[Ding! Player Hamster Pudding has joined the team!]
About half an hour later, Hamster Pudding arrived belatedly and joined the team Jiang Yuan and the others had formed.
"Sister Weiwei, you're finally here!"
Seeing Hamster Pudding join the team, Chuangshi Xiaoyun quickly greeted her. In real life, Chuangshi Xiaoyun and Hamster Pudding were close friends, so she directly called her by her real name.
"Boss, we've been waiting so long for you!"
Ding Ye, the team leader, also shouted excitedly to Hamster Pudding. Without a healer, Ding Ye didn't dare to start the instance!
"Alright, Ding Ye, go ahead and start the instance!"
Hamster Pudding sent a message in the team channel, telling Ding Ye to go to the NPC to open the instance.
"Got it! Wait a moment, I'll pull you all into the instance!"
Ding Ye said in the team channel, then went silent.
At the northwest corner of Liuyun City, a special NPC responsible for managing instances was set up, named "Void Realm Immortal Official." This wasn't an original deity from the celestial realm but was deliberately created by the system.
Ding Ye teleported to Liuyun City and quickly arrived before the "Void Realm Immortal Official." He first converted the team into a raid group, then had a conversation with the NPC, and promptly entered the instance first!
[Ding! Player Ding Dashuai has sent you an instance invitation. Do you wish to enter?]
Soon, a system prompt sounded in Jiang Yuan's ear. He nodded slightly to accept, and then felt the scene before him abruptly shift, appearing in a mysterious cave dwelling.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Several flashes of white light appeared, and Ding Ye, Hamster Pudding, Wending Cangsheng, and Chuangshi Xiaoyun materialized one after another beside Jiang Yuan.
Jiang Yuan opened the map and took a look, finding that their location resembled a Tai Chi Bagua pattern. The map marked eight doors: Rest, Life, Wound, Block, Scene, Death, Shock, and Open!
Their team was currently positioned at the Life Gate among the eight doors, located in the southeast corner of the map.
"What the heck is this?"
Ding Ye looked at the map, completely clueless about the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams, and scratched his head with a bewildered expression.
"No idea. Do you guys know?"
Chuangshi Xiaoyun was equally confused, shaking her head and looking at Wending Cangsheng and Hamster Pudding.
"Jiang Yuan, you're a literature major. Can you make sense of this?"
Hamster Pudding cast a questioning glance at Jiang Yuan. She knew he studied literature and thought he might be able to shed some light.
After Hamster Pudding asked, everyone's attention turned to Jiang Yuan.
"I only know its name from an ancient text I read before, but I don't understand its intricacies at all."
Jiang Yuan looked at the group, shook his head, and said.
"Knowing the name is better than being completely in the dark! Tell us quickly, what is this thing?"
Ding Ye nudged Jiang Yuan with his elbow, urging him.
"I saw in an ancient book that this is one of the top ten ancient formations, called the Eight-Door Golden Lock Formation."
Jiang Yuan immediately shared the little he knew about the formation with the four people present.
"Damn! Looks like you need some education to play games these days!"
After hearing Jiang Yuan's explanation, Ding Ye gave a wry smile and said.
"Hey, we can check the quest hints. Maybe we'll find some clues!"
At that moment, Chuangshi Xiaoyun had a bright idea and quickly said to everyone.
[Quest Hint: Eliminate all monsters in the Phantom Moon Cave.]
Jiang Yuan opened the quest list upon hearing this, only to find that the hint contained just that one vague sentence.
"Seriously, this hint is as good as saying nothing!"
Wending Cangsheng read the quest hint and said in exasperation.
"Sigh, for now, we'll have to take it step by step. Let's go in first and figure it out."
Although Jiang Yuan was a literature student, he studied "literature," not "mysticism." He could only sigh helplessly and make the suggestion.
"Yeah, let's go, let's go! I'll take the lead!"
Ding Ye, who was never afraid of anything, immediately stepped forward and led the way into the Life Gate.
Jiang Yuan glanced at Ding Ye's stats. He had to admit, setting aside attack power, Ding Ye definitely had the thickest health among the warrior class!
Without the boost from an Infant Soul, relying solely on class traits, Ding Ye's current health had already reached one million!
Following Ding Ye, Wending Cangsheng, Jiang Yuan, Chuangshi Xiaoyun, and Hamster Pudding filed in one by one, beginning their exploration from the Life Gate of this massive "Eight-Door Golden Lock Formation."
The first stretch of the path was uneventful. After continuing about fifty meters forward, near the Rest Gate to the east, countless giant spiders appeared before them.
[Elite Monster: Howling Moon Spider] Level: 130 HP: 50 million Attack: 20,000 Defense: 20,000
"Whoosh!"
Chuangshi Xiaoyun fired an arrow from a distance at the spider, which stood two to three meters tall. The arrow hit precisely, exploding on the Howling Moon Spider's surface!
-890,000
The sharpshooter Chuangshi Xiaoyun's "Explosive Arrow" dealt impressive damage, thoroughly enraging the group of Howling Moon Spiders. Their eight slender legs beneath their abdomens moved swiftly, and soon they were right in front of Jiang Yuan and the others.
"Mocking Taunt!"
Ding Ye stood at the front, activating his group taunt skill, firmly holding the monsters' aggro while also gaining a 50% damage reduction.
-9,960 -10,120 -9,530
Several damage numbers floated above Ding Ye's head. Thanks to his high damage reduction, the Howling Moon Spiders' attacks only dealt a little over 10,000 damage to Ding Ye, which was like a tickle to his tough hide.
Smack!
Wending Cangsheng landed a skill on the Howling Moon Spider in front of him, dealing over 13 million damage!
"What the hell! When did Brother Wending Cangsheng get so awesome?"
Seeing damage dozens of times higher than his own, Ding Ye stared at Wending Cangsheng as if he'd seen a ghost, exclaiming in shock.
"Shh! That's my money power!"
Wending Cangsheng winked at Ding Ye, joking about himself.
"Is this the gap between a whale player and a free-to-play player?"
Comparing the damage dealt by the average-geared Chuangshi Xiaoyun and Wending Cangsheng, who had the server's first top-tier Infant Soul, Jiang Yuan felt a huge shock!
From a class perspective, the sharpshooter's output was clearly higher than the warrior's, but after Wending Cangsheng's heavy spending on powerful stats and the post-update boost to warrior attack power, he left players like Chuangshi Xiaoyun in the dust!
"I wonder how my output is now."
Jiang Yuan felt eager to try, quickly raising his hand to summon the level 2 Sacred Beast Vermilion Bird!