Chapter 31: Show Him What's What! Undying Fire Sea! (Please follow and read)

Tantai Chengfeng was with Tantai Mingyue. Regarding Lu Zheng's trip to the Sage's residence, he did not ask any questions—he only told Lu Zheng and Tantai Mingyue to add each other as friends as soon as possible, and right in front of Lu Zheng, urged Tantai Mingyue to obey Lu Zheng's instructions.

Even before Lu Zheng returned, Tantai Mingyue had already been instructed by Tantai Chengfeng, so she agreed very readily.

"Lu Zheng, please give me plenty of guidance from now on!"

After learning that Lu Zheng had achieved ninth place in damage output in the city defense battle, her attitude toward Lu Zheng changed dramatically.

People generally have a psychology of admiring the strong, and she was moreover a support-class professional, with even greater dependence on the powerful. Lu Zheng was the same age as her yet so powerful and outstanding, so of course he earned her recognition.

Lu Zheng nodded upon hearing this and said, "Within the next five days I'll be taking a long trip. When I get back, I'll take you leveling."

After making the arrangement, Lu Zheng hurried to use the teleportation array to return home while it was still early. Upon arriving home, Lu Zheng told his parents that a teacher had arranged a dungeon for him and he needed to leave for five days.

Although his mother Fang Ya was very worried, his father Lu Yuantu this time gave his support.

"Young people should give it their all while they're still young. Go—Dad believes you'll definitely return safely!"

With his family's support, Lu Zheng set out early the next morning and hurried to the teleportation array. After several transfers, fortunately he could nearly ignore the teleportation array's effect on the mind, and in half a day he finally arrived at Red Guard City in the Second District of Jianhua Commandery.

He did not linger. He ate lunch, asked for the dungeon's location in the city, and then rushed over in a hurry.

The entrance to this dungeon was a cave. Beside the cave were three smooth stone walls, displaying the top ten in total damage output for low-level, mid-level, and high-level summoners respectively.

When Lu Zheng arrived at the cave entrance, he happened to see a pot-bellied youth in fine clothes walking out of the cave. The instant he emerged, the low-level summoner damage output ranking immediately shifted—the original first place dropped to second, and first place was replaced by the name 'Wang Jun.'

【1st Place: Wang Jun; Level: LV. 30; Total Damage Output: 347,485 points】

Without a doubt, the pot-bellied youth was Wang Jun. He had set a new record for low-level summoner damage output, surpassing the current second place by nearly fifty thousand points of damage.

"Young Master Wang is number one—Young Master Wang is invincible!"

His lackeys immediately crowded around, like stars surrounding the moon, encircling Wang Jun in the center and showering him with praise, making Wang Jun in the middle grin so widely his face nearly bloomed like a chrysanthemum.

Lu Zheng was pressed for time. Seeing these people block the entrance completely, he immediately pushed his way through the crowd.

"Excuse me, please let me through! Thank you!"

Lu Zheng's strength was immense—greater than twice the strength of a same-level Berserker. These low-level professionals were pushed aside with a light nudge.

Even Wang Jun was no exception.

His body shoved aside beyond his control, Wang Jun felt he had been provoked. He was about to turn around and curse when he saw the person disappear directly into the cave entrance.

"You! Very well! This young master will wait right here! All of you bear witness—he laid hands first! When he comes out I'll challenge him—don't anyone say this young master bullies people by relying on his backing!"

As the eldest young master of the Wang family in Red Guard City, it was Wang Jun's first time being so ignored, shoved aside like trash. He felt his dignity had been insulted, and today he absolutely had to win back face. His bold words won a long round of cheers from his underlings, who clamored one after another for Young Master Wang to teach that kid a lesson.

Wang Jun hadn't gotten a clear look at Lu Zheng's face just now, but from the voice it was still quite young. He was certain the other party was a youth around his own age, and from the clothing didn't look like he came from any wealthy or noble family. Although he hadn't seen the other's level, he felt the other definitely wasn't his match.

He was extremely confident.

On the other side, Lu Zheng entered the cave and was directly teleported onto a grassland. A prompt immediately sounded by his ear.

【You have entered the time-limited dungeon 'Ancient Summoning' mid-level summoner challenge. The countdown begins—after 30 seconds, monsters will surge endlessly for a duration of one hour. Timer starts: 29, 28, 27…】

Lu Zheng scanned the area through the protective light barrier and found that the surroundings were full of monsters around LV. 35, vast in number with no end in sight—the farther the distance, the greater the density.

To his pleasant surprise, he was the only one here. Each person's dungeon space was separate, which meant Taotie could have a full feast!

The countdown reached zero. Lu Zheng raised his hand and released all his summoned beasts—whether elite summoned beasts, rare summoned beasts, or even immortal-grade or divine pets, he let them all out at once.

The moment Taotie appeared, it directly used its Dharma Avatar skill, transforming into a beast dozens of meters tall. Its Devouring Black Hole opened, and large swathes of monsters were cleared. Moreover, monsters in the distance were continuously sucked over—the terrifying gravitational force crushed and killed them all! The Nine-Headed Undying Phoenix directly unleashed an area ultimate: Undying Fire Sea.

In an instant, in the directions to Lu Zheng's left and right, a black sea of fire spanning the size of ten soccer fields formed. Massive numbers of monsters were burned to death on the spot, and upon their deaths, monsters nearly identical in shape to the originals, constructed from black flames, charged outward from the fire sea, charging toward the monsters that were still alive.

【Skill: Undying Fire Sea】

【Effect: Minimum cost of 1,000 mana. Creates an Undying Fire Sea within a certain area, dealing a minimum of 2,000 fire damage per second to targets within the fire sea. Creatures engulfed by the fire sea have their souls fused with Undying Nether Fire, transforming into Undying Fire Spirits that attack surrounding targets. As long as the fire sea endures, the fire spirits are immortal.】

During the city defense that day, Lu Zheng simply hadn't wanted to reveal his divine pet. Otherwise, if he had let the Nine-Headed Undying Phoenix unleash this skill that day, even if his total damage output couldn't surpass Fu Cangli, Lu Zheng felt he could at least have taken second place! Undying Fire Sea was practically an invincible area-attack skill—as long as mana didn't run out, the slaughter never stopped; it had a massive range and could even create Undying Fire Spirits.

Other summoners all tried their best to gather their combat power to protect themselves, but Lu Zheng's summoned beasts simply tore through the monster army, clearing out a large safe area for him.

Lu Zheng himself wasn't idle either. On one hand, he continued refreshing his summoning slots to obtain new summoned beasts; on the other hand, he constantly unleashed attack skills, using three types of magic to continuously deal death.

The one pity was that the monsters here didn't drop any materials—otherwise he could have made a huge profit.

Lu Zheng now had two thousand inventory slots and could store a great many things.

The monsters in this dungeon were all kinds of giant beasts, as well as dinosaur monsters like 'raptors,' but the highest level was only 50, with an average level of around 40—it was all about sheer quantity! The massive experience points sent Taotie and the Nine-Headed Undying Phoenix's levels skyrocketing. After the one-hour attack time ended, both had reached LV. 60. The other summoned beasts also improved significantly, feeding back a large number of attribute points, and Lu Zheng himself had stepped into level 59.

The one-hour challenge duration ended, and Lu Zheng appeared at the cave entrance. Wang Jun immediately rushed forward and shouted:

"Kid, don't you leave—I want to challenge you!"

But the moment those words left his mouth, a lackey beside him tugged at him and made him look toward the stone wall ranking board over there.

(End of chapter)