Chapter 25: The Ancient Ruins Appear

The seventeenth day of the eighth month of the Qiyuan Era.

The moment players logged on, they were greeted by two major announcements.

The first: a large-scale server-wide event was incoming.

After more than a month of effort, players had pushed the border territories of all seven regions to the brink of total collapse, driving the main storyline forward far enough to trigger an event quest.

[Abyss Assault]

During this event, in order to repel the advancing players, the Witches of each region would unleash the power of the Abyss, placing Abyss Rifts throughout the outer edges of the central zones under their jurisdiction.

Demons from the Abyss would launch a merciless counterattack. Only by slaying every last one of these demons could players advance the main storyline further.

After killing demons, players could use the dropped item [Abyss Essence] to exchange for various goods at the Adventurers' Guild.

Then came the second announcement.

Ancient Ruins had appeared in the world.

Ruins that carried the will of ancient adventurers had sensed the presence of the Abyss demons and emerged one by one — one in each region.

Inside them lay extraordinarily rich rewards and various adventurer Inheritances, specifically designed to help players grow stronger and clear out the demons.

Their importance even surpassed the first event by a fair margin — after all, the resources within each ruin were non-renewable and had a transformative effect on one's [Class].

But...

These things were not so easy to obtain.

The Witches would not simply allow adventurers to waltz into the ruins and take whatever they pleased.

So when the ruins surfaced, the Witches would typically employ certain measures — dispatching qualified [Domain Lords] inside to serve as [Tomb Guardians].

That afternoon.

A certain impoverished Domain Lord had just finished a leisurely, satisfying afternoon nap and opened his eyes.

The Priest, robed in black, was standing right before him.

Staring at the familiar figure, Xia Er blinked in surprise and quickly rose from his chair. "The Priest, when did you arrive?"

The Priest waved a hand. "Just now. You woke up at just the right time."

"Previously, you mentioned something about the 'Ancient Ruins' — do you remember?"

Xia Er asked, "Yes — do you have news about them, The Priest?"

The Priest nodded. "Just moments ago, influenced by the Abyss energy, Ancient Ruins have appeared."

"Those human adventurers will certainly flock to them in droves. To prevent them from easily obtaining the Inheritances, I will open the ruins' spatial boundary in advance and send five qualified Domain Lords inside to hold them off."

Xia Er asked, "What are the qualifications?"

"Simple enough — you only need to be below level 40."

The Priest paused, then his expression suddenly turned grave. "To ensure the Inheritances are successfully protected, I normally select Domain Lords affiliated with the large territories in the central region to enter."

"Your individual strength is decent enough, but the overall power of the Undead Territory falls far short of the central region's Domain Lords. There is a very real chance you could die."

Hearing this, Xia Er's expression grew equally serious.

He drew a deep breath. "I need to grow stronger to defend this territory. Even death means nothing to me."

"I trust the others in my domain."

The Priest: !

Good!

The man had not disappointed him.

By convention, The Priest's choice should have been someone else entirely — but the words the Undead Archmage had just spoken were worth bending the rules for.

The Demonic Race needed people like this!

"Since you have that kind of resolve, I will reserve one spot for you in this selection. Three days from now, the ruins will open, and I will come for you."

With that, a portal slowly materialized. The Priest stepped through it and vanished.

Watching him leave, Xia Er couldn't help but draw a long breath.

He hadn't expected news of the Ancient Ruins to arrive so soon.

This time, he intended to throw himself directly into the battle.

In order to properly integrate into the central region, earn recognition, and lay the groundwork for side quests, Xia Er would need to demonstrate enough strength to make an impression — and this was exactly the stage for it.

Above level 40 he wouldn't dare make bold claims, but below level 40, Xia Er was supremely confident in his own abilities.

Relying on players to leisurely deliver souls to him was still far too slow.

He needed something more efficient.

* * *

Inside the dungeon [Ancient Castle].

A sharp flash of sword light cut through the air, and the level-40 boss [Five-Headed Mage] crashed violently to the ground, blood spurting like a geyser.

A female player clad in heavy armor and wielding a longsword strode forward calmly, raised her blade, and severed the head — which looked uncannily like a human hand — from the boss's shoulder.

"Ancient Castle Boss has been slain."

The system notification chimed.

A player with the username [Birch Bark], carrying a greatbow, glanced over. "Shen Xin, how many levels did you gain?"

Shen Xin checked her experience bar and let out a breath of relief. "Six thousand — just barely on the edge of hitting level 40."

"Nice!"

"That means the whole team goes into the ruins at level 39. I refuse to believe we still can't get an Inheritance."

Shen Xin said flatly, "The bosses inside those ruins are nothing. The real opponents are the other Tier 1 players who'll be in there with us."

At present, Tier 1 players across every server were deliberately capping themselves below level 40 — for no other reason than to qualify for entry into the ruins and compete for resources.

For them, the true threat wasn't the monsters. It was their fellow players, each with their own agenda.

Shen Xin continued, "I heard that the third guild on our server, [Nightwatch], has assembled quite a few top players — including one Tier 0 player who's been holding their level back. This isn't going to be as simple as we imagined."

"Damn, it's that competitive?"

"What did you expect?"

Shen Xin said with undisguised irritation, "These are Ancient Ruins Inheritances — one of the most important early-game events. Even during the closed beta, plenty of people broke into the top tier of combat power because of them. Now that the open beta is live and word has spread, of course everyone's going to scramble for them."

Birch Bark furrowed his brow. "So what do we do? We can't exactly win against all these veterans."

As he spoke, something seemed to occur to him, and his expression lit up with sudden inspiration.

"I've got an idea."

"What idea?"

Birch Bark cleared his throat. "A few days ago I read a post where a player had compiled statistics — out of the seven regional servers right now, the Pride region has the weakest average player strength by far."

"Instead of going head-to-head with the powerhouses here, why don't we head over there and compete for the ruins resources in their region?"

"We'd probably get flamed for it, though."

Within the player community, there was an unwritten rule: when rare resource points appeared, players from other regional servers were not supposed to swoop in and plunder them freely — doing so would invite a coordinated retaliation.

But...

Rules were rigid; people were flexible. And the developers had never officially defined any such restriction.

After a moment of thought, Shen Yue gave a nod. "Let's do it."