The Show Begins

“Lina, get ready!”

“I’m ready, Brother Ye!”

“Good, on my mark... fire!”

After a flurry of light rain, the ground was left riddled with craters. Hundreds of soul essences emerged, including three bright Tier Nine essences.

Zhang Ye and Lina quickly ran over, happily collecting them into the lamp.

After several rounds of luring monsters, Lina’s first lamp was already full.

The lamps were filled based on the number of essences. In reality, the essences were all the same size; they only appeared different in size because of the varying intensity of the light they emitted.

A single Soul Essence Lamp could hold 3,000 essences. Every time Zhang Ye went out, he would lure back over a thousand Flame Rock Beasts, and a single wave of light rain would harvest seven or eight hundred of them. It only took four or five trips to fill a lamp.

At a rough estimate, they had already collected four thousand essences. Among them, a conservative estimate put the Tier Nine essences at fifteen. Based on the five-fold increase rate... a single Tier Nine soul essence was worth 15,625 points!

Fifteen of them meant over 234,000 points!

Not to mention the four thousand essences from Tiers Six, Seven, and Eight. A conservative estimate for the total was 3.5 million points!

Wahahaha!

They were taking off!

Looking at the Soul Essence Lamp filled to the brim, Lina’s small face was flushed with excitement.

“With these points, we’re definitely making the top ten!” Lina said excitedly. “In the last session, the tenth place only had a few hundred thousand points!”

Hearing this, Zhang Ye asked, “Then how many points did first place have?”

“First place had about two million, I think,” Lina said.

Two million?

Then that wasn't enough. These points would be split between them, meaning each would have less than two million.

Moreover, the highest rank in the last session was only late-stage Tier Seven, while this session already had mid-stage Tier Nines.

The points would likely need to be four or five times higher!

No, no, they had to keep grinding!

They would fill all six lamps first!

Six lamps meant a capacity of 18,000 essences. By then, the points would conservatively be estimated at fifteen million. That would be over seven million per person, and then they could go and snatch other people’s lamps... Yes, that should be enough!

To be safe, they should snatch a few more and help his brother-in-law grind some too.

Yes, that was the plan!

Zhang Ye then turned his gaze to the surroundings. The ground was already full of craters, and those Flame Rock Beasts... had basically all retreated underground.

Ever since the massive commotion he caused by luring monsters in several waves, the Flame Rock Beasts had sensed a fatal threat. One by one, they began digging holes, going as deep as they could, or jumping into the lava to swim away. This part of the Red Zone was now almost devoid of Flame Rock Beasts on the surface.

Zhang Ye guessed it was because this particular Red Zone was relatively small. The strongest Flame Rock Beast was only at the early stage of Tier Nine, so Zhang Ye decided to move the battlefield.

Rising high into the air to take a look, he saw another Red Zone on the other side. From the looks of it, it was much larger than this one!

“Let’s go, Lina. Time to change spots and farm some more!”

“You got it!” Lina nodded.

Then Zhang Ye lifted Lina up again, fastened the safety rope, held Gujiu tight, and took to the sky. The two of them let out dragon roars once more as they flew toward the distant Red Zone.

After cruising at the speed of sound for about ten minutes, they arrived!

However, it seemed someone was already farming here. There were lingering traces of lightning-attribute mana in the air, and occasionally, purple light would flash in the distance, followed by the sound of rumbling.

Is it Nan?

Zhang Ye’s eyes lit up. He turned around and pulled Lina’s helmet down, then summoned his own Earth Tiger Armor. “Lina, make sure you don’t show your face later, okay?”

“Okay... Brother Ye, what are we going to do?” Lina asked innocently.

“We’re going to say hello to that genius from the Thunderclap family and borrow two lamps while we’re at it.”

“Borrow?” Lina blinked her beautiful large eyes, then realized what he meant. The two of them stared at each other through their helmets.

Zhang Ye: “Ehe?”

Lina: “Ehe!”

Gujiu: “???”

Code confirmed—they were on the same page!

Zhang Ye waved a hand. “Let’s go... Wait, we have to be sneaky. No loud noises.”

“Mhm!”

“Lina, do you know how to use Mana Skin?”

“I do!”

“Good. Cast Mana Skin and suppress your aura and magic fluctuations as much as possible. We’re going to sneak over.”

“Mhm!” Lina couldn't help but giggle. “This is so exciting!”

“It’s going to get even more exciting later!” Zhang Ye chuckled, and the two of them silently moved toward the source of the commotion.

To be even more discreet, Zhang Ye also cast the spell Earth Shuttling. This was something he had researched through Magic Innovation, allowing him to travel rapidly underground like a train. It was a Tier Six spell.

Due to his Perfect Mastery, the mana Zhang Ye used barely leaked out, so the magic fluctuations were extremely small and very well-hidden.

Soon, the two of them approached the area.

It was a rift valley filled with many high-tier Flame Rock Beasts. At a glance, they were all Tier Eight or above!

An agile figure was currently darting through them at high speed. With every flash of lightning, three or four massive Flame Rock Beasts would be sliced into several pieces, dying on the spot!

On one side of the rift’s rock wall, two small holes suddenly opened, and the heads of Zhang Ye and Lina popped out.

There was also a little metal lump on Zhang Ye’s shoulder.

That was Gujiu. To prevent it from being recognized, Zhang Ye had condensed a set of round armor for Gujiu, covering its entire body and even giving it a tiny sharp sword. It was very cute.

Furthermore, just in case, Zhang Ye had converted all of his mana into the light attribute. After all, he had told everyone he was a dual-attribute mage of gold and fire.

The two of them watched as the figure in the rift below moved rapidly, harvesting the Flame Rock Beasts.

“It’s Nan. He’s so strong. He killed a late-stage Tier Eight Flame Rock Beast with a single strike!” Lina sent a telepathic message.

Zhang Ye huffed. “Is he as strong as me?”

Lina giggled. “Brother Ye is the strongest!”

Only then did Zhang Ye nod in satisfaction. “That’s right!”

Despite his words, this Nan was indeed terrifyingly powerful.

Late-stage Tier Eight Flame Rock Beasts were insta-killed the moment they met him. Even early-stage Tier Nine Flame Rock Beasts could only hold out for a brief moment; they couldn't stop him at all!

Moreover, he hadn't cast a single spell from start to finish. He simply coated his blade with lightning-attribute mana and fought using his own physical body. The hundreds of Flame Rock Beasts in the rift were slaughtered in no time, including dozens of early and mid-stage Tier Nine beasts!

This guy’s combat strength was far beyond Tier Nine!

It could almost be said that he was invincible among those of the same rank!

Zhang Ye was secretly alarmed.

So this was a native genius of this world; he certainly couldn't be underestimated.

However, Zhang Ye was still confident he could win!

He had Lina, his little rich girl, with him!

She had so many Treasures; he could directly copy the high-tier spells from them. He could literally crush Nan to death just by spamming spells!

After finishing off the magical beasts in the rift, Nan glanced at his nearly full Soul Essence Lamp, nodded, and sped off in another direction. Seeing this, Zhang Ye immediately took Lina and followed.

Looking at the lamp at Nan’s waist, it was glowing brightly, so it was likely full. Conservatively, he had three thousand soul essences, and their quality was probably much higher than the ones Zhang Ye had obtained, since the Red Zone Zhang Ye was in earlier wasn't as large and the beasts weren't as high-quality.

This kid was a fat sheep. After only a few hours, he had already filled one lamp. His speed wasn't much slower than Zhang Ye and Lina’s.

Thus, Zhang Ye decided to wait until Nan filled his second lamp before making his move!

Time passed minute by minute. Zhang Ye and Lina followed Nan the entire way, watching him farm from a distance until Lina started to feel a bit sleepy.

“Brother Ye, when are we going to act?” Lina couldn't help but ask.

It had already been three hours.

“Soon, soon. His second lamp will be full in just a bit,” Zhang Ye said with a nod.

Nan’s farming efficiency was truly high. He basically hacked his way through everything. He only cast spells or Combat Techniques when he encountered late-stage Tier Nine Flame Rock Beasts. His individual combat strength was off the charts!

Soon, Nan’s second lamp was also full. Nan patted the lamp. Although his face remained expressionless as always, Zhang Ye could sense that he seemed to be in a good mood.

Just as Zhang Ye was about to make his move, the ground suddenly began to tremble.

Everyone looked toward one spot at the same time.

A giant boulder was rolling toward them at high speed!

However, the mana fluctuations emanating from the boulder indicated that it wasn't a real boulder.

It was a peak Tier Nine Rock Beast!

But what truly caught Zhang Ye’s attention wasn't the peak Tier Nine Rock Beast, but the three figures chasing after it.

Zhang Ye’s brows quirked.

Now, the show was really beginning.