166: There! The magical Zhou Ling

In a flash, half an hour passed.

Under Ye Xiao's unstoppable path-clearing, the four had already entered the depths of the Forest of Curses.

However, aside from the constantly appearing monsters, Ye Xiao hadn't found any clues about NPCs during this time.

As time passed, the Weakness Curse on everyone had already stacked to 50%, and the four's combat power was directly halved.

By this point, even though Ye Xiao's normal attacks could still easily kill the monsters here, his strength was clearly weakened compared to before.

The most direct indication was that a single normal attack, which originally could completely shatter the monsters blocking their path, now not only failed to shatter the monsters' corpses but occasionally even required two consecutive attacks to completely kill the target.

This situation made Ye Xiao furrow his brows.

It must be said that the Weakness Curse had a significant impact on Professionals.

No wonder no one had been able to clear this Secret Realm for decades.

As for Zhou Wan and the other two behind him, after their attributes were halved, they completely lost the power to fight the monsters.

Instead, Zhou Ling, who originally had little combat power, became the most useful presence among the three. After all, although her attributes dropped, she could still provide some buffs to Ye Xiao.

As for the effect, it was all the same to Ye Xiao anyway.

"Sister Wan'er, what do you think Expert Big Brother's background is? He's only level 95, yet his strength is terrifying."

By this time, the three, who had long adapted to Ye Xiao's terrifying damage, were no longer as stunned as before.

Zhou Ling, regardless of whether Ye Xiao was willing or not, after trotting over and applying a defense buff to him, curiously asked Zhou Wan beside her.

Upon hearing Zhou Ling's question, the usually dull Zhou Wu also uncharacteristically showed intense curiosity, moving closer to the two women.

"Yeah! Expert Big Brother is too amazing. I looked down on him before, but thankfully Expert Big Brother is broad-minded and didn't hold it against me, otherwise, I'm afraid you wouldn't even have had the chance to collect my corpse."

Zhou Wan shook her head upon hearing their words, "I don't know either. His strength has completely exceeded my understanding, and he's clearly a Mage, yet his strength is somehow several times stronger than mine."

"Could it be related to his Talent?" Zhou Ling's beautiful eyes sparkled as she guessed curiously.

"If that's the case, why didn't Expert Big Brother choose a physical burst Profession instead of a Mage?" Zhou Wu asked, puzzled.

"This..." Zhou Ling was clearly stumped, then retorted rudely to Zhou Wu, "What do you know? You're not the Expert, how could you guess an Expert's thoughts?"

Zhou Wu was clearly a little afraid of Zhou Ling. After being spoken to like that, he couldn't help but shrink his neck and lower his head, but still muttered, "You're not the Expert either..."

Zhou Ling's cute eyebrows shot up, "What did you say?"

Zhou Wu's face panicked, and he quickly waved his hands, "No, nothing..."

Zhou Ling didn't intend to let Zhou Wu off, but just as she was about to go forward and teach him a lesson, Zhou Wan's voice rang out.

"Enough, we're in the Forest of Curses right now. Don't you two have any sense of danger?"

Zhou Wan's voice wasn't stern, but the effect was incredibly good. Instantly, both Zhou Ling and Zhou Wu fell silent, not daring to act up again.

Seeing this, Zhou Wan sighed helplessly.

And just then, Ye Xiao in front suddenly stopped.

Seeing this, Zhou Wan and the other two tensed up, thinking Ye Xiao had discovered some danger.

Ye Xiao didn't notice their state. After glancing at the path ahead, he turned back and asked, "Is this where we encountered the NPC before?"

So it wasn't danger.

Zhou Wan breathed a sigh of relief, then quickly scanned the surrounding terrain, a hint of surprise appearing in her eyes.

"It seems to be here."

After a pause, Zhou Wan cautiously added, "But it's hard to say, after all, the only one who saw an NPC and left here alive was Yang Jian, but..."

As if remembering something, Zhou Wan swallowed the rest of her words in time.

But Ye Xiao wasn't a fool; he naturally understood what she meant.

Yang Jian, the only one who had seen an NPC, died, and it was because he offended him.

Therefore, Zhou Wan could only make a rough judgment based on the descriptive information Yang Jian had provided beforehand.

However, there was one thing Zhou Wan didn't mention.

Yang Jian had said that it was more than an hour after he entered the Forest of Curses that their team unexpectedly encountered an NPC.

But now, the Weakness Curse on them had only stacked to 50 layers.

Of course, their current travel speed was clearly much faster than Yang Jian's at that time.

After all, all the monsters along the way were instantly killed by Ye Xiao, and the four had traveled here with almost no stops in between.

Calculating it this way, the timing did match.

After hearing Zhou Ling's answer, Ye Xiao pondered for a moment, then nodded, "It seems that to find that NPC, we can only start with the boss. Let's keep going."

Ye Xiao had already proven himself with his powerful strength, so Zhou Wan and the other two naturally had no objections to his words.

However, Zhou Wan still couldn't help but say, "Your strength is indeed very strong, but at this rate, by the time we find the boss, our attributes will probably have been weakened by 80%, and no one knows what the boss's attributes are. Are you really confident?"

"Let's find it first," Ye Xiao didn't answer directly.

As for whether he was confident, he naturally was.

Unless the boss had abilities beyond his comprehension, even with 80% weakened attributes, relying on the powerful effects of his magic weapons, he could easily kill the boss.

What he worried about most was still not being able to find any trace of that NPC even after successfully clearing the Secret Realm.

After all, Ye Xiao had a deep impression of the two inexplicably appearing NPCs he encountered in the Miasma Hidden Forest before.

However, Ye Xiao didn't tell Zhou Wan and the other two about these things, because with their strength, even if they knew, it wouldn't make any difference, so he didn't bother to waste his breath.

But when Zhou Wan heard Ye Xiao's unconfident answer, her delicate brows furrowed again, clearly worried about this response.

However, her worry didn't last long.

Just as Ye Xiao was about to set off again, Zhou Ling suddenly exclaimed, "I sensed an incredibly vast energy fluctuation, it's the boss!"

Ye Xiao looked at Zhou Ling and quickly asked, "Which direction?"

"There!" Zhou Ling pointed to the right front, "But the distance seems a bit far."

Zhou Ling's Talent was the Power of Insight.

Although this ability was rated B-rank.

But if placed in the tomb raiding world, it would be comparable to an SS-rank Talent.

Zhou Yi had told him all this before they came in.

This was also why Ye Xiao would protect Zhou Ling.

"Since we've found it, you guys hurry up and follow me. The longer we drag this out, the harder the boss will be."

After speaking, he didn't care if the three kept up, and immediately led them quickly towards the direction Zhou Ling indicated.