Origin Paradise!

[Note: You have activated the side quest "The Dark Side" in this world]

[Mission Requirement: Find the root cause of the formation of the Dark Forest]

[Task Time Limit: 30 calendar days]

[Quest Reward: Skill Points * 3]

[Task Penalty: None]

"Visibility is only a dozen meters." Duchess Ash, who had also entered the forest, said in a low voice, "This distance is fleeting for gold-level players. We have to be constantly on guard against any potential encounters. I'm already prepared to have a headache when I get back."

In this war, the Holy Kingdom will inevitably send out gold, and any negligence could lead to death in the event of an accident. Whether it is silver or gold, it is torture in the Dark Forest.

"Why do you always speak in such a low voice?" Jiang He asked, turning her head.

Duchess Ash was taken aback upon hearing this, and couldn't help but murmur softly, "Really."

Jiang He was almost speechless with surprise. This guy was completely oblivious to such an obvious situation.

The two continued walking straight ahead.

There were no insects, no animals, and no birds.

The forest was completely dead, devoid of any life.

The enemy may appear in the next second, or we may not be able to meet them for several days.

For three hours, the two found nothing.

"The efficiency is too low," Jiang He commented.

Duchess Ash rolled her eyes inwardly. "If it were simple, the mentor wouldn't have offered such a high reward."

"Prepare for battle."

"Um???"

Jiang He activated her All-Seeing Eye, and her eyes turned pure white.

Upon seeing this, the Ashes Duchess was slightly taken aback. In terms of appearance alone, the other party was indeed exceptionally outstanding. Her pure white eyes and platinum hair gave her a unique sense of holiness.

"Wait, don't waste energy." The Ash Duchess snapped out of her daze and her expression changed. She quickly reminded them that if the energy depleted to a certain point, they would have no choice but to turn back. Energy accounts for at least half of the combat effectiveness of living beings.

"As a teammate, don't make me repeat myself twice."

Jiang He decisively activated an epic-level extraordinary burst, boosting the Eye of All Vision's effect by 301%.

This top-tier skill, born from the integration of multiple visual abilities, has been greatly enhanced, subtly surpassing the Undying level by half a step, allowing it to see everything within a hundred miles.

To the astonishment of the Ashes Duchess, the familiar live-action Thunder Sandbox reappeared.

"Northwest 275 degrees, 12 kilometers, golden life."

Jiang He closed his eyes; the rest were just rotten fish and shrimp, not worth the effort of a raid.

The Ash Duchess asked incredulously, "Your perception ability has reached the epic level?"

Despite repeatedly overestimating the situation, she found that the results were still somewhat underestimated. It wasn't that she didn't trust the other party's intelligence, but rather that a Silver-level peak being possessing epic-level perception abilities was a bit too obscure.

Jiang He shook her head and replied, "It's not quite enough, but it's sufficient."

As soon as he finished speaking, his figure vanished from the spot. The 5.6x speed provided by the Time Rift alone made him almost the best among ordinary beings in the Golden Age.

Along a straight line, countless black trees crumbled.

Duchess Ash exhaled a long breath, activating her Prestige Mantra: Oathbreaker. Pure golden energy surged within her body. As she "betrayed" herself, a certain restraint on her body seemed to be released. Silver light flowed down from the ends of her long hair and surrounded her, increasing all her attributes by 80%.

"Broken Oath - Speed".

When the second Ultimate Ability is activated, the original all-attribute boost disappears, and it only enhances speed. The reward for focusing on this ability is a numerical increase, with a speed boost of 200%.

boom!

The Ashes Duchess took a step forward and sped along the straight path left by someone. The severe physical strain caused her smooth, jade-like skin to crack and bleed, and her eyes to become bloodshot.

Twelve kilometers away.

A middle-aged man in a holy robe walked on the dark brown forest floor, completely unaware of the impending danger. The lightless forest suppressed perception, including the instinctive warnings of living beings.

Until a deafening explosion reached his ears, the middle-aged descendant of the saint suddenly turned his head, his expression changing from calm to fear.

"what's the situation!"

The stench and malice, like that of a bloodthirsty beast, rushed towards us, as if millions of living beings were wailing in unison.

A dazzling silver light bloomed between heaven and earth, the extreme sharpness contained in the spearhead making it indestructible.

The middle-aged descendant of the saint wanted to retreat, but the Immortal-level Imprisonment of the Eternal Regret Dragon Spear had already been applied. The spear light in front of him was too dazzling, and he could only desperately face the arrival of death.

boom!

Jiang He charged forward with his gun, blasting the opponent's head apart with a single blow.

Click!

The core of the field is broken.

The middle-aged descendant of the saint returned from the dead and immediately activated his half-ghost transformation. His entire body became as if woven from silk threads, significantly increasing his resistance to physical damage. Countless incredibly tough silk threads intertwined and formed a shield in front of him, layer upon layer, extremely tight.

Unfortunately, Jiang He's second shot had already been fired.

The Martial Saint's body, forged through millennia of martial arts practice, converts all damage into true damage when unleashing the Martial Saint Strike.

Hiss!

The spear tip tore through the silk shield and pierced the prey's head once more.

Even as death approached, the middle-aged descendant of the saint remained mostly bewildered; he didn't even have time to discern who his enemy was.

Shards of the skull splattered, knocking down the surrounding black trees. The blood that landed was powerful, creating bullet-shaped craters. The aftershocks from the spear tip echoed in front, clearing an area of ​​several hundred meters and killing several wandering Silver-ranked members of the Theocracy.

[Hint: You have defeated the Golden Saint and obtained 1 Life Essence]

Jiang He pierced the enemy's heart with one hand and drew his blood.

[Hint: Your Undying Blood Poison has been upgraded to LV60]

The middle-aged, headless, dried-up corpse of the saint's descendant fell to the ground.

The Ashes Duchess, who arrived late, was filled with surprise and shock. She had annihilated an ordinary gold-ranked enemy in the blink of an eye. How swift was her action!

"died?"

"if not."

Jiang He sat cross-legged on the spot. He was out of energy, and it wasn't worth wasting time. As long as his expression remained normal, no one would be able to tell that he was weak at the moment.

Sure enough, when the Ashes Duchess saw the other party sitting on the ground without any restraint and even taking out ingredients to cook, she was even more shocked.

Chapter 418 A Fleeting Echo

A forest without light.

The forest, ravaged by violence, regrowed and returned to its lush state within minutes. The tremendous commotion of the battle was inert here, and even the fortresses at the far ends of both sides could only vaguely detect a few anomalies.

The surroundings became dark and quiet again.

Jiang He sat by the campfire roasting meat, occasionally rinsing his mouth with dragon blood wine. For him now, ordinary gold, which once required a life-or-death struggle, could now be taken relatively easily.

Its specialization in speed gives it a significant advantage in combat. The Long-Hate Dragon Spear consumes countless resources and has an excessively high level of lethality, ensuring that it can break through the prey's defenses in battle.

Duchess Ashes stepped forward to examine the headless corpse on the ground. Due to the draining of its blood essence, the fallen golden body was extremely withered, presenting a horrifying and tragic state.

"Kagura, the descendant of the saints, is a Sin Master of Threads from the Church of Redemption. His strength is above average among those of the same level."

The Ashes Duchess looked at someone with a complicated expression and commented, "You're probably not that far from being the strongest."

Jiang He did not respond to this, but instead asked, "A descendant of the saint?"

“Equivalent to a high-ranking noble in the capital city of the empire.” Duchess Ash sat on the ground, completely disregarding the dust that stained her uniform trousers.

"Next time I encounter a Gold-level target, my Betrayal Abyss Ghost can stun the target of the same level for 0.5 seconds. However, it can only be done once a day, which should significantly reduce the difficulty of the assassination. Of course, it doesn't seem to be difficult for you. It will be easier for you."

Duchess Ash didn't know how to describe it. Because they often traveled together, she knew this person's life level inside and out. However, this guy usually acted too powerfully, and it seemed that no one really regarded him as a peak Silver level.

Jiang He swallowed several charcoal-grilled eight-armed bears. Ten minutes later, the Will Imprisonment of the Long-Hate Dragon Spear had cooled down and refreshed, and his stamina had recovered by more than half. The combo of Martial Saint Strike and Imprisonment was indeed very energy-consuming.

"Let's go back to the academy," Jiang He said, standing up.

The Ashes Duchess looked somewhat puzzled. In her opinion, the other party should be energetic and even have the nature to live in the Dark Forest for a long time to hunt hostile gold.

"Are you feeling unwell?" she asked tactfully.

"Go back and exchange your payment with your mentor."

Jiang He certainly wouldn't tell the other party directly that he was currently stealing and eating the Abyss Ghosts from the Wan Yuan Tomb, and that this matter was even more important than the forest battle.

Upon hearing the reward, Duchess Ash was immediately tempted, as the four-hour alchemy class would be particularly effective in improving her skills.

The two reached a consensus and immediately returned via the same route.

An hour later, the edge of the Dark Forest came into view, with the walls of the Rust Iron Fortress towering into the clouds. The Holy City Legion and the Academy had jointly built a first aid station on the flat ground outside the walls.

From time to time, legion soldiers and academy students were pulled out by their companions. Most of them were already dead, but there were also wounded soldiers who were worth treating.

The entire first aid camp was filled with wails and the smell of herbs and blood. The academy's medical instructor, the Life Sinner, was busy running around. She possessed the ultimate level of self-healing and could also bless others with this effect, making her a true master of healing.

The biggest problem is that even as a Gold Being, her Gold Energy value when she first advanced was only around 10000 points, equivalent to 30000 Silver Energy. The cost of healing herself and healing others is vastly different. Faced with hundreds or thousands of Silver Injured, she gradually felt the pressure.

The Ashes Duchess stopped beside the camp, couldn't help but turn her head to look at someone, and said, "Could you wait for me for a moment? Anyway, I haven't used up much of my sin energy, so I might as well use it all here."

"Whatever," Jiang He said.

“Now that my sins are cleared, you will protect me, won’t you?” Duchess Ash smiled.

"No," Jiang He answered truthfully. "Golden beings that need protection from others are better off dying in the Silver Age."

Upon hearing this, the Ashes Duchess rolled her eyes and went straight into the camp, immediately reducing the echoing wails by more than half.

The injured trainees present all turned their gazes toward the celebrity senior. Some of the younger boys and girls even seemed a little shy. When some soldiers whistled, it immediately drew angry and hostile stares from the trainees.

Seeing this, the medical mentor said, "Sylvia, help me stall those dozen or so seriously injured and unconscious people for a bit."

"clear."

Duchess Ash approached a one-armed soldier and activated her Prestige Skill: Departure.

If this ability targets the body and soul, it can cause dizziness; if it targets only the physical body, it can keep the body in a "frozen" state for a long time.

Using [Abandonment] on a seriously injured person, although it cannot directly cure them, can buy the medical mentor time to deal with the situation calmly. Its essence is the injury's betrayal of the body.

At the same time, since it only targets the physical body, the cost is much less than causing dizziness. The Ashes Duchess released it twenty times in a row, stabilizing some wounded soldiers who were about to die, and then left the camp with a slightly pale face.

Significant energy depletion means a decline in peak combat power.

However, for Duchess Ash, these wounded soldiers were just like herself, loyal warriors fighting for the Empire. Losing some recoverable status was nothing to her.

She returned to someone's side, involuntarily raising her head slightly. Although she was no match for this guy in terms of combat strength, the betrayer Yuan Gui had a variety of methods in the functional field.

Unfortunately, Jiang He had no desire to comment. He was sending a message to the old priest through the friends list, saying that after the other party surrendered to the Origin, his player panel had lost the End Mark, which meant he had nowhere to retreat.

[Mo Ke: Continue investigating the Grand Legion Commander. Information on the Emperor's Armor and the War Abyss Demon is not enough. At the very least, we need to find out what the Mind Image Armor is. Also, collect historical records about the formation of the Dark Forest. This main quest is not just my responsibility alone.]

[The old priest: Could you please grant me a few days' grace? Green has gone missing; I'll go look for him.]

Jiang He raised an eyebrow slightly beside the campsite.

[Mo Ke: Details]

[The old priest: At noon, Green and a group of cadets entered the Dark Forest. They originally planned to retreat via the same route in three hours, but they encountered the Knights of Atonement and the Silent Sisters of the Theocracy. According to the wounded after the battle, they won the skirmish by relying on their numbers. After interrogation, it was learned that the Atonement Fortress had secretly established a transit armory in the Dark Forest.]

[Mo Ke: Underestimating the enemy and advancing rashly?]

[The old priest: That's about it, I'm looking for it.]

Jiang He shut down the communication. He didn't care whether Green was alive or dead. If a group of Silvers encountered hostile Golds, their only fate would be to perish. If it weren't for the impact on morale and the accuracy of intelligence, he would have directly asked the old priest to abandon the search and immediately investigate the intelligence.

Beside her, Duchess Ash asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

“It’s none of your business,” Jiang He said truthfully.

The Ashes Duchess's face darkened, and she caught a severe cold.

The two entered the city wall elevator and went up to the top of the fortress.

Because of the First Legion Commander's situation, the Deputy Legion Commander stationed at the passage originally intended to make things difficult, but when he saw the headless corpse in someone's hand, he immediately shrank back. The aura of the golden creature was real and unmistakable. This was a being with combat power equal to the legion commanders, but now it was dead and had become a spoil of war.