With a “CRACK!”, a thunderous explosion rang out.
A Thorned Willow instantly shattered into jagged fragments before dissolving into white light and disappearing.
“Finally did it!” Bai Qiu said excitedly.
Although he had fully deciphered the entire process of how A-Yuan unleashed its Water Cannon, there was absolutely no way he could reach the same level of power.
His imitation could only hope to reproduce some of the destructive force.
First of all, A-Yuan was a water-element creature.
Its affinity for and perception of water elements far surpassed Bai Qiu’s.
Moreover, the Water Cannon consumed an enormous amount of its energy—essentially serving as its ultimate skill.
Bai Qiu’s Tidal Staff was only D-rank; even if he blew it apart, he still wouldn’t be able to produce a Water Cannon equal to Ah Yuan’s.
However, thanks to both the Tidal Staff and this secret realm itself, he had an advantage.
The staff enhanced his control over water-attribute magic, and the torrential rain made the surrounding water-element magic extremely dense—second only to the earth-element density of the previous secret realm.
Because of this, his chanting time decreased, his spell power increased, and with buffs from his weapon, the environment, and his sudden inspiration, he finally managed to kill a Thorned Willow.
Of course, the real reason he could practice so comfortably was because these Thorned Willows were slow and short.
Even if startled by sound, their roots would pull free of the soil and slowly wriggle toward him—taking a very long time.
Their defenses were high, their attacks were strong, and their vitality was robust, but their weaknesses were just as extreme: no ranged attacks and extremely slow movement!
They were a severely one-dimensional type of monster.
After learning their stats, Bai Qiu felt these willows weren’t much at all—just live targets waiting for death under his pseudo-Water Cannon.
Ning Xingxue and the other two didn’t feel anything special—they couldn’t see what was happening dozens of meters away and had no idea what exactly was going on.
They only knew Bai Qiu was playing with a new staff again.
But wasn’t that great?
The powerhouse handled the killing while they stood safely behind him, quietly cheering and leeching massive amounts of experience—without taking the slightest risk.
If the rain weren’t getting heavier and heavier, they would’ve wanted to throw a party behind him.
Following a bigshot had many perks, but the hardest part was keeping the corners of their mouths from curling up from how enjoyable it was.
Ning Xingxue waited for her Skeleton Summon skill cooldown.
Once it refreshed, she summoned a Dragonfang Cavalry Skeleton at her own level.
The great thing was that when she leveled up, all previously summoned Dragonfang Cavalry Skeletons leveled up with her.
Truly worthy of a C-rank skill!
Huang Qi, on the other hand, was scratching his head in frustration.
Seeing Ning Xingxue’s skeleton summons becoming more valuable made him increasingly irritated.
Zhao Daqiang quietly polished his weapon, occasionally glancing at A-Yuan, who was curled up beside him fast asleep—no one knew what he was thinking.
Zhang Shiyao, however, furrowed her brows.
Although Bai Qiu had asked her not to take action so he could conduct more experiments to increase his spell power, she was analyzing whether this so-called D+-rank mission’s difficulty even made sense.
Thorned Willows were level-20 monsters.
At close range, their defense was high and their attacks were strong.
Any close-combat class with matching elemental affinity and full armor would still end up covered in welts and cuts.
Judging by the strength of these ordinary monsters, a person would need at least D+-rank overall stats to solo one in close combat.
And the secret realm allowed a maximum of 20 participants.
But judging from the ever-increasing number of Thorned Willows wriggling toward them, there were at least over 100 of them!
What did this mean?
If they couldn’t kill the Thorned Willows quickly like A-Yuan and Bai Qiu, what would the consequences be?
For example, with the strength level of Ning Xingxue’s group of three, they would definitely have to fight while retreating.
In the end, they would retreat until there was nowhere left to retreat—and then be completely trapped at the edge of the secret realm by the mass of Thorned Willows!
No matter how slow the willows were, the secret realm ultimately had a limited area.
If nearly a hundred Thorned Willows blocked the exits…
Zhang Shiyao frowned deeply.
Unlike the always aggressive and domineering Bai Qiu, she—like most ordinary people—had grown step by step from weakness, insecurity, and fear.
In her view, the difficulty that the secret realm had just begun to reveal was far beyond what a typical 20-person team could handle.
Even for someone like her—with C-rank attributes, a C-rank weapon, and a C-rank skill—killing these monsters alone would consume an enormous amount of energy!
Her final conclusion was that the minimum required setup for clearing this secret realm was:
20 fully equipped people, level 20, all attributes at D++, full D-rank equipment, and weapons between D to C rank.
Not only that—they must cooperate flawlessly, hold nothing back, and take the initiative to surround and eliminate the Thorned Willows before they gathered into a massive swarm.
Logistics support would also be essential.
This was the bare minimum configuration needed just to explore this secret realm.
Realizing this, Zhang Shiyao sucked in a cold breath and looked at Bai Qiu.
“Obviously, big brother hasn’t realized this point at all. He probably still thinks these monsters are no big deal. After all, he has always been so strong—it’s hard for him to understand the weakness and limitations of ordinary people.”
She sighed inwardly as she thought this.
Once they finished this secret realm, she would have to write a detailed exploration summary and publish it.
These secret realms were absolutely not something average civilian players could explore at this stage!
Ordinary small teams entering one were basically just throwing their lives away!
She actually wanted Bai Qiu to release these guides.
Since he was famous now, anything he said would be taken seriously and would boost his reputation—but…
Bai Qiu didn’t sell items, didn’t care about reputation, didn’t care about fame, and didn’t care about the lives of random players who owned secret realm cards.
Whether they lived or died meant nothing to him.
Harsh as it sounded, that was simply the kind of person he was.
But she was different.
She needed these things to grow.
Catching up to Bai Qiu through hard work alone was unrealistic.
Instead, gaining visibility, earning people’s trust, exchanging and circulating resources—maximizing her own growth—that was the path she truly needed to take.
Kindness was relative.
To Zhang Shiyao, Bai Qiu was undoubtedly the perfect person—he even saved her life.
But Bai Qiu was selfless to a fault, never asking for repayment nor gratitude.
Because of that, he didn’t have much of a sense of justice.
But she had her own desires.
Saving more people was certainly the right thing to do, but she also had personal motives.
She wanted to gain fame and trust from players to make her trading shop more successful.
She might even try buying secret realm cards at low prices!
…
“Boom!” Bai Qiu shouted excitedly.
As the last Thorned Willow within sight exploded, everyone—including himself—leveled up!
“Grrr… grrr…”
A-Yuan had fallen asleep.
With Bai Qiu nearby, it felt completely safe.
Surrounded by dense water-element magic and showered by rain, it snored contentedly.
— The end of the Chapter–
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