Chapter 696: Core Position

Equipment materials gathered during exploration can be handled personally; if they're not needed, they can be recycled to the guild warehouse!

Su Sheng spoke directly.

If it were another major guild, the gains from such a group activity would basically be distributed uniformly by the guild.

But Yanhuang doesn't have this standard.

I remember, you're a mage profession, right? You also can't use it; you can sell it to me, either for guild contributions or gold coins…

At this time, Lin Huan spoke in the team channel.

Hehe, Chairman, you're too generous; just give the Rose Deputy President something, and give me a contribution points reward, that's enough.

At this moment, the 50‑level Lin Huan was actually holding the 60‑level epic demon spirit longbow obtained earlier from the Great Elf tomb, and of course it had been forged with Divine Craftsman Stone (Chapter 430).

But the off‑hand was a bit lacking.

This elf quiver fits perfectly, though it requires level 55 to use.

Otherwise, a level‑60 purple off‑hand forged with Divine Craftsman Stone would be a bit extravagant.

As for the 50 points of spirit affected by demon energy, it doesn't matter…

Lin Huan doesn't really benefit from spirit attributes.

…

Next, everyone continued exploring.

About an hour passed.

However, the entire city had not been fully explored.

Over a thousand participants entered the field, and in this hour, due to various reasons, seventy‑to‑eighty people were lost.

Some stepped on traps, some ran into patrol teams, and some encountered a major boss.

According to the current reports, the strongest boss is a level‑75 Commander‑rank demon commander.

However, information kept coming in; after Zhang Zhi organized and analyzed it, a rough conclusion was reached.

Zhang Zhi… one of the Hidden Dragon members, formerly a technical staff member of the unit, responsible for some headquarters work, but with a relatively solitary personality.

As the Hidden Dragon entered 'Contending for the Deer', he selected a Holy Light Priest, becoming a glorious… milk dad, his game nickname being Xianhu Bu Jishi.

Xianhu Bu Jishi: Chairman, according to the analysis, this city is several times larger than the main city.

"It feels about the same as Huangcheng, but the Huangcheng in 'Contending for the Deer' has never been visited by anyone, so we don't know how big it is."

"Second, it likely belongs to the game background's demon‑occupied zone; it was probably once an elf city in the game's backstory, the monsters being mostly elf‑related creatures corrupted by demon energy, plus demon race patrol teams."

"The monster levels are off the charts, with lots of extra loot; it's a treasure‑hunt type dungeon."

"Everyone, send me the coordinates when you encounter patrol teams… I'll try to find the patrol pattern so we can avoid the demon race patrols as much as possible."

Su Sheng glanced at Zhang Zhi's information and nodded slightly.

Elf ruins, no wonder that old scholar kept reminding me.

Just…

I've walked all the way and haven't seen any monsters.

I haven't seen a single monster, nor any patrol teams.

Instead, in the ruins I picked up two level‑60 blue items, but their attributes are just average.

Is my luck really this bad?

Su Sheng looked gloomy.

Thinking about Liu Mang's stuff—orange and red…

As for me? I only got two tattered blue items.

Strange…

Let's take another look; if there's nothing, I'll head back to check the coordinates provided by that rascal.

Everyone is exploring according to their own planned routes; although we know there's a red item there, we also know we can't get it… so for now no one is recklessly running to those coordinates.

"I found a box; there are many finished instant‑recovery potions here, but they're only purple, about a hundred or more."

Lu Zhe sent over a photo…

"I have a large herb garden here, but I can't harvest it all by myself…"

Shen Yang also posted a screenshot in the channel, provided a coordinate, and also shared several screenshots of herb attributes.

Among them are the materials for strong instant‑recovery potions and normal instant‑recovery potions.

"Fourth Team, how many people do you have left?" Zhang Zhi spoke immediately in the team channel.

"We still have over sixty people here."

"Go left; you're closest to the herb garden, go help gather."

"Be careful, the Sixth Team passed a patrol team over there; they're likely heading that way, so watch out to avoid them."

"Received, we're setting out now."

Watching Zhang Zhi issue the deployment, Su Sheng smiled faintly.

As expected, having a strategist makes things easy.

Moreover, the Hidden Dragon's people, Su Sheng is completely trustworthy… don't question the unit's political review.

Furthermore, to some extent, regarding this strategic wisdom, Zhang Zhi is more experienced than Lin Huan; of course, if Su Sheng were willing to take over, he wouldn't be worse… who let Su Sheng be a hands‑off manager?

With Zhang Zhi holding the middle, there's no big problem…

Su Sheng felt his way forward.

I've been wandering around for over an hour and still haven't seen anything.

The surroundings are dark and dilapidated buildings.

Every building was covered with black plant vines and the like~

Hm?

A purple glow.

Su Sheng spurred his horse forward and reached the gate of a courtyard.

He turned and got off the horse…

A purple material, not worth much…

Su Sheng curled his lip, looked up at the courtyard, and walked in.

Whoosh!

Bang!

La~

After a short while, a violent commotion was heard.

About seven or eight minutes later, Su Sheng emerged with a gloomy expression.

Inside was a level‑63 Demon corpse…

Indeed, it was the corpse after the spirit had become wooden, but it was driven by Demon Energy and transformed into a Demon Spirit.

A level‑63 Elite Monster; the terrain was too narrow, so Su Sheng still spent some time dealing with it, and after clearing it, he searched the entire courtyard but didn't find any hair at all.

He could only come out feeling depressed…

He turned and mounted his horse.

Continue onward~

As time passed.

Almost every exploration team in each direction, more or less, made some gains.

As for Su Sheng…

Ding~

Environmental notice:

Entered a Demon Energy‑rich environment, suppressed by Demon Energy.

Attributes reduced by 5%.

Su Sheng frowned.

Ahead lay a massive palace.

Or rather…

A tower.

Thick black Demon Energy churned inside.

At the palace entrance, squads of Demon Race patrols rotated back and forth.

Obviously, this place is most likely the core of the whole city.

It seems the direction I'm taking isn't wrong; this could be the town center.

Looking at these intersecting Demon soldiers, their number was at least four to five thousand, and that's only the ones outside; who knows how many are inside the courtyard.

Judging by appearance…

It should be the kind my dad encountered before, a regular patrol Elite Monster.

Not those level‑70 boss‑grade patrol Elite Monsters.

Those ordinary Demon Race patrols… their levels are generally 66–68, with occasional 69.

But none reach level 70.

Even so, trying to charge in…

Isn't very realistic; currently, out of a thousand who entered, only about eight hundred to nine hundred are still here, and they're this high‑level.

Whether they can be defeated is a question.

Then I checked the time; the Dungeon countdown still had a little over four hours left, so even if we gather everyone now, we'd still waste a lot of time.

But…

This is an exploration Dungeon; outside, everyone has obtained many good items, and this core location…