Amidst the thunderous tremors, Adelaide continued to lose her True Blood.
At the same time, the restraints on his body gradually loosened.
As Ed took the last drop of " Absolute Punishment " blood, Adelaide, who had been drained like a desert corpse, fell to the ground with a "thud." As for Cuiske, he was put into a spindle-shaped object that resembled a cocoon, and hung beside Ed like a pendant.
" The True Blood is mine! You thief, robber..."
Adelaide was not dead yet, but she was clearly in more pain than if she were.
From the moment the last drop of his True Blood was taken away, he was no longer the noble Grand Duke, but merely an ordinary Blood Corpse whose lineage was difficult to define.
If no one had extended his life, he might not have survived even a day.
However, this was no longer Ed's concern. He was only responsible for sparing Adelaide's life, and Ed had no intention of caring about her fate afterward, nor did he have the ability to do so at this moment.
Seeing this, " Margaret," who had been waiting on the side, leaped forward and grabbed the withered Adelaide between her mantis claws, just like a mantis that had successfully hunted its prey.
Holding the unconscious Grand Duke, the King of Domination left a final command in Margaret's mind before easily withdrawing his consciousness from it.
Behind her, the remaining knights and squires hurriedly put on their equipment and followed Margaret, who had now become one of their own. Dozens of them methodically entered a cave and ran out of Klaf City.
Even with Ed providing support, rubble continued to fall throughout the underground space, and the players dared not leave their combined form, as that would significantly reduce their defensive capabilities.
Amidst the falling rocks and the dust and water splashes, the Immortal King, with his unremarkable face, thoughtfully looked at the plant dragon, noticing the knight's sword stuck in its head.
Noya seemed to sense the familiar presence as well, arching her body as if to pounce forward towards the Immortal King. Without her wings, she resembled a cat in distress even more than before.
The Immortal King didn't look at her again, but instead exchanged a glance with Seraphina, who was far away in Valhalla, through the spatial rift.
"Snort."
He scoffed dismissively, then turned and vanished in a flash of light.
With the Immortal King's disappearance, the entire Rotting Corpse Dark Lake returned to darkness and silence, with only the trembling ground and falling rocks telling players that the server was still running normally.
The players breathed a long sigh of relief as they watched the three health bars that stretched across the screen gradually reach zero at the bottom of their field of vision.
What an intense battle! What a chaotic three-way conflict!
The players, as if waking from a dream, felt as if they had just finished watching an immersive movie, yet also as if they had just ended a large-scale murder mystery game. They were still immersed in that grand, epic feeling, constantly reminiscing about the past hour.
Just then, a new task window appeared in front of everyone --
[ World of Disorder Non-Stop Update Announcement:]
The third phase of the large-scale long-running quest [ The Great Adventurer ] [ Under the Beneath the Corpse Tide ] officially ended on May 20th, 909 of the World of Disorder Calendar. Phase quest rating: SSS
Basic mission rewards will be distributed within two hours. Currency rewards will be directly deposited into the Soul Returner's account, while material rewards can be viewed in the mail and can be exchanged for physical forms at any self-service plant vendor within the Second Holy See's territory.
In addition, due to achieving the highest hidden rating for this mission completion, the hidden reward has now been unlocked.
All players on the server receive a permanent buff [ Corpse Poison Immunity) ]: Blood Corpse of any rank below Middle Tier can no longer infect players.
The strength of this buff will change with the player's level. When the player's level exceeds 30, it will automatically upgrade to [ Corpse Poison Immunity) ], which will greatly improve the effect and has a chance to activate other special abilities.
All currently surviving players will automatically activate this buff after teleporting or respawning. Players who create a character after this event will automatically receive this buff.
Current progress of the long-running quest [ The Great Adventurer ]:
Main storyline - 100% complete
Side quest - 100% completion
Hidden -- Completion 5%
The [Epilogue] phase has begun.
[ The Great Adventurer - Epilogue]:
Mission Briefing: Cities bound by tyranny, dungeons teeming with monsters, Wilderness of Chaos devoid of logic... After experiencing so much, you are qualified to call yourself a powerful adventurer.
The two vampire grand dukes who had occupied Klaf City have now been completely eliminated, but a large number of monsters and Blood Corpse still exist there.
To make Klaf City a complete part of the Second Holy See, a thorough purge is necessary!
Therefore, this is a limited-time event.
The animated text appeared here, then suddenly stopped displaying further down.
Just when the players thought there was some kind of bug in the game, the familiar Pixel Blue Dragon appeared from the edge of their field of vision, seemingly holding a yellowed parchment in its hand.
She stepped into the center of everyone's view, unfurled the scroll in her hand, coughed lightly twice, and began to write and recite simultaneously.
At this moment, the plant dragon's body is circling around the giant tree that Ed has transformed into, and Noya's presence here indicates that she has transformed back from her plant dragon state into the Root Network ghost state.
The reason she was able to get into this state so quickly dates back to two minutes earlier.
When Ed ingested the last drop of Adelaide's True Blood, a door to nothingness seemed to appear within reach in the space of consciousness.
The door was heavy and difficult to move; it required one's full concentration to push it open.
Being completely absorbed in something means that Ed's consciousness will be unable to notice what's happening outside for a period of time.
From an outsider's perspective, it seems that he needs to slumber for a period of time in order to advance to High Tier.
But even if he really falls asleep, the game system still has to keep running.
While running according to Little Green's established logical framework is fine, the game system ultimately needs a network administrator.
Therefore, the network administrator, Little Blue, also known as Noya, had to go online again.
Having just completed the "receiving flesh" ritual, Noya once again transformed into a cyber ghost, using the connection between the plant dragon and the Root Network to directly infiltrate and begin her network administrator duties.
"But what should I do?"
Noya felt no joy at being granted such a great deal of autonomy for the first time; instead, she felt immense pressure.
Tender branches draped over the plant dragon's shoulders, and Ed, about to drift into slumber, spoke to her—