Chapter 1142: with translation of chapter title

"A solidified instance, in Huangcheng?!"

"Wow, wow, once we reach Huangcheng, we won't lack fourth-rebirth stage equipment, nor will we lack places to level up!"

"Awesome, the instance in Wutong Town earlier was also solidified by Mo Wen the Great God, right?"

"It still has to be Mo Wen the Great God!"

"Mo Wen the Great God, please please release the instance guide!!"

"Shen Wang boss! Please please give the guide!!"

The public channel within the Domestic Server exploded, with many players calling out to Su Sheng and Shen Wang, and of course some players were also calling out to Xingchen.

The announcement stated very clearly that it was a player squad.

And now, within the Domestic Server and even the entire game, the only players who have reached level 80 are the five members of the vanguard squad; it is obvious that this five-player squad cleared the instance.

At the same time, the forum also had various posts about this incident.

Some Foreign Server players who were following the Huaxia forum naturally also noticed this situation.

So the news about the existence of a solidified instance mission in Huangcheng also spread to the Foreign Server.

Such a thing is almost unavoidable; it's just a matter of time before it's known. Anyway, the instance on the Domestic Server side has already been solidified, so if the Foreign Server finds out, it finds out—no big deal.

As for Su Sheng and the others, they naturally have no time to worry about these things now.

Instead, they were looking at their own rewards!

The instance has been cleared, but this boss dropped nothing.

The experience, however, was given plentifully!

Su Sheng received experience for level eighty-one, over twenty percent; don't underestimate just over twenty percent—if you normally grind levels at a training spot, this twenty percent alone would take nearly half a month.

Not only that!

All players who participated in this instance quest had their level directly increased by one.

That is to say, Su Sheng's level directly reached level 82!

Everyone else's level also directly reached level 81!

Everyone's faces were beaming with smiles; don't underestimate just one level—if you disregard the instance factor, gaining this level outside by grinding would absolutely take over two months at the current upgrade difficulty.

After level 80, the difficulty of leveling up increases dramatically.

In other words, after level 80, players had best not die lightly, otherwise losing a level would be a painful, breath‑stealing cost.

Besides that, there is another reward.

Each person received a piece of Epic-level Equipment that matched their profession, with a random slot, at level 80!

Su Sheng looked at this reward and felt a spontaneous joy, but then immediately prayed in his heart that this quest reward would by no means be a helmet, after all his current helmet is a level‑80 legendary.

Then Su Sheng didn't even look at the system prompt, he directly opened his bag.

Then he let out a sigh of relief!

Guardian's Greaves (Orange)

Defense: 980

Additional: Defense +700

Additional: Defense +700

Additional: HP +8000

Additional: Guard

Level: 80

Requirement: Fourth Rebirth

Guard (Passive): When performing a Shield Raise to block an attack frontally, gain twenty percent damage reduction.

Description: omitted

An 80‑level heavy‑armor epic greave! Su Sheng grinned.

As expected of equipment that matches one's profession, these additional stats are exactly to my liking.

At first glance, this piece of equipment seems tailor‑made for a defensive knight, but actually there isn't much difference; Su Sheng's path indeed suits the use of defensive knight equipment.

The stats are quite good; Su Sheng compared it with his own 65‑level epic greaves, which he had originally exchanged when he was in Xuanwu Main City.

Xuanwu Leg Armor (Orange)

Xuanwu Set: 1/5

Defense: 500

Additional: Constitution +230

Additional: HP +3000

Additional: HP +3000

Additional: HP +3000

Level: 65

……

……

It was just that back then the points weren't enough to make a full set, so it has always been used as a separate piece, a tank‑like greave.

Comparing the stats, defense increased but HP decreased.

Also, constitution decreased by 230 points!

Overall, HP dropped by 3300 points, but defense directly increased by 1650 points; for an ordinary player, this seems not to be a big difference.

Losing 3300 HP and gaining over 1000 defense—although higher defense naturally has its benefits, the loss of HP is also not small.

But for Su Sheng, there was nothing to think about, after all his offense and defense were balanced; it wasn't just over 1,000 defense, but also an extra over 1,000 attack, and losing over 3,000 HP could still be replaced.

Of course… if that were all, this level‑80 epic gear would be far too devalued, considering it's still Fourth Rebirth‑stage equipment.

The main event is the final added passive… Guard!

If you raise the shield frontally, you gain a 20% damage‑reduction passive.

That's basically having a weakened Defensive Stance skill always active!

Know that the Defensive Stance only provides 30% damage reduction, and you cannot move while it is active.

Moreover, looking at it, this skill's passive can stack with Defensive Stance!

When Defensive Stance is active, it adds another 50% damage reduction—truly insane!

That's its core value.

Equip it!

Su Sheng hesitated not at all!

Then he allocated the newly gained attribute point.

As usual, all three free attribute points went into Constitution.

At this stage, each level grants 5 attribute points and 10 HP, which is negligible for players; core stats are almost entirely supported by gear.

After assigning points and changing gear, Su Sheng checked his stats.

Offense and defense jumped to 17,597—terrifying!

HP dropped a bit, yet remains massive: 137,620!

Thus, this solo quest concluded satisfactorily.

Su Sheng looked up at Shen Wang Xingchen and the others, each wearing a smile.

Obviously, this time everyone reaped plenty.

The core reward was one level, plus a level‑80 epic that fits their class.

"There are still a few hours of game time left, and we're just idle anyway—how about we run this Dungeon again?" Su Sheng suggested.

At that moment the others looked up, had no objection to Su Sheng's suggestion, and all nodded.

"Alright, let's go out and turn in the quest first."

The group immediately exited the Dungeon; as for the first‑stage quest reward, it was merely a mosquito‑leg amount.

Then the group hurried to the entrance of this Dungeon.

It's somewhat similar to Hui Long Zhai in Wutong Town; each player can receive a clearance reward only once per day, and repeated runs after clearing give no reward.

Although Su Sheng and the others cleared it once, the just‑cleared run was in story mode, which doesn't sync with normal Dungeon mode.

That means they can still earn another Dungeon reward today, and the story mode and normal mode should differ somewhat.

Now on forums and public channels, many players are urging them to leak Dungeon strategies.

They haven't cleared the normal Dungeon mode yet, so they have no guide.

And the most crucial point.

There isn't much game time left today; it's uncertain if they can clear this Dungeon.

However, there's a mechanic: as long as they log out inside the Dungeon today, the reward count is tallied for today; when they log in tomorrow, the reward they obtain from clearing counts as today's, and they can clear again tomorrow.

Thus, the five of them entered the Dungeon again.

This time the Dungeon's difficulty unexpectedly dropped considerably.

Of course, the experience may have dropped a tier as well.

But thinking about it, if the story‑mode difficulty remained, a typical team probably couldn't clear it.

The Dungeon is simply the story mode of the second mission stage; not only are monster stats lowered, the Demon Energy Suppression Effect is only 5%, so with game time still remaining, the group breezed to the final Black Crystal Plaza.

This time, upon touching the throne, a System Notification appears, requiring a Priest to perform Purification.

"Seriously, if we got this prompt while playing story mode, it would be so annoying," Li Wenwan said, looking indignant at the notice.

When they cleared the story earlier, this inexplicable mechanic had grossed them out for a while.

But there's no time for Purification now; only two minutes of game time remain.

The group discussed briefly and then logged out immediately.

…

That day, the matter of the Solidified Instance quest in Huang City had already spread throughout the gaming community, including all Foreign Servers.

Thus, on almost every server, under the intervention of their rear‑government, both overtly and covertly, they formed units similar to the Domestic Server's Vanguard Squad.

Although they can't directly intervene, none are honest behind the scenes.

However, Su Sheng paid no attention to those happenings on the Foreign Servers.

After all, regardless, the Domestic Server is already far ahead.

Game time is up.

Log in!

Cooperating with Shen Wang and the others, they spent a bit of time and smoothly cleared this Dungeon.

Overall difficulty dropped dramatically, and the BOSS's aggro no longer fixated on the Priest, behaving like a normal BOSS.

The mechanics stayed the same, except the Demon Energy Suppression Effect rose from 5% to 10%.

When the BOSS reaches 50%, a single heal consumes all the Demon Energy Suppression Effect.

Then it heals just that once.

The overall difficulty dropped by more than one tier.

The rewards fell far short of expectations; there was no clearance reward, only experience from monsters and the final BOSS's drop.

The BOSS dropped a blue piece of gear and two green pieces, all level‑80 Fourth Rebirth equipment.

Regarding this, the people present were not surprised.

After all, the difficulty has been reduced so much, the rewards certainly won't be very generous.

Overall, compared with grinding monsters at an outside Training Spot, the Dungeon's experience reward is more than double.

At least it's a Dungeon, and moreover it's a Demon Race unit.

After clearing this time, the reward count for today remained, and the group did not hesitate, entering the Dungeon again.

This time luck was good; they dropped two blue items and one green item.

Afterwards, they agreed to continue grinding the Dungeon tomorrow, and each went off to their own business.

Xingchen, for no apparent reason, walked away mysteriously.

Shen Wang Li Wenwan, Huang Mingxin, and a third person had nothing to do, so they formed a party to grind monsters.

Originally Shen Wang wanted to bring Su Sheng along to grind monsters, but Su Sheng had his own matters.

Now, Su Sheng is already level 82.

If grinding monsters, even at a level‑85 Training Spot, after calculation, reaching level 83 would still take close to over a month.

This assumes using one's current experience bar, plus daily clearing of the Purification Demon Cave Seal Dungeon.

Therefore, leveling is not that urgent now, and Su Sheng plans to explore the Huangcheng map.

Although it's already been more than a month since reaching level 80.

But…

During this month, it's either doing a quest or another quest. Almost constantly grinding monsters, with hardly any exploration of the surroundings of Huangcheng.

Su Sheng still thinks that when the main mass of players reaches level 80, it's best to move the base there immediately.

Su Sheng keeps thinking about the Huangcheng Token at the bottom of his warehouse.

He could move the base directly to a Huangcheng location.

Of course, it definitely can't be moved now.

After all, the main active area for the large player masses now happens to be the level‑75 to 80 Training Spots, and Yanhuang Town is a very good foothold.

If moved now, Huangcheng would consist of only myself, Shen Wang Xingchen, Li Wenwan, and Huang Mingxin—five people—making it not worth it.

Currently Yanhuang Town brings to my side roughly one small goal's worth of profit each day!! Even more!

This is not an exaggeration at all!

Just the teleportation cost is several tens of millions!

There's no way around it; the Domestic Server's player base is just too huge—Huaxia has 1.4 billion people, and the Zhu Lu Game's active count has already reached 900 million.

Those who haven't logged in, aside from a portion of minors, are a very small fraction.

According to national statistics, minors number close to 300 million. (Truth unknown; asked Doubao.)

That means that almost all adults have entered the game, including a large portion of the elderly.

Sometimes Su Sheng doesn't work during the day, and while strolling in the park with Huan Jie, he hears many grand‑aged grandfathers and grandmothers discussing nothing but the scenery inside the Zhu Lu Game.

In this situation, as a fitting and convenient foothold, Yanhuang Town's daily income approaching one small goal is not a difficult matter.

Therefore, Su Sheng also wants to maintain this advantage and maximize Yanhuang's income.

When players reach level 80 and come to Huangcheng, if Yanhuang Town cannot be moved, its revenue will definitely plunge like a cliff.

Thus, I will first secure a base location.

When mainstream players reach level 80 Fourth Rebirth, moving the base there immediately is the only way to keep the development momentum.

We can be far ahead; as for other guilds, before they reach level 5 and their sub‑guilds reach level 3.

Throughout Huangcheng, aside from my Yanhuang Town, there will absolutely be no second guild base.

So Su Sheng rode his suan ni across the Huangcheng area, wandering aimlessly.

While scouting for a suitable base location, Su Sheng also spotted many wild BOSSes, but for now they seem unbeatable.

But it's not a loss; recording these BOSS locations in advance means a future first‑kill with a party is doable.

The first‑kill reward for wild BOSSes is the highest; later respawns won't grant such high rewards.