Bloodless Victory, Shattered Stone Statue!

[Temple Guardian Eternal Stone Statue]

Rank: E-Class Elite Monster

Talent: E-Class Stone Skin (Increases HP shield by 10%)

Level: 10

Physical Attack: 300

HP: 10000

Physical Defense: 200

Magical Defense: 200

Evasion: Unable to evade the Kun's attacks

Movement Speed: 0.5M/S

Skills: [Earth Shatter]: Smashes the ground with heavy fists, dealing physical damage within a (5*5) range and reducing the movement speed of enemy targets within the area.

[Unyielding]: When the Stone Statue's HP drops to 20%, it will burrow into the ground and transform into a bedrock form.

Bedrock Form: Physical/Magical Defense +20%, restores 5% HP per second!

Introduction: A powerful monster born to guard the dilapidated temple. Its strong body is like an insurmountable chasm. Anyone who wants to enter the very center of the temple must accept its test!

The stats of the two Stone Statues are exactly the same!

It's about the same as the information collected by the Human Race trial-takers who managed to reach this stage in the past. Each generation, the elite monsters guarding the temple are Level 10 E-Class monsters with high attack, high defense, and high HP!

A full 10,000 HP, and that's not even counting the thick stone armor gifted by its Stone Skin talent!

These stats emphasize simplicity and brutality!

Moreover, these two Stone Statues are nearly five meters tall, and their long arms give them an attack range of up to 3 meters. Any trial-taker who makes it here will be plunged into utter despair when they see these two Stone Statues!

Even if ordinary people could level up to Level 10 before entering the temple, like Xu Kun, the added attribute points from leveling up would only be +10 to each stat!

Assuming a base Strength stat of 10, that would only be 20 Strength, which translates to an attack power of just 40 for a newbie!

Against the Eternal Stone Statues with 200 Physical and Magical Defense each, it's impossible to break through their defenses!

The mandatory -1 damage is a silent mockery that many novice trial-takers receive when facing the Temple Guardians!

Even using skills might not break through their defenses, unless your skill has elemental damage bonuses!

This is why many people only get an additional 1% completion for the Mist Island trial even after entering the temple, resulting in a completion rate of 61%, the lowest F-Class!

E-Class: Shatter the Stone Statues' Stone Skin (10% HP shield) (+1.5% +1.5%), 64% completion!

D-Class: Reduce one Stone Statue's HP to 20%, triggering [Unyielding] (+3%), 67% completion!

C-Class: Reduce both Stone Statues' HP to 20%, triggering [Unyielding] (+3%), 70% completion!

B-Class: Kill one Stone Statue (+5.5%), 71%-75.5% completion!

A-Class: Kill both Stone Statues (+5.5%), 81% completion!

But getting this completion rate isn't that simple!

Extremely high burst damage;

More HP than even E-Class bosses of the same level;

Area-of-effect damage skills;

Extremely long attack range;

A thick HP shield;

Plus the imbalanced skill that allows them to turtle into the ground, increasing both defenses and regenerating HP at 20% HP!

This causes these two Stone Statues before the final boss to stop 80% of the trial-takers who make it this far!

The Human Race has also continuously learned lessons throughout history and gradually analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the Temple Guardians. The advantages are those summarized above.

The conclusion is: If a newbie at this stage thinks about fighting the Stone Statues head-on, it's absolutely a foolish act!

And through big data analysis, these two Stone Statues are strong, but they have fatal flaws!

Extremely low movement speed!

A movement speed of 0.5M/S, an old man in a wheelchair might be faster than it. Also, the Stone Statues' attack speed is very slow. Many trial-takers who have cleared this stage rely on their own positioning to slowly grind down the Stone Statues without taking damage, eventually defeating them!

This is the optimal solution given by past experience—constant dripping wears away the stone!

Of course, even though the Human Race has summarized this set of experiences, many people are still blocked at this stage. The reason is simply that there isn't enough time!

The data panel of these two Stone Statues isn't actually that easy to kill the trial-takers who make it to this point—not counting the idiots who choose to fight head-on like true men!

Their purpose is to buy time. After all, not everyone can enter the temple in just half a day like Xu Kun!

More than 95% of trial-takers need five days or even more to enter the temple!

In the remaining time, how easy is it to grind down two Stone Statues with 10,000 HP each!

Not to mention that many people finally grind the Stone Statues down to low HP, but then fall into despair when faced with the [Unyielding] skill triggering, which restores 5% HP per second!

This rate of healing is definitely higher than the damage output the trial-takers can inflict on the stone statue!

Forced damage is -1, but the statue regenerates 50 health per second!

After 20 seconds, the statue is fully healed again. Even if you manage to deplete its health again, it can still trigger [Unyielding]!

It's just that cheap!

Therefore, for trial-takers who can't break its defense, it's already difficult to reduce one statue to low health to achieve a D-grade rating. At most, they can reduce both statues to low health and get a C-grade rating!

That's the limit!

To kill the statues and get a B-grade or even A-grade rating, you have to reduce both statues to low health, and then, under the 20% dual-defense buff from [Unyielding], deal more than 50 damage per second to each statue!

This requires at least 270 physical/magical attack power to achieve!

While Xu Kun was pondering, the Eternal Stone Statues completed their "awakening ceremony"!

Their stone mouths emitted a dull roar, and then, two pairs of stone eyes fixed their gaze on Xu Kun, the outsider!

Thump, thump, thump!

The two statues moved simultaneously, their wide feet stomping on the ground, causing the dilapidated temple to constantly shed stones. Xu Kun could even see cracks appearing in the ceiling!

Swallowing hard, Xu Kun muttered, "Were you two really born to protect the temple? Are you sure you're not here to destroy it?"

Xu Kun's words seemed to provoke the two statues. They swung their stone fists and slammed them heavily onto the ground!

Boom!

However, Xu Kun's figure was no longer where the stone fists landed!

The imagined scene of being smashed into powder naturally didn't happen. With Xu Kun's current movement speed of 6.5M/S, leading these two statues around was like playing a game!

"Slow, too slow!"

Xu Kun's voice sounded from behind the statues.

"Roar!"

The two statues roared, struggling to turn their bodies, while Xu Kun had already drawn his 4.2-meter-long great fire sword!

"Wildfire, Blood Poison Miles, Poison Swamp!"

He threw out three consecutive group attack skills. The 5*5 range of Wildfire and Blood Poison Miles could perfectly cover the tops of the two statues, while Poison Swamp, as an F-grade group attack skill with a 1*1 range, could only form a poisonous circle at the foot of one statue!

Wildfire could deal 160 (Fire Attack) + 210 (Magic Attack) * 1.2 = 444 fire damage per second, which was true damage for the two statues without fire resistance!

The newly acquired Blood Poison Miles dealt even more terrifying damage. Because Xu Kun's poison attack was now as high as 143, ignoring poison resistance was like decoration for the two statues with 0 poison resistance, but it didn't affect the 424 poison damage per second. With the 50% poison damage bonus from [Poison Source], that was 636!

Before the two statues could turn around, they each lost 1080 health, but the health bars above their heads only trembled slightly, precisely because they still had a layer of 1000 health stone skin on the surface!

In just one second, the stone skin on the two statues fell off like an old master rubbing them in a bathhouse, revealing the more delicate stone flesh inside~

Although Poison Swamp was only an F-grade skill, it could also deal (5% Magic Attack + 100% Poison Attack) poison damage per second. With Xu Kun's 210 magic attack and 143 poison attack, plus a 50% bonus, it could deal 372/S poison damage to one of the statues!

In just 1 second of DPS, Xu Kun dealt 2532 damage, while the two statues barely managed to turn around!

Ding, you have simultaneously destroyed the stone skin of two Temple Guardian Eternal Stone Statues, Mist Island trial completion +3%, current completion 64%, reaching E-grade rating, you can choose to settle or continue the trial!

"Of course, continue!" Xu Kun didn't hesitate at all!

As he spoke, Xu Kun grabbed a handful of Tang... ahem, Blue Silver Parasites and threw them at the two statues, and then smashed an Explosive Fireball at one of the statues!

-1125!

The two statues were furious. Faint light flickered on their stone fists. Xu Kun immediately judged that this was the prelude to [Earth Shatter]!

This was a range-based control + damage skill, which made many trial-takers who tried to entangle and scrape the statues suffer!

Xu Kun didn't take it lightly and immediately left the skill range!

At this time, the two statues suffered -1080 and -1452 group damage respectively. The statue that suffered two group attack skills at the same time ate an Explosive Fireball, and its health bar had dropped by 25%!

The two statues were somewhat intelligent, knowing that they were taking continuous damage from above and below, they moved their big feet, trying to get out of range!

But how could Xu Kun let them have their way? The large handful of Blue Silver Parasites that he had just scattered had already begun to take root and sprout after absorbing the [Earth Shatter] energy of the two statues. After the two statues had suffered three more waves of damage, Xu Kun reached out and clenched his fist!

"Blue Silver Entanglement!"

Thump!

The raised big feet fell, and the two statues were firmly bound in place, beginning to tear at the Blue Silver Grass on their bodies. But the handful of seeds that Xu Kun had just thrown out numbered at least a hundred. Even if the two statues wanted to tear them apart, it would take a lot of time!

Although Xu Kun himself could only control 5 Blue Silver Grasses, it didn't affect the other naturally growing Blue Silver Grasses from launching entanglement attacks on the Eternal Stone Statues on their own!

The 5S attack time of Poison Swamp dissipated first. During this period, with the cooperation of two large group attack skills and an Explosive Fireball, it had already caused 8385 damage to one of the statues. The two group attacks were still continuing, and another second passed. When the other statue was still struggling with the Blue Silver Grass...

The statue that had suffered multiple damages had already collapsed, turning into pieces of rubble and falling to the ground.

Just two group attacks, a total of 6 seconds, had reduced the health of this statue with a 10% health shield to 20%, and the pile of stones turned into a small mountain, entering the [Unyielding] bedrock healing state!

Ding, your output has reduced the health of a Temple Guardian Eternal Stone Statue by 80%, the Eternal Stone Statue has entered the Unyielding state, Mist Island trial completion +3%, current completion 67%, reaching D-grade rating, you can choose to settle or continue the trial!

Ding, your output has reduced the health of a Temple Guardian Eternal Stone Statue by 80%, the Eternal Stone Statue has entered the Unyielding state, Mist Island trial completion +3%, current completion 70%, reaching C-grade rating, you can choose to settle or continue the trial!

Not long after one statue fell, another prompt sounded, but Xu Kun didn't respond.

Looking at the statue that fell first, Xu Kun first threw out an Explosive Fireball, and the health bar above the pile of stones jumped, directly dropping by half!

Then, Xu Kun activated Charge without any hesitation!

[Charge]: Locks onto a target within 20 meters, target cannot evade, movement speed *2, deals (Physical Attack *2) physical damage to the target, stuns for 3 seconds!

Xu Kun's physical attack was currently as high as 364, which, when doubled, reached a terrifying height of 728!

Even against the Eternal Stone Statue in its current Unyielding state, with a mere 200 + 20%, or 240 physical defense, he could still deal 488 points of damage. The statue's health bar was already nearing 5%!

He followed up with a normal attack using Quick Strike, enhanced by the Fire Line and Blue Sand Hand statuses. Xu Kun watched as a number appeared above the small mountain's head!

-999!

The 5% physical bonus from Quick Strike combined with Xu Kun's 100% critical hit chance from maxed-out Luck!

The 5% fire damage from Fire Line, plus 100% critical hit, plus 2.5x critical damage for fire attribute!

The 100% poison attack from Blue Sand Hand, plus 100% critical hit, plus the 50% damage increase from Poison Source!

The combination of these three allowed Xu Kun to deal such terrifying normal attack damage!

999 in one strike!

Rumble!

A stone statue was turned into a pile of rubble by Xu Kun with ease, with no chance of getting up again!

[Ding, you have killed a Temple Guardian Eternal Stone Statue, Mist Island trial completion +5%, current completion 75.5%, achieved B rank evaluation, you can choose to settle or continue the trial!]

"Continue!"

Xu Kun's gaze immediately turned to another stone statue that had turned into a small mountain!

First, a move of Bone-Melting Palm!

Corrosive Tendons: Cast on a single target, reducing its Strength, Spirit, Stamina, Determination, and Agility five basic attributes by 20% for 30 seconds.

Bone Erosion: Deals (Poison Attack + Magic Attack) *1.5 poison damage!

The stone statue's health bar jumped, actually increasing for a moment. It wasn't healing, of course, but rather the original 10,000 health had become 8,000 under the Corrosive Tendons effect, and 2,000 health became 25% of the total health!

That wasn't the important part. The important part was that the little mountain's physical/magic defense had simultaneously become 192!

A 20% reduction on the basis of 240, the debuff effect was actually more considerable than its Unyielding buff effect!

Then the just-increased health bar jumped again, this time decreasing, which was the damage effect of Bone Erosion being triggered!

The base damage of Bone Erosion was 353 * 1.5, which was 530, plus the poison damage +50% from Poison Source, resulting in a final damage effect of…

794!

That wasn't the end of it. Xu Kun flipped his palm, and Locust Stones appeared!

He threw one towards the small mountain!

[Throw]-Throw a Locust Stone, lock onto a target within 20M to deal damage, cooldown time: 10S!

Under the Corrosive Tendons effect of Bone-Melting Palm, the pure physical damage of the Locust Stone also hit fully!

-536! (Critical Hit!)

In the end, Xu Kun didn't even move his feet, and conjured a fireball in his palm, a precursor to the Explosive Fireball!

Boom!

-1125!

The fireball bombarded the pile of stones, as if Sun Wukong's mother had exploded, and the pile of stones turned into rubble scattered all over the ground!

The prompt sounded again!

[Ding, you have killed a Temple Guardian Eternal Stone Statue, Mist Island trial completion +5%, current completion 81%, achieved A rank evaluation, you can choose to settle or continue the trial!]

"Phew~"

Xu Kun blew a breath towards the dusty air in front of him, and a thick smile spread across his lips!

Two great mountains that were insurmountable for normal newbies were easily solved by him in less than ten seconds before and after!

From beginning to end, apart from the two stone statues running towards him at the beginning, he didn't give them any chance to move!

Xu Kun, with his full set of skills, had already reached a terrifying level of over 2,000 damage per second in the newbie trial stage!

At this moment, Xu Kun really wanted to shout loudly and pretentiously: "Who else!"

Xu Kun certainly had such confidence. When other newbie trial participants were troubled by the fact that they couldn't break through the defense of the two stone statues and could only deal a mandatory -1 damage, Xu Kun was already bombarding the two stone statues with a full set of skills, easily resolving the battle with overwhelming force!

This was still with Xu Kun's weapon's special skill, Wrath of the Fire Dragon, still on cooldown, and without using the trump card Unyielding Starfire!

Currently, among all of Xu Kun's skills, the one with the highest total output was still the terrifying large-scale group attack skill Wrath of the Fire Dragon, which dealt 5,000 fire damage per second for 10 seconds!

Even the SSS-grade Unyielding Starfire couldn't match the total damage of Wrath of the Fire Dragon!

However, Wrath of the Fire Dragon had no growth potential. Its damage was fixed there. For targets without fire resistance, the total output reached 50,000, which was its limit!

But Unyielding Starfire was different. As an SSS-grade skill, it would significantly improve with Xu Kun's growth. Currently, the single-target damage was 37,000. Xu Kun believed that as long as he entered the second floor of the Haotian Pagoda, the damage of Unyielding Starfire would be expected to surpass the total damage of Wrath of the Fire Dragon!

Just like those SSS-grade talents, a 1280% bonus, if the attribute was 1, it would be 1280, but what if it was 10,000?

It can only be described in four words: terrifying!

Dust settled, and Xu Kun could finally see what was ahead!

After the fight, he felt even more that the already dilapidated temple was now on the verge of collapse!

The damage caused by the destruction of the scene was terrifying, something Xu Kun's small frame couldn't handle right now, so he tiptoed towards the scattered piles of stones!

Temple Guardians naturally had drops!

As an elite monster, it had its own perks!

Moreover, Xu Kun knew what the Temple Guardian would drop through his metal bracelet!

Or rather, all elite monsters dropped the same thing!

That was... Spirit Stones!

That's right, elite monsters were different from bosses. According to the information he had gathered, elite monsters, apart from the high amount of experience that was useless to Xu Kun at his current max level, only dropped Spirit Stones!

"According to past information, the Temple Guardian will drop one E-grade Spirit Stone each time. I wonder if my maxed-out Luck stat and Blessed Child of Fortune will make a difference?"

Rummaging through a pile of rubble, Xu Kun found what he had been longing for!

"One, two, three, there are three!"

The familiar appearance made Xu Kun excitedly wipe the saliva from the corner of his mouth, reaching out to pick up the three round beads.

[D-grade Spirit Stone] *3

Description: Crystals naturally formed after the Haotian Pagoda's own power dissipated. As mid-to-low-end Spirit Stone materials, D-grade Spirit Stones have strong stability. The power they store is a hundred times that of E-grade Spirit Stones!

Function: The pure power within can be extracted and used as energy for crafting D-grade weapons and equipment, as well as power sources for various D-grade energy weapons, and essential materials for setting up D-grade formations!

"Haha, another 3 D-grade Spirit Stones in hand!"

Xu Kun smiled contentedly, but when he saw signs of shaking on the ceiling above, he quickly covered his mouth.

Repeating the process, he cautiously walked towards another pile of stones.

After a search, just like before, he got another 3 D-grades. Adding the 5 D-grade Spirit Stones given by the Corrosive Poison Termite Emperor, Xu Kun had collected a total of 11!

"If each one is worth a million, that's more than ten million!"

"Slurp, more than ten million, how many delicious things could I buy? Bah, bah, bah, with so much money, how can I think about buying food? I should first consider getting a new house!"

When he thought of the dark and dilapidated tenement building where he and his mother lived, Xu Kun felt a pang in his heart!

The Human Race had only been stable for a hundred years, and that was thanks to the great man "Tianyan"!

Back then, "Tianyan" overcame all opposition and negotiated with the high-level officials of the Myriad Races on behalf of the entire Human Race, ultimately becoming an affiliated race of the "Black Tortoise Race," one of the Seven Royal Races, at the cost of the entire Human Race!

For the first time, the Human Race was included in the Myriad Races sequence as an affiliated race!

It was said that there were many criticisms within the Human Race about "Tianyan's" decision, believing that he was selling out the interests of the entire race!

But the results proved that "Tianyan's" decision was right!

Only by entering the Myriad Races sequence could the Human Race obtain corresponding rights, instead of all the Human Race being scattered everywhere, being hunted, imprisoned, played with, and becoming rations for the Myriad Races...

The Human Race was also able to stand in the sunlight and spend a hundred years rebuilding their homes on the original six continents, dividing war zones, and establishing base cities!

The price to pay was to build a Human Race army to follow the Black Tortoise Race into the Myriad Races battlefield and become a subordinate army under the command of the Black Tortoise Race!

The established base cities naturally couldn't be as numerous as they were a thousand years ago, because the six continents had experienced hundreds of years of turmoil and had become a paradise for some races. It was not easy for the Human Race to gain a foothold!

The Black Tortoise Race naturally wouldn't help the Human Race build their homes. Under the leadership of batches of martyrs, the Human Race forged ahead, starting a new round of land reclamation, eliminating weak races, and building cities!

The Huaxia War Zone where Xu Kun was located had built six major base cities. He and his mother lived in Jiangnan Base City, which was close to the ocean!

Although Jiangnan Base City was large, it had to accommodate more than 200 million people, resulting in extremely tight land. It was impossible for every family to have their own homestead like they did a thousand years ago. It was already not easy for F-grade talents like Xu Kun's mother to get a dilapidated tenement building to live in!

Ten million seemed like a lot, but it wasn't enough to buy a villa. However, in Xu Kun's judgment, it wouldn't be difficult to buy an apartment in a prosperous area!

Thoughts racing, Xu Kun quickly collected his mind. Now was not the time to revel in the future!

Habitually touching the "corpse" of the Temple Guardian, but the familiar feeling of touching materials didn't appear. Xu Kun widened his eyes and watched as the two piles of scattered stones turned into ashes and scattered in the air.

"Damn, no chance to loot the corpse!"

Xu Kun, who had been snubbed, stood up fiercely, cursing that these two elite monsters were too unhelpful, only giving a few Spirit Stones, like they were sending beggars away?

Temple Guardian Eternal Stone Statue: You dare curse?

Stepping forward, behind the position where the two stone statues had just stood, was a dark passage, and their duty was to guard this passage, not giving outsiders a chance to enter!

With the information provided by the metal bracelet, Xu Kun knew that at the end of the passage was the location of the Mist Island's final boss!

With the flames rising from the Flame Spirit Sword, Xu Kun slowly walked inside.

His expression was particularly tense, the unknown always made people feel uneasy!

Along the way, in the level 1-10 monster area, except for the unexpected appearance of the [Mist Island Hunter Corrosive Poison Termite Emperor], all other information had not exceeded Xu Kun's expectations.

Now, the biggest suspense was what kind of guy this final boss would be?

Continuing into the dark passage, in the enclosed space, Xu Kun actually heard bursts of whistling wind!

Whoosh!

A gust of wind swept through, making Xu Kun unsteady on his feet, and even threatening to extinguish the flames on the Flame Spirit Sword!

Tap, tap, tap. Footsteps echoed in the tunnel, and Xu Kun's nerves were already stretched taut.

The Myriad Races Bestiary had already appeared in his palm. The book was completely unaffected by the surrounding environment, still emitting a faint light.

Suddenly, Xu Kun felt a chill all over!

His neck felt cold, and an invisible sword carrying a whistling chill was already resting on it. It was so fast that Xu Kun didn't have time to draw the Flame Spirit Sword to defend himself.

The next moment, the voice he heard made Xu Kun's eyes widen.

"Finally... I've waited... for so many years... she's back..."

Ding, congratulations on passing the test. Mist Island Trial Completion +10%, current completion 91%. You have obtained an S-grade rating. You can choose to settle or continue the trial!

Xu Kun: What???