Chapter 90 – The Golden List Suspended in the Sky

On the third floor of the Mage Tower, Mu Yuan stood by the window, gazing into the distance.

The roars of monsters grew increasingly loud, and the earth trembled slightly.

“They’re here!”

Outside the territory, in the area where the trees had been cleared, two small crimson dots suddenly lit up in the pitch-black darkness, followed by four, six, eight, and countless more.

Dense clusters of red dots illuminated the dark wasteland, revealing figures emerging from the distance. They shifted from walking to running, their speed increasing, their faces growing more and more ferocious.

Goblins, Gnolls, gray wolves, giant bears, walking corpses… and so on. These monsters, emerging from who knows where, varied in form but shared common traits—savage faces and crimson eyes.

The crimson in their eyes was deeper than ever before, completely filling their entire eyeballs. It even seemed as if capillaries connected to their eyes, with crimson threads spreading outward like a web, covering half their faces.

On flesh-and-blood monsters like Goblins and Gnolls, their muscles became more knotted, faintly tinged with red, as if crimson worms were crawling and squirming beneath their skin, pushing their fur upward.

“Damn it!”

Mu Yuan quickly moved the telescope away but then thought he shouldn’t back down. Forcing himself, he brought his eyes back to the lens, took three deep breaths, and continued to stare at these ferocious monsters.

He had to adapt, and the current monster wave, not too strong, was the perfect target.

“The enemy has entered the attack range.”

Faintly, he could see a line—once the monsters crossed it, the defensive structures could open fire freely.

“The Arrow Tower has a range of 400 meters, the Mage Tower 700 meters, and the Thundercoil Tower’s range extends with increased output.”

But Mu Yuan did not give the order to fire.

These were just small fry. The defensive structures were strategic weapons and major consumers of Soul Sand.

At the front line of the defense,

some recently evolved, rather dull-witted Skeleton Warriors were eager to charge out and fight the monsters to the death—a drawback of low-intelligence troops. Players had to keep a close watch on them, not even looking away while taking a shit.

Here, Mu Yuan had the Undead General keeping an eye on things.

Deadbone, in his role as a Hero, restrained all the restless skeletons, allowing only the Sharpshooters on the watchtowers to fire freely.

Their range was greater than that of the Skeleton Warriors, and they could shoot with much more ease.

Whoosh—

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Under Deadbone’s command and Mu Yuan’s overarching strategy, the Sharpshooters drew their bows and fired arrows one after another, without using any skills.

Their leader, Marksman Seventeen, focused on the ‘Elites’ among the monster horde.

An arrow sliced through the air, piercing through the eye socket of a large Goblin. With a splatter, blood flew, and the Great Goblin’s burly body thudded to the ground.

One after another, monsters fell, but it did nothing to deter the others rushing toward Tianyuan Territory.

Their figures grew larger in the field of vision, but what greeted them was a group of skeletons, equally ferocious in their own way, expressionless… and incapable of making expressions.

“Engage.”

Deadbone spoke.

The Skeleton Warriors did not throw their Bone Spears but instead leaped down from the earthen walls in unison, drawing their greatswords to meet the tide of oncoming monsters.

This was a test, a necessary gathering of intelligence.Deadbone wanted to figure out whether the monsters shrouded in the dense Crimson Mist had any noticeable changes compared to usual. Engaging in close combat when the battle intensified might lead to being caught off guard.

Slash—

The Skeleton Warrior gripped its sword hilt and swung down fiercely at the Gnoll baring its fangs and wielding a sharp axe, the blade cutting through the air with a howling sound.

In just two exchanges, it used its absolute strength advantage to knock aside the Gnoll’s axe and cut down this higher-Rank Gnoll warrior right at the front lines.

After securing the first kill, the emotionless Skeleton Warrior continued searching for its next target, striding forward only to be suddenly grabbed.

The Gnoll that had been nearly cleaved in two, with only a small portion of its upper body and one arm remaining, actually rose like a vengeful spirit. The crimson light in its pupils grew increasingly eerie and bright, thread-like red mist tendrils spreading wildly like claws, its two eyeballs throbbing like beating hearts.

“Thud—”

But unfortunately, the Skeleton Warrior couldn’t be frightened. It simply raised its sword and plunged it down hard into those eerie eyes, bursting the Gnoll’s head like a watermelon.

“These crimson influences are even worse than the Land of Filth! The monsters in the trial are not only more ferocious and stronger, but also… possess extremely bizarre tenacious vitality!”

You have to completely destroy their heads to truly kill these monsters.

More precisely, it’s the eyes – that’s the real weakness of these creatures.

Mu Yuan pondered.

He stood atop the Mage Tower, buffeted by the clamorous wind that carried the nauseating scent of blood. Further away was the viscous Crimson Mist, seemingly merging with the liquids flowing across the earth, the entire world painted in crimson from sky to ground.

“This is the true Eternal Continent, without any filters.”

Since this was only the first wave of monsters, they were quickly eliminated.

Mu Yuan continued enjoying the breeze while splitting his attention to open the forum in the Real World, checking on other players’ situations.

They had also begun engaging in combat.

There was a saber-and-shield soldier who had cut down a goblin, but as soon as he turned around, the bloodied goblin opened its crimson eyes again, blood vessels spreading to its neck. It suddenly leaped up and pounced on the soldier’s back, stabbing its sharp wooden spike repeatedly – once, twice, thrice – into the less protected neck area.

Blood gushed out.

This fairly high-Rank saber-and-shield soldier struggled for a few seconds before collapsing with a thud.

The player controlling from behind was stunned and horrified, screaming, “Damn my saber-and-shield soldier!”

Similar surprises kept occurring in one player livestream after another.

In previous years, the monsters’ vitality hadn’t been this exaggerated.

As expected, under the omen of the ominous crimson mist, this year’s Lord trial had become increasingly difficult.

During the brief respite after repelling the first small wave of monsters, the prospective Lords finally understood what was happening through the forum, by watching other top newcomers’ performances, and through explanations from veteran players invited by the officials.

You must destroy the eyes!

This is way too troublesome!

Many newcomers frowned, feeling anxious and uneasy, but at this point they had no way back – only forward.

And at about this time,

The newcomers whose consciousness had descended into the Eternal World received enlightenment from the void, involuntarily looking up.Under the pitch-black sky devoid of even a sliver of moonlight, clouds resembling golden sand quietly emerged, churning slowly to illuminate the dark night. This radiance persisted for over ten seconds before gradually fading, leaving only a small, serpentine golden scroll suspended high in the firmament.

The Trial Golden Roll!

Who could inscribe their name upon it?

One by one, the names of territories appeared on the golden roll, their rankings shifting continuously.

Their total number was one hundred.

(End of Chapter)