Chapter 24: Side Quest Begins

Tap, tap... tap, tap...

Heavy footsteps echoed through the basement.

Beneath the dim candlelight, Li Shen once again laid eyes on the magic circle that had haunted his dreams.

His efforts had not been in vain.

Based on what the Domain Lord had told him earlier, he was still the first player to reach this point in the side quest.

"Just what kind of story is about to unfold?"

His heart raced, his hands trembled.

Without waiting for Xia Er to say a word, Li Shen had already cut his finger and let a single drop of blood fall into the very center of the formation.

The pentagram-shaped magic circle radiated a faint crimson glow, bathing everything around it in a wash of blood-red light.

Just like last time, the formation still did not activate.

Xia Er spoke: "Place the five soul fragments at each of the five points of the formation."

Hearing this, Li Shen immediately did as instructed, carefully positioning the souls.

In that instant, the previously dim red light suddenly blazed to life — the intense crimson radiance was nearly blinding.

Sizzle...

The monster souls began to corrode, letting out wave after wave of piercing shrieks.

The formation began to turn.

Streams of cryptic runes flowed through it, slowly rising into the air before transforming into an ancient piece of parchment.

A line of text materialized upon its surface.

[Blood Clan Secret Chronicles · Fragment]

[In the ancient era, Liliya, Progenitor of the Blood Clan, met an untimely end and was buried within the Palace of Blood. Only her closest descendants knew the location of this palace.]

[In their desire to obtain the Progenitor's Inheritance, many Blood Clan elders sought to learn the palace's whereabouts — yet each was turned away.]

[As time passed, the bloodline closest to the Progenitor gradually withered under persecution. In the end, her direct descendants died under mysterious circumstances, and their heirs vanished without a trace.]

[Investigate the truth behind these events within the Blood Clan, and report your findings to Domain Lord Xia Er.]

Li Shen received the parchment with both hands.

He drew a deep breath, suppressing the shock surging within him.

The ancient era...

This side quest could trace its roots back that far?

Honestly, the quest's difficulty far exceeded what Li Shen had anticipated.

What kind of existence was the Blood Clan?

Back during the closed beta, Li Shen and the other players had only barely made contact with a few Blood Clan members after pushing all the way to the central region.

Yet here, right at the very beginning of the storyline, it was already reaching that deep.

He would have to wait until the main quest pushed that far first.

Still, judging by the current progress of the top-tier players, the major main storyline events shouldn't be far off from triggering.

Li Shen had no intention of giving up just because of the difficulty — on the contrary, he was thrilled.

Such extreme difficulty only meant that the final reward for this side quest would be far richer than he had imagined!

"Understood, Lord Xia Er."

Having received the storyline, Li Shen did not linger. He left the castle immediately.

In order to make contact with the Blood Clan once the main quest fully pushed into the central region, he had to prepare in advance.

Keep growing stronger!

* * *

After leaving the Undead Territory, The Priest had been wandering the border regions, observing the state of the surrounding domains.

Just as the reports had described, aside from the Undead Territory, every border domain under the Witch of Pride's control had completely fallen.

Not even corpses remained on the ground — only opened, empty treasure chests and the thick, cloying stench of blood.

"Truly ferocious..."

The Priest couldn't help but murmur.

Since the start of the Qiyuan Era, under the oppression of the seven Witches, humanity had been pushed to its very limits just to survive — let alone launch any counterattack against the monsters' domains.

Yet these adventurers had managed to clear the border regions this quickly.

If they actually made it to the central region, wouldn't that turn everything upside down?

At that thought, The Priest quietly produced the Abyss Eye that the Witch had bestowed upon him.

Even severed from its original host, the organ remained active — its slit pupil swaying left and right, surveying the surroundings.

The Priest furrowed his brow and silently tightened his grip, channeling a surge of powerful magic into it.

Fueled by that power, the Abyss Eye quickly lost its vitality. The pupil within gradually split apart, forming a rift that led straight into the Abyss — and it tore open right in the middle of the devastated domain.

[Abyss Rift]

[Description: A rift opened by the Abyss Eye. Demons dwelling within the first four layers of the Abyss will pass through this rift and emerge into the mortal world.]

The first rift had been set.

Misshapen hands reached out from within it, and grotesque demons — assembled from the parts of multiple creatures — narrowed their eyes as they slowly stepped through the rift, their bodies wreathed in dense black miasma.

The [Abyss] was an extraordinarily peculiar place, inherited from the previous age and kept under a perpetual seal.

Unlike monsters that still retained a trace of humanity, these demons had only two impulses left in their minds: slaughter and destruction — and their power was terrifyingly formidable.

A single Abyss demon of around level [20] possessed strength comparable to a level-30 Domain Lord.

The loosening degree of this Abyss Eye was [four layers], meaning demons of up to level forty could emerge — more than enough to deal with these human adventurers.

Once the setup was complete, The Priest did not linger.

According to the plan, he still needed to place four more rifts along the perimeter of the central region's domains.

Time passed slowly, and before long, the sky had grown completely dark.

Outside the central domain known as the [Murky Forest], The Priest finished placing the final rift.

With this, all five major domains in the central region now had a layer of defensive protection. Any adventurers wishing to push further inward would first have to clear out these Abyss demons.

"Time to head back."

"I also need to report the matter of the Undead Domain Lord to Lady Witch."

Thinking about it, The Priest felt a slight headache coming on.

Releasing the other party from the Soul Contract and bringing them to the central region had actually been the Witch's directive — it was just that, given the other party's stubbornly proud personality, he'd had no choice but to handle it himself.

The Priest had assumed this would be a sure thing, but to his surprise, that fellow had been so unyielding that he found himself at a complete loss for what to do next.

Just as he was about to return to Terminal City, something strange suddenly happened.

The previously calm space began to warp and distort, as though something was straining to break free from the constraints of space itself.

After a burst of dazzling holy light—

Before The Priest, a ruin radiating sacred, pristine brilliance materialized out of thin air, accompanied by a line of descriptive text.

[Ancient Holy Light Ruins]

[Description: In the previous age, the master-rank adventurer [Holy Alice] led her party in an assault on the domain [Spirit of Death]. During the battle, she and the Domain Lord perished together, and these ruins were formed as a result.]

[Note: This ruin prohibits adventurers above level 40 from entering. Each adventurer may only enter twice.]

[Note 2: The ruins will open in three days and remain accessible for seven days.]

[Note 3: These ruins contain five adventurer Inheritances.]