Chapter 144: Lessons from Fang Xi

"Although the four Scourge Apocalypse Knights wander all over the Plaguelands, as time goes on, other teams have successively emerged from the Crusader Stronghold, and the ones outside have probably already run into them."

"I have no idea if they've been cornered and wiped out, but even if they haven't, it's not our turn to get involved."

"Instead of searching for a needle in a haystack everywhere, we might as well head north to the Death Citadel. If we join forces with other teams to take down the Death Citadel and eventually converge at the City of the Scourge to slay the Scourge King, we can still reap quite a harvest."

"With a bit of luck, we might even run into the other Apocalypse Knights over there."

Thunder Roar finished speaking in one breath, looked at everyone, and asked, "What do you all think?"

"Sounds good."

"No problem."

"Since there are no objections, let's set off."

Everyone stood up one after another and mounted their respective summoned beasts.

Zhang Chaosheng summoned the Nightmare warhorse he had just purchased and leaped onto it. The tall warhorse looked cold and extraordinary, its four hooves blazing as it lifted them, leaving burning footprints wherever it passed—incredibly dashing.

Fang Xi's mount was a gorgeous purple-feathered running bird.

The team set off, riding side by side and chatting in low voices.

Perhaps sensing that Chu Cheng still lacked a thorough understanding of the Plaguelands instance dungeon, Fang Xi took it upon herself to explain some of its details to him.

First of all, the final boss of this instance, the Scourge King, was a Lich with a Lord template, level 55 or above.

With the Lord template compounded by the final boss bonus, plus the formidable nature of the Lich template, its comprehensive strength exceeded their imagination and far surpassed the scope of what they could handle. Therefore, although hundreds of people entered with every reincarnation of the instance, actually very few truly attempted to raid the City of the Scourge.

Moreover, there was one aspect that differed from high school days.

Back in high school, if no team managed to slay the final boss by the end of the instance, powerful figures from the school would descend to harvest.

In higher education, however, if the final boss was still alive when the instance ended, the school would not harvest it. Instead, the instance would simply cycle into a new reincarnation, and the residual realm origin would accumulate into the next reincarnation, strengthening the final boss's power and the spoils yielded upon its defeat.

Manifested within the instance, this meant the final boss's level would increase, and the quality of the loot dropped upon defeat would be even higher.

The Lich King's base level was 55, and its level increased by 1 for every time it survived. The number of levels above the base represented how many reincarnations the Lich King had survived without dying, which also meant the rewards after slaying it would be greater.

Additionally, the most valuable loot in the Plaguelands consisted of just a few items.

Aside from the four Scourge Runes, the most valuable was the Lich's Phylactery, a reusable resurrection item with an extremely long cooldown.

There was a minuscule probability of dropping a Team Pact.

There was an even tinier probability of dropping a True Realm Stone; this required at least five reincarnations without dying to accumulate enough realm origin to condense this piece of loot.

There was a minute probability of dropping a legendary-grade piece of equipment. This required the Lich King to survive at least ten reincarnations without dying and reach level 65 to gather sufficient realm origin for condensation.

Furthermore, the legendary equipment and the True Realm Stone conflicted with each other; if either one dropped, the other could not possibly appear.

Although it was only the most basic legendary-grade equipment, legendary equipment was still legendary equipment. Its attributes were incomparably powerful, and any single piece was enough to make the strength of any Descender skyrocket.

Beyond that, as the realm origin accumulated, the quality of the equipment dropped by the Lich King would grow increasingly higher. After accumulating across successive reincarnations, the attributes of certain ordinary purple gear might undergo a qualitative change, transforming them into supreme top-tier items.

Hearing this, Chu Cheng asked out of curiosity, "Has this instance ever spawned legendary-grade equipment?"

Fang Xi nodded and said, "Of course it has. The Lich King's strength is simply too formidable, making it difficult to slay most of the time. Once you fail to kill it in the first few subsequent reincarnations, it only becomes harder to take down later."

"Every decade, the most senior elite teams under the various mentors of the Void Tower swarm into this instance, hoping to acquire a piece of legendary-grade equipment."

"Though it's not a guaranteed drop, and the probability isn't even very high, after all these years, it has indeed dropped a few times."

"Then which reincarnation is this year?"

Fang Xi arched an eyebrow and smiled, "What, are you interested too?"

"This year should be the ninth reincarnation; next year will make the tenth."

"Then that's just right!"

Without concealing his ambition, Chu Cheng smiled and said, "By next year, my strength will definitely have improved tremendously, and by then, perhaps I can go contend for it."

"I'll help you."

Fang Xi's features were picturesque as she smiled charmingly.

With a beauty by one's side, time slipped away unnoticed.

After a single day, they had already grown exceedingly familiar with one another.

Two days later, the team traversed the boundless wasteland and arrived before the ruins of a town.

This had once been a human town with a population of several thousand. After being breached and massacred by the undead army, the aura of death converged here, giving birth to an extremely powerful Wraith boss.

Regrettably, they had arrived a step too late; the Wraith boss had already been slain by another team. The vast ruins of the town were completely empty, with only sporadic specters wandering about.

"Let's go, straight to the Death Citadel."

The team pressed on, heading northward.

Five days later, the team stopped somewhere in the wasteland, spotting a dilapidated outpost far ahead in the distance.

"This is the vanguard outpost of the Death Citadel. Let's send someone over to check it out first."

The team halted here as one member of Thunder Roar's squad rode ahead. Two minutes later, he returned, accompanied by two unfamiliar Descenders.

Thunder Roar went up to greet them and chatted for a while before returning to share some bad news with everyone.

Someone was already attacking the Death Citadel ahead.

A team numbering close to a hundred and forty people was already in the middle of a raid, and they currently had no need for reinforcements—not even for hired help.

Everyone felt no disappointment at this, as it had been anticipated.

It had already been two months since the new reincarnation of this instance began. The fastest-moving groups had set off long ago, and considering they had managed to snatch up the Cursed Citadel and an Apocalypse Knight, they could already consider themselves quite lucky.

They did not linger here, bypassing the Death Citadel and continuing their march north.

North of the Death Citadel lay a region of rolling hills. Range upon range of undulating hills stretched into the distance, eroded by the power of death; the trees were withered and blighted, the world was rendered a uniform gray, and wandering undead were everywhere.

The team crossed the hills and entered the northernmost reaches of the Plaguelands.

The terrain gradually rose, sloping upward toward the center. Between the mountains lay a grand canyon, at the bottom of which stood two giant peaks like temple door guardians. The canyon wound its way between these giant peaks, leading into a vast mountain basin.

This expansive basin was the birthplace of the Scourge.

In the center of the basin sat a massive undead city built against the mountain. At the peak of the mountain in the city's heart stood a towering undead wizard tower that pierced the clouds like a mountain itself. This was the City of the Scourge, and the Lich King resided within the wizard tower.

When they reached the entrance of the canyon, they discovered an outpost halfway up the slope of a nearby mountain, where quite a few people had already arrived ahead of them.

These individuals were all here to try their luck, seeing if they could gather enough Descenders to mount a raid on the City of the Scourge.

If, by the time the instance ended, they still could not muster sufficient manpower, everyone would simply scatter and return to their respective homes.

If they could assemble enough personnel, led by a few renowned experts, they might just be able to attempt a raid on the City of the Scourge.