Chapter 1 A Sudden Trace

The sudden appearance of mount footprints made the Midnight Tea Party cautious.

Ghost Cry Ridge, as a neutral map, displays a leveling range from Level 60 to 75. This level is a forbidden zone for players. If it weren't for their interest in the Fallen Ark within Ghost Cry Ridge, they wouldn't normally come here to level up. At most, they would avoid the large guilds and go to maps around Level 55 to level up and do quests.

Now, the sudden appearance of footprints in front of Ghost Cry Ridge couldn't help but make people wonder.

"Wanderer, go check it out. See how many people there are and how long ago they left."

At this moment, Qingfeng Zhujiu, the leader of the Midnight Tea Party, gestured to a delicate assassin dressed in white beside him.

The assassin class isn't just good at assassination; they're also proficient in tracking. As long as the tracking skill is high enough, they can even determine the approximate information about the target based on the footprints left behind. The white-clad assassin in his team had already leveled his Tracking skill to Tier 1 Level 9. Ordinary assassins would be lucky to reach Tier 1 Level 2, after all, it wasn't a commonly used skill.

"Leave it to me."

The delicate assassin named Huangquan Langzi nodded, then jumped off his Strider and walked over quickly. The others took the opportunity to sit down and rest.

Even with mounts, running wildly for several hours still consumed some of the players' stamina. Sitting down for a while could help them recover some of it.

"There are twenty mount imprints, so it should be a team. The footprints are less than half an hour old, and these people are all above Level 40. However, the footprints disappear at the entrance." Huangquan Langzi looked for a long time but couldn't figure out why the footprints suddenly disappeared halfway.

Generally, only stealth-type skills would have such an effect, but what was the point of twenty assassins running into Ghost Cry Ridge?

"Although I don't know what these people are up to, we should still be careful. Ghost Cry Ridge is a neutral map, and there are many different races living here. We should be as careful as possible when we move. If we are discovered by a different race, we must kill them immediately. If we can't kill them, we must retreat immediately! Don't get bogged down in a fight!" Qingfeng Zhujiu instructed everyone, then jumped off his mount, "The mounts are too low-level to hide their tracks. My Beast King's Breath is only effective against low-intelligence monsters and has little effect against other races. From now on, we'll proceed on foot."

Then, the twenty members of the Midnight Tea Party quietly entered Ghost Cry Ridge.

However, after passing through the narrow mountain road that led into Ghost Cry Ridge, the scene that greeted them stunned everyone.

What was originally a rocky hill covered in rubble now resembled the surface of the moon, with holes everywhere and different races lying on the ground, numbering at least two or three hundred.

It was as if a great battle had just taken place here.

"What on earth happened here?" The female priest Yun Zhongsha stared with her mouth wide open, incredulously looking at three ogres, each ten meters tall, that had been sliced in half and were lying on the ground. In addition, there were ogres of all sizes, ranging from three to five meters.

Ogre Gladiator, High Lord, Level 62, HP 19,200,000.

Ogre Warrior, Special Elite, Level 60, HP 1,900,000.

Ogre Witch Doctor, Leader, Level 61, HP 3,500,000.

"Guild Leader, these ogres seem to have been ambushing players here, but it looks like they were killed by those players who passed by earlier." Huangquan Langzi handed some very crude traps to the Guild Leader Qingfeng Zhujiu.

In God's Domain, it's not just players who set traps, monsters do too. This is especially true for different races, it's simply commonplace. However, the traps set by different races vary in quality. The ogres, with their simple minds and well-developed limbs, can only set up some very primitive traps that even slightly clever players wouldn't fall for.

"Just who are these people?" Qingfeng Zhujiu looked at the ogre corpses all over the ground, feeling a sense of relief in his heart.

With so many ogres attacking, plus three Level 62 High Lords and more than thirty ogre witch doctors who could heal, this combination was simply deadly for players. Even they would probably suffer some losses, but there wasn't a single trace of player resurrection at the battle site.

"It's fortunate that they came first, otherwise we would have had to fight a tough battle." Yun Zhongsha couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Guild Leader, there are their footprints here, and they seem to be heading towards the Fallen Ark as well." The ranger Anshang, carrying a small short bow, suddenly pointed to the distant dead forest and said.

"This is interesting." Weiyang Qianhen looked at the ogre gladiators with sword marks all over their bodies and smiled faintly, "Guild Leader, let's go too. If we wait too long, the monsters might respawn."

"Alright, let's go." Qingfeng Zhujiu waved to the others and followed the footprints.

……

In the dead forest of Ghost Cry Ridge, Shi Feng and the others were facing wave after wave of charging troll armies. In the back row of the troll armies, there were rows of troll witch doctors healing the troll berserkers and troll chieftains in the front row.

Troll Berserker, Elite, Level 61, HP 650,000.

Troll Chieftain, Grand Lord, Level 63, HP 42,000,000.

Troll Witch Doctor, Leader, Level 62, HP 3,100,000.

"Guild Leader, if we let them summon more companions, we really won't be able to hold on." Cola, holding the troll chieftain, felt immense pressure.

He was only Level 43, with a level difference of 20 levels. Even with an Epic-ranked shield and the support skill of the Demon Flame War Tiger, his HP was as high as 35,000, but he still felt his HP like it was on a roller coaster, fluctuating wildly. A single normal attack dealt over 19,000 damage, and a skill dealt over 26,000 damage. This was with the priest's *True Word Shield* and the oracle's protective shield buffs. Otherwise, he could be instantly killed with a single hit.

"Wait a little longer, Banja and Ye Wumian, try to lure the other troll berserkers away from the troll chieftain." Shi Feng said unhurriedly.

"Guild Leader, there are too many of them. I'm afraid we won't be able to clear them all later." Bai Qingxue looked at the increasing number of troll berserkers and felt her scalp tingling.

If these were just Level 40-plus elites, it would be fine, but now they were Level 60-plus elites. No one grinds monsters this desperately. Moreover, the Level 60 elites and leader monsters they had killed before hadn't dropped anything good, just some silver coins and materials. They hadn't even dropped a single Mysterious-Iron ranked item.

"Almost there, hold on for a while." Shi Feng didn't explain much.

Neutral maps are where the different races in God's Domain live.

Different races are different from humans. They are born with extremely high talents. Some are good at magic, some are incredibly strong, some have sharp senses, and some are natural warriors. In short, these different races are naturally stronger than humans.

In ancient times, humans were actually at the bottom of the various races, with no talent for combat. However, they had a wisdom that other races couldn't compare to. Through generations of wisdom and inheritance, humans were able to achieve their current prosperity.

Although they still can't compare to the Primordial races, humans have become the top race in the God's Domain continent, possessing the most territory.

The different races that live in Ghost Cry Ridge are the ogre and troll races. Ogres are incredibly strong, but they are dull and don't know how to make weapons. Trolls, on the other hand, are much smarter and usually collect wood and stone to process and make weapons for combat.

The wood collected by these trolls includes *Qingwu* wood, so there is a chance to drop *Qingwu* wood when killing these trolls.

Of course, players can also go to Ghost Cry Ridge specifically to find and collect *Qingwu* wood, but it's too troublesome. Moreover, Ghost Cry Ridge is too dangerous for them now, and there are many places they can't go. It's better to just farm trolls.

The reason why he was waiting for the troll chieftain to summon companions was not for the troll berserkers. Troll berserkers are only elites, and the probability of dropping rare materials like *Qingwu* wood is too low. At least it has to be a leader-level troll for the probability to be higher.

"Guild Leader, new trolls have appeared!" Diao Bei Feng said with a very bad look on his face.

Because the newly appeared trolls were actually Lord-ranked, and there were three of them!

ps: Two updates today, three updates tomorrow and the day after!