[Southern Inferno City]
[Lv76 Demon-Locking Tower (Gold Tier Five)]
The world inside the tower, in a bamboo forest filled with demonic aura...
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
-51362!
-50369!
-55973!
With the level-74 Sword-and-Shield Warrior [Super God Athena] bringing her blade down, she killed the two level-76 boss-level [Bamboo Demon Guards] in front of her.
Having lost the protection of the two Bamboo Demon Guards, the level-76 Tier-5 BOSS [Bamboo Demon King] also had its HP bar slowly drained under the assault of thirteen Skeleton Warriors under Nether's mental command.
When the Bamboo Demon King was deliberately beaten until it had only 1 HP left.
Slash!
Ji Ningshuang charged forward, brought her blade down, and successfully landed the final hit.
Boom!
The Bamboo Demon King's enormous body, like a rotten towering tree, crashed to the ground.
[Ding~ Congratulations on joining forces with players Nether and Super God Athena to kill the level-76 Tier-5 BOSS Bamboo Demon King. You have received the following rewards…]
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several consecutive golden lights descended from above Ji Ningshuang's head.
Despite possessing the double SSS-rank magic scroll's instant-kill skill, Absolute Kill·Eternal Damnation, which provided a total of 99% final experience suppression, Ji Ningshuang, who could only obtain 1% of the experience, still instantly rose from level 12 to level 16 under the extremely high rewards from this Tier-5 BOSS.
The battle ended.
Super God Athena quickly came to the Bamboo Demon King's corpse. After checking it over, she was greatly disappointed.
"Not here again!"
It turned out that the three of them had come to the Demon-Locking Tower to kill the Bamboo Demon King because they were looking for the King's Scepter, Soul Devourer, which had once been used by a Ghost Race Venerable.
Super God Athena angrily said, "This is already the fifth place we've searched today! At this rate, when are we ever going to find Soul Devourer?"
At this moment, a mass of black energy descended beside Qin Ming and took shape.
It was none other than the Ghost King, Soul Manipulator · Zade.
"This king doesn't know where Soul Devourer is either. We can only search each place where Ghost Race aura is hidden, one by one."
In an extremely weakened state, Soul Manipulator·Zade said in a low voice, "Apart from these five places we've already searched, only four places remain. Soul Devourer must be hidden in one of those four."
After saying this, Soul Manipulator·Zade once again turned into a mass of black energy and returned to Qin Ming's pet space.
Unable to hide her impatience, Super God Athena "swish" withdrew her long blade into the sheath at her waist.
She turned back and looked at Ji Ningshuang with disdain, intending to vent her anger on her.
Pointing at Ji Ningshuang, she complained to Qin Ming, "She's already useless. Is there any need to waste your energy on her?"
Although Super God Athena's words were annoying, at this moment, even Ji Ningshuang had to admit: she was right.
This time, Ji Ningshuang did not argue with Super God Athena.
Instead, she said somewhat dejectedly to Qin Ming, "The priority right now is to find Soul Devourer as soon as possible and restore the Ghost King."
"I'm a burden. If you bring me along, you'll still have to constantly split your attention to protect me. If this continues, I'll indeed seriously slow down the progress of finding Soul Devourer."
After saying this, Ji Ningshuang took out a City Return Scroll.
Just as she was about to crush the scroll, Qin Ming stopped her.
"I told you before, you fell back to level 0 because of me."
"I'll be responsible for bringing you back to the level you were at before you were crippled, level 72."
Qin Ming then looked at Super God Athena and said casually, "If you think she's slowing us down, we can simply split up. Of the four remaining places, you take two, and I'll take the other two."
"That way, we'll get twice the result with half the effort."
At this, Super God Athena was instantly left speechless again.
Because the levels of these places were all relatively high.
Without Qin Ming, an SSS-rank hidden-class Judge, joining her, Super God Athena alone simply couldn't solo them.
She said irritably, "Hmph! Stop wasting time. Let's go to the next place!"
Watching Super God Athena leave the Demon-Locking Tower angrily, Ji Ningshuang felt extremely refreshed inside.
"If I hadn't been killed back to level 0 by Rulebound, you really think I'd be afraid of you?"
"Mm-hmm~ Qin Ming, that was a good comeback!"
Who could have thought?
Qin Ming wasn't planning to let either of them off.
After driving Super God Athena away,
he immediately said to Ji Ningshuang, "Instead of wasting time here enjoying a momentary verbal victory, why don't you go kill a few more monsters and level up? That way, she won't have anything to use against you, and you won't have to hold me back either."
After saying this, Qin Ming left the Demon-Locking Tower.
Leaving Ji Ningshuang alone, stomping her feet angrily in place.
"Qin Ming!"
"You damn straight man!!"
———
[Evening]
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two beams of white light descended into Inferno City.
Having just finished dinner, Lin Mo and Ning Xi logged on at the same time.
The second-stage God Creation assessment wouldn't open until midnight. There was nothing to do before then.
So Lin Mo planned to first help Ning Xi obtain the unlimited merchandise rack authorization at the auction house.
To prepare in advance for selling the goods and making money from the boxes that were about to be opened from the warehouse.
On the way to the auction house, Lin Mo became suspicious.
"Ever since the battle in Dark Night Spirit City, neither Nether nor that Ghost King has made the slightest move until now. That's way too strange."
As the saying went, something strange was bound to be going on when things were out of the ordinary.
The quieter things were, the more Lin Mo could sense that they were definitely plotting something bad!
It was like the calm before the storm.
"No!"
"There must be a problem!"
"I need to find a way to probe Nether's movements."
Lin Mo had to make preparations on every front.
So that he wouldn't be put in an overly passive position.
Just as Lin Mo was thinking this...
Ding!
Wang Junjie suddenly sent him a message.
[Hero of Chaotic World: "Brother Mo! Come quick! I've got a big surprise to show you! [Lv72 Deadwood Forest] (Location)"]
[Hero of Chaotic World: "Oh right, Brother Mo, you'd better avoid Sister-in-law! It's a matter between us men, you know what I mean!"]
'Avoid her? Why?'
Lin Mo didn't avoid her at all.
He directly said to Ning Xi, "Come on, Xiao Xi, let's go take a look together."
Ning Xi tilted her head and gave him a mischievous smile.
"Big Brother Lin Mo, you're not going to avoid me?"
"What is there to avoid? A man with a clear conscience doesn't fear shadows," Lin Mo said righteously.
Ning Xi smiled.
"Big Brother Lin Mo, you go ahead. I'll wait for you at the auction house."
Lin Mo asked, "You're not worried?"
Ning Xi thought about it, "Now that you put it that way, I am a little worried."
"Big Brother Lin Mo, be careful when you leave the city. Don't get targeted by the Ghost King."
Lin Mo said, "Okay, don't worry."
And so, the two parted ways in the city.
Following the location Wang Junjie had sent him, Lin Mo soon arrived at the level-72 wild zone in the eastern part of Inferno City: Deadwood Forest.
Inside the forest, a large group of solo players had no time to kill monsters and had instead gathered together, seemingly watching the commotion.
Only after Lin Mo pushed through the crowd did he see Wang Junjie leading a group of Chaotic World players gathered among them.
When he saw Lin Mo.
Wang Junjie immediately called out to him.
"Brother Mo!"
"It's her!"
"This person keeps insisting that you're her boyfriend!"
"Brother Mo, take a look. Is this your girlfriend?"
Following Wang Junjie's gaze.
Lin Mo saw that among the crowd surrounded by Chaotic World players, a young-looking, good-looking female Elemental Mage sat on the ground, her face full of helplessness and pitifulness, looking so miserable that it made people feel sorry for her.
The girl's ID above her head was [Qingyan].
At first sight of the girl, Lin Mo felt as though he had seen her somewhere before.
The next moment, he suddenly remembered.
"Isn't this Zhao Lingyun's older sister?"
"Zhao Lingyan?"
At the same time, after seeing Lin Mo, the Elemental Mage girl Zhao Lingyan, who looked harmless to both man and beast and pitiful enough to make anyone feel sorry for her, immediately changed her story.
"No, I said it wrong! Rulebound isn't my boyfriend!"
"He's my brother-in-law!"
[🎉 Shoutout to Cash for joining p@treon. Consider joining to keep the stories going. Thank you very much.🤗]