Among the many bosses Nie Yan had faced, the Naga King was fairly easy to deal with because of his weak physical defense, which made it susceptible to knockbacks. 

Nie Yan rummaged under the Naga King’s corpse. Apart from a Level 180 Sub Legendary-grade Warrior bracer and bronze key, nothing else dropped.

The bronze key was about the size of a thumb and covered in all sorts of intricate engravings. Likely, it was to open a treasure chest.

Nie Yan was thinking about where to find the chest, when Bennett’s Soul hovered in front of his face before heading off into the distance. It seemed to know the way!

Nie Yan turned his head and glanced back at Dragon Emperor one last time before running after Bennett’s Soul.

Dragon Emperor watched Nie Yan disappear at the end of the street. He turned to look at the corpse of the Naga King on the ground. No words could describe what he was feeling right now. This encounter with Nie Yan had left a deep impression on him. He glanced at the Sanguine Dragon in his pet s.p.a.ce and wondered if he would ever be on equal footing with Nie Yan.

Nie Yan was strong enough to challenge some of the most powerful bosses, even legendary existences, and in the process obtained all sorts of amazing equipment. From the moment he first pulled ahead, his rewards only helped him widen the gap further and further. At this point, simply catching back up to him would require an inconceivable amount of effort.

“Just you wait, I’ll definitely challenge you one day!” Dragon Emperor declared. He then turned his focus back to hunting Elite Nagas.

After leaving the village, Nie Yan followed Bennett’s Soul for half-an-hour before arriving outside the entrance of a cave.

Entering the cave, Nie Yan found himself in a large room. Level 180 Elite Nagas were roaming around here, hundreds of thousands of them. It looked like a snake nest. Ordinary teams would have no way of clearing this place.

Nie Yan bypa.s.sed the Nagas using his stealth and the Web-Crawler Ring. About an hour later, he arrived in an even larger chamber. Strangely enough, there were no monsters roaming here.

Since the chamber was too large, Nie Yan couldn’t see the far side even with his high Night Vision. He summoned Paladin Lafus and had him toss a ball of light in the air, illuminating the surroundings. What he saw caused him to be dumbstruck.

The corpse of a gigantic 10-meter tall spider appeared in his vision. Bits of its carapace had broken off and lay scattered on the ground. The rest of the corpse had fossilized. It was impossible to tell its age. Approaching the abdomen, Nie Yan had Lafus toss up another light orb in the air.

This spider corpse was likely Arachne Empress Finas!

Exploring around, Nie Yan discovered something resembling a formation drawn into the ground. It was in the shape of a hexagram. Though incredibly old, it was still visible. As he drew closer, only then did he realize the formation was carved into the rock and so couldn’t be erased.

Bennett’s Soul continued floating forward until it arrived in the center of the formation. Suddenly, the formation lit up and illuminated the entire chamber.

Nie Yan watched everything unfold in amazement. Bennett’s Soul emitted a dazzling radiance like the sun and started rapidly dividing, from one to three, then three to nine, and so on. Before long, there were too many to count. It was as though the air were filled with fireflies. It was a mesmerizing sight. They gradually floated up and entered Empress Finas’ corpse before disappearing.

You have completed the quest ‘Bennett’s Guidance’.

Nie Yan lit up twice in a row with a dazzling radiance. He had levelled up to Level 155!

At his current level, each level up required a ridiculous amount of experience. Yet after completing this quest, he had levelled up twice! This was quite a pleasant surprise.

“This was it? The quest is complete? Where’s the Occult Talisman then?”

Nie Yan searched around before his eyes landed on a corpse resting against a nearby wall. It had already rotted into nothing but bones. In its embrace was a peculiar looking box. It was about the size of a palm and made out of an unknown silver-white metal. Just below the lid was a keyhole.

Nie Yan immediately took out the bronze key he obtained from the Naga King’s corpse. Inserting the key and turning it to the left, the lid popped open with a click. Inside was a talisman. It was made out of scaly yellow leather with indecipherable characters drawn on it.

Empress Finas’ Occult Talisman!

After seeing the talisman, Nie Yan’s eyes lit up with joy. He still recalled what an impact Bennett’s Occult Talisman had had when he used it in the final showdown against Bloodl.u.s.t Blades. Arachne Empress Finas could only be stronger than Crypt Lord Bennett, not weaker!

Nie Yan examined the Occult Talisman’s properties.

Occult Talisman (Legendary): Special Item

Description: Summon the fleshly vessel of Arachne Empress Finas, a Level 200 Lord with 500,000,000 health, for three hours. Cooldown: 60 days.

Requirements: 5 Magisters, 20 Great Mages, 3 Occult Items, and 1 Magic Formation

Nie Yan sucked in a cold breath of air. What a powerful summon!

The Occult Talisman of Empress Finas was definitely a priceless treasure!

Bennet’s Occult Talisman was a waste of inventory s.p.a.ce at this point. It required a specially tailored magic formation and a large number of Great Mages only to summon a Level 100 Lord. This was too much of a ha.s.sle. Especially considering the elites of the major guilds were all well over Level 130. On the other hand, a Level 200 Lord was an unrivalled existence. For a long time to come, no player not even Nie Yan should even dream about reaching Level 200. So, Empress Finas would be extremely useful.

Nie Yan could already imagine the reactions of the players from Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group after seeing the Occult t.i.tan of Empress Finas. This was quite the harvest! He put away the talisman in his bag.

Immediately after, the cave started violently trembling as rocks started falling down. The entire place was coming down! Nie Yan hurriedly escaped with Gale Step.

BANG! BANG! BANG! 

The ceiling came cras.h.i.+ng down behind Nie Yan. The Nagas in the cave went into an uproar, hissing loudly as they restlessly flicked their red tongues.

Unknown Transfer Scrolls couldn’t be used in this cave. Nie Yan dashed past the Nagas, going as fast as his legs would carry him before practically flying out of the exit. Looking back, the cave had already collapsed in on itself.

After two long years, Nie Yan had finally completed this quest and obtained the long sought Occult Talisman of Empress Finas! He couldn’t help but be in high spirits.

Nie Yan summoned his Darkwing Dragon and jumped on its back. With a flap of its wings, the two took to the skies.

The next goal was Lich King Insar’s Secret Treasure. Nie Yan had collected quite a few clues related to this quest, especially lately. He already knew its rough location.

The Darkwing Dragon’s wounds from last battle had healed, and it was only a small step away from reaching Rank 8.

Nie Yan ran his hand along the Darkwing Dragon’s scales, feeling a cold aura going up his palm. Over this past year, flying mounts were becoming more and more widespread. Since he hadn’t been paying too much attention to the Darkwing Dragon lately and hadn’t used it much, it had fallen from the top of the flying mount leaderboards. In the Righteous Faction, there were five flying mounts that could rival or even surpa.s.sed it, including Xie Yao’s Rank 8 Immortal Phoenix and Mistaken Smile’s Rank 7 Spectral Dragon. As for the other three, one belonged to Battle Crazed Alliance and the other two belonged to random solo players.

The Darkwing Dragon was starting to fall behind in rank. However, Nie Yan still had some Darkness Life Cores and other dragon related items in his bag. The Darkwing Dragon was fully recovered. This was the time to start feeding it again.

If Nie Yan fed the Darkwing Dragon all these items, it would at least reach Rank 8.

Nie Yan took out several Darkness Life Cores and tossed it to the Darkwing Dragon. It opened its mouth wide open and caught them. 

CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH! 

It chomped them down.

After eating these Life Cores, the Darkwing Dragon’s aura started rapidly climbing. The initial break through to Rank 8!

Nie Yan hoped the Darkwing Dragon would reach Rank 8 before they arrived at their destination.

The Darkwing Dragon could fly astonis.h.i.+ngly fast at maximum speed. However, though higher alt.i.tudes supported a faster flying speed, Nie Yan could only stay relatively low. This was because at a certain height, a miasma of black covered the sky which obstructed all vision.

For the sake of evading Half-Demon Angud, it was absolutely necessary for Nie Yan to threaten the east and strike from the west. He would attract Angud’s attention in one place, then sneakily retrieve Lich King Insar’s Secret Treasure.