Chapter 1 An Order

With a command, everyone sprang into action!

Amidst her fluttering hair, Alicia manipulated the air, darting like an arrow towards the nude statue.

Using it as cover, she continued rushing back towards the staircase. Qing Zhu shot out like a cheetah, his thin sleeves clinging to his body, outlining lithe muscles. His speed, as he ran, was not a bit slower than Alicia’s!

Federal No History leaped, the surging seawater below him transforming into a steed, catching him perfectly. The horse’s hooves flew, instantly surpassing two of his companions.

Arriving behind the nude statue!

The Huntress’s attack range was fifty meters. They only needed to cross that distance to reach the staircase!

With the nude statue’s help providing cover, that distance was but a blink of an eye for the Saints.

The Huntress, mounted on her golden-horned doe, stiffly rotated her neck, as if discerning the number of people. Then, she grabbed four blood-colored arrows from the quiver on her back, nocking and drawing her bow!

"Fuck!" Zhang Yuanqing heard the Beastmaster and Siren curse in his ear.

This was different from what they had imagined. The Huntress’s arrows weren't limited to single shots; she could fire four arrows simultaneously!

"Twang!" The crisp and powerful sound of the bowstring echoed in everyone’s hearts as four streams of bloody light shot forth.

Seeing this, Qing Zhu quickly took down the gold-and-silver-inlaid zither from his back and began plucking at it haphazardly!

Harsh sound waves turned into tangible ripples, spreading from the zither’s body as the core. The four streams of light were slightly weakened. Their light and speed plummeted, but they still accurately struck the nude statue, which had spread its arms to block!

With a "Boom!" the arrows simultaneously struck the statue's head, shoulders, chest, and abdomen. The granite body collapsed with a roar as rubble splashed in all directions.

Alicia quickly erected a wind wall, placing a palm-sized stone tablet on the ground, creating a semi-circular barrier!

This wasn't a cultural relic, but a prop from the Earth Controller profession!

After piercing the statue and being weakened by the zither’s sound, the four arrows lacked the strength to do more than shatter themselves against the stone tablet defense after breaking through the wind wall.

Defended!

A collective sigh of relief and joy rippled through the four.

Da da da.

Seizing the opportunity, Federal No History spurred his steed towards the staircase, raising his shield to protect his head, his body manifesting cyan fish scales.

With double defense, he charged to the staircase in an instant!

Da!!

Just then, the Huntress drew a lacquered golden arrow from the quiver behind her, nocking and shooting. The golden light silently pierced through the shield, through the cyan-black fish scales, and into Federal No History’s head!

The steed beneath him collapsed into churning white foam, and the Siren’s body flew out with inertia, crashing onto the steps. He died silently!

Zhang Yuanqing and the others, who had been vying to rush forward, stopped in unison, their pupils constricted sharply!

The Huntress quickly drew three golden arrows and drew her bow, not giving the challengers a chance to breathe.

Alicia screamed, "Retreat!"

"You guys go first," Zhang Yuanqing calmly ordered, taking out the gilded silver pot and tossing it into the air, while donning the Armor of Lightning and the Mark of the Thunder God to summon lightning to attack the Huntress!

The lightning, draped over the granite statue, caused no damage. The expressions on the three floating sculptures on the pot became vivid as they leaped out of the silver pot one by one!

As soon as they leaped out, the snow-white-skinned servant roared, "How dare you, bold mortals, draw your bows before this god!"

But when he saw the Huntress riding the golden-horned doe, he shuddered in fear and prostrated himself on the ground, trembling, "Goddess, please forgive my disrespect!"

The other two servants directly kowtowed!

This suppression of divinity, too, is based on the Greek mythology system?

Zhang Yuanqing cursed "Damn it" in his heart. He hadn't expected the servants to defeat the Huntress; he summoned them to be shields!

Who would have thought these three spineless servants would directly kowtow, their knees softer than his!

"Twang!" The Huntress released her bowstring. Three streams of golden light chased after their targets!

Zhang Yuanqing methodically used Spirit Travel, detaching his spirit and entering a Yin corpse. The Yin corpse’s empty eyes immediately lit up with brilliance!

Just then, the golden arrows struck him, silently integrating into his body!

The Yin corpse grabbed his original body and flung it towards Alicia, just in time to block the arrows aimed at her!

At the same time, another Yin corpse leaped up to block the attack for Qing Zhu!

Having just done all this, the Huntress’s attack descended again. This time, the target was the Yin corpse possessed by Zhang Yuanqing’s spirit.

The Huntress’s attack frequency was too fast, not giving them a chance to breathe.

Zhang Yuanqing frowned decisively. His Spirit Travel abruptly severed, his spirit leaving the Yin corpse and returning to his own body. His body immediately opened its eyes, and with a leap and a roll, he escaped the Huntress’s attack range. The Yin corpse behind him fell straight down, its fragmented soul utterly dissipated!

The three retreated, pulling away to a distance, each breathing heavily, still shaken!

The Huntress coldly watched the three from afar, bow drawn and arrow nocked. Zhang Yuanqing, standing at a distance, frowned as he looked at the Huntress in the air. She could fire single shots and continuous bursts with a fast attack frequency.

The blood-colored arrows were destructive, while the golden arrows were specifically aimed at the soul!

It was almost impossible to pass the level through defense.

The reason for the retreat was that he realized that even if they used all their means, even if they reached the staircase, they would still have to take at least one arrow.

In addition, Zhang Yuanqing had tried using the Illusionist’s emotional manipulation on the Huntress, only to find that her will was as solid as a lump of iron!

There was no possibility of being manipulated or influenced. She was a statue. The Rogue’s Devour Vitality didn’t work. Lightning attacks were also ineffective. Wind blades might be useful, but not by much. Her willpower was very firm, and illusions and charms were useless.

The only thing he had that could unleash Dominator-stage combat power was the Thunder God Set. He could use Night Wander to hide and then charge up a railgun, catching her off guard!

Zhang Yuanqing’s brain was rapidly thinking!

"I have a way," Qing Zhu said, glancing at the thoughtful Moral High Heavens and then at the frowning Alicia.

Alicia retracted her thoughts and said, "Continue to subdue cultural relics. We need cultural relics that can defend against the golden arrows, cultural relics from the spiritual domain!

"In addition, we need to prepare physical defense, weakening, and control-type cultural relics!"

Having said that, she suddenly paused, her expression becoming unpleasant.

"What’s wrong?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.

"There are no spiritual domain defense relics!" Alicia said in a low voice!

*I knew it*, Zhang Yuanqing muttered inwardly. In all the time since he had become a Lingjing Xingzhe, he had encountered very few spiritual-type defense props!

But those couldn’t be considered "defense," but rather means of strengthening oneself to resist control!

The only thing that could be considered defense was the blue face on the Military Soul Facade, which could provide immunity to three spiritual domain attacks!

But the Military Soul Facade was of lower quality and couldn't possibly be immune to Dominator-stage attacks!

Qing Zhu’s expression sank. "This is only the first level; the death rate shouldn't be this high! We might have overlooked some key information. We could accept this if it was the second level."

Alicia said in a deep voice, "This isn't a Faction Confrontation instance. You can think of this instance as an S-grade; the greatest danger comes from the instance itself, not from the opposing faction’s Lingjing Xingzhe!"

Zhang Yuanqing thought to himself, *Alicia, lend me your Wind Eyes!*

Qing Zhu and Alicia immediately became wary. After hesitating for a few seconds, the latter took out the eyeball connected to the nerves and gently tossed it to Moral High Heavens!

Zhang Yuanqing reached out and took it, placing it into his inventory and completing the recognition process. Immediately, he took it out and activated the Wind Eyes to survey. Air currents lifted the eyeball, condensing it in the high sky. It could survey the entire exhibition hall for a full half hour.

When the eyeball stopped rotating, it was sent back by the air currents. The next second, a vast amount of information flooded into his brain.

All the information about the cultural relics, images, the layout of the exhibition hall, and so on, simultaneously poured into his mind!

For others, suddenly digesting so much information would be very difficult, but for a Night Wanderer, it was commonplace!

There were indeed no good relics for resisting the golden arrows. There were a few good strong-control relics, but the Huntress was at the Dominator level. A Level 1 relic, corresponding to a Saint’s peak, couldn’t possibly affect her.

Winning through sheer quantity, collecting all the Level 1 relics in the exhibition hall...

*Hmm, in that case, I’d be quite confident.*

But Alicia and Qing Zhu’s survival rate wouldn’t be high. This level of difficulty was indeed unreasonable.

Zhang Yuanqing’s brain was like an overheating CPU, working at high speed. Alicia and Qing Zhu waited and pondered countermeasures!

Just then, Zhang Yuanqing, who was summarizing the information about the cultural relics, suddenly thought of the Tang Dynasty Buddhist corpse. Among the Level 1 relics, the Buddhist corpse was the most special. All other cultural relics were inanimate objects, but only she kept causing the coffin to shake. That might be the hint the instance was giving.

But no matter how powerful a Level 1 relic was, compared to an S-grade, the difference wasn’t just a little!

*Try it and see*, he thought, and did it.

Zhang Yuanqing immediately walked towards the direction where the Buddhist corpse was located!

Qing Zhu and Alicia hurriedly followed. The Advanced Enforcer of Heavenly Retribution accelerated to float alongside him, shoulder to shoulder, asking with hidden anticipation,

"What do you want to do?"

"Subdue a cultural relic!" Zhang Yuanqing didn’t explain, because it was just a guess!

Soon, he arrived in front of the display case sealing the Buddhist corpse. On the lotus platform, the blood-red coffin shook with a bang!

Zhang Yuanqing raised his repeating crossbow and pulled the trigger. A shot shattered the glass wall of the seal.

"Bang!" The coffin instantly flew open.

Qing Zhu and Alicia both felt the surrounding temperature drop rapidly. In Zhang Yuanqing and Silver Maid’s eyes, the Yin energy in the coffin was like rolling thick smoke, simply terrifying!

From the churning smoke, a dark-golden palm stretched out from the edge of the coffin. This hand was slender and well-proportioned, a woman’s hand!

Next, a woman covered in dark-golden paint sat up from the coffin. She wasn’t wearing anything, and her body had excellent proportions, her breasts full and firm!

However, her face was dark red; her muscles and skin had been peeled off by someone!

Qing Zhu and Alicia retreated one after another, not out of fear, but because the power displayed by the female corpse made them plan to create distance for battle!

The female corpse moved her neck, the neck bones cracking, and tilted her head to look at the man by the coffin’s edge. When she saw the boiling Yin energy flowing with black, viscous energy, she suddenly froze, as if she had encountered a natural enemy!

Zhang Yuanqing concentrated his mental strength, and a sharp whistle burst from his throat and mouth!

The female corpse’s body immediately stiffened, and the remnants of her soul in her white pupils trembled violently, suffering a severe blow!

Zhang Yuanqing continued to launch "Mental Strike," condensing the power of Taiyin on his fingertips, and drawing a corpse-suppressing talisman in the air. Each rune of the corpse-suppressing talisman was struck into the female corpse’s body, and her aura weakened by one point!

With the assistance of the Mental Strike, in less than three minutes, the female corpse lay down stiffly, losing her vitality!

Zhang Yuanqing heard the Lingjing prompt that he had received thirty points for subduing the cultural relic!

Night Wanderers were the nemesis of Yin objects, and even against a Dominator-level Yin object, Zhang Yuanqing could entangle with it for a while!

Alicia and Qing Zhu were once again surprised by the Moral High Heavens’ strength, both envying him for gaining 30 points and regretting that the female corpse’s combat power, while strong, was still far from being able to compete with the S-grade Huntress!

Qing Zhu stepped forward and squeezed the female corpse’s shoulder, shaking his head. "Although the defense is strong, it’s still not as good as Laos. Your few Yin corpses aren’t weaker than her."

But Zhang Yuanqing showed a confident smile. "Before opening the coffin, I wasn’t confident, but after opening the coffin, I’ve already found a way to pass the level."

Alicia and Qing Zhu "swished" and looked over, overjoyed. "You have a way?"

"It depends on her," Zhang Yuanqing said, pointing to the female corpse’s face. "She’s an incomplete cultural relic. Her face is in the east. In addition, there are two other Buddhist relics in Hall 3, which should also be related to her!"

Alicia recalled briefly and her eyes lit up. "That’s right, I remember, there is a face, belonging to a Level 2 relic!"

Qing Zhu urged, "Then hurry up and go!"

Zhang Yuanqing erased the runes on the female corpse’s body and led her towards the area where the human skin was located. As they walked, Qing Zhu suddenly said, "Yi, the Sleeping Dragon Lord’s score is ranked first, and far exceeds the second place!"

*Sleeping Dragon Lord*, related information immediately surfaced in Zhang Yuanqing’s mind. Having stayed in Heavenly Retribution for two months, he was well-versed in the Saints of the First District on the major wanted lists.

The Sleeping Dragon Lord was the strongest on Heavenly Retribution headquarters’ A-level wanted list, a Nightless profession!

He was the strongest overall. Zhang Yuanqing opened the score list and glanced at it. He had rushed from ninth place to fourth place. The second and third places were familiar faces, Osmund and Reilly Eugene!

Looking further down, Zhang Yuanqing’s expression tightened again. He noticed that Jiang Ju, Huang Taiji, and Xiao Yuan’s scores hadn’t moved in a long time and were ranked at the bottom.

Putting Xiao Yuan aside, with Huang Taiji and Jiang Ju’s strength, subduing cultural relics shouldn’t be a problem. Their scores should be slowly increasing, not stagnating.

This meant that they were in an extremely bad state, unable to collect cultural relics to earn points, but not in immediate danger!

Zhang Yuanqing’s sense of anxiety quietly accumulated in his heart. He quickened his pace and found the face!

A face with delicate eyebrows and eyes!

The female corpse took the initiative to grab the face and stick it to her exposed face, where the red muscles were visible. The face wriggled and tightly adhered, becoming a delicate face. Then, Zhang Yuanqing subdued the remaining two Buddhist relics, a gold-red kasaya and a dark-red precept knife!

When he gathered the three relics, he heard the Lingjing prompt:

[Era: Tang Dynasty]