Everyone thought Nie Yan was dead. However, moments later their hopes were shattered as they spotted a silhouette leisurely walking out of the storm of electricity.
Crackling electricity danced around Nie Yan’s body, unable to harm him in the slightest. He appeared to be protected by a barrier of light.
Nie Yan was actually still alive!
Wrapped around in electricity, Nie Yan seemed like a god right now.
A heavy pressure bore down on the players of Angel Corps.
“I-i-impossible…”
“He-he’s still alive? Even after all that? H-how…?”
...
The players stared at Nie Yan like they were staring at a freak. They wondered if he even had a health bar. Perhaps he truly was invincible.
A sense of helplessness welled up in their hearts. The invincible legend lived on.
No one knew what to do against Nie Yan. The Warriors stopped in their tracks. The Mages forgot to cast their magic. They had lost all will to fight. It seemed like nothing they did against him worked.
To capture his death for the world to see, the Angel Corps players were all recording this moment. So, everyone got to see Nie Yan leisurely walking out into the open. He was truly awe inspiring.
A moment before the Storm Totems detonated, Nie Yan had protected himself with Adjudicator of God.
Even with so many Storm Totems exploding, Nie Yan wasn’t harmed in the slightest. One could imagine the mental blow dealt to the players of Angel Corps. Love Shore had died for nothing. Nie Yan had thoroughly crushed their morale.
Paladin Lafus and Lil’ Gold were unstoppable. Lil’ Gold was spewing out Dragon Breath everywhere, droves of players going up in flames. After chanting out an incantation, he called down a scorching hot meteor. BOOOOM! The surroundings were engulfed in a sea of flames.
Most of these players were already over Level 100. They certainly were no pushovers. However, they still had no way of defending against the unrivalled teamwork of Lil’ Gold and Paladin Lafus.
Paladin Lafus and Lil’ Gold left behind a trail of bodies in their wake. They were dominating and decimating the forces of Angel Corps.
“R-r-run!”
“Everyone, retreat!”
The battlefield was in shambles. There were corpses piling up everywhere. Almost 600 Angel Corps players had died already. The survivors all retreated and disappeared into the forest.
10 minutes of chaotic fighting later, calm finally returned.
Nie Yan examined himself. His health had fallen by a tiny bit, but it wasn’t by much. Lil’ Gold and Paladin Lafus’s wounds were far more serious. However, with Lafus’ overpowered healing, they would quickly recover back to mint condition.
After collecting all the equipment off the ground, Nie Yan sat down and recuperated. He waited for Ronin, Suyo, and the others to revive.
The corpse of the Shaman in Ronin’s party lay on the forest floor. Suddenly, a white light enveloped his body.
The Shaman’s fingers twitched. He opened his eyes and sat up. After reviving, he only had 500 health and his mana bar was completely empty. As he sat there recuperating, he spotted Nie Yan. He slightly bowed his head in greeting.
Nie Yan nodded in acknowledgement. Even though they hadn’t interacted much, he could tell this Shaman was an honest and straightforward person.
After the Shaman had recovered some mana, he stood up and walked over to Ronin’s corpse. A faint blue light gathered in his palms. About six seconds later, he raised his hands up to the sky in a prayer-like posture. In the next moment, a dazzling blue radiance wrapped around Ronin. His body twitched, and he got back up from the ground.
In similar fashion, one party member after another was revived by the Shaman, save for one person.
“Should I revive Violet Night?” the Shaman asked Ronin.
Ronin shook his head. “I’ve already kicked him out of the team.”
This incident was the final straw. Even if Violet Night was somewhat skilled, Ronin no longer wanted him on the team.
Ronin gazed around at the surroundings petrified. The previous lush forest floor was nowhere to be found. Now, there were corpses scattered all over the battlefield, and what little ground wasn’t covered by body parts, was scarred with scorch marks and craters.
Ronin, Suyo, and the others glanced at each other, their eyes filled with indescribable shock.
In such a short amount of time, more than half of Angel Corps’ 1,000+ players had died while the survivors had all fled. They gazed into the distance. Nie Yan was just peacefully sitting there, like nothing had happened.
Nirvana Flame really lived up to his reputation!
After Ronin’s party finished recuperating, they all walked over to Nie Yan.
“You know, we all had our suspicions that you were Nirvana Flame. After all, which Thief besides you could solo Level 180 Elites?” Ronin sighed in admiration.
Nie Yan faintly smiled, not taking Ronin’s words seriously. “There are at least three others in Asskickers United alone that can do the same.”
Ronin was dumbstruck. “You mean Sun, King of the World, and Mistaken Smile?”
“Oh, you’ve heard of them before?”
Ronin nodded. “Of course, who hasn’t heard the names of the four great Shadow Dancers in Asskickers United?” However, he had no idea Sun, King of the World, and Mistaken Smile were also capable of soloing Level 180 Elites. He was shocked. “Does that mean all Shadow Dancers can...?”
“I’m not too sure either, but I think more or less,” Nie Yan replied. In any case, soloing a Level 180 Elite was far from his limit.
“Wow. Makes me really want to become a Master too.” Ronin sighed.
“Let’s leave quickly. Who knows if Angel Corps will dispatch more forces here,” Suyo said in a concerned tone.
“Don’t worry. They don’t have enough Masters to spare for that,” Nie Yan unhurriedly said. In other words, even if Angel Corps did send more people, they would only end up as cannon fodder.
“I kicked Violet Night out of the team. I’m guessing information about the treasure map won’t stay a secret for much longer,” Ronin said. If the major guilds discovered there was a treasure trove here, they would definitely spare no efforts to obtain it. Even though a Level 130 Demonified Lord was an existence far too powerful to take on in the conventional way, there was no guarantee that others wouldn’t think of a special method to deal with it.
“I have a plan. I think it’s worth giving a shot. But we’ll need some help. Can you guys recruit some top rank Shamans? They have to be trustworthy,” Nie Yan said.
“If we have the funds, it’s definitely possible,” Ronin said. His social circle in the Satreen Empire was pretty wide.
“How much do you need?”
“The employment fee of a top rank Shaman is about 2,000 gold a day. How many do you need?”
“10 should be enough,” Nie Yan replied. 20,000 gold was a drop in the bucket for him. “Aside from the Shamans, I’ll also call over some people from Asskickers United.”
“Alright.” Ronin nodded. “We’ll start looking for people right away.”
Ronin and Suyo immediately got to work, contacting all their friends.
Ronin and Suyo seemed to be pretty well-connected. Nie Yan suddenly thought of something. “After seeing you guys together with me, Angel Corps definitely won’t let you off the hook. If you ever want a change of scenery, I’d be glad to have you in Asskickers United.”
Nie Yan believed this kind of offer was quite tempting, not to mention this was a personal invite from him. One had to know, countless players could only dream of entering Asskickers United. After all, it was a gathering place of experts, and the benefits were worth drooling over.
Ronin and Suyo glanced at each other.
Suyo shook her head with a small smile. “Thank you, but this is home. All our friends are here. Besides, it’s not like this is our first brush with Angel Corps. Our intel is pretty good. If they want to kill us, they’ll have to expend quite a bit of manpower and resources.”
“Took the words right out of my mouth.” Ronin brightly laughed.
Nie Yan nodded. He knew what Ronin and Suyo meant. They were already deeply entrenched in the Satreen Empire. Even though moving to the Viridian Empire and joining Asskickers United was tempting, there were still many hurdles to overcome. As people from a foreign nation, doing quests, buying items, talking to NPCs, everything would be much more difficult. They wouldn’t necessarily have a better life than in the Satreen Empire. At least here, they had their friends, sources of information, income, and so on.
“I understand,” Nie Yan said. He naturally wouldn’t force Ronin and Suyo to join Asskickers United.
“You know~ If you ever decide to establish a branch guild in the Satreen Empire, we’d definitely be willing to pitch in,” Suyo said.
Suyo’s bright eyes seemed to see right through Nie Yan. Her expression flashed with a hint of craftiness.
Nie Yan chuckled. Suyo was quite the intelligent lass. She had read his mind. He actually did have thoughts of establishing a branch guild in the Satreen Empire. The only problem was that this was enemy territory. Without any connections, it would be pretty much impossible.
“Establishing a guild is the simple part. As long as we have the funds, we can probably recruit 30,000 players within a month’s time,” Ronin said. He was fairly confident in his connections. However, he didn’t think Nie Yan would actually pay the money. So, he was just speaking thoughtlessly.
“How much gold would you need?” Nie Yan asked.
“Uhh… I guess like 300,000 gold to get things off the ground? It’s hard to say how much more we’ll need to continue expanding though,” Ronin gave his estimation.
“Alright, done. So long as you guys are willing to work on my behalf, I can give you the 300,000 gold right now. When we’re done here, you can start establishing the guild,” Nie Yan said after thinking for a moment.
Ronin was dumbstruck. “R-really? You’re not afraid we’re going to take your money and run?”
“Don’t doubt those you trust. Don’t trust those you doubt. I believe you guys are trustworthy. If you guys do take the gold and run away, I can only blame myself for being a bad judge of character,” Nie Yan said with a faint smile.
Ronin stared at Nie Yan in a bit of a daze, but he quickly snapped back to his senses. He was touched. Nie Yan had completely won him over. He couldn’t help but sigh in admiration. “No wonder Asskickers United is known for being unrivalled. I’m starting to understand why so many top experts are willing to stand by your side.”