Chapter 86: Two Level-Ups in a Row!
On the battlefield at the Abyss Frontier, five figures with terrifying auras were locked in deadly combat, fighting in pairs.
Three of them were all Abyssal Demon Kings who had invaded the border, and all three were combat-type Demon Kings.
The other two were Hunter King Wan Feipeng and Spear King Tong Mo.
Two against three.
This was what the highest-level clashes between humanity and the Abyssal Fiends were like. On the battlefield, high-rank Class Users usually had to face situations where they were outnumbered.
Because when it came to reserves of strength, the Abyss truly was bottomless. No one knew how many Fiend powerhouses it possessed!
But humanity had only ten sixth-rank experts.
And after the sixth rank, there were no advancement quests. No one had found a way to reach the seventh rank, which limited the strength of humanity’s strongest fighters.
Even so, despite being outnumbered, Wan Feipeng and Tong Mo still held the upper hand!
That was the power of humanity’s top transcendents!
Wan Feipeng moved like a green storm, every strike heavy and overwhelming. “Heh. And with just this much, you dared invade China’s border?”
At those words, one of the Demon Kings opposite him, a blue-faced, fang-toothed monster like a starving ghoul, let out a chilling laugh even after being struck.
“Kekeke...”
“So what if you beat us?”
“Think about your city. It’ll be gone soon enough!”
The moment those words were spoken, Wan Feipeng’s face changed drastically. “Damn it! Linyuan City!”
Seeing that, Tong Mo knocked back the enemy in front of him and immediately turned and barked, “Don’t lose focus! He’s trying to shake your state of mind!”
And that was indeed true. When high-level Fiends fought, they loved using every possible factor to disrupt their opponent’s mentality. China had come to that conclusion long ago.
The Demon King opposite them spoke mockingly.
“The signal from your city has already disappeared, hasn’t it?”
“Think about it. With you gone, if the city has to face a Demon King, what do you think is going to happen?”
The three Demon Kings all burst into laughter at once. Clearly, everything was unfolding exactly as they had planned.
Wan Feipeng, meanwhile, was on the verge of exploding with rage.
Because as the City Lord, he really could no longer sense Linyuan City...
Tong Mo hurriedly reminded him, “Even if you go back now, it’ll already be too late! Protecting Linyuan City is important, but repelling foreign enemies is just as important!”
Tong Mo actually felt somewhat guilty as well, but with three Demon Kings invading the border, the area had to be defended. As the commanding general, he had no choice.
Wan Feipeng stared at the Demon Kings, gritting his teeth. “You bastards...”
“If Linyuan City is gone, every last one of you dies today!”
The Demon Kings only grew more excited. In a clash of top experts, once your opponent’s emotions became unstable, it became easy to seize an opening!
If the chance was right, it was even possible to kill them through that opening!
The blue-faced Demon King laughed wildly and stepped forward, choosing to meet Wan Feipeng head-on.
Yet in the very next instant, some kind of connection in its mind suddenly snapped, leaving it dumbfounded.
“What? Mirage... is dead!?”
How was that possible!?
But before it had time to think further, Wan Feipeng’s furious fist smashed cleanly into its face, sending the blue-faced Demon King flying with a single blow!
The force of that punch was so terrifying that it twisted the Demon King’s face out of shape.
It had originally wanted to create an opening in Wan Feipeng...Yet instead, it was the one that exposed an opening first!
And it was not just him. The other two Demon Kings also sensed Mirage’s death, and their expressions changed drastically.
“That’s impossible... Could they have arranged some kind of backup?”
“Damn it! Wan Feipeng! Have you already seen through our plan!?”
Seeing Wan Feipeng seize victory in one blow, Spear King Tong Mo was also taken aback.
He turned and asked in surprise, “Were you pretending just now?”
Wan Feipeng himself was a little dazed. Although he did not know who had taken action and solved the problem, the outcome was a good one!
Because he could sense Linyuan City’s signal again!
He lifted his head to stare at the three Demon Kings, rolled his neck, and laughed.
“Linyuan City’s still standing. So today, I’ll kill all three of you to celebrate!”
...
Inside Linyuan City, feeling the Demon King’s aura vanish in an instant, Liu Anran looked at Ye Ze in a daze. “You really killed it?”
Ye Ze nodded.
And not only that. Before the mantis used 【Void Killing Eyes】 to execute the Demon King at the very end, his skill 【Skill Enhancement - Super】 had just come off cooldown. Its original five-minute cooldown had been reduced by 80%, so it was ready again after exactly one minute.
He had used Skill Enhancement in advance and enhanced the mantis’s 【Hunter - Super】!
Because he had realized that this Demon King was definitely a powerful enemy!
At the very moment of the kill, level-up light flashed over Ye Ze, Liu Anran, and Luo Yao.
【You have killed Demon King - Mirage and gained EXP +60000 (+100%)!】
【Ding! Your level has risen to: Level 19!】
【Talent — You have gained two ‘Infinite Golden Traits’ draws!】
【Hunter · Super — After Void Terminator kills a powerful enemy, four body parts evolve simultaneously!】
When multiple people worked together to kill an enemy, EXP was generally divided according to contribution. Without Liu Anran and Luo Yao’s cooperation, this Demon King truly could not have been killed.
So the two of them received a considerable amount of EXP and leveled up directly.
But Ye Ze still took the lion’s share of the EXP—a full sixty thousand!
Two levels in a row!
And this time, after killing a powerful enemy, the mantis had four body parts evolve at once!
【Hunter Panel】—
【Arm Blades +5】: Strength +100, Damage Multiplier +100%, Crit Rate +100%, Ignore Defense +100%, Skill ‘Annihilation’ Level +5!
【Compound Eyes +1】: Spirit +20...
【Wings +2】: Agility +40...
【Carapace +1】: Constitution +20...
————
That was a full increase of eighty attribute points in a single wave!
The additional effects were even stronger. In particular, after the skill level exceeded its maximum, Ye Ze discovered that every extra level now increased damage by an additional 10%.
Being able to raise the damage ceiling was a very nice bonus.
And this time, it was also thanks to the mantis dealing enough damage. Otherwise, relying on Panda alone really would not have been enough to push a level-60 Demon King into low-health territory.
Of course, that was also because, inside the city, it was inconvenient to let the magic dragon and the fox make a move, and it was also not convenient to use Primordial Phantom...The barrier, Mirage, disappeared.
Looking at the items dropped from the place where Mirage’s corpse lay, Ye Ze’s expression shifted, and he immediately swapped down with Panda...
A level-60 Demon King had dropped two Legendary pieces of equipment and one Epic. They were all level-60 items, however, so he stored them away for the time being.
What truly interested Ye Ze was an unknown item that looked like a fragment of an orb...
【Origin Fragment - Mirage】
Aside from its name, all of its other information was marked with “???”—something exceedingly rare.
Ever since obtaining Eye of Insight, he had almost never encountered a situation like this.
And what confused Ye Ze the most was:
Mirage was already dead beyond any doubt, so why had it only dropped a fragment?
That was really strange...
At that moment, however, Ye Ze suddenly thought of an almost unbelievable possibility:
“Could it be that the Demon King Mirage was only an incarnation of a fragment?”
“...”
Outside Linyuan City, Wu Ming and his group rushed into the city at once. The first thing they saw was more than ten collapsed buildings, with traces of battle covering the streets.
Fortunately, Demon King Mirage’s main goal had been infiltration. It had only brought a single-digit number of Fiends with it, so the damage done to the city was still within an acceptable range.
“Why can’t I sense the Demon King’s aura?”
The Spiritual Mentalist in the team, Su Xi, found it strange. At that moment, someone looked up and shouted, “I see it! The Demon King seems to be over there!”
Everyone followed the cry and looked up...
Only to see a terrifying magic dragon more than a hundred meters long, radiating demonic aura and pressure, circling above the city.
“That monster... how did it infiltrate the city without being discovered?”
“Because that’s a demon-type summoned beast, you idiot!”
But the moment they saw the figures standing on the dragon’s back, everyone immediately moved toward them!
Soon afterward, the magic dragon descended as well.
In a street where a deep crater had been smashed into the ground, Wu Ming and the others saw Ye Ze, Liu Anran, and the rest.
As the person in charge of East China Region, Wu Ming finally felt much more at ease...
Thankfully, it seemed Ye Ze and the others had not encountered the Demon King.
But when he came closer and saw the item in Ye Ze’s hand, the calm that had just returned to his heart was shaken violently once more!
“Th-that is...!”
Even from the faint aura alone, he could tell that it was an item related to a Demon King’s power!
“Oh, this is loot dropped by the Demon King.”
As he spoke, Ye Ze silently put away 【Origin Fragment - Mirage】 into his backpack. “It’s mine.”
Wu Ming swallowed hard. The fifth-rank experts who had come with him also could not help looking utterly shocked.
What did he mean, loot dropped by the Demon King?
A Demon King... probably would not drop items while it was still alive, right?
Wu Ming spoke with difficulty. “You killed it?”
Hearing that, Ye Ze thought for a moment, then gave a slight nod. “I had two teammates too—Liu Anran and Luo Yao.”
But immediately after that, his gaze shifted toward the collapsed street.
Pointing at the ruined bun shop, noodle shop, and the rest, he quickly waved his hand and said,
“But all this definitely wasn’t my doing, okay...”