Chapter 1 The Crack

With a soft *snap*, the black giant egg in Tang Yao's hand cracked, spider-webbing with fissures. Then the shell shattered into fragments, revealing a black hawk before Nie Yan and Tang Yao. It was still small, just able to stand on Tang Yao's arm.

Nie Yan examined the Underworld Thunderhawk. It looked like an ordinary hawk, its feathers pure black and immaculate.

The Underworld Thunderhawk flapped its wings, then preened its feathers with its sharp beak. Its eyes were clear and keen, giving it a lively air.

"I think I'm starting to like this guy," Tang Yao said, stroking the Underworld Thunderhawk's head. The Underworld Thunderhawk closed its eyes, seeming to enjoy the attention, and nuzzled Tang Yao's hand. Tang Yao produced a piece of meat, normally used to feed the Ghost Wolves. The Underworld Thunderhawk stretched its neck and swallowed the meat in one gulp.

"It'll take some time for it to grow," Nie Yan observed. The Underworld Thunderhawk was still small and probably didn't have much combat power. It would have to grow up slowly.

"It can get bigger, become a giant flying mount!" Tang Yao countered.

Nie Yan was surprised. Did flying mounts not have a growth period?

"I'll keep studying its stats page," Tang Yao said. The Underworld Thunderhawk's stats were complex and required in-depth study. "The Underworld Thunderhawk's Agility and Strength are balanced. Agility increases flight speed, and Strength increases attack. Which stat should I focus on?"

"That depends on how you plan to develop it. As a mage, I think you should focus on developing the Underworld Thunderhawk's Agility," Nie Yan suggested. Tang Yao's attack power was already unparalleled. If the Underworld Thunderhawk had a fast movement speed, it would create a perfect mobile artillery platform.

Tang Yao was silent for a moment, then said, "Sounds good to me. I'll take your advice. Focus on Agility, with Strength as a secondary."

"There are some things you'll have to figure out yourself. After all, I've never dealt with flying mounts before," Nie Yan said. His knowledge of flying mounts was limited.

"Flying mounts are ranked from Tier 1 to Tier 9. Each time they advance a tier, their strength increases several times," Tang Yao explained. He had looked up some information about flying mounts and compared it to the Underworld Thunderhawk's stats page.

"What tier is the Underworld Thunderhawk?" Nie Yan asked. He honestly didn't know. When he assassinated Cao Xu, flying mounts had just come out, and very few people owned them. For Nie Yan at that time, flying mounts were an unattainable dream.

"Tier 1. All newly born flying mounts are Tier 1. Their tier will slowly increase later. This Underworld Thunderhawk can get bigger. Let's go out into the wild and see how it works," Tang Yao suggested. He was still unfamiliar with flying mounts and would gradually understand them as he gained more experience.

"I'll go over and take a look later," Nie Yan said. He suddenly remembered that there seemed to be a ranking list for flying mounts. All flying mount pets would be entered into this ranking list, but the flying mount owner's name wouldn't be displayed. This ranking list was for the entire Righteous and Orderly Light Faction. He checked the flying mount ranking list and found Tang Yao's Underworld Thunderhawk was on it.

Currently, Tang Yao's Underworld Thunderhawk was the only one on the entire flying mount ranking list.

"The summoning time for a flying mount is five minutes, and the recall time is also five minutes. If it dies, you'll need something like a Resurrection Crystal to revive it," Tang Yao said. This setting was a bit chilling. If the flying mount died in battle, it would be very difficult to revive. The recall time was too long, and it would be difficult to recall it in a dangerous situation during a fierce battle.

"It seems like flying mounts have a Life Core," Nie Yan suddenly recalled.

"That's right, flying mounts have a Life Core. If they die, you can cut open their heads and find a Life Core inside. Flying mounts have to eat this kind of thing to increase their tier," Tang Yao said. He understood the rules of the game for flying mounts. In the future, as flying mounts became more common, anyone who wanted to upgrade their flying mount would have to continuously hunt down other people's flying mounts and obtain their Life Cores.

As Nie Yan and Tang Yao were chatting, they heard voices coming from the entrance. A group of more than twenty players walked into the pet store, talking loudly.

"Leader Min Mie, I heard that the most expensive pets in the pet store cost tens of thousands of gold coins," a Thief, who was around Level 50, said to a Warrior in silver-white armor next to him.

"Tens of thousands of gold coins are nothing. My team can earn several thousand gold coins a day in the City of Gold. If we get a good piece of equipment, it's not a problem to sell it for a few hundred or even a thousand gold coins," the Warrior named Min Mie laughed.

This Warrior was Level 66 and had a set of Level 65 Dark Gold equipment, on par with Shao Bing and the others.

After Min Mie finished speaking, the surrounding players revealed envious expressions.

Min Mie was quite pleased with himself. Among this group of people, he was the most successful, so he couldn't help but show off a bit.

"Someone's coming, let's go," Nie Yan said, putting on the Shadow Walker's Cloak.

"Yeah," Tang Yao nodded, and also put on his cloak. He and Nie Yan were not suited to appearing in public view.

"Who's that Warrior?" Nie Yan asked in a low voice.

"He seems to be from Dark Ranger, the leader of a twenty-man team. A small fry," Tang Yao said. People of their level naturally didn't need to pay attention to such small characters.

Nie Yan and Tang Yao walked towards the entrance of the pet store together.

"Leader Min Mie, what kind of pet are you planning to buy?" someone next to him asked curiously.

"I'm going to get a Horned Rhinoceros. It's more suitable for Warriors," Min Mie said with a loud laugh. He looked at the two people walking towards him, both wearing cloaks. He couldn't help but smile. Why were these two wearing cloaks? Trying to be mysterious.

"A good Horned Rhinoceros costs at least thirty thousand gold coins," several players around him gasped, filled with envy.

"Thirty thousand gold coins is nothing," Min Mie said with a nonchalant smile, his gaze falling on the Underworld Thunderhawk in Tang Yao's hand. He revealed a sneering expression.

The Thief next to him saw the Underworld Thunderhawk and mocked, "That bird the size of a palm is also a pet? How does it attack?"

"I heard that some bird pets can fly up and peck people's eyes," an Arcane Mage joked.

"Peck people's eyes, haha, that's so funny. The other day, I ran into a bird pet the size of a palm that wanted to attack me. I slapped it to death," Min Mie laughed arrogantly. "How much is a pet like that worth? It must be very cheap."

"Probably about ten gold coins," the Thief said jokingly.

"Ten gold coins each. As expected, you get what you pay for. What good things can you buy for ten gold coins? Like my Horned Rhinoceros, it costs at least thirty thousand gold coins," Min Mie looked at Nie Yan and Tang Yao with disdain. His voice was loud, echoing throughout the pet store. It seemed that mocking Nie Yan and Tang Yao made him feel very important.

The discussions of Min Mie and his group in the distance could be heard clearly. Tang Yao, with his short temper, immediately became angry and said, "Damn, I really want to teach him a lesson."

"Don't bother with these people," Nie Yan said calmly. He had seen many people like this in his past life.

Tang Yao suppressed his anger, and the two walked silently towards the door.

Seeing Nie Yan and Tang Yao swallow their anger, the laughter of Min Mie and his group became even more unrestrained and arrogant.

"They probably haven't even seen what a thirty thousand gold coin pet looks like," Min Mie laughed loudly.

"Are you allowed to ride flying mounts in the city?" Nie Yan asked Tang Yao.

"I think so," Tang Yao paused when he heard Nie Yan's words, but quickly understood Nie Yan's meaning.

"Damn, so what if you have a thirty thousand gold coin pet? I'll show you what a three hundred thousand gold coin pet looks like!" Tang Yao sneered.

The two walked to the entrance of the pet store. Tang Yao chanted an incantation, and the Underworld Thunderhawk suddenly grew several hundred times larger. It stood in the open space in front of the pet store, and a violent gale swept through, blowing into the pet store and knocking Min Mie and the others off balance.

"What's going on?" Min Mie couldn't open his eyes in the fierce wind. He looked towards the entrance of the pet store and saw that the Underworld Thunderhawk, which had originally stood on Tang Yao's arm and was only the size of a palm, had suddenly turned into a behemoth three yards tall, strong and majestic, filled with powerful strength.

Any pet in the pet store was trash compared to the Underworld Thunderhawk!

The players in the central square of Carol City suddenly saw such a behemoth and cried out in alarm.

"It's a flying mount!" the Thief next to him exclaimed.

Min Mie was stunned. He didn't expect that the Underworld Thunderhawk he had just mocked was such a powerful flying mount. Then its owner...

Nie Yan and Tang Yao sat on the Underworld Thunderhawk. The Underworld Thunderhawk's broad back could carry five people. It flapped its wings, stirring up a powerful whirlwind, and soared into the sky.

"A flying mount, could it be... Crazy Devil Nie Yan?" the Thief next to him trembled. They didn't expect that the person they had just mocked was the most untouchable person in this city.

"Leader Min Mie, what do we do? We just..." The surrounding players panicked.

"I heard that Crazy Devil Nie Yan is very difficult to deal with."

"Yeah, there was a player from Triumph Empire named Liu Rui who offended Crazy Devil Nie Yan and was hunted down to Level 0 by the people from Nirvana Guild. In the end, he could only delete his account and hasn't been seen since."

The more these people talked, the more frightened they became.

Min Mie didn't expect that he had caused such a big disaster. He was also a little scared after hearing what they said. "Let's go to Nirvana Guild together to apologize. If Crazy Devil Nie Yan is willing to forgive us, we'll probably be fine. If he doesn't forgive us, we'll have to leave Carol City." If Nie Yan really wanted to make things difficult for him, he and his team wouldn't be able to survive in Carol City.