Chapter 1 The Twin-Headed Giant

The twin-headed giant rushed towards Nie Yan, swinging its mace down at him.

Seeing the mace about to smash Nie Yan into mincemeat, Su Youyou and Sanjie Buliu couldn't help but feel a surge of tension.

Everyone thought Nie Yan was done for.

Just as the mace was about to crash down, Nie Yan looked up, a divine light suddenly flashing in his eyes.

With a loud crash, the mace slammed into the ground, but the spot where Nie Yan had been standing was now empty. The twin-headed giant wore a bewildered expression.

Before the twin-headed giant could lift its mace, a figure appeared beneath it. Nie Yan delivered an elbow strike to the twin-headed giant's fat abdomen.

The force of the impact staggered the twin-headed giant.

Nie Yan braced his hands on the ground and pushed off with explosive force, his body flying backwards, and kicked the twin-headed giant in the chin.

With a thud, the twin-headed giant flew backwards.

The twin-headed giant crashed heavily to the ground, and Nie Yan's body followed, delivering a knee strike that smashed into the twin-headed giant's abdomen again.

A glance at the system prompt showed a combo of 3.

But this was just the beginning. Nie Yan had already removed some of his legendary equipment, making his attacks appear more reasonable. However, the damage was still over ten thousand, and the twin-headed giant's health dropped sharply under the continuous assault.

At this moment, Su Youyou, Sanjie Buliu, and the others, who were watching Nie Yan deal with the twin-headed giant, were dumbfounded, their mouths agape in disbelief.

Nie Yan's movements were so fast that only afterimages remained. They only saw the twin-headed giant being sent flying repeatedly.

The fluid movements were astonishing.

Although they couldn't see Nie Yan's actions clearly, the constant flashing of afterimages made his moves look dazzling.

Su Youyou and Sanjie Buliu exchanged glances and simultaneously uttered the same phrase: "Shadow Dance!" They couldn't describe the shock they felt. They never expected to encounter a Shadow Dancer here!

This group had some knowledge and immediately recognized Nie Yan's movements.

Zi Ye's gaze was somewhat dull. He had thought Nie Yan was just an ordinary human thief and never associated him with a Shadow Dancer. His previous ridicule of Nie Yan's inability to lure monsters had become a complete joke. Nie Yan didn't need to lure monsters at all; he could solo a Level 180 twin-headed giant!

"Is this guy even human?" one of Sanjie Buliu's warrior teammates couldn't help but exclaim.

"Can you find out this guy's background? There are only a few thieves in the Grelin Empire who have reached the Shadow Dance level. Where did this guy come from!"

"Judging from his appearance, it shouldn't be Kuangzei Nieyan, nor Wangzhe Tianxia, Xiaorong Bushi Wei Wo, or Sun. We're too familiar with their faces."

They didn't know about potent disguise potions. Ordinary disguise potions lasted only twenty or thirty minutes at most, and they had been with Nie Yan for nearly half an hour now.

Who Nie Yan was wasn't important anymore. What mattered was that Nie Yan was a Shadow Dancer who might actually lead them to the treasure!

Time passed by, and Su Youyou checked the time. In less than five minutes, the twin-headed giant was lying on the ground, unable to move.

This guy actually took down the twin-headed giant single-handedly in less than five minutes. What a freak!

Nie Yan picked up the items dropped by the twin-headed giant. There was a Level 180 gold equipment piece, trash. Under normal circumstances, Nie Yan wouldn't even bother to glance at it. Besides the gold equipment, he also obtained a piece of golden key fragment, about the size of a thumb. This was probably what they were looking for. A glance at the system prompt showed a continuous 17-hit combo. The twin-headed giant didn't even have a chance to retaliate from beginning to end. Nie Yan was quite satisfied with this. His skills were much more fluid than before.

If he put on all his equipment, Nie Yan estimated that he could take down the twin-headed giant in two minutes at most.

Sanjie Buliu, Su Youyou, and the others walked over.

Nie Yan tossed the gold equipment to Sanjie Buliu and said, "Let's go. Let's hurry to the next one."

Su Youyou's clear, bright eyes carefully scrutinized Nie Yan's face, trying to find a hint of a flaw, but undoubtedly, she failed. Nie Yan was truly a mysterious person.

"Okay, sure." Sanjie Buliu nodded and turned to his teammates, saying, "I'm resigning as the team leader. From now on, Tian Yuan is our captain. Listen to his commands."

"Understood."

No one raised any objections, and Zi Ye surprisingly didn't say anything to refute. He understood that someone like him was nothing but trash in Nie Yan's eyes.

In fact, Nie Yan probably didn't need these people and could do the quest alone. However, Sanjie Buliu had the treasure map and had been preparing for over a month, so he definitely had a lot of clues. Therefore, they were indispensable, acting as Nie Yan's guides.

Over the next period, Sanjie Buliu, Su Youyou, Zi Ye, and the others witnessed what it meant to be a true monster. Along the way, there were a total of seven Level 170-180 elites. At their own pace, it would have taken them at least three or four hours to deal with them. Nie Yan swept through them all in just thirty-five minutes, taking down all seven elites.

The last elite was a blue twin-headed giant, a Level 180 elite with extremely high defense and area-of-effect magic. It was the main culprit behind Sanjie Buliu, Su Youyou, and the others' multiple party wipes. Yet, this twin-headed giant, which had caused them so much headache, was ridiculously weak in Nie Yan's hands. He killed it in less than three minutes, and it didn't even get to use a single spell. When they passed by this twin-headed giant, they had an unreal feeling. Was this twin-headed giant really the one that had wiped them out so many times?

But the truth was right before their eyes!

After collecting eight key fragments, Sanjie Buliu said in surprise, "That's enough."

He put the eight key fragments together and slowly pieced them together. A dazzling light flashed, causing Nie Yan and the others to quickly shield their eyes.

When they could see clearly, the eight key fragments had merged into one key.

The palm-sized key, they didn't know what kind of chest it was for. It was the first time Nie Yan had seen such a large key.

Sanjie Buliu and the others showed expressions of joy. They had finally obtained this key.

"Where do we go next?" Nie Yan asked.

"We don't know either." Sanjie Buliu said with a wry smile, "We only got to the blue twin-headed giant. There are quest clues after that, but we can only continue exploring. But now that we've collected the key, there's no five-hour limit anymore. We can take our time."

"Okay, then lead the way!" Nie Yan said. He could understand that Sanjie Buliu and the others had limited strength, and it was already quite an achievement for them to reach the blue twin-headed giant.

Sanjie Buliu looked at the quest clues and studied the treasure map. "Follow me."

Sanjie Buliu led Nie Yan and the others through the jungle. On the way, they passed several dark elf settlements. They saw the dark elf settlements in the midst of chaotic battles, with groups of players grinding monsters in these areas. They all looked very wary when they saw Nie Yan and the others. In the wild, if strangers approached, conflicts over monster spawns and treasure were likely to occur. Seeing Nie Yan and the others leave in a hurry, they turned their attention back to their tasks.

Passing through these dark elf settlements, they gradually approached the center of the dark elf tribe. The dark elves active here were clearly much higher level than before, generally around Level 170-180.

In the distance, inside the dark elf tribe's settlement, the houses stretched endlessly, and the streets were filled with dark elves walking around. Clearing out these dark elves would take a lot of effort, but if they didn't clear them out, Sanjie Buliu and the others definitely wouldn't be able to get in.

Without summoning the Golden Land Dragon and the Holy Knight Leffers, it would take at least two or three days to clear out these dark elves. If he summoned the Golden Land Dragon and the Holy Knight Leffers, then his identity would be exposed.

"No players dare to grind monsters here yet." Sanjie Buliu jumped onto a large tree and peered inside. "The place marked on the treasure map should be in the center of the tribe."

If that was the case, it coincided with some of the information Nie Yan had gathered.

"We can pull some friends over and form a five-hundred-man party. If we clear it out bit by bit, three days should be enough," Su Youyou said, looking at Sanjie Buliu and Nie Yan. She could pull in a lot of high-level teammates, and Sanjie Buliu and the others also had extensive connections.

Nie Yan thought about it. If he left these people aside, it shouldn't be a problem for him to sneak into the center of the dark elf tribe. He didn't know if he could open the treasure. At worst, he could give Su Youyou, Sanjie Buliu, and the others what belonged to them, according to the agreement. The only frustrating thing was that the treasure map was bound to Sanjie Buliu, and Sanjie Buliu was still somewhat wary of Nie Yan.

"I'll go in and take a look at the situation first, and then we'll make a plan," Nie Yan thought for a moment and said.

"You alone?" Su Youyou was taken aback, then suddenly realized something. "I almost forgot, you're a Shadow Dancer. It shouldn't be a problem for you to sneak into this dark elf tribe."

"Be careful. Take this key with you. Maybe you can bypass the dark elves and open the treasure. There seems to be a hint on the treasure map about how to open the treasure, but I can't decipher it without seeing the situation over there," Sanjie Buliu said. At this moment, he couldn't help but envy Nie Yan. Being a thief was so cool.

Nie Yan nodded and said, "You guys keep studying it. Send me a message if you find anything new."

After saying goodbye to Sanjie Buliu, Su Youyou, and the others, Nie Yan entered stealth and headed towards the dark elf tribe.