Meanwhile, the enormous flower in front of them twitched.
A small flower quietly bloomed beneath Zai Zai.
"Zai Zai, move!"
Xiao Fan, who had seen this, hurriedly warned him.
Zai Zai reacted quickly, immediately moving out of the way of the small flower beneath him.
-8HP
-7HP
-6HP
Three numbers floated above his head.
Zai Zai let out a strange cry. "Huh? Didn't I dodge it? Why am I still losing HP?"
Xiao Fan was just as puzzled, until he saw the small flower summoned by the Boss wither almost immediately. He had a guess.
"The small flowers summoned by the Boss deal damage when they wither. It's a non-targeted skill."
In other words, someone had to take the damage.
Fortunately, it wasn't much.
Xiao Fan had roughly figured out the Boss. Its resistance and damage weren't particularly high; its main attack seemed to be mental illusions.
But if the Boss summoned flowers too quickly or in too great a number, they'd be in serious danger.
Luckily, after fighting for a while, Xiao Fan realized the Boss wasn't that absurd.
It summoned one flower about every ten seconds, and only one at a time.
With their masks on and their Spirit stats increased, the four players weren't affected by the flower's fragrance nearly as much as before. They could easily hold out until Xiao Fan's skill came off cooldown.
The longer they fought, the more Xiao Fan felt that Gift of the Saint was practically a divine skill.
It provided a shield, healing, Purification, and a speed boost.
It was great in every way—except that it dealt no damage.
And the skill could still be upgraded. Xiao Fan was eager to see what it might become in the future.
Han the Person and the others fought quickly. Since dodging the Boss's skills was useless anyway, they simply stood and attacked. Before long, the Boss's last bit of HP was depleted.
The beautiful petals slowly withered and fell. Yet moments later, a new bud, smooth as jade, quietly sprouted from where the flower had faded.
"Phew!"
Seeing that the Boss was dead, Garfield Without Fat yanked off his mask and let out a long breath.
"Finally dead!"
"That was a piece of cake."
"Our team is invincible!"
Han the Person, Zai Zai, and Swift as Wind also removed their masks, and the four of them slapped hands in celebration.
Xiao Fan smiled faintly. Suddenly, an intense sense of danger surged through him.
"Something's wrong!"
Xiao Fan's expression changed. He looked at Garfield Without Fat and the others in front of him and hurriedly shouted, "Get out of the way!"
Hearing Xiao Fan, the four instinctively followed his orders and scattered in different directions.
The instant they moved, a massive thorn shot through the spot where they had been standing.
When the sharp thorn struck the ground, it sank more than a meter into the soil.
If the four of them hadn't dodged, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
They stared apprehensively at the new bud that had appeared after the Boss died. Only when they saw it wither did they realize their backs were already soaked with sweat.
Good grief! Who could have guessed the Boss would land a deadly final blow after its HP had been depleted?
And Brother Chen had warned them in time.
The four turned around and looked at Xiao Fan with gratitude.
"Brother Chen, thank you! If it weren't for you, one of us would've been pierced by that thorn."
"Brother Chen saved our lives again."
Seeing that no one was hurt, Xiao Fan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Let's go. Stay alert from here on."
"Mm."
The four nodded repeatedly.
The secret realm was terrifying! All kinds of bizarre tricks they'd never seen before kept appearing.
They had to stick close to Brother Chen!
The Xiao Fan Team stopped after passing through a tree hollow at the end of the flower field, its opening haloed in a hazy light.
The secret realm's third Boss occupied the center of their view in a breathtaking display.
It was a colossal tree, large enough to blot out the sky.
Its sturdy branches stretched and crossed like coiling dragons, nearly filling the space above them. Layer upon layer of lush crowns spread in every direction, and dense leaves wove a dark green canopy.
Its gnarled roots ran deep into the earth like dragon veins, making it seem like a terrifying presence asleep beneath the ground, one that must not be disturbed.
Name: Ancient Thousand-Whisker Venerable (BOSS) Level: 5 HP: 1100/1100
It was the strongest Boss the Xiao Fan Team had encountered so far. With 1100 HP, it was well beyond the usual range for a level-five Boss.
"As expected, there's no easy way to get Core Power in Cloud Sea."
The group stared up at the colossal tree in shock. Everything they had seen in the secret realm that day had already exceeded their understanding of the game Cloud Sea.
Standing beneath the towering tree, they felt so insignificant. How were they supposed to fight it?
"Brother Chen." The four players looked to Xiao Fan as one, waiting for his instructions.
The Boss had two skills: Entangle and randomly appearing Saplings.
According to Wind Snow Traveler, Entangle was the Boss's main attack.
However, the Boss only sent one branch at a time to chase a single player.
If someone was caught, the Boss would send another branch after someone else. Saplings appeared at random while it attacked. They remained for five seconds, randomly chased a player, then exploded, dealing area damage and slowing everyone nearby.
After thinking it over, Xiao Fan quickly made a decision.
"I'll draw aggro and take the Boss's Entangle. You attack it directly, and make sure you watch for the Saplings. Dodge if you can. If you can't, whoever's being chased should get away from everyone else. If you're in bad shape, call out and I'll use my skill."
Among the five of them, Xiao Fan was the fastest. His Agility was already at 22, and with his occasional skill-based speed boosts, the branch shouldn't catch him unless something went wrong.
As long as he didn't get caught, the other four only needed to dodge the Saplings.
After preparing, they moved forward, and Xiao Fan raised his fist and struck the Boss's roots.
-2HP
An embarrassingly small number appeared above the Boss.
Xiao Fan: All right, this Boss is not only tough, but has high physical and magical resistance too.
-2HP
-2HP
After hitting it twice more, Xiao Fan saw a branch reach toward him.
"You can start attacking."
Leaving them with those words, Xiao Fan ran around the cave, dodging the branches.
The other four began attacking the Boss.
-6HP
-7HP
-7HP
-12HP
Their damage was pitifully low, so the four could only grit their teeth and keep attacking.
To avoid taking area damage from the Saplings, they stood in four different directions as they attacked.
Before long, Saplings began appearing around the tree.
The first one chased Han the Person. He was too slow, and it caught up with him.
-50HP
The Sapling exploded, taking 50 HP from him and immediately slowing his movements.
"Damn, that's nasty!"
Han the Person couldn't help cursing. The slow didn't just affect his movement speed; it also slowed his attack speed. Even the arm holding his blade felt sluggish.
Luckily, the slow only lasted three seconds.
This Boss clearly had some intelligence. When it couldn't catch Xiao Fan in a straight line, it kept turning and taking shortcuts to get ahead of him.
Fortunately, Xiao Fan reacted quickly and used his skill to dodge whenever things looked bad.
The Boss's HP steadily fell.
520
440
310
200
As its HP kept dropping, Xiao Fan ran and watched the giant tree for any sign of movement, worried it might pull something nasty at the last moment.
Luckily, the Boss didn't pull any more tricks this time.
Once its HP was depleted, all the tree's branches stretched straight out. Before everyone's eyes, they turned into specks of starlight and disappeared.
Congratulations! Your team has cleared the secret realm Misty Forest. Each player is rewarded with 1000 Core Power points.
Would you like to leave the secret realm?
"Confirm."
The next second, the Xiao Fan Team appeared at the entrance to the secret realm in the Southwest Forest.
Judging by the weather, it was now around three or four in the afternoon. They had spent roughly eight or nine hours in the secret realm.
Eight or nine hours had earned them a thousand Core Power points—that was as much as they'd earned in the entire previous week!
The secret realm was dangerous, but it really paid in Core Power!
"Wow, we're rich! We earned 1000 Core Power in a single day!"
Garfield Without Fat stared at the extra 1000 points and leaped three feet into the air with excitement.
The others were just as happy. They grinned foolishly at the Core Power on their panels, looking like lovestruck fools.
A thousand a day—at that rate, they'd have saved up enough in ten days to reach level five and unlock their second skill.
Just thinking about it was exciting.
"Brother Chen, are we coming back to the secret realm tomorrow?" Han the Person asked.
"Yes." Xiao Fan nodded without hesitation.
Only a fool would pass up a chance to make money.
It wasn't too late yet, so the team hunted a few more Fierce Beasts before heading out of the forest.
On the way, they ran into the other two teams fighting a Boss, so they helped take it down too.
10 Core Power points added!
On the way, Xiao Fan checked his character information.
ID: Jiu Chen Level: 4 (0/10000) HP: 460/460 MP: 5364/5364 (+4909) Strength: 10 Intelligence: 14 Spirit: 14 Agility: 22 Constitution: 20 Trait: Saint Skills: Halo of the Saint, Gift of the Saint 4 Equipment: None Core Power: 1111
Great, his mana had broken through the 5000 mark. Only players above level 30 could probably match those stats. His Core Power had also reached 1111, restoring the sense of security he'd lost.
On the way, when the others found out that Xiao Fan and his team had gone into the secret realm that day, they were all stunned.
They had all arrived in Zone 18 on the same day.
The Xiao Fan Team had already reached level two as a group and had even cleared a secret realm they'd never heard of.
The rest of them were only level two, still hunting level-one Red-Eyed Rabbits.
Why was the gap between people so huge?
For a moment, everyone looked at the Xiao Fan Team differently.
If they'd felt any jealousy before, now all that remained was admiration and a hint of reverence.
"Big brothers, can you tell us what's inside the secret realm?"
Mom Is Not Home smiled and carefully walked over to ask. The others looked over curiously too. They wanted to know as well.
Han the Person and the others were just about to boast. As soon as someone asked, they immediately embellished the story.
The secret realm had countless little monsters, spiders that spat silk, flowers that bewitched the mind, and a tree that blotted out the sky.
The other two teams listened, spellbound. So the world of Cloud Sea had such incredible things in it.
Just hearing about those creatures made them tremble with fear, and yet the Xiao Fan Team had cleared the secret realm.
For a moment, everyone looked at the Xiao Fan Team with even greater admiration.
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