Chapter 55 – Specters

The challenge arena was quite spacious, large enough for a hundred-man team to gallop freely upon it.

The lord player who stepped onto the arena did not summon a massive army, instead deploying only a few units.

These were completely transparent units, as if woven from flowing water. They resembled human women in long dresses, graceful and enchanting.

“Elemental lifeforms, rare one-star units—Spring Spirits. Damn, she actually brought out six of them at once. Truly worthy of being called the rising star and heaven’s favored child—Lord Wave Caller Liu Miumiu. She’s indeed a step stronger than me.”

An exclamation, much like a narrator’s commentary, rang out not far away. Oh, it was the lord player who had just been flattened into a biscuit, marveling at the right moment.

Indeed, six Spring Spirits, and rare elemental units at that, were truly impressive.

But who is Lord Wave Caller Liu Miumiu?

“Ah, brother…” He looked at Mu Yuan as if he were an alien. “Who in the circle doesn’t know her? By the way, let me introduce myself—I’m Jiang Luoxing, from Flowing Cloud City.”

Compared to the previous lord, Jiang Luoxing wasn’t as famous, which he attributed to his background. He was quite self-aware about this.

Usually, when he mentioned “Flowing Cloud City,” his peers in the circle would immediately recognize him.

But seeing the mix of contemplation, recollection, and confusion in this brother’s expression, Luoxing found it somewhat unbelievable.

Bro, did you fail your Taixuan geography class?

It never crossed his mind that Mu Yuan might be of common origin. It wasn’t that he looked down on ordinary people—his own father had built a vast enterprise from scratch. However, common players typically developed slowly in the early stages, lagging far behind second-generation players with established backgrounds.

Even his father had struggled initially, only rising to prominence after more than two years as a lord when he stumbled upon a great opportunity, eventually establishing Flowing Cloud City.

“Well then, you must have heard of Cold Moon City, right? The young lady from earlier is the sister of the City Lord of Cold Moon City.”

That sounded familiar.

Mu Yuan recalled that in forum debates about the “strongest newcomer,” a few names were frequently mentioned, and Liu Miumiu was one of them. However, veteran players often referred to her as “the sister of the City Lord of Cold Moon City.”

She seemed to be one of the newcomers with the strongest background.

He also remembered who this young man before him was—a second-generation lord who had once posted his battle achievements on the forum.

A truly top-tier second-generation, yet not as arrogant as one might expect. His gaze was even overly enthusiastic, making Mu Yuan instinctively take half a step back.

Faced with the young man’s enthusiastic self-introduction, Mu Yuan thought for a moment and said, “Mu You, just an ordinary game player.”

…

Mu Yuan’s understanding of the Challenge Realm came entirely from the materials provided by the association.

However, the content of those materials was limited. The association mainly reminded newcomers to act within their capabilities and not to lose their chance at the lord trials by recklessly forcing their way through the Secret Realm Gate, as that would be a case of losing more than gaining.

“I’ve heard the Challenge Realm has several stages?”

He asked.

Seeing Mu Yuan’s novice-like demeanor, Luoxing, who saw himself as the big brother, grew even more excited. After all, he considered himself one of the top second-generation lords and enthusiastically explained:”Bro, since you can enter the Secret Realm, you’re definitely no slouch. At the very least, you should have no problem clearing the first three levels, which already guarantees you a Rare Remnant Soul or some resources. However, starting from the fourth level, the number, Rank, and quality of the guardian monsters increase dramatically. From then on, each level is like a whole new world.”

“By the fifth level, you have to face a full ten Rare monsters, all at Rank 9! Who can beat that? Even with a few more days of development, it’s still uncertain whether you could take them down!”

“And that final blow from the monsters… hiss… it’s freaking painful!”

Painful?

Wait, let me think this through.

It seems, perhaps, probably, possibly… this consciousness projection allows for better command and control of Units, but at the same time, players have to endure realistic sensory feedback.

Even if you don’t die, the pain is enough to make you wish you were dead.

Oh, this…

Although this spirited young man Luo Xing was complaining about the pain, he didn’t show much fear. He had undergone similar training since childhood.

Mu Yuan considered himself just an ordinary, average person. The thought of dying like Luo Xing did earlier—being smashed flat into a pancake—was still somewhat terrifying!

Unless he could avoid death, but…

Even if he possessed combat power far surpassing Luo Xing’s and could clear the fifth level, what about the sixth and seventh levels?

“Since all our Units are dead, can’t we just surrender tactically?”

Luo Xing said, “Since we don’t actually die, there’s no such option as surrender. Don’t worry, bro. Everyone has to die eventually—it’s just a matter of whether you become a pancake or get torn in half.”

But I can’t help feeling like this guy is taking pleasure in my misfortune.

Speaking of which, that Liu Miumiu from earlier will probably get smashed into a little biscuit too, right?

Mu Yuan kind of wanted to see it, but the moment he remembered he would likely meet the same fate, he suddenly lost interest.

He didn’t continue watching and silently chanted to begin the Challenge, his figure disappearing.

Leaving Luo Xing bewildered in the wind.

“Bro, why are you in such a hurry? Don’t you want to see how far Miss Liu can go?”

He really wanted to see how skilled this ‘newbie’ was, but of course, he didn’t want to miss the chance to witness Liu Miumiu’s true strength.

The younger sister of the legendary Cold Moon City Lord definitely wouldn’t be weak.

She’d probably be able to clear the fifth level.

Maybe by the time Brother Mu You dies and respawns, he could still catch Liu Miumiu’s peak battle.

Luo Xing fixed his gaze on the right-side arena.

…

On the left-side arena, Mu Yuan stepped onto the field and, with a wave of his hand, summoned Bone Four and several other Skeleton Warriors, along with a crowd of Skeleton Soldiers to bolster their presence.

“Since the first three levels aren’t difficult, I’ll take it easy and use this chance to get familiar with hands-on control.”

Compared to the day of the assessment, his Mental Energy had improved significantly. Mu Yuan found that his maximum control range had expanded to two or three hundred meters, allowing for more intricate maneuvers.

Soon, the first level’s enemies materialized.

He went easy for a while, and eventually, Bone Four finished off the enemy with its Heavy Sword.

Then came the second, third, and fourth levels…

With his eight Skeleton Warriors and twenty to thirty Skeleton Soldiers, he cut down gods and slaughtered demons all the way. Even the significantly more difficult fourth level was cleared with overwhelming force.

The level enemies weren’t particularly noteworthy, but even so, the rewards given by the Secret Realm were generous.

“Simple levels, rich rewards—no wonder they say the Newbie Challenge Realm is a welfare giveaway.” I love it!”

The reward for the first level was relatively simple: a choice of one out of three Unit Shards.10 Little Skeleton Remnant Souls; 6 two-star Wandering Soul Remnant Souls; 3 three-star Jiangshi Remnant Souls;

The subsequent rewards consisted of Remnant Souls and Material Treasures, with the highest being rare one-star Remnant Souls. Normal players would undoubtedly choose the rare Remnant Souls, but Mu Yuan opted for the lower-star options instead.

However,

“Wandering Souls?” He had originally intended to choose Little Skeletons, but his eyes lingered when he saw the Wandering Souls.

He multitasked, looking up information about Wandering Souls in reality.

This was an uncommon and highly impractical troop type.

As spiritual entities, Wandering Souls possessed powerful abilities such as immunity to physical attacks, phasing through walls, and innate psychic damage. This seemed incredibly overpowered, yet their soul forms were extremely fragile—even brief exposure to sunlight would cause them to melt away like spring snow.

Their offensive power was equally weak; against troops with strong physical constitutions, they could only inflict negligible damage.

Even if Wandering Souls were trained to level 9 or even the Professional Tier, they still retained the fatal weakness of fearing sunlight and being unable to endure prolonged exposure to light.

Seemingly powerful, but practically useless.

Not worth recruiting, yet a pity to discard.

This was the consensus among many veteran players regarding Wandering Souls.

“Wandering Souls are indeed weak, but their advanced evolution, the rare one-star ‘Specter,’ is extremely powerful—undoubtedly one of the most popular rare one-star troops, with an exchange value even higher than the neighboring Spring Spirit.”

After reviewing the Remnant Soul options from the first four stages, Mu Yuan waved his hand decisively.

Select all Wandering Souls!

——

(End of Chapter)