171: Chapter 172 Isn't this just feeding them experience?

The night breeze blew gently, carrying the unique scent of vegetation and earth from the wilderness. Far from the neon lights and bustle of the city, the deep night sky was like a vast piece of dark blue velvet, sprinkled with fine diamonds. Stars twinkled, and a hazy Milky Way spanned across the heavens. The moonlight was cold and clear, draping a silver veil over the undulating mountains and silent woodlands below.

Lin Muyang and Su Qingyue landed on the summit of a relatively gentle mountain peak. The view here was open, surrounded by continuous black silhouettes. Only the rustling of the night breeze through the treetops and the occasional distant, low howl of an unknown nocturnal magical beast reminded them that they were in a wilderness filled with hidden dangers.

Stepping onto the solid but slightly cool mountain rock, Su Qingyue let out a soft sigh of relief, easing the slight discomfort brought by high-speed flight. She peeked up at Lin Muyang's profile not far beside her. The moonlight outlined his sharp jawline; his expression was calm and focused as he looked down, checking something. The night breeze brushed the black hair on his forehead. In this dead silent wilderness mountaintop where only the two of them remained, the atmosphere felt inexplicably subtle.

Su Qingyue felt her heartbeat seem a bit faster than usual. She hurriedly looked away toward the swaying shadows of the trees in the distant darkness, trying to dispel those untimely thoughts from her mind. She was a teacher! Although this student was ridiculously strong... she couldn't let her thoughts wander!

Lin Muyang seemed completely unaware of the subtle psychological fluctuations of the beautiful teacher beside him. Or rather, his attention at this moment was not on romance at all. He had only one clear thought in mind: tonight, he must use this batch of precious scrolls to push his level to 80! Time was precious; not a single second could be wasted.

After confirming that the surrounding environment was safe and there were no potential threats, Lin Muyang did not delay for a moment. He directly took out the first secret realm scroll from his storage bracelet. The scroll felt slightly cool to the touch, carrying strange energy fluctuations.

He unfurled it and injected a trace of mana to activate it. Suddenly, the complex runes engraved on the scroll lit up one by one, emitting a pale green light. A cold spatial fluctuation with a faint fishy scent spread out. Above the scroll, several lines of translucent magical text appeared:

[Secret Realm: Qingluo Ghost Palace]

[Level: 73]

[Quality: Emperor Level]

[Player Limit: 0/12]

[Status: Ready to Open]

"This is the place. Teacher Su, let's go in." Lin Muyang spoke concisely and took the first step, pressing his hand onto the black vortex entrance that was spiraling outward from the center of the scroll. His figure was instantly swallowed by the darkness and disappeared.

Su Qingyue took a deep breath, suppressing the strange feeling caused by the environment. Following closely behind, she also touched the black vortex. A familiar sensation of slight weightlessness and spatial transition came over her.

The next moment, cold and damp air rushed at her, carrying a thick scent of decay and a certain cloying sweetness. Su Qingyue steadied herself and looked closely, finding herself standing on a clearing filled with faint gray mist. Not far ahead stood a huge and dilapidated palace-style building.

The palace was built of some kind of pitch-black stone, its surface covered with slippery green moss and eerie dark red stains. Many parts had collapsed, revealing a deeper darkness behind them. The main gate of the palace was crooked, and two hideous-looking, greenish-black gargoyle statues holding rusted weapons crouched on either side, their hollow eye sockets seemingly watching the uninvited guests.

On the steps at the palace entrance and beside the broken pillars, dozens of figures flickered. Their bodies were hunched, their skin an uncomfortable blue-gray, and their eyes glowed with a faint green light. Holding bone knives or decaying chains, they let out low "he-he" growls. These were the first batch of guards of this Emperor Level team secret realm, "Qingluo Ghost Palace"—the Qingluo Ghost Tribe monsters. Their levels were not low, generally above Level 75. For an ordinary 12-person team, they were an appetizer that needed to be treated with caution.

Su Qingyue subconsciously gripped the sword in her hand. Her instincts as a swordsman allowed her to quickly assess the enemy situation and the surrounding environment. Although she knew that with Lin Muyang there, she was safe, facing so many high-level Emperor monsters alone still made her a bit nervous. After all, this was her first time entering a team secret realm of this scale in the form of a "two-person party."

However, her nervousness lasted for less than a second.

Because beside Lin Muyang, who had entered first, several graceful figures had already silently appeared.

Elabess lazily stretched the pair of small demon wings on her back, the hem of her black magic robe fluttering in the wind. Elena stood quietly behind Lin Muyang to his side, her pure white skirts unsullied, hands folded in front of her in an elegant posture. Ao Qingyan stood with her arms crossed, her dragon horns seemingly flowing with faint light in the dim environment, her expression carrying a hint of boredom. Su Daji smiled charmingly, her nine fluffy fox tails swaying gently. Lilia curiously sized up the gloomy surroundings, seemingly finding it a bit fun.

Lin Muyang had already greeted the young ladies beforehand, so they were not surprised by Su Qingyue's appearance. They merely nodded slightly to her as a greeting. Su Qingyue also hurriedly returned a smile, but in her heart, she was once again amazed by the scale and beauty of Lin Muyang's "Summoning Dream Team."

"Let's clear the area, hurry up." Lin Muyang's voice sounded calmly. At the same time, with a thought, several Auras silently unfolded, enveloping everyone including Su Qingyue.

Su Qingyue immediately felt a majestic and warm experience energy wrap around her. A golden, shimmering buff icon instantly appeared in her status bar: [Experience Bonus Aura (From Teammate - Lin Muyang)]: Experience gain increased by 3500%.

"Thir... Thirty-five times?!" Su Qingyue's pupils suddenly constricted, and she almost cried out in alarm. She had experienced Lin Muyang's terrifying speed Aura before and was already amazed, but she didn't expect this Experience Bonus Aura to be even more ridiculous! Thirty-five times! What kind of concept was that? This meant that the experience she gained from killing one monster here was equivalent to killing thirty-five monsters of the same level normally! No, even more, because killing monsters of a higher level already provided an additional bonus!

She finally understood where Lin Muyang's rocket-like leveling speed came from! With this kind of heaven-defying Aura, how could leveling not be fast? Her previous guess was completely wrong. It wasn't that Lin Muyang "didn't really need experience"; he was simply an experience-devouring black hole! With such an Aura, let alone two people splitting the experience, even if ten people split it, the leveling speed would still surpass ordinary people by countless times!

After the shock came an indescribable wild joy. With this Aura, her level increase tonight... Su Qingyue didn't dare to imagine it anymore. She looked at Lin Muyang's back, her eyes filled with complex emotions: gratitude, shock, and disbelief intertwined.

Lin Muyang didn't care about Su Qingyue's shock; he was thinking about another problem. The excuse he used when inviting Su Qingyue was that he "needed her assist to increase the drop rate." Although it was an excuse, he had to play the part fully. Otherwise, if he just insta-cleared everything, Su Qingyue would have no sense of participation, and it would be easy to make her suspicious.

With a thought, he activated the [Eye of Creation]. A golden glimmer flashed in the depths of his eyes, and Su Qingyue's data was instantly presented in his "vision." Level, attributes, skill tree, equipment details... he could even clearly see the color and style of her undergarments beneath her robe (Lin Muyang expressionlessly ignored this useless part of the information).

Quickly browsing through Su Qingyue's skill list, Lin Muyang found that as a swordsman, she had many control skills, but she had almost no team support skills that could provide buffs to teammates or make it easy to tag an assist. This wouldn't do.

Lin Muyang connected his consciousness to his staggeringly large storage space. Inside, massive amounts of loot were piled up in categories. There were over ten thousand skill books alone, most of which he couldn't use or were duplicates. His mind swept through them quickly and soon locked onto one.

A light flashed in his hand, and a skill book appeared, emitting a pale golden light with the pattern of a sharp small sword on the cover.

"Teacher Su, learn this skill book first." Lin Muyang turned around and handed the skill book to the still-dazed Su Qingyue.

Su Qingyue took it subconsciously. Looking down, the information of the skill book flooded into her mind:

[skill book: Brilliance of the Keen Eye]

[Quality: Sovereign-rank]

[Learning Level: 64]

[Effect: Passive Aura skill. After activation, it forms a 'Keen Eye' Aura around the user. All friendly units within range receive a system correction when determining whether their attacks hit an enemy's weak point. It slightly increases the success rate of determining hits on lethal vitals (such as the head, heart, energy core, etc.), making it easier to cause high critical damage. The Aura range expands as the skill level increases.]

It was a very practical Aura-type skill book, especially suitable for physical damage classes. It also had some bonus for magic classes, as it could improve the hit correction of some targeted skills. On the market, it would be worth a fortune.

"This... this is too precious." Su Qingyue was a bit hesitant. She was just here to leech experience; how could she have the face to take such a precious skill book?

"Take it and learn it; it'll be more convenient this way." Lin Muyang's tone was casual, as if he were giving away a common white-tier skill book. "We need you to ensure the drop rate." He brought up his previous excuse again.

Su Qingyue looked at Lin Muyang's unquestionable gaze, then at the precious skill book in her hand, and finally nodded. A flash of light appeared at her fingertips, and the skill book turned into motes of light that entered between her eyebrows. Instantly, she felt a strange connection established with the surrounding space. An invisible force field with a sharp Aura quietly unfolded with her as the center, covering a range of about twenty meters. It was the [Brilliance of the Keen Eye] Aura.

"Alright, we can start." Seeing that Su Qingyue had learned the skill, Lin Muyang signaled to the young ladies.

Elabess, who had long been waiting impatiently, elegantly raised the black magic staff in her hand. She didn't even chant any spells; she just casually tapped toward the dozens of wandering Qingluo Ghost Tribe monsters at the palace entrance.

The next moment, a fist-sized pitch-black point of light quietly emerged in the center of that group of monsters. The moment the point of light appeared, the surrounding light, sound, and even space seemed to be distorted and sucked toward it! Immediately after, the point of light violently collapsed inward, and then burst forth!

[part:gemini-3.1-flash-lite]

There was no deafening roar, only a heart-stopping sound of space tearing.

A miniature Black Hole Vortex, over ten meters in diameter and edged with purple electric arcs, suddenly appeared!

A terrifying force of devouring erupted, and those dozens of ferocious Qingluo Ghost Race creatures could not even let out a scream; like pieces of paper crushed by an invisible giant hand, they were instantly torn, squeezed, and devoured into that deep darkness, leaving not even a scrap of residue behind.

The Black Hole Vortex lasted less than two seconds before slowly dissipating, as if it had never appeared.

In its place, only a plowed, exceptionally clean patch of ground remained; even the moss and stains had vanished.

Su Qingyue: "..."

Despite being mentally prepared, and despite having seen a similar scene in videos, witnessing with her own eyes this casual annihilation of dozens of Emperor Level monsters still brought an incomparable visual and mental shock.

Her palm, gripping her staff, was slightly sweaty.

Was this the power possessed by Lin Muyang's companions?

It was simply like gods descending to clear away ants.

"Teacher Su, please try to keep up with them; the clearing speed might be quite fast." Lin Muyang's voice pulled her back from her shock.

"Ah? Oh, okay, okay!" Su Qingyue hurriedly nodded, suppressing the surging waves in her heart, and quickened her pace to follow the young ladies who were already walking toward the depths of the palace.

She constantly reminded herself that her role tonight was just an "Aura provider" and an "experience sharer"; she should just leave the fighting and killing to those girls in front who looked more beautiful and terrifying than the last.

The subsequent process was both numbing and dreamlike for Su Qingyue.

It was numbing because the combat process (if that could even be called combat) was outrageously simple and brutal.

Whether it was the swarms of Qingluo Ghost Race mobs, the massive and intimidating elite leaders, or even the BOSS-level monsters guarding various parts of the palace, they were all as fragile as delicate porcelain in front of Lin Muyang's young ladies.

Ao Qingyan did not even transform into a dragon; she merely waved her hand to unleash several solidified cyan dragon-shaped energy blasts, clearing the monsters in a long corridor as if sweeping away withered leaves.

Su Daji just smiled gently, pink light swirling in her eyes, causing the monsters rushing up to turn against each other and slaughter one another.

Elena remained quietly at the back of the team, occasionally raising her hand to sprinkle a sheet of holy light, purifying some ghost-type monsters or casting a cleansing spell on companions who had accidentally gotten stained...

It was dreamlike because her experience bar was rising crazily at a speed that made her doubt her life!

Almost every time a monster-filled area was cleared, she could see her experience bar jump forward significantly!

The feeling was even more exciting than riding a rocket!

Less than ten minutes after entering the secret realm, she heard the pleasant system notification sound: she had leveled up!

From level 72 to level 73!

And this was just the beginning.

Lin Muyang followed leisurely at the very back of the team.

His work was even "simpler": whenever the young ladies finished clearing an area, he would stroll over slowly.

Wherever he passed, the glittering loot on the ground—equipment, skill book, materials, and gold coins emitting various colored lights—would automatically fly into his storage bracelet like swallows returning to their nests.

He did not even need to bend over.

Occasionally, when he saw something with exceptional attributes, he would pick it up to examine it before casually putting it away.

This "Qingluo Ghost Palace" was only a level 73 Emperor Level secret realm.

Most of the dropped equipment was epic-grade, with the occasional Sovereign-rank item.

For him now, these were basically just high-level materials to be used for feeding Feng Ling's Nirvana in the future, or to be dismantled into enhancement stones.

However, the quantity was indeed impressive, and they added up.

"So... that's what it means..." Su Qingyue muttered to herself, finally fully understanding what Lin Muyang meant by "taking her to level up."

This was clearly forcefully pumping her with massive amounts of experience points!

With this kind of Aura, any secret realm, even if she entered the lowest-level Dungeon alone, would have terrifyingly high efficiency, let alone following Lin Muyang to grind this kind of high-level team secret realm?

She looked at the young ladies ahead, who were relaxed and carefree as if strolling in their own backyard, and then looked back at Lin Muyang, who was leisurely picking up items as if he were just on an outing.

For a moment, her heart was filled with a complex mix of emotions.

Envy? Yes.

Gratitude? Even more so.

But mostly, it was a sense of unreality.

Did this count as holding onto the biggest thigh in the world?

The "Qingluo Ghost Palace" secret realm was not particularly large.

Under the overwhelming advance of the young ladies, it took less than fifteen minutes for the group to reach the final BOSS—the hiding hall of the Qingluo Ghost King.

It was a hideous ghost creature over five meters tall, clad in decaying armor and wielding a giant ghost-head blade, with an Aura that reached the level of a level 79 Emperor Level BOSS.

However, the combat process was outrageously short.

Elabess seemed to feel she had used the Black Hole Vortex a bit too much, so she changed things up this time.

She extended a slender finger, pointed from afar at the roaring, charging Qingluo Ghost King, and uttered an obscure syllable.

The Ghost King's charging figure suddenly froze, and then, starting from its feet, it was rapidly covered in a layer of cold, starlight-flickering black crystals.

In less than two seconds, this final BOSS, which had looked so ferociously powerful, turned into a lifelike black crystal statue, maintaining its charging posture, solidified in the center of the hall.

Ao Qingyan flicked her finger, and a wisp of cyan energy as thin as a hair struck the statue.

Crash!

The crystal statue instantly shattered, turning into a sky full of glittering black powder that fell with a rustling sound.

A token emitting a dark golden glow (the secret realm core) and several pieces of shining equipment clattered onto the ground.

【Congratulations! Your team has cleared "Qingluo Ghost Palace" (Emperor Level)!】

The system notification rang in Su Qingyue's ear, and at the same time, a torrent of experience, far greater than any previous time, poured into her body.

Her experience bar surged forward significantly once more; she was not far from level 74.

Lin Muyang walked over, collected the loot, and then said to the still-dazed Su Qingyue: "Let's go, Teacher Su, on to the next one."

"Ah? Oh, okay!" Su Qingyue hurriedly nodded and followed Lin Muyang to touch the return portal that had appeared in the center of the hall.

Light and shadow shifted, and the two returned to the cold peak of the mountain.

The night wind remained, as did the stars, as if the brief and efficient secret realm journey just now had been but a dream.

But the surging leveling energy within her body and the golden Aura still present in her status bar reminded Su Qingyue that everything was real.

Lin Muyang did not pause for a moment; he immediately took out the second secret realm scroll, activated it, and entered.

Su Qingyue hurriedly followed.

The second one was a level 75 Sovereign-rank secret realm, "Lava Grotto."

the young ladies crushed everything in their path, and the fire elemental monsters scattered in the face of absolute power.

In the scorching grotto, Su Qingyue's level rose to 74.

The third one was a level 77 epic-level secret realm, "Gloomy Forest."

The eerie plant-type and shadow-type monsters were reduced to ashes under holy light, flames, and absolute power.

Su Qingyue's level rose to 75.

The fourth, the fifth, the sixth...

Lin Muyang was like a tireless Dungeon-grinding machine, taking Su Qingyue and his army of young ladies, rushing between one activated secret realm after another.

The secret realm scenes changed constantly, from gloomy palaces to scorching grottoes, from dark forests to storm-ravaged mountain peaks, from deep-sea ruins to ancient desert cities...

The types of monsters were strange and varied, and the BOSSes took on different forms, but the ending was always the same—they were quickly cleared away under the crushing weight of absolute strength.

Su Qingyue went from initial shock and ecstasy to gradual numbness, and finally, only a near-dreamlike sense of trance remained.

Her level skyrocketed as if she had boarded an out-of-control rocket!

Level 76! Level 77!...

When the first hint of white appeared on the eastern horizon and the morning light began to peek through, dispelling the last trace of darkness in the wilderness, Lin Muyang had just finished collecting the core token of the twenty-first secret realm scroll (a level 80 Sovereign-rank secret realm, "Hurricane Canyon").

A golden pillar of light, far more dazzling than any previous time, shot up into the sky from his body, lasting for several seconds before slowly dissipating.

Level 80!

Lin Muyang felt the surging growth of power within him, along with the higher-level permissions and attribute growth unlocked as a result, and a look of satisfaction appeared on his face.

In one night, rushing from level 75 to level 80—this speed was enough to leave anyone who knew the inside story dumbfounded.

And beside him, golden lights of leveling up also lit up on Su Qingyue one after another.

When Lin Muyang reached level 80, her level also steadily stopped at—level 77!

From early morning until now, it had been no more than six or seven hours, and her level had skyrocketed from 72 to 77!

She had leveled up 5 times!

Su Qingyue stood where she was, feeling the surging magic power within her, far exceeding what it had been before, along with that incredibly solid sense of power, and her eyes went a bit vacant.

She looked at her slender palms, then looked at Lin Muyang ahead, who was stretching his limbs and seemed completely indifferent to the high-intensity "labor" of the night, and at those young ladies who were still radiant and hadn't even messed up their hairstyles...

One night, five levels.

In the past, this was a result she would have needed at least a year and a half, or even longer, to achieve through countless life-and-death adventures, meticulous preparation, and team coordination.

But now, in just one night, by following Lin Muyang and touring twenty-one secret realms as if on a trip, she had... achieved it.

This could no longer be described as "riding a rocket"; this was simply space jumping!

She finally fully understood why Su Zongming (although she did not know this time it was her father pushing from behind) had tried every possible way to make her follow Lin Muyang.

How was this just helping? This was clearly a massive stroke of fortune!

It was a destiny capable of changing her life's fate!

Looking at Lin Muyang's tall, straight back in the morning light, only one thought remained in Su Qingyue's heart: following him, perhaps she could really see... a completely different scenery.