Before dawn, the path to the Lost City would appear? Zhao Chenghuang pushed aside the other thoughts for now, gazing at the full moon on the horizon as he sensed the shifts in lunar energy.
After sunset, darkness fell, and during this early phase, lunar energy was at its thinnest. At the hour of the Rat—midnight—it peaked, and from then on began to decline.
As spirits of the night, Night Walkers could deduce the time based on the intensity of lunar energy.
Of course, this required an experienced Night Walker who had undergone specialized training to memorize the exact strength of lunar energy at various intervals.
Inexperienced Night Walkers possessed no such skill.
*It's one in the morning.* Sensing for several seconds, Zhao Chenghuang made an accurate assessment.
Right then, he heard Yuanshi Tianzun say not far away,
"What time is it right now? Feels like two in the morning."
*A total rookie Night Walker after all. No matter how formidable his combat prowess, small details expose how shallow his foundation really is!* Zhao Chenghuang thought to himself.
Sun Miaomiao knitted her delicate, lovely brows and countered,
"No, no, it's eleven at night."
*Her estimate of the lunar energy's intensity was correct—the yin energy at eleven at night matches that at one in the morning—but she reversed the trend. Elder Sun's training of Miaomiao still leaves much to be desired...* Zhao Chenghuang shook his head.
"I think it's two in the morning," Yuan Ting chimed in.
*Absurd! This guy clearly hasn't spent enough time in boot camp.* Zhao Chenghuang shot him a glance, speaking with a calm tone and aloof expression:
"It is one in the morning."
The moment he finished, Zhao Chenghuang watched Yuanshi Tianzun, Sun Miaomiao, and Yuan Ting walk away in silence.
"His guess is way off."
"Yeah, it's clearly two in the morning."
"Let's not play with him."
The corner of Zhao Chenghuang's mouth twitched. He took a deep breath, looked toward the crowd in the clearing, and called out:
"It is currently one o'clock in the morning. Dawn is still some time away, and we need to be fully rested before entering the Lost City. Everyone except the Night Walkers and Earth Monsters may rest in the clearing.
"Any Night Walkers or Earth Monsters who are excessively depleted may report to me..."
He methodically organized patrols and guard rotations, looking every bit the part of a commander.
The spirit walkers of the Mountain God faction glanced at Yuanshi Tianzun, who sat cross-legged on a boulder paying no heed to anything, and obediently followed Zhao Chenghuang's orders—those who needed rest went to rest, and those assigned to patrol set off.
Asano Ryo, the Japanese schoolgirl carrying her long uchigatana, tiptoed over and whispered,
"Yuanshi Tianzun, your power has been usurped."
Zhang Yuanqing looked sidelong at her. "You should address me as 'Lord Yuanshi Tianzun.'"
Asano Ryo lowered her voice. "Lord Yuanshi Tianzun, you've been stripped of command! That Zhao Chenghuang wants to seize your position as leader. Why are you letting him plot right under your nose? Everyone clearly supports you!"
Zhang Yuanqing nodded with a grave expression. "You make a good point. In that case, Ryo-chan, please do me the honor of assassinating that scoundrel."
"Huh?" The innocent, pretty look on Asano Ryo's face froze, and she stammered, "I... I can't beat him..."
Nearby, Guan Ya was thoroughly exasperated. This Japanese girl wasn't stupid—she even possessed a bit of sharp wit—but she was simply too dense.
Guan Ya enlightened her:
"Haven't you noticed? No matter what Zhao Chenghuang says, everyone still instinctively checks for Yuanshi's reaction. Zhao Chenghuang's orders only hold weight because Yuanshi doesn't object.
"If that's the case, why stir up conflict with Zhao Chenghuang over such trivialities? Besides, Yuanshi hates managing petty chores anyway. With Zhao Chenghuang around, he's more than happy to be spared the trouble."
Asano Ryo pondered seriously for a moment before an enlightened look crossed her face. "Oh! So this is what my father always taught me—political balance."
"What political balance?" The red-haired girl strolled over and cheerfully joined the conversation. "Isn't political balance just killing off all your political rivals?"
While the three girls chattered away, Zhang Yuanqing opened the leaderboard:
[1: Yuanshi Tianzun, Night Walker, Level 3, 508 points]
[2: A-Yi, Witch Doctor, Level 3, 230 points]
[3: I Alone Am Supreme, Water Ghost, Level 3, 225 points]
[4: Zhao Chenghuang, Night Walker, Level 3, 220 points]
[5: Nothing Is Taboo, Bewitcher, Level 3, 215 points]
[6: Sun Miaomiao, Night Walker, Level 3, 213 points]
[7: Jiang Jingwei, Fire Master, Level 3, 200 points]
[8: Dropout Fish, Scout, Level 3, 190 points]
[9: Treading the Firmament, Witch Doctor, Level 3, 180 points]
[10: My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven's, Illusionist, Level 3, 138 points]
Apart from second and third place remaining unchanged, the top ten had shifted dramatically. Zhao Chenghuang, Sun Miaomiao, and Jiang Jingwei had all surged into the top seven.
The top twenty-four had seen an even more earth-shaking transformation. Between 11th and 24th, the Mountain God faction held ten spots, while the Mountain Ghost faction held four.
Guan Ya had climbed to 20th place.
As long as she maintained this ranking, advancing to Saint would pose no problem.
*I should do my best to get all the people following me into the top twenty-four. Otherwise, they'll either have to give up on becoming Saints or wait until the end of the year to join another killing trial...*
*Kou Beiyue's rank is rather low—forty-second. For him, advancing to Saint is secondary; keeping that guy alive is what matters most...*
*If I can just take out A-Yi and I Alone Am Supreme, I'll be on equal footing with the Demon Lord and the female Grand Marshal...*
However, both of them were top-tier powerhouses. In a one-on-one duel, Zhang Yuanqing had some confidence, but in team combat, the wild cards multiplied exponentially, making killing them exceptionally difficult.
Killing players in the top five yielded the highest point rewards, but anyone capable of clawing their way into the top five was no pushover.
Back then, the Demon Lord had slaughtered almost the entire official contingent to near-extinction—he must have played the traitor and worked in tandem with the evil classes to pull it off.
Otherwise, the Demon Lord's score wouldn't have been in the nine hundreds, but over a thousand or even two thousand.
In fact, calculating from their point tallies, the exact combat capabilities of the Demon Lord and the female Grand Marshal during the Transcendent stage could be reasonably estimated.
Zhang Yuanqing believed they hadn't been much stronger than he currently was.
It was worth noting that there were sixty participants left on the leaderboard.
The ratio between the Mountain Ghost and Mountain God factions was roughly 1 to 2.
Zhang Yuanqing closed the leaderboard and nudged Guan Ya's waist with his elbow. "Sister Guan Ya, let me use your lap as a pillow."
"Shoo, go away!" Guan Ya snapped.
"If you won't let me, I'll go ask Peony Fairy."
Guan Ya glared at him.
Zhang Yuanqing smoothly rested his head against her supple, rounded thighs, and as expected, she did not push him away.
From the ambush battle in the labyrinth to holding off the Mountain Ghost faction all on his own, his astral form had weathered attack after attack. Utterly drained mentally, he soon drifted into a deep sleep.
Some time later, Guan Ya nudged him awake. Handing him a bunch of wild berries, the mixed-race beauty said,
"Dawn is almost here. Eat something first.
"Peony Fairy and the others picked these in the forest; they're safe to eat."
Zhang Yuanqing sat up with a groggy head, drawing several deep breaths. Once his lungs took in enough oxygen, his mind cleared up.
Taking the berries Guan Ya offered, he chewed quietly while scanning his companions across the clearing.
Some sat yawning on the ground, while others stretched and limbered up. Having rested well, they appeared revitalized, their earlier exhaustion gone.
*Clap, clap!*
Zhang Yuanqing clapped his hands to draw everyone's attention.
Instinctively putting down whatever they were doing, people looked toward the young man who had leapt onto a boulder.
Standing atop the rock, Zhang Yuanqing projected his voice:
"Everyone, dawn is almost upon us. We are about to head to the Lost City for the final showdown against the Mountain Ghost faction. Without question, this will be an exceptionally perilous fight to the death.
"Anyone could die, myself included. You are all seasoned spirit walkers who have weathered trials of life and death, and daring to enter a killing trial means you have already steeled your resolve.
"I hope that once we enter the Lost City, we will stand united as one, obey commands, advance to Saint together, and march toward a bright future!"
The crowd either stayed silent or gave faint nods, clearly not very moved.
Reaching their current status and level meant that aside from a few rare simpletons, most were seasoned veterans accustomed to empty promises from superiors and plenty of pep talks.
A few simple words from Zhang Yuanqing were not going to set their blood boiling or stoke their fighting spirit.
Changing his tone, Zhang Yuanqing continued:
"Perhaps to you, holding off the Mountain Ghost faction's assault single-handedly was a great feat, an extraordinary achievement. But to me, that was nowhere near my limit.
"I still have plenty of trump cards left unused. Holding them off was nothing—slaughtering my way straight through the Mountain Ghost faction wouldn't be out of the question either. Every enemy we kill frees up another spot. Every spot freed up means one more person among you can advance to Saint.
"However, relying solely on my strength won't be enough; ultimately, success depends on all of us. I'll say it once more: obey orders, and stand united. Understood?"
Hearing this, the spirit walkers' eyes finally lit up.
*Yuanshi Tianzun still has trump cards? The battle at the Mountain God Temple wasn't even his limit...*
"Understood!"
The crowd roared back in response, their spirits invigorated.
Evidently, dangling a carrot still worked; it all came down to how a leader framed it.
At the very same time, Nothing Is Taboo stood atop a boulder, looking down at his companions, and proclaimed loudly:
"If expectations hold, the rules of the Lost City will be simple. No puzzles to solve, no mysteries to explore. Fierce confrontation is the sole law, and combat just happens to be our specialty.
"Yuanshi Tianzun has exhausted all of his trump cards, and we know his repertoire like the back of our hands. After a night of deliberation, we've already devised counters to everything he has.
"What they don't know, however, is that our own trump cards have yet to be revealed!
"On what grounds can the orthodox classes contend with us, the free classes? They are all trash!
"And without his trump cards, on what grounds can Yuanshi Tianzun contend with us? He's trash as well! Everyone, the Lost City is our chance to butcher the orthodox walkers! I can already smell the sweet fragrance of blood. What about you?"
"Slaughter them all!"
Below him, the fervor of the evil classes reached a fever pitch.
Right then, a ray of morning twilight filtered in from the eastern sky. The darkness receded like an ebbing tide, leaving the heavens in a dim, bluish haze.
Dawn had arrived.
[Ding! The path to the Lost City has opened. Please proceed there immediately.]
At this moment, every spirit walker across the trial opened their maps in unison.
A red route appeared across the vast virgin forest, winding toward the basin at its heart.
That was the Lost City.
Following the red-marked route on the map for half an hour, the Mountain God faction finally pushed through the dense virgin forest. They saw blue skies, and ahead, a city of ruins.
It felt as if they had stepped into another world.
Even though this world, too, was heavily blanketed in vegetation.
Before them lay an elevated highway with fractured road sections. Load-bearing pillars stood isolated and tall, overgrown with moss, bearing the unmistakable marks of time and desolation.
Zhang Yuanqing and the others gazed into the distance. Looking past the elevated highway, they saw crumbling skyscrapers exposing rusted steel skeletons. Some had collapsed, while others were riddled with holes eroded by the passage of time. Some were wrapped in dense clusters of verdant vines, the hardened concrete having become nutrients for roots to expand and thrive.
The straight roads were cracked all over and carpeted in moss, which in turn provided the soil for weeds to take root.
Vehicles were parked in disarray along the streets, coated in blackish-gray rust, thick weeds sprouting beside their deflated tires...
Nature had reclaimed everything.
"How breathtaking. So this is what a city looks like when humanity disappears," Sun Miaomiao remarked with a sigh.
[Ding! Congratulations on completing Side Quest 2. Reward: 20 points.]
Side Quest 2 had been to traverse the vast Forbidden Forest and locate the Lost City.
[Ding! Side Quest 4: The Unfinished Sacrificial Ritual.]
[Quest Description: Long, long ago, a powerful evil cultivator infiltrated a human city. Controlling the living beings within, he used the blood and souls of the innocent as sacrifices, offering them to a terrifying entity in the unseen realm in an attempt to gain greater power.]
[The terrifying entity answered his call and descended into reality. However, the meddlesome Mountain God thwarted it all. Condensing flesh and blood into high mountains, turning hair into forests, and shaping divine will into valiant mountain monkeys, the Mountain God sealed that terrifying presence within a pool of blood.]
[As endless years slipped by, the seal grew loose. Driven by lingering obsession, the evil cultivator's corpse transformed into a bloodthirsty monster and stole four Hearts of the Forest.]
[Quest Objective: The blood pool lies at the center of the city, enveloped by four formations. Defeat the evil cultivator, reclaim the "Heart of the Forest" gems, and reinforce the seal.]
*Just as I expected, this stage doesn't require solving puzzles. The objective is stated loud and clear. If the Mountain God faction's goal is to reclaim the Hearts of the Forest, then the Mountain Ghost faction's goal is to stop us?*
*Will the two factions clash over the four Hearts of the Forest?*
Zhang Yuanqing analyzed in silence.
The rest of the group also maintained silence, turning over and digesting the quest details.
Crossing-River Pawn, clad in camouflage combat trousers, spoke up:
"The situation is disadvantageous to us. If the Mountain Ghost faction has the evil cultivator on their side, things don't look good."
World Returns to Fire countered:
"That's not the evil cultivator himself, but a monster born from his corpse and lingering obsession. It shouldn't be at peak power—Level 4 early-stage at most. At best, the Mountain Ghost faction merely balances the playing field against us."
The group made their way deeper into the city ruins along the fractured highway.
As they walked and talked, they encountered deer, wild dogs, and monkeys darting through the rubble. Seeing strangers draw near, the beasts scattered, watching them warily from a distance.
Right then, Peony Fairy twitched her nose and said,
"I smell blood..."
The moment she spoke, the advancing group caught sight of what lay ahead. In the tall grass, a pack of wild dogs was gnawing on a corpse.
The body had died not long ago; the blood had not yet dried.
Zhang Yuanqing's pupils shrank slightly.
He recognized the deceased: Spirit Realm ID "Justice Lies in the Blade," the fourth-ranked Witch Doctor among the unaffiliated players, ranking even above Peeping at Bao Through a Tube.
How did he end up dead here?
Had infighting broken out within the Mountain Ghost faction?
Jiang Jingwei flicked several fireballs, driving away the wild dogs feeding on the corpse.
The crowd stepped forward. Crossing-River Pawn crouched down and examined the remains before speaking:
"His neck was snapped, and his heart was ripped out. No other wounds on him. It was an extremely clean kill—he didn't even have time to transform into Gu. Whoever did this is terrifyingly powerful."
Zhang Yuanqing's expression grew solemn.
"We've all misunderstood. Side Quest 4 isn't what we thought."
Chapter 266