Three Percent

After.

The two then ran the Nightmare Lair three more times.

Time passed, and nearly three hours went by.

Ye Qingxue's level has increased to level fourteen.

Su Mu's level is still stuck at 60% of level 15.

After level 15, the leveling speed becomes very slow.

While experience is being distributed equally, more importantly, the experience required to go from level 15 to 16 is almost four times that of before.

Su Mu did not comment on this.

Since he didn't have any equipment to reset cooldowns, if he relied on himself, he would have to run back and forth between the Land of Buried Bones and the Goblin Nest in the level 10 area, which would take longer than farming the dungeon.

Teaming up with Ye Qingxue allows for continuous grinding, which is far more efficient than trying to do it alone.

Most importantly, clearing the Nightmare Lair three times in a row not only increased his experience, but also allowed him to use his Years Like a Blade ten more times due to the accumulation of his Momentum Points.

With the addition of the Flowers in the Mirror, Moon in the Water" replication, ten uses become twenty. The second level, "Years Like a Blade," catalyzes two years each time, so twenty uses would amount to forty years.

Including those accumulated before, the total "age" of the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven has reached one hundred years.

We are getting closer and closer to the goal of Sun Wukong's birth.

Furthermore, these three runs yielded a large amount of Bone materials.

Tonight, fix the remaining bones to Lion Camel Ridge, or expand Lion Camel Ridge further, and Little Drill Wind's strength will be enhanced once again.

However, Su Mu was also thinking about something else.

Hell difficulty.

He's level 15 now, which means he can already challenge the Hell Lair.

But that's only if Ye Qingxue reaches level 15. Ye Qingxue is currently level 14, so she should be able to reach that level after a few more tries.

After three runs, both of them were a bit tired.

Although Su Mu didn't need to do anything himself, opening the dungeon, guiding monsters in, and maintaining the stability of the dungeon portal all took a toll on his mental energy.

From last night until now, almost a day and a night, he was indeed quite tired. Ye Qingxue was not much better off; her already pale face was now almost bloodless.

"Let's take a break," Su Mu said.

Ye Qingxue nodded, walked to a bone pillar in the rest area, and sat down cross-legged.

She closed her eyes, her consciousness sinking into the depths of her soul, and began to meditate.

Su Mu glanced at her, then closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into the Dungeon Space.

He first glanced at his Soul Power. With the upgrade and the remaining power from before, he still had nearly a hundred points. He channeled all of this Soul Power towards Lion Camel Ridge.

The earthquake caused the mountain range of Lion Camel Ridge to begin expanding outwards.

The original eight-square-kilometer territory slowly expanded to sixteen kilometers. The mountains became more precipitous, the valleys more secluded, and demonic energy seeped from the cracks in the rocks, flowing silently along the ground.

At the same time, he fixed the large amount of bone material he had accumulated in the Land of Buried Bones to the foot and waist of Lion Camel Ridge. Grayish-white bone powder covered the ground, and broken bones and skulls piled up into bone forests, blending into the original rugged terrain of Lion Camel Ridge.

The panel of the Little Drill Wind flickered again.

[Name: Little Drill Wind]

[Rank: SSS]

[Level: 15]

[Blood: 356000/356000]

[Attack: 30800/30800]

[Defense: 18200]

[Agility: 27600]

[Combat Index: 299600]

[Skills: Intelligence Perception, Mountain-Patrolling Steps, Lion Camel Ridge Glory, Call for Aid]

[Note: The Lion Camel Ridge has expanded to a scale of twenty kilometers, further enhancing its devastating presence of Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood. Little Drill Wind, Mountain-Patrolling Lesser Yaoguai of Lion Camel Ridge, benefits from the increased terrain, resulting in a 3% increase in all its attributes.]

The improvement was minimal, only around three percent.

It seems the upper limit of the Little Drill Wind has been reached.

To achieve another significant improvement, it might be necessary to substantially increase the area of Lion Camel Ridge, or to bring out the three demon kings of Lion Camel Ridge.

Su Mu made a mental calculation.

The three demon kings of Lion Camel Ridge... Green Lion, White Elephant, Golden-Winged Great Peng. In the original story, these three were sworn brothers, occupying the eight-hundred-mile -Lion Camel Ridge, with countless lesser demons under their command, and even Sun Wukong suffered a lot.

If we can get these three out, even the weakest one, the overall concept of Lion Camel Ridge will undergo a qualitative change. At that time, Little Drill Wind, as Mountain-Patrolling Lesser Yaoguai, will be influenced by the aura of the Demon King, and its attributes will increase even further.

But this is clearly a huge undertaking.

First, he needs to find a suitable substrate card.

The Green Lion, the White Elephant, and the Golden-Winged Great Peng are not ordinary monsters; their corresponding creature cards must be at least A-rank or higher, and their attributes must be predominantly beast or bird-like.

There are no monsters of this type in the lair near Rongcheng; he'll have to wait until he goes to a larger city or a higher-level dungeon to have a chance.

Secondly, the area of Lion Camel Ridge also needs to be expanded. Of the eight hundred li of Lion Camel Ridge, it is only twenty square kilometers now, which is not even a fraction of the total area. To truly restore the ominous place of "skulls like mountains and bones like forests", a large amount of Soul Power and time will be needed.

Finally, the conceptual connections between the three demon kings must be established one by one. Sworn brothers, jointly occupying Lion Camel Ridge, and working together with one heart and one mind—each of these relationship chains requires independent anchors and supporting materials.

It's impossible to do it like Little Drill Wind, where you can just name one mountain after another.

Take your time.

Su Mu withdrew his thoughts and consciousness from the instance world.

Now.

The sun had already sunk below the horizon sometime during the day.

Against the grey-black sky, a faint, crimson afterglow still lingered in the west.

Ye Qingxue remained seated beside the bone pillar, meditating with her eyes closed.

The last rays of the setting sun fell upon her. Her light white armor was edged with a dark gold, and her pale profile appeared exceptionally serene in the play of light and shadow.

Her breathing was steady and slow, her brow slightly relaxed, unlike her usual furrowed brow. A strand of her long hair was blown by the wind, clinging to her cheek and swaying gently with her breath.

Su Mu looked at it for two seconds, then looked away.

With a thought, the White Bone Spirit stepped out of the Dungeon Space.

The White Bone Spirit stood beside the bone pillar on the right. The figure of the girl in plain clothes almost blended into the gray and white background in the twilight, and the bone whip was quietly wrapped around her waist.

They secured the passageways on both sides of the rest area.

Su Mu leaned against the rock and closed his eyes.

A short rest.