"Blood Covenant Scroll, summon the power of the stars to manifest as the Vermilion Bird, pledge to me!" High above the mysterious sky, a beam of starlight pierced through the void, shining into the Illusory Moon Cave, as an ancient and weathered voice resounded in all directions. "Caw!" With a clear cry, the sacred beast Vermilion Bird, bathed in flames, slowly appeared above everyone's heads, spreading its wings like clouds covering the sky, blotting out the sun. "Wow! So beautiful!" Though the group had seen Jiang Yuan summon the Vermilion Bird before, the upgraded version seemed much more lifelike, its form more condensed, prompting Chuangshi Xiaoyun to exclaim in admiration. The level 2 Vermilion Bird boasted an attack power of 700,000. As it spat a stream of flames down at a few Howling Moon Spiders on the ground, damage numbers immediately popped up! -5,690,000 -15,640,000 (Critical Hit) -4,980,000 With a critical hit, Jiang Yuan's Vermilion Bird dealt 15 million damage, matching the output of the mega-whale Wen Ding Cang Sheng. "Boo-hoo, why are your damage numbers so explosive, while mine..." Seeing Jiang Yuan's summoned beast's burst damage, Chuangshi Xiaoyun, also a damage-dealing class, felt crushed. She pouted and muttered, looking a bit upset. "Xiaoyun, don't compare yourself to those two freaks. One spent tens of millions, the other nearly ten million. If they dealt the same damage as you, they might as well go hit themselves with a tofu block!" Ding Ye, noticing Chuangshi Xiaoyun's mood, quickly tried to comfort her. But his words only made her feel worse! "Ding Ye, haven't you been trying to chase me? If you top up ten million for me too, I'll agree to be your girlfriend!" Whether out of irritation or just teasing Ding Ye, Chuangshi Xiaoyun turned her beautiful eyes to him and dropped that bombshell! "Huh? What? This..." Caught off guard, Ding Ye froze, stunned by her question. "Hmph! You men are all the same, just sweet talk!" Seeing Ding Ye stammer, Chuangshi Xiaoyun grew angrier, stomped her foot, and walked off to the side alone. "Buding." Jiang Yuan quickly gestured to the hamster Buding, signaling her to go cheer her up. After a few minutes, Buding finally led back a teary-eyed Chuangshi Xiaoyun, who had clearly been crying, and the group continued forward. On the ground, Ding Ye, the tank with massive HP, led the way, while Jiang Yuan directed the Vermilion Bird to carpet-bomb the monsters along the path from above. Each Howling Moon Spider provided the five of them with 800,000 cultivation points, along with some gold coins, Creation Pearls, and Primordial Pearls, occasionally dropping a few Victory Stones, which were randomly picked up into their inventories. With the Vermilion Bird clearing the way, the team of five safely passed through the Rest Gate and arrived at the Open Gate in the northeast corner. The Open Gate was much narrower than the Life Gate, only 1.5 meters wide, allowing just two people to enter side by side. So, Ding Ye and Wen Ding Cang Sheng, the two tankier warriors, took the lead, with Chuangshi Xiaoyun and Jiang Yuan in the middle, while the team's sole healer, Buding, was protected at the back. Entering the Open Gate one by one, Jiang Yuan and the others found themselves in a stone chamber less than ten square meters, packed with monsters called "Poison-Tailed Scorpions!" "Squeak!" As soon as these Poison-Tailed Scorpions spotted the intruders, they screeched and charged. The cramped terrain limited Jiang Yuan's options, preventing him from summoning the massive Vermilion Bird, so he opted for the smaller Dragon-Whisker Tiger to assist in battle. "Roar!" A thousand Dragon-Whisker Tigers filled the already small space to the brim, leaving Ding Ye and Wen Ding Cang Sheng at the front barely able to move. "Hey! Yuanzi, what the hell are you doing! I can barely fight the monsters!" Ding Ye, stuck in place by the tiger models, turned back with difficulty to complain to Jiang Yuan. "Hold on!" Jiang Yuan reassured him and immediately used the "Summoned Beast Evolution" skill, evolving the thousand Dragon-Whisker Tigers into a single Earth-tier Dragon-Whisker Tiger. To Jiang Yuan's disappointment, the Earth-tier tiger's damage was lackluster, unable to clear monsters as quickly as the Vermilion Bird. At the back of the group, Chuangshi Xiaoyun and Buding swapped positions. Chuangshi Xiaoyun leaned by the door, firing arrows at the monsters, but her mediocre stats made her damage unimpressive. Ding Ye, the main tank, was even worse. With the worst Dharma Body and Primordial Infant, even after the update boosted his attack, his damage was still like scraping a wound. In an instant, the burden of dealing damage fell entirely on the mega-whale Wen Ding Cang Sheng! Soon, on the team damage chart, Wen Ding Cang Sheng's total output surpassed Jiang Yuan's, topping the list with 120 million damage! After over half an hour, relying almost solely on Wen Ding Cang Sheng, they finally cleared all the monsters at the Open Gate. His damage had accumulated to nearly 200 million, while Jiang Yuan, in second place, had only over 70 million—most of which came from the Vermilion Bird earlier! Heh heh! Turns out slacking off is this fun! The five of them passed through the narrow Open Gate and jumped down from a high platform. The path ahead began to twist, heading north from the east. As the terrain widened, Jiang Yuan stopped slacking, summoned the Vermilion Bird, and began mowing down the dense elite monsters. [Ding! Your team has defeated the elite monster Howling Moon Spider, gaining 800,000 cultivation points, Creation Pearl x100, Gold Brick x3!] [Ding! Your team has defeated the elite monster Poison-Tailed Scorpion, gaining 1,000,000 cultivation points, Creation Pearl x100, Primordial Pearl x100, Victory Stone x1!] [Ding! Your team has defeated the elite monster Illusion Flame Demon, gaining 1,200,000 cultivation points, Creation Pearl x200, Primordial Pearl x200, Gold Brick x1, Victory Stone x5!] The system kept chiming notifications in everyone's ears, and their cultivation points slowly grew. Jiang Yuan checked his cultivation pool—from the Life Gate onward, he'd gained roughly the equivalent of 100 Taiji Golden Pills! The northern position of the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation was the Alarm Gate, one of the five dangerous gates in this array. The gates of Harm, Block, Alarm, Death, and Scenery were unlucky, while Life, Rest, and Open were lucky. As the group entered the Alarm Gate, a giant two-zhang tall suddenly appeared before them. "Oh my god! It's the Four Heavenly Kings!" Recognizing the name of the gatekeeper boss, Jiang Yuan exclaimed in shock. "Four Heavenly Kings? I know them! Lau Wah-wah, Cheung Yau-yau, Kwok Shing-shing, Lai Ming-ming!" Ding Ye's comment earned him a kick from Jiang Yuan, sparking laughter from the group!