Chapter 1 The Cave Lord's Demise

The Cave Lord's health reached its end, and it collapsed. With a thud, its heavy body fell to the ground, shaking the entire cave.

Nie Yan dodged to the side, and seeing the Cave Lord fall, he breathed a sigh of relief. He thought the Cave Lord would self-destruct, so he had saved the Ten Mile Painting Gauze in advance. It seemed he had been overthinking it. The Cave Lord did not self-destruct.

The Cave Lord's corpse lay sprawled on the ground, like a giant whale.

Rays of white light shone on Nie Yan, and his level skyrocketed to 35. The other team members also gained at least one or two levels.

"Boss, did it drop anything?" Summer Cicada asked from behind.

Nie Yan was about to look down and search for the equipment dropped by the Cave Lord when he saw the Cave Lord's corpse gradually swell up, like a balloon. Its surface was covered with a network of blood vessels, and blood surged within, as a restless power gushed forth.

"Everyone, dodge!" Nie Yan's expression changed, he said.

This was corpse explosion!

Monsters that could corpse explode were extremely rare.

The team members reacted and retreated, running outside.

With a bang, the Cave Lord exploded, and a powerful shockwave swept outwards.

They didn't have time to dodge and were engulfed by the shockwave, falling to the ground.

None of the players present were spared.

Nie Yan couldn't escape either. The Cave Lord's shockwave was too fierce, making it impossible to dodge. He didn't immediately release his soul to resurrect in the graveyard. Instead, the surroundings turned into an boundless wilderness, filled with dazzling white light, as if he were in the Kingdom of Heaven. Nie Yan couldn't help but feel curious. What exactly was going on?

He looked ahead and saw a hunched, solitary figure. He couldn't make out its face. It was entirely formed from a mass of white light.

It wandered in this empty space, occasionally stopping and staring blankly ahead, its thin back desolate and distant.

It looked at Nie Yan with confusion. A strange emotion surged from the depths of Nie Yan's heart, and images flashed through Nie Yan's mind. They were images of the Spider People Finaas. Nie Yan seemed to feel the endless sorrow in the Cave Lord's heart.

Nie Yan's heart stirred. These images of the Spider People Finaas should be one of the clues to finding Finaas.

It transformed into a ray of white light and flew towards Nie Yan, entering his backpack and circling around Bennett's Diary in Nie Yan's backpack, before finally disappearing into the diary.

Nie Yan looked at the attributes of the diary. It had undergone some changes.

Bennett's Diary: Immortal spirit, love of the humble.

Item Attributes: The holder of this item can open a Dark Portal, traveling between the surface and the underground world. The location of the portal's opening is random. The Dark Portal can be opened once every five days and lasts for twenty minutes.

This item is bound, cannot be traded, and cannot be dropped.

Regarding the Dark Portal, this was a highly random skill. It could be opened once every five days for twenty minutes. If the Dark Portal wasn't opened within those twenty minutes, then one had to wait another five days, and the location of the portal's exit was also uncertain.

He wondered when he would have the chance to visit the underground city, bring back some good equipment to sell, and see if he could complete this quest.

After an unknown amount of time, a system message arrived.

System: Player Ten Mile Painting Gauze is casting a resurrection spell on you. Do you agree?

Yes!

A dazzling white light flashed, and Nie Yan was resurrected.

Nie Yan looked around. He saw Ten Mile Painting Gauze and Big Brother Seven one by one resurrecting the team members. They had suffered a total wipe. When Ten Mile Painting Gauze arrived, she was stunned by the tragic scene. She first resurrected Big Brother Seven, and together they resurrected the team members.

Nie Yan searched around and picked up three pieces of equipment from the ground: a mage robe, a gauntlet, and a gem. They were all level 50 Dark Gold equipment.

The robe and gauntlet were both for arcane mages, part of the level 50 Dark Follower set. It was a set of high magic damage equipment. The robe added 220 magic damage, and the gauntlets added 120 magic damage.

The attributes of these two pieces of equipment were excellent. Among all the level 50 sets, the magic damage bonus of the Dark Follower set was outrageously high.

If one could collect the entire Dark Follower set, the magic damage bonus should exceed 1,000!

Nie Yan posted the attributes of these two pieces of equipment in the team chat.

Water色烟头 asked in the team chat, "The Cave Lord respawns once a day. Should we collect the entire set before we leave?" He understood very well how valuable a complete set was.

"We estimate we'll be grinding here for a few days, so let's collect this Dark Follower set," Nie Yan thought for a moment and said. They needed at least a few days to clear all their red names.

Since the Cave Lord was already dead, they could only grind ordinary monsters outside for now, and then deal with the Cave Lord again tomorrow when it respawned.

There were too many arcane mages in the guild. One set of Dark Follower wouldn't be enough. There were more monks than porridge. They could only satisfy one or two people first. As for how to coordinate, it depended on how Nie Yan and the others handled it. This kind of thing happened frequently. If it wasn't handled well and wasn't fair enough, it would easily create resentment among the guild members.

In addition to the two pieces of Dark Follower equipment, there was also a gem, a relatively rare seventh-grade gem that increased agility by 35. It could be considered a top-quality gem. Nie Yan planned to use it to socket his equipment.

The team members rested for a while, restored their health, and then continued to grind monsters outside.

Nie Yan followed behind the team, leeching some experience while managing the various affairs of Calore.

Just then, Yao Yao sent Nie Yan a message, and Nie Yan connected to the voice chat.

"Nie Yan, I've completed my quest and obtained a Holy magic. Thank you," Yao Yao said. If it weren't for Nie Yan's guidance, she wouldn't have been able to complete this quest at all.

"You're welcome. You're also a member of Nilfgaard, so it's what I should do," Nie Yan said with a smile.

Hearing Nie Yan's words, Yao Yao was a little disappointed. Was there no other reason besides that? She and Nie Yan had been together in the game for so long, from their first meeting at Rando Lake to the various encounters that followed. She hoped that Nie Yan liked her in the game.

Xie Yao and Nie Yan had only met a few times in reality, and she still felt somewhat unfamiliar with him, but she was very familiar with Nie Yan in the game. They grinded monsters and leveled up together, went to dungeons together, and so on. Could that not be better than meeting a few times in reality? However, Nie Yan had always maintained a certain distance from her.

"What Holy magic did you get?"

"Holy Purification."

Nie Yan raised his eyebrows. Holy Purification was considered one of the better among the many advanced magics.

"Not bad."

"It's almost time. I'm going offline first." Yao Yao's nose felt a little sore. Nie Yan only cared about these things. Nilfgaard was his everything!

"Okay then." Nie Yan heard that Yao Yao's tone was a little unhappy, so he didn't say anything more. He looked at the time and realized it was almost time to go offline.

Seeing Yao Yao log off, Nie Yan sorted out the information he had collected from various sources. Today, the Assassin League had earned more than 1,000 gold coins, Starry Night Pharmacy had earned about 5,000 gold coins, rent was more than 2,000 gold coins, and the auction house, together with the Super Trade Channel, had earned about 5,000 gold coins. In this way, they already had 13,000 to 14,000 gold coins. The Long Yue Financial Group was buying gold coins outside, and the daily amount was only about 30,000 gold coins. These projects were still developing rapidly, and future daily income would be even greater!

In addition to these revenues, Nie Yan transferred and sold several credit point trading areas to the Long Yue Financial Group. Some of this money was paid to the Holy Roman Empire and the Carollan Temple, and there was still a lot left over.

Nilfgaard no longer needed Nie Yan to invest funds. The funds invested by the Long Yue Financial Group were already enough. Nie Yan turned his attention to other guilds, focusing on Mad Rogue Alliance of Emerald City!

Mad Rogue Alliance accepted investment from the Zesi Financial Group in his past life, the sixth-ranked financial group in Asia, but later withdrew its investment. The reason was none other than Cao Xu spending a lot of money to poach a large number of professional players from Mad Rogue Studio, greatly weakening its strength. Coupled with the encirclement and suppression of major guilds such as Triumphant Empire and Holy Light Flame, Mad Rogue Alliance was in a precarious situation. Under those circumstances, it was normal for that financial group to withdraw its investment.

At this time, Mad Rogue Alliance should not have been invested in by other guilds, so Nie Yan had a chance to take advantage.

Nie Yan sent a message to Guo Huai, asking him to talk to Loveable Killer about the investment. It was not convenient for him to come forward. If Loveable Killer agreed, he would invest in Mad Rogue Alliance in his personal capacity. The specific terms of cooperation would be discussed later.

Nie Yan had assigned the task, when Tuoba Shijue suddenly sent Nie Yan a message.

"Do you have any gold coins? I need some funds," Tuoba Shijue asked privately.

"How much do you need?" Nie Yan asked. Tuoba was a rich guy. He estimated that tens of thousands of gold coins would definitely not be a problem for him. For him to open his mouth to borrow gold coins, this matter must not be simple.

"Help me raise 600,000 gold coins within a month," Tuoba Shijue said.

Nie Yan took a cold breath when he heard the number reported by Tuoba Shijue and asked, "What are you going to do with so many gold coins?" So many gold coins would be enough to invest in a guild! Nie Yan thought about it. Although it would be a little difficult to withdraw such a large amount of money from his income, it was not impossible.

"If you can help me raise this money, I am willing to exchange it for 30% of the total assets of the Tuoba family in the game, including eleven shops, twenty-one pieces of land, and three auction houses!" Tuoba Shijue continued to drop a bombshell.

So many assets were worth at least 200,000 gold coins now, at least 700,000 to 800,000 gold coins a month later, and the future appreciation space was even immeasurable! Tuoba Shijue was throwing these assets to Nie Yan just to exchange for cash, 600,000 gold coins!