Chapter Ninety-One: The Giant Python Coiled on the Ground

The attack was terrifyingly powerful, and the speed was no less impressive. The instant Zhao Nan turned, the second blow was already upon him.

He dropped suddenly, throwing out a punch of his own.

The two fists collided with brutal force, and a piercing pain shot through him.

A harsh rush of wind followed, born from the force of their bodies, proof that the power behind those blows far exceeded that of ordinary people.

The youth before him seemed forged of iron, his style ferocious and relentless. Zhao Nan swept out with a kick, only for the other to take it with his waist and charge straight in without so much as a frown, crashing into Zhao Nan head-on.

It was a fighting style that wounded the enemy at the cost of the self.

Caught off guard, Zhao Nan was knocked flat to the ground, the earth trembling beneath them. Within the safety zone, and with skills forbidden, the fight had ended as a savage grappling match.

“Stop!”

Fiona gave a cold snort.

Suddenly, the young man named Xiong You felt something cool touch his neck. A silver gleam flashed, stabbing into his eyes as a sword hovered motionless beside his cheek.

“Young Brother You! They’re not bad people!” the girl cried out then.

...

...

“I’m sorry! I was too rash!”

Looking at Xiong You, head bowed, his brow full of remorse and panic, Zhao Nan quickly cast aside the irritation of the ambush.

“Thank you for saving Ya Nan! If not for you... I...” Xiong You’s lips trembled slightly. Looking at the girl sitting quietly nearby, he slammed a fist into the ground. “It’s all my fault for being useless. I’m sorry!”

Zhao Nan exchanged a glance with Fiona. Fiona smiled faintly and said to Xiong You, “Don’t blame yourself too much. Under these circumstances, you couldn’t have handled everything perfectly.”

Before the disaster, the two of them had been lovers. Both were fortunate enough to log into the game successfully. Sadly, their parents were already gone. Since then, they had relied on one another to this day.

After the fall of Listen Wind City, life grew ever harsher for them. Later, Ya Nan was accidentally poisoned, and with no antidote on hand, Xiong You had no choice but to raise his monster hunting each day, farming healing potions to keep her alive.

“Poisoning usually lasts for half a day or more. If I hadn’t run short of healing potions, I would never have left here,” Xiong You gritted his teeth. “I never thought that just leaving for a little while would let those bastards...!”

Ya Nan shook her head, taking Xiong You’s hand. In a soft voice she said, “It’s over now, so don’t think about it. Rather than dwelling on that, why not think about how to thank them properly?”

Xiong You immediately looked troubled. “But... I haven’t even dropped any food...”

He looked at the two of them uneasily. Ya Nan was unimaginably important to him, and this lifesaving favor was something he truly did not know how to repay.

Zhao Nan waved a hand, signaling for him to calm down. This man had not yet lost his humanity; even in his girlfriend’s hour of peril, he had stayed by her side through thick and thin. That alone was rare enough.

After a brief silence, Zhao Nan said, “Tell me where the Soul Crystal of Listen Wind City is.”

“The Soul Crystal?”

Xiong You’s mouth fell slightly open. By all rights, any player from Listen Wind City should know exactly where the Soul Crystal stood. Having survived from the disaster until now, his powers of observation and reasoning were no longer what they once had been, and so he cautiously asked, “You two... aren’t from Listen Wind City?”

His expression turned complicated beyond measure—surprise, hope, worry, longing, and more all tangled together.

Zhao Nan sighed. “We accidentally wandered into the fog and were lucky enough to make it out... and ended up here. But we lost the way back. So don’t place too much hope in us.”

“Ah!”

Disappointment sank Xiong You’s head. He said with great regret, “I thought... I thought you had a way to leave here... Could it be that we really can only keep living like this?”

“It’s not necessarily hopeless,” Zhao Nan said suddenly.

...

...

“Really?”

Zhao Nan nodded. “My city survived the monster assault, so I know a bit more than most. Besides, I’m also looking for a way out, so there’s no reason for me to lie to you.”

“Then good!” Xiong You straightened at once and said earnestly, “Please let me lead you there. I don’t want to keep living in this kind of environment either. So let me do my part!”

“And me too.”

Ya Nan gripped Xiong You’s hand tightly, looking at Zhao Nan and Fiona with a determined expression.

“My name is Zhao Nan, and this is Fiona,” Zhao Nan said with a slight smile.

...

...

With two players who had originally been from Listen Wind City leading the way, reaching the location of the Soul Crystal was much easier.

Along the road, Xiong You and Ya Nan proceeded with great caution. After seeing Zhao Nan and Fiona sweep away wave after wave of level twenty monsters with effortless ease, their shock only deepened, though their tense nerves did ease somewhat.

“Zhao Nan, you’re amazing!”

“I’m just a little lucky,” Zhao Nan replied casually.

“Mm, Brother Zhao, Sister Fiona, we’re almost there!”

Before the three of them, the air rippled, and Ya Nan appeared. As a thief, she had volunteered to scout ahead.

Delight flashed across Zhao Nan’s face, and the group quickened their pace. After a short while, the enormous Soul Crystal came into view. Unlike the crystal in Dongyuan City, which constantly radiated splendor, the Soul Crystal of Listen Wind City had now turned a dull gray-black.

This was also the site of Listen Wind City’s original teleport point. However, its former site had not been a football field, but a plaza. In the wide open square, massive figures wandered to and fro. They were monsters of varying shapes and sizes, all bearing blue names.

Zhao Nan frowned. Looking from afar, these mutated elite monsters ranged from level twenty-one to level twenty-five. There were quite a few of them, at least two hundred.

And at the center of all those wandering mutated elites, directly beneath the Soul Crystal, coiled a giant black python.

Level 25 Mutated Soul-Eating Python King!

It lay there in silence, eyes closed, while no mutated elite monster came within several dozen meters of it.

After watching for a while, Zhao Nan let out a slow breath.

Every one of these wandering mutated elite monsters was far stronger than elite monsters of the same level. And until the Mutated Soul-Eating Python King was slain, they would keep respawning.

Under these conditions, quietly killing the Mutated Soul-Eating Python King was clearly impossible. Not to mention that there were only Fiona and him left now; even if the eight members of the End of the World attack team were all here together, it would probably still be a drop in the ocean.

This was plainly the sort of task that required a large number of well-equipped players.

“Orisis!”

The sky dragon emerged from pet space. After circling once overhead, it descended before them.

“A dragon-type pet!!!” Xiong You was stunned. The pet system might have been open already, but in Listen Wind City, players with pets were still rare, and most of those pets were nothing special—at best, only as strong as ordinary monsters of the same level.

Let alone a dragon!

“Nan, what are you planning to do?” Fiona asked curiously.

“Since we’re here, we might as well gather more information.”

As he spoke, Zhao Nan patted Orisis on the head. Man and dragon shot forward together, cutting diagonally toward the center of the plaza.

Ahead of him, two six-pointed magical arrays suddenly glittered in the air, and fireballs fell like rain, exploding thunderously across the ground below the square. He did not focus on any one monster in particular, only using the barrage to roughly gauge the strength of these mutated elite monsters.

These mutated elites were nothing like the trial monsters he had encountered in Os Castle. In Os Castle, all the enemies had been of the same type, so there was much less to calculate. But here, not only were the mutated elite monsters stronger than even that legendary trial, there were at least fifty different kinds of them.

“There are no flying monsters...”

Zhao Nan circled around the edges of the plaza once, then urged Orisis toward the center. On the ground, some of the mutated elite monsters with ranged attack abilities began to grow restless, and multicolored bursts of light shot into the sky, forcing Orisis’s flight path into increasingly complex and perilous twists.

The three watching from afar were drenched in cold sweat. Fiona bit her lip so hard it nearly bled, wishing the little ice phoenix could fly as well, so it might lend a hand!

Flame Dragon Strike, twice!

Suddenly, two giant dragon heads of fire spiraled through the air, dragging long tails behind them as they fused into a colossal spinning pillar of flame, crashing fiercely toward the Mutated Soul-Eating Python King, which had somehow already raised half its body!

Boom!

After the deafening impact, smoke billowed everywhere. In its midst, a black shadow shot out like lightning. The Mutated Soul-Eating Python King had straightened into a taut line, every scale on its body flaring open, and its enormous maw was already gaping before Orisis!

Roar!

The sky dragon showed no fear and roared back. Zhao Nan swung out the Sighing Staff, and twenty vines on the ground shot forth like thunder, instantly binding the giant serpent in a deadly tangle.

But at that very moment, from within the monster’s massive maw, a jade-green sphere of light suddenly spat forth.

Ice Crystal Wall, twice!

Two thick walls of ice were shattered into glittering fragments by the icy-green sphere in an instant. Seizing that opening, man and dragon barely avoided the sphere’s impact. It continued straight ahead, shooting beyond the plaza and crashing into a stretch of open ground in the distance.

Sizzle.

There, the jade-green sphere abruptly expanded and vanished, leaving behind a giant crater some ten meters across and with a depth that was hard to judge.

Zhao Nan frowned and urgently drove Orisis away from the plaza.

A little battered, he returned to the others and leapt down from the dragon’s back, his expression dark.

“Too hard.”

Zhao Nan sighed.