The True Martial Sword Pavilion was originally a trial ground left by the True Martial Emperor to select disciples for the True Martial Hall, but it has now become a scenario dungeon accessible to all players.
As the scene shifted, the five members of the team found themselves on a narrow path sandwiched between two towering mountains. They followed the winding trail upward until they reached a large archway inscribed with the words "True Martial Sword Pavilion."
Beneath the archway was a spatial rift, its interior shimmering with divine light, obscuring any clear view of what lay within. Ding Ye, the team's tankiest member, was about to step in when the team leader, Wen Ding Cang Sheng, stopped him and said, "Don't rush in yet. Let's all apply every buff we can outside first and top off our stats before entering."
"Truly a seasoned commander—props to you!"
After Wen Ding Cang Sheng spoke, Jiang Yuan smiled and gave him a thumbs-up.
A series of white lights flickered as Hamster Pudding applied the corresponding buffs to each team member. Then, several damage-dealing classes pulled out special potions and downed a few bottles. Jiang Yuan also chugged several potions, boosting his max HP, magic attack, critical hit rate, and critical damage, fully kitting himself out.
"Let's go in!"
With Wen Ding Cang Sheng's command, the team formed up in formation, with Ding Ye at the forefront, and stepped into the spatial rift.
Their vision blurred, and upon entering the rift, they found themselves in a spacious stone chamber. The room was bare, devoid of furniture, with a massive ant at its center, standing about five or six meters tall.
【Mythical Boss: Mutant Ant Emperor】 Level: 130 Realm: First-Tier Demon Fiend HP: 1 Billion Attack: 50,000 Defense: 150,000
Glancing at the boss's stats, its attack wasn't high, but its HP and defense were enormous, and it only had one skill: continuously summoning smaller ants.
Pfft! -210,000
Ding Ye, charging at the front, was swarmed by a group of small ants. Multiple yellow critical damage numbers popped up above his head, and his HP instantly dropped by nearly a million!
"Watch out, these little ants hit hard!"
Ding Ye quickly shouted a warning, activating his newly acquired artifact, the Carefree Fan, and slammed it down at a nearby small ant.
"Carefree Dream!"
With a loud cry, Ding Ye's artifact skill dealt over 2 million damage, reducing the small ant to half HP.
"Jiang Yuan, I'll need you to clear these mobs—there are too many."
Ding Ye cast "Mocking Taunt" to apply a damage reduction buff to himself, then turned to Jiang Yuan.
"Summon Dragon Beard Tiger!" "Summon Evolution!" "Heavenly Dragon Beard Tiger!" "Blood Pact Scroll, draw upon the power of the stars to manifest the Black Tortoise, bound to me." "Blood Pact Scroll, draw upon the power of the stars to manifest the Vermilion Bird, bound to me." "Blood Pact Scroll, draw upon the power of the stars to manifest the White Tiger, bound to me."
As Ding Ye finished speaking, Jiang Yuan nodded and began summoning his creatures. Soon, a Heavenly Dragon Beard Tiger and three sacred beasts appeared, launching indiscriminate carpet-bombing attacks on the swarm of small ants filling the room.
"Squeak!"
The high-damage small ants summoned by the Mutant Ant Emperor let out piercing squeaks as they fell in droves under the area attacks of Jiang Yuan's three sacred beasts, dropping materials like Creation Pearls and Spirit Pearls on the ground.
The team fought for a while, only to find that the small ants weren't decreasing but instead multiplying, giving the feeling they could never be fully cleared.
"Stop focusing on the little ones—try hitting the big guy."
Sensing something was off, Wen Ding Cang Sheng quickly reminded the team, shifting their target to attack the Mutant Ant Emperor.
"Use your artifact skills on it to apply debuffs!"
Jiang Yuan activated his artifact, the Demon-Suppressing Ruler, striking the boss, then turned to address the team.
"Carefree Dream!" "Brilliant Starfall!" "Emerald Flash!"
Three streaks of light instantly crashed onto the boss's head: a fan engraved with patterns, an ancient-style palace lantern, and a fist-sized ring shimmering with a faint green glow. After the three artifacts struck, three debuffs appeared above the boss.
Ding Ye's Carefree Fan inflicted a 12-second food seal on the boss, Hamster Pudding's Soul-Lost Lantern applied a debuff increasing damage taken by 33% for 4 seconds, and Wen Ding Cang Sheng's Qiankun Green Light Ring reduced the boss's defense by 30% for 12 seconds.
"The boss is broken—hit it with a burst!"
Seeing the defense-break mark from his artifact above the boss, Wen Ding Cang Sheng shouted to the team.
"Phoenix Cry Imperial Slash!" "Armor-Piercing God-Slaying Arrow!" "Black Tortoise Art: Water Annihilates the Eight Wastes!" "Vermilion Bird Art: Blazing Blood Feathers!" "White Tiger Art: Seven Kill Sword!"
Ding Ye, Jiang Yuan, and Chuang Shi Xiao Yun immediately unleashed their highest-damage skills. Combined with Wen Ding Cang Sheng's defense break and Hamster Pudding's damage amplification debuff, this burst round dealt a whopping 300 million damage to the boss!
After the burst, Jiang Yuan summoned ten thousand Sand River Turtles and tossed them into the ant swarm to taunt the small ants. Otherwise, these mobs hit too hard, and without Ding Ye's thick HP pool, the rest of the team could easily be overwhelmed.
Sure enough, with the ten thousand Sand River Turtles in play, including Ding Ye, the team felt the pressure lift. Their HP loss slowed significantly, and Hamster Pudding breathed a huge sigh of relief, laughing, "Jiang Yuan, why didn't you use this skill earlier? I was barely keeping up with healing—your HP was dropping too fast."
"Pudding, you're still amazing. I trust your healing—solid work!"
"Everyone, grab the materials on the ground while you can, or they'll disappear soon."
Jiang Yuan first smiled at Hamster Pudding, then reminded the team to pick up the drops from the mobs at their feet.
The first stage of the True Martial Sword Pavilion dungeon was rather monotonous—just beating down the massive Mutant Ant Emperor boss. If not for its absurdly thick HP and high defense making the fight drag on, a team with Jiang Yuan's setup would have cleared it long ago.
The cooldown for artifact skills was about five to six seconds. As soon as the four members with artifacts had their cooldowns ready, they immediately struck the boss, ensuring a steady stream of debuffs from their artifact effects to support the team's damage output.
After about half an hour, the damage-dealing classes in the team had gone through three burst cycles before finally killing the first-stage boss. A pile of light pillars erupted on the ground, and a system notification chimed in their ears.
【Ding! Congratulations on defeating the boss Mutant Ant Emperor. Rewards: 1,000 Tai Chi Golden Pills, 1,000 Creation Pearls, 1,000 Spirit Pearls, 500 Lian Tian Battle Jade, 20 Qianhua Dragon Tendons!】