Chapter 1 Nie Yan

Nie Yan lurked in the distance, watching an Ice Wraith wander past. He pounced, the dagger in his hand erupting with a sharp light.

Just as his dagger was about to strike the Ice Wraith, it suddenly vanished into thin air.

Nie Yan missed his attack, his heart jolting with alarm. He saw the Ice Wraith suddenly appear to his right, its originally empty and lifeless eyes now filled with ferocity and bloodthirst.

*Hiss.* The Ice Wraith exhaled a frigid breath, a wave of cold air assaulting Nie Yan.

The drastically plummeting temperature seemed capable of freezing everything.

Quick as lightning, Nie Yan flipped away, leaping several yards.

The Ice Wraith vanished again, reappearing behind Nie Yan, an icy torrent surging towards him.

The Ice Wraith's fighting style was different from the monsters Nie Yan had encountered before. It floated erratically, its dodges and attacks were extremely fast. At the same time, ghost-type monsters possessed an incredibly powerful passive attribute: they were immune to crowd control skills.

This guy was even more troublesome than he imagined. Nie Yan didn't dare to be careless.

As he constantly dodged, Nie Yan incessantly adjusted his combat skills, making his movements even faster, barely keeping up with the Ice Wraith's rhythm.

Evading the Ice Wraith's pounce with a dodge, Nie Yan suddenly noticed the Ice Wraith had its back to him. His heart sank, and he lunged at the Ice Wraith's back.

Nie Yan suddenly erupted with extreme speed, faster than any time before, the strength of his entire body converging at his knee. He delivered a knee strike, impacting the Ice Wraith's back.

With a muffled thud, the Ice Wraith staggered forward a few steps.

Nie Yan wouldn't give up such a great opportunity to attack. He suddenly darted forward several yards, delivering an elbow strike, his elbow slamming heavily into the Ice Wraith's back. He turned his body to the side, and the Zennarde's Sword in his hand pierced brutally into the Ice Wraith's back with a Spine Break.

The Zennarde's Sword sank in to the hilt. Nie Yan gripped the Zennarde's Sword tightly, and violently pulled, delivering a cut.

The Ice Wraith let out a miserable scream.

Just as Nie Yan was about to continue his attack, the Ice Wraith suddenly disappeared, and his attack missed.

Nie Yan glanced at the system notification. He had just completed a three-hit combo, dealing more than 50,000 damage. It seemed that the Ice Wraith wasn't impossible to defeat.

Nie Yan had barely stabilized himself when he felt a gust of cold wind assault him from behind. He quickly used Gale Step.

A stream of cold air swept across, covering the surrounding ground with a thick layer of frost. Many Emerald Gold Orchid grass on the ground was instantly frozen into ice sculptures. Fortunately, Nie Yan dodged quickly, otherwise he would have become an ice pillar.

It was a good thing there were enough Emerald Gold Orchids here, or Nie Yan would have been heartbroken to death.

Two figures exchanged blows at lightning speed on the grass. Nie Yan gradually integrated various fighting techniques into the game's skills, and was surprised to discover they possessed an astonishingly similar compatibility. His attack speed couldn't match the Ice Wraith's, so he could only rely on bizarre moves to win by surprise.

This was a long chase. Unlike the monotonous running and hacking with skills of the past, Nie Yan's movements were extremely flexible, unrestrained by any skills, thus possessing more variability.

This freedom made Nie Yan feel extremely refreshed and exhilarated when fighting.

After this kind of high-intensity battle, Nie Yan could feel his fighting skills constantly improving.

The Ice Wraith ferociously attacked Nie Yan, but as Nie Yan whittled away at its health, it dwindled more and more, finally dropping to less than 5%.

The Ice Wraith screamed miserably, its whole body emitting waves of surging cold air.

The moment he came into contact with these icy gases, Nie Yan's body was immediately covered with a thick layer of white frost, his speed drastically decreased, and every movement became very difficult. He quickly drank a bottle of Master-grade Cold Resistance Potion. A warm current spread from his lower abdomen to all his limbs and meridians, and his body immediately became flexible again.

Seeing signs of the Ice Wraith going berserk, Nie Yan rushed forward, kicking the Ice Wraith in the abdomen, then delivering a throat-slitting attack. The flames of the Zennarde's Sword swept across the Ice Wraith's throat.

The Ice Wraith screamed sharply, the nails on its hands suddenly growing several centimeters, becoming incomparably sharp. Its attacks instantly strengthened countless times, and its movement speed was also much faster than before.

The Ice Wraith attacked Nie Yan almost frantically, and Nie Yan found it increasingly difficult to dodge, frequently almost getting hit.

Seeing the Ice Wraith's claws swing down, about to finish him off, Nie Yan used Shadow Waltz, dodging away.

Sixteenth-level Shadow Waltz! Nie Yan disappeared without a trace.

The Ice Wraith revealed a blank expression. It couldn't sense Nie Yan's presence at all. Nie Yan seemed to have vanished into thin air. It could sense ordinary skills, such as Gale Step, Vanish, etc., but its perception ability was completely ineffective against the sixteenth-level Shadow Waltz.

High Efficiency Terror!

Nie Yan was already behind the Ice Wraith. He used High Efficiency Terror, causing the Ice Wraith to fall into a state of paralysis.

Purgatory Execution!

The flames of the Zennarde's Sword in Nie Yan's hand blazed brightly, and he slashed the sword across the Ice Wraith's back, the red flaming sword hacking the Ice Wraith in two from the back.

Purgatory Execution successful!

The Ice Wraith's health reached zero, and it let out a miserable scream. It released streams of cold air from its body, and its body slowly dissipated, disappearing into the air.

*Whew.* Nie Yan breathed a sigh of relief, finally taking down this troublesome guy.

He restored his stamina in place, and looked into the distance. Emerald Gold Orchid grass was everywhere here, stretching far into the distance, dancing in the wind. Although Nie Yan and the Ice Wraith had destroyed a lot of Emerald Gold Orchid grass during their battle, there was definitely enough Emerald Gold Orchid left.

Even if he collected them here for more than ten days, he might not be able to collect all the Emerald Gold Orchid grass here.

Nie Yan bent down and began to collect, and a series of system prompts sounded.

System: You have obtained an Emerald Gold Orchid grass.

System: You have obtained an Emerald Gold Orchid grass.

…

A series of very rhythmic system prompts sounded, and the amount of Emerald Gold Orchid grass accumulating in Nie Yan's bag increased.

After collecting six stacks, Nie Yan began to use these Emerald Gold Orchid grass to make high-level instant recovery potions. The Alchemy Master skill allowed players to make certain specific potions without a recipe, such as beginner, intermediate, advanced and master-level instant recovery potions, as well as some types of poison resistance potions, toxin potions, etc.

Nie Yan took out an Emerald Gold Orchid grass. After a simple treatment, he began the crafting process.

Bottle after bottle of high-level instant recovery potions were created by his hands. Every time he successfully created a high-level instant recovery potion, he gained 3 skill proficiency points. After successfully creating a stack of high-level instant recovery potions, he placed them in a corner of his bag, and then continued to bury himself in his work.

Nie Yan repeated the simple and tedious crafting process. Since the skill proficiency points required to advance in the Alchemy Master skill were relatively small, the speed of improvement was still quite fast.

While Nie Yan was concentrating on practicing his Alchemy Master skill proficiency, Chu Chenghao and others had gathered at the entrance of the Auction House in Calore, preparing to team up with Xu Yan and others to level up and practice together, then go to the dungeon together after practicing.

Including Chu Chenghao, there were a total of thirteen people. Two of them had gone to purchase consumables and would be over in a while.

"Xu Yan and the others will be here soon."

"I heard from Xu Yan that he just applied to the Ni Ren Tribe for Brother Chu to join. I guess he'll get a reply in two days."

Just as they were chatting, seven or eight people walked over from a distance.

"It's Zhao Shiyu, Fu Guangtao, and them!"

"It seems like Bai Jun didn't come."

Seeing Zhao Shiyu and Fu Guangtao's unkind appearance, they all became vigilant. They stood behind Chu Chenghao, facing Zhao Shiyu, Fu Guangtao, and the others.

Zhao Shiyu's gaze swept over Chen Mo and the others, revealing a sorrowful expression, and said, "I came here to ask you to go back. We were wrong before. Since the team was formed, although we have had some conflicts, our cooperation has been quite pleasant. Do we really have to go our separate ways?"

"Chu Chenghao, I admit that I was too impulsive before, and my tone was a bit harsh. I apologize to you. Come back with us. What future do you have following trash like Xu Yan and Xia Tianyu? With their levels and equipment, can they lead a team well?" Even when apologizing, Fu Guangtao was still somewhat arrogant.

"Whether the team was happy before, anyone with eyes can see clearly. Zhao Shiyu, you don't need to pretend to be pitiful. We have long been clear about what kind of virtue you people have. It's useless to say more. In the future, you can take your own path, and we'll take our own single-plank bridge." Chu Chenghao didn't seem to be letting up at all.

"Damn it." Fu Guangtao opened his mouth and wanted to curse Chu Chenghao, but after thinking about it, he forcibly suppressed his anger. "We can discuss it in the long term if you come back. At worst, we won't go to the Spider Cave, and we'll continue to stay in the Mysterious Cave. In a while, our equipment will be improved, and then we can go to the Spider Cave."

Chu Chenghao was obviously unmoved, and the other team members didn't show any signs of wanting to go back.

"It's useless for you to say more. Go back, we don't care." A team member next to him said disdainfully. They had already seen through the true colors of Fu Guangtao and the others.

"This is what you said. I kindly asked you to come back, but you don't appreciate it. In the future, when you go to the dungeon, I, Fu Guangtao, will definitely see you once and kill you once, until you don't dare to leave the city. I mean what I say." Fu Guangtao revealed a fierce expression. His backing still had some strength.

"That depends on whether you have the ability. We'll accompany you to the end." Chu Chenghao said coldly. He wouldn't be so easily scared.

"Do you think those trash like Xu Yan and Xia Tianyu can protect you?" Fu Guangtao sneered.

"We'll see if you have the ability to kill us until we dare not leave the city." At this moment, Xu Yan, Xia Tianyu, and the others walked over.

Hearing this voice, Fu Guangtao turned his head and was about to say some harsh words, but his gaze fell on the equipment of Xu Yan, Xia Tianyu, and the others, and he fell into a daze.