On the cliff edge.
Lu Ran sat comfortably on the ground, hands propping him up from behind, his body leaning back as he gazed up at the sky.
Although he had already grown used to having Ye Hongyi and the other two around him, suddenly finding himself with nothing to do felt a bit strange.
Nanami stood off to the side, glancing at Lu Ran, then occasionally peering down at Death Valley below.
Neil and his group still hadn’t appeared.
It was still unclear whether their intel was accurate, but crossing this Death Valley wasn’t going to be easy. There were quite a few high-level monsters. While it wasn’t technically classified as a forbidden zone, it was still an area that countless high-combat professionals had carved a path through at the cost of their lives in the past.
If Neil and his group wanted to get through Death Valley, they would have to pay a hefty price. And now, Lu Ran was here, blocking their way.
“Earlier, when Yamata no Orochi attacked you, why didn’t you lose any health?” Nanami suddenly asked.
Hearing this, Lu Ran flicked a glance at Nanami. From this angle, looking up, the dramatic swell of Nanami’s chest was even more pronounced. Honestly, in terms of sheer figure, she was even more striking than Ye Hongyi and Liu Xinxin!
It was just that their styles were completely different—Liu Xinxin’s quiet serenity, Ye Hongyi’s seductive allure, neither of which resembled Nanami’s current demeanor. Right now, Nanami seemed more like a loser, a once-proud peacock now forced to bow her head.
“Curious?” Lu Ran raised an eyebrow and asked with a teasing tone.
Nanami paused, then immediately frowned. She turned her head away, ignoring him.
Lu Ran just shrugged. As if he’d actually tell her? He could control Nanami, sure, but that didn’t mean he had to share everything with her. Letting her watch him fight was already generous enough!
“Neil, as the guild master of the Storm Guild, has immense fighting power. He’s not someone other high-combat pros can compare to. And if Yu Qingcang’s intel this time is correct, Neil has brought quite a few people with him. Are you absolutely sure you’re up to this? That ability of yours that prevents health loss—it can’t last long, can it?” Nanami asked suddenly.
As soon as she finished speaking, she remembered the blood spear Lu Ran had used to instantly obliterate Yamata no Orochi earlier, and added, “Even if you can one-shot Neil, what about the others? That kind of burst damage you have must also be a one-time thing.”
Lu Ran looked at Nanami with amusement. “What’s this? Worried about me?”
For once, Nanami had actually gotten something right. The blood spear was a one-off ability that required charging up. A second blood spear cast within a short time would have pretty mediocre damage.
Nanami replied flatly, “Just curious. You’re a new professional, only awakened twenty days ago, yet you dare to come alone to face Neil and his group. And what’s more, Yu Qingcang and the others are completely at ease about it.”
That alone suggested that, at least in Yu Qingcang and the others’ eyes, Lu Ran had the skill to take down Neil’s group!
“No need to fish for information,” Lu Ran said offhandedly. “I’ll tell you what’s relevant, and don’t ask about what you shouldn’t know. Just sit tight and watch.”
Nanami looked at him, stunned. It wasn’t that she was trying to probe for secrets; she truly was intensely curious about Lu Ran. This necromancer who’d constantly dominated and crushed her on the global rankings of the Endless Tower—she never, ever would have guessed he was just a new professional, only twenty days post-awakening!
“At the Death Arena, you slaughtered so many of Eagle Nation’s high-combat pros, and then you killed another batch in the southern borderlands. I never imagined Eagle Nation would arrange a third attempt, this time with Neil personally leading the team. They really do take you seriously,” Nanami chattered on, unable to stay quiet.
“Isn’t that perfectly normal? You came to kill me too, after all,” Lu Ran replied without even turning his head.
Hearing this, Nanami immediately deflated. Better not to bring that up. Every time she recalled it, her heart couldn’t help but seize up in a spasm! She’d brought Yamata no Orochi to Longxia, and the process of finding Lu Ran hadn’t even been that hard—yet the outcome was something she could never have imagined.
Not only had she failed, she’d ended up completely under Lu Ran’s control!
She slumped down on the ground not far from Lu Ran. But her posture was nowhere near as relaxed as his. Instead, she looked more like a pitiful little girl, curled up with her arms wrapped around her knees, her head resting on them. This position gave her some small measure of security.
Lu Ran turned his head and glanced at Nanami. Seeing that she’d fallen silent, he couldn’t be bothered to speak either, and turned back to watching Death Valley.
At that moment, on the other side of Death Valley, Neil was steadily leading his team forward. The group was surprisingly large—a full forty to fifty people! To rally this many high-combat professionals, Neil was clearly going all in on this mission.
And Nanami was right. Neil’s combat power was far more terrifying than other hidden-class professionals of the same level. Purple hellfire roiled across his body. In his hand, a unique scythe weapon swept continuously through the air. Its blade was attached to a chain, also blazing with purple hellfire, lashing out to clear the surroundings. Wherever it passed, lower-level monsters were instantly obliterated.
Even for higher-level monsters, after Neil struck them, the hellfire would begin to erode their bodies, and their health would rapidly plummet. The rest of the team would then quickly finish them off. Though the group’s pace wasn’t fast, there was almost no real danger.
“Guild master, how much further?” a professional next to him asked.
“Almost there,” Neil replied casually, glancing at his map.
Truth be told, everyone could check the map. Couldn’t they just see the distance for themselves? It was just that fighting in a place like Death Valley required intensely high mental focus. Neil might have full control over the overall situation, but if a team member got into danger that would require Neil to risk himself to rescue them—given his arrogance, he definitely wouldn’t lift a finger! These people knew Neil well enough.
Still, they were indeed not far from the mouth of Death Valley. Once they reached it, they could leave this hazardous zone. And the entire northwestern region was sparsely populated. Neil’s group could then quickly conceal themselves, blend into Longxia, and start gathering intel on that necromancer!
“Everyone pick up the pace a bit. Once we’re out of the valley, I’ll go over the concealment plan,” Neil called out to his team members behind him. “There are only ten days left until the Nation War. We must kill that necromancer before it begins!”
To be honest, Neil himself wasn’t entirely confident. One wave sent to the Death Arena, one wave to the southern borderlands—all of them wiped out! Especially at the Death Arena, where that necromancer had gone on a rampage, even taking down a team formed by five guild masters! If he hadn’t been pushed into a corner, Neil would have rather died than venture into Longxia and take this risk.
But now that he was here, if he didn’t make some kind of impact, how could he ever go back? His title as the guild master of Eagle Nation’s number one guild would become a complete joke.
The team members behind him responded in unison, and the group began to speed up. The hellfire blazing on Neil’s body flared even more fiercely.
What they didn’t know was that far away, on the cliff edge, two figures were quietly watching this scene unfold.
“A Vengeful Soul Knight… that’s Neil, no doubt. And judging by the headcount, there are forty to fifty of them,” Nanami murmured.
Hearing this, Lu Ran rose to his feet. He stretched out his body with a lazy yawn and said, “Time to get to work!”
