Wan Ling'er

Ten minutes later. Yu Xian and his party arrived at the core of the secret realm, where they saw the young girl who had already become the Death Emperor's puppet. Because of the Death Emperor's skill [Dead but Never Stiff], any target slain by it would be transformed into an undead creature to continue fighting on its behalf. Thus, the boss of this secret realm hadn't vanished into white light upon dying; shortly after death, she had been converted into a malevolent ghost, waiting in place for the Death Emperor's orders. The floor at the core of this secret realm was paved with green tree leaves, and leaves covered everything in sight. Stepping through the breach the Death Emperor had smashed open, Yu Xian's eyes were immediately drawn to the large pile of loot scattered across the ground before he looked toward the young girl who had been turned into a malevolent ghost. [Malevolent Ghost - Wan Ling'er] [Level: 60] [Skills:] [Cross-Fragrance Poison: Passively releases a faint fragrance that gradually corrodes targets, progressively lowering their defense, attack, resistance, and speed while deducting 100 HP per second.] [Budding Bloom: Manipulates all flower petals to envelop herself, granting extremely formidable defense while slowly regenerating health.] [Suffocating Love: Flowers bloom across her entire body, releasing massive amounts of pollen. Any living creature that inhales the pollen will suffer paralysis, weakness, and difficulty breathing until suffocating to death.] [Pistil Pixies: Can release a swarm of pixies for reconnaissance, with the pixies providing a synchronized field of vision.] [Wither Domain: Uses roots to siphon all surrounding nutrients, leaving enemies unable to halt the drain of their stamina until they die.] [Bloom and Wither: When Wan Ling'er suffers a fatal blow, she enters a withered state until her health recovers to 50%.] [Will of Leaves: Upon activation, whips up surrounding leaves to provide self-protection. Each leaf can absorb death once, up to a maximum of one hundred leaves, lasting 10 hours.] [Malevolent Ghost Form: Immune to physical damage, but resistance to elemental damage is reduced, and all skills will carry a yin-chilling attribute.] [Exclusive Ultimate:] [Dance of Riotous Blossoms: Burrows into the ground and becomes untargetable, causing flowers to sprout and burst into full bloom across an area spanning a hundred li in all directions, then setting all flowers into a high-speed spinning blade form to shred every living creature within the area.] [Note: Sovereign of the Wanling Secret Realm, princess who commands flowers and leaves.] This was the boss he was originally supposed to fight? After reading Wan Ling'er's stats, Yu Xian couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath. She was truly freaking strong. If he hadn't summoned the Death Emperor, he felt he probably still could have won, but definitely not so easily. After all, this damn creature had a hundred lives! At this moment, Yu Xian finally gained a true understanding of how absurdly overpowered secret realm bosses were. No wonder even teams needed a huge number of classers entering together to have any hope of defeating a secret realm boss. She was genuinely ridiculous. "Old Death, you could one-shot a monster this crazy. Mind telling me where you came from?" Yu Xian closed Wan Ling'er's stat window and turned to the Death Emperor, asking out of curiosity. The Death Emperor answered indifferently, "I do not know. From the moment I was born, I was in a special space. There was nothing there. I stayed there continuously until one day a question suddenly occurred to me..." "A question suddenly occurred to you? Then what were you thinking about before that?" Yu Xian asked. The Death Emperor fell silent for a moment before answering, "I thought of nothing. Nothing at all." *A state of no-thought?* Yu Xian guessed in his heart, though he could hardly imagine how much time had actually passed while the Death Emperor remained in that thoughtless void. After all, the Death Emperor didn't care about time in the slightest. When it felt like a brief moment had passed, ages and ages might have gone by in reality, yet to it, it was merely an instant. "Wait. If you were always in that special space, how did you know about me?" Yu Xian suddenly realized a blind spot. The Death Emperor replied, "When you cast your summon, it was as if I simply knew. It was as though many voices were weeping into my ears, bewailing your deeds." *Could it be the monsters that died?* Hearing the Death Emperor's answer, a flash of inspiration hit Yu Xian's mind, followed by a chill down his spine. Could the dead monsters have transformed into another form to stay with him forever? He hastily spat several times to banish the ridiculous notion from his head. This was definitely just a mechanic of the Zhen Realm, not some bizarre haunting. "Whatever, let's check the loot first." Yu Xian swiftly redirected his attention and looked at the spoils dropped by Wan Ling'er. It had to be said that as a secret realm boss, Wan Ling'er certainly carried prestige. The drops were abundant, each glowing with an aura of light. When Xielina finished gathering all the loot and carried it over to him, his attention was already fixed on several gemstones, and the corners of his mouth slowly curved upward. [Class Enhancement Stone] [Equipment Enhancement Stone] [Summoned Beast Enhancement Stone] [Skill Enhancement Stone Shard] [Character Enhancement Stone Shard] Jackpot. Three whole enhancement stones and two enhancement stone shards in one go. After confirming the types of enhancement stones, Yu Xian stowed them in his inventory. His current plan was to pool his resources and enhance everything he could up to +5 before considering enhancements for Little Nora and the others. The main reason was that before +5, the success rate of enhancement was one hundred percent, so there was no need to spread his resources thin. "A Quest Token?" After putting away the enhancement stones, Yu Xian looked at the token beside them. The token wasn't large—roughly three centimeters long and one and a half centimeters wide, a thin sliver of iron metal. He picked up the token and saw its stats: [Quest Token] [Effect: Upon use, grants a quest of random difficulty. The higher the difficulty, the richer the rewards.] [Note: Effort brings reward—who wouldn't want such a sweet deal?] After reading it, Yu Xian remained noncommittal for the moment. Whether this token was useful would ultimately depend on how good the rewards were. If the rewards were bountiful enough, he would definitely use every quest token he found and grind quests diligently. But if the rewards turned out to be trash, he wouldn't have much enthusiasm left for running quests. After checking the token, Yu Xian examined the weapon Wan Ling'er had dropped. In truth, weapons in the auction house were mostly mediocre for two main reasons. First, blacksmiths who wanted to forge powerful weapons required massive amounts of sufficiently powerful materials, which ordinary classers had no way of acquiring. Second, even if major factions successfully hunted down various bosses, they wouldn't sell the bosses' weapons. Those were priceless treasures in their own right, exchanged at most between rival powers rather than listed on the auction house. Wan Ling'er's dropped weapon was an umbrella. It was an umbrella crafted from petals and leaves. Looking down from above when opened, it resembled a blooming cruciform flower—strikingly beautiful. Moreover, its stats were quite good. Not only did it provide defense, but it could also induce hallucinations in enemies, and the blossoms could even detach and fly out to attack targets. Yu Xian happily pocketed the weapon and decided to give the umbrella to Niman later. He felt it suited Niman perfectly and would at least double her combat effectiveness. "All right, let's head out." "We're going back to hold a feast and celebrate leveling up again." Having sorted through all the loot, Yu Xian turned around, looked at Little Nora and all his summoned beasts, and announced with a broad grin. "Yay!" Little Nora instantly leapt up in joy, while the other summoned beasts, under Yu Xian's control, began clapping one after another. Only the Death Emperor looked upon the scene with a mental question mark: *These monsters are all morons. Is there any point to this?*