Chapter 181: Eighth Rank Punisher

A figure blocked the moonlight, casting a shadow over the Punisher’s wife’s face.

The Chaotic Void Domain concealed his aura as he silently abducted her.

Wilderness.

Jiang Yan crouched on the ground, looking with great interest at the Punisher’s wife, who was tightly bound.

The Punisher’s wife mumbled incoherently, her expression filled with terror. Unfortunately, she couldn’t utter a single word—a torn piece of cloth was stuffed into her mouth.

Bullet comments scrolled rapidly, and the popularity of the live stream instantly soared to its peak.

Ignoring the text, Jiang Yan calmly observed the Punisher’s wife.

“Madam, I’m sure you wouldn’t want your husband to wake up and find his wife missing, would you?”

Jiang Yan chuckled sinisterly, pressing a saber against her neck.

“Mmph—mmph—”

The woman struggled incessantly, but it was futile.

Jiang Yan pulled the torn rag from her mouth and asked in a low voice:

“Tell me, what realm is your husband in?”

“I won’t tell you anything!”

Losing patience, Jiang Yan raised his saber, ready to strike.

“Eighth Rank! He’s Eighth Rank!”

Hearing this, Jiang Yan frowned.

“How can he be Eighth Rank? Isn’t it rumored that he’s at the peak of Seventh Rank?”

“My husband was born with a Yin constitution and is extremely afraid of fire-attribute Lava Crystals. Once he comes into contact with them, his strength plummets drastically!”

The woman screamed hysterically, tears streaming down her face.

Jiang Yan remained unmoved, merely marveling at how realistic the game was, seamlessly blending an NPC’s loyalty and cowardice into her character.

“No wonder the guide says Lava Crystals are Divine Artifacts. So, the Punisher is designed to fear this thing.”

However, no external guides mentioned that the Punisher was Eighth Rank. Most likely, someone had accidentally killed the Lava Monarch, obtained the Lava Crystals, and discovered they were incredibly effective against the Punisher.

Having obtained the information he wanted, Jiang Yan had nothing left to ask. He directly sent the NPC to the afterlife.

“I can’t extract Battle Intent from an NPC. Defeating an Eighth Rank Transcendent might still be a bit difficult…”

The path of Transcendence becomes increasingly difficult to bridge gaps between ranks in the later stages. Differences in life hierarchy mean that even with overwhelming numerical advantages, one can still be crushed by a higher-level opponent.

Currently, Jiang Yan’s only means of disregarding life hierarchy was the Instant Kill Law.

Under the Instant Kill Law, all beings were equal.

However, as an Eighth Rank Transcendent, the Punisher wouldn’t just lie there and let Jiang Yan attack him. The moment he sensed Jiang Yan’s assault, he would immediately awaken and deliver a fatal blow.

The other viewers were also shocked to learn that the Punisher possessed Eighth Rank Combat Power, and they sighed one after another.

“This Ten Thousand Realms game is too insane. Putting an Eighth Rank BOSS in the newbie village—how are ordinary players supposed to play?”

“Exactly! I think setting it at Seventh Rank would be more reasonable. Otherwise, this game might as well shut down!”

“Not necessarily. After all, it’s still in the closed beta phase, and various data can still be adjusted. But Eighth Rank is just too outrageous. We can provide feedback to the developers later.”

After learning the Punisher’s true strength, everyone stepped forward to criticize the design. Even if the Punisher had weaknesses, setting him as Eighth Rank was still unreasonable.

This game was targeted at young Transcendents. Whether Eighth Rank or Seventh Rank, both would be difficult for them to defeat.

At that moment, a few lines of bullet comments suddenly floated across Jiang Yan’s live stream room.

“Thank you all for watching the streamer’s closed beta live stream. Don’t worry, everyone—after entering the game, you can select the difficulty level. The Eighth Rank Punisher belongs to the Hell difficulty.”

“Our game offers Simple, Normal, Hard, and Hell modes. Players can choose according to their own abilities~”

The speaker was an operations staff member from Lightning Studio. As soon as he made this public announcement, the hostile atmosphere in the previously noisy live stream room immediately subsided.

Since the probability of defeating the Punisher was low, Jiang Yan flew directly to the location of the Lava Monarch.

As long as he obtained the Lava Crystal, defeating the Punisher would no longer be a problem.

Meanwhile, at the Lava Abode…

“Hurry, that guy is going berserk near death! Let’s retreat first!”

“Dammit, why is he starting to heal? Everyone, fall back!”

Boom…

The person who shouted was instantly crushed into pulp by the Lava Monarch.

With a body as massive as a fiery mountain and the Divine Might to destroy worlds, his Seventh Rank strength overwhelmed the entire group. These players had originally planned to wear down the Lava Monarch through cooperation, only to discover that this beast had an abnormally powerful recovery ability.

Soon, some players were crushed to death on the spot.

“As expected, obtaining the Lava Crystal isn’t that easy. Let’s retreat!”

With that, the group tried to flee toward the exit.

Boom…

The cave entrance sealed shut, and lava enveloped the entire cavern.

“Oh no, the entrance is blocked!”

“Damn, why is the difficulty so high? I think we’re playing a fake version of Rising Tide!”

“We’re done for, we’re done for. There are no Revival Coins available at this stage. If we die, we’ll have to wait three days to respawn.”

From behind, the Lava Monarch charged forward, splashing lava everywhere. Where it landed on people, agonized screams erupted.

With a ferocious expression, the Lava Monarch roared and slammed down a massive palm.

The others dodged, but some were still severely injured, sent flying backward to crash against the fiery walls. Their backs were instantly scorched into charcoal.

“Dammit, looks like we’ll have to wait three days to re-enter the game.”

Thud!

Thud!

Outside the cave, a dense series of pounding sounds echoed.

“What? Could there be another Lava Monarch?”

“The guide didn’t mention that! We can’t even handle one—a second one would mean certain doom!”

Thud!

Thud!

The cave was encased by the Lava Monarch, making it incredibly sturdy.

The Lava Monarch also glanced suspiciously at the sealed entrance, clearly unsure who would dare invade his territory with such audacity.

Bang!

Just as the Lava Monarch swatted away another player, the cave entrance collapsed with a resounding crash.

A sliver of light pierced into the cavern, illuminating the crimson lava within.

Jiang Yan surveyed the carnage inside and frowned slightly. It seemed no one had informed these streamers that the game had been adjusted to Hell difficulty.

Ultimately, it was either an oversight by the developers, or they wanted to test whether Hell difficulty had any playability—and the contracted streamers naturally became the sacrificial lambs.

Jiang Yan directly tagged the game’s operations team in the live stream room.

“Gift me a Planetary Battleship, and watch me solo the Lava Monarch.”

So far, Jiang Yan’s performance had been fairly impressive, and his live stream had gained modest popularity. This direct “hand-out” request to the official team immediately stirred up the bullet comments.

“@LightningOps: Hurry up and gift my favorite streamer!”

“@LightningOps: As an official representative, don’t be stingy. If the streamer solos the Hell-level Lava Monarch and it gets edited and shared, your game’s popularity will skyrocket!”

Amid the barrage of bullet comments, the operations staff obediently gifted a Planetary Battleship worth 100 Star Core Coins.

1 Yunhe Coin = 10,000 Star Core Coins = 100,000,000 Galactic Coins.

This expense could be considered money spent on advertising.

100 Star Core Coins were indeed quite valuable.

Seeing this, Jiang Yan grinned, feeling motivated as he charged into the cave with his saber in hand.

“Folks, drop a ‘6’ in the chat to watch this streamer roast a lava head.”