Nie Yan protected himself with the Darkbright Barrier, as a membrane of light enveloped him. After which he also buffed himself with Holy Rejuvenation to significantly increase his health regeneration speed. Finally, Battle Angel Kalenna woke up for a brief moment to cast Heal on him, which restored his health to full and gave him a bit of reprieve in this desperate situation.

 A hail of arrows howled through the air. 

Put put put! 

Several dozen struck Nie Yan.

−4,234

−2,949

−3,781

…

A string of damage values rose up above Nie Yan’s head. His health rapidly plummeted. He quickly patched himself up with a Combat Bandage, restoring back some of his health, but it quickly started falling again. As his health reached critical levels, he hurriedly drank a Specialist Health Potion, instantly restoring his health back to full.

As the rain of arrows came to an end, so too did the damage to his health bar. It finally stopped going down at 65%.

About 60 arrows had struck Nie Yan in total, among which more than half came up as misses. 

Thanks to the Darkbright Barrier’s effects on top of his already high defense, these arrows which were fatal to ordinary players only shaved away about 10% of his health each.

THUD! 

Nie Yan fell onto a roof.

「

Is he dead?

」Soaring Angel asked. He clearly saw the hail of arrows rain down on Nie Yan. After being hit by so many arrows, he was probably turned into a human pincus.h.i.+on.

「

He must be. There’s no way anyone could survive that.

」

These arrows were fired out from ballistae. A single hit could normally instantly kill a Level 100 player. After being hit by such a dense hail of arrows, even a Champion wouldn’t necessarily come out of it alive.

However, to the shock and dismay of the players from Angel Corps, Nie Yan crawled back to his feet. He leaped down from the rooftop, then disappeared into a winding alley.

Soaring Angel and the other four Masters glanced at each other with incredulous looks on their faces. He survived all that!? Did he even have a health bar!?

“Boss, what do we do?” 

Given the labyrinth of alleyways, streets, and buildings in the Clemenci Stronghold, finding Nie Yan would be nigh impossible, no matter how much manpower was thrown at it. Even if he were found, killing was another incredibly difficult hurdle.

“Release the sealing formation. Let him go.” Soaring Angel gritted his teeth in rage. Killing Nie Yan was no longer possible. So, he'd rather have a walking pestilence like him hurry up and leave.

After receiving Soaring Angel’s order, a subordinate undid the sealing formation surrounding the Clemenci Stronghold.

“Nirvana Flame, I’ll remember this debt. Just you wait. I’ll pay back this humiliation a millionfold!” Soaring Angel clenched his fist. He looked down at his notifications. After killing the Demon Slaughterer, he received a quest to find the Lost City of Paternoster. He had no idea what it was about. He deliberated on it for some time before deciding to bring Sark and the other three Masters with him and investigate.

Seeing the sealing formation disappear, Nie Yan smirked. Soaring Angel was pretty sensible. Even though this formation could stop him from leaving, Angel Corps would have no way of killing him. Contrarily, if they forced him to stay here any longer, he might flip the whole Clemenci Stronghold upside down.

Nie Yan had no intention of lingering around either. After all, his time was precious. He couldn’t spend all of it messing around with Angel Corps.

Throwing one last glance over his shoulder, Nie Yan quietly left the Clemenci Stronghold. After today, Soaring Angel would probably pour even more manpower and resources into fortifying the defenses of this place.

After making his way down the ramp to the plains down below, Nie Yan found a secluded spot. He activated a Return Scroll. With a flash of light, he returned to Orc King City.

「

Thank G.o.d, you made it out safe and sound.

」Guo Huai breathed a sigh of relief. His heart really was wracked with nervousness earlier. Only when Swift Maple let him know Nie Yan had left the Clemenci Stronghold alive and well did he finally relax.

「

Don’t worry. Everything went fine, just like I said.

」Nie Yan chuckled.

Guo Huai bitterly smiled at Nie Yan’s lax att.i.tude. Swift Maple had sent him a video of the battle in the Clemenci Stronghold. He knew all too well how dangerous the situation was and how improbable that Nie Yan walked out alive.

「

With the stunt you pulled today, Soaring Angel is probably tearing his hair out. You absolutely humiliated Angel Corps.

」

As the two chatted, Nie Yan casually browsed the web. Countless videos and images of the battle in the Clemenci Stronghold were circulating around in the forums. Especially his several close brushes with death received endless streams of upvotes. Discussions went on for pages, with players agreeing his feats were nothing short of miraculous. It was unbelievable he survived through all that.

Nie Yan’s legend only kept growing. He was being revered as the G.o.d of Thieves by countless players. Even though Angel Corps was the ruler of the Satreen Empire, they were repeatedly thwarted by him. Sure, they were still a very powerful guild. But in terms of prestige, they were lacking compared to a.s.skickers United.

a.s.skickers United was the holy land of Thieves. Countless expert Thieves sought to join the guild, if only to receive a few pointers from the likes of Nie Yan and Sun. Previously, this was mostly limited to the Viridian Empire. But after Nie Yan showed his prowess in the Clemenci Stronghold, players of the Satreen Empire started to acknowledge his strength. Many expert elven Thieves started applying to join a.s.skickers United.

Apart from this, there was also an update on Heaven Song. Ronin, Suyo, and the rest of the party had managed to recruit 1,000 friends and started to build a foundation for the guild with the funds Nie Yan provided. They set up bases in Orc King City and two other cities and were recruiting new members en ma.s.se.

Nie Yan was looking forward to see what heights Heaven Song would reach.

Nie Yan walked the streets of Orc King City with his cloak on. He glanced in his bag, where a black feather lay sitting in a corner. This was the item that dropped from the Demon Slaughterer.

Fallen Feather: Crafting material used to make wings.

Reading this description, Nie Yan raised an eyebrow. This feather was used to craft wings. As for what wings were used for, he had no idea. From his past life to the present day, he had never once heard of a player obtaining wings. All he knew for now was that since one of the materials came from a Level 130 Demonified Lord, it had to be something special.

Nie Yan spent the afternoon levelling in the mountains north of Orc King City. When evening arrived, two announcements shook the entire server.

System Announcement: Judgement Valley has opened. The vile demons and undead have arrived from the depths of the subterranean. After pa.s.sing through the dark pa.s.sageway in the underworld, they reached the surface. They spread fear and disease, and kill all that moves. Brave adventurers, stake your lives and become the strongest resistance of the Righteous Faction!

System Announcement: The Viridian Empire and Satreen Empire have reconciled with the Giant Tribe. The Rainbow Bridge has been reopened. Players can now freely travel to the territory of giants.

Seeing these two notifications, Nie Yan knitted his brows. From his recollection, there should be at least three more expansions before the Judgement Valley opened. It had come far earlier than expected. However, his appearance had already changed history. He couldn’t say for sure what other changes would occur.

After Judgement Valley was opened in the previous timeline, the frontier became especially lively. More and more players flocked there to level and fight against the forces of the Demon Tribe and Undead Empire. Many of them saw ma.s.sive growth in their PvP skills, a fraction even joining the ranks of experts. Later on, some players even rose to the ranks of General and Great General. These t.i.tles represented the pinnacle of success on the battlefield. Many of them possessed excellent PvP skills and were peak experts.

With the release of this expansion, not only on the frontier, but more players from the Evil Faction started appearing all over the Atlanta continent. This would often lead to skirmishes between the players of the two factions when levelling or running dungeons.

With this in mind, Nie Yan instantly made an announcement in the guild chat, warning all members to be careful of being ambushed by players from the Demon Tribe or Undead Empire when levelling outside in the wilderness. 

As for the Rainbow Bridge, this was the pa.s.sage leading to the Giant Tribe. With it opened, players could visit their territory without any ha.s.sle. The base stats of giants were extremely high. Thanks to their incredible battle prowess, they were one of the most powerful races in Conviction. But because they were bound by the pact of the Neutral Faction, they weren’t allowed to attack others in the wilderness. They were only allowed to retaliate in self-defense. On the other side of the coin, the players from the Viridian Empire and Satreen Empire weren’t allowed to attack the giants either. If they did, they’d receive severe punishment.

Nie Yan checked his military rank. Since he hadn’t killed any players from the Evil Faction for a long time, it had fallen from a 10,000-Man Commander to a 1,000-Man Commander. If he wanted to get it back up, he would have to pay a visit to Judgement Valley.

Military rank was different from player levels. It was difficult to raise and quick to fall. After becoming a General or Great General, you would have to kill an untold number of Evil Faction players every day just to maintain your rank. Even so, the rewards for raising your rank made it well worth it. Generals and Great Generals could buy Sub Legendary and Legendary-grade equipment from the NPC battlefield commanders for almost no gold at all. Apart from this, the system released a large number of battlefield-related quests with extremely generous rewards.

In the previous timeline, Generals and Great Generals were like Masters, unreachable existences to ordinary players.

Nie Yan had no interest in raising his military rank right now. It was too bothersome and time-consuming.

With the Demon Tribe and Undead Empire joining the fray, the situation would become much more difficult to control. What depressed Nie Yan the most was that Judgement Valley wasn’t too far away from Okoron. It was about an hour’s journey on horseback. In the future, his city would definitely suffer hara.s.sment from the Evil Faction. After thinking for a bit, given Okoron’s powerful defenses, there wouldn’t be any issue on the side of safety and security.

With the release of Judgement Valley, Nie Yan would have to adjust a.s.skickers United’s strategy. While facing off against Angel Corps, he had no choice but to take precautions against any potential threats from the Evil Faction.