Chapter 123: The Monster Tower! Collapsing in an Instant! The Scepter Key Emerges [Please Subscribe]

“-130492” “-139922” “-180999.”

Surrounded by the city, Yi Shen found it inconvenient to unleash forbidden spells here. However, with his current heightened observational skills, handling these monsters had become second nature.

Yi Shen’s attributes had already swelled tremendously, and with the doubling effect of his Holy Spirit state, they reached astonishing levels. After casting multiple spells to release an Arcane Implosion, the health of the Bloodwing creatures plummeted almost instantly.

By the time Yi Shen raised his hand to cast a second skill, they didn’t even have a chance to resist. Several smaller Bloodwings’ health dropped straight to zero, turning into glowing trophies without a trace of shadow left.

The initially strongest Bloodwing seemed to have used some protective secret technique, now barely clinging to life, with red shadows beginning to appear on its body.

Yi Shen paused, choosing not to kill the red shadow. Instead, he approached and controlled the energy, seizing it.

After contact with the Moonlight Civilization, his interest in this shadow had grown significantly. He had come to understand the Moonlight Civilization to some extent, but the Bloodwing civilization remained largely unknown. From a certain perspective, Yi Shen suspected that the opening of this secret realm was very likely caused by these Bloodwings.

The shadow remained as elusive and aggressive as when Yi Shen first encountered it.

Of course, Yi Shen was no longer the man he once was; now, he could control the shadow with ease.

He directly unleashed the Moonlight energy within himself, invading the red shadow. In his Holy Spirit state, Yi Shen could effortlessly control his body’s energy flow.

The energy rhythm inside the shadow was peculiar. After the Moonlight energy entered, the red shadow’s health bar began to steadily decline, inflicting damage upon it. Just a few flickers of physical and true damage panels appeared before the shadow dissipated entirely.

Yi Shen was slightly taken aback.

“True damage affects them so profoundly?”

He pondered thoughtfully. These shadows appeared formidable, yet their core was extremely fragile.

Though highly resistant to physical and magical attacks, they could hardly withstand true damage, dissipating almost immediately.

He theorized that the Bloodwings were like monsters with three layers of health: first, the fleshly exterior; once defeated, a shadow would emerge; and inside the shadow, a fragile core of energy.

Others often struggled to defeat them at the first layer, and had even less chance at the second.

Yi Shen discovered that his true damage could directly attack this energy core, easily dispatching the Bloodwings. This explained why his Wind Blade could instantly kill the Red Giant before.

He wasn’t sure whether the shadows were inherently weak or if true damage was just overwhelmingly potent.

He had assumed true damage was a common trait in high-level skills, but so far, apart from the innate talents of the Heart of the Archmage, Yi Shen had never encountered any other true damage skills.

He suspected that the nature of true damage was far more complex than he had imagined.

At that moment.

While Yi Shen studied the Bloodwings, Tang Zhenguo and a few others from Han Zhong were equally bewildered. They had only just requested aid less than a minute ago, yet someone had already arrived.

The arrival itself was one thing, but the speed at which the monsters were eliminated was staggering. Almost all of them were at a loss, despite being prominent figures in the Han Zhong safe zone. Now, they stood there like frightened chicks.

It was as if they had called for help, and a master had come by to effortlessly sweep away their foes within seconds.

This master even casually grabbed and crushed a shadow, paying them no mind.

They could even see the hint of disappointment on Yi Shen’s face, as if questioning why these monsters were so weak.

“Is this the Black Mage?”

“Hiss.”

“Is the Black Mage really this terrifying now? He can kill these bat monsters in an instant?”

One member of the group, still habitually calling the flying creatures “bat monsters,” looked astonished.

These bat monsters had caused significant losses to their front lines, hence their pursuit.

Yet they never expected the five of them, struggling to track the monsters, to be swiftly outmatched by Yi Shen, who had just passed by.

“He uses arcane magic.”

One of the mages in the group mused thoughtfully.

He had been watching the Black Mage since the Jingmen safe zone.

He had previously assumed the Black Mage specialized in fire magic or something similar.

But now it seemed the Black Mage was not limited to the terrifying Flame Gate spells but was also proficient in other magical disciplines.

“The silver radiance around him exudes a strong sense of oppression. If this damage is any indication, his attributes must be at least over 100,000, perhaps even higher,” the mage continued.

As a fellow mage, he deeply understood their profession: mages relied on high intelligence and spirit attributes to sustain prolonged output.

In Yi Shen’s case, there was only one explanation: his attributes had reached an astonishing level, capable of delivering devastating blows to monsters.

He had thought himself strong enough, yet after seeing the Black Mage, he inexplicably felt he had been too complacent over the years.

Some time ago, someone had invited him to grind monsters in the secret realm for improvement, but he had declined, feeling no gain at his level and waiting for a better chance to break through.

Now, it seemed his journey was far from over; the Black Mage before him was at least five to ten times stronger!

...

Beside a towering building.

Having dealt with the shadow, Yi Shen had no intention of greeting the Han Zhong team.

Yet, like Tang Zhenguo and the others, Yi Shen quickly noticed something unusual about the surrounding buildings.

The nearby towers were too symmetrical.

Moreover, the architectural styles on either side were not entirely the same, creating a strange sense of both difference and similarity.

“The energy here is peculiar.”

Yi Shen scanned the buildings, spreading his Moonlight energy.

This was a skill he had learned during his battle with the Golden Moonlight Emissary.

The energy could capture information and relay it to his body, a new function of his bloodline.

Inside the buildings, he found strange “eggs.” Further in, something red had emerged—creatures resembling humans, yet different—and in a special pool, Yi Shen discovered human corpses and some unique “blood pills.”

It was hard to imagine they had formed such a system in such a short time; after all, less than four hours had passed since the light curtain appeared. Unless they had been preparing beforehand, the efficiency was unbelievable.

There were probably other monsters inside these buildings. Yi Shen pondered, measuring the area around the towers, then swiftly summoned a mass of ice crystals, encircling the buildings.

Next, several rifts of wind appeared, immediately beginning to siege and destroy the structures.

Yi Shen approached the buildings himself, throwing a flame bomb at any monster he spotted.

He hadn’t used the flame bomb skill for some time, but with his enhanced attributes, the skill had upgraded to Level C, gaining attribute bonuses that allowed it to deal massive damage quickly.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

Explosions rang out, and under the wind rifts’ assistance, several buildings began to topple.

Since there were still explorers who hadn’t escaped the area, Yi Shen was conducting a targeted demolition: encircling the buildings before detonating to avoid collateral damage and prevent chain reactions from collapsing structures.

Additionally, some summoned creatures darted between the buildings, gathering more intelligence.

Within two short minutes, Yi Shen had almost cleared these towers, and his score was rapidly increasing.

Occasionally, some monsters tried to flee, but Yi Shen swiftly dealt with them.

“Roar!”

At the base of one building, Yi Shen sensed a tremendous power connecting the four towers, forming some kind of magical array.

A huge, still-forming monster crawled out, its aura far surpassing the Bloodwings.

“Snap.”

Yi Shen descended from the sky, his light sword materializing in hand, piercing through the beast’s body and dealing massive damage.

As before, these monsters appeared powerful but were actually weak at their core, especially with Yi Shen’s true damage, which inflicted additional harm with every strike.

In less than five seconds, the roaring beast collapsed, earning Yi Shen over 400 points. Not a huge amount, but not insignificant either.

Seeing Yi Shen dispatch the monster, Tang Zhenguo and the others were stunned once more.

The contrast was overwhelming. No matter how strong Yi Shen was, he looked just like any ordinary human in size, while the flesh beasts resembled elite or even lord-level bosses.

In the current secret realm, killing bosses required teamwork, but the Black Mage seemed capable of soloing the realm alone.

Returning to the vicinity of the Jingmen safe zone, Yi Shen greatly improved the surrounding battle situation.

The number of safe points in Jingmen had increased from nine to sixteen. Most civilians had found shelter, and these safe points supported each other.

The earlier waves of crystal and ghost monsters were mostly eliminated. High-level explorers were increasingly approaching the Revelation Pillar. After clearing the Bloodwing building, Yi Shen returned there as well.

[Your current score is 57,821 points, available for high-level material exchange.]

The Revelation Pillar remained largely unchanged but now featured several exchange panels.

—

[Recovery Potion (E): Restores 10% health and mana. Cooldown: 5 seconds. Cost: 20 Staff Points.]
[Recovery Potion (D): Restores 20% health and mana. Cooldown: 5 seconds. Cost: 50 Staff Points.]
[Light and Shadow Shield (C): Level 52 shield weapon. Cost: 5,000 Staff Points.]
[Phantom Cloak (B): Level 55 cloak. Cost: 10,000 Staff Points.]
[Staff Key (Red): Key to unlock the staff's secrets. Cost: 100,000 points.]
[Staff Key (Blue): Key to unlock the staff's secrets. Cost: 100,000 points.]

There were only about twenty scattered items available for exchange. Most were of little use to Yi Shen but could be valuable special materials for lower-level explorers.

For example, some guilds had begun stockpiling these percentage-based recovery potions, which could now be exchanged with points. Outside, these were rare items that could fetch good prices.

Equipment was mostly too high-level for Yi Shen to wear. After the staff enveloped the world, most monsters no longer dropped loot spheres, so his experience growth had stagnated.

One notable aspect was that after acquiring so much energy, Yi Shen’s sensitivity to energy levels had increased another tier. Though unreflected on the panel, he felt these improvements were beyond the system’s records.

Additionally, Yi Shen exchanged and studied some materials, and their decomposition yielded unusually high attribute bonuses, likely because they appeared for the first time.

This even boosted his skill called “Mana Burn” to Level B, enabling him to consume opponents’ mana over a short time—better than nothing.

“My points aren’t enough yet. I’ll need to exchange for at least two keys.”

Yi Shen glanced to the bottom of the list and saw two Staff Keys in different colors, each with only one in stock and costing 100,000 points.

Even with his current points, he couldn’t afford either key. The system panel’s countdown showed 19 hours remaining, so further changes were expected.

According to the current rules, the final goal seemed to be exchanging these two keys to unlock the true staff.

“I need to find the others.”

Yi Shen thought deeply.

He had amassed a high score, but the second and third places already had scores of 30,000 to 40,000.

The second was from the Bloodwing civilization; the third from the Moonlight civilization.

Among the top ten, the first seven spots were taken by members of these two civilizations, with human figures only appearing from eighth place onward. The War Fish was currently eleventh, with just over 10,000 points.

Yi Shen had initially assumed these high scorers from other civilizations would seek him out, so he stayed in the wilderness to avoid damaging the city during fights.

But now, feeling accustomed to the new power within him, Yi Shen decided: if they wouldn’t come to him, he would go to them.

(End of chapter)