Lin Mo was already eighty percent certain, "This Frost Dance is probably the woman Zhang Long mentioned, the one who killed Chen Jun. She's also the Boss's adopted daughter."
"She might be our breakthrough."
Ning Xi said, "Brother Lin Mo, should we come up with a plan to lure them out?"
"No," Lin Mo said, "This Frost Dance isn't from Inferno City. She should have just arrived from another main city through the main city teleportation array."
"Since she went to all the trouble of coming to Inferno City, she must have received orders from the Boss. Her goal is definitely to join forces with Nether to deal with us."
"There's no need to make the first move. They'll come looking for us."
That worked out perfectly.
Lin Mo still had to help Siya repair the Heart of Eternity.
He still had the S-rank hidden quest Heart's Knot.
He still had the hidden class advancement quest Ghost Domain Conqueror.
He also had to help Ning Xi level up the Divine Might Tower.
A whole pile of main tasks.
Lin Mo didn't have time to bother with setting traps.
It was much more efficient to wait for them to come to him.
Besides, he had already seen what Frost Dance was capable of.
No matter what she tried, a small fish couldn't stir up huge waves in the ocean.
As for Nether, he simply hadn't grown yet.
Although the Judge class could plunder any talent, even SSS-rank ones, under the current game mechanics, the talents he stole were only temporary.
Only after Divine Oracle descended would the Judge truly rise.
Because after Divine Oracle, players would no longer revive after death.
In other words, once a player was killed by a Judge and died permanently, their talent would permanently belong to the Judge as well.
After all, in his previous life, Nether had been the second strongest player on the Dragon Nation server, surpassed only by Ning Xi, and one of the world's seven SSS-rank hidden class holders.
As for this Frost Dance, she wasn't even one-tenth as strong as Nether before he had fully developed.
Two words summed her up: complete trash.
Nothing to worry about.
Lin Mo and Ning Xi shifted their focus back to the Super God Arena.
After today's Super God Arena matches, they steadily secured forty consecutive victories across the solo, duo, pet, and five-player events, earning 120 Arena EXP.
Their ranks both rose from Silver IV (20/100) to Silver V (40/100).
Lin Mo said hopefully, "At this rate, once we finish tomorrow's matches, we'll break into Gold rank."
Reaching Gold rank meant much more than unlocking a new Gold Points Shop filled with rare resources.
More importantly, once they reached Gold rank, they could enter the Level 75 Dark Dungeon.
There, he could find the artificer Mo Chen and have Siya's Heart of Eternity repaired.
He could also complete Ah Li's second-stage growth mission.
Still, he'd have to wait one more day.
Before that...
"This afternoon's goal is to finish the first stage of Ghost Domain Conqueror and find the first fragment of the Eye of Chaos."
After leaving the Super God Arena, they stopped by the pharmacy to restock on mana potions.
Then Lin Mo and Ning Xi left the city and headed straight for the Level 72 Nightmare Town in the eastern region of Inferno City.
———
Following the map's guidance, about twenty minutes later, they arrived at a vast, empty ruin.
Looking across the endless ruins before her, Ning Xi asked doubtfully, "Is this the place, Brother Lin Mo? Where's Nightmare Town?"
Lin Mo closed the map, "Places connected to the Supreme Race of Divine Oracle are usually well hidden."
"Just like the Divine Clan's Divine Tomb, it appears to players as a rare hidden dungeon."
"So Nightmare Town is actually a hidden map."
There was no marker for Nightmare Town on Inferno City's map.
However, as the executor of the Ghost Domain Conqueror quest, Lin Mo had received special system guidance, allowing him to see Nightmare Town's location.
According to the map, its coordinates matched these ruins exactly.
So it wasn't hard to guess, "The hidden entrance to Nightmare Town should be buried somewhere in these ruins."
"Let's go look."
With that, the two stepped into the Level 72 Forsaken Land, an area that required Silver V rank to enter.
The moment they entered...
Buzz!
A powerful, gloomy aura swept over them.
It caused no actual damage.
But both Lin Mo and Ning Xi immediately felt intense mental pressure.
Drawing on two years of experience from his previous life, during which he had dealt with every major supreme race in the world of Divine Oracle, Lin Mo recognized it instantly, "The Ghost Clan's aura."
"Wait!"
Lin Mo suddenly frowned.
"This aura... its intensity isn't right."
He could clearly tell that the Ghost Clan aura spreading through the Forsaken Land was even more oppressive than that of a Ghost Sovereign he had personally witnessed in his previous life, a being that had casually wiped out the three strongest Heaven Ranking experts of Lin Mo's level-one main city with a flick of its finger.
Within the Ghost Clan, a Ghost Sovereign ranked above Ghost Beasts, Ghost Soldiers, Ghost Generals, Ghost Kings, and Ghost Saints.
Its status was second only to a Ghost Emperor.
Hearing this, Ning Xi exclaimed, "Brother Lin Mo, are you saying... there's a Ghost Sovereign hiding inside the hidden map Nightmare Town?"
"This is only the first stage of the quest, and the enemy is already at that level."
"Isn't this quest way too difficult?"
Lin Mo shook his head, "Not necessarily a Ghost Sovereign."
"It could be that ancient demonic artifact."
"The Eye of Chaos."
The thought made Lin Mo even more puzzled.
According to the quest description, what was buried in Nightmare Town was only a single fragment of the Eye of Chaos.
Just one fragment could release power far beyond that of a Ghost Sovereign, comparable to a Ghost Emperor.
No wonder the class advancement quest description said: [Whoever obtains the Eye of Chaos can become the Ghost Clan's Emperor, with all ghosts submitting before them.]
At that moment, Lin Mo became even more determined to complete the quest, obtain the complete Eye of Chaos, and advance into the SSS-rank hidden class, Ghost Monarch.
Looking around, they saw countless ghost-type monsters floating low over the ground throughout the enormous Forsaken Land.
They were the rulers guarding this place: Level 72 Dream Spirits.
The top priority was to find the entrance to the hidden map Nightmare Town buried somewhere within the Forsaken Land.
So Lin Mo and Ning Xi headed deeper inside.
Even without deliberately provoking the Dream Spirits, it was impossible not to disturb them.
The Dream Spirits soon launched attacks on Lin Mo.
Whoosh!
A Dream Spirit holding a bow on their flank locked onto Ning Xi and fired.
"Watch out!"
Lin Mo immediately pulled Ning Xi behind him, helping her avoid the attack while taking the Illusory World: Wrath of Thunder from his back.
As the set skill Thunder Myriad Strikes activated, the Heart of Eternity on Divine Descent Seraph Siya's wrist shone with golden light, covering Lin Mo with the effects of the two SSS-rank support skills, Holy Light's Blessing and War Stomp.
At the peak of his strength...
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Lin Mo unleashed the SSS-rank Heaven-Slaying: Seven-Star Rapid Shot, sending it straight toward the Dream Spirit with unstoppable force.
To Lin Mo, who had easily slain a Level 70 Hell Envoy with ten aura stacks inside the Tenth Hall of the Yama Hall, a mere Level 72 normal monster without any aura buffs shouldn't have posed any challenge.
Yet when the Seven-Star Rapid Shot landed, the damage was unexpectedly low.
-89,886 (Critical)!
-92,583 (Critical)!
-95,361 (Critical)!
After taking the full damage from Seven-Star Rapid Shot, the Dream Spirit still had about one-tenth of its HP remaining instead of being killed outright.
Lin Mo couldn't help being surprised.
If he had been in his base state, this level of damage would have been understandable.
But the problem was, this attack had been made while empowered by both the set skill and Siya's two SSS-rank buffs.
He had attacked in his absolute strongest state and every one of the seven star arrows had crit.
The damage had been completely maxed out.
Yet he still couldn't one-shot a mere Level 72 normal monster.
'This...'
'Isn't this a bit ridiculous?'
"No."
"Something's wrong!"
Lin Mo realized there was a problem.