38: The fire element essence is obtained, an unexpected surprise

At this moment, countless people were waiting for information from Blackwater Canyon.

Everyone was very curious as to who would be the strongest contender for this year's Rookie King.

And with Bai Xiaoxiao's sudden rise,

With an unparalleled Talent that exceeded everyone's expectations, she delivered the final blow to the Calamity Herald amidst a group of proud prodigies.

That shocking scene instantly ignited the entire chat channel.

Everyone was exclaiming.

Many people were even now inwardly convinced that Bai Xiaoxiao would be this year's Rookie King.

Similarly, Bai Shanhe, the head of the Bai Family, who had been closely following Bai Xiaoxiao's movements, received the news immediately.

He was overjoyed.

Bai Xiaoxiao's triumph over so many prodigies to defeat the Calamity Herald brought great honor to the Bai Family.

It wasn't in vain that he had invested so many resources to fully cultivate Bai Xiaoxiao.

Inside Blackwater Canyon.

Bai Xiaoxiao calmly accepted the shock and admiration of those around her,

as well as the bewildered and unwilling gazes from the scions of other families.

Her heart was filled with an indescribable delight.

However, just at this moment,

she suddenly noticed that some people's gazes towards her were becoming strange.

At first, there were only a few.

But gradually, more and more people began to whisper.

Occasionally, there were also a few gasps of surprise.

This peculiar scene made Bai Xiaoxiao frown.

She had only defeated the Calamity Herald; was there any need for such a fuss?

What would these people feel when she eventually claimed the title of Rookie King?

Bai Xiaoxiao shook her head, clearly looking down on their behavior.

Just then, Wang Cheng walked over.

Bai Xiaoxiao assumed he was coming to flatter her.

Although she inwardly disdained his fawning behavior,

she considered that he had contributed significantly, so she didn't want to discourage him.

Thus, she said indifferently, “Wang Cheng, your performance this time was good. I will remember you.”

Her indifferent tone carried a hint of arrogance.

However, Wang Cheng hesitated and said, “Bai Xiaoxiao, didn't you see the announcement in the chat channel?”

“What announcement? The first class advancement doesn't trigger an Eternal World announcement, does it?”

Bai Xiaoxiao's delicate brows furrowed, not understanding Wang Cheng's meaning.

Wang Cheng's face showed a strange expression. After thinking for a long time, he still said nothing and turned to leave.

Seeing Wang Cheng's odd behavior, Bai Xiaoxiao was puzzled.

But she subconsciously opened the chat channel.

The result, upon seeing it,

“This is impossible!!”

Bai Xiaoxiao blurted out.

But the next moment, she was as if struck by lightning, standing frozen on the spot.

Night Shadow became the first newcomer to reach Level 50?

How could that be?

How was it him again?

This is impossible!!!

In an instant, every cell in Bai Xiaoxiao's body, from head to toe, rejected the information she had received.

At this very moment, she was supposed to be the most glorious and celebrated newcomer in the entire Eternal World.

All the applause, all the gazes, should have been focused on her.

Why? Why was it like this?

It was that damned Night Shadow again!!

Earlier in the Novice Realm, Night Shadow had already stolen her thunder once.

Now, she had been leveling desperately, forgetting to eat and sleep, not daring to waste a single moment.

She even schemed against all the other family scions for her class advancement.

The result... Bai Xiaoxiao's gaze swept around.

She found that all the gazes that should have been on her had vanished.

Everyone was looking down, discussing and exclaiming.

And from their intermittent voices,

Bai Xiaoxiao knew that these people were discussing Night Shadow.

At this moment,

she recalled Wang Cheng's strange gaze earlier.

Instantly, her originally radiant expression completely fell.

She felt like a clown.

A nameless rage continuously spread in her heart.

Night Shadow!

You made me a clown!!

You deserve to die!!

Unfortunately, at this moment, no one was paying attention to Bai Xiaoxiao.

The sudden world announcement caused the previously lively regional chat channel to come to a halt.

Everyone was utterly shocked by the three consecutive world announcements that popped up.

At this moment, no one understood what had happened.

After an unknown amount of time, someone suddenly blurted out,

“Do you think it's possible that there's a bug, like in a game?”

As soon as these words were spoken, they instantly acted like a fuse, igniting the entire chat channel.

Of course, no one would question whether this statement was correct.

After all, Eternal World was a real world, not a game.

Everyone was aware of this.

They only fully came to their senses because of the appearance of this sentence.

“Oh my god! Level 50 in 2 days? I suspect I'm still dreaming?”

“No need to doubt. If it weren't for everyone collectively sleepwalking, I simply wouldn't believe anyone could reach Level 50 in 2 days.”

“Isn't this a bit too exaggerated? If I remember correctly, when Path of Exile opened the year before last, it was on the seventh day after newcomers entered that Zhao Hao of the Zhao Family achieved it. That shocked quite a few people, and I heard even the Eight Great Families were slightly awed by that impressive speed. Last year, it took a full 15 days.”

“Not only that, but after that, the other seven of the Eight Great Families, besides the Zhao Family, all wanted to form a marriage alliance with the Zhao Family, with the goal of securing Zhao Hao. However, the Zhao Family rejected them all. But that alone is enough to prove how terrifying it was to reach Level 50 in 7 days.”

“I just checked. In the past few decades of Eternal World, Zhao Hao's speed wasn't the fastest. 30 years ago, there was an even faster newcomer who reached Level 50 in just 6 days, the fastest in all records. I heard the Alliance was greatly shaken by him at the time, but then this newcomer mysteriously disappeared without a trace.”

“Wait, if you put it that way, wouldn't Night Shadow reaching Level 50 in two days cause another major stir in the Alliance?”

“That's inevitable. The Alliance Eight Great Families will definitely try every possible means to find this Night Shadow. How could they allow such a genius to develop on his own outside?”

“Indeed, if I were a member of the Eight Great Families, I would also have to do my best to recruit this Night Shadow.”

“Oh, that's right, I remember now! Isn't this Night Shadow the newcomer who got an SSS-rank rating in the Novice Realm two days ago?”

“I admire your reaction, but you missed one point: he's also the controller of the Level 20 Miasma Hidden Forest. I ask you, aren't you scared?”

“Hiss! Lord Night Shadow, how terrifying!”

“Oh no!! Lord Night Shadow reached Level 50 in two days, which I admire, but what am I going to do about the upcoming Path of Exile? I'm only Level 15.”

“Ah!! Now that you mention it, I just realized I'm only Level 18. Won't the Path of Exile be miserable now?”

...As everyone's topic shifted to the Path of Exile,

the entire chat channel was filled with screams of misery.

There was no other way.

The first phase of the Path of Exile offered a triple experience leveling trial, the original purpose of which was to further narrow the gap between newcomers to achieve fairness.

This was to prevent lower-level Professionals from losing competitiveness in the second phase's point-grabbing leaderboard.

But Night Shadow's leveling speed was simply too fast.

So fast that it only took him two days to successfully open the Path of Exile.

This also resulted in most newcomers not even reaching Level 20. In this case,

even with the upcoming triple experience trial, it would likely be difficult to close the gap.

And this wasn't just a concern for ordinary people.

The proud prodigies in Blackwater Canyon at this moment had clearly thought of this point as well.

Although their leveling speed was faster than average, they were only Level 30.

And they were still fighting fiercely for their class advancement quests.

Then they turned around and found that someone had already reached Level 50 directly.

The gap between them truly slapped them hard in the face.

The more spirited and arrogant they were a moment ago, looking down on everyone,

the more flushed and disheveled they were at this moment.

This world announcement was simply too big of a blow to them.

---

At this time, in the dungeon.

Ye Xiao naturally also saw the world announcement.

“Path of Exile?”

Muttering softly, Ye Xiao then suddenly remembered this matter.

It wasn't that he didn't know about the Path of Exile.

But from Level 35, he had been in the dungeon and continuously in combat.

Coupled with leveling up too quickly, this led him to overlook this point.

Ye Xiao didn't have too many thoughts about being able to open the Path of Exile.

After all, with his experience bonus and his super powerful Fireball, all of this was to be expected.

Anyway, after the Path of Exile opened, there were still 24 hours until the actual entry time.

So he wasn't in a hurry to think about it.

At this moment, his gaze was fixed on the mountain-like “corpse” in front of him.

Under Ye Xiao's persistent efforts, he himself didn't know how much time had passed.

He finally managed to grind down the Lava Behemoth to death.

As the Lava Behemoth fell, Ye Xiao's taut nerves finally relaxed.

It was then that he finally saw the long-awaited information.

---

【Ding! Congratulations on reaching Level 50.】

【Ding! You have collected 1 fire element essence fragment, gaining the ability: Lava Blade.】

【Lava Blade: Every time you cast a fire-type skill, you can apply a stack of Lava Blade on the target, reducing the target's fire elemental resistance by 50 points, lasting for 10 seconds. Maximum 100 stacks. Duration resets after each stack.】

【Ding! 10 fire element essence fragments have been synthesized into a perfect Elemental Essence.】

【Ding! You have fused the perfect Elemental Essence, gaining the Smelting Furnace.】

【Smelting Furnace: You can infuse the purest fire Elemental Essence into equipment. Equipment refined by fire Elemental Essence will gain attribute enhancements.】

---

After defeating the Lava Behemoth, Ye Xiao finally collected the last fire element essence fragment.

What surprised Ye Xiao was that the death of the Lava Behemoth this time did not increase the power of his fire-type skills, nor did it stack his fire resistance again.

Instead, it gave him an ability.

An ability is different from a skill; it's somewhat similar to a Talent.

In the past of Eternal World, many such abilities have appeared.

But most of them came from quest rewards issued by NPCs.

Now, with the “demise” of NPCs, in the past few decades, very few people have been able to obtain abilities.

Ye Xiao didn't expect to unexpectedly obtain one himself.

The effect of Lava Blade is mainly used for resistance reduction.

Although it only reduces fire elemental resistance, which is quite restrictive,

for Ye Xiao at the moment, it is a very suitable ability.

Especially since he can now instantly cast 50 Fireballs in 0.5 seconds, meaning he can stack Lava Blade to its maximum in just 1 second.

This is equivalent to Ye Xiao's enemies instantly losing 5000 fire elemental resistance in one second.

It's important to know that after a previous fierce battle, Ye Xiao's own fire elemental resistance had only just reached over 15,000 points.

Before this, he had only managed to stack his all-elemental resistance to 2000 points with a pile of Skill Stone.

Lava Blade can reduce it by 5000 points all at once, which is almost equivalent to having no defense. This is quite terrifying.

If he had the effect of Lava Blade from the start,

Ye Xiao wouldn't have had to fight so hard in these ten consecutive waves of battles.

Thinking of this, Ye Xiao looked at Lava Blade, his eyes shining.

However, besides the surprise Lava Blade brought Ye Xiao,

what excited Ye Xiao the most was that he finally obtained the Elemental Essence.

And what Ye Xiao didn't expect was that after obtaining and fusing the Elemental Essence, it also came with a function—the Smelting Furnace.

Ye Xiao had never seen such a function before.

After reading the description, Ye Xiao pondered for a moment, then took out his Goblin staff.

---

【Ding! Do you wish to infuse fire Elemental Essence into the Goblin's Elite Staff (Epic)?】

---

Ye Xiao replied, “Yes!”

Immediately after, he felt countless scorching energies from his surroundings rapidly surge into his staff.

The next moment, flames rose around the staff, completely engulfing it.

Strangely, although these extremely explosive flames had extremely high temperatures,

Ye Xiao only felt a warm sensation and no discomfort whatsoever.

Just then,

the flames surged violently, then quickly retracted into the staff.

---

【Ding! You have refined the Goblin's Elite Staff (Epic) with the Smelting Furnace. This equipment has been enhanced.】

【Goblin's Elite Staff (Epic): Intelligence +20, Spell Penetration +30, Smelting Effect: Fire-type Skill Level +1, Equip Requirement: Level 10】

---

Ye Xiao looked at the Goblin's Elite Staff, which had become more textured in his hand, his eyes slightly bright.

After being refined by the Smelting Furnace,

the attributes of the Goblin's Elite Staff did not change.

However, an additional attribute was added:

Fire-type Skill Level +1.

Ye Xiao couldn't help but check his Fireball.

The base damage of Fireball increased from the previous 480 to 540, and the Intelligence bonus also changed from 1.0 to 1.1.

Now, the damage of a single Fireball increased from 5258 to 5640 points.

That was an increase of nearly 400 points of damage.

Instantly, Ye Xiao looked at the Smelting Furnace with immense joy.

---