182: Chapter 183 Heaven-Opening Level

The texture of the skill book cover was peculiar, as if woven from pure starlight. Touching it, one could feel a calming warmth, which was completely out of place with the sulfur and blood stench emitted by the surrounding demons lair debris. He focused his gaze on the golden text flowing across the pages.

【 Virgos Protection (mythic grade) 】

Type: Active Skill

Class Restriction: Priest, Paladin, and related Holy-type classes

Effect: Chant holy words to pray for protection from the Virgo constellation. Applies a powerful holy shield to the caster and all friendly units nearby, lasting 20 seconds. While the shield exists, those protected are immune to all damage, crowd control, negative status effects, and instant-death effects. The shield cannot be dispelled; its priority is mythic grade.

Cooldown: 6 hours.

mythic grade Special Effect · Virgos Radiance: While the "Virgos Protection" effect is active, all skills owned and unleashed by the protected units (including active, passive, and Origin Skill) have their grade temporarily increased by one level (up to a maximum of Heaven-Opening grade). Skill effects, damage, range, duration, etc., will be enhanced accordingly based on the upgraded grade. This effect disappears after the protection ends.

Learning Requirement: Level 82.

"To think such a skill exists?" A flash of surprise crossed Lin Muyang's eyes. Invincibility skills were not extremely rare in this world; some top-tier legendary-grade or even a few epic-grade equipment or skills might come with brief invincibility effects. He himself had once obtained a legendary-grade accessory that could provide 3 seconds of invincibility, an effect that had already given him the upper hand at critical moments.

"20 seconds of invincibility... If it's extended by 50 times under the effect of my 【 Long Lasting 】 Aura..." Lin Muyang did some mental math, and the result made him gasp. "That would be 1,000 seconds, over 16 minutes! Nearly a quarter of an hour of group invincibility!"

A quarter of an hour to do whatever he pleased! During this time, he and the young ladies could completely ignore any attacks from the enemy, unleash their output with full force, or complete any tactical maneuvers. In large-scale group battles, challenging ultra-high-difficulty bosses, or in certain extreme environments, this could be considered a strategic god-tier skill capable of turning the tide!

What was even more terrifying was the mythic grade special effect, "Virgos Radiance"—temporarily increasing all skills by one grade! This meant epic-grade skills would become legendary-grade, legendary-grade skills would become mythic grade, and mythic grade skills... would become what? Heaven-Opening grade? Was there an even higher level above Heaven-Opening grade? This discovery made Lin Muyang's heart tremble. Moreover, did this upgrade only increase the base stats of the skills, or would it cause the skills to undergo a qualitative change and attach new special effects? He urgently wanted to know the answer.

"Lilia, you learn this skill, then try out the effect immediately." Without any hesitation, Lin Muyang handed the sparkling skill book to the Elf Princess in his arms.

"Okay~" Lilia happily took the skill book, her gem-like green eyes curving into crescents. She was naturally delighted to obtain a new powerful skill. However, when she saw the skill description, her small face immediately fell, and she pouted, complaining in a low voice: "Why is it another support skill..." Although she was a priest, deep down she had always longed to charge into battle like Ao Qingyan and Seraphina, using her fists to persuade the enemy. However, complaining was one thing, but she would never refuse Lin Muyang's arrangements.

The skill book turned into specks of starlight in Lilia's hands and merged into her body. She closed her eyes, feeling the holy prayers and complex astrological knowledge flooding into her mind, and soon mastered this powerful mythic grade skill.

The team continued to move deeper along the scorching lava tunnel. They hadn't gone far when a low and threatening roar came from ahead. The sulfur and blood stench permeating the air became even more intense; clearly, an even more powerful demon was guarding the depths of the demons lair.

"Prepare for battle," Lin Muyang whispered.

Hearing this, Lilia took a deep breath, clasped her hands in front of her chest, and assumed a prayer posture. Her small lips parted slightly as she chanted an ancient and melodic elven hymn. As she chanted, specks of pure golden starlight seemed to pierce through the thick crust of the earth, falling from the void and gently enveloping Lin Muyang and every one of the young ladies.

Skill—Virgos Protection, activate!

A layer of pale golden light film, thin as a cicada's wing yet exuding an indestructible Aura, instantly covered everyone's body. On the light film, patterns of constellations vaguely flowed; it was the star map of Virgo, radiating a serene and powerful protective force. The 20-second countdown appeared clearly in everyone's consciousness.

At the same time, the "Virgos Radiance" special effect took effect! A more profound power fluctuation rippled out, and Lin Muyang and all the young ladies felt that all the skills they possessed seemed to have been infused with a brand-new, higher-level power, undergoing some kind of essential change!

Lin Muyang immediately activated 【 Divine Sight 】 and swept his gaze toward the Night Elf Maiden Seraphina, who had just acquired the new skill. He wanted to see what the mythic grade 【 Ultimate Dark Shadow Strike 】 would look like under the radiance of "Virgos Radiance."

In the vision of 【 Divine Sight 】, the icon representing 【 Ultimate Dark Shadow Strike 】 in Seraphina's skill bar, whose edges had originally flowed with a crimson mythic grade light, had now transformed into a deeper, more restrained dark gold that seemed to contain the primal power of heaven-opening! The grade label next to the icon had turned into two archaic characters—Heaven-Opening!

"Above mythic grade, it really is Heaven-Opening grade!" Lin Muyang's heart shook. This guess was confirmed. Then, was there an even higher level above Heaven-Opening grade? This thought flashed through his mind, but now was not the time to delve into it. He immediately focused his mind to see what specific changes had occurred in the 【 Ultimate Dark Shadow Strike 】 that had been temporarily upgraded to "Heaven-Opening grade."

【 Ultimate Dark Shadow Strike (Heaven-Opening grade · Temporary) 】

Type: Passive Skill

Effect: When the user launches any attack, they will simultaneously create eight unselectable, untargetable shadow clones. The shadow clones will appear instantly and launch an attack identical to the user's current attack on the target locked by the user (inheriting attack power, skill effects, special effects, etc., but unaffected by the user's other buffs/debuffs, and dealing a fixed percentage of damage). The shadow clones disappear immediately after launching their attacks.

Heaven-Opening Grade Special Effect · Shadow Breaking the Void: At the moment of attacking, the user can break through space and instantly teleport to any location within a range of the user's Agility attribute x 1 meter (this movement ignores most spatial blocks, obstacles, and terrain). This teleportation effect can stack with the user's other displacement skills.

Heaven-Opening Grade Special Effect · Ultimate Dark Return: If the shadow clones' attacks successfully hit the target, 100% of the cooldown of the skill used for this attack and 50% of the energy cost are refunded. If all eight shadow clones hit, the skill's cooldown is permanently reduced by 5% (this effect can stack, but has a limit).

"Hiss—" Even with Lin Muyang's extensive experience, he couldn't help but be shocked by the terrifying effects of this Heaven-Opening grade skill.

The original mythic grade 【 Ultimate Dark Shadow Strike 】 created two shadow clones, dealing triple damage and refunding cooldown on hit. But now, the Heaven-Opening grade 【 Ultimate Dark Shadow Strike 】 had directly turned into eight shadow clones! This meant that every one of Seraphina's attacks would deal nine times the damage! What a terrifying burst increase this was!

Even more terrifying was the newly added "Shadow Breaking the Void" special effect! At the moment of attack, she could ignore most spatial locks and terrain to perform ultra-long-distance teleportation! The teleportation distance was directly linked to her Agility attribute.

Calculated with Seraphina's current Agility of over twenty thousand, her single-attack dash distance could reach over twenty thousand meters! And this teleportation could be used in conjunction with her own assassin displacement skill 【 Shadow Leap 】! This meant her mobility and entry ability had reached an unbelievable level, truly achieving "killing one person every ten steps, leaving no trace for a thousand miles," moving like lightning, unpredictable as ghosts and gods.

The final "Ultimate Dark Return" special effect took the concept of Infinite Firepower to the extreme. Not only was 100% of the cooldown refunded, but half of the energy cost was also returned, and if all eight clones hit, the skill cooldown could be permanently reduced! Although it only reduced by 5% each time, theoretically, if the attack frequency was high enough, it was entirely possible to compress the cooldown of some short-CD skills to near zero!

"All attacks, accompanied by ultra-long-distance, obstacle-ignoring spatial teleportation... This is simply an ultimate skill born for assassination!" Lin Muyang marveled inwardly. His previous tactical concept of using the 【 Space Interruption 】 Aura to block the enemy's spatial skills and then using his own spatial skills to launch a surprise attack seemed a bit "plain" in front of Seraphina's Heaven-Opening grade skill. A true top-tier assassin should be this impossible to defend against!

With his strength leaping forward again, Lin Muyang's vigilance rose to a new level while he was rejoicing.

"mythic grade equipment and skills already have such heaven-defying effects. Heaven-Opening grade is even more unimaginable. Then, how many mythic grade, or even potentially existing Heaven-Opening grade trump cards do those Nation-Guarding Level, or perhaps even hidden sub-god level powerhouses standing at the peak of Blue Star hold? And what is their power?"

Lin Muyang never considered himself invincible. Blue Star had existed for hundreds of years, the Class Transferee system had developed for hundreds of years, and how many brilliant geniuses had been born, and how many ancient ruins and secret realm treasures had been unearthed during this time? Who could guarantee that no one else had obtained an encounter no less than, or even exceeding, the mythic grade items in his hands in some unknown corner?

A single "heart of magic prohibition" could permanently seal key skills, and a single "Gift of the Fallen Demon" could reflect skills.

If an enemy also possessed similar or even stronger mythic grade equipment, he could be caught off guard and suffer losses.

After all, mythic grade items had already touched the level of "rules," and the priority of their special effects was extremely high.

Although Lin Muyang's God-Tier Aura was of a higher status, it was not absolutely immune to being affected or weakened; it was just that he hadn't encountered it yet.

"I must remain vigilant and never underestimate the heroes of the world," Lin Muyang warned himself inwardly.

Fortunately, his greatest advantage lay in the absolute control of intelligence.

The 【Eye of Creation】 could see through all falsehoods, perceive all details of the enemy's abilities, equipment, and skills, and truly achieve the state of knowing both himself and the enemy.

"As long as I know in advance and make preparations, the threat of mythic grade equipment skills can be minimized," Lin Muyang thought, "Moreover, my God-Tier Aura is ultimately superior in terms of level."

"Even if partially weakened, it is enough to deal with the vast majority of situations."

He shook his head and temporarily pushed these thoughts aside.

The most urgent task was to clear this legendary-rank secret realm, obtain more resources, and continue to strengthen himself.

As long as he was strong enough, any schemes, tricks, or powerful trump cards would be futile in the face of absolute strength.

At this moment, the team had already passed through the corridor behind the altar and arrived at an even more magnificent and eerie underground palace.

The palace was built from pitch-black bones and lava rocks, and the walls were carved with countless twisted and painful demonic faces.

In the center of the palace, a massive creature resembling a small mountain was crouching.

It was a Hell Three-Headed Dog! Its size was comparable to a small house, its height exceeded five meters, and its body length exceeded ten meters!

Its entire body was covered in a hideous shell that looked like cooled lava, and its three massive, terrifying dog heads were respectively spewing green poisonous mist, red flames, and black corrosive energy.

Six scarlet eyes scanned the dim palace like searchlights, radiating tyranny, hunger, and endless malice.

Just the pressure it naturally emitted was enough to make an ordinary legendary-grade Class Transferee's legs go weak.

【Hell Gatekeeper Dog · Cerberus (legendary-grade BOSS)】

【Level: 85】 【HP: 5.6 Billion!】

【Skills: Triple Breath (Poison/Fire/Corrosion), Hell Roar, Lava Stomp, Berserk Bite, Demon Domination...】

【legendary-grade Aura: Hell Hard Armor (Physical/Magic Defense increased by 300%), Pain Sharing (30% of damage received is shared with all surrounding units), Blasphemous Body (80% reduction to Holy attribute damage)...】

【Note: The keeper of the demons lair, guarding the gateway to the deeper hell. Only by defeating it can one continue forward.】

5.6 billion HP! A massive 300% increase in dual defense! And that disgusting damage sharing and Holy damage reduction!

This was definitely the ultimate Iron Wall blocking the path of the vast majority of challengers.

For a normal level 82 five-person team, this was an almost impossible task, requiring extremely precise coordination, top-tier equipment, sufficient potion supplies, and a despairingly long war of attrition.

However, in front of Lin Muyang's team, especially now that they had just obtained the blessing of "Virgos Protection," this daunting legendary-grade gatekeeper BOSS did not seem invincible.

"Lilia, how much longer does Invincibility last?" Lin Muyang asked.

"18 seconds left!" Lilia quickly replied, her small face flushed with excitement. She also felt the powerful sense of protection brought by this skill she had cast.

"That's enough. Qingyan, Elabess, prepare to control and finish it off. Everyone else, keep watch on the surroundings to prevent any accidents." Lin Muyang quickly gave the order.

"Understood!" the young ladies replied in unison, their fighting spirit high.

Seraphina nodded gently, her petite figure crouching slightly, as if merging with the shadows in the palace. Her violet eyes locked onto the mountain-like giant beast in the distance, and the next instant, she moved.

There was no earth-shattering momentum, no flashy, dazzling light effects. She simply threw the faint light dagger in her hand towards the Hell Three-Headed Dog — Skill, 【Blood Shadow Flying Dagger】!

However, under the illumination of "Virgos Protection" and the support of the heaven-opening grade 【Ultimate Shadow Assault】, this simple throw erupted with world-destroying power!

At the same time, around her body, eight phantom clones that were completely identical to her actions and formed entirely of solid shadows appeared simultaneously! Together with her original body, nine figures made the throwing motion at the same time!

Hum—! The sharp whistling sound of air being torn apart suddenly rang out! It was not one, but nine overlapping, teeth-grinding screeches!

The next moment, hundreds of dense, scarlet flying daggers made of pure shadow and blood energy, like an enraged swarm of bees, or like a bloody metal storm rising out of thin air, erupted and shot wildly from nine directions, covering the Hell Three-Headed Dog without any blind spots!

Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft—! The dull sound of blades piercing flesh instantly merged into one, like a rainstorm hitting banana leaves!

The Hell Three-Headed Dog's massive body seemed to have turned into a giant target at this moment, being pierced and torn apart by countless Blood Shadow Flying Daggers!

The layer of lava shell on its body, which was enough to withstand the hacking of legendary weapons, was as fragile as paper in front of the Blood Shadow Flying Daggers supported by the heaven-opening grade skill!

The green poisonous mist head had just opened its mouth when its throat was pierced by a dozen flying daggers; the column of fire spewed by the red flame head was directly scattered and rolled back by the torrent of flying daggers; the black corrosive head didn't even have time to react before its entire skull was shredded into a sieve by the flying dagger storm!

-720 million! -710 million! -690 million! -840 million! ...

Dense and dazzling huge damage numbers jumped out wildly from the top of the Hell Three-Headed Dog's head like a fountain!

Its HP bar, that terrifying, despair-inducing 5.6 billion long HP bar, in front of this common-sense-defying nine-fold 【Blood Shadow Flying Dagger】 storm, was like snow under the sun, plummeting wildly at a speed visible to the naked eye—no, at a collapsing speed!

It only had time to let out a roar mixed with pain, anger, and disbelief, which only just began before it came to an abrupt halt.

Its massive body froze in place, its three heads hung down powerlessly, and then, it fell to the ground with a boom! Kicking up dust that filled the sky.

One-shot kill! A true, clean, and efficient one-shot kill that didn't even give the BOSS a chance to release any skills!

From the moment Seraphina attacked to the moment the Hell Three-Headed Dog's massive body turned into specks of light and began to dissipate, the entire process took less than two seconds!

Inside the palace, there was dead silence. Only the faint humming of the remaining energy of the Blood Shadow Flying Daggers slowly dissipating in the air, and the light sound of the Hell Three-Headed Dog's corpse disintegrating, like weathered rocks cracking, could be heard.

Ao Qingyan's dragon breath, which had just gathered at her mouth, stopped, the shadow arrows lingering on Elabess's fingertips slowly dissipated, and the other young ladies also maintained their combat stance, but their faces were filled with astonishment.

Although they knew Seraphina was strong after obtaining the new skill, being this strong... still exceeded their expectations.

Lin Muyang also opened his mouth slightly, then revealed a satisfied smile.

He knew that the heaven-opening grade 【Ultimate Shadow Assault】 combined with Seraphina's already impressive attributes and Origin Skill would be fierce, but being fierce enough to instantly one-shot a legendary-grade gatekeeper BOSS with 5.6 billion HP, high damage reduction, and damage sharing still left him shocked.

"It seems that mythic grade, no, heaven-opening grade equipment and skills bring even greater improvements than I imagined," Lin Muyang sighed inwardly.

In the previous World Tree battle, Seraphina's full-power attack only dealt one or two hundred million damage. Now, one skill, nine times the damage, directly dealt billions in burst damage!

The gap between them was like heaven and earth. This made him full of even more fervent anticipation for the deeper demons he was about to face, and the more mythic grade or even higher-grade loot he might obtain.

He didn't forget the important business; the 【Death Profanation】 Aura had already been quietly activated.

A crimson beam of light, thicker and more brilliant than any before, suddenly shot up into the sky from the Hell Three-Headed Dog's corpse, which had not yet completely dissipated! Within the beam of light, the outlines of several items were faintly floating!

"It dropped loot! And it looks like more than one item!" Lin Muyang's eyes lit up, and he was about to step forward to check the harvest.

At almost the same time, in the deep and cold seabed where Lin Muyang had entered the secret realm, about several nautical miles away from that slowly rotating secret realm vortex emitting an ominous red light.

A pitch-black, sleek micro-submersible, covered in wave-absorbing material and resembling a deep-sea ghost, was quietly hovering in the seawater.

Inside the submersible, in the narrow cockpit, there was only one man wearing a tight deep-sea work suit and multi-functional tactical goggles.

On the screen in front of him, the image of the secret realm entrance was clearly displayed, along with the continuously refreshing data analysis on the side.

"...Energy readings are stable, spatial fluctuations match the characteristics of an 82-level legendary-rank secret realm. The entrance has been activated, and there are high-energy life reactions inside; preliminary judgment is that a Class Transferee has already entered," the man codenamed Wells reported in a low voice into the communicator, his voice sounding somewhat muffled through the mask.