Chapter 281: Adventure Frenzy, Swords Pointing at the Giant Beast (Requesting Monthly Votes)

The city gate slowly opened with a roar, its rusted hinges grinding out a piercing screech.

When the gap widened enough to pass through, a wave of rotting, fishy stench rushed to their faces.

After tossing the items dropped by the boss into the spatial bag, Hong Yang and the others looked toward the city interior.

The scene of the second act, the interior of the Bone Wang Cheng, was even more gloomy than the outside.

Laid before their eyes was a main thoroughfare paved with vertebrae, flanked by lamp posts built from grim bones, within which flickered ghostly blue flames; the buildings lining both sides of the street were also constructed from piles of various types of skeletons.

"Prepare for battle!"

Old Wu's shield smashed onto the ground as a white, bone-churning tide surged from the end of the main road.

The Bone Guards attacked.

Their bones were more lustrous than the peripheral minions; the phalanx holding bone shields advanced in synchronized steps, while the archers in the rear bent their spines into full-moon shapes, aiming bone arrows burning with phosphorus fire at the sky.

A dense rain of arrows tore through the air.

The other team members immediately took their positions behind Old Wu.

Old Wu's vital energy seeped out through his pores, condensing into a semi-transparent crimson barrier before him.

The instant the phosphorus arrow rain struck the crimson barrier, it exploded into thousands of ghostly blue fireballs.

Old Wu's arm muscles knotted together, his veins wriggling like earthworms beneath his skin as vital energy continued to seep from his pores.

The corrosive energy attached to the arrows scorched the blood barrier with a sizzling sound, yet it could never penetrate this line of defense constructed from life force.

"Old Wu, charge!" Hong Yang pointed his spear directly forward.

"Here it comes." Old Wu nodded fiercely, letting his protective qi burst forth from his body to envelop him; he surged ahead like a sharp knife stabbing into the bone army formation.

Ah Qi's figure flickered through the gaps in the bone shields, his daggers leaping like phantoms between his left and right hands; every flash of cold light precisely severed the wrist bones of the bone shield-bearers, robbing them of their ability to hold shields.

Behind them, Xiao Hua raised her hand and gave a virtual clap; the Void Grasp ability slammed down repeatedly, smashing dozens of bone soldiers into a cloud of bone dust on the spot.

Xiao Ye also raised his bow at this moment, drawing the string to condense arrows and firing in rapid succession.

"Three o'clock direction!" Hong Yang roared in a deep voice at that moment.

The team members turned their heads, seeing three bone warriors, entirely crimson, rushing forward by trampling on their companions' shattered bones; the wind pressure generated by their charge caused ground bone fragments to automatically gather into a pursuing bone tornado.

Old Wu let out a furious shout, lifted his shield, twisted his body to meet them, and collided his shield with the bone blade of the leading bone warrior; the shockwave generated directly shattered over a dozen ordinary skeletons nearby.

The bone warrior was also blown away by the impact force, and in mid-air, a golden arrow shot by Xiao Ye pierced its skull, causing it to crumble into bone fragments and fall.

At this moment, Hong Yang took a bottle of "Burst Qi" potion from his spatial bag, unscrewed the cap, and gulped it down.

Immediately, the protective qi enveloping Hong Yang ignited with a color of intermingled gold and red; he swung his spear forward, weaving the protective qi into a dense net that shattered all the bone warriors around him.

With the potion's boost, Hong Yang's assault did not cease; he voluntarily broke away from the team, and during his charge, his spear successively picked apart seven bone warriors.

Just then, Xiao Hua, whose Eagle-Head Demon Perception was active, sensed an anomaly in the ground.

"Watch the ground!"

She had just issued the warning when the entire vertebrae road suddenly arched up like a living creature.

Those crushed bone fragments quickly reassembled, transforming into hundreds of bone-binding hands reaching for everyone's ankles.

Seeing this, Xiao Hua lightly stomped her foot.

Immediately, the Ice Mist Breath ability activated, exploding outward with her as the center; all the bone hands were instantly frozen into ice sculptures.

The other team members, coordinating with perfect tacit understanding, leaped up one after another; among them, Ah Qi spun in mid-air and threw twelve clone daggers generated using the Flowing Shadow ability, precisely pinning them into the eye sockets of the rear bone archers, instantly piercing their soul flames and shattering them.

"Stay close."

Old Wu pushed forward with his shield raised, and the group followed, surging ahead more than thirty meters.

But they found a gate built from giant skulls standing at the end of the road; inside the gate stood a bone caster wearing tattered priest robes, which raised a bone staff inlaid with crystals and gently pointed it forward.

A bone star ring with a diameter of over ten meters formed before it, and countless sharp bone spears protruded from the star ring, attacking through the wind.

At this moment, Ah Qi activated his Extreme Speed ability; his figure dragged a afterimage through the air as his dagger precisely stabbed into the bone mage's chest.

With the Seal Spirit ability activated, the star ring that had been continuously releasing bone spikes lost its subsequent energy maintenance and instantly dissipated.

The bone spears that had been shot were knocked down by the blood barrier released by Old Wu.

Ah Qi circled the bone mage's neck once with one hand, then moved to the back; his dagger, bearing the Critical Strike ability, precisely stabbed into the gap in the skull, shattering the soul flame.

He then pushed off with both feet, his figure drifting as he leaped backward.

Boom!

Xiao Hua's elemental mixed ball smashed down, and the bone mage's body crumbled apart in the elemental forging fire.

Amidst the fierce battle, the battle formation composed of five hundred bone warriors was completely cleared.

After the battle ended, the five of them lay sprawled on the ground, sweating profusely from exhaustion, yet smiles were unmistakable on their faces.

The joy of clearing minions was far more interesting than challenging a boss.

"Pension, get to work, you only know how to eat." At this moment, Hong Yang summoned his raised financial pet "Fat Peach" and issued an order.

Fat Peach pouted its butt and began working, picking up a God-Cast Coin and bringing it to Hong Yang's side to drop it, then rushing to the next drop point, its figure darting quickly across the bone battlefield.

The other team members also summoned their pets at this moment and activated "Auto-Loot Mode."

All five members of the team chose the same pet: Fat Peach.

This was also the first choice for the vast majority of players when configuring their pets.

Although Fat Peach had weak combat power, it was the only financial pet that could generate continuous income without any restrictions.

Hong Yang and the others then took potions from their spatial bags and gulped them down in large mouthfuls.

They opened the regional chat channel, which was extremely lively:

"Listen to my advice, everyone: don't choose the Delirium Theater dungeon; it's full of mechanic monsters. Some monsters must be killed by following the mechanics. After finishing the first act, I'm exhausted. I will definitely never choose this broken dungeon again."

"The Bone Wang Zuo dungeon is good. We pushed to the boss of the second act scene and haven't encountered any mechanic monsters yet; it's been a smooth, satisfying clear the whole way."

"A newbie got a drop. Asking the experts: how many Shou Shou Jili is this thing worth? (Screenshot. jpg)"

"What I find strange is why killing monsters in the dungeon doesn't grant hunting rewards, only random spawn rewards?"

"I asked the Guide about the question from upstairs. The Guide's answer was that the monsters in the spatial scenes are all generated by the Blue Lamp Clan using the power of the Divine Lamp rules. Being killed is essentially just having that portion of power withdrawn according to the spatial rules' settings — it doesn't count as a kill. It's all a script; there are no real monsters at all. Although some spaces use the true memories of living beings destroyed by the Divine Lamp Clan, those are only extracted memories."

……

Scrolling through the regional channel's discussion, Hong Yang nodded in sudden understanding.

He had had a similar doubt just now.

Why was it that monsters killed in the instance didn't give feedback, only a probability of dropping items?

So it turned out this didn't count as a real kill at all.

It was all settings written into the spatial scenes.

After the rest ended, Hong Yang began tallying the gains from this battle.

500 Skeleton Warriors dropped 12 Divine Coins, three Grade-2 spirit plants, and two iron armors — the gains were decent.

After the rest ended, the squad continued deeper along the Spine Avenue. On the walls piled from bones on either side of the street, twisted relief sculptures began to appear.

One could faintly make out scenes of countless Bone Clan citizens kneeling in prayer.

Every image on the murals recorded the history of the Bone Clan.

Ah Qi, who was very interested in the background story, began asking the Guide what certain parts of the murals he couldn't understand actually meant.

The Bone Clan's story also surfaced through the Q&A.

In fact, the Blue Lamp Clan did not exist in the Bone Clan's background story.

In the Guide's telling, Bone Clan beings were not entirely skeletal in form, but rather a kind of undead life.

They were born from a great tomb — special lifeforms created by a being who mastered necromantic arts.

They had pale white skin, grey eyes, and possessed the innate ability to control the power of death.

Their purpose for existing was to fight like cannon fodder under the necromancer's control.

In wars spanning endless ages, the first-generation Bone Clan king awakened self-awareness through slaughter and devouring, and launched a war of rebellion against the necromancer.

This war was won by the first-generation king, and the Bone Clan was thus born.

Thereafter, this king's achievements even surpassed those of the necromancer.

He pored over the knowledge and materials left behind by the necromancer, comprehended necromantic arts, and ultimately accomplished what the necromancer had pursued his whole life but could never achieve — that is, turning the rule-territory "Great Tomb" where undead were born into a rule-item: March of the Dead.

After this, the first-generation leader led the Bone Clan to begin the march of conquering the outer worlds. Among the reliefs was one such scene: the first-generation leader raised high the March of the Dead rule in the shape of a banner, looked down upon the hundreds of millions of his subjects below, and made his vow.

These words were carved upon the relief:

"All who fall in battle may be reforged as citizens of the Bone Clan."

The emergence of March of the Dead utterly transformed the civilization-form of the Bone Clan.

As the conquests continued, the Bone Clan gradually split into two great groups.

The main division was into the Living and the Resurrected.

The Living referred to the native Bone Clan naturally born from the Great Tomb. They had pale white skin, silver-blue blood, and grey-white pupils with fractured traces, retaining the purest innate talent for necromancy.

The Resurrected referred to beings revived through March of the Dead after dying in battle.

Within them, there was a further division into two parts.

One part consisted of the Bone Clan's forebears and ancestors — the new generations of the Bone Clan could even see the first-generation Laozu Sect.

The other part existed as slaves, composed of bone servants resurrected after death from beings of other races. They were never released from March of the Dead's control, and for all eternity would fight the outer worlds on behalf of the Bone Clan.

Relying on the formidable power granted by March of the Dead, the Bone Clan's population grew ever larger.

But the process of expansion was not entirely smooth sailing. There had been several near-extinction crises, and the Bone Clan's first-generation king died in war.

The Skeleton Wang Cheng shown in the instance's background story was the city established by the eighth-generation Bone Clan king, and was also the core city of Bone Clan civilization.

The entire city was forged from dragon-beast remains and the bones of thousands of races.

The Wang Cheng at its peak, as depicted on the murals: white Shanfeng pierced the clouds, the Spine Zhudian floated in the heavens, millions of Bone Clan mages ceaselessly maintained the eternal barrier of the Skeleton Wang Zuo with the power of death. Blood-river tributaries flowed through the city, and at the riverbed settled the bone true-blood that could be refined to make Nether Pills — this was the source of life sustaining the Bone Clan's existence.

At the city's center, eight burial altars operated day and night without rest, birthing Bone Clan beings every moment, their ghostly blue soul-flames dyeing the night sky into aurora.

What the later murals depicted was mainly the Bone Clan of the final era.

At that time, this Wang Cheng had two rulers — the Bone Emperor and the Skeleton Emperor. They were twin sovereigns birthed by the same mother, jointly wielding the highest authority of the Skeleton Wang Cheng.

It was precisely through the joint efforts of these two sovereigns that the Bone Clan built a super-power spanning five worlds.

But on the matter of racial development, the Bone Emperor and the Skeleton Emperor developed a serious divergence, which ultimately erupted into a war for the highest authority.

This war was incomparably brutal. The Skeleton Emperor personally led the Dark Knights in a surprise assault on the main city's barrier; the Curse Wielders following the Skeleton Emperor loosed a rain of curse-arrows; Stitched Freaks and Ghouls fearlessly threw themselves against the walls….

This war was ultimately won by the Bone Emperor, who wielded the March of the Dead rule, becoming the new generation king of the Bone Clan.

The mural's content ended here.

But the Guide's story continued. It generated a screen of light, displaying content not carved upon the murals.

Not long after the Bone Emperor's victory, just as he was about to hold the "Coronation Ceremony," the sky above the Skeleton Wang Cheng suddenly turned into a diamond-shaped grid.

Without warning, without declaration of war, without even giving the Bone Clan time to prepare, the Blue Lamp Clan's strike descended.

The floating Spine Zhudian was twisted; the eternal barrier maintained by millions of mages burst like fragile soap bubbles; the skeleton walls collapsed in an instant; the blood river that had flowed for tens of millions of years surged backward.

It was as if a giant foot descended from the sky upon an ant kingdom, crushing the entire city.

Even though the Bone Emperor, at the final moment, paid the price of burning his soul-flame and, together with his clansmen, refined the city's blood river into a ghostly blue fire-pillar piercing heaven and earth, he still could not withstand the terrifying suppression of the Blue Lamp Clan's Divine Lamp rule-power.

At the final moment before the city was devoured by the Divine Lamp rule, several illusory figures of Blue Lamp Clan members appeared in the sky. They held Divine Lamps and were recording the Bone Clan's civilization data, just as humans use microscopes to observe the death of bacteria.

In the end, the crushed city was reshaped under the Divine Lamp rule.

Upon the Zhudian's dome, the final-era sovereign, the Bone Emperor, seemed to return to the Wang Zuo as if time flowed backward, his mouth repeating the expectations he had for the Bone Clan's future on the eve of the catastrophe's arrival:

"We are born of death, yet understand the meaning of eternity better than the living. Henceforth, I alone am supreme. I shall take bone as shield, take skeleton as sword, and build an immortal dynasty with you all."

The Bone Emperor's memories became the eternal lingering echo within the instance.

It was clearly also the final boss of the "Skeleton Wang Zuo" instance.

But this instance, in essence, was a civilization specimen.

Just as humans pin butterflies in specimen boxes, the Blue Lantern Clan has frozen this once-glorious civilization forever in the instant before its destruction.

The entire Bone King City is perfectly preserved within the Divine Lamp space, like a rare animal specimen soaked in formaldehyde in a museum.

Every wandering skeleton guard was a warrior who, facing the crisis of world destruction, followed the Bone Emperor and burned out their life force to ensure the continuation of their civilization.

The Bone Emperor on the throne was also frozen forever in the final second before the Blue Lantern Clan's arrival; at that moment, he was spreading his arms to announce a new era of civilization to his ministers, his eyes still fixed with expectation for the future.

When humans make animal specimens, they preserve the animal's most characteristic posture.

But when the Blue Lantern Clan makes civilization specimens, they completely recreate the most desperate moment of that race.

Essentially, this instance is not a virtual creation designed by someone, but a real civilization turned into an eternal three-dimensional animation.

Every time it is challenged by beings from other races, it displays the moment before that lost civilization's destruction.

The adventurers play the role of the destroyers.

The difference is that the civilizations the Divine Lamp Clan casually destroyed have been woven into adventurer instances that must be cleared through layer upon layer of challenges.

After learning the background story of the Bone Clan, Hong Yang and others walked into the city.

Passing through a bone corridor covered in spiral carvings, they arrived at a circular plaza where a hundred-meter-tall statue stood; this was the last master of the Bone King City, the "Bone Emperor."

"If this weren't a fictional scene, after I smashed this thing and sacrificed it all to Beneath Di Zhao, I could probably sell it for quite a bit of money," Ah Qi said with a look of regret, looking up at the Bone Emperor statue.

"Your idea reminds me of the warships the Black Wind Clan brought when they invaded the Colorful Mist Coast back then; in the end, we smashed them all and sacrificed them to Beneath Di Zhao, and I earned over 800 points of Shou Shou Jili from it," Old Wu said somewhat nostalgically.

"What is the Black Wind Clan?" Xiao Ye asked curiously.

"A race that unlocked the Arena gameplay mode. If it hadn't been for the Black Wind Clan back then, we players wouldn't have been able to access the Ancient God Arena..."

As Old Wu narrated, a past event known only to veteran players unfolded in the minds of Hong Yang and the others.

Just as the story ended and the squad reached the center of the plaza, ghostly blue soul fire suddenly flashed in the sky, falling like a rainstorm.

Cracks in a spiderweb pattern split open in the trembling ground, seeping out foul-smelling black fog, while the sound of grinding bones came from overhead.

Then a massive shadow spiraled down from the dome; Hong Yang and the others looked up to see a colossal creature with a gray-white body writhing segment by segment, resembling a skinless giant python or a centipede with a white exoskeleton.

It crashed down onto the center of the plaza with a boom, sending rubble flying and knocking Old Wu, who was closest, flying.

The second act scene boss appeared at this moment.

Its form was assembled from gray-white body segments; sharp bone legs extended from both sides of each body section. The front of its skull swelled into a ferocious cranium, with three eyes arranged in an inverted triangle, burning with ghostly blue soul fire inside. Its lower jaw protruded like a guillotine, densely packed with serrated fangs. It also had two bone hands, each holding a bone scythe. A spiral bone spike protruded from the tip of its tail, dripping corrosive Brother Brother Heiye.

As the analysis swept over it, relevant information appeared.

【Bone Mang Mang Xingxing · Thousand-Segment Burial Bone】

Hunting Level: 74

Target Introduction: A war weapon voluntarily forged by the fusion of twelve Imperial Guard Knights of the Bone King City. It roams the Bone King City in the guise of an executioner, executing resurrected beings who dare to defy the monarch's will. Death runes personally inscribed by the monarch are embedded in its joints; whenever an execution is carried out, the runes glow with bloody red light, decomposing the victim's soul and body into pure death energy, which becomes nourishment for the "Army of the Dead."

"Xiao Hua, Xiao Ye, retreat, create a safe distance!" Old Wu, who had been knocked flying and landed, roared, then suddenly hoisted his shield and charged toward the Thousand-Segment Burial Bone.

At this moment, the black fog rising from the ground suddenly boiled, transforming into countless bone claws that wrapped toward the group.

Old Wu's shield slammed down with a boom, shaking the lunging bone claws into dust.

Hong Yang leaped up right behind, his spear thrusting toward the monster's body with the sound of tearing the air.

However, as soon as the spear touched the gray-white exoskeleton, a harsh metallic grinding sound erupted. The Thousand-Segment Burial Bone's side legs suddenly swept horizontally; Hong Yang barely managed to flip away, but the ground was slashed with five deep, bottomless trenches.

"Xiao Hua, crowd control!"

Ah Qi's voice came mixed with the sound of a dagger cutting through the air.

Xiao Hua, who had already retreated to the rear, emitted blue light from her fingertips; ice fog spread from her as the starting point toward the Thousand-Segment Burial Bone, and upon contacting its body, transformed into frost that quickly spread and covered it.

The monster threw its head back, its roar shaking everyone's eardrums with pain, and as it shook its body, frost scattered.

The spiral bone spike at the tail suddenly whipped out at this moment, stabbing toward Ah Qi attacking from behind.

Whoosh!

A blood qi arrow sliced through the air, precisely hitting the joint of the bone spike, allowing Ah Qi to escape.

The Brother Brother Heiye splashed from the tip of the tail onto the ground, "sizzling" and corroding a deep pit.

Enraged, the Thousand-Segment Burial Bone thrashed its body; the deathly arc of light drawn by its bone scythes forced the group to retreat continuously.

Old Wu's shield collided with a bone scythe, and the resulting shockwave crushed the plaza's stone slabs.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Thousand-Segment Burial Bone's main target was Old Wu, Hong Yang seized the opportunity and thrust his spear straight into the monster's lower jaw. Ah Qi also flashed forward, leaped onto the spear, and drove his dagger deep into the monster's left eye.

The ghostly blue soul fire in one eye suddenly exploded; the Thousand-Segment Burial Bone thrashed wildly, flinging Ah Qi into the air.

It then raised its head, opened its bloody mouth, and tried to swallow Ah Qi in one gulp.

Seeing there was no time to support, Old Wu decisively activated Taunt, attempting to draw the Thousand-Segment Burial Bone's aggression.

But facing the Thousand-Segment Burial Bone without equipped memory, the Taunt trait was completely nullified.

In this critical moment, Hong Yang threw out Blood Soul Tether, pulling Ah Qi away just one second before he was swallowed.

Snap!

The Thousand-Segment Burial Bone's mouth slammed shut, making a crisp sound.

Old Wu also decisively retracted the Taunt trait and smashed the monster's body hard with his shield.

Meanwhile, Hong Yang used the Blood Soul Tether to swing Ah Qi around in a circle, then threw Ah Qi back at the Thousand-Segment Burial Bone again.

The dagger, which carried the Critical Strike trait, suddenly gouged into the second eye.

The Thousand-Segment Burial Bone, in pain, thrashed its body wildly.

"Take my spear!" Hong Yang launched himself upward, stabbing the spear into the joint gaps of the Thousand-Segment Burial Bone.

But the Thousand-Segment Burial Bone still possessed formidable combat power; after a brief shriek, it launched another attack.

Hong Yang and the others, already somewhat unable to hold on, decisively drank potions to recover health.

This battle lasted over ten minutes.

Finally, amidst constant maneuvering and grappling, the Thousand-Segment Burial Bone let out a wail, and the stripes branded on its body cracked inch by inch.

The soul fire inside its skull was finally pierced by Xiao Ye's volley of arrows; the massive body crashed to the ground with a boom, turning into a pile of white bone fragments.

The battle ended; Old Wu collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily, his health bar already depleted.

"I'm exhausted; this thing's health bar is truly thick," Hong Yang also fell, retracting his spear into his body in an instant, lying on his back with his chest heaving violently from rapid breathing.

"Opening the box," Xiao Ye's call drew everyone's attention.

Old Wu and Hong Yang decisively turned their heads to look.

A translucent light sphere appeared where the Thousand-Joint Burial Bones had manifested, with faint, fragmented golden light shimmering inside.

As the light sphere trembled slightly, four reward items floated out from within.

Scanning revealed the first reward was a Level 3 spiritual plant, crystal clear throughout, named "Nether Cold Lotus."

The second reward was a black energy crystal inscribed with mysterious patterns, "Death Tempering."

The third reward was a cape-like bone armor; the analysis displayed its name as "Executioner's Judgment," composed of tiny white bone scales stitched together, with edges burning in pale purple and white bone flames.

The final reward was a uniquely shaped scythe-like weapon, "Soul Devourer," its blade dark red like congealed blood, covered in fine barbs, with a deep blue soul pearl embedded in the hilt.

After calculation, the total sacrifice value of these four items was 4,938 points of Shou Shou Jili.

In the trading hall, energy crystals and spiritual plants could likely be sold at a premium of over 30%.

As for weapons and equipment, they could only be sacrificed to Beneath Di Zhao.

Keeping them in players' hands would be useless; instead, their price could be raised slightly to list them on the trading hall for players who do not use rune-resonance weapons.

Such players are in the minority, yet they do exist.

They feel rune-resonance weapons consume too much Shou Shou Jili, preferring to use that Shou Shou Jili to strengthen themselves, choosing to continue using ordinary Shangcheng weapons or Spirit-Weapon combat.

With the battle over, Hong Yang and the others began to rest on the spot.

They purchased potions from the Shangcheng to replenish stamina and blood, preparing to advance toward the third act scene.

At this moment, the mist outside the square automatically dispersed, revealing a road leading to the inner city.

But whether they could clear the third act scene, they had no certainty in their hearts.

With the squad's strength, challenging the second act scene boss was already extremely difficult, even nearly costing them a team member.

They might very well end this dungeon journey within the third act scene.

Three hours later.

Hong Yang's squad encountered the boss of the third act scene.

The difficulty of this engagement rose significantly; the five squad members were unquestionably defeated and eliminated, their souls returning to Beneath Di Zhao.

During the resurrection cooldown, Hong Yang began browsing the forum.

At this time, all discussions on the forum concerned the dungeon.

Many powerful teams were creating speedrun guides.

Furthermore, research-oriented teams had collected the recent clearance data posted on the forum and compiled a dungeon clearance record leaderboard.

Identical dungeons were arranged according to clearance time.

Even the Divine Hall Guild participated in this dungeon challenge; their top-tier five-hundred-person team had already consecutively secured clearance achievements for three Level 6 scenes.

Their strength and Hong Yang's squad were simply not on the same level.

The monster strength in Level 6 scenes had reached around Level 80, with over a dozen bosses guarding each scene.

Regarding start time, they entered the dungeon at roughly the same point as their squad; judging by this pace, they basically cleared the dungeon with a relentless, sweeping advance.

If not for the dungeon's participant limit, which could accommodate a maximum of five hundred people.

Had the Divine Hall Guild used their strongest ten-thousand-person war mode to raid the dungeon, they would likely have cleared it even more easily.

Driven by curiosity, Hong Yang clicked on one of the videos.

In the footage, the Divine Hall Guild's five-hundred-person squad rolled over the dungeon scene like an iron torrent.

A triangular spearhead formation composed of one hundred damage-absorbing tanks led the way, smashing through even the golden city walls within the dungeon, bypassing the main gate entirely; behind them, two hundred magic-type players continuously attacked, layering and exploding three celestial phenomena—ice mist blizzard, ink-flame meteor shower, and thunderstorm—over the golden city, instantly clearing a thousand-meter vacuum zone.

During this, tactical coordination was even more terrifying; as the magic-type players' three elemental celestial phenomena dissipated, one hundred archers immediately filled the firepower gap, their arrows breaking the air and tracing energy paths like precision-guided shells, accurately bombarding monsters further away; with every rain of arrows falling, the ground would be covered with dense piles of golden monster corpses.

Twelve assassin-type players responsible for decapitation were the best of the entire match; before the main team could catch up, they relied on shadow stealth to reach the scene's endpoint and launched a textbook-style encirclement kill on the gatekeeper boss in a rule-breaking manner.

During the boss fight, the twelve assassin-type players each generated twelve clones.

Throughout the entire battle, they shifted positions, including the clones of other assassin players, which were also their targets for shifting.

The boss couldn't even touch the original bodies of the assassin-type players before being pinned to the ground.

By the time the main force crushed the minions and arrived, the assassin team's players had already entered the second act scene.

In comparison, they had to exhaust themselves just to kill one scene boss, while the Divine Hall Guild's team seemed to be playing in speedrun mode.

Keep in mind, this was a Level 6 dungeon, yet they couldn't even clear a Level 4 dungeon.

After watching the video content, only two words remained in Hong Yang's heart: Awesome.

If not for the time spent traveling, judging by the Divine Hall team's kill efficiency, they would likely have cleared a dungeon even faster.

The niche Painful Painful Minghun "Wind Breaker" performed exceptionally well in this dungeon mode.

The movement speed bonus under the aura amplification was simply a divine skill for teams wanting to speed-run dungeons, significantly saving travel time.

After watching several speed-run videos consecutively, Hong Yang even felt that he and the Divine Hall team members were not playing the same game.

It also ignited Ben De Xiang Fa to fight the dungeon again.

Once the resurrection cooldown ended, Hong Yang and his teammates' figures appeared in the teleportation square.

Before departing, Hong Yang signaled his teammates to wait briefly.

After activating the block mode, challenge notifications constantly rang in his mind; players continuously private-messaged him, asking if he was willing to sell the Rule Fragment.

The offers ranged across all prices.

From as high as 500,000 Shou Shou Jili down to 50 points of Shou Shou Jili.

Although tempted by some of the offers, he still decided to first ask his teammates' You De Xiang Fa:

"Dead March Fragment, do you intend to sell it, or keep it for us to use ourselves?"

"Let's get it out; this thing has too many restrictions. We players devour monsters directly when we kill them—where would we get remains to summon bone servants? My suggestion is to sell it to whoever bids highest. Pouring massive amounts of Shou Shou Jili into pseudo-rules is meaningless unless it's an extremely overpowered pseudo-rule like the Painful Painful Minghun brothers'; that would be worth attempting to craft into a Painful Painful Minghun."

Hearing Ah Qi's response, Hong Yang's gaze turned to Xiao Ye, Lao Wu, and Xiao Hua.

"I also agree to sell. Pseudo-rules aren't as useful as the existing Painful Painful Minghun system. Exchanging Shou Shou Jili to boost strength is the true way." Lao Wu immediately voiced his stance.

"This item is only suitable for exploration players—those who roam mountains and rivers seeking alien tombs, cultivating an undead army through grave-robbing. But an undead army can't be brought back to the newbie village; it's ultimately external power. So I also agree to sell it for Shou Shou Jili."

Hearing his teammates all suggest selling, Hong Yang nodded, summoned his contact list, and began comparing prices.

Among the players who private messaged him, the highest bid was 500,000 Shou Shou Jili.

The yield from sacrificing Beneath Di Zhao was 468,000 Shou Shou Jili.

According to the Shou Shou Jili premium calculated by forum players, the valuation of March of the Dead was around 600,000.

But since this item was related to rules, although our players would likely find it useless if bought, there were always players who liked researching strange things; perhaps it could truly sell for an even higher price.

After discussing with his teammates, Hong Yang listed it on the trading hall for 800,000 Shou Shou Jili, planning to lower the price if it didn't sell.

At the very least, it would yield 500,000 Shou Shou Jili.

What he didn't expect was that less than 5 seconds after the rule fragment went on sale, a Challenger notification rang in his mind:

【Challenger Notification: The consignment item "Rule Fragment - March of the Dead" in the trading hall was successfully sold. You obtained 760,000 Shou Shou Jili.】

"Holy crap, it sold already?"

Summoning his spatial bag to check his balance, Hong Yang's eyes immediately widened.

He truly couldn't figure out which wealthy "sucker" would buy this thing for 800,000 Shou Shou Jili.

The Painful Painful Minghun prices in his own Star Pulse combination were cheap; compared to March of the Dead, they were all advantages with no various restriction conditions.

Yet March of the Dead had a huge pile of problems.

First, you needed corpses; second, after resurrection, it could only possess partial strength, with combat power severely weakened.

So, what use could buying this thing possibly have?

"Boss, did it sell?" Seeing the change in Hong Yang's expression, Ah Qi asked curiously.

"Sold. Snapped up in 800,000 instantly. The speed was so fast I feel like I lost a hundred million. I keep feeling it could have fetched a higher price, but I can't figure out what use buying this thing has." Hong Yang shook his head, then activated the team trading mode.

He transferred 152,000 Shou Shou Jili to each of the four teammates.

"Maybe the Arms Dealers Guild bought it for research, or perhaps the Gold Coin Guild snapped it up. Just now, a brother from the Gold Coin Guild contacted me, wanting to bid 500,000 to buy it."

Just as the squad members began discussing this heatedly.

Xiao Xiao Fa, located in the Earth Roar Continent region, upon hearing the Challenger notification of a successful purchase, took the March of the Dead fragment from his spatial bag, a smile appearing on his face.

Buying this thing for 800,000 was incredibly worth it.

Rule fragments with too many restrictions indeed held little value for players.

But for the Spirit Breath Clan, it was simply a free opportunity.

The Spirit Breath Clan was worrying about how to begin crafting rule items; March of the Dead could be used for research.

More importantly, he could use Shou Shou Jili to craft March of the Dead into a pseudo-rule.

For the Spirit Breath Clan, the value of a pseudo-rule item was far beyond comparison with ordinary resources.

Ordinary resources were everywhere in the Monster World, including many spiritual plants and spiritual ores once considered rare resources by the Spirit Breath Clan, which were also visible everywhere in the Monster World.

But obtaining a pseudo-rule was difficult.

Although even rules were plentiful in the Monster World.

But whether rules or pseudo-rules, they could only be obtained through warfare, snatched from the hands of other races.

And warfare meant risk, potentially leading the Spirit Breath Clan to destruction.

This was the biggest difference between the player perspective and the alien perspective.

Items of ordinary value in the eyes of many aliens, or even resources that couldn't be utilized, could produce huge amounts of Shou Shou Jili in the hands of players.

For example, back then when the Gold Coin Guild went to alien islands to collect goods, they received many high-value spiritual resources from aliens using Shang Cheng Wu Pin, then resold them on the trading hall, earning considerable profits.

Whereas pseudo-rule fragments of little value in players' eyes were unimaginably high-value items for aliens, especially for weak aliens without rule support; owning a pseudo-rule could give the clan's future more possibilities.

This thing, don't say 800,000 Shou Shou Jili, even 1.8 million he would be willing to buy.

With the rule fragment, the Spirit Breath Clan's plan to research rules, and even create rules, could finally continue.

On the other side, Dream Island.

Ah Lan, who had just logged on, upon learning a player was selling a pseudo-rule, decisively added a friend to make contact.

Learning the pseudo-rule fragment was being sold for 800,000 Shou Shou Jili, he sighed helplessly in his heart.

As someone dealing in alien trade, he knew very well that this thing indeed held little value in the player system; ordinary players would never spend Shou Shou Jili to buy it, but its value when offered up was different.

Upon logging on and learning of the rule fragment, his first thought was to conduct several rounds of promotion on the trading market of Dream Island.

Then hold an alien auction, selling the rule fragment to the alien with the highest bid.

He felt selling it for resources equivalent to 3 million Shou Shou Jili was no problem at all; some clans might even be willing to exhaust their entire clan's resources to buy it.

Owning a rule meant owning the future and growth potential; this thing couldn't be estimated based on the price of sacrificing Beneath Di Zhao.

Beneath Di Zhao's collection only looked at the essence of the sacrificed item.

For example, throwing a real-world Sky Dome Weapon System to Beneath Di Zhao for recycling, Beneath Di Zhao would only estimate the price based on the quality and weight of the metal material, completely ignoring the advanced carving technology used to forge this weapon system, as well as the time and labor costs invested in forging this system.

This was also the reason forum players joked that Beneath Di Zhao's buybacks always quoted scrap prices.

Pseudo-rule fragments could also be viewed as high-tech items; selling them for even higher prices outside was possible.

Unfortunately, the pseudo-rule fragment had already been sold, and it was unclear whose hands it was currently in.

Otherwise, he would be willing to add more to buy it back.

After remaining silent for a long time, Ah Lan decided to post on the forum, raising the buy price to 1 million.

This price was naturally not his psychological limit.

But if the player who bought the rule fragment came to contact him, the price could still be negotiated.

At this moment, Aran did not know that no matter how high a price he offered, he could never acquire another fragment of the "March of the Dead."

For the buyer of the fragment was precisely the "alien faction" he believed craved rule-based power above all else.

……

While all players were enthusiastically participating in the dungeon mode.

Emperor's Tomb Mountains, Heaven's Abyss Node.

Mental Communication Network.

Ghost Fang: Where the hell are the player bastards? Why haven't any of them shown up at the five nodes? They must've finally given up after our combined strikes—our hard times are finally over.

Blood Vein: Don't let your guard down. They might be gathering strength for a major war—I feel players won't give up so easily.

Rot Heart: They've given up for sure. Not a single one's shown up in this time—definitely not coming back. We're free, but the Alliance can't dissolve. Boss Di Nian is too strong; I still need to keep learning from him.

Iron Spine: Bro Four, all you've learned is mental taunting tactics—what else?

Rot Heart: Iron Spine, your mom spirals into the sky! Who the hell are you calling Bro Four? Don't use player lines to piss me off—get lost!

Di Nian: Quiet, all of you. Players won't vanish. I've interacted with the Player Clan for a long time—I know this is just a temporary phenomenon they occasionally exhibit: disappearing for stretches, then returning stronger than ever. I suspect they're undergoing some kind of enhancement right now.

Iron Spine: No way, they're coming back again? I'm sick of fighting them. Honestly, even if players are strong, I'm not afraid. Before I descended into the Monster World, I fought in four minor battlefield realms—each time I started as the weaker side, yet I always turned the tide, crushed those worlds. But players are different. These bastards don't produce even a speck of Black Tide energy even when swallowed by it. I've never seen such stingy creatures in my life.

Di Nian: Brothers, don't worry. What we must do now is use this time while players are gone to grow stronger—launch external expansion, seize every opportunity to become stronger before the players return, so we can face them with greater power.

Rot Heart: Boss Di Nian, any suggestions for development? Should we develop our nodes separately, or pool resources into one node for expansion?

Di Nian: Both approaches have advantages. Separate development speeds up expansion; concentrated development makes it easier to break through enemy blockades. Let me first examine the environmental data from all five nodes.

With that, Di Nian's demonic spirit opened its eyes:

"Evil Eye, I need data from all five nodes."

"Ojbk." The Evil Eye nodded and transmitted the environmental data shared by the other four nodes directly into Di Nian's demonic spirit's mind.

After reviewing the data from the other four nodes, it concluded that separate development was more suitable.

None of the other four nodes faced powerful enemies nearby—he could freely channel Black Tide energy to them, aiding their plunder and expansion.

Just as he was about to decide, Di Nian's expression froze—he suddenly remembered a faction to the east of Emperor's Tomb Mountains.

When his lateral expansion plan began, his first chosen direction was eastward advancement, until he halted his devouring at the edge of the Golden Ocean Realm.

Investigation revealed that the Golden Ocean teemed with colossal creatures; the Black Tide under his control stood no chance against them.

That investigation had severed one of his lateral expansion routes, forcing him to turn westward instead.

Who knows when a powerful enemy might appear to block his path westward too.

Then he'd be surrounded on all sides—with nowhere to go.

He realized he could combine the strength of the other four nodes to devour this Golden Realm—doing so would also serve his own future interests.

Though he currently had other nodes to assist his growth,

having another escape route was always better than being trapped in a dead end.

With his resolve clear, Di Nian's demonic spirit reconnected to the Mental Communication Network:

"Prepare your Black Tide energy—converge on my node. Let's go!"

(End of Chapter)