Chapter 44: End of the First Day in the Instance
Qian Gongyu knew about the Ironblood Graveyard; it was a secret realm controlled by the Jie Family and one of the most valuable secret realms in the entire Great Liang.
Although Ironblood Graveyard was only a second-stage secret realm, it could produce third-stage tokens—and not just any tokens, but third-stage defensive tokens.
It was precisely due to this natural advantage that the Jie Family had stood strong in Jiangnan for a thousand years, remaining a top-tier noble family regardless of dynastic changes.
But… the Blade Warrior outside was the demon king of Ironblood Graveyard?
Did that mean—
“The statues we can build here, could they all be demon kings from other secret realms?” Shang Xinlei speculated. “I was just thinking earlier, if each wave of demons becomes stronger than the last, then constructs like wooden crossbows and catapults will soon be overwhelmed. Among demons, there are many fast-moving humanoid ones that can even sever arrows, and even beast-type demons often have tough hides and strong resistance—Savage Bull Demons are prime examples.”
“But if we can have other demon kings fight for us, that’s a whole different story—take the Dual-Blade General, a demon king with extremely high damage but lacking defense. If we create opportunities for him to strike, even as a second-stage demon king, he could easily cut down a Savage Bull Demon!”
Shang Xinlei’s eyes were fixed on Jiang Ten, hoping she would agree with the speculation.
“The Blade Warrior has already lost thirty percent of its durability.”
Jiang Ten suddenly spoke, then after a moment, realizing the others might not understand, she explained, “When durability hits zero, the Blade Warrior turns back into a statue.”
“We have to go out and help!” Jie Yuanshao couldn’t wait and pushed open the door. “The wooden crossbows definitely can’t kill the Savage Bull Demon; we’ll have to rely on the Dual-Blade… the Blade Warrior to deal with it!”
“After fighting so many demons, this is the first time we’re fighting alongside one,” Shang Xinlei said with a laugh.
Qian Gongyu wasn’t nearly as excited. She pulled a few spirit jades from her pocket to absorb their energy, grimacing as she walked outside.
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“Finally done.”
Yan Qing put down his game console, rotated his wrists, stood up, and stretched his limbs, feeling like his butt had gone numb.
The first wave in Mansu Woodland only took fifteen minutes to complete, but the second wave’s assault lasted an entire hour—only in an MMORPG could combat last this long. In a mobile game, players would’ve been wiped out immediately, and the game dev’s mom would be cursed to oblivion.
But Yan Qing had expected this: the monster waves were calibrated for a standard four-player team, but aside from “Jiang Ten,” the other three couldn’t really be considered players. They even had to manually haul resources back to the hut, unlike “Jiang Ten,” who could send them straight to storage.
That meant even after two rounds of resource gathering, the shelter still had nowhere near enough resources, and its defense strength couldn’t possibly withstand the monster assault. On top of that, they foolishly chose to build the Guardian Tree and Guardian Stone, effectively increasing the difficulty themselves.
Yan Qing only realized midway that buildings like the Guardian Tree and Guardian Stone—which were aimed at long-term resource production—were actually a trap set by the developers. Anyone who built them was a fool. More precisely, buildings that reproduced resources were essentially “trading current combat power for future gain,” and the player had to make up the missing strength.
“Jiang Ten’s” team already lacked sufficient resources, and instead of converting them to power immediately, they invested in resource production. No wonder the fight was so difficult. If Yan Qing guessed correctly, a team needed at least one player at fourth stage or higher to build such structures early on. This team’s average strength wasn’t even at second stage, and it even included “Jiang Ten,” who hadn’t undergone any class transition.
Outside the courtyard, the walls had already collapsed, five wooden crossbows had been destroyed, and even the Guardian Tree had been toppled—it was the first to fall, apparently. Judging from the demons’ attack logic, it was “obstruction” > “resource production” > “attack structures” > “players.” If they had the chance, demons would always destroy players’ carefully built investments first, reminding them that resource production was a privilege, not a right.
The three—Jie Yuanshao and the others—had long abandoned their noble poise and ladylike manners, now lying exhausted on the grass soaked with the blood and flesh of Savage Bull Demons.
The Blade Warrior, with only 5% durability left, reverted into a statue. Compared to before, the statue was noticeably more damaged.
A new message popped up in the game. Yan Qing glanced at it, copied it into the chat bar, and had the AI automatically have “Jiang Ten” relay it:
“There are two pieces of bad news.”
Shang Xinlei sat on the ground with her legs spread wide apart, completely unconcerned about modesty, panting and laughing. “Start with the less bad one.”
“The less bad news is that the statue can only recover ten percent durability every two quarter-hours. There are three quarter-hours left until the next wave, which means the statue will only be at twenty percent durability when the wave begins.”
“What’s the worse bad news?”
“The worse bad news is, if we leave now, then when we return tomorrow, we’ll only get three quarter-hours to gather resources before the monster assault starts.”
That statement sounded strange at first—leave earlier and get more prep time tomorrow should be good news, right? But these were all smart people. Jie Yuanshao quickly picked up on the implication behind the two updates: “If we manage to survive to the third or even fourth wave, we’ll earn way more points? But if we leave, we’ll have to start from the first wave again tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
Everyone exchanged glances, and Jie Yuanshao said, “I haven’t gone all out yet, what about you?”
“I haven’t either.” Shang Xinlei stood up and patted her butt. “But Little Yu probably can’t hold on anymore, right?”
Qian Gongyu was startled and stammered, “I-I can actually still barely…”
“Let’s exit.”
‘Jiang Ten’ said, “You don’t even have the energy to gather resources anymore. The third wave will definitely be tougher than the second. Without strong enough buildings, you won’t survive it.”
With that, ‘Jiang Ten’ headed straight into the dense fog behind the stone house. Qian Gongyu, seeing this, let out a breath of relief and quickly got up to follow.
At that moment, Jie Yuanshao suddenly remembered something, ran after them, and shouted, “Jiang Ten, Qian Gongyu, wait! I have something to tell you!”
“Say it outside. Every moment we stay here longer means one moment less for gathering resources tomorrow.”
The four of them stepped into the mist. Unlike when they entered, the fog didn’t separate them this time. After walking through the fog for a while, they saw a light at the end.
The moment they stepped out of the fog, the glaring sunlight turned the game console screen completely white, as if they had been hit by a flashbang. The dazzling midday sun poured down on the clearing at the entrance, and the chirping of birds echoed through the woods.
“They’re out!”
“They came out!”
With their appearance, the scattered crowd in the clearing immediately grew excited. Many noble youths even ran out from tents and carriages as if a second’s delay would mean missing out. Before long, a large crowd had gathered around.
They all looked at Qian Gongyu’s group of four with eyes full of curiosity, envy, and even jealousy—like starving chickens, wishing they could peck them to death.
But none of them dared step forward, because a man stood at the center of the clearing, and no one dared to get ahead of him.
Not just because he wore the purple ribbon on his wrist, but because he was… the strongest in this woodland.
“Third Uncle?”
Jie Yuanshao walked ahead of the others and asked in surprise, “Why are you here?”
“Just happened to be passing by, so I came to check on you. Planned to go back with you,” the man said with a smile.
But Jie Yuanshao gave him no face at all: “Third Uncle, did you get yourself in trouble and now don’t dare go back alone?”
“Well—not exactly trouble. But I’m a filial son and don’t want to make your grandmother angry, so I figured if I bring my obedient niece along to see her, she won’t be mad anymore.”
“Thanks to my filial piety, I didn’t miss out on such an interesting event.”
He stepped forward and gave Shang Xinlei, Qian Gongyu, and ‘Jiang Ten’ a once-over, finally settling his gaze on ‘Jiang Ten’, and smiled, “Pleasure to meet you. I’m Jie Yuanshao’s third uncle, spear instructor at Jiangbei Military Town—Jie Zilong.”
A third-stage messenger?
Although Yan Qing had expected it, being surrounded by so many people right after exiting, and even being stared at by someone over level thirty, still made him a bit nervous.
But as long as ‘Jiang Ten’ cleared the instance, even if chaos broke loose, Yan Qing wouldn’t mind—at worst, he’d just lose a side account.
Just then, a trembling figure stepped in front of ‘Jiang Ten’.
“S-she’s my bodyguard. If you have any issues, p-please talk to me,” Qian Gongyu said in the most cowardly tone, uttering the boldest words.
She turned her head toward ‘Jiang Ten’, lowered her voice, and her hometown accent came out: “Don’t be scared… the Jie Family probably won’t… won’t snatch common girls… right?”