"You humans, we of the Yao race will eventually exterminate all of you!"
An enraged peak-level mortal monster roared.
Under Li Ye's leadership, even peak-level mortal monsters could only be hunted down.
The team of over twenty people cooperated seamlessly, and when it looked like the monster was about to be killed, no one noticed that a wolf demon had silently arrived behind them.
Just as the monster was about to take its final fatal blow from Li Ye, Su Nan made his move.
The power of elemental qi was infused into his soul power, and his soul power suddenly transformed into a spear, shooting out violently.
With his soul power increased several times, even when dealing with a peak-level mortal monster, it had a significant effect, not to mention dealing with Li Ye.
In an instant, Li Ye stumbled and fell.
Before anyone could react, Su Nan had already appeared in front of Li Ye and struck him with a punch.
Without any surprises, Li Ye's figure disappeared, and he was killed with a single blow.
"Congratulations, you have successfully hunted a grand destiny bearer. Do you wish to plunder their destiny?"
"Yes!"
"Congratulations, you have gained 18 points of destiny."
18 points! It was only two points less than what Zhou Cheng received when he was first hunted.
"I can trigger a rare-level encounter event again." Su Nan smiled.
At this point, his available destiny had reached 104 points!
"Congratulations, you have completed the first stage of 'Rage of the Yao Emperor.' Would you like to claim the reward immediately?"
"Claim."
"Congratulations, you have obtained a spiritual-level Yao Technique."
"Congratulations, you have obtained a spiritual-level bloodline."
"Congratulations, you have obtained 30 points of demon power."
"The second stage of the mission has been activated. Please check the mission panel."
Another 30 points of demon power had been added, and his demon power had now reached 136 points!
Without bothering to check whether the Yao Technique and bloodline were what he needed, Su Nan quickly launched attacks on the surrounding players.
"Wolf, wolf demon!"
"Run! Run quickly!"
At this moment, the other twenty-plus players finally reacted, their faces changing drastically as they turned and ran.
As Su Nan had expected, most of these players had only completed one daily task and had only one opportunity to quit the game without restrictions.
Now that they had no exit opportunity, they had no choice but to run when faced with Su Nan's attack.
Unfortunately, there was no way they could escape.
In just a moment, over a dozen players were killed.
Su Nan didn't pause and quickly headed in another direction.
For the next ten minutes or so, Su Nan continued to appear in the forests around the Golden Radiance Pagoda.
One player team after another was hunted down.
Due to the dispersion of the players, those who hadn't encountered Su Nan had no idea of his presence, and those who did, apart from quitting the game, had no choice but to face their fate of being killed.
It wasn't until Su Nan had killed more than eight hundred players that other players learned of his presence.
"Everyone, quickly leave the Golden Radiance Pagoda! That wolf demon has appeared again and is hunting players!"
The news quickly spread, and the players who had been searching for monsters to hunt suddenly couldn't sit still.
They were in a panic, and they couldn't afford to stay near the Golden Radiance Pagoda anymore. They scattered in all directions to escape.
In a matter of moments, the players around the Golden Radiance Pagoda had all disappeared.
"It's a shame, I only got over nine hundred demon power points this time." Su Nan shook his head, feeling a bit greedy.
He then looked at Lang Shisan's contribution points.
It had already reached over three thousand eight hundred points.
This amount was quite impressive compared to other players, but it was still less than Wang Nan and Zhang Yang.
He opened the contribution rankings.
The current contribution rankings had changed drastically.
The top three players were no longer his three characters, and his three characters were now ranked well outside the top ten!
Ahead of him were players he had never even heard of.
The first-ranked player had accumulated two hundred and twenty contribution points.
The second and third players both had two hundred points.
"The guarding mission hasn't ended yet, and the players on this ranking have already been killed," Su Nan understood what was happening.
He was about to close the ranking list.
Suddenly, he felt a lightness in his body.
Invisible, as if a heavy burden that had been pressing down on him had been lifted. This feeling was quite distinct.
"What's going on?" Su Nan's expression changed, and he immediately had a bad feeling.
This sudden change came out of nowhere, and he wanted to use foresight to try to get answers.
However, before he could start, a loud laugh suddenly came from the distance.
"Haha, old man, one of your formation nodes has been broken. Even if you can protect the formation in Tianyun County, what about it? This emperor wants to see how you can protect it next time!"
It was the voice of Huxuetian.
"One of the formation nodes has been broken?"
Su Nan was suddenly shocked, and he instantly understood what had caused the strange feeling just now.
Clearly, within the nine counties of Dongchen, one of the formation nodes had been breached, weakening the suppression of the Celestial Sky Divine Ban on him!
"It's been broken again?" After a brief surprise, Su Nan was relieved.
He had already anticipated this situation.
The demon invasion this time was fierce, and no matter which node it was, they had to face more monsters than themselves. If he hadn't been there, the Martial King Temple would have already been breached.
Now, within the nine counties, it was entirely reasonable for one formation node to be breached.
"Based on the current situation of the formation nodes suppressing the monsters, it seems that the initial-stage Xuan-level monsters can already approach the nodes!" Comparing the current suppression with the previous one, Su Nan's expression became serious.
However, it wasn't over yet.
Just ten breaths after the first formation node was broken.
That strange feeling of sudden lightness occurred again.
Another formation node had been broken!
"Which county's formation node was broken!"
"It's Yongzhou County! The first formation node was in Yongzhou County!"
"The second one is Busan County! The formation node in Busan County has also been broken."
Two consecutive formation nodes being broken had a significant impact.
In the regional chat, players immediately exploded.
"Yongzhou County and Busan County are done for. The formation nodes have been broken, affecting not only other counties but also these two counties more severely."
"Without two formation nodes, the suppression of monsters by the formation nodes in other counties will be further reduced. This time, the ones attacking the nodes were only spiritual-level monsters, but next time it won't be spiritual-level, it will be mid-stage Xuan-level monsters!"
"Moreover, without the suppression of the formation nodes, the strength of the monsters in these two counties will greatly increase. The number of monsters is already greater than that of our human warriors, and if the strength of those monsters further increases, these two counties are doomed!"
Someone clearly understood the impact of the formation nodes being broken and pointed out the drawbacks.
At hearing this, even some players who were originally just there to watch the excitement couldn't sit still.
Chapter 165: Items in the Shop
"What a joke! The strongest monsters this time are at the Spiritual level; they can only be considered cannon fodder."
"If next time Xuan-level Great Demons show up, won't they even be able to serve as cannon fodder?"
"Why do they say that when a formation node is broken, the strength of the monsters will greatly increase? Could it be that the monsters we're facing now aren't at their peak strength?"
No one questioned the fact that Xuan-level Great Demons might appear next time. What puzzled everyone was why the monsters' strength would increase when a formation node was broken.
"The reason is simple. Although we have fused with the bloodlines of monsters, our strength is still far inferior to the monsters. Without the suppression of the Celestial Sky Divine Ban, we wouldn't even be able to match monsters of the same level."
"Although only one formation node was broken in two counties, the suppression on the monsters' strength has already weakened by half. So, even within those two counties, human warriors won't be a match for monsters of the same level."
"Most importantly, once one node is broken, it's almost impossible to protect the other node. Wait for it; the next time, the remaining two nodes in those two counties will undoubtedly be broken!"
"Are we facing monsters whose strength has been suppressed?" Su Nan was surprised; this was the first time he had heard of such a concept.
"If that's true, does it mean that once all the formation nodes are completely destroyed, in order to hunt monsters, one would need to be at least one small realm higher than the monsters, or maybe even two small realms higher?" Su Nan frowned; if that were the case, new players who joined the game after the formation nodes were broken would be in trouble.
While he was pondering this, a notification popped up suddenly.
"Supporting quest completed. Congratulations, you have earned a total of 3,872 contribution points."
"The quest is over?" Su Nan's eyes lit up as he immediately checked the contribution rankings.
The contribution rankings had undergone a dramatic change once again.
"1st place: Wang Nan, 5,210 contribution points."
"2nd place: Zhang Yang, 4,981 contribution points."
"3rd place: Lang Shisan, 3,981 contribution points."
"4th place: Zhuang Bin, 1,810 contribution points."
"5th place: Qian Yu, 1,713 contribution points."
"6th place: Yang Fei, 1,558 contribution points."
"7th place: Wu Xiaoxiao, 1,520 contribution points."
"8th place: Jiang Yuliang, 1,487 contribution points."
"9th place: Bai Meng, 1,450 contribution points."
"10th place: Fan Zheng, 1,414 contribution points."
A glance at the top ten rankings showed that his three characters had claimed the top three spots with a significant lead over the fourth place.
"Zhuang Bin? I haven't heard of this person in the top ten of the realm rankings before. Where did this person come from?" Su Nan was puzzled when he noticed the unfamiliar player below him.
However, he quickly learned about Zhuang Bin's background from the regional chat.
It turned out that this person, like Wu Xiaoxiao in seventh place, Jiang Yuliang in eighth place, and Fan Zheng in tenth place, had entered the game during the first closed beta test.
Unlike other players, these four individuals had been exceptionally lucky. As soon as they entered the game, they were recruited by several influential sects and clans from the Three Sects and Six Schools.
Afterwards, they were nurtured by their respective factions, and they had no need to worry about daily tasks, as they were always guided by others. They had essentially been given a free ride.
However, perhaps due to the presence of other players in their tasks, they never received high-level missions, and as a result, they didn't accumulate much demon power.
Despite this, they still managed to surpass the majority of players easily.
After the previous survival mission, although only Wu Xiaoxiao made it into the top ten rankings, the rest of them remained in the top twenty.
During this mission to guard the formation nodes, they had received special attention from their respective factions once again.
"Children of Destiny... so, that's what they call them," Su Nan suddenly realized. He had heard of a group of players who were exceptionally lucky and were called the "Children of Destiny." It seemed that these four were part of that group.
Besides these four, the rest of the top ten rankings were filled with familiar names.
Qian Yu in fifth place had always been a consistent performer.
Yang Fei in sixth place, who was the head of the Monster Investigation Bureau in Donglin City, was expected to be in the top ten as the strongest official player in the game.
The most discussed player among them was Lang Shisan, who ranked third.
This time, many players had participated in the mission, and theoretically, they shouldn't have missed any powerful players. However, no one had ever seen Lang Shisan in the game, which was quite strange.
Meanwhile, Zhou Cheng, who was still lingering outside the top ten, had a gloomy expression.
His ranking was already far outside the top thirty.
"Lycanthrope! I will kill you at any cost!" Zhou Cheng clenched his fists, his eyes filled with hatred that seemed almost tangible.
At the same time, in the real world, a group of black-clothed individuals received a message from the game and looked at the screenshot with the name at the top. Their expressions turned grim.
"After this, when he exchanges items from the shop, his strength will undoubtedly skyrocket again. It will be even harder for us to get our hands on those items."
"His strength is increasing too rapidly; we are no match for him in the real world. Unless we wait for the next closed beta, there will definitely be major changes in the game world at that time, and maybe then we'll have a chance."
"We don't even know when the next closed beta will be. We can't keep waiting; time is running out."
"There's nothing we can do in the real world. We'll have to find a way to deal with him in the game."
The members of the Destiny Association did not fear Su Nan's previous actions. On the contrary, they were more determined to retrieve the wristbands.
Unaware of their plans, Su Nan had already opened the contribution points exchange shop.
"Congratulations, your total contribution points have exceeded 1,500, making you eligible for the highest-tier rewards."
(End of this chapter)