14: Reactions from all parties, accepting the first-level promotion task

Eternal World, Cuiwei City.

Eighty years ago, after the war between Professionals and NPCs ended, this ancient city, grand and steeped in history, fell into the hands of the Dragon Abyss Zhao Family, one of the Eight Great Families of the Alliance.

Since then, it became the headquarters of the Zhao Family's Dragon Abyss Legion.

At this moment, in the main hall of the headquarters.

"Elder, the Miasma Hidden Forest has been breached by that newcomer named Night Shadow. What should we do now?"

The speaker was the current commander of the Dragon Abyss Legion, Zhao Changlin.

Sitting above him was Zhao Mo, the Third Elder of the Zhao Family stationed in Longyuan City, and also Zhao Changlin's direct elder.

Although he was an elder, thanks to the Eternal World's system, Zhao Mo looked only about 40 years old, appearing very young.

But in reality, he was already a 90-year-old Nine Revolution expert.

Zhao Mo had naturally seen the matter Zhao Changlin spoke of.

However, compared to the barely suppressed urgency on Zhao Changlin's face, Zhao Mo was much calmer.

"Have you found out Night Shadow's background?"

"No." Zhao Changlin shook his head. "But investigations revealed a suspicious point."

"What suspicious point?"

Zhao Changlin said, "Our Dragon Abyss Legion has a department specifically for selling junk materials, and one person in it specializes in selling these junk Skill Stone."

"Through purchase records, he discovered that Night Shadow had previously bought nearly 10 Skill Stone from him."

"Later, I had my subordinates inquire with other sellers, and it turned out that Night Shadow had also bought many junk Skill Stone from several other people."

"After a rough estimate, Night Shadow bought no less than 200 Skill Stone from the time he entered the Eternal World until he entered the Miasma Hidden Forest."

The Third Elder looked puzzled and couldn't help but ask, "Why buy so many Skill Stone?"

Zhao Changlin said with a wry smile, "Elder, you forgot, we also have Professionals specifically responsible for synthesizing Skill Stone."

After hearing Zhao Changlin's words, the Third Elder also remembered.

The Skill Stone dropped in the Novice Area were basically of common quality and had little value in themselves.

However, three Skill Stone of the same quality could be synthesized into a new Skill Stone, with a slight chance of producing one of a higher quality.

Therefore, even though the probability of this was ridiculously low, many people and even factions would specifically buy these common quality Skill Stone for synthesis.

As long as they gambled for a high-quality Skill Stone, it was a profit.

Of course, there was a saying circulating in the Eternal World: 'Enhancement ruins a life, synthesis impoverishes three generations.'

This was a profound truth summarized by countless predecessors with blood and tears.

Unfortunately, countless individuals who believed themselves to be destined for greatness refused to believe it, ultimately losing everything.

Most of them were Professionals who had awakened Talents related to increasing synthesis probability or quality.

The Zhao Family naturally cultivated several such Talents.

It was just that the effect wasn't that significant.

So when Zhao Changlin mentioned it, the Third Elder didn't immediately recall it.

Now, remembering it, the Third Elder couldn't help but say, "Could it be that Night Shadow awakened a Talent related to improving the quality of synthesized Skill Stone?"

Zhao Changlin nodded again.

"I thought so too. Perhaps he relied on having high-level skills in the early stage to achieve an SSS-rank evaluation in the Novice Realm."

The Third Elder frowned.

"Even if that's the case, how do you explain him reaching level 20 in such a short time?"

"You know, two years ago, to help Zhao Hao level up quickly, the family used the maximum resources, and it still took nearly 5 hours for Zhao Hao to reach level 20."

"Furthermore, even if he really has the ability to synthesize high-level Skill Stone, he hasn't even completed his first advancement. How many skill slots can he have?"

"How did he manage to be unaffected by the poisonous miasma in the Miasma Hidden Forest?"

"This..."

Zhao Changlin was somewhat speechless.

Zhao Hao was the only SSS-rank Talent awakener to appear in their Zhao Family in recent years.

Therefore, the Zhao Family at that time used all resources to help Zhao Hao level up.

At the same time, Zhao Hao successfully changed his profession to a rare hidden profession.

Even a prodigy like Zhao Hao, relying on the power of their Zhao Family, needed 5 hours to reach level 20.

And this batch of newcomers today, from entry to now, had been less than four hours, even including the time spent clearing the Miasma Hidden Forest.

This meant that the time it took for Night Shadow to reach level 20 was even shorter than imagined.

This speed had already exceeded his comprehension.

As for how Night Shadow survived in the Miasma Hidden Forest, Zhao Changlin couldn't even imagine.

Just then, someone rushed in from outside.

Upon seeing Zhao Changlin and the Third Elder, he didn't bother to salute.

He reported urgently.

"Elder, Commander, it's bad, Zhao Xue's name has turned gray."

In the Eternal World, Professionals could add each other as friends.

And once a name in the friends list turned gray, it meant that the Professional had died.

Therefore, upon hearing this news, Zhao Changlin's eyes widened sharply, and he blurted out, "When did this happen?"

"Just after that world announcement, less than three minutes ago," his subordinate truthfully said.

Zhao Changlin immediately said furiously, "It must be that Night Shadow..."

"Silence!"

The Third Elder suddenly reprimanded him sharply.

Then he waved for his subordinate to retreat, and only then did he scold Zhao Changlin.

"As the commander of the Dragon Abyss Legion, how can you be so impatient?"

Zhao Changlin shivered, knowing that he had lost his composure.

He quickly took a deep breath, suppressing the shock in his heart.

However, he still couldn't help but worry, "Elder, today was the day Zhao Xue was supposed to hand over the Miasma Hidden Forest. As soon as Night Shadow became the controller of the Miasma Hidden Forest, Zhao Xue had an accident. This is going to be troublesome."

The Third Elder knew the importance of Zhao Xue's matter.

After a moment of silence, he finally spoke, "No matter what Talent Night Shadow awakened, first, have people massively acquire low-priced Skill Stone. Since the other party might have achieved this through gambling on stones, then we will also start gambling. Perhaps this year's synthesis probability has changed."

Zhao Changlin's eyes lit up at the words.

This was indeed a good method. If an ordinary person could achieve this through gambling on stones, let alone their Zhao Family. When it came to wealth and power, they had never feared anyone.

Since there weren't many Skill Stone in the Novice Area, in less than 10 minutes, nearly half of the Skill Stone in the exchange were gone.

Many people also noticed this situation immediately, but they weren't too surprised.

Such situations occurred from time to time in the past.

"Big spenders, who else is crazy enough to start gambling on stones?"

"Who knows? Anyway, I haven't heard of anyone gambling anything good out of them all these years."

"Holy crap! I just checked, the cheapest remaining Skill Stone are tens of thousands. They've bought out all the low-priced Skill Stone!"

"Tsk tsk! If it's a big faction, that's fine, but if it's an individual, with such a gambling style, I'm afraid he won't be able to handle it and will jump off a building."

"Damn, I had my eye on a skill, and I thought since others didn't need it much, the price might drop. But now, I can't even buy it."

"You're so stingy with a few thousand coins. You deserve to never eat a decent meal in your life."

"Latest news, it's people from the Zhao Family buying them. It looks like the Zhao Family is going to make a big move, so crazy?"

"The Zhao Family! Well, that's not surprising. These Skill Stone are nothing to them. No need to make a fuss."

"True... This is the difference between people."

...While the outside world reacted to Night Shadow breaching the Miasma Hidden Forest, Ye Xiao, the instigator of the matter, had just walked out of the Realm.

He naturally saw the message that the Skill Stone had been bought out.

He was suddenly a little dumbfounded.

"Such a coincidence?"

In fact, Ye Xiao didn't think it was a coincidence.

But he wasn't worried either.

There were so many Professionals, someone would always put new cheap Skill Stone up for sale.

It was just a matter of the price increasing a bit.

Don't forget, he still had a godforged stone in his hand.

At worst, he would just spend a little more money.

However, this matter was not something Ye Xiao needed to consider too much at the moment.

Right now, he had more important things to do.

Just now in the Realm, he ultimately chose to leave the NPC Remi.

It wasn't because he learned from Remi that a large number of NPCs were still alive that he let Remi go.

The matter of NPCs was not something he, as a newcomer, could touch yet.

The Alliance's factions behind the scenes would worry about that.

The reason he left Remi was naturally because it could refine unique exquisite gems, which were skill upgrade stones.

Besides continuously learning skills to increase his damage, the exquisite gems that could raise skill levels were also extremely helpful to Ye Xiao.

Especially for a basic skill like Fireball.

With the help of exquisite gems, its power increase was undeniably significant.

Anyway, he had become the Realm Controller of the Miasma Hidden Forest.

As long as he didn't agree, Remi couldn't leave the Realm at all.

So Ye Xiao wasn't worried that he would escape or leak any information.

The only thing that made Ye Xiao hesitate was that to refine these exquisite gems, the souls and bodies of Professionals had to be used.

Doing so was truly against nature.

However, now, with these major factions secretly playing dirty tricks to disgust him, Ye Xiao had no more qualms.

He was not the type to sacrifice himself for the sake of being a 'saint'.

As for how to find Professionals, that was quite simple.

As he became the Realm Controller of the Miasma Hidden Forest, he believed that the Zhao Family and Qin Family would definitely not be able to sit still.

These two families had previously lured many Professionals into the Miasma Hidden Forest to obtain the godforged stone, their hands stained with blood.

Not to mention whether he would expose this matter, just by cutting off their source of wealth, it would be strange if they didn't come looking for him.

As long as these people dared to enter the Miasma Hidden Forest, Ye Xiao had the absolute ability to use their lives to refine exquisite gems, without any guilt.

However, before refining the exquisite gems, there was another condition: Remi had to revive the Plague Source Grub.

Only through the Plague Source Grub's consumption and transformation could Professionals be refined into exquisite gems.

But the Plague Source Grub was already dead, and reviving it would require a considerable sum of money.

The most urgent task was to find a way to sell the godforged stone.

However, the maximum transaction limit for the exchange was 50 million eternal coins.

This made Ye Xiao quite frustrated.

The price of the godforged stone was far more than that, and it was certainly impossible for him to sell it for 50 million.

Thus, Ye Xiao could only go to the black market for an auction.

The Eternal World was vast, so vast that no matter how strong you were, it would be difficult to travel the entire land in your lifetime.

And this vast world was completely divided into five large areas by the Eternal World rules.

These were the Novice Area for those below Nine Revolution, the Intermediate Area for those below Six Revolution, and the Advanced Zone for those below Nine Revolution.

In addition, there were some special areas scattered in different places that could only be entered after breaking through to Nine Revolution.

Cuiwei City, where the Zhao Family's Dragon Abyss Legion was located, belonged to the Advanced Zone.

And Yunhai Town, where Ye Xiao first arrived, was a part of the Novice Area.

However, there was no black market in the Novice Area.

After all, the update and iteration speed of equipment below Nine Revolution was too fast, and even the best items wouldn't fetch a very high price.

Unless it was something like the mythical equipment on Ye Xiao.

But such an item was rarely seen even among ten thousand pieces of equipment.

Therefore, the online exchange fully met the needs of newcomers.

There was simply no need for a black market in the Novice Area.

If Ye Xiao wanted to sell this godforged stone, he could only go to the Intermediate Area.

But before that, he had to raise his level to 90 and complete his first advancement.

Only then could he use the teleportation array between the Novice Area and the Intermediate Area.

So, the most urgent thing he had to do was to complete his first advancement to continue raising his level.

After clarifying his thoughts, Ye Xiao quickly returned to Yunhai Town.

While everyone was still discussing his achievements, he had already arrived at the Professional Task Area in the Professionals Hall.

Fortunately, accepting advancement quests didn't require finding a specific NPC; one only needed to interact with the relevant Professional Stele.

Otherwise, the entire Eternal World would probably have tens of millions of people stuck on the first advancement quest.

Arriving in front of the Professional Stele, Ye Xiao placed his hand on it.

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[Ding! Detecting that you meet the qualifications for the First Advancement Quest, generating advancement quest...]

[First Advancement Quest generated.]

[Please go to Black Sand City to kill the Calamity Envoy, obtain the Advancement Token, and after using the token, you will automatically advance to Nine Revolution.]

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