After the Kui Ox fell dead, the sacred beast Xuanwu summoned by Jiang Yuan gradually dissipated into specks of light in the sky. Hidden high above, Feng Tai breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this, muttering to himself, "So it was just a secret technique to channel Xuanwu's power—scared me for nothing!"
Concealed in the shadows, Feng Tai, seeing the Kui Ox dead, recalled the orders from the Western Demon Emperor and immediately slipped away quietly, preparing to lead his army to block their path.
On the ground, the players of the Four Alliances had no idea that a demon was spying on them from high above, as they were still immersed in the immense joy of slaying the mythical boss, the Kui Ox.
"Ding! Congratulations on defeating the mythical-level boss, Kui Ox. You have earned 50 million experience points!"
A system notification sounded, and Jiang Yuan was momentarily stunned. He hadn't expected that splitting the Kui Ox's experience among 140 people would still net each of them 50 million. If he had taken all those billions of experience points for himself, how many levels would he have skyrocketed!
"Look, so many red beams of light!"
As the Kui Ox died, someone in the team immediately pointed at the dozen or so red beams of light before them and shouted excitedly.
"Holy crap! So many mythical items and equipment—I've never seen this many in my whole life!"
Ding Ye in the team widened his eyes and let out an exclamation at the sight of those red beams.
"Well done! No wonder it's a mythical-level boss—it dropped 16 mythical items and equipment in one go!"
Wending Cangsheng, who had never seen any boss drop so many mythical items and equipment at once, laughed with exceptional excitement.
According to the prior agreement among the Four Alliance leaders, Emperor Prefecture and Heavenly Wave Mansion would each get five pieces, while Cold River City and Ten Thousand Mile Alliance would each pick three.
The three mythical items Jiang Yuan chose were a summoner mythical skill book, a level 105 mythical priest weapon, and a level 105 mythical warrior top.
After distributing the mythical items and equipment, Wending Cangsheng opened the loot permissions, and the other players from the Four Alliances surged forward, snatching up all the epic-grade equipment and rare items filling the screen.
"Old Ding, Wending Cangsheng has already covered all your equipment, so I'm giving this warrior top to Brother Er Gou."
Jiang Yuan had an agreement with Wending Cangsheng when he sold him that super-mythical weapon—Ding Ye's future equipment would be provided by Wending Cangsheng. So Jiang Yuan said this to Ding Ye, then turned and gave the mythical top to Zhang Er Gou, the leader of the Cloud Rising Guild.
"Got it! I'm not short on equipment; what I need are attack-type skill books!"
Ding Ye nodded, gave a generous smile, and said to Jiang Yuan.
"Thanks, Brother Jiang Yuan. Hehe, I never thought old Zhang would get to wear mythical gear one day!"
Zhang Er Gou traded the mythical top from Jiang Yuan and said to him with a thrilled grin.
After equipping the mythical top, the health bar above Zhang Er Gou's head visibly increased by 20,000 to 30,000 points!
Jiang Yuan planned to keep the mythical priest weapon for Hamster Pudding, but thinking about how Hamster Pudding was still trapped somewhere unknown left a bitter taste in his heart.
Rubbing his head, Jiang Yuan suppressed his worry for Hamster Pudding, opened his backpack, and glanced at the summoner mythical skill book. Just one look, and he was deeply captivated.
[Summoner Mythical Skill: Summon Evolution]
Required Level: 110
Skill Description: Allows your summoned beasts to undergo evolution. Every 10 ordinary summoned beasts can evolve into a higher-tier summoned beast, with a total of four evolutions possible. The tiers, from low to high, are Yellow, Profound, Earth, and Heaven. Each evolution doubles the summoned beast's attributes.
"Holy shit! No wonder it's called a mythical skill—it's truly a divine ability!"
Jiang Yuan exclaimed inwardly, a look of ecstasy spreading across his face.
He roughly calculated in his mind: 10,000 ordinary Dragon Beard Tigers evolving four times would result in one Heaven-tier Dragon Beard Tiger, bypassing certain terrain limitations and allowing the summoned beast to unleash its full combat potential!
Unfortunately, this divine skill required reaching level 110 to learn, and Jiang Yuan was currently at level 106, just 16 million experience points short of level 107.
"Damn! Still over 3 levels to go."
Jiang Yuan felt an itch inside him, like a cat scratching, eager to quickly reach level 110 and use this divine skill!
"Finally took down that troublesome mythical boss. Brother Dragon Emperor, how about we continue traveling together as the Four Alliances and explore deeper?"
As the saying goes, many hands make light work. After seeing the Four Alliances join forces to defeat a mythical-level boss, Wending Cangsheng increasingly recognized the importance of cooperation. He looked at Aoshi Longhuang and proposed.
"No, our cooperation ends here. War God, disband the group and reform."
Unexpectedly, Aoshi Longhuang didn't appreciate the offer and directly rejected Wending Cangsheng's suggestion, leading the 60-plus members of Emperor Prefecture and Ten Thousand Mile Alliance to silently leave the group.
Under Aoshi Longhuang's lead, Emperor Prefecture and Ten Thousand Mile Alliance reformed into a new group, deliberately choosing a direction unlikely to cross paths with Jiang Yuan and the others again, heading east.
Little did Jiang Yuan know that Aoshi Longhuang's decision at this moment would cause all players from Emperor Prefecture and Ten Thousand Mile Alliance to lose a hundred million, ultimately receiving only the lowest-tier reward for the quest!
Because to the east of Tianshan Yao Pool lay the area sealed off by the Eastern Demon Emperor, Han Xiaotian!
"Jiang Yuan, they're heading east. Which way should we go?"
Watching Aoshi Longhuang's group head east, Wending Cangsheng instantly guessed they didn't want to encounter them in the subsequent quests. He turned to Jiang Yuan and asked.
"Let's go west. Since they don't want to meet us, we'll pick the opposite direction."
Jiang Yuan also understood Aoshi Longhuang's intent in going east, so he smiled and chose the opposite direction.
Thus, Wending Cangsheng and Jiang Yuan led the members of Heavenly Wave Mansion and Cold River City westward. At that very moment, Feng Tai, the general tasked by the Western Demon Emperor to block them, had just finished assembling his army in the underground caverns to the west!
"Nie Shi, hear my command! Lead ten commanders, a hundred centurions, and ten thousand soldiers as the rear army!"
"Duo Tuo, hear my command! Lead ten commanders, a hundred centurions, and ten thousand soldiers as the central army!"
"Bao Kou, hear my command! Lead one commander, ten centurions, and a thousand soldiers as the left wing of the central army!"
"You Lin, hear my command! Lead one commander, ten centurions, and a thousand soldiers as the right wing of the central army!"
Orders poured out from Feng Tai's mouth one after another, and the demon generals named nodded and clasped their fists in acknowledgment.
"Five adjutants, hear my command! Bring the prisoners from the dungeon and place them in the middle of the rear army!"
The five adjutants nodded in unison, then turned and entered the dungeon. When they emerged, each carried a human in their hands—it was the trapped Hamster Pudding and the five members of Squad 2!