Little Drill Wind Grows Stronger Again

Ye Qingxue thought for a moment, her tone slower than usual, as if she were carefully choosing her words: "I've been thinking these past two days that the Snow Queen should have a sister. Not a queen or princess like in Western fantasy, but... more in line with the traditional settings of our Great Xia. For example, two sisters, originally a deity, who descended to the mortal realm for some reason. One controls the wind and snow, the other controls the frost. The two resonate with each other, forming a domain."

Su Mu listened, his heart trembling slightly.

His first thought was indeed a Western fantasy route.

The name "Snow Queen" itself carries a strong Western fantasy flavor, and he subconsciously felt that he should follow the Ice and Snow Empress, Frost Giant, and the like.

But upon closer examination, he felt that the route Ye Qingxue mentioned had even greater potential.

A deity descends to earth, twin sisters, the powers of wind, snow, and frost separate yet merge.

This setting, placed within the framework of the Great Xia's traditional culture, can be traced back to ancient sacrifices, mythical beasts from the Classic of Classic of Mountains and Seas, and deities from the Nine Songs. It has more depth and imagination than Western fantasy.

"That's a great idea," Su Mu said earnestly.

Ye Qingxue glanced at him, seemingly to confirm that he wasn't just giving her a perfunctory answer. Then, her earlobes turned slightly red, and she turned her head away without saying another word.

Su Mu didn't continue. He had originally wanted to tell the other person about his impression of the Western fantasy genre, but then he thought that everyone's understanding of the theme was different, and forcibly instilling it wouldn't be very effective.

Moreover, if Ye Qingxue's path to becoming a deity can truly be established, its potential is far greater than that of the Western fantasy path.

"By the way," Ye Qingxue suddenly asked, "Which school are you planning to apply to?"

Su Mu thought for a moment.

With his current level, getting into the top-tier dungeon academy is definitely not a problem. He could even aim for Tsinghua and Peking Universities. His cousin is also in the capital; if he gets in, he can indeed look after her in the same city.

"I might try for Tsinghua and Peking Universities," Su Mu said after thinking for a moment.

Ye Qingxue nodded slightly. "With your strength, you absolutely can. Although your core card isn't great, the special dungeons combined with your current strength mean you're definitely no worse than any SSS-rank card, and might even be much stronger."

Her tone was calm, but Su Mu could tell that this was one of the few times she gave a genuine evaluation that contained no competitive intent.

In this atmosphere, time slowly passed.

For the next three days, they stayed here grinding.

It wasn't until three days later, on the sixth night after they awakened, that things changed.

The cooldowns have been used up, and the two players have reached levels sixteen and seventeen respectively.

They've gathered a lot of materials these past few days, but Ye Qingxue didn't take a single one, and all the cards that dropped went to Su Mu.

Su Mu calculated that these cards and materials alone could fetch at least three million.

It can be described as extremely profitable.

On the morning of the seventh day.

Su Mu glanced at Ye Qingxue: "Let's digest today's gains. We're out of cooldown attempts now, let's try the Hell Lair one more time."

Ye Qingxue nodded.

After spending the last few days together, the two had gotten to know each other's personalities quite well.

Ye Qingxue appears aloof and doesn't talk much, but deep down she's actually a rather shy girl.

When Su Mu praised her for designing the Ice and Snow World, her ears would turn red; when Su Mu handed her materials, she would turn her head away and pretend not to care.

Su Mu didn't say anything more. He closed his eyes, his consciousness sank into the Dungeon Space, and began to continue expanding Lion Camel Ridge.

These past few days, he has basically devoted all his Soul Power to this, since there are no better cards to embed at the moment, and the expansion of Lion Camel Ridge is the most direct way to improve Little Drill Wind.

The earth shook violently, Lion Camel Ridge extended outward, forming a continuous mountain range and deep valleys. Demonic energy seeped from the cracks in the rocks and flowed silently along the ground.

This time, he used up all 210 points he hadn't used up yesterday.

The area of Lion Camel Ridge, including the area from a few days ago, has expanded to eighty li.

As the last piece of the mountain stabilized, a red light suddenly emanated from Little Drill Wind's body.

The light burst forth from its body, turning the entire Lion Camel Ridge a dark red.

Its body grew an inch taller in the light, and deeper patterns appeared on the surface of its dark blue scales. The dark red runes on the short sword lit up automatically, and the air around the blade distorted.

Su Mu looked at the control panel.

[Name: Little Drill Wind]

[Rank: SSS]

[Level: 17]

[Blood: 638000/638000]

[Attack: 55800/55800]

[Defense: 33600]

[Agility: 49800]

[Combat Index: 541800]

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

[Note: The Lion Camel Ridge has expanded to eighty li in size, greatly increasing its imposing presence of Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood. Little Drill Wind, as Mountain-Patrolling Lesser Yaoguai of Lion Camel Ridge, benefits from the increased terrain, resulting in a 30% increase in all its attributes.]

This represents a 30% increase compared to before.

Including the increases from the first three days, the total increase reached 40%.

Combat index of 541,800.

This is the only significant improvement in the past few days.

Of course, his core card, the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven, has also been upgraded to Grade B in the past few days. With continuous use of Years Like a Blade, the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven's total "age" has reached five hundred years. But it is still just a stone.

It was more than two thousand years before the Stone Monkey was born.

Unfortunately, the Years Like a Blade hasn't accelerated these past few days.

The required proficiency to upgrade from level three to level four is too high; fifty or one hundred uses are not enough to trigger it.

Otherwise, the progress would be faster.

Even so, this speed has already far exceeded his initial estimate.

He had originally calculated that it would take at least half a year, but now it seems that it might only take about half a month.

As for the White Bone Spirit, there's a plan for improvement... When you go back to resupply, buy two more Thousand-Faced Skins to complete her other two forms, the old woman and the old man.

With this three-stage transformation concept complete, her attributes should be able to break through to SSS level.

Even so, Su Mu made an estimate.

With Little Drill Wind's current stats, it's more than capable of conquering the Hell Lair.

Originally, Little Drill Wind was more suitable for fighting bosses, while White Bone Spirit was better suited for area-of-effect attacks. Now, Little Drill Wind has higher stats and is more capable of suppressing bosses head-on.

He finished doing everything and waited a while longer.

Ye Qingxue awoke from her meditation.

Her level increased to level sixteen, and her Soul Power also recovered considerably.

The Soul Power she replenished over the past few days has strengthened the Snow Queen somewhat. Although there has been no fundamental change, her control effect is significantly stronger than before.

The two returned to the hellish light barrier.

A bright red light shone, and a scorching heat swept over us.

Ye Qingxue glanced at Su Mu. She was still a little nervous.

Last time, she reached wave 25 of the Hell difficulty dungeon, and the five bosses almost made her question her existence. Now, without some of her enhanced trump cards, it will be even harder.

However, her level has increased to level sixteen, so the level disadvantage in Hell difficulty is not as significant as before. In addition, her Snow Queen has also been strengthened.

Even so, she still felt somewhat uncertain.

However, she wasn't too worried.

She has a scroll that forces you to quit.

As for Su Mu, he definitely has one too.

This is a basic survival item that any player in open-world dungeons would prepare.

And even if she didn't, she had a way to get Su Mu out safely.

Therefore, there's nothing wrong with giving it a try.

Su Mu walked to the light screen and pressed the button for Hell.

A crimson light engulfed the two of them.