Warning Perch

The north wind howled.

After Goliya plunged the Skeleton Greatsword into the ice, the cold wind in the Burial Grounds grew even more biting, and chilling energy surged and gathered around Goliya.

According to Qiao Rui, she could sense that the souls wandering in the Burial Grounds were becoming restless, and the energy of their souls was being guided by Goliya and injected into the frozen lake in waves.

At first, it wasn't obvious, but as time went on, a chill condensed around Goliya, and even dark clouds appeared in the sky.

Dark clouds gradually condensed into a vortex, and at the center of the vortex was none other than Goliya's Skeleton Greatsword! Icy soul energy flowed continuously into the greatsword, and two ghostly blue soul flames lit up in the eye sockets of the skull on the hilt.

Bai Xiaowen finally understood why the Dragon's Tomb quest generated by the Spirit Realm Rules was given an A+ rating. He had originally thought that he could sneak into the village, steal a dragon's corpse, and slip away before the Dragonkin discovered him.

Who knew that Goliya's awakening process would be so grand, capable of invoking celestial phenomena! Now, only the blind and deaf Dragonkin guarding the tomb would be able to ignore it.

Soon, a group of Lizardfolk arrived.

These Lizardfolk look like upright lizards, with lizard-like heads and even forked tongues. Their bodies are slender like lizards, but their limbs are thick and powerful, with human-like hands, though their nails are unusually sharp.

"You lowly ants, do not disturb the slumbering Dragon Clan!"

The leader, a blue-scaled Lizardfolk, shouted angrily in a short, rhythmic tone.

"It's a misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding! We came to offer incense." Bai Xiaowen said something rather unconvincing, testing the intelligence of these Dragonkin monsters. He also casually threw out an Insight.

[Steel Eye (Elite Tier Level 7)]

[Race: Human Species / Lizardfolk]

[Class: Winter Warrior]

[Attributes: Strength 30, Agility 44, Constitution 32, Spirit 14]

[Skill 1: Rotfang Claws: Racial Passive Ability. The Lizardfolk's Claw attacks and Bite infect the target enemy with a corrosive toxin, Life Value. This effect can stack.]

[Skill 2: Extreme Survival: Passive. When food is scarce, Lizardfolk hibernate, greatly reducing calorie consumption. Lizardfolk are immune to instant-kill Vital Strike points.]

[Skill 3: Whirling Dance: The Lizardfolk enters Berserk state, unleashing multiple Whirling Dance attacks in a cone-shaped area in front of him for melee combat. He cannot move during this process.]

[Skill 4: Dragon Bloodline LV1: Increases Life Value by an additional 100 points.]

"Balanced attributes, average strength, no particularly outstanding skills," Bai Xiaowen waved his hand and said in the Team Channel, "The Lizardfolk's racial passive, Rotfang Claws, is countered by the Butcher. You guys conserve some stamina and Divine Might; I'll handle them."

"Then I'll slack off," Qiao Rui said.

"Go Xiao Wen..." Li Shuyi pumped her fist.

At this moment, the Blue-Scaled Lizardfolk Steel Eye also realized that he had been tricked by Bai Xiaowen.

"Tear it apart!" After shouting this word from his mouth full of fine, sharp teeth, Steel Eye lunged at Bai Xiaowen first.

"Fatty, let these lowly creatures see what a poison attack is." Bai Xiaowen raised his hand, and with a loud bang, the Butcher landed in the middle of the Lizardfolk's group, crushing two of them on the spot, and a purplish-black mist spread out.

It took more than ten hours to travel from North County Monastery to the Burial Grounds. With the 12-hour cooldown for Return of the Dead, the Butcher and the dead Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier could be summoned again, and Bai Xiaowen's strength had fully recovered.

The grave-guarding Lizardfolk of the Burial Grounds do not use weapons such as swords or knives, but only have naturally sharp Claw. Normally, the poison attached to their claws and teeth can cause cumulative damage, which is very troublesome. However, the Butcher with the Venomfang Priest Set is their natural nemesis, as he can reduce most of the poison damage.

However, the poison damage caused by the Butcher's purplish-black mist was something these Lizardfolk could not withstand; their movement speed was slowed down, and their Life Value plummeted.

Moreover, the Butcher's Rotting Toxin are most effective at reducing the enemy's offensive and defensive capabilities. The Lizardfolk were horrified to discover that their prized, highly defensive scales had become much more fragile, and a single, gentle cut could leave a sizable wound.

The Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier advanced in unison, their iron blades flashing with cold light, cutting down the Lizardfolk and sending them sprawling.

After Steel Fang died, he dropped a Silver Treasure Chest. The remaining Lizardfolk tried to escape, but were blocked by the Skeleton Champion that Bai Xiaowen Targeted Airdrop. A Whirlwind Slash Charge them back.

The battle ended with the last Lizardfolk falling.

Li Shuyi: "Xiao Wen, you're so awesome!"

Qiao Rui, standing next to Li Shuyi, laughed and said, "This is what thighs feel like! It's really comfortable."

Bai Xiaowen shook his head helplessly. "Stop joking. The Dragon Clan bloodline in these Lizardfolk should be very diluted. Their attributes are not bad, but their skills are too poor. Their strength is weaker than creatures of the same level and template. You can tell by the fact that their race is humanoid creatures rather than dragons... They are at most an appetizer."

This group of Lizardfolk actually only has two or three Elite Tier; the rest are mostly ordinary monsters. Not to mention Bai Xiaowen or Li Shuyi, even Qiao Rui, who is a support character, could handle them, although it would take a lot of effort.

Bai Xiaowen opened the Silver Treasure Chest of the Lizardfolk leader Steel Eye. This guy was really penniless, with only twelve Silver Tier cards. Bai Xiaowen's only chance to draw a card resulted in a B-Tier item.

[Shriveled Liver: B-Tier item. Use poisons weapons for 30 minutes, inflicting a corrosive effect on weapon attacks. This effect is stackable. The poison disappears after use.]

"It's a one-time use poison-coating item, a bit low grade, but the effect shouldn't be too bad." Bai Xiaowen handed the item to Li Shuyi. This kind of item, which can be stacked multiple times, is sure to be a good choice for Li Shuyi, who has an extremely fast attack speed.

"By the way, I have a large-area control item here that should come in handy," Qiao Rui said, handing an item to Bai Xiaowen.

Bai Xiaowen took a look.

[Entangling Vines: S-Tier Item. Creates an area covered in vines with a radius equal to the user's level * 10 (in meters). It Imprisonment all enemies within the area for 10 seconds and inflicts entanglement damage.]

"This item is quite good, it provides long-lasting crowd control and damage," Bai Xiaowen praised. "How did Sister Qiao get such an item? S-Tier items are usually only dropped by Boss Tier, and it must be very difficult for support classes to kill Boss Tier."

Qiao Rui said, "Every time I ventured into the Spirit Realm before, I always had two people with me, so it was a semi-fixed team."

Bai Xiaowen suddenly realized that Qiao Rui had tremendous potential, Qiao Family would definitely invest in nurturing her. Why would they let her, as an assistant, venture into the Spirit Realm? It was perfectly normal to select Awakened experts to temporarily team up with Qiao Rui to explore the Spirit Realm, and most of those selected were Elite Tier from the military, playing the role of caregivers.

As for the Psionic Points forming a temporary team, it shouldn't be a big deal for the Qiao Family family.

Bai Xiaowen really wanted to ask Qiao Rui if she knew about the Star Alliance, but he held back. If Qiao Rui didn't know, he would be subject to a Level 1 punishment under the Spirit Realm Rules. No matter what the punishment was, Bai Xiaowen didn't want to bear it; wouldn't that be courting death for no reason?

"So this prop... should be usable in the league, right?" Li Shuyi still vividly remembered the CUAA finals two months ago. "Luckily, Sister Qiao didn't use this prop."

Qiao Rui shook her head and smiled without saying a word.

Bai Xiaowen didn't take the prop, waving her hand and saying, "We probably won't need this for this mission. Sister Qiao, you can keep it."

Qiao Rui asked curiously, "This is an A+ level Elite Tier side quest... The highest difficulty mission I've ever done is A-Tier Elite Tier side quest, and my completion rate was quite low."

In fact, Qiao Rui had been quite surprised after Goliya was resurrected and issued the Lord Tier quest "The Rise of the Death Lord," as it was the first time she had ever encountered a Lord Tier quest.

However, Qiao Rui has a rather intellectual and reserved personality. Even if she is in turmoil inside, she will only smile on the surface and will not reveal too much of her emotional fluctuations.

Before Bai Xiaowen could speak, Li Shuyi waved her hand and said, "Relax, relax, Sister Qiao, there's no need to be so nervous. It's just an A+ level Elite Tier side quest."

Qiao Rui glanced at Bai Xiaowen, noticing his relaxed expression, and raised an eyebrow. She suddenly recalled their first meeting at the Grand Mausoleum; it seemed Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi had just completed two Elite Tier quests of S-Tier or higher, one of which was Scavenger mission...

"Well, it seems I underestimated how powerful he is. Looks like I've joined a pretty amazing team."

Qiao Rui smiled happily, "Then, Captain... Xiao Wen, is there anything I can do for you? Just let me know."

Bai Xiaowen thought for a moment, "Let's focus on the investigation first... I remember you have a kind of investigation method, Sister Qiao, how long can it last?"

Qiao Rui showed Bai Xiaowen one of her pieces of equipment: a bright green shoulder guard. The guard was decorated with intertwined vines and floral patterns, exuding a fresh and clean feel, as if it had just been picked from the forest.

This is a piece of Gold Equipment called "Sentinel Perch," which adds 3 points to Constitution and a skill called "Falcon Spirit."

[Falcon Spirit: Summons a spirit falcon that shares your vision and can fly long distances. The spirit falcon has a fixed Life Value of 50 points, no attack power, and is permanently invisible (priority 3). The summoned spirit falcon can fly continuously for 60 minutes, after which it will return to its Sentinel Perch to rest for 8 hours. If the falcon does not return normally, it will take 3 calendar days to summon it again.]

Bai Xiaowen nodded in understanding. "It lasts for 1 hour, with a normal cooldown of 8 hours. If it doesn't return normally... for example, if it gets killed, or if it doesn't return within 60 minutes, it will take 72 hours to revive. Have you tested this falcon's flight limits?"

Qiao Rui nodded. "The altitude limit is about 120 meters. Flying any higher will cause you to continuously lose health. As for the flight distance, there is no limit. No matter how far you fly, you will share the same field of vision as me... but you need to allow time for the flight to return."

If the falcon flies at full speed in one direction for 40 minutes, it won't have enough time to return to Qiao Rui's shoulder armor— the Sentinel Perch —and it will take three days to regain its summoning ability. Generally speaking, this situation should be avoided as much as possible.

"This piece of equipment has high strategic value and is very useful in the game. It can help the team grasp the opponent's movements," Bai Xiaowen said with a smile. "We suffered because of it before."

Qiao Rui pouted slightly. "Yeah, you eliminated him in the second round."

Bai Xiaowen gave an awkward but polite smile.

"Should we summon the falcon now?" Li Shuyi asked.

"No, Goliya wants us to hold out for 120 minutes. I estimate that this mission has a progressive difficulty mechanism, with the monsters appearing more densely as time goes on. We can relax a bit in the first hour, and then go all out in the second hour. It's not too late to summon the Falcon to take control of the battlefield," Bai Xiaowen said.

Before long, another group of Dragonkin monsters was attracted to the area.

A group of massive, Earthwalker Dragon!

However, like the Lizardfolk, the Earthwalker Dragon have very little Dragon Bloodline in them and cannot even be considered dragons. They can only be classified as Beast Species or Terrestrial Beasts.

The leading Earthwalker Dragon was much larger than the other Earthwalker Dragon, and its thick skin even had black scale-like patterns on it, making it a true Leader Tier monster.

Bai Xiaowen Insight its information and found it was called "Black-Scaled Earthwalker Dragon Chieftain," which was actually a high-level BOSS with a constitution type, boasting a constitution of 75 points! In addition, it had a passive skill called "Toughness," which increased its Life Value by an additional 25% and granted it 25% damage reduction!

Including the Life Value from the general skills of Advanced Boss, this monster leader's total Life Value has exceeded 1200 points.

Li Shuyi and Qiao Rui both stood up. This time, Bai Xiaowen could no longer be left to deal with the battle alone, in order to avoid losses to the summoned creatures.

"Spread out, dodge the Trample and the Savage Charge," Bai Xiaowen shared the information about the Black-Scaled Earthwalker Dragon Chieftain with the entire team, then said, "Leave this guy to the end, I'll have Butcher hold it off... we'll deal with its minions first."

Under Bai Xiaowen's mental control, the Elite Tier undead creatures that Goliya had given him quietly dispersed while in stealth mode, crept up behind the group of Earthwalker Dragon, and launched the first attack on them.

Monsters attacked by these Elite Tier undead creatures will have a lower drop rate for their treasure chests and lower loot value after death, so Bai Xiaowen would never let them touch a single hair on the Boss Tier monster. However, it doesn't matter if they are used to attack Elite Tier Earthwalker Dragon, since the drop rate of Elite Chest is low and their value is also very low. Bai Xiaowen's main purpose in killing Elite Tier is to obtain Soul Essence.

Qiao Rui began to play Soul Melody, and she felt completely safe hiding behind the summoned creature.

The Butcher held off the Black-Scaled Earthwalker Dragon Chieftain, while Li Shuyi leaped into the Elite Tier horde of Earthwalker Dragon, joining Bai Xiaowen in the slaughter.

Let's talk about emoticons—or emojis. Old Ya think this method is quite interesting. After all, we're writing lighthearted literature, so there's no need to be rigid, right? As for the claim of padding the word count, that's not true. Emoticons actually replace the facial expressions of characters when they say their lines, and they're more intuitive and fun. Old Ya 'll try to bring more fun to everyone as a way of thanking you for your support.