[Ghost Clan Golden-Rank Secret Realm, Land of Abandoned Ghost]
A gloomy area outside Ghost Domain City.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
As Lin Mo teamed up with Dark Gold · Strong-Maned Pig and Divine Descent Seraph · Siya to kill one ghost beast after another with all their strength.
After an entire afternoon of unremitting effort.
Before their eyes, the progress bar of the secret realm quest [Annihilation] had, at an astonishing speed, surged by a full… 8 percentage points.
And just as Lin Mo took a short rest.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Another group of ghost beasts respawned from all directions.
The quest progress dropped from 8% back to 7%…
Looking at his inventory again, his mana potions had long since been completely used up. His entire inventory was empty, with all supplies exhausted, Lin Mo completely gave up struggling.
He honestly retreated back into Ghost Domain City.
"Looks like, aside from having Xiaoxi complete the SSS-rank hidden quest Heart Knot for me from the outside world, and obtaining the Tier 8 set through the quest rewards to clear this secret realm, there's no other way…"
However, before that, Lin Mo did not intend to simply sit around and wait.
Just as he was preparing to continue searching Ghost Domain City, seeing if he could discover some opportunity.
Ding!
Lin Mo suddenly received a private message.
[Ming Yuexin: "The boss above Nether and Frost Dance is in the Inferno City. His ID is Lonely Island."]
Seeing this information, Lin Mo's heart suddenly shook.
His first reaction was to open the Inferno City's rankings and take a look.
Sure enough, in third place on the level rankings, he saw this ID.
[Demon Warrior · Lonely Island] (Lv.78 Third-Job Demon Knight)!
A level-78 Demon Knight had suddenly appeared.
Obviously...
"He just teleported here from another main city!"
"Seeing that I'm trapped in the Land of Abandoned Ghost and can't get out, he only dared to come here now?"
For a moment, Lin Mo almost wanted to laugh.
How did this "boss" manage to be both ruthless and cowardly?
However, there was one piece of information that was extremely precious and important to Lin Mo.
Previously, through Tyrant, Tyrannosaurus, Nether, Frost Dance, the Super God Guild, and various other channels and methods, all of it had been done in order to uncover even the slightest trace concerning the boss.
Because even a single clue could give Ning Fei something to follow.
But the other party had kept everything airtight, without the slightest leak.
And now, an important piece of information had been exposed before Lin Mo—
"You finally exposed your disguise!"
Thus, without another word, Lin Mo immediately sent a message to Ning Fei, who possessed the "SSS-rank talent · The Net of Heaven Has No Gaps":
"Xiaofei, quickly investigate the owner of this ID."
"Lonely Island!"
———
[Nightfall, Lv.77 Soul Beast Mountains]
Under the carpet search carried out by tens of thousands of players from the Genesis and Divine Nation Guilds, fnally, deep inside a cave, they found a pearl faintly emitting blood-red light.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
As Super God Athena's blade fell, together with the thirteen skeleton warriors under Qin Ming's mental control, she killed the Tier 6 BOSS [Lord of Souls] guarding the cave.
Stepping over the corpse of the Lord of Souls, Ji Ningshuang quickly ran into the cave and picked up the blood-red pearl.
[Ding~ You picked up the special item · Soul Refining Orb!]
"It really is the Soul Refining Orb!", Holding the pearl in her hands, Ji Ningshuang was delighted.
She turned around and came to Qin Ming's side.
Ji Ningshuang handed the Soul Refining Orb to Qin Ming, "Quick, use it together with Soul Devourer and see if it can absorb soul power!"
Whoosh!
Ghost King Soul Envoy · Zade seemed to have smelled something and immediately sprang out from Qin Ming's pet space.
"Only the Soul Refining Orb and Soul Devourer are a perfect match!"
"Hehehehehe…"
The Soul Envoy · Zade embedded the Soul Refining Orb into the top of Soul Devourer, into a groove that seemed to have been specifically designed for the Soul Refining Orb, causing the two to merge perfectly.
The next moment...
Whoosh!
A burst of blood-red light suddenly burst from the Soul Refining Orb at the top of Soul Devourer, instantly covering every corner of the entire Level 2 Beast Race main city, the Inferno City.
At the same time, Soul Devourer, which originally only faintly emitted a gloomy aura, suddenly erupted with a frightening blood-red aura!
Under everyone's gaze, above the Soul Beast Mountains, streaks of dark-red soul power floated over from all directions.
They automatically gathered into the King's Scepter held by Soul Envoy · Zade, and into Soul Devourer.
Immediately afterward, Soul Devourer's growth value began to rise automatically at a rate visible to the naked eye.
12.12%!
12.14%!
12.17%!
The only way for Soul Devourer to grow was to absorb the soul power generated when players died.
Before this, Soul Devourer's soul power absorption range was only 50 yards, causing Qin Ming and the others to spend half a day specifically hunting players everywhere, and they had only managed to obtain around 10% growth for Soul Devourer.
After embedding the Soul Refining Orb, the range in which Soul Devourer could absorb soul power expanded to the entire Inferno City.
There was no need to deliberately hunt players anymore.
As long as a player died within the Inferno City, Soul Devourer could automatically absorb their soul power.
And regardless of whether players were normally killing monsters, carrying out quests, clearing dungeon secret realms, or PKing, casualties were unavoidable.
Players were dying at every moment.
Soul Devourer was absorbing soul power at every moment.
Looking at the current rate of increase, Ji Ningshuang could not help but say in delight, "That's so fast!"
"At this rate, Soul Devourer should be able to reach B-rank within an hour!"
Super God Athena shook her head, unsatisfied, "No, it's still too slow!"
"The rate at which players in the Inferno City normally die and generate soul power is too slow!"
"We still need to lend them a hand and speed up their deaths~", A cold intent showed through Super God Athena's proud expression.
She immediately ordered Liu Kai and Chen Feng, "Give the order. Have the people from your respective guilds go kill players freely."
"Anyone who refuses will be kicked out!"
"Anyone whose personal kill count is below ten today will be kicked out!"
Chen Feng readily agreed, "Understood."
Liu Kai still had some humanity left, "Huh? Randomly killing innocent people? Although this is just a game, isn't this kind of thing a little too much…"
The next second, a single look from Super God Athena made Liu Kai change his attitude, "Sure! I'll give the order right away!"
Super God Athena came to Lonely Island's side, leaned down in front of him, and asked for praise and reward, "Godfather, as long as Soul Devourer reaches S-rank, the Ghost King will recover from its weakened state."
"By then, we can use the Ghost King to easily cripple Rulebound in one stroke."
Lonely Island extended his right hand and patted Super God Athena on the head.
"Good job."
At this moment, Qin Ming suddenly asked Lonely Island, "I've already done so much for you."
"Can you tell me now where Xin'er is?"
Beneath the fully enclosed heavy-metal helmet, Lonely Island's sharp eyes looked at Qin Ming.
"Our agreement was that after you completely cripple Rulebound, I would help you find Chu Xinran. You still haven't fulfilled your promise to me."
After a pause, Lonely Island continued, "It's fine."
"I've already found her. She's in my hands right now."
"As long as the plan is completed, you'll be able to see her."
As he spoke, Lonely Island gave a look.
Super God Athena understood immediately and sent Qin Ming a screenshot from Oracle through WeChat.
The instant Qin Ming opened the screenshot, his eyes trembled.
The screenshot showed the back of a girl who was an Elemental Mage.
This screenshot was clearer in image quality than the one Ji Ningshuang had given Qin Ming last time.
It made Qin Ming even more certain: this was indeed Chu Xinran!
Thus, Qin Ming agreed to Lonely Island on the surface, "Okay, I'll fulfill my promise to you as agreed, until Rulebound has been completely crippled."
In secret, Qin Ming saved this game screenshot from Super God Athena.
He began trying to locate the position shown in the screenshot…
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