed her child, but before she could get close, she was knocked unconscious by that pressure.

In the oasis, only the strongest, Ya Ya Laer, can approach that area.

Step!

Ya Ya Laer, carrying a meal in her hands, stepped on the fine, soft green grass and arrived at the central area near the water source, a layer of sweat breaking out on her forehead involuntarily.

It was not her first time approaching this place, yet her body remained uncontrollably tense; a sense of panic and horror welled up from within, just like a cat whose fur stands on end when it senses danger.

"Hoo—hoo—"

She took two deep breaths to steady her racing heart.

Ya Ya Laer walked deeper once more; she could already hear the trickling sound of water and saw a small wooden house come into view.

There was a faint scent of blood in the air, and she could vaguely feel that the temperature here seemed higher than in the surroundings.

She only glanced at the wooden house once.

Ya Ya Laer felt a sense of trepidation, a desire to drop the food in her hands and turn to flee; this emotion of "fear" was completely beyond her control.

Even when facing the powerful Gray Dwarf race, with her entire tribe on the verge of extinction, Ya Ya Laer had never felt as terrified as she did now.

She heard the Hero mention that this seemed to be a power called "Dragon Might," which could exert a suppressive effect on enemies.

It was too terrifying.

Even after being defeated and captured by the Hero, it could still release such power.

Ya Ya Laer truly could not imagine just how powerful and magnificent the Hero, who could fight and defeat a dragon, really was.

Ya Ya Laer sighed inwardly; that was a realm beyond her understanding.

This unimaginable strength filled Ya Ya Laer, who revered power, with obsession, worship, and a yearning longing.

"Sorry to trouble you, Ya Ya Laer."

A calm, gentle voice came from inside the house.

Ya Ya Laer's heart stirred along with this voice, and her body trembled unnaturally, just like a believer unable to suppress their excitement and worship after receiving a response from a deity.

She carefully placed the meal she was holding about ten meters away from the wooden house.

"Your, meal, the meal is placed here, Hero."

Ya Ya Laer stammered slightly, not knowing if it was the influence of the pressure in the air or if she was just nervous.

She did not dare to get any closer to the wooden house, fearing she might make a fool of herself due to the power of the Dragon Might and let the Hero see it.

After placing the food down.

Ya Ya Laer then left the area.

"Creak—squeak—"

Pulling open the wooden door.

Tang Zheng walked out of the wooden house, his face full of contemplation and complex thoughts as he arrived at the place where the tray was placed, sat cross-legged, and began to eat heartily.

With his current strength, it would actually be no problem to go hungry for a few days, but as a human, things like breathing, eating, and sleeping do not disappear with the increase in strength.

For the past two days, he had been studying the 【Heart of the True Long Wang】; the more he studied, the more he discovered the uniqueness of this heart, which contained not only alchemy techniques.

But also some special magic and ritual powers.

In short, it was very headache-inducing.

The Eight Greed Kings possessed the World-Class Item 【Unnamed Grimoire】; the basic effect of this World-Class Item was to record all Rank Magic in the world.

Naturally, this included all Rank Magic from the "Yggdrasil" game before the descent, and furthermore, Tang Zheng could not be sure if this World-Class Item would develop other derivative abilities after appearing in the Other World.

After all, in the background, every World-Class Item was a tool condensed from a destroyed world, possessing power rivaling a world.

If this 【Heart of the True Long Wang】 was created using an ability derived from the 【Unnamed Grimoire】.

No matter how much he studied it, he would inevitably have no results.

Therefore.

Tang Zheng's current line of thought was not to figure out how this heart was made, but how it allowed the Dragonman Ladong to turn into a dragon.

Simply put, he did not need to know how a refrigerator was manufactured for the time being; he needed to figure out how to use the refrigerator first.

Three days had passed without any gains, but from the mouth of the Dragonman Ladong, Tang Zheng had asked for some information about the Eight Greed Kings.

For example.

Speculations about the images and races of the Eight Greed Kings, and one other thing that concerned him quite a bit.

500 years ago, the only surviving God of the Six Great Gods, the Dark God Surshana, did not have a conflict with the Eight Greed Kings at the beginning.

"Judging by the timeline, the Eight Greed Kings only suddenly went to war with the 'Dark God' Surshana and killed him after eliminating a large number of Dragon Kings."

"There must have been some irreconcilable conflict; perhaps the Slane Theocracy knows something."

While Tang Zheng was thinking, he finished eating the meal and then stood up to walk back to the wooden house.

Crack!

The wooden door closed again.

Inside the empty house, the Dragonman Ladong lay unconscious on the ground, always under the control of "All-Race Charm."

The "Dragon Might" that the opponent emitted autonomously, Tang Zheng speculated, should originate from the 【Heart of the True Long Wang】.

It had little effect on him, to the point of being negligible.

The level gap between the two was not large, and the "Divine Body" of the 【Valkyrie】 also had relatively strong resistance to various negative states.

Tang Zheng did not look at the Dragonman Ladong for the time being, but instead focused on the attribute panel; in the two days, besides research, he had not forgotten to collect experience points.

【Experience Slot: 5,500,001/360,000】

Three days of collecting 4.5 million experience, plus the previous 1 million experience, had already accumulated to 5.5 million.

"Enough to raise the 【Dark Knight】 to max level." A trace of a smile appeared on the corner of Tang Zheng's mouth.

In the past, he could not waste time studying magic and items; just collecting 5.5 million experience points would have been enough to give him a headache.

"Consume experience."

Tang Zheng's heart stirred.

The experience in the experience slot began to consume and decrease rapidly.

————

Comprehensive Level: 51

【Experience Slot: 440,001/850,000】

Profession:

Basic Profession: Genius 10lv (Warrior...)

Mid Rank Profession: Dark Knight 10lv

Gao Jie/Special Profession:...

————

Accompanied by the consumption of 5.5 million experience points, the 【Dark Knight】 was thoroughly raised to max level.

Tang Zheng sat cross-legged in the wooden house, his aura rising continuously with the increase in level; as he broke through level 50, a layer of faint flowing light flashed across the surface of his skin.

Different from the increase in numerical values,

This time, Tang Zheng sensed carefully and perceived a change in the level of life from the flesh from the inside out; although it was only for an instant, it was incomparably clear.

If one did not pay close attention, it would be easy to confuse it with the increase in physical strength during numerical improvement.

"If the 'Hero Realm' from level 28 to level 29 is a bottleneck, then level 50 is the second layer of the bottleneck."

"Judging by the level of Rank Magic, it belongs to the 8th Rank (50–56lv) level."

This thought flashed through Tang Zheng's mind, and after the 【Dark Knight】 reached max level, it also thoroughly stabilized.

In an instant!

The light in the entire wooden house seemed to be distorted with Tang Zheng as the center, causing the brightness in the room to drop by several degrees.

A stream of black energy overflowed, turning into a faint black mist that appeared and disappeared, forming an irregular shape around Tang Zheng!

Hum—

The attribute panel vibrated.

【Profession construction information satisfied】

Tang Zheng's gaze fell on the attribute panel, looking at the information that appeared, with a look of "as expected," but his heart was still a little excited.

【The 【Genius】 profession has been converted to 【Paladin】】

【Profession construction achieved—Low Rank Profession 【Paladin 10lv】, Mid Rank Profession 【Dark Knight 10lv】】

【Trigger Gao Jie Profession: Lord of Corruption】

【Do you want to take the profession?】

"Take the profession." Tang Zheng responded in his heart.

Profession: Lord of Corruption

Level: Gao Jie Profession

Ability Effect:

Passive·

"Power of Corruption": All attacks or skills can add negative attribute erosion damage.

"Gift of Corruption": Gain certain bonuses to negative attributes and stealth types, increase 20% Holy attribute resistance.

"Heart of Darkness": Gain complete resistance to movement obstruction.

Active Skill:

Aura of Sinking: Release a special aura that can cover a 15m range, causing a binding effect on everyone within the range.

Introduction: Betray that useless faith; the shell is just a useless container; only darkness and despair are eternal; we are the destroyers of order.

(Note: For every level increased, the four attributes (mp, hp, physical defense, magic defense) increase by 15 points.)

—Whoosh!

Accompanied by the successful acquisition of the profession.

The faint black mist permeating Tang Zheng's body quickly became thick, with faint black light flickering on the surface, looking somewhat eerie and terrifying.

Opening his eyes.

A sense of oppression permeated the room.

A black light flashed vaguely in Tang Zheng's eyes; looking at the black mist entwined around his body, he raised his arm and waved it casually.

Swish!

The black mist dissipated completely.

"Similar to the situation with 【Holy Knight】 and 【Lord of Holiness】, both are further enhancements of the previous profession."

Tang Zheng scanned the profession information of 【Lord of Corruption】 on the attribute panel and compared it with 【Lord of Holiness】.

He found that the new profession seemed more practical.

The "Power of Pain" of the Dark Knight and the "Power of Corruption" looked somewhat similar.

But the effect of "Power of Corruption" could not only add negative attributes to normal attacks but also to skills, making the attack methods more diverse.

"The name of the profession is loud, but overall it is still relatively mediocre." Tang Zheng evaluated.

Among the passive abilities of the profession, what surprised Tang Zheng the most was the addition of "complete resistance to movement obstruction," and even the profession skill belonged to a range control skill, both of which were relatively practical types.

He raised his hand and grabbed at the void, and a magic greatsword appeared in his palm.

"Holy attribute."

The surface of the blade vibrated slightly, and a layer of holy energy covered the magic greatsword; Tang Zheng flipped his wrist: "Negative attribute."

The holy energy on the magic greatsword immediately twisted and dissipated, replaced by a layer of black energy, looking somewhat terrifying.

"【Mad Mage】 and 【Magic Swordsman】 can use four-element physical attack methods when combined."

"Now that I have 【Lord of Holiness】 and 【Lord of Corruption】, I can use holy attributes and negative attributes again."

Tang Zheng chuckled; unknowingly, he discovered that he could already use the power of six attributes.

He looked at the resistances he possessed on the attribute panel.

Curse complete resistance, movement obstruction complete resistance, fire attribute nullification, poison attribute resistance II (below 30lv), dark attribute resistance (80%), holy attribute resistance (40%), weapon extra mastery (Slash 100%, Range 50%)

(PS: New information has been updated in the comments section)

"Holy and negative attributes are theoretically completely opposite, yet now I can use these two powers at the same time." Tang Zheng was thoughtful.

He had not forgotten that when he was preparing to learn "Undead Summoning," he discovered a situation where it conflicted with "Angel Summoning."

But now there was no profession conflict, which must be related to the fact that the basic construction of the two Gao Jie professions both originated from the basic profession 【Paladin】.

"Next is to raise these two Gao Jie professions; I wonder if it will trigger a special profession." Tang Zheng's eyes brightened.

Next.

He continued to downgrade, removing 【Dark Knight】 from the profession construction, keeping only the newly acquired Gao Jie profession.

Tang Zheng continued to study the "Heart of the True Long Wang" of the Dragonman Ladong, and also indirectly learned about the true situation around this Valley of Despair from the opponent's mouth.

This place was at the easternmost part of the entire continent, in a very remote location; besides the Dragonman Ladong, there were basically no strong people.

The situation that Tang Zheng was most worried about, whether there would be other True Dragon Kings or residual forces of players, also did not exist.

The next night.

Tang Zheng walked out of the wooden house and arrived at the periphery of the water source, seeing the two people who had been waiting for a long time.

"Hero!"

"Hero!"

Ya Ya Laer and Chieftain Di Yelong spoke respectfully in a hurry.

Ever since Tang Zheng defeated a giant dragon under the witness of everyone, the oasis humans' attitude toward Tang Zheng was no longer just respect, but also more worship and fanaticism.

"I plan to leave the oasis tomorrow; I'm telling you in advance."

Tang Zheng waved his hand very casually, signaling that the two did not need to be so restrained, and spoke with a smile.

"Ah!"

Ya Ya Laer let out a cry of surprise and quickly raised her head: "The Hero is leaving so soon."

Last time, the Hero stayed here for half a month; she thought he would stay longer this time.

Ya Ya Laer pinched her pants involuntarily.

"Ya Ya Laer, the Hero naturally has his own ideas." Chieftain Di Yelong scolded.

"No need to be so serious, Chieftain Di Yelong."

"I obtained more detailed information about this area from that Dragonman who attacked you, so I have new ideas." Tang Zheng spoke gently.

(End of chapter)