The old man hadn’t even processed what was happening when Zhang Luan slammed Stellar Flame right into his face. Before he could react, his health bar plummeted straight to zero.
Casually discarding the now-silent corpse, Zhang Luan stared at the massive arcane energy device before him, lost in thought for a moment.
This was the core of the entire bandit stronghold—all energy flowed from here. Destroying it would unleash enough power to collapse this hollow mountain. Players had proven its destructive potential before: to wipe out this camp, they’d charged here with suicide tactics, armed with stacks of explosives. The bandits, terrified by these madmen, grew careless in their defenses and were eventually overwhelmed.
Zhang Luan had considered the same move. But gazing at the dense arcane energy swirling within the device, he felt reluctant. If he could somehow claim it all… what an unimaginable fortune! This was just a bandit hideout, yet its energy reserves rivaled—maybe even surpassed—those of small towns.
The device originated from the Central World. If Acamana City was a newbie zone, the Central World was where the *real* game began—a realm of unimaginable scale and treasures no backwater outpost could match.
No wonder this energy core was so precious. Yin Ke Duo had spent a fortune to buy it from a Wandering Merchant in the Central World, all to boost his bandits’ raiding power. After players destroyed it in his past life, even its shattered fragments fetched high prices.
*"Destroy it? Such a waste… Wait—I still have Wind Flower Snow Moon."*
He’d make one last attempt. One of Wind Flower Snow Moon’s effects absorbed *all* forms of energy. If the description held true, siphoning this device’s magic should be effortless.
Pulling out the massive spear Wind Flower Snow Moon, he jammed it brutally into the arcane device. *Crack!* A transparent energy cylinder split open. Instantly, blaring alarms and pulsing red lights flooded the mountain fortress. Ignoring the chaos, Zhang Luan activated Wind Flower Snow Moon’s ability.
Watching the leaking magic surge into the spear’s energy gauge, a delighted smile spread across his face. Looks like mana shortages were a thing of the past.
The alarms threw the bandit camp into pandemonium. The elites who’d left the fortress during the spontaneous combustion incident suddenly realized they’d been lured away. They sprinted back at full speed.
Reaching the staircase to the basement, they kicked aside two drunken guards and charged down. The secret chamber’s door stood wide open. The old man’s corpse lay where it fell—his head already turned to ash, threatening to disintegrate at the slightest touch.
“Damn it! How do we explain this to the city lord?!” one snarled. “That bastard’s still here! Kill him, or the city lord will skin us alive!”
The elites raised their weapons and leaped into the chamber. But the moment the first man landed—
*Whoosh.* Spatial ripples cleanly severed his arm.
“AAAAHHH!!!”
Seeing their comrade clutching a bleeding stump, chills ran down the spines of the others. No enemy in sight, yet they’d already lost an arm. A terrible omen.
But retreat wasn’t an option. Even if they suspected their foe was powerful, failure meant death—a slow, torturous death at Yin Ke Duo’s hands, worse than anything they’d inflicted on their slaves.
The others jumped down. One caught the injured man, pressing a hand to the wound. A gooey substance shot from his palm, trying desperately to reattach the severed limb. The rest scanned the chamber. No sign of the intruder—but the strange weapon embedded in the arcane device screamed his presence.
“Fucking bastard! You’ve got tracking skills, don’t you?!” the one-armed man roared, swinging his axe wildly. “Find him! I’ll flay him alive and fry him in oil!” He activated charge skills, slamming into walls to flush Zhang Luan out.
The others unleashed their abilities, scouring every corner of the vast chamber. To them, the intruder *had* to be hiding here. They even sealed the chamber door, determined to trap the rat in its cage.
But no matter where they searched, Zhang Luan was nowhere. The one-armed man howled in fury—reattachment had failed. Unless he got a prosthetic, he’d live the rest of his life with one arm.
“That bastard must’ve escaped before we arrived! DAMN IT! The city lord will execute us all!!!”
Their shouts mixed rage and terror. Failure meant death.
“Shut up, all of you!” The only bespectacled man among them adjusted his glasses, drawing every eye. “Panicking won’t save us. Don’t you see *that*?” He pointed at Wind Flower Snow Moon, still greedily draining the device’s energy. “My secondary class is Appraiser. I’m certain—this is a *Legendary*-grade weapon. Do you understand what that means?”
Silence fell.
Every gaze snapped to the spear-cannon. Shock flashed in their eyes, then burning greed, then bitter resentment.
“Legendary… Damn it,” the one-armed man growled, standing beneath Wind Flower Snow Moon, unable to tear his eyes away. “If the city lord learns about this… he’ll take it all for himself.”
The others inched closer, mesmerized. Only the bespectacled man stepped back, calm amid the frenzy.
Above them, Zhang Luan stood silently on the shattered Azure Righteous Sword, using Sword Flight Art to perch on the ceiling. He’d known these fools would covet Wind Flower Snow Moon once they lost him.
*Though I didn’t expect one smart one.*
*No matter.*
The little gift he’d left on Wind Flower Snow Moon would reach him just fine—even from a few steps back.
