After the minotaur breathed its last, Chen Yan lowered his longbow and walked out of the cave. As he walked, he looked around and sniffed the air for information.
At the same time, from the string of iron puppets hanging from his belt, a spider-shaped puppet detached itself and dropped down. While in midair, the puppet expanded back to its original size, growing from the size of a fingernail to that of a millstone.
The spider puppet moved with extreme agility, crawling over to the minotaur and beginning to retrieve the arrows embedded in the ground.
Though Chen Yan was incredibly wealthy and losing a few divine-artifact arrows was nothing to him, he had taken Bone Guard Two's teachings to heart. He had developed a habit of cleaning up the battlefield and recycling resources after every fight.
The spider puppet quickly pulled out all the arrows and carried them on its back. However, it did not return immediately. Instead, it crawled onto the minotaur, snapped its two sharp fangs together, and severed the minotaur's head.
It then spat out a glob of special mucus, wrapping the minotaur's head inside. Upon contact with the air, the mucus quickly solidified into an incredibly hard, transparent substance resembling amber.
Next, rather than grabbing the head with its sharp legs, the spider puppet deployed a special device from its back. The device activated a gravity magic spell, drawing the head to it.
With that done, the spider puppet prepared to return to Chen Yan's side. However, as it turned, one of its sharp, long legs accidentally sliced through the minotaur's skin.
Instantly, a rich aroma of roasted meat wafted out, causing the spider puppet's movements to freeze.
Chen Yan, who had already finished surveying the surroundings and decided on his next hunting target, turned around and saw the spider puppet's state. He shook his head and barked an order.
“Rose!”
Hearing Chen Yan's voice, Rose shuddered. In the next second, utilizing all eight of its long legs, it scrambled back behind him.
Rose carefully extended its legs, hooked onto the protrusions of Chen Yan's armor, and climbed onto his back. It stuffed the arrows back into the quiver, thoughtfully arranging them so they wouldn't be messy.
Then, Rose crawled onto Chen Yan's chest. The device on its back resonated with the pattern on his breastplate. After a flash of light, the minotaur's head was transferred into Chen Yan's personal storage space.
With everything completed, Rose rubbed against Chen Yan's hand before shrinking back down and returning to his belt.
“The hunt begins!”
Before his voice could fade, the armor on Chen Yan's body rippled with energy. In the next instant, under the gaze of trillions of viewers, Chen Yan vanished entirely, entering stealth.
“The armor worn by the Third Young Lord of the Undead is of extraordinary quality,” Huang Tianchen remarked. “It exudes a faint, unholy aura and can even ignite hellfire. Even the minotaur, famous for being a meat shield, couldn't last long against it.”
“Hahaha, the hellfire is just supplementary,” Qian Youcai laughed. “The real terror lies in those mythic-tier arrows. Every single arrow is engraved with over ninety-nine legendary-tier spells and more than nine mythic-tier spells. Once they hit an enemy, the magic within is triggered instantly, dealing massive damage.”
“Ninety-nine legendary-tier spells? Nine mythic-tier spells?” Da Wu's eyes widened. “That must cost a fortune, right?”
Qian Youcai laughed heartily and said, “It certainly does, but to Young Lord Chen, it's not even worth mentioning.”
【Young God of Magic: Just pocket change? Mythic-tier arrows engraved with so many high-tier spells is called 'not worth mentioning'? Does that lord accept adoptive sons? I don't want to work hard anymore.】
【AAA Mythic Equipment Customization Service: Even if you are the manager of the Myriad Crucible, isn't that a bit of an exaggeration? Using divine artifacts as consumables, and you call that 'not worth mentioning'?】
Qian Youcai's sixth sense triggered instantly. Out of the billions of bullet comments, he precisely caught the one looking down on his major patron.
With that, Qian Youcai cleared his throat. “For those questioning Young Lord Chen's wealth, I can only tell you a story,” he said.
“Originally, Young Lord Chen wanted to use firearms instead of a bow and arrow. He had already manufactured a large batch of mythic-tier bullets. However, he later realized that firearms emptied their clips too quickly and the recovery rate of the bullets was too low. Only then did he switch to a bow.”
【Young God of Magic: ???】
【Black Magic Master: What do you mean by mythic-tier bullets? In a firearm system, isn't it enough for the gun itself to be a divine artifact? Since when do bullets have tiers too???】
Qian Youcai smiled but said nothing to the crowd's shock, offering no further explanation.
At this moment, Miracle applied a temporary patch, allowing Chen Yan's figure to reappear on the screen.
The stealth spell previously cast by Chen Yan's armor was actually created by Miracle. It had not expected Chen Yan to engrave a skill it had casually designed onto his armor.
It took Miracle a bit of time to bypass its own creation, allowing the audience to view Chen Yan normally.
Once the footage was restored, Chen Yan could be seen darting through the forest. His armor granted him the ability to fly—and silently, without generating any wind, at that.
Soon, another contestant appeared on the screen. It was an insect yokai, a Heavenly Dragon.
This Heavenly Dragon was crawling through the shadows of the forest, continuously dispersing a special toxic gas. It wanted to turn this forest into its personal hunting ground and a purgatory for the other contestants.
Suddenly, a wave of killing intent swept over. The Heavenly Dragon reacted instantly; Buddhist Sanskrit characters lit up on its back, radiating a brilliant golden light to protect its body.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The first wave of arrows struck, instantly shattering the protective golden light.
Crack! Whoosh! Tear!
Before the Heavenly Dragon could make another move, the next wave of arrows arrived, piercing straight through its thick chitinous shell.
An arrow pierced through every single one of its insect legs, pinning it firmly to the ground.
It tried to struggle, but the magical energy flowing from the arrows scrambled its insides into mush, preventing it from channeling any energy.
Even worse, the layer of hellfire attached to the arrows ignited the sins on its body, wrapping its soul in raging, consuming flames.
Hiss! Hiss!
Under the agonizing pain of its soul, the Heavenly Dragon actually self-detonated its soul, triggering a shockwave.
With its soul defense gone, the hellfire instantly reduced the Heavenly Dragon's body to charcoal.
Chen Yan was about to order Rose to harvest the spoils, but the thought had barely crossed his mind before he helplessly withdrew it, changing his command back to retrieving the arrows.
Over the next moments, the exact same scene played out repeatedly across the forest.
Contestant after contestant, believing themselves to be hunters, crouched in their carefully chosen spots, waiting for prey to arrive.
However, what greeted them instead was wave after wave of merciless fire Multi-Shot arrows.
Every volley of arrows easily claimed a life. And before they died, the prey never even managed to catch a glimpse of the hunter's face.
This was no longer a conventional duel of transcendent strength; it was a duel of transcendent financial power.
While the other Mythic Rank contestants only had one or two divine artifacts, or even none at all, Chen Yan, the third-born of the Nephalem and the Third Young Lord of the Undead, eliminated countless contestants using an incredibly brutal yet unpretentious barrage of divine-artifact arrows.
Soon, in this forest spanning millions of square kilometers, Chen Yan was the only living being left.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. There was still a World Boss in the forest, but Chen Yan ignored it. The creature had been created by his father; smelling Chen Yan's aura, it kept trembling uncontrollably, lacking even the slightest desire to fight.
Uncle Bone Guard Two had told him that he should avoid touching prey that shivered like that, lest he catch some strange virus.
Thus, Chen Yan walked to the northern edge of the forest and looked toward the north.
Before him lay a flat, open plain with very few obstacles. With just a single glance, Chen Yan sensed several Mythic Rank energy fluctuations.
Hunting in this kind of terrain was quite different from the forest.
With a thought from Chen Yan, the puppets at his waist quietly detached.
“Woof!”
“Screech!”
A large dog puppet over three meters tall and a goshawk puppet with a ten-meter wingspan were summoned.
“Eagle, scout from high altitude and lock onto targets,” Chen Yan commanded. “Bruce, let's go!”
“Woof!”
“Screech!”
Inside the Undead Dao Court, seeing Chen Yan's performance, the Lord of the Crafts Sect could not help but praise him.
“In all my years, this is the first time I have seen a child with Chen Yan's talent,” he remarked.
“Fellow Daoist Tie, is it really that exaggerated?”
“Oh, hahaha, Fellow Daoist Li has misunderstood,” Fellow Daoist Tie laughed. “I am not referring to his cultivation talent, but his artifact-smithing talent.”
“During his one-year exchange at our Myriad Crucible, he conquered all our artifact smiths. If anyone after me can attain the Dao through artifact smithing, it might very well be him.”
Hearing this, Li Taiji could not help but take a few more looks at Chen Yan. He had not expected the youth to receive such high praise from the Lord of the Crafts Sect.
“However, on that plain to the north, isn't that the Innate Dao Child?” Li Taiji noted. “He is a formidable opponent.”
On the plain, by the river, a child with lips red as cherries and skin like jade sat cross-legged, wearing loose Daoist robes.
In his hand, he held a small wooden stick. Wrapped around the end of the stick was a blade of grass—a very crude setup.
Yet beneath the water's surface, a massive school of fish had gathered, constantly leaping up in an attempt to bite the grass.
But the young Daoist child was very playful. Every time a fish was about to bite, he would twitch the stick, causing the fish to miss.
Splash!
Another fish leaped out of the water, its mouth wide open.
At that moment, the young Daoist child suddenly turned his head toward the south.
With that single turn of his head, the fish bit the grass and got hooked.
The young Daoist child stared toward the south for a moment before turning back to look at the hooked fish.
“Hehehe, the fish is hooked, and the fish has also taken the bait,” he giggled.
With a flick of his wrist, the hooked fish was flung onto the shore, flopping around continuously.
The young Daoist child casually plucked two blades of grass and two thin twigs from the nearby brush.
Then, with a wave of his small hand, the flopping fish was drawn into his grasp.
He inserted the blades of grass and twigs into the fish's body, then blew a breath of air into its mouth.
“Roar!”
In an instant, the fish transformed into a True Dragon, prostrating itself before the young Daoist child.
The young Daoist child stepped onto the dragon's head, squatted down to pat it, and looked toward the south once more.
“Let's go. Accompany me to meet the heroes of the Myriad Worlds.”
Rate on N.U.
