Global Game: AFK In The Zombie Apocalypse Game Chapter 45: 1118, a 13 tzameti fanfic

Global Game: AFK In The Zombie Apocalypse Game #Chapter 1118 - 1118 Counter-attack - Read Global Game: AFK In The Zombie Apocalypse Game Chapter 1118 - 1118 Counter-attack Online - All Page - Novel Next

1118 Counter-attack

Ma Xiaowan couldn't help but turn her head and glance at Fang Heng.

She was really shocked when Fang Heng told her to cooperate in a scam.

After scamming a large sum of money from Prilla Gaming Guild, Ma Xiaowan suddenly sympathized with them.

"Eh?"

Suddenly, Fang Heng let out a soft sound of surprise.

Many of the players in the sneak attack team had a layer of pitch-black stratum corneum attached to their bodies.

It was the barbarian race!

The demonized barbarians were mixed in with the players!

He had thought that it was the players who organized the night attack, but he did not expect to see the barbarians.

"Why are there so many barbarians?"

Ma Xiaowan also noticed a large number of barbarians, and her face couldn't help but stiffen.

Since when did the Prilla Gaming Guild get involved with the barbarians?

As expected, this meant disaster.

She looked at Fang Heng and said anxiously, "Fang Heng, what should we do? It's the barbarian race. Moreover, they're all barbarians in the demonized state! They all came over… Uh…"

Ma Xiaowan said and then closed her mouth.

She noticed that there was no panic in Fang Heng's eyes. Instead, there was a strange expectation.

"Don't worry," said Fang Heng lightly. "Let them come closer."

Ma Xiaowan fell silent.

She had a bad feeling.

The disaster was about to befall again.

However, this time, the disaster would most likely befall the barbarians and the Prilla Guild.

…

The deeper he went into the center of the forest, the more shocked Ed became.

The sacred tree had an extremely tenacious vitality! It had been burning for more than ten minutes, but except for some branches that had been burned off, the surface of the ancient tree was not burned as he had expected.

It was still burning fiercely.

The vines in the middle domain of the thick forest were also burning and struggling. Countless vines were flailing and dancing around wantonly as if they want to actively extinguish the flames.

Fortunately, the team had protective rune crystals with them, allowing them to avoid the vines that were blocking their path.

Ed could not help but exclaim that the 500,000 yuan was well spent!

They're here!

In front of them, the ghost tower and the giant tree were exposed to everyone's sight.

"It's that giant tree!"

"Hahaha, the enlightenment stone! It must be the power of the enlightenment stone!"

"That's the place!"

"Follow me! Let's charge!"

Seeing that the giant tree was still alive despite being surrounded by flames, Revere became excited. He immediately led the demonized barbarians and attacked the giant tree!

"Let's go! Let's go to the mage tower!"

Seeing that the barbarians were charging towards the sacred tree, Ed made a prompt decision and called the accompanying players to head to the mage tower together.

The barbarians wanted the enlightenment stone.

But they were different.

They only wanted to destroy the ghost tower and obtain the magic cores in the ghost tower!

Both parties split up.

Ed led his team of players and rushed straight toward the ghost tower.

The zombies wandering around the ghost tower turned their heads in unison, looking at the intruders who had come from afar.

"Ice crystal!"

"Gale, roar."

"Condensed fireball!"

Colorful spells were thrown at the zombies outside the ghost tower.

"Boom Boom Boom!!"

There was a burst of explosions.

"Eh?"

Ed was stunned. The team of players was also stunned. There was something wrong with this group of undead creatures!

Ordinary zombies were the lowest level of undead creatures besides skeletons. The most obvious characteristic of zombies was their high HP and resistance to attacks.

But these zombies were too resistant!

Ed saw with his own eyes that a zombie was paralyzed by the chain lightning, and was sent flying by two concentrated fireballs.

...

But it didn't die?

Originally, the players could have wiped out a small group of ordinary barbarians with a round of spell attacks that covered all areas. However, only two zombies died?

Upon closer inspection, Ed noticed that the bloody hole on the zombie's body that was blasted by the fireball was healing rapidly!

How could its self-recovery ability be so ridiculous?

"Be careful! Their recovery ability is very terrifying. They are elite zombies that had been specially summoned and transformed. Focus on fire attacks! Break them one by one!"

Ed was experienced in combat, so he immediately noticed the problem and changed his battle plan to attack with a single target.

"Yes!"

The players began to cast spells and focused their attacks on the zombies.

It was effective!

Under the concentrated output of spells, the zombies began to be eliminated one by one.

However, there were too many zombies!

...

After a few rounds of spell bombardment, more than a dozen zombies died on the other side, and more zombies emerged from the surroundings.

Mage-class players didn't have much mana, so how could they withstand such a consumption?

A layer of cold sweat appeared on everyone's foreheads.

The zombies' movement speed was slow, and with the slow effect of the spell, their movement speed was even slower.

However, the approaching zombies gave them great mental pressure.

"Commander, there are too many of them. The life force of these elite zombies is too strong. Let's just ignore them and think of a way to break into the ghost tower."

Ed frowned and raised his head to look at the higher part of the ghost tower.

He realized that the situation was not right and raised his hand to signal the team to slowly retreat.

"There's no hurry. Hold on. We'll retreat."

A large number of high-level construction materials and magic cores were hidden in the ghost tower, so there must be more defensive measures in the tower.

There was a high chance that they would be pincered by the enemy if they tried to force their way in.

At that time, they would be surrounded and trapped in a quagmire, unable to escape, leading to the entire team's destruction.

It was too risky!

There was no need for that.

It was better to retreat first and wait.

No hurry!

The more critical the situation was, the more Ed warned himself not to be anxious. It wouldn't be too late to wait until the barbarians obtained the enlightenment stone and then attack the ghost tower together!

"Commander, look behind you!"

What? Behind?

Ed was stunned, and he could not help but look behind.

The burning giant tree emitted a green light.

Under the flickering green light, the rising flames were dissipating at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Fresh branches grew out from the burnt skin. In just a short moment, the fire was completely extinguished. In the darkness, the sacred tree glowed with a green light as if it had been reborn, giving people a new feeling.

But under the sacred tree was a tragic scene!

"Chi! Chi Chi Chi Chi!!!"

Fine and sharp spikes continued to shoot out from the ground!

The barbarian team that was trying to attack the sacred tree fell into great chaos.

It was very difficult for the spikes to break through the outer horn layer of the demonized barbarians, but they could easily knock them away!

Then, the dense vines started to wrap around the demonized barbarians from under their feet.

Once they were entangled…

"Run! Quickly run!"

The barbarians were panicking.

This was the first time they had encountered such a terrifying scene!

They frantically retreated in the direction of Ed's team.

"Ka!"

Ed's face turned black. He saw with his own eyes that a demonized barbarian was tied up by dozens of vines and then dragged to the ground, disappearing completely!

And this time, the leader of the barbarian team, Revere, was nowhere to be seen.

Where was he? Was he dead?

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1119 Fleeing

The barbarians were panicking as they retreated in the direction of Ed and the others, shouting for help as they ran.

Behind them, there was a dense number of sharp spikes and vines that extended from the ground!

How could this be?

Ed was a little confused.

Had the sacred tree become so powerful?

Annihilate the entire barbarian team in just a few minutes?

"F*ck!"

"Don't let them come over! Stop them!"

Ed realized something was wrong.

The fleeing barbarians would most likely attract the hatred of the sacred tree!

The players around Ed had dark expressions.

He said it so easily, but he wanted them to stop the barbarians?

Was this a joke?

"Intense, dragon breath!"

Faced with the barbarians who were charging toward the back of the team, Ed took out the highest-grade fire-type magic scroll from his backpack and threw it forward.

"Roar!!!"

The dragon's roar was heard!

A stream of materialized flames blasted toward the barbarian race.

In an instant, the barbarians and the vines were submerged in the sea of fire!

The flames quickly spread in all directions!

"Crack Crack…"

The burning vines and the painful howls of the barbarians came from the fire.

The players gathered around and threw spells into the sea of fire. After a round of spells, everyone looked at the burning sea of fire and fell into a moment of silence.

Ed was also standing in the same spot. After using the super-advanced magic scroll, he had also entered the backlash state, so he was temporarily unable to move or attack.

He stared at the flames in front of him as they slowly spread toward him.

"F*ck!!!"

Ed's pupils contracted.

Almost instantly, dozens of twisted vine thorns pierced out of the sea of fire!

In the blink of an eye, the spikes were only five centimeters away from his forehead.

"Creak creak creak…"

The vine's thorns made a faint sound.

Did they stop?

Ed stared at the thorns. He could feel his own heavy heartbeat. Cold sweat trickled down his face. He thought of something and took out the runestone, slowly extending it forward.

"Chi Chi Chi…"

After a few seconds of stalemate, the thorns seemed to have confirmed something and retreated back into the sea of fire.

Hu…

Ed heaved a huge sigh of relief and wiped the cold sweat off his face. He felt exhausted after surviving a disaster.

"Go! Retreat."

"Hurry, let's go."

Even the barbarians were annihilated!

They didn't even last more than ten minutes!

That was a team of over a hundred demonized barbarians!

The player groups were shocked and no longer had the mood to continue fighting, so they followed Ed and retreated.

Right now, they were only glad that the ones guarding the ghost tower were all slow-moving zombies, and were unable to catch up to them.

Ed's eyes flickered with fear.

He had failed!

Those damned barbarians!

He said that as long as he could bring them into the Land of Plague, he would leave everything to them…

Just this?

Ed tightly held the rune crystal that he had obtained from Ma Xiaowan's Tianli Mercenary group as he ran forward.

"Chi Chi Chi…"

The vines in front of him opened up a straight path.

It was too late for Ed to regret it.

He only felt lucky.

...

He was extremely glad that he had spent 500,000 Empire Buni to buy these three runestones.

Otherwise…

Even a team of more than a hundred demonized barbarians had been completely annihilated in this forest.

What could the players do?

In the distance, above the ghost tower, looking down at the scene that looked like hell, Ma Xiaowan took a deep breath.

A terrifying disaster.

She had witnessed with her own eyes how the barbarians had been exterminated.

After the barbarians were dragged into the vines, they completely disappeared and became the nourishment for the giant tree.

Seeing the group of barbarians running away in a panic, Ma Xiaowan frowned and asked, "Lord Fang Heng, are we not going to chase? Are we just going to let them leave like this?"

"Yes."

Fang Heng nodded his head, "It's okay. Let them go."

...

In the beginning, Fang Heng had also thought of cutting the weeds and eliminating the roots.

However, after careful consideration, he realized that he was currently on a trial mission. Blindly killing players might cause changes to the trial.

It would not be worth it if their time in the trial game was suddenly deducted.

To be safe, it was better to spare their lives. Besides, he had other uses for them.

Fang Heng rubbed his shoulder gently and waved his hand in the distance.

The mutation crystals dropped after killing the demonized barbarians all merged into the mark on the back of his hand.

[Hint: Player has obtained Tier 2 mutation crystals*12.]

"Let's go," Fang Heng nodded and said to Ma Xiaowan, "Follow me to take a look."

…

Outside the Land of Plague, after learning that the Land of Plague was on fire, Lord Brent led the other two feudal lords' guard regiments to quickly provide support in the direction of the sacred tree.

They were the first batch, and more guards were coming from behind.

Along the way, the feudal lords were burning with anxiety, urging the team to speed up.

When they arrived at the outskirts of the Land of Plague, Lord Brent and his men stopped in their tracks.

About ten minutes ago, the fire had gradually died down halfway.

Unlike during the day, the giant tree in the middle of the vine forest emitted a faint green light at night.

Layers of vines and roots blocked their way.

The fire seemed to have stopped.

So they were too late?

What to do? Should they go in? How could they enter?

The mercenary group was at a loss.

Suddenly, the vines and roots in front of them began to shrink.

A passage that led to the inner part of the Land of Plague gradually spread out in front of everyone.

Immediately after that, the sound of hurried running and breathing came from inside the path.

Ed's team jogged along and gradually appeared in front of Lord Brent's group.

After experiencing such a terrifying scene, Ed's team, who were frantically running for their lives, finally managed to escape the area covered by the giant tree's vines. Then, they saw Lord Brent's group outside the door.

The two sides faced each other. There was a moment of silence.

This was bad!

Ed's mind went blank.

He was caught on the spot!

The two feudal lords who had come along with Lord Brent felt that it was strange.

Why would Ed and his men be here?

Moreover, he seemed to be in a hurry, as if he had just experienced a great battle. Why was he in such a panic?

Lord Brent was equally puzzled and asked, "Ed? What are you guys doing here?"

Ed was stunned, and several thoughts flashed through his mind.

Eh?

Could it be that the feudal lords still did not know about his attack on the ghost tower?

That's right!

The feudal lords did not know anything. They only came here to investigate after seeing the fire.

It was just a coincidence!

Ed composed himself and immediately replied, "Your Lordship, we saw that the Land of Plague was on fire and wanted to come to help, but we didn't expect the vines in the forest to become unstable after being stimulated by the fire. We were attacked by the vines controlled by the giant tree halfway, so we ran out."

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"So it's like this."

Lord Brent didn't doubt him and asked anxiously, "Has the fire inside stopped? Did the Land of Plague suffer any losses?"

"Yes, the fire has stopped. I'm sorry, My Lord. A few of the mages in my team are injured and need to be sent to Hani City for treatment immediately. We'll take our leave first."

Ed waved his hand at the team, wanting to run away with them.

"Wait!"

Why were they running so fast?

Lord Brent frowned and raised his hand to stop Ed's team from running away. He just felt that Ed had left in a hurry, running away without even saying a word.

When Ed was stopped, his whole body tensed up, and a layer of cold sweat broke out on his back.

He adjusted his breathing, slowly turned his head, and cupped his fists at Lord Brent. He asked, "What other instructions does My Lord have?"

"What's the hurry? Let me ask you, how did you guys get into the Land of Plague?"

Lord Brent noticed that as soon as Ed and the others left, the vines around the entrance to the Land of Plague automatically closed, so he stopped him and asked.

Ed heaved a sigh of relief and threw a black cloud crystal rune at Lord Brent from afar.

"My Lord, it can open a passage for you to the inside of the Land of Plague, but the plants in the Land of Plague are still unstable. You must be extra careful. My men are seriously injured. I'm sorry, I have to take my leave first."

Ed then led his team to retreat quickly.

Lord Brent took the crystal rune and examined it carefully.

It looked like an ordinary crystal, but there were many obscure alchemy runes carved on it.

Lord Brent picked up the runestone and tried to walk towards the entrance of the forest.

"Chi Chi Chi…"

The forest vines sensed the crystal rune and retracted to the left and right, once again revealing the entrance to the inner part of the Land of Plague.

"What do you think, Chepo?" asked Lord Brent. "Can we go inside the Land of Plague and check it out?"

Chebo felt a little strange.

He looked away from Ed and the others who were running away in a hurry and nodded, "Since the fire has disappeared, it means that the ghost tower should be safe. However, from the description of the players from the Prilla Gaming Guild, the forest has been triggered and is unstable. It might be dangerous to enter it rashly, so I don't recommend taking the initiative to enter."

"Alright, I'll get someone to try and fire two signal flares."

Lord Brent ordered his men to release the signal flares and waited patiently at the entrance for another two minutes.

Seeing that there was no movement within the Land of Plague, Lord Brent waved his hand to signal for the team to enter the forest carefully.

The team carefully moved along the opened passage for less than two minutes. Then, they saw Fang Heng and Ma Xiaowan's mercenary group coming from the front of the path.

"Lord Fang Heng! Are you alright?"

Seeing that Fang Heng was fine, Lord Brent felt as if a stone in his heart had been lifted off the ground. He waved his hand to signal to Fang Heng.

"Yes."

Fang Heng nodded and waved his hand in response.

"Lord Brent, I'm fine, but my territory has just been attacked by the barbarians. Previously, someone deliberately set fire to the serene ghost tower. The serene ghost tower has suffered heavy losses, and the flames have even spread and affected the sacred tree. If I had not arrived in time, I'm afraid the consequences would have been even worse."

Barbarian race? Set fire?

Lord Brent and his two accompanying feudal lords were shocked when they heard the news.

"What about the losses? What's the situation now? Have the barbarian race been forced to retreat?"

"The barbarian race has been temporarily repelled."

Fang Heng took a deep breath and continued with a pained tone, "However, a group of humans who came with the barbarians escaped first. More than half of the newly built ghost towers in the territory were burned down. More than half of the resources stored in the ghost towers were destroyed. Even the magic cores were stolen by the enemy."

What!

The magic cores had been stolen?

Lord Brent's pupils suddenly locked, and there was a surge of anger in his heart.

Attacking the Land of Plague and deliberately setting fire! Even the magic cores were stolen!

"Who is it? Who did it?"

Lord Brent's fief was vast. He had signed an agreement with Fang Heng to build two mage towers in the first batch. He would need to build more mage towers later on. Naturally, he wanted to build a good relationship and cooperate with Fang Heng.

Now, the magic cores were gone.

What about the mage towers?!

The two feudal lords who had followed him were also anxious.

One of them looked at Fang Heng and said, "We lack magic cores. As for the mage tower…"

"Everyone, there's no need to panic."

Fang Heng consoled the crowd, "I'm on good terms with Her Highness Mingyue. We can ask for help from the Empire. We should be able to get the magic cores. For now, we can build the other parts of the mage tower. Once the magic core is ready and loaded, we can awaken the power of the ghost tower."

"It won't delay the construction time, but I'm afraid that the time for the ghost tower to be used will be delayed a little…"

Hearing this, everyone's faces turned ugly.

After all, magic cores were extremely rare. If this batch of magic cores was gone, it would not be easy to get new ones.

"Lord Fang Heng, do you know who did this?" asked Lord Brent. "Can we think of a way to retrieve the stolen magic cores?"

"I came too late, I didn't manage to catch the culprit." Fang Heng looked at Lord Brent, sighed, and shook his head helplessly. "By the way, did you see anyone when you came here just now? The group of humans who brought the barbarians here fled in this direction. I chased them all the way here and ended up meeting you all."

An enemy passing by?

...

"No. I didn't…"

As the words came to his mouth, Lord Brent suddenly thought of something.

He shut his mouth and exchanged glances with the two Empire feudal lords beside him.

The Prilla Gaming Guild!

Ed!

It was actually them!

Detestable!

He had been tricked!

Lord Brent suddenly understood the whole situation.

Thinking about it carefully, the few of them had already rushed over as soon as they discovered the fire, so how could the Prilla Gaming Guild have come over earlier than them?

"This is strange, you didn't see anyone? So how did they suddenly disappear? Moreover, they were able to sneak into the Land of Plague and set fire to the ghost tower. This is too strange…"

...

Fang Heng muttered to himself. Suddenly, he thought of something. He frowned and shifted his gaze to Lord Brent.

He looked suspicious and asked, "Lord Brent, if I may ask, where did you get the black cloud crystal rune in your hand? This is a pass unique to our Land of Plague. It can avoid the defense of the sacred tree."

Lord Brent's jaw dropped, and he subconsciously looked at the rune crystal in his hand.

F*ck! There was no mistake!

No wonder he saw Ed just now, the latter seemed to be very nervous!

That traitor!

From the very beginning, he had wanted to destroy their cooperation with the Land of Plague!

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Lord Brent was extremely furious. He gritted his teeth and said, "It's the Prilla Gaming Guild. We saw them coming out of the Land of Plague in a panic at the entrance. I asked them for this rune."

Fang Heng frowned and turned to look at Ma Xiaowan.

"Commander Ma, I'm not doubting you, but I've only provided the runes of the Land of Plague for your mercenary group to use in and out of the Land of Plague. How did it end up in the hands of the Prilla Gaming Guild?"

Ma Xiaowan looked at Fang Heng's questioning gaze and couldn't help but sigh in her heart.

The Prilla Gaming Guild was going to be in deep trouble.

"I'm very sorry," Ma Xiaowan lowered her head and said, "I'll definitely investigate this matter thoroughly and give you an explanation."

"There's no need to check, it's definitely the Prilla Gaming Guild!"

Lord Brent's face was gloomy, and he could no longer suppress the anger in his heart.

Those b*stards from the Prilla Gaming Guild!

From the very beginning, they had tried every possible way to stop them from building the mage tower, and now they were even unscrupulously attacking the ghost tower in the Land of Plague!

Did they really think that the feudal lords of the Empire could be easily controlled by others?

"Lord Fang Heng, you were also shocked just now. We will also help you in finding the magic cores." Lord Brent waved his hand and said to his entourage, "Go! Let's go back and ask Ed for an explanation before they get too far!"

After saying that, Lord Brent nodded to Fang Heng and immediately led his team in the direction of Hani City.

Ma Xiaowan couldn't help but sigh as she watched the crowd leave.

What a disaster… A terrifying disaster.

She now knew why Fang Heng didn't exterminate the Prilla Gaming Guild.

Fang Heng's manipulation has caused the Prilla Gaming Guild to be on the opposite side of all the feudal lords of the Empire. The days ahead would be difficult.

And those magic cores…

Ma Xiaowan couldn't help but shrink back.

In the future, she must not offend calamity, or else she would not even know how she died.

At the same time, Ed led the team of players and ran for their lives in the direction of Hani City.

Ed clenched his fists tightly.

Game notifications kept popping up on his retina.

[Hint: The player's mission failed early and will enter the settlement stage. The player's favorability rating with the feudal lords will decrease.]

[Hint: Due to the rumors, the player's friendship with the feudal lord, Lord Brent, has greatly decreased. The current favorability rating has decreased.]

[Hint: Due to the rumors, the player's friendship with the feudal lord, Lord Brent, has greatly decreased. The current favorability rating has decreased and turned into hostility.]

[Hint: Due to the rumors…]

[Hint: The feudal lord, Lord Brent, has allied with the various feudal lords of the Empire to issue an arrest warrant for you. Player, please be careful.]

Until the last game prompt, Ed's mentality completely collapsed.

"F*ck!!"

Ed raised his staff and smashed it onto the ground!

He had spent so many years building the Prilla Gaming Guild!

After completing so many missions one at a time and spending so much time and effort, he finally managed to raise the party's friendship with the various feudal lords of the Empire!

But now?

In less than 10 hours after he accepted that damn mission, all the hard work and effort he had put in for the past 10 years had almost been destroyed!

"Commander, calm down."

Ed's eyes were red.

Calm down? How could he calm down after such a thing happened?

Ed took a deep breath, the veins on his neck bulging as he tried to suppress the anger that was about to burst out at any moment.

How was he going to face the current situation?

The various feudal lords of the Empire had even issued a warrant for his arrest!

Was he supposed to surrender to them and claim a reward to recover his HP?

"Commander, our offline members just found out something…" said Sarwen as he looked at Ed carefully. "Something doesn't seem right."

"What is it?"

"Now, the feudal lords are spreading rumors that we have joined forces with the barbarians to attack the Land of Plague. We burned the ghost tower in the Land of Plague and some of the precious materials stored in the ghost tower. Moreover, we also…"

Seeing that Ed's expression was getting gloomier, Sarwen was a little hesitant.

"What else is there? Speak."

Sarwen in a deep voice, "Also, the magic cores in the ghost tower have been stolen by the enemy. The feudal lords suspect that this matter is related to us."

What?!

Suddenly, Ed, who was still furious, calmed down.

His forehead was covered in cold sweat.

The previous scenes replayed in his mind like a movie.

It was a trap!

He had fallen into a trap!

...

Come to think of it, ever since he had accepted that strange hostile mission, his every move had been controlled and predicted by the player behind the hostile mission!

From the very beginning, the other party had him in the palm of his hand!

In fact, Ed even suspected that the other party had intentionally let him escape outside the ghost tower.

If the other party was willing, they might have been exterminated in the forest a long time ago.

"Commander, we…"

When Ed came back to his senses, he realized that the back of his shirt was soaked with cold sweat.

"Don't worry, let me think about it," he raised his hand and said in a deep voice.

"Yes."

Sarwen led everyone back a little, leaving Ed some time to think.

After a while, Ed raised his head and said, "Put everything on hand aside and find a way to investigate. I want to know who is the player who accepted the hostile mission!"

"Alright, Commander, shall we go back now…"

...

"Yeah, we can't go back to Hani City. Let's split up and find a place to hide in the game."

"But the Land of Plague has accused us of stealing the magic core," asked Sarwen, a little puzzled. "Do we really not need to explain?"

"It's no use. Now that things have come to this, it doesn't matter if we explain or not."

Ed shook his head and replied, "The enemy's plan is so detailed. Not only us, but also the feudal lord of the Land of Plague, the barbarians, and so many other feudal lords of the Empire were all involved in his plan. The person behind all these must have a powerful background."

"A player with such an ability…"

Ed mumbled to himself. He suddenly raised his head and said, "Let's go to the Federation, they must have some clues."

"O-okay, I'll do it immediately…"

Ed took a deep breath and loosened his clenched fist.

Now, he had been forced to a dead end.

The Prilla Gaming Guild that he had founded was on the verge of collapse.

After having a mental breakdown, he no longer had the desire to continue fighting. He felt that he was inferior to the other party in terms of both strength and schemes.

All he could do now was to find a way to find the other party in the real world and find a way to reconcile with them.

There was still a chance.

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1122 Stable

In the underground world, after obtaining the map of the barbarian underground world, Wei Tao and Mikhael led their teams to work on the main storyline.

They followed the horde of cave-dwelling beasts to find a supply point where the barbarian's defense was weak and started attacking.

With every victory in a battle, his trial score would increase a little bit each time. Such a small thing made Wei Tao feel very comfortable.

It was much better than going around in circles like a headless fly in all kinds of inexplicable missions.

After six waves of battle, the two of them even managed to rescue a human captive who had fainted.

Using the most primitive method, Mikhael had his men pee all over his face.

"Cough cough…"

The human captive quickly woke up and covered his mouth as he coughed.

When he realized that he had been rescued, he did not care about what he had just drunk and immediately shouted excitedly, "I want to see General Deng Wen! I have an urgent military situation to report!"

Wei Tao and Mikhael looked at each other.

Who was General Deng Wen?

"We are the personal guards of Her Highness Mingyue. You are now in the underground world. We have just rescued you from the barbarians. Don't worry, tell us your name first. Also, why were you captured?"

"The barbarian race, it's the barbarian race…" Ling Xun was so anxious that he was incoherent. "The barbarians are using the underground passages to attack the capital, Atama!"

What?

Wei Tao was stunned. Then, a line of game prompt appeared on his retina.

[Hint: You have triggered an optional team side mission-the barbarian's unusual movements]

Mission title: The barbarian's unusual movement.

Current mission difficulty: D

Current mission description: You have found an Empire captive in the barbarian camp. He has informed you of the barbarian's upcoming attack on Atama.

Mission requirement: Please inform the Empire of the news in time.

Mission reward: Additional trial time, additional trial score, and follow-up missions activated.

[Hint: The player can choose whether to accept the mission or not. The follow-up mission is extremely difficult, and you cannot give up after you choose to trigger it. Please choose carefully.]

Mikhael and Wei Tao quickly exchanged a look.

A highly difficult mission! It was definitely related to the trial's main storyline!

Wei Tao nodded and immediately raised his right hand.

His palm was covered in a layer of crackling lightning.

"Bang!"

The Licker that was following beside Mikhael was sent flying by Wei Tao's palm.

…

After Fang Heng bade farewell to the feudal lords, he immediately returned to the capital of the Empire, Atama, on his griffin.

He had made an appointment with Tang Mingyue during the day.

The two of them split up to carry out their tasks. Tang Mingyue would be in charge of getting her hands on the water-type magic scrolls. If there was still time, she would find a way to figure out the layout and defense of the Empire's armory in the past two days. If there were no accidents, they would plunder the Empire's royal treasury the next night.

Under the night sky, the two of them quietly met on a tall mountain outside the Empire's armory.

From this position, he could see a corner of the Empire's armory.

"Yes, the magic scrolls have been prepared."

Things were going very smoothly.

Once the money was in place, the feudal lords gladly handed over the magic scrolls.

Tang Mingyue looked in the direction of the Empire's armory from afar and nodded. She said, "I just went inside to check. The materials sent by the feudal lords have been prepared. The two crystal materials are stored in warehouses 7 and 9."

"The two will become unstable after being mixed in proportion, and it's easy to produce a huge explosion. We only need to mix them together and then ignite them."

Fang Heng nodded and said, "There will be a bang then."

"Then, I will take advantage of the chaos to evacuate the supplies from the treasury with my guards and move the treasures out of the east exit of the military supplies warehouse."

Tang Mingyue compared it with the map in her hand, then raised her head and pointed to the right side of the military supplies warehouse in front of her, "It's probably in that direction."

"Alright, I'll meet up with you after I cause chaos in the camp."

"The zombies have started to dig a tunnel, but they can't be too close to the military warehouse. I designed the exit point to be outside the East exit of the camp, around this position."

Fang Heng took out the map and drew a location on it.

"When the time comes, you can just place the stolen treasure at this point."

"I'll get Victor to place explosives in the underground tunnel. The explosion will be strictly controlled, and the ground will collapse, causing the treasure to fall into the inflatable lifeboat below the tunnel."

Tang Mingyue's eyes brightened as she replied, "Yes, leave the rest to me. Just like in the underground tunnel, I'll let my people use water spells to create a large amount of water in a short time, and use the power of the water to carry the lifeboats and materials downstream."

"Yes." Fang Heng nodded and added, "The cave-dwelling beast will meet us downstream and temporarily hide the supplies in the underground world. After confirming the safety, we will detonate the entire passage.

"Yes, yes." Tang Mingyue gave Fang Heng a thumbs-up. the plan is perfect. We're in for it.

Fang Heng was thinking about the feasibility and loopholes of the plan.

In his opinion, the success rate was only 50 – 60%.

It was worth a gamble.

After obtaining the magic core and the black stone, he would immediately return to the Land of Plague and complete the mage Tower construction mission.

...

As the two of them were discussing some details, a guard came from behind and strode forward to report, "Your Highness Mingyue, Wei Tao and Mikhael are here to see you."

Ha?

Was he caught?

Shouldn't they still be in the underground world fighting with the barbarians? Why did they come here?

Tang Mingyue was stunned for a moment. She sneaked a glance at Fang Heng with a guilty conscience.

Fang Heng also felt strange.

Since they were already here, he couldn't refuse them.

Fang Heng shrugged his shoulders and looked calm. He said, "Let's meet."

Seeing that Fang Heng was not afraid in the face of danger, Tang Mingyue also composed herself. "Well, bring them over."

Wei Tao and Mikhael hurried back from the underground world.

When they arrived, they were still curious about what Fang Heng and the others were doing on the mountain in the middle of the night.

...

They thought that Fang Heng was in Griffin City, but after asking around, they found out that he had just returned to the capital of the Empire, Atama.

Wei Tao and Mikhael discussed for a while and thought that the barbarian's target was also in Atama. Thus, they came over personally.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"Uh," Tang Mingyue's eyes were a little evasive. "I'm investigating something. What about you guys?"

"I've found some important information," As he spoke, Mikhael looked at Fang Heng. "Fang Heng, what's the situation? We've informed you several times through the Lickers. We've been waiting for you at the gathering point for a long time, but you didn't appear. We thought you were in trouble."

"Ah? You've contacted me? When did that happen?"

Fang Heng was surprised and flipped through the game log again.

Previously, the team had agreed to use the Lickers as an intermediary to transmit information.

Why didn't he receive any notification at all?

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1123 Taking Action

After a careful inspection, Fang Heng couldn't help but reveal a difficult expression.

It turned out that he was just unlucky.

Previously, when Wei Tao was attacking the Licker, he happened to encounter the barbarian team attacking the Land of Plague. The game notification that the Licker was attacked was drowned out by the vast amount of game notifications and could not be seen.

It seemed that this method of communication was not very stable.

Fang Heng shrugged helplessly, "I'm sorry. I ran into some trouble earlier. There were too many game hints and I missed it."

"Alright, let's not talk about this for now," Wei Tao said seriously. "We just received a mission notification. It's very troublesome."

After which Wei Tao announced the mission he had just triggered.

The mission could be triggered by choice.

If the player chose to accept and complete the first phase of the mission, the subsequent team mission would be triggered by default. On the other hand, if the mission was not completed within a certain period of time, the player would be considered to have abandoned the mission.

"It's like this. When we were clearing the barbarian camp…"

Mikhael told him about the discovery of the captives and said, "We've found out that the barbarians have a very secret camp in the underground world. The camp is set up near Atama."

Wei Tao continued, "Now, a large portion of the Empire's military forces has been mobilized to the front line as reinforcements. We are worried that if the barbarians suddenly attack Atama…"

"What?"

Fang Heng read the mission description carefully and revealed a suspicious look.

The barbarians were preparing to attack the Empire's capital?

They were so bold?

"There's no problem with what you said. However, the Empire's reinforcement team has been transferred away. Now is the best time for the barbarians to invade and launch a surprise attack. Why haven't they made a move yet?"

Mikhael shrugged his shoulders and said, "Who knows? Maybe they're going to make a move tonight."

"I think the barbarians have been hiding underground, waiting for an opportunity to strike."

Wei Tao nodded and analyzed, "The barbarians are still not as strong as the Empire. Even if they launch a surprise attack, the success rate of breaking into the Empire's capital by force is still very low. So, could it be that their goal is not to take over the Empire's capital…"

After hearing Wei Tao's analysis, Fang Heng and Tang Mingyue exchanged a glance with each other, their expressions changing slightly.

The two of them had the same guess.

No way?

It couldn't be such a coincidence, right?

Could it be that the barbarians had their eyes on the royal treasury as well?!

Eh?

Wait a minute!

Fang Heng suddenly had an idea.

The barbarian race!

It didn't matter what the barbarian's goal was.

Anyway, they now knew that the barbarians had an underground camp in the underground world near the Empire.

Could he make use of this?

The royal treasury was stolen, so someone had to take the blame, right?

The barbarian race!

They could make use of them!

After stealing the items from the royal treasury, he would lead the pursuers in the direction of the barbarians!

At that time, the situation would be even more chaotic.

It was the best time to fish in muddy waters.

Seeing Fang Heng and Tang Mingyue communicating with their eyes, Wei Tao frowned and asked, "What are both of you thinking of?"

"Oh, nothing. I just thought of something else. It has nothing to do with the barbarian race."

Tang Mingyue waved her hand and denied it repeatedly.

"Alas, it's not easy to lead a team…"

Wei Tao sighed in his heart. He could tell that these two people had some secret.

"Alright, I've called everyone here urgently to discuss whether we should accept this mission or not. However, the difficulty of the follow-up mission is extremely high, at least SS-level, or even SSS-level."

Wei Tao was conflicted about this.

Previously, the S-level difficulty mission had almost caused the team to fail. Now that the difficulty had increased, what if they messed up the trial?

The risk was too great.

He was still quite unwilling to directly reject the mission,

Everyone fell into silence.

Fang Heng thought for a while and looked at Wei Tao, saying, "I actually have an idea."

"Oh?"

Wei Tao looked at Fang Heng, "What idea?"

"What if…" Fang Heng coughed lightly and glanced at Tang Mingyue from the corner of his eyes. "Ahem, I mean if, if we remain neutral, what will happen? "

…

...

After listening to Fang Heng's idea, Wei Tao and Mikhael looked at each other.

He called this "neutral"?

Mikhael tried to confirm what Fang Heng said. "What you mean is that we should put aside the mission for the time being and not warn the Empire. Instead, we should find a way to lure the barbarians and the people of the Empire out, let the Empire discover the barbarians in the underground world, and wait for the barbarians to fight with the Empire. Then, we can hide in the dark and see how we can reap the benefits."

"Yes, if you put it that way. That's what I meant."

Tang Mingyue kept nodding as she listened. "That's a good idea. The difficulty of the follow-up mission is SS-level, so it's definitely not that simple. Instead of taking the risk to participate in the mission, it's better to watch the tigers fight and reap the benefits from the side."

"If the humans have the advantage, we'll help them fight the barbarians. If the barbarians have the advantage, we'll run away and save the two Empire bosses."

"The worst case scenario is that we don't get anything and we don't lose anything, right?"

Wei Tao pondered for a moment. It seemed to make sense. However, he felt that something was off.

"Fang Heng, Mingyue, are you two hiding something from us?"

"What are you saying? How can that be? We're teammates."

Tang Mingyue waved her hands in denial.

...

Wei Tao looked at these time bombs in his team and felt helpless.

"The risk is still too high. How can we make the Empire discover the barbarian camp? Besides, we don't have much time. If we don't handle this well, we might become enemies with the Empire."

"It's fine. Leave this to us. We have a way."

Fang Heng and Tang Mingyue looked at each other and nodded.

"Really?"

Wei Tao looked at the two of them and saw their determined expressions at the same time. He sighed in his heart and nodded. "Alright then, we'll try what you said."

"Brother Tao is awesome!"

Tang Mingyue couldn't hide her excitement. She raised her fist and bumped it with Fang Heng's fist.

"If there's any danger in the process, I'll immediately stop the operation."

"Sure." Fang Heng nodded and said, "Let's not waste any time. The barbarians may take action at any time. Mingyue, you arrange the battle plan. I'll control the zombies to dig the tunnel and help with the transportation of materials."

"Okay, when will you be ready?"

Fang Heng took a look at the efficiency of the zombie clones digging the underground tunnel and estimated the time. He nodded and said, "Five hours later, at 4:30 a.m. We'll act on time."

…

Early in the morning, in the capital, Atama, the Empire's military warehouse was brightly lit.

Outside the gate, more than ten warehouse guards were doing their duty loyally.

There were twice as many people on duty today. Two of the guards had just woken up and were still a little dazed.

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1124 Sneaking in

One of the guards said with dissatisfaction, "What's the situation tonight? Why did you get up in the middle of the night to practice?"

"I heard that Her Highness Mingyue suddenly came to our place. It seems that she suspects that the barbarians are going to lay their hands on the supplies warehouse. She has repeatedly warned us to be more careful, so the boss has arranged more guards."

"Ah? Barbarian race? What nonsense are you talking about? The barbarian race is far away, how could they suddenly appear in front of us?"

"Who knows?"

"Alright, let's stop discussing. There's a team coming."

The chief guard halted the discussion and looked into the distance.

On the main road to the Empire's military supplies warehouse, Fang Heng and Mikhael were in a group, following the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce's material transportation team to enter the large warehouse from the West entrance.

"Stop!"

The Four Seas Trading Company's escort team had just arrived at the entrance when they were stopped by the guards guarding the checkpoint.

The guard captain stepped forward to interrogate them, "It's so early. You're delivering supplies before dawn?"

The manager of the Four Seas Trading Company stepped forward and handed the verification certificate to the guard at the side. With a smile on his face, he bowed and nodded, explaining, "Sir, this batch of supplies is urgently needed by Her Highness Mingyue. Lord Warren ordered us to send it over overnight. We didn't dare to delay in the slightest."

The guard checked the certificate and whispered into the chief guard's ear, "Captain, I've checked it. There's no problem with the certificate. It's the supplies that Lord Warren gave to Her Highness Mingyue. The stamp and procedures are complete."

Since the establishment of the Empire's military supply warehouse, it has been peaceful for so many years. The guards have long been lazy, and most of the routine inspections are very relaxed.

Not to mention that this batch of materials was personally requested by Her Highness Mingyue, and the delivery party was Lord Warren.

Of course, there would be no problem.

The chief guard walked forward and casually opened a box at the back of the truck. He found that it was ore and materials. He waved his hand and said, "Let them in!"

Fang Heng heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that he had successfully passed the checkpoint.

However, this was only the first step.

There were many sentry towers inside the armory, and every move was under the surveillance of the Empire.

"Mr. Fang, the supplies we've sent are temporarily stored in Warehouse No. 9."

The manager of the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce had already assisted in the delivery of the goods several times, so he was very familiar with the way. He led the group slowly toward Warehouse No. 9.

When they arrived outside the warehouse, the people of the Chamber of Commerce began to unload the goods.

Under the supervision of the Empire guards, the workers of the Chamber of Commerce moved the boxes of materials from the accompanying carts into the storage warehouse.

Warehouse No. 9, which was temporarily occupied by Tang Mingyue, was located at the periphery of the entire material storage warehouse, and the overall capacity of the warehouse was relatively small.

After more than 20 minutes, the members of the Chamber of Commerce had finished moving the materials. They nodded and greeted Fang Heng, "Lord Fang Heng, we have finished moving the materials. Do you have any other orders?"

"Okay, you guys go ahead. I'll go check it out. I'll catch up with you later."

"Yes, please be careful."

Fang Heng waved his hand at the manager of the Chamber of Commerce, indicating that they should leave first. Then, he went into the warehouse to inspect it with Mikhael.

Until now, Mikhael was still a little dizzy.

He only knew that Fang Heng was preparing to lead the Empire's people to fight with the barbarians. Why did he come to the military supply warehouse for no reason?

Seeing that Fang Heng had piled the two kinds of ores and mixed them together, Mikhael could not help but frown.

He went up and asked, "Fang Heng, what are you doing?"

"Explosives."

While mixing the mineral materials, Fang Heng nodded and explained, "After two kinds of mineral materials are mixed according to a specific ratio, they will form an explosive. Well, it will cause a very strong explosion."

Mikhael was even more confused.

They were trying to lure the Empire to discover the barbarian camp.

What was Fang Heng preparing to do now?

Blow up the Empire's military supplies?

Mikhael asked in a low tone, "Are you going to blow this place up?"

"Yes, I want the Empire to make a wrong judgment and think that the barbarians are invading the Empire's supply warehouse."

"Well, Fang Heng, I don't know much about alchemy. But according to what you said, even if the explosion is very powerful, the Empire is not stupid. Such a small explosion can't make them think that it was done by the barbarians, right?"

"You're right, so we have to add something to them in addition to the explosion."

"Ah? Add some ingredients?" With a puzzled expression, Mikhael raised his head and asked, "What do you mean?"

"You'll know soon enough."

While they were talking, Fang Heng had finished mixing the ores.

He walked over to the ore box that the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce had just delivered.

He flicked his wrist, and the dark Book of the Dead appeared in front of him.

Fang Heng slowly pulled out a white bone spear from the Book of the Dead, which was shining with a dark light.

He held the bone spear in his hand.

"Hu-! Bang!!!"

The bone spear was swung forward heavily, and the wooden box was shattered with a bang. The ore that had hit the box also fell to the ground.

Eh? What was that?

Mikhael was shocked.

Metal plate?

...

It turned out that there was an inner layer in the box with a metal plate hidden under it.

What else was on the metal plate?

Mikhael stepped forward to take a closer look, frowning.

What kind of monster was that?

A grayish-white monster was nailed to the metal plate by purple nails. Most of the monster's body was wrapped in tentacles, and the facial features of its head were unclear. He could only vaguely make out that it had the shape of a human.

At first glance, Mikhael thought it was just a specimen.

Eh?

Purple essence?

Mikhael discovered the purple essence that was nailed to the monster's body. He was about to investigate further when he suddenly thought of something.

What? It was still moving?

It was still alive!

...

Seeing the slight wriggling of the tentacle, an instinctive discomfort rose in Mikhael's heart.

He couldn't help but turn his head to look at Fang Heng, waiting for him to give an answer.

"What's that?"

"Well, this question is a little difficult to answer."

Fang Heng shook his head.

The missions related to the underworld were also a mess, giving him a headache.

Fang Heng tried to explain as clearly as possible, "Do you still remember the giant alchemy body we saw when we entered the underground cave? This thing is the 'energy drive' hidden inside the alchemy body."

"It's been sealed in the giant alchemy body for a long time. The cave-dwelling beasts call it a demon. As for what it is, we're still investigating."

"It's worth mentioning that purple essence was also used to seal the demon. Also, it was a human Saint who sealed the demon in the giant alchemy body."

"As for the investigation on the Saint, they seem to have disappeared very strangely. I'm preparing to investigate further in this direction."

"Ah, this…"

Hearing this, Mikhael opened his mouth and suddenly felt a strange feeling.

He felt as if he had caught onto some clues, but there were too many of them, and they were all too jumbled up to be connected.

Mikhael sighed helplessly in his heart.

As expected, he was not suited to participate in such a strange mission. It was much easier to go to the underground world with Wei Tao and fight the barbarians.

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1125 A Surprise

"You've also discovered that the demons and the barbarian race have a close relationship."

Fang Heng said as he walked forward. With a sudden force, he pulled out the purple essence from the curled-up monster's body.

The 12 giant alchemy bodies that were left in the underground world were all dismantled by the zombie clones. Fang Heng's alchemy skill had also been successfully maxed out. In addition, he also obtained 12 'demons' that were nailed to the metal plates by the purple essence.

Fang Heng sent one of them to Qiu Yaokang for research and asked Victor to make a special storage box for the rest of the ores. The Four Seas Chamber of Commerce would bring the rest to the Empire warehouse, preparing to give the human Empire a surprise.

"I think this thing should be able to cause a little chaos in the Empire. Well, just take it as our meeting gift to the Empire."

Looking silently at Fang Heng who was extracting the purple essence, Mikhael nodded and said, "Then I thank you on behalf of the Empire."

"You're welcome,"

Fang Heng answered and pulled out the purple essence from the monster's body one by one until there was only one left.

As the amount of purple essence sealed in its body decreased, the demon's life force continued to recover. It let out a hoarse sound from its mouth, and its skin and tentacles began to slowly twist and wriggle. The color of its body also gradually changed.

It was obvious that the last piece of purple essence could not control the demon for too long.

"Quick, there are six demons left. We'll split them in half and you can help me pull out the purple essence. Just leave one will do."

"Yes."

Mikhael nodded and stepped forward to help Fang Heng pull out the purple essence.

…

On a slope to the East of the Empire's military supplies warehouse, more than a dozen players from Prilla Gaming Guild were hiding in the dark, waiting to ambush them.

Sarwen hurried over from the other end of the path to meet up with the team.

"President, I've just asked around offline. I have also asked the people from the Federation, but they still can't find out the identity of that mysterious person."

"Yes."

Ed nodded and said, "Continue to investigate."

Sarwen hesitated for a moment, then leaned over and whispered, "Boss, did we make a mistake?"

"That's impossible."

Ed was very confident. He lowered his voice and said, "Keep investigating. It might not be someone from the Northern Federation. Try to get the Northern Federation to pull some strings and see if the other regions have any clues. We can also start with the anti-federation forces."

"Alright."

Sarwen agreed, his eyes focused on the military supplies warehouse not far away. "President, what are we staying here for? Are you going to attack the Empire's supply warehouse?"

"There's news that Her Highness has just arrived at the military supplies warehouse."

"Ah? Her Highness Mingyue? What's she doing in the warehouse so late at night?" asked Sarwen.

"Yes, I also think that there might be some problems. In addition, there are also a few batches of goods that Her Highness Mingyue personally ordered. They will be delivered to the supply warehouse tonight."

Ed pointed at the forest on the east side of the military depot and said, "See that? There's something wrong with the transport team hiding in the forest not far from the entrance. They've been there for more than two hours since I arrived."

"Why are you being so mysterious? Why are you stopping at the entrance instead of sending the supplies to the armory in the middle of the night?"

Hearing this, Sarwen also felt that something was wrong. He asked, "President, do you think that the situation in the armory is related to the player behind Tang Mingyue?"

"Yeah, it's probably related," Ed nodded.

Sarwen then looked at the dozen or so players lying in ambush.

If they were to fight, they wouldn't have any advantage at all.

"President, did we not bring enough people? Should I call more people over?"

"What's the use of having more people? We're not here to fight them."

Ed replied softly.

He had originally come here to find an opportunity to chat with Her Highness Mingyue and find the player behind the scenes.

He didn't expect to find something strange outside the military supplies warehouse, so Ed gave up on the plan.

He judged that Her Highness Mingyue would most likely take action tonight.

If things really turned out as he expected, he was worried that rashly making a move might disrupt the other party's deployment and aggravate the conflict between the two sides.

Ed did not want to provoke a strong enemy.

"Well, that's true."

Sarwen also looked in the direction of the military supply depot and asked, "But what can they do? We can't attack the military supplies, right?"

"Yeah, I can't figure this out either…"

Ed could tell that the other party had a plan.

However, he couldn't understand what was going on.

What did Tang Mingyue and the player behind the scenes want to do?

Ed was still troubled when he suddenly felt the ground under his feet shake violently. He held onto the tree trunk beside him.

A violent explosion was heard.

"BOOM! Boom boom boom!"

Sarwen was stunned and quickly looked in the direction of the Empire's supply warehouse.

What was going on?

Did it explode?

The source of the explosion came from the Empire's supply warehouse not far away!

...

The president had really guessed it!

Something had happened to the Empire's armory!

"Captain, we…" said Sarwen as he turned to look at Ed.

"Don't worry,"

Ed stared in the direction of the Empire's armory that was on fire, his expression uncertain. "Let's wait and see."

…

Inside the Empire's supply warehouse, the light of the fire shone.

The huge blast of air caused by the explosion sent the two guards at the door flying directly. Even Fang Heng and Mikhael, who had not gone far, were affected by the blast and jumped back at the same time.

Almost instantly, the alarm went off, and the Empire's military supply warehouse was in chaos.

The violent explosion caused the entire warehouse to be blown up in an instant!

The ruins left behind by the explosion were also engulfed in a sea of fire and the flames quickly spread in all directions!

...

"Be careful! Be on full alert!"

"An explosion occurred! An explosion occurred in area No. 9! Be careful!"

"Warning! Level one alert!"

The entire west side of the Empire's supply depot was being eroded by the sea of fire.

The guards immediately swarmed over to the west side to check on the situation.

"What's that?"

In the raging flames, the first batch of guards who arrived saw a strange monster.

Its body was short, and its skin was covered in a layer of black stratum corneum.

It looked like a barbarian, but it was also a little different.

At the very least, the barbarian race was not that short, and they did not rely on their four limbs to crawl on the ground.

"Be careful!"

Whoosh!

The black monster that was crawling on the ground was extremely fast. In the blink of an eye, it had already reached the front of the guards!

The speed was shocking!

The chief guard immediately raised his large shield in front of him.

The monster's forelimbs quickly twisted into long, thin black spikes under the black stratum corneum.

The sharp spike suddenly pierced forward.

"Swish!"

There was a dry sound.

The guard captain's pupils contracted as he looked down at the steel shield in front of him.

The shield in his hand was actually pierced through!

After piercing through his steel shield, the spike also pierced through his right lung and went through his body.

"Captain!"

The guards' eyes were bloodshot as they raised their spears and stabbed at the demon!

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1126 Demons

Hiding in the dark and observing, Mikhael also had a strange expression.

The combat strength of the demons was astonishing!

In terms of strength and agility, the demons were stronger than the demonized barbarians!

After accelerating, the piercing power of the demons' spikes could even break through the steel shields of elite human soldiers!

However, the demons seemed to lack the long-range attack ability of the demonized barbarians.

He wondered how strong their defense was.

Just like the barbarians, the 'demons' also had a similar black stratum corneum on the surface of their bodies. It seemed that their defensive abilities were not weak.

Melee players would have a headache if they encountered them.

"Enemy attack! It's an enemy attack!"

Eh?

As Mikhael was thinking, he suddenly heard a panicked shout in his ear. He was a little stunned for a moment.

He turned his head and looked at Fang Heng beside him.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Fang Heng pretended to shout in the direction of the Empire guards.

"The barbarians are here! The barbarians were attacking! Everyone be careful!"

"Heavens! It's the demonized barbarians! Run!"

"Everyone, be careful!!"

"Captain! Captain!!"

"The captain was killed by the barbarians! Take revenge for the captain!"

With Fang Heng's loud shouts, the panic quickly spread out.

The guards didn't know what those strange life forms covered in black stratum corneum were, but they were somewhat similar to the demonized barbarians.

The most important thing was that the demons were extremely powerful!

As word spread far, the entire warehouse was soon filled with the shouts of the guards who did not know the truth.

"The barbarians are invading!"

"Guard the warehouse!"

"Reporting! Commander, we've encountered a barbarian invasion…"

For a time, everyone was shouting the news of the barbarian invasion.

Mikhael scratched his head, feeling a bit of pain in his balls.

He looked away from Fang Heng and suddenly understood why Wei Tao was so hesitant after hearing about Fang Heng's plan.

What the hell, how could Fang Heng do this kind of thing so skillfully…

"Let's go!"

Seeing that the plan was successful, Fang Heng chuckled and patted the shoulder of Mikhael, "Let's go to the next meeting point and meet up with Tang Mingyue."

…

In the royal treasury, after the explosion outside, Tang Mingyue immediately called the guards to move the treasures out of the royal treasury.

Cheng Jiqiang, the head of the guards directly under the royal family, was extremely puzzled. He frowned and said, "Your Highness Mingyue, the situation outside is still unclear. I'm afraid it's not appropriate to move the supplies out rashly."

The guards had always been in charge of guarding the royal treasury. They felt that there was a lot of commotion outside, but they had no idea what was happening. Besides, the royal treasury had always been a secret that few outsiders knew about. It didn't seem necessary to escape now, and it would only increase the risk.

However, Her Highness Mingyue's reaction was so big that she urged them to move immediately.

[Hint: Your abnormal behavior has caused the Empire influence points to decrease. Please make a decision carefully.]

[Hint: More abnormal behavior will lead to a significant decrease in influence.]

Tang Mingyue looked at the game prompt, her face determined.

A mere warning from the game would make her stop?

"What do you guys know? I've already received the news that the barbarians are attacking the military warehouse for the treasures in the royal treasury. We must move the materials immediately and not let the barbarians get them! This is an order, hurry!"

"Yes!"

The guards were skeptical of Tang Mingyue's news.

However, the current situation was urgent, and Tang Mingyue had urged them several times, so they didn't have time to think too much. They began to transport the precious materials from the royal treasury in vehicles according to Tang Mingyue's instructions.

After the loading was completed, more than 30 elite guards of the Empire escorted the supplies and evacuated through the emergency passage.

The head of the royal guards, Cheng Jiqiang, had already made up his mind. If he found out that the situation outside was under control after he left, he would choose to immediately take the treasures back to the royal treasury even if Mingyue stopped him.

Very quickly, the party entered the surface area from the secret underground area.

Seeing the chaos in the Empire's armory, the guards' expressions turned grave.

Was it really a surprise attack by the barbarians?

The cries of the barbarian invasion resounded in the military supply warehouse. Cheng Jiqiang even saw a black crawling lifeform suddenly attacking an Empire elite from behind.

The black spikes easily pierced through the hearts of the Empire's elite soldiers.

Seeing this, Tang Mingyue heaved a sigh of relief.

The game's warning system had been flashing non-stop all this time, and it had finally stopped a little.

Go and meet Fang Heng immediately!

...

Tang Mingyue's face turned serious as she shouted, "Let's go! Retreat to the East exit, there are no barbarians there!"

"Yes!"

The royal guards did not hesitate and answered in unison.

Their main task was to guard the treasures in the royal treasury, so they immediately escorted the treasures out of the east exit.

Halfway there, a 'barbarian' caught up from the right.

"You guys go first!"

Cheng Jiqiang shouted loudly and stood with his feet apart. The long sword in his hand was shrouded in a layer of dim yellow light.

"BOOM!"

The long sword hit the barbarian's body and he was sent flying!

Whoosh, Whoosh!

The 'barbarian' who was knocked away quickly adjusted his body in the air. He no longer pursued and flew in another direction.

...

Eh?

Cheng Jiqiang looked at the big sword in his hand and realized that something was not quite right.

This barbarian was different from the ones he had seen before.

Upon closer inspection, it seemed that there were not many barbarians left in the Empire's warehouse.

Cheng Jiqiang narrowed his eyes and quickly followed the supply escort team in front.

After being attacked by the demons once, the rest of the team was not harassed again, and they easily retreated through the East gate of the warehouse.

Tang Mingyue immediately commanded the team to head in the direction of the forest.

Along the way, Tang Mingyue's eyes kept looking around.

Found them!

She saw Fang Heng and Mikhael not far away!

On the path ahead, a supply transportation team of more than ten people was blocking the middle of the road.

Seeing this, Cheng Jiqiang immediately became vigilant. He clenched the big sword in his hand and motioned for the team to slow down.

A transport team in the middle of the road in the middle of the night, just thinking about it made him feel that there was a problem.

Before he could ask, the other party had already shouted.

"Your Highness Mingyue, it's great to meet you. Our team was preparing to transport a batch of emergency supplies to the Empire's armory, but we didn't expect…"

Tang Mingyue also started acting, "Is this Lord Fang Heng? The barbarians attacked the Empire's armory and it's not safe now. Just in time, you can follow me to evacuate."

"I understand! Many thanks, Your Highness."

Ha?

Was it the feudal lord's team?

Was he very familiar with Her Highness Mingyue?

Cheng Jiqiang was still a little confused about the situation. He found that Fang Heng had already joined his team and followed behind the team.

"Your Highness Mingyue, we…"

"Quick, let's continue!" Tang Mingyue interrupted, displeased. "Let's head into the forest!"

"Yes!"

1127 Plundering

[Hint: Your abnormal behavior has caused the influence points of the Empire to drop significantly. Please make a decision carefully.]

[Hint: Your identity can no longer affect people above Tier 4.]

Along the way, the game's notifications rang like crazy.

At this point, Tang Mingyue had already gone to the dark side. She secretly prayed that the team would move faster!

Cheng Jiqiang watched as the team followed a secret path deep into the forest. He asked for the third time, "Your Highness Mingyue, the barbarian race hasn't come after us yet. This area is very suitable for hiding. I suggest we stop immediately."

"No, let's go deeper."

"Your Highness Mingyue, we are getting further and further away from the Empire city. If this goes on, it will be difficult for the reinforcements to come to our aid. Are we going to…"

As soon as he finished speaking, several explosions suddenly erupted from the rear of the team!

Cheng Jiqiang looked behind him and saw that there was a commotion at the back of the team.

The 'demons' covered in black stratum corneum had appeared out of nowhere and started to attack the party.

"Be careful! It's the enemy!"

"The barbarian race! The barbarian race is coming!"

"Protect the materials!"

Cheng Jiqiang frowned and immediately led the Empire's guard regiment to fight!

"You guys stay here to stop the barbarians. We'll retreat first!"

Seeing that the elite soldiers were once again entangled by the demons, Tang Mingyue shouted and commanded the team of players to run forward with the goods.

Cheng Jiqiang wanted to say something, but the barbarian's attack hit his big sword and forced him to take two steps back.

When he looked back, Tang Mingyue had already run far away with a few boxes of supplies.

Cheng Jiqiang took a deep breath and had no choice but to concentrate on dealing with the demons in front of him.

On the other hand, Tang Mingyue was running forward with her team, looking back from time to time with some reluctance.

There were too many treasures in the royal treasury!

It would take too much time to move all of them. When she left the treasure vault, she had only moved a third of it.

Now that they were in a hurry, they couldn't take everything with them, and they lost two-thirds of their treasures.

After doing some calculations, she suffered a huge loss.

Tang Mingyue's eyes were filled with tears.

"Stop looking. Your guards are very strong. The 'demons' won't be able to stop them. We don't have time to move everything."

Fang Heng also had a headache.

After testing it out, the demons' attack aggro wasn't very high.

Perhaps the demons were still a little dazed when the seal had just been lifted. After they woke up, they would often attack a few times and when they realise that they could not defeat the enemy, they would retreat decisively.

"Yes, I can't help it…"

Tang Mingyue responded in a low voice, her heart aching as if a knife was cutting it.

Fang Heng had no choice but to think of a way to divert Tang Mingyue's attention. He shouted, "It's just in front, we're here!"

In front of him, a large circle was drawn on the ground with gray powder.

The accompanying team of players was already prepared and immediately stood in the circle with the accompanying supplies.

Fang Heng also stood in the circle, opened the game log, and sent a bomb signal to a zombie clone.

Standing aside, Mikhael looked at Fang Heng and Tang Mingyue in silence and thought, "So you all laid out so many things just to snatch this wave of Empire treasures? And now why did you all stop?"

Mikhael could not help but ask, "What about now? What are we waiting for?"

Tang Mingyue said, "Waiting for the ship to set sail."

"Hmm?"

"BOOM! Boom Boom!!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the explosives that had been buried underground exploded at the same time, and the ground under his feet collapsed along with the surrounding ground!

A trap?!

With a thought, Mikhael immediately used his skill to float in the air.

Meanwhile, the other players were already prepared and did not panic at all. They controlled their falling bodies and jumped down with the large boxes beside them.

"Thump! Thump Thump!!"

The players and the boxes landed on the huge inflatable lifeboats at the bottom of the pit.

Eh?

Seeing the familiar lifeboats below, Mikhael immediately reacted.

Good lord, this trick again?

After landing on the inflatable lifeboat, Tang Mingyue immediately raised her magic staff horizontally in front of her chest.

"Water dragon, break!"

"Roar!"

The dragon's head which was condensed from water rushed forward and crashed into the rock wall not far away!

Following that, other players also took out magic scrolls from their backpacks.

...

"Water spirit."

"Water, heaven overflowing!"

"Tsunami…"

More than a dozen water-type spells were cast at the rock wall behind the tunnel!

The water current created by magic carried the inflatable lifeboat down to a lower altitude.

Victor was already on the lifeboat to receive everyone, and he shouted, "Guys, there's some shrapnel on the lifeboat. Please help clean it up!"

After the players had finished casting a set of water-type magic scrolls, they immediately threw the falling rocks from the inflatable lifeboat.

Success!

Fang Heng stood on the lifeboat, feeling a little excited.

He and Tang Mingyue looked at each other and clenched their fists.

"Happy working together."

...

Fang Heng stretched out his hand and opened the box beside him, which was marked with a rune.

The box was filled to the brim with magic cores. There were at least fifty of them!

Fang Heng picked one up and observed it. The magic core in his palm emitted a faint orange-yellow light.

[Hint: Player has found an item-magic core.]

Item: Magic core.

Description: A core refined from various magical materials. It is a tool to build certain special magical buildings.

Special description (will be triggered when the player's basic will reaches 50 points and has mastered any related academic skill): This item has been marked with a magic tracking seal. The player can use mental power to remove the seal.

Special description (triggered by a special trial difficulty): This item has been determined to be a special item. After removing the restriction, the player will be judged to have executed the 'plunder' action on this special item. The item will be in a plundered state for three hours. During this period, the player will not be able to use the item.

Special description (triggered by a special trial): This item has been determined to be a special item. The player cannot put it in his backpack or take it out of the game.

Fang Heng's eyelids twitched slightly.

He knew that the mission would not be that simple. Not only was it restricted from being used for three hours, but the treasure was also marked with a magic tracking mark.

Fang Heng suddenly activated his spiritual power, and the spiritual brand attached to the magic core dissipated instantly.

The game notification appeared on his retina again.

[Hint: It has been detected that player 'plundered' is a special item in the Empire's royal treasury, determining…]

[Hint: The player has obtained an item with the advantage of the trial.]

[Hint: Balancing… The player's behavior will cause some players to receive the hostile mission.]

It wouldn't be that simple!

It was another player's hostile mission.

Fang Heng rubbed his neck gently, looked at the others, and nodded, "Everyone, be careful. The Empire has placed a magic tracing mark on the treasures. Let's think of a way to erase the mark first. Well, just leave two boxes."

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1128 Swindler

On a small dirt slope outside the Empire armory, the players from the Prilla Gaming Guild were stunned when they saw the huge crater left behind by the explosion.

What did that mean?

The ground had collapsed?

Both Her Highness and the undead feudal lord fell through the hole?

Was this a trap?

Was the Empire tricked?

Who set the trap in advance?

Ed was confused, his mind filled with question marks.

They had just seen Her Highness Mingyue and the undead feudal lord Fang Heng heading toward the slope and were about to go over and have a private chat with them. They didn't expect to hear several explosions before they could reach the slope.

Who would expect it to explode?

The other players in the guild looked at Ed one after another.

Sarwen looked at Ed suspiciously and asked in a low voice, "Boss, did you design all this?"

Ed's face was gloomy.

Perhaps in the eyes of others, he had some old grudges against Tang Mingyue and the feudal lord Fang Heng. Moreover, he had led his men to lie in ambush here early in the morning and watched Tang Mingyue's group fall into the trap.

No matter how others looked at it, it seemed as if he had planned it.

But it really wasn't him!

Ed suddenly felt lucky.

Fortunately, no one else nearby saw this scene, or else he would have to take the blame for nothing.

"No, it wasn't me," Ed shook his head.

Everyone looked at each other.

"Boss, then we…"

"Yes, let's go and take a look."

Ed led the players away from the slope and went to observe the pothole left behind by the explosion.

The bottom of the pit was not deep, only about seven or eight meters.

Upon a closer look, there was actually a tunnel that extended inwards at the bottom of the pit.

That's strange, when was the tunnel dug out?

Putting this aside, Her Highness Mingyue's disappearance in this place must have been planned in advance…

Could it be that person?

That's not right, wasn't that mysterious player on the same side as Her Highness Mingyue? Why did he suddenly attack her?

Did they have a fight?

For a moment, Ed was at a loss.

He realized that there were more and more inexplicable doubts, and his hair had been dropping these two days.

Just as everyone was puzzled by the turn of events, the game notification appeared in their eyes again.

[Hint: You have triggered a special hostile mission-the missing Princess.]

Mission title: The missing Princess.

Mission type: Hostile mission

Mission difficulty: Unknown

Mission description: Her Highness has been attacked. She has disappeared along with the royal treasure she was guarding. Please inform the Empire and continue to search for her whereabouts.

Mission requirement: Inform the Empire of the disappearance of Her Highness, Mingyue (0/1); Pursue and find the princess (0/1); Reclaim the lost royal treasure (0/1); Investigate the whole story (0/1); Report the truth to the Empire (0/1).

Current mission completion rate: 0%.

Mission reward: Based on the completion rate of the mission, the highest possible random SSS-level team mission reward will be awarded.

The players' breathing became heavy when they saw the mission that popped up out of nowhere, and they shifted their gaze to Ed who was standing in the midst of them.

It was an SSS-level reward!!

Ed's expression also changed slightly.

He carefully read the mission prompt, touched his chin, and fell into deep thought.

From the mission prompt, the mission required them to track down Tang Mingyue and retrieve the missing royal treasure.

If one were to think in reverse based on this clue, the mission that the enemy players received would most likely be to kidnap Her Majesty Mingyue and steal the royal family's treasures.

That mysterious man was so bold as to make a move against Her Highness Mingyue and the royal family?

"Commander, we…" Sarwen felt that his throat was a little dry. He hesitated for a moment, then looked at Ed and asked, "An SSS-level reward? Should we go for it?"

Go for it?

Ed's eyelids twitched as he looked into the hole.

Hehe. Stupid game system. It had lied to him the first time, and now it wanted to lie to him a second time? Was it addicted to lying? Did it think that he would be tricked by an SSS-level reward?

"Sarwen, greed is an original sin."

Ed laughed coldly in his heart as he spoke indifferently and retracted his gaze from the tunnel.

...

In his eyes, this hostile mission was a trap.

There was a huge disparity in strength between the enemy and himself.

His guild had been tricked the last time they did an enemy mission.

At that time, it was only an S-level random reward.

The result was very tragic. The entire guild was pressed to the ground and crushed, and they were almost wiped out.

This time it's an SSS-level?

Ten times more difficult?

Hehe, he wasn't going to fall for it!

His guild won't be doing the mission! Whoever likes it can do it.

Ed couldn't help but sneer in his heart.

Mmh!

...

Ed thought of something and narrowed his eyes.

Not only would they not do the mission, but they might even be able to find that big shot to suck up to and help them do the mission!

Wasn't the mission to help the Empire find Her Highness Mingyue and the missing materials?

They even helped to cover their tracks.

Informing the Empire should have been an easy task but now, he was not doing it.

After all, the final reward was related to the completion rate. Informing the Empire was a simple step, and even if they did it, they wouldn't receive much of a reward.

It was just that it was a little difficult to cover the traces.

Forget it, he would wait and see.

…

On the other side of the forest, the head of the royal guards, Cheng Jiqiang, who had escorted Tang Mingyue's team, was leading his team in a fierce battle with the 'barbarians'.

The strange 'barbarian race' had tyrannical strength.

The elite guards of the Empire's royal family were also extremely powerful in combat.

As the two sides were in a deadlock, a team of more than two hundred people rushed over from behind.

"Help them!!"

The captain of the Empire guards, Eric, shouted. He raised his spear and led his troops into the battlefield.

With the addition of new blood, the advantage of the battlefield was immediately tilted to the human side.

What was even more exciting was that there were three human mages on the support team.

The mages provided powerful support and greatly limited the abilities of the demons.

The team couldn't kill the demons within a short period of time. However, these demons didn't have much of a desire to fight. After tangling with the evil demons for a while, they realized that the situation wasn't good and immediately scattered.

Seeing that the crisis was over, Cheng Jiqiang cupped his fists at the support team and said, "Many thanks!"

The captain of the guards, Eric, had a solemn expression. He cupped his fists and replied, "I've just received the warning that the seal on the royal treasury has been removed. I've received the commander's order to come and assist Her Highness Mingyue. The follow-up teams are also coming one after another. Have you seen Her Highness Mingyue?"

Hearing this, Cheng Jiqiang's pupils immediately shrank, "Not good, Her Highness Mingyue might be in danger!"

"Let's go!"

The two human teams joined together to search for the traces left behind by Tang Mingyue's group pushing the cart earlier.

After chasing for a few minutes, Cheng Jiqiang found a pothole on the ground and Ed's team gathered around it.

"Who are you? Why are you here?"

Seeing that the people of the Empire were pursuing Tang Mingyue's whereabouts, Ed had an idea and nodded to Sarwen.

Sarwen stepped forward, gestured to the mark of the Mage Association on his chest, and replied, "Captain, we are members of the Mage Association nearby. We were attracted by the explosion of the armory and came to check it out. We found this deep pit on the way and stopped to check it out because we thought it was strange."

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1129 An Invitation

The guards let their guard down a little when they realized that the other party was from the Mage Association. They kept looking around.

There was no one else nearby, and the tire tracks on the ground had also disappeared.

Eric analyzed, "It seems like an accident happened. Her Highness Mingyue and the materials might have fallen into the pit."

"This pit is so strange, what should we do?"

"None of us can bear the responsibility for the disappearance of Her Highness Mingyue. Let's go in and take a look!"

Cheng Jiqiang looked at Sarwen, "What about you? The pit is strange, and there may be barbarians involved. We need the help of your group of mages. Are you willing to come with us?"

[Hint: The Captain of the Empire royal guards, Cheng Jiqiang, has invited a team to explore the pit. Players can choose whether to join as the main force.]

[Hint: Joining as the main force will greatly increase the mission score. Refusing to join will cause the mission to fail and your friendship with the Empire will be greatly reduced.]

Ed looked at the mission and thought to himself, "Here comes the 'big hole'."

He gestured to the players to get ready to escape and replied, "Sir, our team's combat ability is limited. We can just follow the team and assist."

Cheng Jiqiang was somewhat dissatisfied, but he still nodded and said, "Okay, sure."

[Hint: Your favorability with the Empire has decreased slightly. Your mission score has dropped significantly.]

Ed was not bothered by the mission penalty.

If he could avoid the trap, this little penalty was nothing.

Looking at the Empire's soldiers groping their way into the pit, Sarwen saw a game prompt flash on his retina. He walked to Ed's side and whispered, "Boss, someone from the Federation is contacting me offline. It's very urgent. There might be a clue to the mysterious person."

"Alright, you go first. We'll take care of this."

"Yes."

…

In the underground tunnel, Fang Heng's team went down along the river, using water-type magic to create water currents.

After charging forward for more than ten minutes, the speed of the water flow clearly decreased.

"Mingyue, I'll leave the rest to you. We'll split up."

"Alright!"

Tang Mingyue gave Fang Heng a thumbs up.

Mikhael followed beside the two of them in silence.

He had finally figured out Fang Heng and Tang Mingyue's plan.

He dared to bet two high-tier spell scrolls that these two people had already planned to attack the Empire's armory!

They were just using this mission as an opportunity to make a move in advance.

Well, they could also put the blame on the barbarian race.

What a good scheme.

All the benefits have been taken by them.

Along the way, most of the magic tracing marks left on the stolen goods had been erased. Fang Heng deliberately left two small boxes behind.

"The rest of you, follow me! Take the two boxes as well."

After hearing that, Victor followed Tang Mingyue and the others down the river. The remaining players worked together to lift the box and followed Fang Heng to the right side of the fork.

Mikhael sighed in his heart and chased after Fang Heng.

The tunnel dug by the zombies was connected to the underground world.

Soon, Fang Heng and his group entered the underground world. Fang Heng signaled them to place the box behind a large stone pillar.

"We're almost there. Let's rest for a while. Wei Tao should be here soon."

Fang Heng looked at the time of the trial and waited quietly.

Wei Tao did things steadily and would not make any mistakes.

Soon, there was a commotion not far away.

Wei Tao brought a few players and ran over.

Previously, Wei Tao had followed the plan and brought a group of players to the periphery of the barbarian's secret camp. He had secretly used a long-range magic scroll to blow up the camp a few times and cause chaos. Then, he immediately fled toward the rendezvous point where Fang Heng was supposed to be.

Seeing that Fang Heng and the others had arrived in advance, Wei Tao was relieved and said in a deep voice, "They're here. The barbarians are catching up. They'll be here in three minutes."

"Yes, let's go."

The party immediately retreated to the back.

As soon as Wei Tao and the others left, the barbarians caught up with them.

The barbarian commander Winkton, who was guarding the secret underground camp, was very anxious.

They actually found humans outside the camp!

This time, he had accepted a secret mission from the barbarian leader and had led the barbarian team to ambush here.

He did not expect to discover traces of humans before he received any new orders.

What was even more surprising was that those humans had actually taken the initiative to attack their camp!

Winkton didn't know what was going on with the humans, nor did he know how exposed their stronghold was.

And that the Lord's scheme had already been exposed?

Winkton's mood was getting worse.

...

The whereabouts of this group of humans were strange. They had to be captured and interrogated!

He could only hope that this was all a coincidence.

Winkton led the team all the way to the bottom of the large stone pillar. He frowned and gestured for the team to stop.

He found two strange boxes in front of him.

The box was new, clearly left behind recently. There were also faint fluctuations of human magic coming from the box.

Winkton suspected that there was something wrong with the box.

He nodded to the two demonized barbarians beside him.

"Go over and take a look."

Two demonized barbarians stepped forward and opened the box.

A dark light bloomed from the box.

The barbarians were shocked when they saw the contents of the box.

...

Mithril!

The box was filled with extremely precious magic mithril!

In the human empire, a hundred grams of magic mithril would be sold for eight to nine thousand!

Within the barbarian race, magic mithril was even rarer.

Good stuff!

The precious treasure was right in front of him, but Winkton had ten thousand questions in his heart.

What did that mean?

Why did the humans leave so much magic mithril here?

From the looks of it, the two boxes did not seem to be left behind in a panic during the escape…

Who cares!

Winkton ordered his men to carry the boxes back to the stronghold. Just as he was about to order them to continue the pursuit, he suddenly sensed a familiar human aura in front of him.

He looked up and saw a faint firelight in front of him.

The fire was getting closer.

A well-equipped human team from the Empire was heading straight for them.

Winkton's pupils shrank.

Damn it! It was the human guardians!

The most unfortunate thing had happened. The Empire must have discovered their existence!

"Roar!"

Winkton let out a low roar, and his entire body was covered in a dark layer of stratum corneum, and his pupils were filled with a deep desire to fight.

"Kill them all! Don't leave a single one alive!"

The humans who were coming from the front were also shocked by the scene before them.

Originally, after entering the underground world, they had followed the magic guidance that the Empire mage Jingle had left on the treasures of the Empire treasury.

They didn't expect to meet so many barbarians here!

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1130 A Gang

"The barbarian race! It's the barbarian race!"

"Engage the enemy!!"

Cheng Jiqiang raised the big sword in his hand and rushed forward with his comrades. At the same time, he was anxiously looking for Her Highness Mingyue's figure among the barbarians.

"Go! Think of a way to find Her Highness!"

In the blink of an eye, the humans and barbarians collided with each other and were caught in an intense crossfire.

Ed and the other players followed behind the human team.

Seeing this scene, the players couldn't help but feel a little scared.

It was too dangerous!

Fortunately, they did not take the initiative to join the Empire's side as the main force in the mission. Otherwise, they would be the ones fighting the barbarians now!

This mission was indeed a scam!

But…

Whose side was the mastermind behind all this?

Wasn't he on the same side as Her Highness Mingyue?

What was going on now?

Did they break up or something? It's fine if they broke up, but why did he have to kill his ex?

The more Ed thought about it, the more his head hurt.

He squinted his eyes and focused on the battlefield, trying to find the missing Tang Mingyue.

However, he could not find her!

Not only was Tang Mingyue nowhere to be found, but there were only two treasure chests left out of the more than 20 treasure chests that he had seen Tang Mingyue's team transport.

"Commander, something's not right," one of the players said softly. "Her Highness Mingyue doesn't seem to be here."

"Yes," Ed thought. He whispered, "Don't worry too much. The Empire's situation isn't good. We need to protect ourselves and be ready to escape at any time. Don't die here."

Just as they were talking, Sarwen rushed over from behind.

He walked to Ed's side anxiously and whispered, "Commander, we've found out about the other party's background."

Ed's eyes lit up and he asked, "Who is it? "

"It's the Central Federation."

"Oh?"

"My friend asked around, but the specific information is not clear. It's a secret project set up by the Central Federation two years ago, and the name of the project is 'Elegy'. The barbarian game world is also one of the projects. The project involves the Federation's secrets, so we can't find out the specific details."

"We've just been trying to get in touch with the peripheral personnel of Project Elegy."

"At first, they used the excuse that the project was still in preparation, but my friend forced them to say that they already had the relevant plans and were in the process of executing them."

"I told them that I already know what they're doing in the game," said Sarwen in a low voice. "I also intend to cooperate with them and make it convenient for them."

"From the initial response of the Central Federation, it seems that they are willing to cooperate. However, several leaders of the project are not present for the time being, so they cannot give an accurate reply."

Ed squinted his eyes and thought, "So that's how it is."

It turned out to be a special project of the Central Federation. No wonder the enemy was so powerful.

As for the absence of the project leaders, it was normal.

They were still controlling everything in the game, so they naturally wouldn't stay offline.

Ed thought that he had understood everything. He patted Sarwen's shoulder and praised him, "Good job, Sarwen."

"Captain, what should we do now?"

"Hmm, bide our time and think of a way to make contact with the other party."

In the distance, Fang Heng and the others were hiding in the dark, carefully observing the two sides of the battle.

"Where's Mingyue? Why don't I see her?"

"She has other matters to attend to, so it's not convenient for her to show her face. She's temporarily in hiding." Fang Heng explained briefly, "She will meet us later."

Mikhael looked at Fang Heng in silence and did not answer.

He thought, "So, you guys took the stolen goods from the Empire together? Forget it, it was better not to add more pressure on Wei Tao in this situation."

Ignorance was bliss.

"Alright." Wei Tao didn't think too much and looked toward the direction of the battle. He asked, "Fang Heng, everything is going according to your plan. The Empire has discovered the barbarian camp and both sides are fighting. The barbarian side doesn't seem to be very strong."

"Yes." Observing the battlefield, Mikhael nodded and said, "That's right. Don't think that the barbarians have the upper hand for now. This is the center of the Empire. If the barbarian camp is discovered in the underground area, there will be a steady stream of reinforcements coming. It is a good choice to help the Empire now."

"No, don't be in a hurry. Let's wait and see."

"Yes."

Wei Tao agreed and continued to observe.

The difficulty of the follow-up mission triggered by the optional mission was at least SS-level, and it was a forcibly triggered mission. The penalty for failure was extremely severe.

Based on this, it was possible that uncontrollable dangerous events might occur if the barbarian camp was discovered by humans in advance.

Therefore, Wei Tao followed Fang Heng's suggestion and tried to avoid risks.

Instead of actively triggering a mission, he tricked the humans into discovering the barbarian camp.

However, no one could say for sure what would happen in the end.

...

In the face of the unknown, it was never wrong to be cautious.

The two sides fought for less than ten minutes, and the Empire's follow-up support team quickly arrived to join the battlefield.

The situation was more unfavorable for the barbarian race.

The Empire's mages played a huge role on the battlefield.

Under the command of the Empire's commander, the human army got into formation and gradually controlled the situation, slowly devouring the barbarian's living strength.

It seemed that the barbarians could not hold on for much longer.

"Not good, you guys look!"

With his sharp senses, Mikhael sensed a powerful aura approaching. His heart sank, and his eyes shifted to the back of the battlefield.

In the distance, a pitch-black figure was rapidly approaching the barbarian's rear.

It was the demonized barbarian!

The demonized barbarian's entire body was covered in black rhomboid spikes. He was running rapidly into the dark underground world like a ghost!

...

Whoosh!

The demonized barbarian attacked from the right side of the barbarian team. He pushed his hands forward at the same time.

The blackthorn crystal quickly condensed into a black crystal ball in front of him.

"BOOM!!"

The black crystal ball exploded!

The dense blackthorn crystal dust formed a black crystal dust storm, madly rolling towards the Empire army.

The Empire commander saw this and shouted, "Be careful! Get into formation!"

The soldiers of the Empire in the front row raised their shields at the same time, trying to block the storm of black crystal dust.

"Thump thump thump!!"

The crystal dust landed on the shield, creating fine dents!

The crystal dust scattered, and the soldiers in the front row raised their shields to block it. However, there was too much crystal dust, and many fine crystal dust spikes passed through the gaps of the shields and entered the bodies of the soldiers in the back.

"Bang! Bang Bang!!"

Then, a series of muffled explosions sounded!

Once the crystal dust pierced into the skin and came into contact with the blood, it would explode!

The injured parts of the Empire's soldiers were instantly torn open, and blood flowed out.

In just one wave of attack, the Empire's shield-wielding guards in the front row suffered heavy losses, and a large number of them had lost their combat ability.

"Wangnet? Why is he here…"

Ed and the others who were following behind the Empire army had an idea.

One of the successors of the barbarian leader, Wangnet.

For a long time, Wangnet had been known for his bravery among the barbarians, and he had caused great trouble for the Empire in the battles.

He even had the ability to enter Tier 3 of demonization.

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1131 The Target

"Ha…"

Wangnet sneered and looked behind the Empire's team as if he was searching for something.

"Found it."

Wangnet muttered as he sensed the source of the energy fluctuation. He quickly ran forward, trying to bypass the Empire's team.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a figure appeared from the Empire's team and blocked Wangnet's path.

Wangnet was forced to stop. His expression was grave as he looked at the face that looked like it had been carved by a knife.

One of the four great sword saints of the Empire, Rio Tinto.

Rio Tinto was already 200 years old, and his physical fitness had entered a decline in all aspects, but his swordsmanship and skills had already reached their peak.

Without further ado, Rio Tinto slashed forward!

"Ka ka ka…"

Layers of sharp spikes appeared on Wangnet's back. The spikes rose from his back like wings and blocked his front.

"BOOM!!"

The sword radiance struck the black wing and an explosion was heard.

Wangnet was sent flying back a few meters before he could stabilize himself.

A sneer appeared on his face, as his blackthorn wings flapped behind him.

Whoosh!

He charged forward once more, with the black wings, his speed had almost doubled, and his entire right hand formed into a black spike as he pounced towards Rio Tinto!

The two were caught in an intense battle.

Wei Tao watched on in fear from the side. Once again, a strong sense of powerlessness emerged from the bottom of his heart.

A Tier 3 barbarian?

And the sword saint of the Empire?

Why did he encounter two super bosses fighting each other again?

No wonder the mission difficulty rating was SSS-level. They could not even get involved in a mission of this level!

Standing at the side, Mikhael stared at Rio Tinto, trying to remember every detail of his movements.

He was one of the strongest sword saints in the Empire, and to be able to personally witness Rio Tinto's battle was definitely beneficial to his sword training.

The sword saint Rio Tinto was extremely powerful, and with his old body, he could take on Wangnet in a one-on-one fight.

And that Wangnet was even more terrifying!

He still had the upper hand despite being surrounded by so many negative spells from the Empire mages!

"BOOM!!!"

After another collision, Wangnet jumped back.

The sword saint Rio Tinto pointed his sword at the barbarian and said coldly, "Barbarian, I don't care who you are. Get out of here. The Empire is not a place for barbarians."

"Heh, I really envy your ignorance."

Wangnet sneered and muttered to himself.

In just a short moment, his face had already condensed into a dense black crystal.

Wangnet put his hands in front of him again, slowly forming a cross.

"Ka ka ka…"

With a strange sound, slender blackthorns spread out from the surface of Wangnet's body.

A clone made entirely out of blackthorn split out from Wangnet's body and stood beside him.

Other than the face that was completely covered in blackthorns, the clone looked no different from the original.

In less than half a minute, eight separate clones that were condensed from the blackthorns on Wangnet's body stood behind him respectively.

Wangnet pointed at one end of the cave and said in a deep voice, "Go!"

Whoosh!!!

The eight blackthorn clones received the command and simultaneously scuttled forward.

Rio Tinto frowned. He could sense that the speed of the blackthorn clones was also extremely fast!

Horizontal slash!

Rio Tinto waved his long sword, and a white sword energy shot toward the blackthorn clones.

In the next moment, Wangnet appeared in front of the sword qi, and the blackthorn in his hand stabbed forward.

"BOOM!!"

The sword qi exploded! The force of the blast blew in all directions.

Wangnet was blown back by the force and faced Rio Tinto.

The crystal on his face looked extremely stiff, but he still had a mocking expression on his face, "Tsk, tsk, tsk. One-on-one, don't bully the weak, okay?"

Rio Tinto's focus was at its maximum as he stared at his opponent, his withered hand gripping the hilt of his sword.

Wangnet was a great threat to him!

...

He could no longer divert his attention to deal with those clones.

The troublesome part was that the Empire's elites would find it difficult to resist the blackthorn clones.

He had to end the battle quickly!

At the rear, the tyrannical blackthorn clones broke through the ranks of the Empire's troops, rapidly tearing a hole in the middle, and attempting to break through to the right.

Fang Heng, who was hiding in the dark, had originally intended to watch a good show, but when he noticed the movements of the blackthorn clones, he suddenly realized that something was amiss.

What was going on?

He had initially thought that the blackthorn clones would charge into the rear of the Empire's army and slaughter them. However, he had never expected them to suddenly charge in a single direction.

Fang Heng's eyelids twitched.

That direction didn't seem to be towards the exit.

It was more like…

They were chasing after Tang Mingyue?

...

No way? Was it just a coincidence?

As he was pondering, a game prompt flashed on the trial team's retina.

[Warning: The special item of the player's team, an unknown stone, has been detected. The unknown stone has become the barbarian's target.]

[Hint: The player has triggered the trial side mission-protect the unknown stone.]

Mission title: Protect the unknown stone.

Mission difficulty: S.

Mission description: You have discovered that the barbarians' target has changed. Please protect your spoils.

Mission requirement: Protect the unknown stone for at least 5 hours and make sure it doesn't fall into the hands of the barbarians.

Mission reward: A slight increase in trial score and the player will receive additional trial time.

What?!

What unknown stone?

What was that thing? When did he get it?

Wei Tao was still a little dazed when he saw the game notification.

When he encountered such an inexplicable thing, he instinctively turned around and looked at Fang Heng with a surprised expression.

Fang Heng immediately understood.

It was the mysterious black stone that was stolen from the Empire's warehouse. The spiritual imprint of the Empire was originally left on the stone.

In addition to the tracking ability, the imprint could also eliminate the aura of some stones.

When he had stolen the stone, he had erased the imprint on it, which had also caused the aura of the unknown stone to leak out at an accelerated rate.

The unknown stone in the Empire's warehouse was much larger than the two he had seen before, and the aura fluctuations were more intense.

Therefore, it was normal for the barbarians to sense it.

Fang Heng's mind was full of thoughts.

The barbarian's target was the stone?!

No! With such a large stone, there was a high chance that the sacred tree could reach the growth stage after absorbing it!

He couldn't give it up!

After quickly weighing the pros and cons in his mind, Fang Heng immediately shouted, "Everyone, let's think of a way to stop them together!"

"Okay, leave it to me."

Mikhael gained inspiration after witnessing the sword saint Rio Tinto's battle, and after hearing Fang Heng's words, he responded in a deep voice, and dashed out from the side, approaching one of the blackthorn clones who was fighting with the Empire's elite.

Whoosh!!!

The purple essence long sword in Mikhael's hand drew a purple light in the air.

The blackthorn clone sensed the danger and raised its arms to block.

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1132 Trigger

"BOOM!!!"

The explosion sounded again.

The blackthorn clone had been reduced to dust by a single strike from Mikhael!

The crystal dust in the air exploded.

Eh?

Looking up at the crystal dust around him, Mikhael let out a soft gasp.

The black crystal dust that exploded in the air was slowly gathering in one direction.

The crystal dust gradually condensed into specks of starlight, before quickly condensing into crystals of blackthorn. It seemed that it would soon form another blackthorn clone.

Special life forms.

He actually couldn't be killed?

Mikhael's heart sank.

Seeing that Mikhael had taken the lead, Wei Tao led the team of players and immediately joined the battlefield.

Even though Wei Tao didn't know what Fang Heng was up to, as a teammate, he chose to trust Fang Heng 100%.

Fang Heng also knew in his heart that the difficulty of the mission he had received this time was extremely high. It was obvious that just by relying on Mikhael and the players' team, they were no match for the eight blackthorn clones.

The mission difficulty rating of S-level was most likely to consider the human forces as allies.

At the thought of this, Fang Heng quickly ran out from the side and shouted, "Stop them, they want to harm Princess Mingyue!"

The Empire royal guard Cheng Jiqiang recognized Fang Heng immediately and shouted, "Lord Fang Heng, where is Her Highness Mingyue?"

"The barbarians' target is the royal family's secret treasure. Her Highness Mingyue is protecting the secret treasure from the back of the cave!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the game prompt refreshed his retina again.

[Hint: The player team has triggered the trial's main mission-the heir of the barbarians.]

Mission title: Heir of the barbarians.

Mission difficulty: SS.

Mission description: You have found the barbarian camp in the underground world and accidentally discovered one of the successors of the barbarian leader, Wangnet.

Mission requirements: Intercept (repel or kill) Wangnet.

Current mission completion rate: 0%

Mission reward: Increase in the trial score and additional trial time (rewards are based on mission completion rate). Rewards will not be triggered if the mission completion rate is lower than 50%; if the completion rate is lower than 20%, there will be a failure penalty, and the remaining trial time will be deducted by 1-6 hours.

Seeing the game prompt that appeared, the team players had different expressions.

After fighting with the game for so long, the SS-level difficulty mission was still triggered.

The mission target was the inheritor of the barbarian leader who was in a Tier 3 demonized state.

Could this battle be fought?

The only good news was that the penalty for mission failure had been reduced and was still within control.

Fang Heng flashed to the side of Wei Tao and Mikhael, where both of them were commanding the players' team, and whispered, "Let's split up and focus on the follow-up mission. We'll give up on the main mission depending on the situation. You guys help us block the barbarians while I go find Mingyue. There's still a chance. Don't give up."

"Yes," Mikhael replied, as he raised his purple essence long sword and charged at the blackthorn clone in front of him.

"Alright, leave this to us. Go ahead and do what you need to do."

Wei Tao gritted his teeth and replied.

If he failed the mission, then so be it. At most, he would just give up on the six hours of trial time!

Just as they were about to command their combat team to think of a way to resist the blackthorn clone, a line of game notifications appeared on the retinas of Wei Tao and the others.

[Hint: Qiu Yaokang, a special character of the player's trial team, has solved the initial puzzle of the trial game. The player's trial score will be increased to S. The player will get an extra 8 hours of trial time.]

"Huh?"

The sudden game notification made Wei Tao's heart skip a beat, and he rubbed his eyes in surprise.

What was going on?

Great news?

Qiu Yaokang?

It's a very familiar name. Was he an NPC that Fang Heng brought out from the game?

Wei Tao couldn't help but take a look at Fang Heng's location.

With this good news, he was even more confident.

Fang Heng also saw the game prompt.

It seemed that Qiu Yaokang had made a breakthrough in his research.

Fang Heng looked around the battlefield as he thought about this. He immediately accelerated and chased in the direction of Tang Mingyue.

…

Griffin City.

In the intermediate scientific research laboratory that he had just rented not long ago, Qiu Yaokang pushed open the door of the sealed laboratory.

Mo Jiawei was sleeping on the table in a daze. When he heard the sound of the door opening, he suddenly quivered.

When he looked up and saw Qiu Yaokang standing in front of him, Mo Jiawei suddenly sobered up.

...

"Genius Qiu, how is it? Do you lack something again?"

During this period, Mo Jiawei had been accompanying Qiu Yaokang in his research.

Almost every once in a while, Qiu Yaokang would run out of the research room and ask Mo Jiawei for some unclear research materials or advanced research equipment.

Mo Jiawei simply led more than 20 players to serve Qiu Yaokang all day long.

If he needed any equipment or materials, they would help him find them all over the world, and do their best to meet Qiu Yaokang's research and development requirements.

"Not at the moment."

Qiu Yaokang said as he moved his neck to stretch his muscles.

His body was a little stiff because he had not moved for a long time, and his bones were making creaking sounds.

"Not lacking? Then why did you come out?"

Mo Jiawei was still in a daze from his sleep. As he spoke, he was stunned for a moment before he asked in surprise, "Wait, you're saying that there's a discovery in the research?"

"Yes."

...

Qiu Yaokang's expression was as calm as ever. He nodded and said, "I've analyzed Fang Heng's blood sample, the sample taken from the demon of the underground world, and the sample taken from the demonized barbarian."

"After comparing the three, I came to a conclusion."

Mo Jiawei felt a little nervous. He swallowed his saliva and asked in a low voice, "What's the conclusion?"

"The Hila virus," Qiu Yaokang said word by word.

Mo Jiawei was stunned and blurted out, "Ah? The Hila virus? What did you just say?"

He had never expected to hear this name after leaving the elementary game.

"Yes, from the analysis of the samples taken from the demonized barbarians and the 'demons', there are some viruses in their bodies, and this virus has more than 70% similarity with the Hila virus. I think that the ancestors of these viruses are of the same origin."

Mo Jiawei found it a little hard to understand, "Genius Qiu, can you explain it in a simpler way? I don't understand."

"Well, you can understand it as the zombies in our world. Zombies are life forms formed after being infected by the virus. In contrast to this world, the demonized barbarians and the 'evil demons' in the underground world who were tempted by the demonic seed were also infected by the virus. However, they had different forms after being infected by the virus."

Qiu Yaokang took out an analysis report with a blue cover and explained, "This is the detailed report. Due to Fang Heng's special physique, his body was affected by the Hila virus and has an ability similar to 'immortality'."

"The 'undying' ability is the effect of the Hila virus. The virus in his body has evolved to a higher level, so his blood has a great suppression ability against low-level viruses of the same origin."

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1133 The Reason

"As far as the practical effect is concerned, you saw that Fang Heng's blood had an effect on the 'demon'. Similarly, his blood would also have an effect on the barbarian race."

Mo Jiawei opened his mouth.

"Wait, that's not right. Do you mean the demonized barbarians were all infected by some kind of virus? Am I right?"

"To be more precise, whether the barbarians are 'demonized' or not, they have already been infected. I've detected traces of the virus in all the barbarians, but the degree of infection is different. According to the different physiques of each person, the effect of the virus infection is different. 'Demonization' should be a deeper level of infection."

Mo Jiawei felt a little confused and asked again, "What about Tang Mingyue? What was going on with Tang Mingyue? Why did all the cave-dwelling beasts call her a demon? Is she also infected?"

"Yes, I've analyzed her blood sample. She's also infected, and the level of the infection is very high."

"That's not right. When did Tang Mingyue get infected?"

"Yes, this is also what I want to explain next."

Qiu Yaokang handed another orange-covered document to Mo Jiawei, "This is the stone box we found in the underground world after we first entered the trial."

"Yes, have you found anything about that thing?"

Mo Jiawei had a deep impression of the stone box.

It took a lot of effort to move it here.

"Yes, I've done more in-depth research on the stone chest and found that it's used for physical sealing. I also found a small number of remains of the host body inside."

"I'm sure you've already guessed that the stone chest is used to seal the original host of the virus."

"Combining all the clues from before, I now come up with the following hypothesis."

Qiu Yaokang raised his head and looked at Mo Jiawei, "As the original host of the virus sealed in the stone box has been there for a long time, the host has died completely. However, the rest of the virus didn't die completely, but it dissolved in the air and formed a mist."

"Tang Mingyue's action of opening the stone box led to the spread of the sealed original virus. Tang Mingyue, who was the closest to the stone statue, became the new host of the virus."

"The virus…"

Mo Jiawei seemed to have understood a little as he listened, so he continued to ask, "Is the virus contagious?"

"There are no signs of the virus being transmitted."

"I've studied the virus in Tang Mingyue's body. The virus will gradually invade the human body within one to three days after infection, and have various effects on the human body."

"What kind of influence? Do you have a specific one?"

Qiu Yaokang frowned, "I can't predict it, but we can consider the barbarians and the infected subterranean world."

Mo Jiawei felt that there was too much information, "So, Tang Mingyue will become a monster?"

"Of course, this hypothesis is also possible."

Qiu Yaokang shrugged and stuffed the report into Mo Jiawei's hands, "Okay, that's the general situation. The specific data is in the report. I'm going to continue studying the black stone. That thing is very interesting."

[Hint: Qiu Yaokang, a special character of the player's trial team, has solved the initial puzzle of the trial game. The player's trial score has been increased to S. The player will get an extra 8 hours of trial time.]

The game notification that popped up on his retina made Mo Jiawei a little stunned.

Good Lord, the game had given him a prompt.

This meant that Qiu Yaokang's experiment results and deductions were completely correct!

"Hey, Genius Qiu, wait up."

Seeing that Qiu Yaokang was about to go back to seclude himself for research again, Mo Jiawei quickly went up and pulled him back.

"What is it?"

"What about the special medicine to deal with the barbarians and the 'demons'? And Tang Mingyue, wasn't she infected? How can I save her?"

"One of them is the purple essence which is effective against the host of the virus. The other is Fang Heng's blood, which is the perfect Hila virus and very effective against these low-level and low-concentration viruses. However, I don't think there's a need to save them. The viruses in this world are very strange, and they seem to be more inclined to symbiosis…"

As Qiu Yaokang spoke, he habitually lowered his head and began to think.

"Forget it, I still have more important research that's half done. If there's nothing else, I'll continue my research."

"Uh, okay…"

Mo Jiawei watched Qiu Yaokang return to the laboratory.

He scratched his head and still felt that it was not very safe.

He would tell Fang Heng about this discovery first.

With that thought in mind, Mo Jiawei immediately left the laboratory and rushed to the capital of the Empire.

…

In the underground world, Fang Heng ran quickly into the tunnel dug by the zombie clones.

Not far behind him, two blackthorn clones were pursuing him from both sides.

Fang Heng raised his eyebrows.

Trouble was coming.

Wei Tao and the Empire's elites alone would not be able to stop all of the blackthorn clones.

They're catching up!

Apart from that, the blackthorn clones' speed increased explosively once again with the blackthorn wings on their back. The distance between Fang Heng and his pursuers was rapidly closing.

"Whoosh!!"

The blackthorn clone didn't possess any enmity towards Fang Heng. After approaching him, it didn't care about him, and in the blink of an eye, it had already slipped past him.

"Get lost!"

Fang Heng shouted and thrust the purple essence long blade forward!

...

"BOOM!"

The right side of the blackthorn clone was struck in the chest by the long blade, directly blasting a huge hole in the body of the blackthorn clone!

Whoosh!!!

The blackthorn clone on the left immediately became hostile toward Fang Heng, its crystallized right arm striking straight at Fang Heng's back.

Fang Heng quickly turned around, but before he could use the purple essence long blade to block it, the right arm of the blackthorn clone suddenly exploded in front of his eyes!

"BOOM!"

Fang Heng's eyes were immediately covered with scattered blackthorn crystals.

The thin and sharp blackthorns could easily cut through the skin, and upon contact with the blood, they would immediately explode a second time!

Fang Heng saw that his health was dropping by a large amount, but he quickly increased it with the help of the recovery ability of the undying body.

This wasn't the end, as two more blackthorn clones broke through the layers of the Empire's soldiers, pursuing him from behind.

How troublesome!

...

He had to think of a way to get rid of one first!

Fang Heng cried 'trouble' in his heart. He forcibly raised his purple essence long blade to meet the enemy, trying to see if he could kill one of the blackthorn clones.

"Swish!"

The purple essence long blade in Fang Heng's hand suddenly slashed forward!

"BOOM!"

The blackthorn clone's head was pierced by the long blade, and exploded! He was sent flying along with his body!

Fang Heng squinted his eyes as he looked at the blackthorn clone that was easily blown into black crystal dust.

The black crystal dust that filled the sky quickly condensed and recovered in the air.

What to do?

The blackthorn clone had the ability to resurrect infinitely!

Now, Fang Heng finally realized how much of a headache it was for the enemy to face a zombie clone!

When faced with an opponent that could not be completely killed…

"Woof! Whoosh!!"

Taking advantage of the gap in Fang Heng's attack, the two blackthorn clones behind him quickly joined the battle. At the same time, they brandished their blackthorns, stabbing into Fang Heng's back!

"Hiss!"

Fang Heng gasped and felt a sharp pain in his back.

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"Boom!! Boom Boom Boom!!"

The moment the black spike came into contact with his blood, it instantly caused a second explosion!

Fang Heng gritted his teeth and relied on the powerful recovery ability of his 'undying body' to resist the damage!

Eh?

What was going on?

Fang Heng was surprised to find that a large part of the black spikes that had pierced his body had melted away after a few consecutive explosions.

The two blackthorn clones seemed to have no self-consciousness as they struggled to pull out the spikes from Fang Heng's body.

"Chi Chi Chi…"

The blood-stained black spikes had melted a lot compared to before, and the spikes were still emitting a greenish-gray smoke.

Fang Heng's pupils shrank when he saw the blood on the blackthorns.

Was it blood?

That's right!

He had seen a similar scene at the underground altar.

The blood of the vampires was effective against the cave-dwelling beasts, and now it was surprisingly effective against the barbarians!

"Swoosh!"

Taking advantage of Fang Heng's dazed state, several of the blackthorn clones seemed to have determined that Fang Heng had lost his ability to fight. They quickly circled around him and launched a rapid attack toward the distant passage!

Terrible!

They wanted to escape!

Fang Heng's heart sank. He quickly raised the finger of his right hand and pointed forward!

"Woosh! Whoosh Whoosh!!"

The blood that had seeped out from the wound earlier was controlled by Fang Heng's mental power. It condensed into several blood beads in the air and flew toward the blackthorn clones!

"Thump! Thump thump!!"

It was effective!

The blood droplets were like bullets as they bombarded the blackthorn clones, causing deep dents to appear on the crystallized surface!

The nearest three blackthorn clones were sent flying by the blood beads and slammed into the stone walls on both sides of the passage.

The dents on their bodies, which were made by the blood, seemed to be corroded and emitted green smoke.

Compared to the explosive damage caused by the blackthorn, the damage caused by the blood seemed to be more difficult to recover!

F*ck!

Seeing this, Fang Heng gritted his teeth.

The three blackthorn clones at the front had blocked the majority of the damage, while the remaining one took the opportunity to escape, quickly disappearing into the depths of the tunnel.

Fang Heng took a deep breath and lifted the purple essence long blade again.

The long blade grazed his palm and was stained with his blood.

"Again."

Fang Heng snorted and dashed forward again.

The three blackthorn clones also quickly recovered their combat power and once again charged toward Fang Heng.

One against three, it was a chaotic battle!

Fang Heng felt helpless.

Blood and purple essence could produce an effect greater than one plus one, but it was still unable to completely eliminate the blackthorn clones.

Concerned about the safety of Tang Mingyue and the Empire's treasures, Fang Heng engaged in combat with the blackthorn clones. After a few rounds of fighting, he realized he couldn't defeat all of them so he decided to fight the blackthorn clones while rushing toward the inner passage.

Not far behind the tunnel, Ed led his team of players and hurriedly chased after them.

They had already fallen into a misunderstanding and thought that the undead feudal lord Fang Heng was a powerful NPC.

Seeing Fang Heng running off to look for Her Highness Mingyue alone, and seeing the blackthorn clones chasing after Fang Heng, Ed decisively abandoned the Empire's players and led the player team to help.

As they ran along the tunnel, they soon heard the sounds of explosions coming from ahead.

When they saw the figure in front of the passage, they couldn't help but slow down.

Ed's party members were extremely surprised.

Necromancy mage?

Why did he go up and fight?

Moreover, his close combat strength was shocking.

He was actually able to simultaneously deal with three blackthorn clones without being at a disadvantage!

"What should we do now, Captain?" asked Sarwen who turned his head o look at him.

"Go up and help!"

Ed nodded and shouted at Fang Heng, "Lord Fang Heng! We are on the same side! We're here to help!"

Without waiting for Fang Heng's reaction, Ed waved his hand and shouted, "Go, help him!"

Not far away, Fang Heng was struggling with the blackthorn clones when he noticed the sound of hurried footsteps coming from the back of the passage.

...

Seeing that it was Ed's team of players, Fang Heng was thinking of countermeasures.

He judged that Ed and the others had most likely triggered a hostile mission when they were snatching the Empire's resources.

What a coincidence!

It just so happened that this group of people had triggered the mission.

After all, Ed and his men had learned their lesson when they joined forces with the barbarians.

Fang Heng had made up his mind and was about to get rid of this group of players first. Before he could do anything, he suddenly heard Ed shouting 'we're on the same side' at him.

Ah?

What was going on?

Who was on his side?

Did he want to play tricks?

Fang Heng was stunned.

...

He had never expected Ed and the others to cast spells on the spot without a second word, and deal with the blackthorn clones together.

Was this group of people for real?

Fang Heng didn't know what to do for a while.

So, Ed and his gang really weren't enemies this time?

Ed's party consisted of almost all mages, and in a flash, multicolored magic poured toward the blackthorn clones.

The blackthorn clones' magic resistance was extremely low, and after receiving the spell's effect, their speed was instantly reduced.

"Swamp trap!"

The three mages cast quagmire spells at the same time, covering the passage with a thick layer of quagmire!

Temporarily weakening the control of the three blackthorn clones, Ed took the opportunity to approach Fang Heng.

"Lord Fang Heng, I have understood the situation. What happened between us was a misunderstanding. In fact, we have communicated with each other through our special channels. We have reached an agreement with your good friend. Now, we are friends and partners."

Huh?

Good friend? Partners?

Who was he talking about?

Mo Jiawei?

Or Mingyue? Sandy?

Fang Heng looked at Ed with a puzzled expression, thinking that this guy must have made a mistake.

As Fang Heng was still wearing the mask, Ed couldn't see his puzzled expression. He only saw that Fang Heng was a little hesitant.

His hesitation was normal to Ed.

He was afraid that Fang Heng would be more hostile if he got too close to him, so he kept a distance from him and continued to nod, "Lord Fang Heng, I know that you're still wary of me. There's no need to doubt me. If you still don't believe me, please help me tell that friend of yours that I already know about 'Project Elegy' of the Central Federation and am very willing to work with them."

Fang Heng was even more puzzled after hearing that.

What?

What the hell is Project Elegy?

And it's related to the Central Federation?

Was this fake?

Just by hearing this unknown name, it sounded like something Sandy would do.

Fang Heng's brain was working at full speed.

Let's not care about that for now.

It just so happened that he had too many troublesome matters on hand.

From the looks of it, the other party most likely treated him as a game character.

Who cares about Project Elegy?

He could use them first!

The strength of this group of players wasn't weak, and they were able to restrain the three blackthorn clones for a short period of time.

It was clear that they had been slacking off in the Empire's team.

Fang Heng made a quick deduction.

"Fine, I will help you convey your message. I hope you can prove your sincerity, and think of a way to stop these blackthorn clones."

Seeing that Fang Heng had agreed, Ed was even more convinced of Fang Heng's identity without a doubt. He immediately made a battle gesture to his team.

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1135 Countermeasure

"Of course. Please leave it to us. We'll do our best, but our spiritual power is limited. We can't guarantee that we can control them for a long time."

"Okay, just try to buy me as much time as possible."

Fang Heng nodded to Ed and said in a deep voice, "Be careful."

"Alright," he said.

Taking advantage of the fact that the three blackthorn clones were temporarily entangled by the mages of Ed's team, Fang Heng was free and quickly swept forward.

After making sure that the game didn't give any warning like 'using the player's power to carry out the trial', Fang Heng sped up all the way and escaped with peace of mind.

He ran quickly along the tunnel dug by the zombie clones until he left the entrance.

After sprinting forward for a while, Fang Heng saw the team escorting the Empire's treasures not far ahead and felt relieved.

The situation was still good.

In front, Tang Mingyue and her party were currently engaged in battle with the fleeing blackthorn clone!

Unlike Fang Heng, Tang Mingyue's mood was extremely terrible. She gritted her teeth and commanded her team to fight against one of the blackthorn clones.

Tang Mingyue's party consisted of many mages. They relied on their weakening spells, and with the help of the melee players and the horde of cave-dwelling beasts, they were able to suppress the pursuing blackthorn clones.

Fang Heng quickly leaped toward Tang Mingyue, who was on the right side of the team.

"How is it? Are you alright?"

"Fang Heng, it's too difficult for me."

Seeing Fang Heng coming over, Tang Mingyue felt as if she had seen the sufferer. Her eyes turned red and she finally had a place to vent all her grievances. "The royal treasury is really too much of a scam!"

Fang Heng saw Tang Mingyue's face at a close distance and couldn't help but be surprised.

That was strange!

There was something wrong with her eyes!

The wriggling blood vessels in Tang Mingyue's eyes had now gathered together, forming a faint red outline around her pupils.

Could it be the demonic seed?

Tang Mingyue didn't notice the change in her eyes. She continued to complain to Fang Heng, "What a loss. There are so many boxes of rubbish books."

Originally, there were more than a hundred boxes filled with treasures in the royal treasury. The guards were unable to bring all of them out and could only bring out a third, about thirty boxes.

She did not expect that her luck would be even worse after that. Tang Mingyue encountered the troublesome royal guard, Cheng Jiqiang. She had to risk her reputation dropping crazily along the way to deliver the treasures to the target location.

In the end, they only managed to save half of the treasures.

There were 13 boxes in total. Two of them contained the magic cores and the unknown stone that Fang Heng wanted. The other two boxes filled with mithril were thrown to the barbarians as bait.

Tang Mingyue only got nine boxes.

Having just escaped from the passage, Tang Mingyue finally had the time to open the boxes one by one and check them carefully.

Tang Mingyue almost fainted when she saw it.

Five of the remaining nine boxes were filled with thick ancient books, and they were skill books!

It just had to be the most useless ancient history books of the human Empire.

At the thought of the huge investment in the early stages, the time and energy spent, the hard work along the way, and the pressure she had encountered halfway, not to mention that she almost lost her life…

Tang Mingyue's mind exploded.

"Those stupid guards, I clearly let them take away the most, most, most, most, most, precious treasures boxes, and now? You're letting me read these lousy books?"

Tang Mingyue gritted her teeth in hatred.

Right now, she wanted to rush over and execute those royal guards by dismembering them to vent her anger.

Fang Heng's brows were tightly knitted after hearing what Tang Mingyue said.

Books?

Would the Empire's royal family place important books in treasure chests?

Could it be that there was some secret hidden in the book?

A few thoughts flashed in Fang Heng's mind.

This was not the time to think about this.

Fang Heng nodded and looked at Tang Mingyue, "Let's not talk about this for now. What's wrong with your eyes?"

"Meh? Eyes? What eyes? What's wrong with my eyes?"

Tang Mingyue didn't notice the change in her eyes. She was confused and rubbed her eyes.

Fang Heng frowned, "You don't feel uncomfortable anywhere?"

Tang Mingyue's face was bitter. "Yes, my heart, my heart is in pain now!"

"Alright, let's not worry about this for now."

The situation was critical. Since Tang Mingyue didn't feel any discomfort, Fang Heng didn't have time to investigate it. He said in a deep voice, "The enemy is coming this way. Their target is the unknown stone."

"Ah? A stone?"

Tang Mingyue turned around and looked at the nine boxes that the cave-dwelling beasts were transporting.

Trash was trash.

Tang Mingyue still carried her last hope and packed up the garbage as well.

What if this trash could be sold for money?

...

Who would have thought that just as they were transporting the goods, the party would encounter the attack of the blackthorn clones?

At first, Tang Mingyue thought it was just bad luck.

It turned out that they were chasing after the black stone!

"Didn't you already erase the spiritual imprint on the box? How can it still chase after us? "

"Yes, the pursuers are not from the Empire, but the barbarians," Fang Heng explained. "The spiritual imprint left by the Empire also has the function of sealing aura, and the barbarians may have come here because of the aura of the stone."

"This…"

Tang Mingyue fell into silence.

She really wanted to ask why the barbarian race was also looking for trouble with them!

Alright, indeed, she had also sensed that there were strange spiritual fluctuations coming from the inside of the stone.

She was even angrier!

The plan to steal was already a big loss, and now the barbarians even wanted to rob the remaining treasure chests?

...

"The barbarians' target is the black stone. Leave the other materials to the cave-dwelling beasts. We'll escort the stone away first."

Fang Heng quickly made a decision. He raised his head and looked at the blackthorn clone that was being besieged by the players, asking, "This thing is very troublesome. Do you have a way to deal with it?"

"Yes, it seems to have the ability to resurrect infinitely. It's very difficult to deal with.

Tang Mingyue let out a soft "en" as her gaze shifted to the blackthorn clone.

Only now did she realize that the blackthorn life form had been sent by the barbarians.

Just now, she and her party had already bombarded the blackthorn clones with all sorts of elemental spells.

Her luck wasn't bad, she managed to kill two of the blackthorn clones.

But soon, the crystal dust that was scattered around quickly gathered and returned to its original battle posture.

"Rebirth won't weaken its various attributes. In most cases, we can only rely on techniques such as imprisonment or sealing to solve this problem."

Tang Mingyue was more experienced in the game than Fang Heng. After analyzing for a while, she nodded and continued, "But it's a coincidence that I don't know either of these two methods."

Fang Heng also kept silent for a moment.

He did know sealing techniques.

However, the effect of a low-level sealing technique was really ordinary.

He needed a large number of zombie clones to stack the number and probability to complete the seal, not to mention that he did not prepare the tools needed to cast the seal in advance.

This path was not feasible.

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1136 Demonized

Just as Fang Heng and Tang Mingyue were conversing, the second blackthorn clone dashed towards the players from afar!

"Swish!"

A black light flashed.

One of the black spikes pierced through an elite cave-dwelling beast, severely injuring it.

"I don't care. If we wait any longer, the number of blackthorn clones will only increase. The mission requires us to protect the stone for 5 hours. Let's do it the hard way. We'll think of a solution while we fight."

After saying that, Fang Heng lifted the purple essence long blade and once again charged straight in the direction of the blackthorn clone.

"BOOM!"

The purple essence long sword had a great restraining effect on the blackthorn clone. A single spear strike would cause a large piece of crystal dust to explode from the blackthorn's body!

Tang Mingyue followed behind the team and clasped her hands together.

Her mental power was suddenly poured into it.

Eh?

What was going on?

Tang Mingyue suddenly felt a slight tingling sensation in her eyes.

Immediately after, a strong wave of spiritual energy surged out of her body!

Spiritual power? Where did it come from?

Tang Mingyue was slightly distracted, and the spell that was being condensed instantly became extremely chaotic, almost out of control.

Tang Mingyue quickly focused her mind to control the spell.

"Water dragon, break!"

"Roar!!!"

An angry roar!

A mystical runic magic array appeared before Tang Mingyue.

A pool of water formed on the ground.

The dragon's head rose from the magic pool and rushed forward!

Fang Heng immediately felt a weight on his shoulder.

It was actually dragon's might!

The water dragon skill created by the spell could actually create a dragon's might.

Fang Heng stared at the water dragon formed by the spiritual spell.

The magic water dragon's black pupils were covered with black crystals.

The two blackthorn clones were affected by the dragon's might, and their bodies instantly stiffened.

"BOOM!!"

The water dragon's might burst out with a tyrannical magic fluctuation, instantly blasting one of the blackthorn clones.

"BOOM!!!"

The blackthorn clone was smashed into pieces by the water dragon, scattering into black crystal dust.

What?

A single move had actually defeated the blackthorn clone?

Tang Mingyue couldn't believe it. She couldn't help looking down at her hands.

Was she really capable of casting such a powerful spell?

Dragon's might! It really was dragon's might!

This was not all!

Tang Mingyue felt that the spiritual power in her body had increased by hundreds of times in an instant!

Her spiritual power was still increasing rapidly as if there was no end to it. It was as vast as the starry sky.

The most intuitive feeling was that Tang Mingyue felt that she could now throw out skills infinitely.

Seeing this, Fang Heng immediately turned his head and looked in Tang Mingyue's direction.

In a short moment, two black rhombuses appeared in Tang Mingyue's pupils.

"Demonic seed…"

Fang Heng muttered in a low voice.

According to the cave-dwelling beast, there was a demonic seed in Tang Mingyue's body. She was a demon.

Was this the increase in strength after absorbing the power of the demonic seed?

"Mingyue!" Fang Heng shouted.

"I'm fine. It should be an additional state of the game."

Tang Mingyue's mind was unusually clear. She answered and immediately checked the game log explanation.

[Hint: The player has entered a special state.]

[Hint: The player is missing clues related to the trial. The player is unable to obtain relevant information.]

[Hint: This status is a special trial status and will disappear after exiting the trial.]

[Hint (triggered by the current S trial score): The player can use a special method to solidify this status (the mission is SSS-level and has a very high mission penalty, please choose carefully).]

"Fang Heng, the game log didn't say anything, but it hinted that my state will disappear after I exit the trial."

"Yes."

Fang Heng fell into deep thought again.

From the beginning of the trial game, Tang Mingyue's identity had been extremely special. Her strength had increased greatly under the influence of the demonic seed, which was probably due to the balance of difficulty in the trial.

No wonder Fang Heng felt that the difficulty rating of the trial game was imbalanced.

In fact, it was very likely that Tang Mingyue had not been able to unleash the potential of the demonic seed.

In this way…

Fang Heng squinted his eyes.

With Tang Mingyue's help, he was more confident in dealing with the barbarian race. He had some confidence in doing things that he had always wanted to do but dared not do before.

In the blink of an eye, the blackthorn clone, which had been scattered by the water dragon, began to slowly reform.

"Mingyue, think of a way to control him."

"Alright," she said.

Tang Mingyue raised her staff and pointed it at the recently resurrected blackthorn clone. She pushed her spiritual power to the limit!

"Ice storm!"

Tang Mingyue felt her spiritual power rushing out of her body and pouring into the spell.

"Hu!"

In the underground world, gusts of cold wind whistled past. The cold air current wreaked havoc in the dark underground space, filling it with suffocating pressure!

The whistling cold wind was mixed with solid ice crystals!

The speed of the two blackthorn clones rapidly decreased, and a layer of ice crystals could be seen forming on their bodies at a speed visible to the naked eye!

"Ka ka ka ka ka…"

The ice crystals grew thicker and thicker, and the two blackthorn clones would be frozen on the spot from time to time. They had to struggle with all their might to break free from the layer of ice.

Tang Mingyue continued to cast the spell while quickly familiarizing herself with the changes brought to her body after the outburst of spiritual power.

She was too strong!

Was this what the cave-dwelling beasts refer to as demonization by the 'demonic seed'?

This was simply a cheat!

"Fang Heng, my mental strength is almost infinite now. The strength of my skills has increased by at least 300%, and the cooldown time of my skills has been greatly reduced. Also, the high-level skills that I couldn't use before have all been unlocked."

"Alright," he said.

Fang Heng raised his purple essence long blade and approached the blackthorn clone.

The demonized Tang Mingyue could now easily control the blackthorn clone.

"Chi!"

The purple essence long sword sliced through the blackthorn's body as though it was cutting through tofu, leaving behind a hole!

"Bang!"

The blackthorn clone's pierced body was blasted apart by the purple essence long sword.

The specks of crystal dust quickly gathered and recovered.

Fang Heng stood in front of the frozen blackthorn clone and temporarily stopped his attack. Instead, he began to study it with great interest.

The purple essence was effective against the blackthorn clone, but it wasn't able to completely kill it.

Then…

Fang Heng's eyes swept over the surrounding cave-dwelling beasts, and his heart moved.

The barbarians were similar to the demons at the altar of the cave-dwelling beasts. Could he use the same method to 'seal' them?

He could give it a try!

Fang Heng kicked the blackthorn clone backward, sending it crashing heavily into the towering stone pillar of the underground world.

He quickly moved forward!

Fang Heng conveniently took out a short purple essence spike from his backpack and thrust it toward the heart of the blackthorn clone.

"Bang!!!"

Fang Heng's pupils shrank.

The purple essence spike in his hand actually exploded into pieces after piercing into the blackthorn clone!

"Is there a way?"

Seeing this, Tang Mingyue frowned.

She had been maintaining her 'ice storm' skill for a full three minutes and her mental energy didn't show any signs of being unable to support it!

In the past, Tang Mingyue would not even dare to think about it.

"Yes…"

Fang Heng muttered to himself and raised his eyebrows.

Oh, and blood.

The blood of the vampires could also affect the blackthorn clone!

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1137 Seal

"Swish!"

Fang Heng pulled back the purple essence long blade and cut his palm.

"Chi!!"

Blood seeped out from the wound on his palm.

Fang Heng quickly clenched his fist and then opened it. He directly raised his blood-stained palm and slammed it against the blackthorn clone.

"Chi Chi Chi…"

The blackthorn clone's body instantly emitted a green mist!

A big hole had been melted in the position of his heart under the effect of Fang Heng's blood.

Fang Heng took out a purple spike from his backpack and stabbed it through the big hole in the blackthorn's body.

"Ka!!"

The purple essence nail pierced through the blackthorn's body and was firmly nailed to the rock wall behind him.

The black crystal dust in the air gathered towards the wounds of the clone, trying to heal them, but it was unable to fully heal due to the influence of the purple essence.

There's hope!

Fang Heng's heart skipped a beat. He continued to use his own blood to slowly melt holes into the body of the blackthorn clone.

As the seventh purple spike pierced through the body of the blackthorn clone and into the stone pillar behind him, two game prompts refreshed on Fang Heng's retina.

[Hint: You have destroyed Wangnet's clone.]

[Hint: The current mission-inheritor of the barbarians has been completed by 5%.]

Success!

Not only was the blackthorn clone under his control, but his mission completion rate had also received a corresponding boost!

Fang Heng's eyes brightened. He shot a look at Tang Mingyue, who was behind him. Following suit, he quickly dashed toward the next blackthorn clone, preparing to 'seal' it.

When the group of cave-dwelling beasts at the back of the team saw Fang Heng seal the blackthorn clone, they began to whisper to each other, constantly making gurgling sounds.

A moment later, with someone taking the lead, the entire clan of cave-dwelling beasts knelt down in the direction of Fang Heng and Tang Mingyue.

…

In a nearby cavern, a blackthorn clone broke free from the mud beneath its feet and ran deeper into the cavern.

Ed was helpless.

Most of the players in Prilla Gaming Guild were mages.

The rules awakened determined their attack characteristics.

High burst damage, insufficient endurance.

After a few rounds of spells, the player's spirit would fall to the bottom.

He needed to take medicine and rest to recover quickly.

Seeing that his party's mental strength had been exhausted, Ed did not dare to gamble with the lives of his party members. Hence, he chose to retreat in self-defense, allowing the blackthorn clones to leave.

After resting for a moment, Ed raised his head and gulped down a bottle of recovery potion.

Before he could recover his spirit and lead the team to give chase, another blackthorn clone caught up from behind.

Hence, Ed could only order his team to continue thinking of ways to trap the blackthorn clone.

This continued until the party members' mental energy reached critical value again.

He just went back and forth like this.

Seeing one blackthorn clone after another pass by them, Ed felt more and more uneasy.

He wondered how the situation was with Her Highness Mingyue and Lord Fang Heng.

There had been no news all this time. Could he have encountered trouble?

At the same time, facing a large number of powerful blackthorn clones with the ability to resurrect infinitely, was a huge headache.

Ed was worried about Fang Heng's condition when he suddenly heard a soft shout from the depths of the tunnel behind him.

"Ice storm!"

BOOM!!

The blackthorn clone, whose entire body was covered in ice crystals, swept past Ed's back and slammed into the rock wall in front of him!

Ed was stunned.

What was going on?

Just like the other players on the team, he turned his head to look at the tunnel behind him.

Tang Mingyue held her staff and walked out of the passage step by step.

Everyone's expression changed.

It was the princess of the Empire, Tang Mingyue!

Was she the one who released that move just now?

It was actually able to freeze the blackthorn clone to death, without the slightest ability to resist!

He had never heard of the Empire's Princess Tang Mingyue being so powerful.

"Your Highness Mingyue!"

One after another, Ed's team reacted and saluted Tang Mingyue.

Tang Mingyue glanced at Ed's team from the corner of her eyes.

Before she could answer, Fang Heng passed by the crowd.

Fang Heng flashed to the side of the blackthorn clone, and with a punch, he blasted away the ice crystals around the blackthorn clone. At the same time, he grabbed the blackthorn clone's neck and slammed it hard against the rock wall behind.

"Bang!"

The blackthorn clone's back slammed into the wall, creating a web of cracks.

What?

Ed's eyes twitched.

Under the astonished gazes of many players, Fang Heng stretched out his blood-stained palm and pressed it toward the heart of the blackthorn clone.

"Chi!!"

How did he do it?

Ed was extremely shocked.

He discovered that Fang Heng's palm had actually branded a deep hole in the body of the blackthorn clone!

After that, Fang Heng quickly took out a purple essence spike from his backpack and ruthlessly pierced it into the hole, firmly nailing the blackthorn clone to the wall.

Then, the second, the third…

Fang Heng had long been familiar with this set of procedures.

It took less than three minutes for the seventh nail to completely seal the blackthorn clone.

The game notification appeared on his retina.

[Hint: You have destroyed Wangnet's clone. The current mission-the heir of the barbarian has been completed by 30%.]

Fang Heng was relieved and turned to look at Tang Mingyue.

After dealing with the six clones, the mission completion rate had reached 30%.

At the very least, the party was no longer subject to the mission penalty.

"Yes."

Tang Mingyue and Fang Heng had only worked together for a short time, but they got along quite well with each other. They could often understand the meaning of the other party's meaning with just a look.

"Hmph!"

Tang Mingyue snorted disdainfully and said in a deep voice, "The barbarian race is getting more and more arrogant. They dare to play tricks under our noses. Today, we must make them pay the price and show the might of our Empire!"

As she spoke, Tang Mingyue turned to look at Ed and the others.

"Since you are friends of Lord Fang Heng, you can follow me. Are you willing to?"

"Yes! Her Highness Mingyue! I'm willing to die for you!"

Ed only thought that he had obtained the approval of the game character, Lord Fang Heng. He immediately agreed with a happy expression and even cast a grateful look at Fang Heng.

In the end, he didn't help Lord Fang Heng with this favor!

He had finally boarded the ship of the Empire's Princess!

Ed couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

As long as the Princess and Lord Fang Heng were willing to help and become teammates with them, the matter of being the scapegoat would not be a problem at all! Not only could he find a way to make up for it, but he could also obtain huge benefits.

This was a blessing in disguise.

Ed was excited and made a battle gesture to the players.

The players of Prilla Guild immediately gulped down bottles of expensive herbs and potions, ready for the next tough battle.

"Very good. Let's go!"

Tang Mingyue waved her hand and led the team forward.

Fang Heng continued to move forward with the team while squinting his eyes to think of countermeasures.

The Tier 3 demonized barbarian was very powerful.

Originally, if Tang Mingyue had not awakened the 'demonized' skill, he would have only been able to find a way to deal with the blackthorn clone at his peak. Then, he would run away.

Even if he couldn't win, he could still escape.

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1138 Frozen

But it was different now.

With Tang Mingyue's ability and his various support, he might be able to find a way to deal with the heir of the barbarian leader, Wangnet!

After all, it was an SS-level main mission.

Fang Heng had a very strong premonition that there would be a deeper level of high-tier missions to be discovered behind this main storyline!

Previously, Fang Heng felt that the difference between the team's strength and the mission's requirements was too great and that they had no chance of winning.

Now that there was a tiny chance, Fang Heng didn't want to give up immediately.

Give it a try!

After making up his mind, Fang Heng no longer thought about it and quickly followed the team back to support.

…

In another underground world, the Empire's sword saint Rio Tinto was still fighting Wangnet.

With the passage of time, Rio Tinto's fighting strength plummeted.

The decline in physical fitness caused by age caused Rio Tinto to fall into constant danger.

As Mikhael fought with the blackthorn clone, he kept a portion of his attention on the battle between Rio Tinto and Wangnet.

Originally, in theory, Rio Tinto should have lost to Wangnet.

However, from the very beginning, Wangnet's strength also started to decrease.

And it was very strange.

The drop in strength of Wangnet was a gradual one.

This was why till now, Rio Tinto didn't lose.

Later, Mikhael understood.

Every time the game prompted that Fang Heng had taken care of a blackthorn clone, Wangnet's strength would drop by a small margin.

It seemed that there was a limit to the number of clones Wangnet could create.

But no matter what, Rio Tinto was clearly on the decline. Unless Wangnet's strength dropped drastically again, it would be hard for Rio Tinto to win.

"Mikhael, how's the situation?"

Hearing this, Mikhael slashed the blackthorn clone into black crystal dust, and then flashed to Wei Tao's side.

He said in a low voice, "Yes, Rio Tinto can't last long."

Previously, the elite army of the Empire had already been thrown into a mess by the blackthorn clones. Now that they had finally recovered, the Empire's army reorganized their formation and coordinated with Mikhael to hold back the last two blackthorn clones.

"Well, you should be careful too. We'll wait for Fang Heng and be ready to evacuate at any time."

Wei Tao and Mikhael observed the situation on the field and had already made plans to retreat.

The current situation was actually very good, and Wei Tao was very happy to accept it.

Although Rio Tinto could fail at any time, Fang Heng and Tang Mingyue were really too powerful!

Their main mission completion rate had already reached 30%.

He had reached the target!

To Wei Tao, it was fine as long as he did not receive any punishment.

After all, a Tier 3 barbarian was not someone they could deal with at the moment.

If the sword saint Rio Tinto was defeated, he would immediately escape with his team. He would not have any psychological burden.

Wei Tao even wanted to leave earlier and go back to see what the NPC God under Fang Heng had found.

There were still more than ten hours of trial time left. If he used all of it to clear the barbarian camp in the underground world, he felt that he could even raise his trial score to SS-level!

"Your Highness Mingyue!"

Hearing the guards' surprised shouts, Wei Tao and Mikhael both turned back to look.

Eh?

The two vertical black crystals in Tang Mingyue's pupils made Wei Tao's heart sink.

"Move!"

Tang Mingyue shouted and raised her staff.

The black rhombus crystals in her eyes solidified a little more.

"Ice crystal storm!!!"

The underground world was once again enveloped by a biting cold wind!

The cold wind was mixed with ice crystals as it whistled past!

The two blackthorn clones that bore the brunt of the attack were immediately enveloped in a layer of ice crystals, and their movement speed became extremely slow within a short few seconds.

The frost covering their bodies rapidly thickened at a speed visible to the naked eye, forming a layer of ice crystals!

Half a minute later, the two blackthorn clones were completely frozen!

Compared to just now, the strength of the spell cast by Tang Mingyue had been further improved!

Ed's team of players had come all the way here, and now that they saw Tang Mingyue cast the blizzard again, they were shocked.

They didn't know anything about the 'demonic seed'. They only thought that Tang Mingyue had been hiding her strength all along.

The inheritors of the Empire were all dragons and phoenixes among men, so it was reasonable for them to be powerful.

...

Fang Heng followed suit and threw a punch at the nearest blackthorn clone, knocking it against the wall. Then, he took out the purple essence nail from his backpack and tried to 'seal' it.

Wangnet, who was fighting with Rio Tinto, glanced at Fang Heng and suddenly had an idea.

So it was him!

He actually had the ability to 'seal' the blackthorn clone.

Things were getting more and more interesting!

Wangnet's lips curled into a sneer, and he once again closed in, the blackthorn spear in his hand flying towards Rio Tinto.

Tang Mingyue held her staff and shouted at Wangnet, "White prison!"

"Hu!"

A bone-piercing cold wind whistled through the underground cave!

Wangnet raised an eyebrow.

He discovered that the space around him was gradually condensing into white icicles!

...

The ice curtain quickly condensed!

With the ice pillars as the bones and the ice curtain as the support, it was like a cage that quickly condensed and locked him in!

"Laughable!"

Wangnet snorted.

"BOOM!"

Before the ice curtain could even form, it was blown apart by Wangnet's crystallized fist!

Whoosh!

The blackthorn flapped its wings, and Wangnet quickly broke through the white prison's range. At the same time, he glanced at Tang Mingyue from the corner of his eyes.

Eh?!

With a quick glance, he noticed the two blackthorn crystals in Tang Mingyue's pupils.

He turned his head and stared at Tang Mingyue.

"Hahahahaha! Tang Mingyue, the princess of the Empire…interesting! The human Empire is really interesting!"

Wangnet seemed to have discovered something interesting, he laughed out loud, suddenly giving up on his attack on Rio Tinto, and instead turned to quickly retreat.

What did that mean? Did he escape?

Tang Mingyue stopped the spell that she had just condensed halfway and looked in the direction that Wangnet had escaped in, her face full of doubt.

Looking at the battlefield, the barbarian soldiers had already retreated in the chaos.

The sword saint Rio Tinto did not pursue him. He stopped and sat down without a word. After swallowing a few pills, he closed his eyes and concentrated.

The continuous and intense battle had almost made his body unable to hold on, and there were at least a dozen internal injuries on his body.

If Tang Mingyue hadn't arrived in time, he estimated that he would only be able to hold on for another minute.

The Empire's side also quickly regrouped.

The captain of the guards, Eric, as well as the captain of the royal guards, Cheng Jiqiang, came to Tang Mingyue's back and reported with a bow, "Your Highness Mingyue, we came late to rescue you. Are you alright?"

"Yes."

Tang Mingyue nodded and looked away from the fleeing Wangnet.

It still wasn't enough. With her current strength, she still couldn't stop a Tier 3 demonized barbarian.

Although her spiritual power had increased greatly, the level and number of high-level spells she could master were very limited.

Even if the Empire's sword saint Rio Tinto could still fight, if they continued to fight, they would most likely be defeated.

So why did Wangnet suddenly choose to run?

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1139 The Analysis

[Hint: The player's team has defeated the successor of the barbarian leader-Wangnet. The player's current main mission, the successor of the barbarians, has been completed at 100%.]

[Hint: The player team's trial score has increased slightly. The player team will receive an additional 12 hours of trial time.]

[Hint: The player's team mission-protecting the unknown stone was completed in advance. The player's trial score has increased slightly. The player's team will receive an additional hour of trial time.]

On the other side, Fang Heng watched as the 'sealed' blackthorn clone exploded with a boom, completely dissipating in the air.

Hu…

"It seems like it's over for now."

Fang Heng glanced at the game prompt and murmured to himself. He also turned his head and looked in the direction where Wangnet had escaped.

So the barbarians were secretly building a camp here to get the black stone?

Fang Heng didn't have time to think about it carefully before due to the urgency of the situation. Now that he looked back, the barbarian's movements seemed a little strange.

No matter how he thought about it, he still felt that something was missing.

Previously, Fang Heng had also found the black stone in the underground world. The barbarian race didn't protect the black stone so strictly.

Fang Heng had guessed that the black stone might only be one of Wangnet's targets.

It was also one of the random targets.

It was probably because it had sensed the existence of the rock that it picked it up.

He had a bigger plan.

"Fang Heng, you've worked hard. Is everyone alright?"

Wei Tao and Mikhael also followed behind.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

As he spoke, he looked at Tang Mingyue, who was gathered in the center by the Empire's soldiers, and asked in a low voice, "What's up with Tang Mingyue? How did her strength suddenly increase so quickly?"

"I'm afraid the demonic seed in her body has erupted."

Mikhael and Wei Tao looked at each other.

Demonic seed?

What did that mean? Was this the consequence of the demonic seed's eruption?

A huge increase in strength?

Didn't he say that she'll become a monster?

Tang Mingyue didn't look like it either.

To be honest, if there was such a good thing, they would also want to have a demonic seed planted in their bodies.

"Ahem."

Noticing the envy in their eyes, Fang Heng coughed and said in a low voice, "It's a temporary state added by the trial. It will disappear after you exit the trial."

"Oh, I see, " The two of them replied.

"Fang Heng! Fang Heng!!"

Suddenly, he heard someone shouting loudly behind him. Fang Heng looked back in search of the voice.

Not far behind him, Sandy was waving at him excitedly.

Mo Jiawei was also standing beside Sandy.

The two of them were stopped by the soldiers of the Empire.

Fang Heng immediately waved his hand to signal the Empire's soldiers to let them in.

"Old Mo, you've come."

Mo Jiawei had learned about Fang Heng's attack on the Empire's warehouse in advance and knew that Fang Heng was nearby. Therefore, he came to find Fang Heng as soon as he got Qiu Yaokang's analysis report.

Coincidentally, Sandy had just finished reconstructing the underground frescoes and was loitering around when he accidentally heard about Fang Heng's plan to steal from the royal treasury. He immediately became interested and mumbled, "As expected of the guy who caught the eye of the God of Art." Then, he desperately pestered Mo Jiawei to come and find Fang Heng.

Tang Mingyue had also noticed Mo Jiawei and his partner who had rushed over. She temporarily sent the Empire team away and walked toward them alone.

"I temporarily sent the Empire guards away and lied to them that the treasures of the Empire were taken away by the barbarians. I asked them to clean up the secret camp left by the barbarians in the underground world, hoping to find something."

"So you guys took the Empire's treasure back?"

At this moment, Wei Tao finally became aware of the truth.

Wei Tao looked at Fang Heng and Tang Mingyue with suspicion.

The two of them had been secretly talking to each other for a long time, most likely because they had long been interested in the Empire's treasury.

It was definitely an organized and premeditated crime!

"Cough, cough. I just took the Empire's treasure in passing. It would be a waste not to take it."

Seeing that the matter had come to an end, Tang Mingyue's mood improved a little.

"Alright," he said.

Wei Tao rubbed his swollen temples and decided not to think too much to avoid giving himself more trouble.

In short, the result was good.

He had successfully completed the mission, and he had received an increase in his trial score as well as an additional 13 hours of game time. Including the time he had received from Qiu Yaokang, he had earned nearly a day's worth of game time.

"Since we're all here, let's talk about the situation and gather the information."

"Yes, yes."

...

The party members gathered together to discuss.

"Genius Qiu found something big. I thought it might be very important to the main storyline, so I came to you immediately."

Mo Jiawei was the first to speak. He pulled everyone to a corner and told them about Qiu Yaokang's research findings in a low voice as concisely as possible.

After listening to Mo Jiawei's explanation about the virus, everyone was surprised again.

So, this world was somehow connected to the Zombie Apocalypse?

Including Wei Tao, the 3 World Lords all looked at Fang Heng.

Up until now, Fang Heng was the only ruthless person who had cracked the final ending of the Zombie Apocalypse.

And he had cracked it twice!

Wei Tao and the others had mostly used the normal route to solve the Zombie Apocalypse.

It was nothing more than living in peace with the zombies, developing drugs, directly annihilating the Scavenger Army, developing a super fortress, and slowly surviving with time.

Mikhael did not even know who Hila was.

...

He was baffled.

The three of them combined did not know as much about the background story of the Hila virus as Fang Heng did.

Fang Heng also lowered his head and pondered.

He had guessed wrong.

All of this had nothing to do with the vampires.

His blood was able to affect the barbarians because of the Hila virus in his body.

In fact, after clearing Zombie Apocalypse, Qiu Yaokang had also taken his blood for research.

After Qiu Yaokang's analysis, he believed that the system's final hidden reward, the 'undead body', was actually a completely optimized Hila virus.

The effect of the Hila virus was reflected in its powerful recovery ability.

For example, the current barbarian world…

At the thought of this, Fang Heng also raised his head and looked at Tang Mingyue.

The crystallized state of the barbarians, the demonized state of the cave-dwelling beasts, and now, after Tang Mingyue absorbed the power of the demonic seed, her spiritual power had also undergone a great change.

The effect of a virus of the same origin was no longer a powerful recovery ability.

Instead, it was a substantial increase in combat power!

Seeing Fang Heng deep in thought, Wei Tao couldn't help but ask, "Fang Heng, do you want to share the information?"

"Yes."

Everyone present had already passed the elementary trial game, so there was no risk of being punished for revealing information about the it.

Fang Heng explained, "To put it simply, the Hila virus was named by Hila, the provider of the progenitor virus in the apocalyptic world."

"After she was infected by a virus, she gained great power. I have some Hila virus in my body, so my blood is effective against demonized barbarians. That's the background story."

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1140 Summons

Everyone fell into deep thought again after listening to Fang Heng's narration.

After a long while, Qiu Yaokang raised his head again and asked, "So, Fang Heng, do you have any clues now?"

"Yes, I have some ideas. Do you remember the stone box we found at the beginning of the trial?"

"Of course, I remember. According to Qiu Yaokang's analysis, the box was used to seal the 'demonic seed'." When Mo Jiawei heard about the box, he continued, "Now we know that the 'demonic seed' is a virus with the same origin as the Hila virus. It has the effect of transforming various physical qualities of the human body."

Fang Heng nodded, "That's right. I don't know if everyone still remembers that Sandy had once restored the image on the stone box."

Everyone's eyes lit up.

Fang Heng recalled and raised three fingers one by one.

"A total of three paintings were restored. The first one was a disaster. The entire forest and village were plunged into a sea of fire, and there were dead bodies everywhere."

"In the second painting, a group of people was arguing around a stone. After touching the stone, the human turned into a 'ghost', and everyone fled in all directions."

"In the third painting, the beast in the cave made a stone box and sealed the stone."

After hearing Fang Heng's narration, everyone was a little worried.

Wei Tao looked at Tang Mingyue and asked, "Mingyue, how do you feel now? Do you feel uncomfortable or your body is being controlled?"

"Not at all. I'm feeling very good now."

Tang Mingyue shook her head repeatedly. As she spoke, she looked in the direction of the barbarian camp and said, "I can even fight a hundred, let alone ten."

Mo Jiawei's eyes lit up, "So, the virus in Tang Mingyue's body is increasing in a completely positive manner?"

Wei Tao hesitated, "That's strange. Judging from the style of the murals and the words of the cave-dwelling beasts, demonization is not a good state. It seems that it will have a great impact on the mind. As for the barbarian race, I'm not sure if there will be any backlash after demonization. Those are the secrets of the barbarian race, and it's a little difficult to understand."

"Everyone!!"

Sandy suddenly raised his hand to attract everyone's attention, "Don't forget, after I restored the marks on the stone box, I found a mark similar to a white whale at the bottom of the box. You know about white whales, right? The symbol of the royal family of the Mahert Empire, the emblem of the Andrast family that established the entire Empire!"

With that, Sandy looked at Tang Mingyue, "Mm, yes, Tang Mingyue, I'm talking about your family's ancestor."

"Meh?" Tang Mingyue blinked. "And then? "

"Uh… this…" Sandy, who was in the midst of his excitement, froze for a moment, then awkwardly put down his hand. "There's nothing else. I'm just telling you what I found."

Fang Heng frowned and thought, "I've talked to the elder of the cave-dwelling beasts who was sealed in the altar before. According to him, a long time ago, the leader of the cave-dwelling beasts made an agreement with the humans to keep one of the boxes that sealed the demonic seed in the underground world."

"The demonic seed he mentioned should be the host of the virus, and the box is the black box we found. It seems that the person who made the agreement with the Empire should be the royal ancestor of the Empire. The Empire's ancestors may have discovered the demonic seed's drawbacks, so they sealed the demonic seed?"

Sandy asked, "Mingyue, is there anything recorded in your family tree?"

Tang Mingyue's face was bitter, "I don't know. I just joined the trial like you…"

As everyone was discussing, they suddenly realized that the rear of the Empire's army had fallen into a slight commotion.

The chaos quickly stopped, and a group of Empire soldiers in silver armor rushed back from the rear of the underground world.

The soldiers hurried over and gathered everyone in the center.

A general of the Empire wearing bright silver armor strode forward and stood in front of Tang Mingyue. He said loudly, "Chen Wubin, the captain of the Empire's silver-armored guards, greets Your Highness Mingyue!"

Tang Mingyue stopped talking to Wei Tao and the others and turned to look at the person.

"Your Highness, your subordinate is here on the orders of Emperor Salvador to bring you back to the royal family."

Tang Mingyue frowned.

The current Emperor, Salvador, was not her father in name. He was the acting Emperor in charge of the various political affairs of the Empire.

He was her uncle.

When Tang Mingyue returned to the royal family, she learned a little about the royal family. She only knew that the Emperor had been seriously ill for some time, and during his illness, he had ordered the Empire to be entrusted to Salvador.

In this situation, why would they waste time on an acting monarch?

Wasn't this sick?

Tang Mingyue didn't want to see the acting monarch, so she pretended to be angry and scolded, "Can't you see that I'm busy right now? You're not here to protect the Empire when the barbarian race invaded. Now that the barbarian race has been driven away, you've come so quickly. What are you all doing?"

"I'm sorry! Your Highness!"

Chen Wubin raised his head and stared straight at Tang Mingyue. He did not give in and said loudly, "His Majesty has ordered that we must bring her Highness Mingyue back to the royal family."

As he spoke, the silver-armored guards behind Chen Wubin entered a state of alert.

In the establishment of the Empire's army, the silver-armored guards were elite combat forces that were transferred from all over the Empire, and they only listened to the direct command of the Emperor.

Something was wrong!

Fang Heng had a thought.

What was happening? Why did they suddenly become so hostile?

Why was the royal family so insistent on bringing Tang Mingyue back?

The air seemed to freeze for a moment.

Seeing this, Tang Mingyue subconsciously felt a little guilty. She glanced at Fang Heng with a pleading look.

Terrible!

Could it be that her plan to steal the royal treasury had been discovered?

In the next moment, the game prompt refreshed the retinas of Tang Mingyue and the others.

[Hint: The player team has triggered an optional main trial mission-the royal family summons.]

Mission title: The royal family summons-choice.

Mission requirement: Salvador, the current acting monarch of the Empire, wants to see Tang Mingyue.

...

Mission branch option 1: Accept summons.

Mission branch option 2: Refuse to be summoned (this option will cause the player's team to break off from the royal family).

Remaining time for selection: 30 seconds.

Description (triggered by trial difficulty): If you do not make a choice within 30 seconds, you will reject the summon by default and enter a hostile state with the Empire.

Tang Mingyue and Fang Heng quickly communicated with their eyes.

"What do we do? They came with ill intentions, did they find out that you stole from the treasury?"

"Don't panic. We've done a clean job. The barbarian race is the scapegoat. The probability of being discovered is not high. It's possible that he just wants to summon you."

"I don't think it's that simple. You're suggesting that I meet him?"

"Mm, for safety's sake, you go and see him. Try to stall for time to deal with the treasures for me. In addition, don't worry even if you encounter any trouble. I'll think of a way to save you from outside."

"Don't. Don't worry about me if you run into trouble. I'm fine with dying, but you must take care of the treasures!"

"Okay, leave it to me. Don't worry."

...

1141 Harvest

The two of them quickly reached an agreement.

Under the current circumstances, breaking off from the royal family of the Empire was a bad choice.

To meet the Emperor of the Empire!

Tang Mingyue was prepared to stabilize the Empire for the time being, and Fang Heng could take advantage of this time to properly deal with the treasures he had robbed.

After fighting for so long, he should at least get some money, right?

Even if they quit the trial now, it would still be a huge profit!

"I can go back with you, but what about my friends?"

Chen Wubin glanced at Fang Heng and the other, "His Majesty only wants to see you. Everyone else is free to go wherever they want."

"Alright, I'll go back with you."

"Thank you for your cooperation, Your Highness!"

Chen Wubin was also worried that Tang Mingyue would refuse to cooperate, so he was relieved to hear that. He cupped his fists at Tang Mingyue and gave instructions to the other Empire guards.

"His Majesty has ordered that the treasures in the royal treasury have been stolen. Everyone must cooperate with the silver-armored guards to recover the stolen treasures, and no suspicious person will be let off!"

The Empire's soldiers cupped their fists in unison, "Yes, sir!"

Seeing Tang Mingyue being taken away by the silver guards of the Empire, Wei Tao and the others gathered.

Wei Tao saw the eye contact between Tang Mingyue and Fang Heng and thought they had a plan. He said, "What's the situation? Do you have a plan in the royal family?"

"No, it was an emergency. We were surprised too."

Hearing this, Mikhael frowned. He was a little worried about Tang Mingyue's condition and said in a deep voice, "From the game prompt, Tang Mingyue's situation is not good this time. What's our next step? Do you want to go over and take a look?"

Wei Tao looked at Fang Heng, "Tang Mingyue is our teammate. We can't ignore her. I've analyzed that the royal family might be related to the next main storyline mission. We can continue to explore this direction. What do you think, Fang Heng?"

"Mm, your guess is the same as mine. Let's split up. You guys follow them and find a way to investigate any clues related to the royal family. Keep in touch. I have some clues to investigate, and I'll meet up with you guys after I'm done."

"Alright," he said.

After a short discussion, they split up again.

The players from Prilla Guild were confused.

What did that mean?

What were these characters doing?

Why was the plot development getting more and more confusing?

What were the people from the Central Federation doing?

And that group of players!

Which side were they on?

Would it be the barbarians or the Empire?

Why was it so strange?

They couldn't possibly be on the side of the undead feudal lord Fang Heng, right?

After waiting for a long time, Ed saw that feudal lord Fang Heng was finally free. He walked forward cautiously and asked Fang Heng, "Lord Fang Heng, did you see Her Highness Mingyue just now?"

"Yes, Her Highness Mingyue has been urgently summoned by the royal family. There won't be any problems."

Ed replied. He turned back to look in the direction where Tang Mingyue was taken away, thinking that she didn't look like she was fine.

"Then, the misunderstanding between us…"

Fang Heng looked at Ed with a gentle expression.

It would be great if all the players were as understanding and reasonable as Ed.

He was no longer afraid of any hostile missions!

"Of course, everything that happened before was a misunderstanding. I'm willing to trust you, and I'll pass on your words to my friends."

Hearing this, Ed heaved a sigh of relief and thanked Fang Heng repeatedly, "Thank you so much. Thank you so much."

…..

In the underground world, Wangnet quickly moved forward.

The black stratum corneum on the surface of his body slowly faded.

Under the cuticles' layer, Wangnet's skin was covered in red cracks.

Blood mixed with crystallized fragments kept oozing out of the cracks.

Suddenly, Wangnet's pupils contracted, and a blackthorn crystal condensed in his pupils.

Wangnet controlled his body and slammed it into the wall in front of him!

"Bang!"

He clenched his fists tightly and curled up into a ball. His muscles contracted and squirmed uncontrollably as if he was enduring great pain.

After a long while.

Hu!

Wangnet let out a long breath.

His body which was gradually disintegrating finally stabilized temporarily.

Wangnet wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked into the distance. He muttered, "There's not much time left… Necromancer…"

...

…

On the other side, after parting ways with Wei Tao and the others, Fang Heng immediately returned to the underground world to look for the cave-dwelling beasts that were transporting the treasures, urging the team to set off for the Land of Plague.

There was a change in plans.

The stones stolen from the royal treasury this time were bigger than before, and the mental power fluctuations were more obvious. They needed to be transported back to the Land of Plague as soon as possible for the sacred tree.

Considering that there was a possibility of encountering barbarians who would come back halfway, Fang Heng decided to escort the stone back personally.

Sending one box was sending, and sending a batch of boxes was also sending.

Fang Heng decided to send all the treasures he had stolen from the Empire's treasury back to the Land of Plague.

The team of cave-dwelling beasts would assist in transporting the items.

Naturally, Sandy chased after Fang Heng.

He couldn't stand the loneliness. After escorting the transport team for a few steps, he pestered Fang Heng to open the boxes and check the goods.

The moment he thought of the words "the Empire's royal treasury," Sandy felt as if there were thousands of monkeys scratching at his heart.

...

"Well, that's good. Let's check the goods."

Fang Heng nodded.

After working hard for half a day, the matter had finally come to an end. He sat down and checked his harvest in peace.

Fang Heng found a familiar box and opened its lid.

The box was filled to the brim with magic cores.

Everything else aside, the magic core was in place, and the last piece of the ghost tower's puzzle had been completed.

After returning to the Land of Plague, he could immediately complete the construction of the ghost tower!

The only troublesome thing was that the treasure chests were items from the royal treasury. They were judged by the game to be special items and could not be put into the backpack, nor could they be transferred out of this world.

The impact wasn't big.

However, the origin of the magic core still needed to be cleared up.

"Hmm, I'll get someone to spread the news when I get back to the Land of Plague. I'll say that the Prilla Gaming Guild helped me snatch the magic cores from the barbarians."

Although it could not completely solve the problem…

Let's do this first!

Then, there was the unknown black stone.

The transport team's largest box was filled with black stones. It took more than 20 cave-dwelling beasts and nightmare rhinos pulling the cart together to barely transport them.

As soon as he opened the box, a strong wave of mental power spilled out of the box.

Fang Heng frowned and closed the box immediately.

It seemed that the box that the Empire used to store the black stones also had the effect of isolating spiritual fluctuations.

Fang Heng continued to check.

A box of high-end decorations.

Fang Heng picked one up casually.

[Item: Gorgeous green agate gemstone necklace (unidentified).]

Description: The fresh and natural green agate is brimming with classical charm, awakening the fresh temperament in every movement.

Description: Hidden charm 2, weight bonus 1 when interacting with game characters (double bonus when used by women).

Description: This item is a special item. It cannot be stored in the backpack or enter the space-time passage.

Description: After the appraisal, one can obtain 1-5 special attributes (there is a chance that the attributes will be destroyed after appraisal).

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1142 I Know

After reading the game's description, Fang Heng couldn't help but reveal a distressed look.

Decorative items were relatively rare.

Not to mention, after the appraisal, he could also obtain a special attribute.

If they could farm for a high-level attribute, their prices would greatly increase.

However, these pieces of equipment had the additional attribute of not being able to be put into a backpack and not being able to enter a space-time passage.

Its value was greatly reduced.

"Waa! A work of art! Fang Heng! These are all works of art!"

Sandy's eyes brightened and he shouted excitedly when he saw the necklace. He went to Fang Heng's side and checked each and every one of them, fondling them with all his heart.

[Hint: Your companion-Sandy is appraising an item.]

[Hint: Your companion-Sandy has appraised a work of art: a rare white pearl headdress, 2 additional attributes obtained (click here for more details).]

[Hint: Your companion-Sandy is undergoing appraisal…]

While they were talking, the game prompts began to refresh on Fang Heng's retina from time to time.

Fang Heng didn't have much hope for the equipment. He only wanted to sell it for some money and earn back some money for his hard work.

He continued to open the next box.

The orange light from the box made Fang Heng's eyes light up.

dark crystal sand! Two full boxes!

The Empire's precious strategic resources!

It was definitely good stuff!

Rich!

Fang Heng was overjoyed.

The dark crystal sand could be used to refine weapons, increasing the hardness and sharpness of the weapons.

In addition, dark crystal sand had a good effect when added to magic items, and could also be used in alchemy.

Fang Heng closed the box and continued to check.

Good fellow!

It was a box full of spell scrolls!

Most of the scrolls had reached the level of a master spell.

It was also a good thing!

The only troublesome part was that it could not be stored in the backpack.

However, Fang Heng was sure that someone would pay a high price for such a powerful one-time consumable.

Fang Heng opened the next box.

"Eh? This one is…"

What the hell?

The box was covered with a thick layer of white powder, which was shining with a colorful luster.

Upon closer inspection, it should be a white powder mixed with various impurities.

Fang Heng reached out his hand and tried to touch it.

[Hint: The player has discovered an unknown compound.]

[Hint (triggered by alchemy academic skill): Special compound, can be used as raw material for alchemy. The player lacks the relevant alchemy formula, unable to obtain more information.[ player can try to level up alchemy to obtain more information.]

Materials related to alchemy?

Fang Heng took back his hand and looked at the white powder in the box, frowning.

Upon closer inspection, there were even fine alchemy runes carved into the box.

It seemed to be some kind of protective alchemy rune to prevent the material from being damaged and reacting with other substances.

No matter, let's put it aside for now.

The mixed alchemy materials stolen from the royal treasury couldn't be ordinary.

Fang Heng closed the box and shifted his gaze to the five boxes that were placed side by side behind him.

Tang Mingyue had complained before that only four boxes were really useful, and the remaining five boxes were filled with trash books.

He casually opened a box, and sure enough, the box was filled with books.

The book was well-preserved, without any damage or dust.

"Eh? A book?"

Sandy looked at the box that was filled with books and was surprised once again.

He stopped appraising the ordinary accessories and walked to Fang Heng's side. He took out a book from the box and started reading.

"This is interesting, Fang Heng. You're indeed a person who has been chosen by the God of Art. You know that these books are worth a lot of money… Ah, it has great artistic research value!"

Fang Heng was a little confused. He turned around and asked, "These books have research value? You know that without even looking at it?"

"Of course, tsk, tsk, tsk. Look at how this book was preserved. It's not damaged at all after such a long time. I bet the money spent on the preservation of this book is enough to buy a mine. How can it be an ordinary book? wait a moment, let me see what's inside."

Sandy began to read with great interest.

...

Fang Heng also became interested. He had a premonition that the books in the box were not ordinary.

After hearing Sandy's words, he felt even more that the books might be hiding some secrets related to the royal family.

"There are four more boxes besides this one. Take your time to read and analyze them."

Fang Heng shrugged his shoulders and went back to the cart to rest.

He hoped that Sandy would discover some surprises.

Fang Heng decided to take advantage of this opportunity to rest for a while since he hadn't had much rest for two days after entering the game.

…

In the real world, at the Central Federation, in-game crisis management Department, Division 9.

The director, Fan Tiange, looked at the newly submitted report and asked, "Prilla Gaming Guild? How did they know about us?"

Project Elegy had been proposed about two years ago.

At that time, Fan Tiange had just taken office and was ready to do something big. He had proposed Project Elegy with great ambition.

...

Only when they started to implement it did they realize that Project Elegy was facing too much resistance.

Fan Tiange felt like he had been beaten by reality.

Of course, he never gave up.

However, the plan in the barbarian world was only an empty shell. There was no actual action at all.

He felt that it was strange that Prilla Gaming Guild had suddenly sent out an invitation to work with him.

"I'm not sure, but the Prilla Gaming Guild seems to be in a hurry, and they're eager to reach a cooperation agreement with us. I've gathered information about the Prilla Gaming Guild last night. In the Northern Federation, the Prilla Gaming Guild is a very powerful gaming guild, and it's unique in the barbarian game world."

"Yes."

Fan Tiange nodded, put away the report, and threw it into the trash can beside his desk.

"Director, how should we respond to them?"

"There's no rush. Let them be cold for a few days."

"Okay, Director, I know what to do."

"Well, let's talk about the situation in Motian first,"

Fan Tiange did not care about a player's guild at all. He was too busy to take care of the other worlds.

As for cooperation?

There was not even a shadow of the elegy plan, so what was there to work with?

…

In the morning, the sun shone on the earth. After the underground cave incident came to an end, Ed's team did not dare to rashly return to the Guild residence to rest. Instead, they returned to their temporary base to rest.

After dismissing the players, they went offline to rest. However, Ed could not fall asleep. He paced back and forth in the hall, waiting for news of the progress of the cooperation with the Federation.

Sarwen hurriedly went online.

"Did you manage to contact him?" Ed immediately asked. "How's the situation?"

"Mmm… That…"

Sarwen's expression was a little ugly, and he stammered, "We've made contact. The Central Federation replied that they've informed the main person in charge of the plan."

Seeing the expression on Sarwen's face, Ed had a bad feeling. He asked, "Be straightforward, and then? How did they reply?"

"They didn't say much, just two words,' I know'."

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1143 Growth

Eh?

Ed was stunned.

'I know'?

What was the meaning of this? What do 'you' know?

What about the follow-up cooperation?

I worked so hard to help you last night, but it was all in vain?

He didn't even want to say a few more words?

Ed was a little angry.

Just as he was thinking, a player knocked on the door and rushed in.

With an excited expression, he shouted, "Boss! Boss! It's done! There are some updates!"

"What?"

"Boss is still amazing! It was settled in one move! The people who were guarding the guild headquarters just now said that there were many people sent by the feudal lords outside the headquarters. They were all here on the feudal lords' orders with some gifts to express their apologies for last night's incident, saying that it was all a misunderstanding."

[Hint: The order for your arrest issued by the feudal lord, Lord Brent, and the other feudal lords of the Empire has been canceled.]

[Hint: Due to the rumors in the outside world, your favorability with the various feudal lords has increased slightly.]

[Hint: As part of the rumors has been clarified, the player's friendship level with Lord Brent has been restored. The current friendship level has reached 'amicable'.]

[Hint: As part of the rumors has been clarified, the player's friendship level with Lord Brent has been restored. The current friendship level has reached 'amicable'…]

When he saw the notification on his retina, Ed could finally put his mind at ease.

He calmed down and carefully read the game log description, and his expression gradually turned from dark to bright.

Good!

Not only was the wanted order canceled, but their friendship level had also increased slightly!

Ed was glad that he was smart enough to not make the wrong move last night.

If he had gone against the feudal lord of the Land of Plague last night, not to mention recovering his friendliness with the feudal lords, he might even have lost his guild.

After calming himself down, Ed continued to ask, "What's going on? Speak clearly."

"It's said that the Land of Plague said that they were grateful for the help of the Prilla Mage Guild to retrieve the magic cores from the barbarians. Now, the feudal lords outside have withdrawn their wanted orders for us."

This was great, he was finally free from the blame.

Ed didn't pay much attention to the details of the Land of Plague's claim that they had snatched the magic cores back from the barbarians.

It was just an excuse.

"President, is there something strange?" Sarwen asked with a frown.

He had just been treated coldly by the Central Federation after begging for so long. How could the matter be resolved so quickly?

It was so simple?

It felt weird.

"The Federation's attitude towards us was very cold just now," said Sarwen, puzzled. "Why are they suddenly helping us?"

"Yes, it's not hard to guess."

Ed nodded and continued, "What the Federation means is that they already know our sincerity, so they helped us solve this problem. As for our future cooperation, they still want to see if we have enough strength."

"In my opinion, this time, the Federation's Project Elegy is very grand. They are very confident in their own capabilities, too, and may not want any outsiders to join them. They may also be testing us."

"Boss, I understand. So what's our next step?"

Ed gave Sarwen a look that said 'do you even need to ask'.

"Of course, we have to seize the opportunity to cooperate with Lord Fang Heng and Her Highness Mingyue."

As he said that, Ed looked at the other subordinate who reported the news and asked, "Is there any movement from Lord Fang Heng's side?"

"Ah, yes. Other than clarifying the matter, the Land of Plague has also invited the various feudal lords of Griffin City to visit the construction of the mage tower. I heard that the ghost tower will be completed this afternoon. The Mage Guild's President Randolf will personally head over to inspect the construction."

"Alright, let's go and take a look. Remember to prepare a gift."

….

In the Land of Plague, Fang Heng stood in front of the sacred tree Abe Akaya.

The sacred tree, Abe Akaya, seemed to have sensed the black stone brought by Fang Heng and was in a happy mood.

"Yes, I prepared it for you."

"Chi Chi Chi…"

The roots extended from the ground, tightly wrapped around the black stone, and dragged it underground.

"Buzz…"

The sacred tree emitted a faint light.

Specks of green light circled around the tree, and the entire tree exuded a vibrant vitality.

Fang Heng felt that part of his fatigue had also been eliminated.

The trunk grew up again, and the dome made of branches and leaves spread out rapidly.

A line of game prompt appeared on Fang Heng's retina.

[Hint: The sacred tree Abe Akaya has absorbed a high concentration of special energy and is currently in a rapid growth state.]

...

In the blink of an eye, the entire area covered by the vines spread outward at an accelerated speed!

Outside the Land of Plague, Ma Xiaowan was leading the Chambers of Commerce towards the Land of Plague.

The various feudal lords from the Empire and the Vice President of the Mage Association, Randolf, were also with her.

The entire team already had a few hundred people.

The feudal lords were in a good mood, and they were discussing the ghost tower that was about to be completed in low voices.

In just two days, the news that the Land of Plague had defeated the invading barbarian army spread throughout the entire Empire. Even the sacred tree in the Land of Plague had been rumored to be a God.

It was said that the Land of Plague defeated the barbarian army with the power of the sacred tree.

Reyne was one of the visitors who had come with them, and he had another hidden identity. He was actually the person in charge of the Empire's royal family's Intelligence Agency in Hani City.

Earlier today, the royal family needed information related to the Land of Plague.

However, the information he could provide was minimal.

The royal family was very dissatisfied with this and ordered him to immediately step up the investigation.

...

Reyne felt wronged.

In all honesty, it had only been two days since the Land of Plague evolved from a small village!

Who would have thought that things would turn out like this in just two days?

It wasn't that Reyne had never tried to get people to investigate in secret, but the people he had sent to investigate would be deterred by the vines from within the forest as soon as they got close to the forest.

The entire Land of Plague was like an iron bucket that no one could enter.

Helplessly, Reyne could only obtain a small amount of information from the Four Seas Trading Company and the feudal lords who had cooperated with the Land of Plague.

This time, he had spent a lot of effort to accompany a feudal lord into the Land of Plague for a tour.

Reyne raised his head and looked at the towering tree in the middle of the Land of Plague in the distance. An indescribable shock rose from the bottom of his heart.

How could there be such a huge tree?

"That must be the rumored sacred tree of the Land of Plague."

"Yes, that's right. A sacred tree. I've never seen such a huge tree before."

"I heard that this tree has spirituality."

"I've heard about it too. It can even help us defend the city…"

There were also quite a few people on the team who had come because of the tree's reputation.

Hearing this, everyone raised their heads and discussed in low voices.

During the day, the sacred tree in the Land of Plague was even more spectacular, as if it connected the sky and the earth!

Almost everyone was in awe of it.

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Randolf raised his head and looked at the giant tree in the distance, his eyes also showing a touch of surprise.

The Empire's sword saint Chepo, who was with Lord Brent, also raised his eyebrows.

Their eyes met by chance.

Randolf slightly nodded to Chepo.

They all felt it.

Compared to yesterday when he came to the Land of Plague, the sacred tree had grown a lot taller, and the life aura it contained was also stronger.

Lord Fang Heng, the master of the Land of Plague, had unfathomable strength.

Perpetual spells didn't weaken with time. Instead, they became stronger.

How did he do it?

Suddenly, Randolf realized something. He frowned and turned to look at the sacred tree.

The next moment, Randolf's eyes were filled with surprise.

What was going on?

This powerful life force fluctuation…

The magical fluctuations in the field were still increasing rapidly!

How could this be?

"Look! It has grown! The sacred tree has grown!"

"It's true! It has grown again!"

Everyone on the team had also noticed the abnormality of the sacred tree, and they all pointed at it in the distance.

Looking up, the towering tree in the Land of Plague was increasing in height. The branches and leaves extended outward again!

The upper layer of the huge tree trunk had already disappeared into the clouds, so it was impossible to see the full appearance of the sacred tree.

The horses of the transport vehicles neighed uneasily.

This was terrible!

Randolf's expression slightly changed.

The sword saint Chepo shouted, "Stop!! Stop!! Everyone stop, dismount, and be on guard!"

The entire forest area was rapidly expanding!

Visible to the naked eye, a green area of vines spread toward everyone in the distance!

It was too fast!

Countless roots, green vines, and leaves burst out from the ground, sweeping toward the outside world from the depths of the Land of Plague!

The team gathered together and watched as everything in the distance was submerged in a sea of green vines!

They were like small boats in the vast ocean, watching the green tide come and devour everything that came in its way!

An unstoppable thought rose in everyone's heart.

"Chi Chi Chi…"

The densely-packed vines swept toward the team and then stopped in front of them for half a second. Then, the vines continued to spread out from both sides of the team.

Seeing that the sacred tree in the Land of Plague did not attack the team, the feudal lords heaved a sigh of relief.

Reyne felt his hands trembling from fear. He was was in a state of extreme shock and he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

The surroundings were silent, leaving only the sound of the vines rubbing against each other and the heavy breathing of the people.

Ma Xiaowan's face was also pale. She muttered to herself, "The disaster, it's spreading…"

She felt more and more uneasy.

One of the feudal lords noticed something and pointed to the back of the team, "Look, over there!

Everyone turned their heads to look in the direction the feudal lord was pointing, and they were shocked.

Although the crisis had passed, the forest region was still expanding!

The sacred tree had no intention of stopping and continued to spread toward the back of the team, and behind them was Hani City!

The players led by Ed looked at each other and saw the surprise on their faces.

No wonder the Central Federation was so cold to them outside the game.

The Central Federation was actually this powerful?

On the city wall of Hani City, the Empire's soldiers panicked when they saw the forest of vines spreading from afar.

They had no idea what was going on outside. The vines that were rushing toward them did not look like good things. The guards on the city wall immediately sounded the alarm.

The soldiers raised their weapons and aimed at the vine forest spreading toward the city in the distance.

They clenched their weapons tightly and were extremely nervous.

The first thing Klein did after the alarm was triggered was to climb up the city wall to observe the situation.

Looking at the vines spreading from the outside world, cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

What was going on? What was going on with the forest?

It wasn't the barbarians who attacked the city, but the forest?

Was the barbarian controlling all this from behind?

...

Klein had never heard of such a strange thing happening!

What should he do? How could they defend this city?

Bean-sized beads of sweat rolled down Klein's cheeks.

He looked at the vines that were rapidly spreading toward the city and raised his hand high. He shouted, "All of you, listen up!"

Eh?!

Klein's heart suddenly skipped a beat as he quickly clenched his fists. He shouted, "Wait a minute!"

Outside the city, the vines suddenly changed. They stopped spreading.

City Lord Klein and the Empire soldiers on the city gate tower stared at the vines outside the city.

They did not dare to move.

What if the vines weren't hostile?

What if he took the initiative to attack and angered them?

...

"Chi Chi Chi…"

After a few seconds, the vines slowly began to shrink back.

Did they retreat?

"Telescope!" Klein said in a deep voice.

"Yes, City Lord!"

Klein took the telescope from his subordinate and looked into the distance. The forest of vines retreated, but not completely.

At present, 300 meters west of Hani City was covered by a forest of vines. The forest stretched on without an end in sight.

Could it be…

Klein thought of the sacred tree in the Land of Plague that had recently been circulating in the Empire.

Was the forest created by the sacred tree?

Klein looked in the direction of the forest in the distance, frowning.

Was the undead feudal lord showing off his strength to the Empire?

Indeed, a powerful necromancy mage had the terrifying power to control the sacred tree. If he wanted to, he could easily manage the entire Hani City…

What was his purpose?

…

In the Land of Plague, under the sacred tree of Abe Akaya, Fang Heng wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and muttered to himself.

"Phew, almost…"

The description of the sacred tree appeared in the game log on his retina.

[Ancient legend-Abe Akaya (fused blood form)(bound to player).]

[Current status: Mature form (Level 1).]

Description: A seed of the sacred tree that was born in the Otherworld. Under extremely coincidental circumstances, it fused with a curse to form a new life form.

Description: Abe Akaya can rapidly grow by devouring blood and some special energy, greatly strengthening its body.

Description: This creature is an ancient creature. You lack the relevant skills to control it.

Description: The sacred tree has self-awareness (current tree-friendly status: Dependence.

Fang Heng retracted his gaze from the notification.

After the sacred tree absorbed the huge energy contained in the unknown stone, it directly entered a rapid growth mode, and even directly increased its level and entered a growing state.

After his level increased, Fang Heng could sense the emotions coming from the sacred tree more clearly.

It had already regarded Fang Heng as the closest person to it.

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1145 House Arrest

Fang Heng sensed that the sacred tree was feeling apologetic.

"No, it's not your fault. It has nothing to do with you."

Just a moment ago, the power of the sacred tree had surged and begun to spread wildly.

To the sacred tree, this was an innate biological instinct.

Under normal circumstances, the sacred tree needed to undergo photosynthesis to maintain its energy supply, so the larger the vines, the better.

In just a short while, Fang Heng was startled when he saw that the vines were about to swallow the entire Hani City. He quickly stopped them.

At least for the time being, Fang Heng had no intention of starting a war with the Empire.

At most, they would secretly steal some things from the Empire's treasury.

Fang Heng was still unable to fully control the sacred tree after it had grown. However, there were no longer any obstacles in issuing some ordinary instructions and transmitting emotions.

It was worth mentioning that when he was near the sacred tree, he could also share the tree's perception of the outside world.

Fang Heng could sense everything that was happening around the sacred tree.

Fang Heng patted the tree trunk gently and focused on the game log.

[Hint: You have been recognized as an ally by Abe Akaya, you have obtained part of its skill description.]

Additional skill 1: Thorn piercing.

Additional skill 2: Photosynthesis.

Additional skill 3: Blood nutrient.

Additional skill 4: Rapid growth.

Additional skill 5: Plant armor.

Additional skill 6: Bloody miasma (currently inactive).

The above six skills didn't have any changes compared to when it was in its infancy. After the growth stage, it gained four more skills. Fang Heng focused on observing the subsequent four skills.

Additional skill 7: Protective barrier.

Description: Activate the power of the sacred tree to summon a protective barrier. The barrier can absorb damage and convert part of the damage into energy absorption.

Additional skill 8: Light of life

Description: The consumption of energy can activate the light of life, awakening the life energy in the sacred tree and affecting the living things in the area. It will restore the HP of the target area and dispel most of the negative effects of the target unit in the area (including but not limited to weakness, curse, broken limbs, etc).

Additional skill 8: Tree boundary teleportation (this skill cannot be used in the current trial environment).

Description: The sacred tree has the ability to travel through time and space. If you find a sacred tree of the same origin, you can complete the teleportation between the sacred trees.

Additional skill 9: Blood calamity.

Description: Transform the sacred tree into blood form. Some skills will become attack-type blood forms. The transformation of skills will consume a large amount of energy. Excessive consumption of energy will cause the main body of the sacred tree to be greatly weakened (excessive consumption will cause the level of the sacred tree to drop, and there is a probability of the sacred tree degenerating, with a very small probability of causing permanent damage).

Fang Heng carefully read the skill description and revealed a thoughtful look in his eyes.

The two skills, protective barrier and light of life, were both defensive-type skills. They could strengthen the protection of the sacred tree and its recovery ability…

Eh?!

Fang Heng's pupils shrank immediately when he saw a line of small words in the brackets of the game's description.

Dispel the curse?!

The sacred tree's skill could dispel curses? This meant…

Fang Heng's heart started to beat faster.

The vampires!

Could the curse on the vampires also be removed by the sacred tree?

Yes, this theory should be correct!

The more Fang Heng thought about it, the more he felt that there was no problem with this theory.

The fact that the vampire ancestors were able to survive the curse of the heavenly forces was most likely due to the influence of the sacred tree.

After that, the vampire ancestors had clearly cultivated the seed of the sacred tree in order to completely break the curse in their bodies!

The seed of the sacred tree was the answer!

Fang Heng was secretly excited and couldn't help but clench his fists.

After removing the curse on the vampires, the abilities of the vampires could be further improved.

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Fang Heng continued to read.

Tree boundary teleportation?

Was it a teleportation skill?

What did it mean by the sacred tree of the same origin?

Just as he was feeling puzzled, several game prompts flashed quickly on his retina.

[Hint: It has been detected that the player has unlocked the qualification to build a Tier 6 teleportation portal, and has passed the internal verification.]

[Hint: It has been detected that the player has and is bound to the sacred tree-Angetas. After internal verification, the player can now use the sacred tree, Abe Akaya, to teleport. The player's current realm mission-the World of Forests-has been completed, and the next stage of the mission is triggered…]

[Warning: Conflict detected.]

[Hint: As the player is currently in a special trial environment, the player cannot use the sacred tree-Abe Akaya to complete the teleportation. The tree boundary teleportation skill cannot be used in the current trial environment.]

[Hint: The player cannot trigger the next stage of the realm mission in the current trial state. The player will trigger subsequent realm missions after leaving this trial. The player will receive an additional 5,000 King of Gods' points as compensation after the trial ends.]

...

Fang Heng was moved when he saw the game prompt.

He finally understood!

The sacred tree was also a special teleportation device!

With the help of the sacred tree, he could probably enter the higher-tier game world-the World of Forests.

It was a pity.

He was currently in a trial state, so he could not use the sacred tree's teleportation passage to go back and forth in the game worlds, nor could he trigger the next stage of the mission.

Fang Heng didn't feel disappointed at all. Instead, he was very excited.

He was rich, he was rich.

With the ability to open the passage, he didn't have to worry about how to quickly bring the sacred tree, Abe Akaya, back.

As soon as the trial was over, he could toggle between the elementary game Vampire Apocalypse and the intermediate game Barbarian Apocalypse via the sacred tree!

As for the region's main storyline mission, Fang Heng was not in a hurry.

...

Originally, there were too many things to do in the trial. There was the main storyline of the World of Forests as well as the opening of the Tier 6 teleportation passage. It was too messy.

Now he could focus on the trail and this was a good thing for him.

The only problem was that the sacred tree could not be transplanted after it had evolved into a mature body.

It didn't matter.

Fang Heng continued to integrate his spiritual perception and tried to communicate with the sacred tree, Abe Akaya.

Abe Akaya sensed that there was a huge amount of energy hidden in the unknown stone. It wanted to get more black stones, the more the better.

The more energy it absorbed, the faster it could level up. Otherwise, it could only rely on photosynthesis to slowly absorb energy, and it would take decades for the tree to level up.

Fang Heng forced a smile.

It was too difficult.

The origin of the black stone was still unknown, so where was he going to find it?

The sacred tree, Abe Akaya, could not sense the energy fluctuations of the black stone either. Therefore, it could only find other objects that contained a large amount of energy to absorb, but the efficiency of the absorption would be very low.

Fang Heng was communicating with the sacred tree when another red prompt appeared on his retina.

[Hint: The player team has triggered the main trial mission-The Princess under house arrest..]

Mission title: The Princess under house arrest.

Mission difficulty: SS.

Mission description: Tang Mingyue is under temporary house arrest by the Emperor of the Empire. Please find a way to rescue your teammate.

Mission requirement: Save Tang Mingyue or trigger the next stage of the main trial mission.

Mission reward: Additional 6 hours of trial time.

Mission penalty: Before the mission is completed, the trial time will elapse at double speed.

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1146 Acceptance

Fang Heng frowned again when he saw the new game prompt.

As he had expected, the Empire had bad intentions when they took Tang Mingyue away by force.

There were some problems with the Empire.

At present, Wei Tao and Mikhael had returned to the Empire's main city with Tang Mingyue.

With their abilities, they should be able to find some clues.

He had to hurry up.

Fang Heng looked away from the game log. Through his spiritual connection with the sacred tree, he could sense that someone had come from the outside world.

It was the group of the Empire's feudal lords who were staying in Hani City.

Fang Heng and Mo Jiawei split up while escorting the transport team into Hani City.

Mo Jiawei helped to communicate with the feudal lords in Hani City, revealing the news that the Prilla Game Guild had helped to retrieve the magic cores and that the ghost tower was about to be completed. He also invited the feudal lords to visit the mage tower.

In the beginning, Fang Heng wanted to give the people of the Empire some confidence so that they could get through the next few days in peace. He didn't want the news to spread out accidentally, which would only cause more trouble.

He had also considered that the Empire might run into trouble, so he wanted to use the power of the feudal lords to put pressure on the Empire.

He didn't expect to really use it.

But now, he might need them to rescue Tang Mingyue.

Of course, there was another important point. It was the Empire Research Institute that was located in the capital of the Empire.

Thinking of this, Fang Heng signaled the sacred tree to make way for the feudal lords outside the forest to enter the central area of the Land of Plague.

Fang Heng then shifted his gaze to Sandy, who was sitting under a big tree and concentrating on reading a book. He asked, "Sandy, how is it? Any new discoveries?"

"Yes, yes. Fang Heng, my judgment is right."

Sandy was rarely as serious as he was now. He put down the book that he was reading halfway and moved closer to Fang Heng, explaining, "I've mentioned to you before about the encrypted text in the books. I've verified it again. It's not just one book. Almost a third of the books in the box have encrypted text."

"Can you crack it?"

"Impossible. It's a special alchemy password. Unless we can find the key, we won't be able to find the answer."

"Uh-huh," Fang Heng replied. "Are you sure the key can be found in the Empire Research Institute? "

"Well, I can only say that there's a high probability. There's a place in the book that hints at the password."

Sandy analyzed, "The key could be a string of words or numbers. It could be a person's name, a region's name, a flower's name, or even a poem. I need to go to the Empire Research Institute to find out."

"Fang Heng, the encrypted text should be related to the Empire's Saint".

"What a coincidence", Fang Heng thought to himself. He was going to the royal family to look for Tang Mingyue, who was under house arrest. He would also be able to complete Sandy's mission.

"Yes, be prepared. I'll think of a way to bring you to the royal family."

Sandy was excited!

He had long wanted to go to the royal family to broaden his horizons!

…

As they entered the forest of the Land of Plague, the feudal lords couldn't help but sigh.

The Land of Plague, which had looked a little miserable last night, had been completely restored to its original state the next day after being attacked by the barbarians.

Not only had the forest expanded once more, but the ghost tower's construction had also been successfully completed ahead of schedule.

The feudal lords chatted and laughed along the way. They admired the mighty strength of the Land of Plague from the bottom of their hearts.

Reyne's heart was heavy.

The Land of Plague was more terrifying than he had expected.

In front of them, the forest of the Land of Plague, which was covered in vines and roots, made a sudden noise and opened up a path.

Two zombies walked out unsteadily and led the way in front of the crowd.

The feudal lord's team skillfully followed the zombies deep into the forest.

Soon, they entered the depths of the Land of Plague and saw the newly built mage tower in the territory.

The president of the Mage Association, Randolf, looked at the seven-story mage tower in front of him with a touch of joy and excitement in his eyes.

He did it!

He really did it!

The mage tower had only been in its embryonic form when he had seen it yesterday.

In just a day's time, the ghost tower was completed.

Necromancy was really powerful!

After all, seeing was believing, and Lord Brent and the other feudal lords were even more excited when they saw this.

Now, who still said that Fang Heng was a liar?

At the thought of having more than ten mage towers in his territory, Lord Brent was in a good mood.

Ed's team of players also came in to take a look. They had just experienced the spread of the sacred tree in the outside world, and now they saw the mage tower that had been built overnight. They could not help but look at each other.

If they had been shocked when they saw the spreading sacred tree domain, then they were a little confused when they saw the ghost tower.

Ed and the other players were completely confused.

Last night, Lord Fang Heng had been in the underground world with the barbarians until dawn.

A few hours had passed, and it was only noon. The mage tower was already completed?

...

Was it really that easy to build a mage tower?

Ed felt very dizzy.

So…

Was the Empire's mage tower defense plan a scam?

While the feudal lords were discussing in low voices, Fang Heng walked out from the mage tower.

"Lord Fang Heng."

Ma Xiaowan looked at Fang Heng carefully and cupped her fists at him. She said, "The feudal lords have arrived."

"Thank you, and welcome to the Land of Plague. We encountered a small problem just now, but it has been resolved."

Fang Heng briefly explained what happened in the Land of Plague and continued, "As everyone can see, the construction of the ghost tower has already been completed in the Land of Plague. Recently, there have been rumors that the Empire's plan to build the tower as a defense line for the Land of Plague is a scam. Hence, I have invited all of you here to be witnesses. I would like to trouble all of you to help clear up the rumors after you return."

"Lord Fang Heng is too polite. We don't have to worry about your strength. Those scammers outside are just jealous of us. Hahaha…"

"Yes, yes, yes. Whoever said it was a scam, I'll tear his mouth apart!"

...

Fang Heng nodded to the feudal lords and then shifted his gaze to the president of the Mage Guild, Randolf.

"Mr. Randolf, as we've discussed before because the Land of Plague has little contact with the outside world, we lack apprentices who can operate the mage tower. We would like the Mage Association to help us."

"Of course, of course. Lord Fang Heng is too polite. This is what our Mage Association should do."

Randolf cupped his hands towards Fang Heng.

On the continent, the people who controlled the mage tower were usually provided by the Mage Association.

Mages could study their mental powers in a mage tower, and the mages who controlled the mage tower usually provided the services for free.

A Tier 1 mage tower only required an apprentice mage to control it.

Out of respect for Fang Heng, Randolf had brought a few elementary mages with him.

In addition to opening the mage tower, the Mage Association also took on the job of checking and accepting the mage tower.

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All the feudal lords looked at Randolf and the mages behind him with eager eyes.

The Mage Association was highly credible in the hearts of the Empire's feudal lords.

The ghost tower had been completed, but as for its reliability, that was another matter.

The Mage Association would have to pass their judgment on this matter.

Randolf looked up at the ghost tower in front of him.

The outside of the ghost tower was covered by a thick layer of vines, and a part of the vines even extended into the mage tower through the window.

"Let's go in and take a look."

Randolf strode forward, leading the group of mages behind him into the mage tower.

The feudal lord and his entourage were waiting outside the mage tower.

A moment later, a faint purple light bloomed from the top of the ghost tower.

The light gradually enveloped the entire ghost tower.

A black magical mist spread out from the top of the mage tower. The mist gradually covered the sky and the surrounding area.

Everyone looked up at the sky.

The ghost tower had the ghost fog effect. The ghost fog could hide the aura of the surroundings, preventing detection.

However, this little mist could not completely block the ancient tree in the Land of Plague.

A game prompt appeared on Fang Heng's retina.

[Hint: The player has completed building the ghost tower.]

[Hint: The player has completed the mission-building the ghost tower. The player's current Tier 6 space-tearing device construction time and consumption have been reduced by 50%, and the strength of the Tier 6 space tearing device has been increased by 50%.]

[Hint: You have triggered the final reward mission-modify the ghost tower (Tier 2).]

Mission requirement: Please construct any ghost tower (Tier 2) before the trial ends.

Current stage reward: Player's Tier 6 space tearing device construction time and consumption will be reduced by 47%, and the strength of the Tier 6 space tearing device will be increased by 50% (can be stacked with the rewards of the first and second stages).

Failure penalty: None (if the current mission fails, the rewards obtained will still be retained).

Fang Heng quickly scanned through the game prompt.

Just as he had expected, the next step of the mission was to continue to upgrade the Tier 2 ghost tower.

It was not difficult.

Fang Heng had already observed it before.

Building a Tier 2 mage tower did not require any additional magic cores. It only required more and rarer resources.

Simply put, it could be built as long as there was money.

"Lord Fang Heng."

Randolf took the lead and walked out of the mage tower, nodding to Fang Heng.

Seeing everyone's eyes on him, Randolf cleared his throat and said in a deep voice, "Feudal lords, the inspection of the ghost tower has been completed. According to the Mage Association's calculations, the current ghost tower's values are all higher than normal standards."

The feudal lords all had smiles on their faces.

"Lord Fang Heng is indeed trustworthy!"

"The construction of a mage tower is fast and good, and the price is also favorable. We really got a great deal this time. In the future, if you need anything, feel free to look for me."

"I knew it. Lord Fang Heng and I felt like old friends at first sight. How could he lie to us…"

While the feudal lords were praising him, Lord Brent secretly cast a questioning look at Randolf.

He had talked to Randolf in private before, and the only thing he suspected of Fang Heng was the magic core.

Magic cores had always been rare, and he was worried that Fang Heng didn't have that many magic cores to build a mage tower.

Randolf had no idea where Fang Heng got so many magic cores.

Lord Brent had privately asked Randolf to pay more attention to the completion rate of the ghost tower. He wanted to see if the ghost tower really had the remaining magic cores to provide for the feudal lords to build mage towers as Fang Heng had said.

Randolf saw Lord Brent's gaze and nodded at him.

Lord Brent clenched his fist.

There really was!

Now, he was completely at ease with Fang Heng!

[Hint: The friendliness between you and the various feudal lords of the Empire has increased (click here for more details).]

"Haha, Lord Fang Heng is really amazing. Now that the mage tower in the Land of Plague has been completed, I wonder where the next batch of mage towers will be built."

Fang Heng had long prepared his excuse.

"Everyone, considering that the construction of the mage tower and the transportation of resources will take a lot of time, I will first upgrade the mage tower in the Land of Plague to Tier 2. It will probably take a day and a half."

"When the Tier 2 mage tower is completed, the ghost tower will have the ability to teleport. At that time, we will carry out the construction of mage towers in all major areas. In short, everything will go according to plan."

Fang Heng then nodded to the crowd and said, "The day after tomorrow, when the Tier 2 mage tower is completed, all feudal lords are welcome to visit. Also, the necromancer has always been a low-key person, so it's better to keep a low profile when building the mage tower."

"Ah? There's even a Tier 2 mage tower?"

"So powerful? It'll only take a day and a half to complete the upgrade?"

The feudal lords started whispering again.

Reyne was shocked.

...

If what Lord Fang Heng said was true, and Tier 2 mage towers were to be built in various areas of the Empire, then the teleportation passages of various cities of the Empire would be opened…

The structure of the Empire might change greatly because of this!

Lord Brent immediately realized this, and his eyes lit up with interest.

"Lord Fang Heng, what do you need for a Tier 2 mage tower? My territory also hopes to have a Tier 2 mage tower. We are willing to provide capital and form an alliance with the Land of Plague to build a Tier 2 mage tower together."

When the other feudal lords heard this, they immediately reacted.

That's right!

Lord Fang Heng still had the ability to upgrade his Tier 2 mage tower!

Then what were they waiting for?

All of them would upgrade at the same time!

It was such a good opportunity, they had to grab it!

As expected of the veteran feudal lords!

...

"That's right, Lord Fang Heng. We've had such pleasant cooperation before. This time, you have to bring us along to build a Tier 2 mage tower. What else do you lack? We can help you think of a way!"

"Yes, yes, yes. Lord Fang Heng, what else do you need? Capital? Or the personnel?"

"Uh…"

Fang Heng couldn't help but cough lightly when he saw the feudal lords being so enthusiastic. He looked embarrassed.

Upgrading the Tier 2 mage tower was not part of the plan…

What was more troublesome was that when Fang Heng signed the contract with the feudal lords in the past, he had thought of running away.

After all, this matter would be over once the trial game ended.

But now, it was different. After the sacred tree was upgraded, it had the ability to teleport between worlds.

There was still a high chance that he would return!

What should he do with this mess?

Did he have to clean it up himself?

"Feudal lords, the construction of a Tier 2 mage tower requires even more resources. I'm afraid it won't be as cheap as a Tier 1 mage tower."

"Lord Fang Heng, we understand. Just state your price. We are willing to believe you. Just state your price and we are willing to increase the price."

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1148 External Help

The feudal lords looked at Fang Heng with eager eyes.

It was extremely difficult to build a mage tower in normal times. Now that they could find such a cheap and reliable one like Fang Heng, how could they let this opportunity go?

"Yes, yes, yes. Just give us a number. As long as it's not too outrageous, we'll definitely agree."

Fang Heng looked at the excited feudal lords.

He thought about it carefully.

"I'm afraid that it will have to be built according to the market price," said Fang Heng.

When Lord Brent heard this, he was stunned.

The market price?

So little?

The other feudal lords also had the same thought.

Previously, when he saw Fang Heng's embarrassed look, he thought that he was going to ask for an exorbitant price. But it turned out that he was asking for so little.

Only the market price? They didn't even have to pay any maintenance fees, so wasn't this to their advantage?

Lord Barov immediately said, "Lord Fang Heng, let's sign the contract! We will be able to send the funds to the Mage Association this afternoon for the construction of the Tier 2 mage tower. We only hope that we can arrange for the mage tower in our territory to be upgraded to a higher level."

"We are also willing to sign the contract!"

Lord Barov looked at the guard behind him and reprimanded, "What are you still doing? Where's the contract?"

The guard hurriedly handed over the drafted contract.

Barov quickly signed the document and handed it to Fang Heng.

"Lord Fang Heng, please take a look at the document. Is there anything else that needs to be modified?"

Fang Heng looked at the document in his hand and was a little confused for a moment.

Did he agree to it just like that?

Even if it was at the market price?

He even brought the documents with him?

Looking up at the eager eyes of the feudal lords, Fang Heng wondered if he would lose favorability points if he didn't agree.

Forget it, he would just sign it. As for what would happen in the future, he would think about it later.

[Hint: You have signed a supplementary agreement for the construction of the mage tower with the feudal lords of the Empire.]

[Hint: Your friendship with the feudal lord of the Empire, Lord Barov, has greatly increased…]

[Hint: The player's current mission: the Empire's defensive line-ghost tower has changed.]

After being surrounded and signing more than ten agreements, Fang Heng was finally released by the feudal lords.

Ed's party members looked at the passionate feudal lords with grim expressions.

Reyne, who was hiding in the crowd and secretly investigating the situation in the Land of Plague, was also frowning.

They all had the same feeling.

Fang Heng was playing a big game of chess.

First, it was the Tier 1 mage tower.

He used extremely low prices to attract the feudal lords to invest and spread his reputation. After that, it was time for the construction of the Tier 2 mage tower.

For him to be willing to pay such a high price to lure everyone into this trap, he must have a scheme!

Reyne couldn't figure out what Fang Heng's real purpose was, but he realized that this was no small matter.

He needed to report to the royal family immediately!

Randolf was excited. He cupped his fists at Fang Heng and said, "Lord Fang Heng, the operation of the Tier 2 mage tower requires the support of a large number of King spirit system mages. The Mage Association will start lessons on necromancy as soon as possible so that more mages can learn about it. I hope that Lord Fang Heng can support us in our daily training with the help of the mage towers in various places."

Fang Heng was stunned for a moment. He didn't know why Randolf suddenly became so serious and formal. He just nodded and said, "Um, okay, no problem. Of course, you can."

"Thank you for your assistance."

Randolf calmed himself down and suppressed the excitement in his heart.

The scarcity of mage towers limited the difficulty of mages' entry and training. He could foresee that with the construction of a large number of ghost towers, a large number of mages on the continent would choose to cultivate the undead element.

Randolf was sure that Fang Heng's name would appear in the textbooks of necromancy in a few years.

After visiting the mage tower, the feudal lords of the Empire were ready to leave in groups.

Fang Heng brought Sandy and walked to Lord Brent's side.

"Lord Brent, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."

"Lord Fang Heng, you don't have to be so polite. We are all partners. If you need anything, just let me know. I still have some reputation in the Empire. I will help you think of a way."

"I want to learn more about the royal family's research institute in the Empire. My friend and I have always wanted to go and take a look."

Lord Brent was a little surprised. He looked at Fang Heng and asked, "You also want to participate in the alchemy seminar held by the royal family?"

Alchemy seminar?

Fang Heng raised his eyebrows.

"I thought it was something big. No problem. I'll go get two invitation cards for you. Oh right, Speaking of which, I haven't been there in a long time. When are you guys planning to go?"

"As soon as possible, now would be good."

"Now?"

...

Lord Brent's eyes were filled with doubt.

Wouldn't he be busy with the construction of the mage tower? He actually had the leisure to go to the Empire's capital to participate in the seminar?

…

The capital of the Empire.

Knowing that Tang Mingyue was under house arrest by the Emperor, Wei Tao's team of players immediately took action and collected useful information.

"To summarize the information we just received, the Emperor fell ill about half a year ago. His illness started to get worse two months ago and he hasn't been in public for a while."

"Salvador is in charge of all the Empire's affairs."

"Salvador is a very strict Emperor, both internally and externally."

"It's very strange that Tang Mingyue is under house arrest this time. No matter what the royal family disclosed to the outside world, the outside world doesn't know that Tang Mingyue has been under house arrest. We only found out about this through the game prompts."

Listening to the information he had gathered, Wei Tao frowned and thought to himself.

Tang Mingyue was the only one who knew what had really happened in the royal family. The problem was that Tang Mingyue was under house arrest, and no news had been leaked from the royal family, so no one could investigate.

...

Mikhael suggested, "Wei Tao, do you want us to sneak into the royal family to investigate? Let's think of a way to find out where Tang Mingyue is kept so that we can be prepared to rescue her."

Wei Tao muttered to himself and asked, "How confident are you?"

Mikhael thought for a moment and said, "I'm not very confident. It depends on luck. I'm still somewhat confident in escaping."

"No, we know too little about the royal family. If we try our luck, we'll easily get you involved."

"Then what should we do? We don't have much time left."

"I have an idea. We can look for external help," Wei Tao said.

"External help? Who is it?"

"Tang Mo."

Mikhael immediately recalled and asked, "Are you referring to Tang Mingyue's brother?"

"Yes, his attitude towards Tang Mingyue is unusual, and he knows the royal family better than us. We can start with him."

After some careful thought, Mikhael felt that this plan was much more reliable than barging into the royal family. He immediately nodded and said, "Yes, you're right. Tang Mo should be at the Empire's front line now. We'll immediately go find him."

"By the way, find a way to leave a message for Fang Heng. He should be almost done with his work. We don't want him to come back and find us missing."

"That guy might have made a new discovery."

As the two of them were talking, lines of game prompt refreshed on their retina.

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[Hint: The player's team has reached a supplementary agreement with Lord Brent to build a mage tower (Tier 2). After joining the multi-party agreement, the player's side mission-the Empire's defense line-change of the ghost tower (click here for more details).]

[Hint: The player team and Lord Barov have reached a supplementary agreement to build a mage tower (Tier 2)…]

Wei Tao and Mikhael looked at each other and did not know what to say for a moment.

Without a doubt, the ghost tower agreement was definitely Fang Heng's doing.

How should he put it…

Was Fang Heng's doing reasonable?

"Ahem." Wei Tao saw that the atmosphere was a bit stiff and coughed lightly. "Fang Heng has his plan. In short, we'll go to the front line to find Tang Mo first."

"Okay, sure."

….

The capital of the Empire, Atama.

Central Imperial City.

On a tall tower, a strong young man stood in front of the window and looked down coldly.

He moved his lips slightly and muttered to himself, "Legendary necromancer Fang Heng, you really came."

In the distance, Lord Brent led Fang Heng and Sandy through the security check at the entrance and entered the Imperial City together.

"Lord Fang Heng, this is your first time entering the Imperial City, right? Let me give an introduction of this place to you. The Imperial City is built in the central area of our Empire's capital. It is divided into two parts, the inner city, and the outer city."

Lord Brent led the two of them towards the Western region as he explained, "The outer city is divided into the Eastern and Western regions. The Eastern region holds the Empire's various administrative organizations, while the Western region has the Empire's research facilities. The Empire Alchemy Research Institute you're looking for is one of the Empire's key research facilities."

"There's also the inner city area, where the Empire's royal family is located. Under normal circumstances, it's forbidden to enter, so it's better if we don't talk about it."

Lord Brent explained with a proud expression.

"Lord Fang Heng, the best talents in our Empire are gathered in the Western District. The scholars who can appear here are all quite capable."

"Indeed, very powerful."

Fang Heng nodded his head and praised.

"Look, that's the Empire Alchemy Research Institute, the largest of all the research institutes. The royal family has invested the most in alchemy for many years."

Lord Brent led the way in front. Soon, he brought Fang Heng and Sandy to a large building.

The Empire Alchemy Research Institute occupied a large area, and there was a large square outside the building.

The square was bustling with noise and was filled with dense stalls of all sizes. There were at least seventy to eighty of them. Many people were discussing in front of the stalls. At first glance, it looked more like a market.

"Hahaha, it's quite lively, isn't it? The royal family of the Empire has always supported the development of various academics so the Western region often holds various academic seminars."

"The alchemy seminar that is held once every three years is the biggest seminar. Outstanding scholars from all over the Empire will be invited to have academic exchanges. Every time, there will be many new research products. All the academies in the Empire are also keen on this. This is also their way of increasing the influence of their academies."

"Indeed, it's quite interesting," Fang Heng answered.

Along the way, Fang Heng's gaze shifted to the Imperial City's inner city area from time to time.

If his guess was correct, Tang Mingyue should be under house arrest in the inner city.

He could already see teams of Empire soldiers patrolling the outer city, so the security in the inner city must be even tighter.

"But Fang Heng, ahem, this is your first time learning alchemy, right? Let me give you a warning. Those who learn alchemy have a bad temper. They have always been arrogant and don't put anyone in their eyes. Later on, don't lower yourself to their level. Just treat it as fart."

"Alright, I understand," Fang Heng frowned and nodded.

"Haha, it's not a big deal. We don't have to lower ourselves to their level. If they really bully us, we don't have to be afraid. We'll just fight them and it'll be over!"

Lord Brent was very enthusiastic and said, "Let's go, Lord Fang Heng. I'll bring you in for a stroll. It's my first time here as well. Oh right, I've already made a reservation at a restaurant tonight. I've also invited a few good friends. Let's drink until we're drunk."

"Thank you for your kind intentions. As for the banquet, you don't have to be so polite. We still want to go to the Alchemy Research Institute later. In addition, there is a lot of information that we want to check. It may take a long time, so we won't waste your time. We can do it ourselves."

"Alright. Lord Fang Heng has been devoted to research. No wonder you have such high achievements. Oh, this is the invitation letter I prepared for the two of you. With this invitation letter, you can enter and exit most of the areas in the outer city of the Western region."

Lord Brent did not mind Fang Heng's attitude. The latter was a big shot in the academic world, so he always had some quirks. Furthermore, he was a necromancer who was famous for being eccentric and unsociable.

Besides, he really didn't know anything about alchemy, and he didn't want to talk to those alchemists.

"However, Lord Fang Heng, there's one more thing you must remember. There's a curfew in the Imperial City from seven o 'clock in the evening. No one is allowed to walk outside. If you want to stay in the Research Institute tonight, you must apply in advance."

"I understand. Thank you."

Fang Heng took the invitation and watched Lord Brent leave.

Then, Fang Heng shifted his gaze to Sandy and asked, "The Alchemy Research Institute is right in front of us. Where is the key we're looking for?"

"Oh… If I'm not wrong, the secret key should be hidden in the Imperial Alchemy Research Institute. We still have to go in and take a look."

On the way here, Sandy had been studying the layout of the royal palace.

On the whole, it was more or less the same as what he had read in the books before, except for a few slight changes.

"Yes, let's go."

Fang Heng nodded and stepped into the noisy Alchemy Research Institute.

"Oh…"

Just a few steps into the Research Institute, Sandy stopped and stood in front of the huge figure statue at the entrance of the square.

He sized up the tall statue, his eyes revealing a deep sense of doubt.

"What's wrong?"

"Fang Heng. I found him in ancient books. The prototype of this statue isn't him. It must have been altered by someone."

"Yes."

...

Fang Heng uttered a soft "hmm" and looked up at the statue.

The statue was of a middle-aged man holding a book, with a scholarly aura.

"It's been hundreds of years. It's normal for the statue to change."

"Oh, you're right."

"But this is going to be troublesome," Sandy said, troubled. "The original name of the statue may be part of the secret key."

"It's fine. There will be a record of the replacement of the statue. We'll find it after checking it out. Alright, let's not waste time. Let's go."

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