"Pudding, where are you now?"
Jiang Yuan opened his friend channel, found the avatar of Hamster Pudding, and sent her a message.
"I'm doing sect quests. Just five more rounds to go!"
Hamster Pudding quickly replied to Jiang Yuan's message.
"Once you're done, I'll take you to grind dungeons for levels."
Jiang Yuan shot back a quick reply, then used the teleportation array to return to his mansion on the Yuhang realm map.
Stepping into the second-floor study, Jiang Yuan softly called out the name Beiluo Shimen in his mind. A flash of white light later, the curled-up Beiluo Shimen appeared before him.
Having expended too much energy supporting Jiang Yuan's transformation into Beichen Star Lord, Beiluo Shimen had fallen into a deep slumber, unresponsive no matter how Jiang Yuan called out.
"Sigh! You've been through a lot!"
Jiang Yuan gently stroked Beiluo Shimen's fluffy body with some concern, prepared its favorite dried fish and water, placed them in the study, and then turned to leave the home realm.
By then, Hamster Pudding had finished her sect quests and sent Jiang Yuan a party invitation. Joining the group, he saw that after completing twenty rounds of sect quests, Hamster Pudding had leveled up to 107.
"Darling, where are you? I'll come find you!"
Ever since Jiang Yuan announced their CP status in front of the high-level players of Hanjiang City yesterday, Hamster Pudding had changed how she addressed him.
When Hamster Pudding found Jiang Yuan via the coordinates he sent, the two walked hand in hand to the dungeon teleport NPC. A large crowd of players had gathered there, all looking to form parties for dungeons—likely spurred on by the official release of the celestial realm CG animation, rushing to level up fast!
Facing a flood of party requests, Jiang Yuan rejected them all. After all, having more people in the dungeon meant splitting the experience with Hamster Pudding, which would slow down her leveling.
Soon, Jiang Yuan soloed several weekly dungeons. Hamster Pudding only needed to stand back, heal him, and apply a few buffs to effortlessly gain experience, which she found incredibly satisfying!
The weekly dungeons offered generous experience. After clearing them, even Jiang Yuan gained a level, while Hamster Pudding jumped two levels, reaching 109.
"If only we could run weekly dungeons every day!"
Looking at her two-level boost, Hamster Pudding said wistfully.
"If that were the case, we'd probably have ascended to the celestial realm by now, haha."
Jiang Yuan chuckled at her complaint.
"Where to next for leveling?"
After teleporting out of the dungeon, Hamster Pudding tugged Jiang Yuan's hand and asked.
Jiang Yuan thought for a moment and decided to take Hamster Pudding to clear today's ten rounds of the battlefield first. While the battlefield didn't offer as much experience as weekly dungeons, it had the advantage of being doable ten times a day!
The level 105 battlefield was called the "Martial Siege Battlefield," and even Jiang Yuan was entering it for the first time. The two approached the battlefield NPC, "Myriad Realm War God," opened the registration dialog, and chose the "Hidden Immortal Pavilion" faction.
Luckily, no other players registered by the time registration ended. With a flash of white light, they were teleported into the battlefield's exclusive realm map.
Once inside, Jiang Yuan scanned the area and found the level 105 battlefield's overall style similar to the level 90 "Blazing Prison Battlefield," except the main color scheme shifted from fiery red to a more comfortable white-green. The map still had three lanes—top, middle, and bottom—each with two towering defensive turrets, inner and outer. Only by destroying all six turrets across the three lanes would the hidden main building of War Dragon Pavilion be revealed.
Minutes later, under the unstoppable assault of the sacred beast Xuanwu summoned by Jiang Yuan, the inner and outer turrets of all three lanes fell one by one, exposing the majestic main building of War Dragon Pavilion before Jiang Yuan and Hamster Pudding.
After demolishing the main building, each gained 200 million experience points, making Hamster Pudding exclaim in delight!
"I want more! I want more!"
Coming out of the battlefield, Hamster Pudding, having tasted the sweetness, grabbed Jiang Yuan's arm excitedly.
But to their disappointment, as other players above level 105 finished their dungeons, the number of registrants gradually increased from the second round onward.
The level 105 Martial Siege Battlefield started with three players, grew to five, and eventually turned into a 5v5 brawl between Hidden Immortal Pavilion and War Dragon Pavilion!
Jiang Yuan and Hamster Pudding fought fiercely against the War Dragon Pavilion players for six rounds, ending today's ten rounds with a perfect ten-win record, pushing Hamster Pudding's level to 110!
After the ten battles, Jiang Yuan took Hamster Pudding to search for field bosses across the mountains. But to his great disappointment, the respawn times for field bosses were far too long. They checked several spots only to find all bosses still on cooldown!
With the game update looming tomorrow, which would surely open the celestial realm map, if they couldn't reach level 120 before 9 a.m., they'd miss the chance to enter the celestial realm first and fall out of the elite first-tier player group on the Dragon Kingdom server!
"What do we do?"
Looking at the ten-level gap to 120, Hamster Pudding's face fell, and she said dejectedly.
"Wait! I just thought of a place!"
Jiang Yuan, equally stumped, furrowed his brow in thought for a long time before suddenly clapping his hands as a spark of inspiration hit him. He looked at Hamster Pudding with a smile.
"Where? Where?"
Eager to level up, Hamster Pudding immediately tugged his hand back and forth, asking in a sweet voice.
"Kunlun Immortal Realm—a place I almost forgot about."
Jiang Yuan suddenly recalled a map mentioned by Shadowmoon Valley's leader Zhang Yang earlier, but he'd neglected it after getting hooked on PvP gameplay.
"Kunlun Immortal Realm? Where's that? I've never heard of it?"
Hearing the name from Jiang Yuan, Hamster Pudding looked completely clueless, as if the place was utterly unfamiliar.
Jiang Yuan opened the Huaxia map and searched for it, only to unexpectedly find that the entrance to Kunlun Immortal Realm happened to be at the easternmost edge of Tianshan Yao Pool!
"Follow me!"
Jiang Yuan took Hamster Pudding's hand, and together they went to the teleport NPC in Shangjing City, teleporting near Yumen Pass.
"Oh! Why are we here again?"
Seeing Jiang Yuan bring her back to this place, Hamster Pudding couldn't help but ask.
"The entrance to Kunlun Immortal Realm is deep inside Tianshan Yao Pool. Before too many people discover it, let's go farm it hard!"
Jiang Yuan summoned a Dragon Beard Tiger, mounted it, and signaled Hamster Pudding to do the same. Together, they whipped their mounts and galloped straight toward Tianshan Yao Pool!