Chapter 1 Core Area of the Crook Plains

In the core area of the Crook Plains, you could encounter a group of Prairie Lion Cubs every hundred yards or so. A slight misstep could attract dozens of Prairie Lion Cubs. In the center of the plains, near the large tree, lived a group of Level 6 Elite Prairie Lions, making it a forbidden area for Level 6 players.

However, in this forbidden area, Bai Qingxue's team was constantly clearing out the surrounding Level 6 Prairie Lion Cubs, creating an open space to hunt the Elite Prairie Lions. Such a bold move would surely amaze ordinary players.

A small team was battling over a dozen Prairie Lion Cubs.

Bai Qingxue, clad in azure armor, with her valiant combat movements, resembled a female war goddess. One could not pass through her defense; a casual sword strike could send three Prairie Lion Cubs flying. Moreover, through dodging, she avoided the claw attacks of the remaining two Prairie Lion Cubs. If a master were to see this, their eyes would likely pop out. This sword strike seemed casual, but it struck the vital points of the three Prairie Lion Cubs. The dodging was even more exquisite, as if she had eyes in the back of her head, avoiding the claw attacks from behind without even turning her head.

On the other side, the Crimson Flame Witch Zhao Yueru was like a turret. A Frost Flame Detonation blasted away one-third of the Prairie Lion Cub's health. Seeing the Prairie Lion Cub shift its aggro and charge towards Zhao Yueru, Zhao Yueru smiled disdainfully. She chanted the final part of the spell, and her fair jade hands completed the spell inscription. Then, a flame dragon emerged, spewing scorching flames at the Prairie Lion Cub, directly killing the charging Prairie Lion Cub.

Zhao Yueru's control over magic was superb, and she was extremely proficient in chanting and inscription. What took ordinary people three seconds, she only needed 1.6 seconds, with a completion rate as high as 83%. The Flame Dragon Roar she cast dealt 120% increased damage, which was why she instantly killed the Prairie Lion Cub that had two-thirds of its health remaining.

After a while, all the dozen or so Prairie Lion Cubs were dead.

"Take a break, prepare to lure the two Elite Prairie Lions over. Shield Warrior, you tank one, and I'll take the other," Bai Qingxue said as she collected the drops, looking at the two patrolling Elite Prairie Lions not far away.

Just as everyone was resting, Bai Qingxue received a message, signed Hei Yan (Black Flame).

Seeing this signature, Bai Qingxue frowned slightly. She had previously put out a message, wanting to discuss cooperation with the Hei Yan Forgemaster. Not long after, she received a reply. She was quite happy at first, but after a while, a bunch of messages came in, all claiming to be the Hei Yan Forgemaster. After a simple question to identify them, she found that all these people were imposters, just trying to swindle money from her.

"Qingxue, is it another harassing message? Why not just set it to non-friend status and not receive any messages, so you don't have to be bothered," Zhao Yueru suggested, noticing Bai Qingxue's unnatural expression.

Bai Qingxue shook her head and said seriously, "I don't know the Hei Yan Forgemaster. What if the real Hei Yan Forgemaster really contacts us, but we don't receive it? Wouldn't the post be for nothing? I'll still take a look, anyway, it's easy to judge whether the Hei Yan Forgemaster is real or fake."

However, when Bai Qingxue saw this message, she suddenly froze.

Because this message proved the authenticity of Hei Yan very concisely, asking her to go to the virtual trading center and enter the login password for the designated virtual trading room he provided, and then trade the Design Diagram of the Glimmer Breastplate.

"It seems that waiting for so long has finally yielded some results." Bai Qingxue smiled faintly. From the words in the message, she could clearly feel that this Hei Yan Forgemaster was real. Otherwise, he wouldn't have proposed trading the Design Diagram in the virtual trading center, after all, the fake Hei Yan wouldn't have the Design Diagram.

"What, did the real Hei Yan contact you?" Zhao Yueru asked, seeing Bai Qingxue nod, and immediately became a little excited, wanting to meet this mysterious forgemaster. "When are you meeting?"

Now, the Hei Yan Forgemaster could be said to be known to everyone, and he even possessed a Design Diagram that could increase the guild's advantage and expand its influence. Their actions made one think deeply, and it was only now that they discovered the true purpose of the Hei Yan Forgemaster. It had to be said that the Hei Yan Forgemaster's methods were very clever.

Spending so much cost was all to control the initiative in the game with various guilds. Now, all the guilds in the White River City region had to fall into this vortex, otherwise they would be eliminated by other guilds. This method of turning clouds with a flip of the hand and overturning rain with another flip was even admirable to her.

Unlike some people, who were clearly lucky but acted like experts, which was infuriating to see. Compared to this Hei Yan Forgemaster, they were simply worlds apart.

"Just contacted me, but he doesn't add friends, only said to meet at the Level 8 Physis Canyon in four hours. Physis Canyon happens to be not far from here. I'll buy the Design Diagram first, then we'll quickly clear these Elite Prairie Lions, and it should be in time to rush over." Even Bai Qingxue seemed very happy at this time. There were so many first-rate guilds in the Star-Moon Kingdom, but she didn't expect Hei Yan to be willing to cooperate with them. It had to be said that they were very lucky, or that Hei Yan had other plans. In short, she couldn't guess what Hei Yan was thinking.

"Great, then let's go quickly. What if that person gets impatient and doesn't want to see us, that would be terrible," Zhao Yueru suddenly stood up and said happily.

"Look at how anxious you are, we still have time." Bai Qingxue rolled her eyes at Zhao Yueru, not expecting Zhao Yueru to be so interested in Hei Yan. She usually didn't see her being so enthusiastic about other people.

On the other side, Shi Feng had already left Red Leaf Town and was running towards the White Sand Ruins.

The White Sand Ruins were a Level 10 monster area, and it was also a place where several small towns near Red Leaf Town would come to level up, because there were many quests here, including guild quests and reputation quests, and there were even two unique quests. The rewards for these two unique quests were very generous, which was very beneficial for entering White River City in the future, so Shi Feng ran here.

Just as Shi Feng ran to a white sand sea, Bai Qingxue sent a message, suddenly saying that she wanted to postpone the agreed time by another hour. To compensate for his loss, in addition to buying the Design Diagram worth 24,000 credits, she even transferred another 20,000 credits to him, which was simply generous.

Shi Feng didn't care about postponing the time, anyway, he needed a lot of time to do quests here.

And 20,000 credits was the salary of a gold-collar worker for two months, and Bai Qingxue just used it as a little compensation for being late…

This was still a preliminary transaction, and it allowed him to earn more than 40,000 credits. It had to be said that cooperating with someone like Bai Qingxue had many benefits, especially since Bai Qingxue didn't lack money, even the tycoons of other virtual games were far from being able to compare with her.

Afterwards, Shi Feng followed his memory and searched for an unknown path in the White Sand Ruins. He walked on this path for more than twenty minutes before seeing a bunker buried in the white sand. There were two Level 10 Elite Black Iron Dwarves guarding the entrance of the bunker.

In this bunker, there was a unique quest, "Steel Shell Fortress Baltia."

ps: Thanks to Tian Suoyun for the 100 reward, and Qing Mi Huanjie for the 20 reward!