Chapter 303: Hong Meng and Qi Ming Xing

"In ten minutes, the map will shrink by ten percent; all participating players, please take note."

"After shrinking, the outer map will continuously inflict a per‑second HP loss on players until they leave the outer area or die."

"If a player dies in the outer area, the dropped cauldron fragment will randomly respawn on a currently alive BOSS."

"If no BOSS is alive, a new BOSS carrying the fragment will be spawned."

Glancing at the system announcement, Su Sheng curled his lip—just a poison grind.

Su Sheng picked up the dropped cauldron fragment; only the team leader is qualified to hold a fragment, and others cannot pick it up.

"Let's go." Su Sheng smacked his lips; there are 49 fragments, and Su Sheng already has three in his hand.

Then everyone set off toward the inner circle.

Ten minutes is enough for the group to reach the inner circle if they go straight.

As Su Sheng and the others advanced, the surrounding terrain began to undulate, no longer a flat plain; the nearby shrubs grew denser, and trees became thick.

"The map has shrunk."

"Existing BOSSes have respawned."

System Notification sounded; glancing at the map, the positions of the remaining seven BOSSes had shifted.

But so far they are still relatively far from them.

"Sheng‑ge? What's up?"

Chen Guan looked at Su Sheng and asked.

"Should we just head straight to the Central ShenShou Zhi Cheng and wait?" Li Wenwan suggested at that moment.

"Yeah, we have to go to the Central ShenShou Zhi Cheng anyway, so we might as well go straight and wait," Huang Mingxin also proposed.

But Su Sheng shook his head: "Others can go, but we, the Yanhuang, cannot."

"Why?" Li Wenwan asked, surprised.

"Because there aren't few players who have this idea," Su Sheng said with a smile.

"I reckon many have already rushed toward the ShenShou Zhi Cheng, but we can't be sure how many teams are there, nor how many are from Zhuque City."

"Huh?" Li Wenwan still didn't quite understand.

"Would you say we're strong among these participants?" Su Sheng asked with a grin.

"Of course we're very strong," Li Wenwan said, waving her fist.

Their team, including herself, actually has three Hidden Classes.

Not that Li Wenwan is arrogant; one could say no other competing team is as strong as theirs, not even her cousin Huan Yu's.

"Do you think others know how strong we are?" Su Sheng asked with a smile.

"They probably do," Li Wenwan said, recalling the teams that surrendered in the preliminaries.

"So, if we go to the Central ShenShou Zhi Cheng, we don't know how many members other teams have there; if Zhuque City's team is few and it's instead all teams from the other three main cities, how would you treat us?" Su Sheng looked at Li Wenwan.

"Uh…" Li Wenwan was speechless: "Team up and take us out first?"

"Congratulations, you got it right, and definitively so," Su Sheng said with a smile.

Members of the top ten guilds aren't stupid; given a chance, they'd definitely press the Yanhuang people to death.

After all, in one‑on‑one situations, none of them would have confidence to face us.

As for Huan Yu, although they have some rapport and Li Wenwan is Li Xiao's cousin, in this scenario the harshest move would probably come from Huan Yu.

"Let's wander around, then leisurely head to the next area and see if we run into any lucky ones," Su Sheng grinned.

This time the seven remaining BOSSes' new locations were all relatively far from them, so there was little to discuss, and Su Sheng's interest in the BOSSes had dwindled; without extra loot, why waste time and effort.

When others have fought themselves and then we go kill them, everything becomes ours.

Thus, Su Sheng led the team to wander aimlessly around the map's perimeter.

This was the first map shrink; clearly the map was still vast. In an hour Su Sheng's group hadn't encountered any other participating squads, and after wandering for fifty minutes they entered the next area.

At this point the system prompted that the area would soon contract.

Having already entered the next area, Su Sheng and the others naturally ignored the prompt.

"So boring, can we get a team?"

Su Ba and Su Wenhao yawned out of boredom.

"Sheng‑ge, there's someone ahead!"

As soon as Su Ba and Su Wenhao's words fell, Chen Guan, who had been stealthily scouting ahead, spoke in the party channel.

Swish~

Su Sheng, Li Wenwan, and Huang Mingxin all turned their heads together with a swish and looked at Su Ba and Su Wenhao.

Su Ba obviously froze for a moment, murmuring in disbelief: "No way, that precise?"

"Whose people?" Su Sheng asked.

"Two teams, they're clashing!" Chen Guan replied.

"Hong Meng and Qi Ming Xing's!"

"Ying Huo of Qi Ming Xing and the humble Jiang Yuan of Hong Meng."

Chen Guan's reply came with a live broadcast.

Ying Huo, one of the two Deputy Presidents of Qi Ming Xing, and there is also a Zi Wei Star.

Besides Chairman Xingchen, Qi Ming Xing has two Deputy Presidents—Zi Wei Star and Ying Huo—and also a mechanism similar to the former Assassin Alliance's Ten Court Yanluo, but with seven stars—the Big Dipper Seven Stars, Tianquan, Yaoguang, Yuheng, etc., matching the seven elite squads' seven leaders of Qi Ming Xing.

Indeed, Qi Ming Xing has only seven core squads, totaling about seven to eight thousand people.

Although Qi Ming Xing ranks third among the top ten guilds, its number of elite squads is the fewest among them.

Even Qiancheng Muxue has thirteen elite squads… but those are more like core squads; they aren't truly elite squads.

As for the Primordial Chaos side, besides Gu Qingcheng, the other deputy president is that poor Daoist Jiang Yuan. That guy seems to really be a Daoist in real life; previously the heroes played as Mages, now in Contending for the Deer they switched to a Fangshi.

In the Primordial Chaos high ranks, Fangshi Players are probably the most numerous; the Chairman Daozu is a Fangshi, and the deputy presidents are also Fangshi.

Moreover, Gu Qingcheng is still with the Arcane Mages, all of them are squishy.

At this moment, the two teams on screen are fighting back and forth.

Ying Huo of the Morning Star is a defensive knight, wielding a hammer in one hand and holding a huge Tower Shield, just charging straight ahead.

It's clear he's not just ordinary meat.

Poor Daoist Jiang Yuan, meanwhile, uses a whisk with talismans; his output seems not low either, his movement is ethereal, faintly carrying an otherworldly air.

His footwork even earns some praise from Su Sheng; it seems to be some Daoist sect techniques, after all rumors say he really is a Daoist in real life.

Fangshi is a profession that cultivates both martial and magical arts; their main weapon is usually a magic sword or a whisk, with the off-hand equipped with talismans.

The magic sword emphasizes physical attacks, while the whisk emphasizes magical attacks.

"Dad, study hard." Su Sheng looked at his own dad.

And Su Ba was already intently staring at the poor Daoist Jiang Yuan...