"Five Levitation Islands, each with a miniboss!?"
Inside the secret realm, Yi Tian couldn't help looking bemused at the second stage's trial.
If gathering monsters in the first stage had been Ye Xiu's comfort zone...
Then the second stage was practically the entire team's comfort zone!
After all, before Ye Xiu arrived, none of Yi Tian's employees had possessed any special abilities...
They were simply good at fighting!
Ye Xiu looked surprised at the sight, and even felt somewhat relieved.
"Nothing else to say..."
"One each. Let's go!"
The team stood at the edge of the Levitation Island, facing five teleportation circles, each leading to a small Levitation Island.
At his words, Bai Qiu Li, Wan Jiang, and Jiang Che stepped forward and teleported to separate small islands to take on the challenge.
"Boss, I can kill the remaining two one after the other. Don't worry."
Ye Xiu turned to Yi Tian as he spoke, then stepped into a teleportation circle and left.
Not wanting to slow the team down, Yi Tian simply entered the last teleportation circle himself.
Ye Xiu transformed the Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella in his hand into a long saber and flash-stepped in front of the boss.
I need to finish this in one hit, fast.
The miniboss he faced was called the Sky Island Fungus Lord, level 40.
The Sky Island Fungus Lord resembled a small mountain made of fungal threads and flesh. Its massive body was covered in thick fungal gills, and it specialized in defense and stacking poison.
Against an ordinary team, it could use its high defense to slowly stack poison damage, making it quite a headache.
But with Ye Xiu's mythic weapon enhancing his attacks, that defense wasn't nearly enough.
In an instant, several enormous, razor-sharp slashes burst from his blade. The air seemed to tremble in their wake, rippling outward.
"Soul-Rending Sky-Splitting Slash!"
Compared to the other skills he had learned to make up for his lack of AOE, this slash dealt the highest damage, in addition to offering some crowd control.
Given the Sky Island Fungus Lord's health bar, however, there would be no chance to see that crowd control in action.
The slashes landed, and the miniboss collapsed heavily with a howl.
"One down."
Without pausing, Ye Xiu headed straight for the last island to finish the final miniboss.
Three flash steps carried him back to the teleportation circle.
But when Ye Xiu arrived on the last small Levitation Island...
He found Yi Tian already sitting beside the miniboss's corpse, quietly waiting for the others to finish.
"Boss...!"
Ye Xiu looked at Yi Tian in startled surprise.
This was the first time he had realized that his boss wasn't defenseless!
And he seemed pretty strong, too!
Ding!
The minibosses on all five Levitation Islands had been defeated.
Five hovering runic slabs shone with golden light, forming a connecting path like a stone bridge and guiding the team toward the final stage!
"Let's go," Yi Tian said, getting up and gesturing to them.
Ye Xiu stopped dwelling on it and followed Yi Tian. "Let's go!"
Compared to the other teams, Yi Tian's team was ahead by an enormous margin.
Even the Yagu Dynasty and the Earthshaker Team trailing behind had only just reached the second stage.
Their lead was truly frightening.
Yi Tian and his four teammates arrived on the final, gigantic Levitation Island.
Storms encircled it, lightning wove a net through the clouds, and the thick fog seemed to form a gateway welcoming their arrival.
Meanwhile, beyond this fog-shrouded stage...
A figure in a black robe darted back and forth.
She looked somewhat out of place among the secret realm's other monsters.
"Rock-Shattering Guardians." The Black-Robed Man set her sights on two ordinary secret realm monsters nearby.
Two purple throwing knives flew from beneath her robe, silently killing both guardians in an instant. They turned into experience points, which she absorbed.
Had anyone else been there, they would surely have been astonished.
No dungeon monster had ever been able to gain experience by killing monsters.
I'm not far from evolving into an [Elite Monster].
The Black-Robed Man thought to herself, Secret realms below tier 2 pose no threat to me, as long as I don't run into that freak from last time.
Just then, however, five people suddenly emerged from the fog barrier beside her.
They reached the third stage this quickly? Shocked, the Black-Robed Man instinctively turned to look.
The next moment, her gaze met that of the person leading the five, and terror filled her face.
Across from her, Yi Tian was delighted the instant he saw the Black-Robed Man!
[Ding! A talent with 'Special Potential' has been detected nearby!]
"It's you!"
It's him!
Ever since leaving the Unsealed Secret Realm last time, Yi Tian had asked Wei Yuan to order a search, but there had been no news of the Black-Robed Man.
He never expected to meet her again in a secret realm!
The Black-Robed Man met Yi Tian's eyes and barely hesitated: run!
Damn it! Why did I have to run into this walking disaster again?
She was certain she couldn't withstand even a single attack from Yi Tian.
As a dungeon monster, what else could she do but run when she encountered a class holder she couldn't beat?
"Don't run! I'm not trying to kill you!" Yi Tian took off like the wind, immediately chasing after her.
The four teammates were left staring at each other.
"Uh..."
Ye Xiu briefly marveled at Yi Tian's speed, then hurriedly said:
"Forget about the boss. Let's pull the boss monster!"
"Claiming the secret realm comes first!"
After all, Ye Xiu's original plan for taking down the boss hadn't included Yi Tian anyway.
They quickly reached the center of the third stage's gigantic Levitation Island and encountered the final boss-the Firmament Sovereign.
It was a three-meter-tall elemental creature, its body seemingly woven from starlight and storms, resembling a seahorse with six wings on its back.
"Wan Jiang, engage it first and keep it occupied. I'll break through its defenses!"
"Metal Storm!"
As Ye Xiu spoke rapidly, the Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella in his hands transformed into an enormous firearm with an elegant mechanical design!
Over two meters long and made entirely of dark gray alloy, it spat tongues of purple flame as the skill activated, firing hundreds of bullets per second.
At that moment, on the other side of the gigantic Levitation Island...
Finding that she couldn't shake Yi Tian no matter how desperately she tried, the Black-Robed Man felt a deep sense of helplessness and intense resentment toward him.
As for Yi Tian telling her, "I'm not trying to kill you"...
Who would believe that!
She knew perfectly well that whenever those class holders discovered a dungeon monster, especially a special one like her...
Only one thought filled their heads:
Will it drop something good if I kill it!?
When she had been weak, she had been killed like that countless times. The pain of every death remained vivid in her memory.
If I'm killed again, I can still resurrect, but all the experience and levels I've worked so hard to accumulate will be wiped out!
A moment later, determination crossed the Black-Robed Man's face. I can't die again.
"Void Gate!"
She swept her hand sharply, and just as in the Unsealed Dungeon before, a gate appeared in front of her, leading who knew where.
The Black-Robed Man rushed through it and vanished.
Yi Tian stopped, looking helpless.
This was the first time he had personally witnessed such a strange way of leaving a dungeon.
The Void Gate gave him a sense of unknown danger, and he had no intention of following her in and risking his life.
"Traveling freely between dungeons and secret realms... What a broken ability..."
If he obtained that ability, couldn't he enter a secret realm while others were clearing it and snatch it from them?
Yi Tian frowned slightly, sinking into thought.
He still very much wanted to recruit this talent, the only person with Special Potential he had encountered so far.
But unless he found a way to deal with her ability to travel between dungeon spaces at will, he wouldn't even get a chance to talk.
Yi Tian's knowledge was still limited, and he couldn't think of a countermeasure.
Yet, on an impulse, he decided to take out his phone and ask the ever-resourceful Wei Yuan...
"Are there any abilities that can counter spatial teleportation?"
Outside, Wei Yuan was watching the secret realm's clearing progress intently when he suddenly felt his phone vibrate.
When he saw Yi Tian's message, even the composed Wei Yuan fell into a long silence.
Aren't you in a race to clear the secret realm? How the hell do you have time to text!
Wei Yuan let out an inscrutable chuckle and replied:
"Yes."
"Is this another subspace of the secret realm?"
The Black-Robed Man stepped out of the gate and discovered that her surroundings were still part of the medium-sized secret realm-the Sky Isle Realm.
Subspaces were trial spaces assigned to individual challengers within a secret realm, each with identical scenery and stages.
She looked around and realized she was in the second stage.
Not far from her, a Half-Dragon was challenging the miniboss, the Storm Weaver!
The Yagu Dynasty's strategy for the second stage had also been to have each member challenge one miniboss. They hadn't expected the Black-Robed Man to stumble upon one of them.
"Dragonkin?"
Facing a Half-Dragon whom countless people considered powerful, the Black-Robed Man was surprisingly unconcerned.
Good. Nowhere near as strong as that walking disaster!
Ever since facing Yi Tian, the Black-Robed Man felt much more confident about taking on anyone else.
While the Half-Dragon focused entirely on attacking the miniboss...
The Black-Robed Man swiftly sent four purple throwing knives flying from behind her target.
Shhk! Shhk! Shhk! Shhk!
With sharp whistles through the air, all four knives pierced the Half-Dragon's waist with precision.
The searing pain made the Half-Dragon let out a piercing scream of agony.
Seizing the opportunity, the miniboss Storm Weaver followed up with a skill, nearly inflicting severe injuries on the previously advantaged Half-Dragon then and there.
Perfect chance!
At the sight, the Black-Robed Man drew two more knives and lunged forward. Her precise, sharp strikes swiftly finished off the Half-Dragon's remaining health!
Then she didn't spare the miniboss the Half-Dragon had already weakened, either.
Killing two powerful targets granted her a wealth of experience, bringing a qualitative change to her title-
[Elite Monster]!
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