74: Is Chapter 74 really that exaggerated?

When Wang Jie stepped into that blood-colored vortex, he finally understood the truly desperate chasm that existed between textbooks and rumors and reality.

Prior to this, he and everyone in his team had never personally entered an epic-level secret realm.

The reason was simple: epic-level secret realms were extremely rare and usually corresponded to very high levels (level 60 and above).

Yet, the Crimson Altar before them was the first recorded epic-level secret realm in the Xia Kingdom to be below level 60.

It was unprecedented, and as a result, it had received far more attention and evaluation than usual, with its difficulty estimates constantly being revised upward.

Therefore, even as a genius with an SS-Rank Talent, all of Wang Jie's knowledge about epic-level secret realms came solely from cold data, descriptions from predecessors, and theoretical analyses in class.

He had assumed that with the top-tier talents and configurations of his five-man team, they could at least test the waters at the periphery.

Reality dealt him a heavy blow.

The moment they entered the secret realm, a heavy, viscous, blood-scented pressure descended upon them as if it were tangible.

Even more heart-stopping was the cold appearance of several lines of crimson system notifications in the corner of his vision:

【 Secret Realm: Crimson Altar 】

【 Level: 45 】

【 Quality: epic-grade 】

【 Current Number of People: 5 / 13 】

【 Status: Intruder 】

【 epic-grade Environmental Suppression in effect: All Class Transferees' damage dealt reduced by 33%! All Class Transferees' skill cooldown times increased by 58%! 】

"Damage reduced by one-third? Cooldowns increased by more than half?!" the young mage in the team cried out, his face instantly turning pale.

They had known there would be suppression beforehand, but they hadn't expected the magnitude of the suppression to be so shocking!

This directly meant that their entire team's output capacity and skill rotation rhythm had been cut in half.

The extreme critical damage that Wang Jie prided himself on was reduced by 30% before he even made a move.

However, what would make them break down was yet to come.

The location where they appeared seemed to be an entrance platform to an ancient cave.

Not far ahead, two horrific-looking monsters were wandering aimlessly.

They had humanoid silhouettes, but their entire bodies were covered in blood-red muscle tissue as if their skin had been peeled off.

They crawled on all fours, and their heads lacked eyes, possessing only a giant mouth filled with sharp teeth and two constantly twitching ear holes—these were the "Ancients" mentioned in the secret realm's name.

What made Wang Jie's heart stop the most was the monster information he captured through his high-perception talent:

【 Blood-Stained Ancient · Bone Crusher (epic-grade) 】

【 Level: 45 】

【 Trait: Heavy Bone Armor, extremely high physical resistance. 】

【 Aura Skill: Healing Aura (epic-grade) — Restores 12% of maximum HP to itself and surrounding friendly units every second. 】

"Restores 12% HP per second?!" the young tank's voice was trembling.

He quickly did the mental math: epic-grade mobs in this kind of team secret realm started with at least several million HP.

Even calculating based on 6 million, that was 720,000 restored every second!!

When the five of them were at full capacity, the peak total damage per second (DPS) of their three main damage dealers was between 250,000 and 300,000.

Now, suppressed by the secret realm by 33%, their DPS dropped directly to below 200,000.

This didn't even account for the decrease in output frequency caused by the extended cooldowns.

This meant that their damage output couldn't even keep up with the monster's own healing rate!!

This wasn't a question of whether they could fight it or not; it was a question of "the health bar might not even move when we hit it"!!

Even if a full 13-person team came in, grinding these two gatekeeper mobs with their terrifying healing Aura to death would likely require a long time and extremely tight coordination and resource consumption.

But they only had five people, one of whom had to focus entirely on tanking damage and one on healing, leaving only three actual damage-dealing points.

A sense of despair began to spread.

"We can't fight this... we absolutely can't fight this." Wang Jie heard his own voice sound somewhat dry.

In his originally confident eyes, for the first time, there was wavering.

That blood-red sky, the eerie terrain, the smell of rust and decay permeating the air, and those two monsters that made one's sanity plummet just by looking at them, created a suffocating environment.

"Ugh..." the young Light Priest girl in the team suddenly covered her mouth, her face deathly pale.

The monster's hideous appearance and this scene, which was like a furnace of flesh and blood, assaulted her sensitive nerves.

Her stomach churned violently.

"Hold it in! Don't make a sound!" Wang Jie whispered harshly, cold sweat instantly soaking his back.

In a place like this, any unusual movement could become the fuse that triggered the monsters.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

Perhaps it was that suppressed retching, or perhaps it was the chaotic breathing of the five of them due to fear, but the twitching ear holes of those two "Blood-Stained Ancients" suddenly froze, and then, their "heads" turned in unison toward the direction where they were!!

There were no eyes, yet it felt as if something even more terrifying had locked onto them.

"ROAR——!!"

A roar that did not sound human exploded.

The two Ancients, with terrifying speed that completely contradicted their bulky appearance, used all four limbs and charged toward the entrance platform like two bolts of blood-red lightning!!

"Damn it! We've entered combat!!" The young tank's scalp went numb, but duty-bound, he still let out a roar.

An earthy yellow light erupted from his shield, and he activated the skill 【 Rock-Earth Barrier 】, attempting to block the one that charged first.

"BOOM!!"

The Blood-Stained Ancient's seemingly casual forelimb strike slammed into the shield, producing a deafening sound like metal colliding.

The young tank shook violently as if hit head-on by a battering ram, sliding backward uncontrollably, his feet plowing two shallow trenches into the ground.

A sweetness rose in his throat, and he spat out a mouthful of blood with a "pfft."

In the party list, his HP instantly plummeted by 55%!!

"This attack power!!" his eyes were filled with shock.

He was a Magic Shield Warrior with an s-rank talent, wearing top-tier defensive gear and equipped with skills, yet he was nearly one-shot by a mob?!

"Heal me, quick!!" he hissed.

But the young Light Priest girl had long since been scared out of her wits.

Looking at her teammate's plummeting health bar and the terrifying monster rushing toward them, she let out a scream and instinctively wanted to run backward, completely forgetting her duty.

"Invisibility!!" Wang Jie made a decisive decision, gritting his teeth as he tore open a scroll that exuded a gloomy Aura—【 Shadow Protection Scroll (Level 6) 】.

Dense black smoke instantly enveloped the five of them, their figures becoming blurry as if they were about to merge into the surrounding shadows.

This was a high-level invisibility scroll, which theoretically could evade the vast majority of detections at the same level or even slightly higher.

However, the two Blood-Stained Ancients only paused slightly before charging even more violently, their direction not deviating in the slightest!!

The ear holes on their heads twitched violently; clearly, the high-level anti-invisibility ability inherent to Epic-Rank Monsters easily saw through this disguise.

Invisibility failed!!

The distance closed rapidly, the stench of blood rushed toward them, and the scent of death was so clear.

Wang Jie's heart was almost about to jump out of his chest, and a look of extreme heartache and determination flashed in his eyes.

He knew that if he didn't use his trump card, everyone would die here today.

He suddenly pulled a scroll carefully sealed with mithril runes from the deepest part of his storage ring.

The scroll itself was unremarkable, grayish, but the spatial fluctuations flowing on it were heart-stopping.

【 Void Banishment Scroll (Imitation · Low-Level Applicable Type) 】

【 Effect: Briefly tears open space, forcibly banishing hostile targets in the designated area to an unstable interdimensional rift for 3 seconds. Usage Level Requirement: ≥ Level 34. 】

【 Note: An extremely precious life-saving item; the production principle involves a limited dimensional reduction imitation of high-level spatial laws, priceless and unavailable on the market. 】

This thing was worth over a hundred billion Magic Crystals!!

Moreover, due to its special level restriction and strong crowd-control effect, it ranked at the forefront of the life-saving lists for children of top aristocratic families; it was a true trump card that was used up once used.

Wang Jie's family had paid a huge price to obtain this one for him.

"No time to hesitate!!" Wang Jie tore the scroll open fiercely and threw it in front of the two monsters charging at them.

"Rip—"

The sound of fabric being torn rang out.

Where the scroll shattered, space fractured like a mirror, and two deep, rotating micro-black holes that devoured all light suddenly appeared, emitting chaotic spatial fluctuations.

A powerful suction force came, and the momentum of the two aggressive Blood-Stained Ancients suddenly stalled.

They let out angry and confused roars, their massive bodies being dragged uncontrollably toward the two black holes, and finally, amidst the distorted light and shadow, they completely disappeared.

At the same time, the five of them simultaneously received the "Out of Combat" notification.

"Go!! Go now!!" Wang Jie practically roared, his face deathly pale from the massive consumption of magic and mental energy.

He was the first to turn around and rush toward the blood-red exit vortex without looking back.

The other four woke up as if from a dream and scrambled to follow.

The young tank clutched his chest, blood still hanging from the corner of his mouth; the young Light Priest girl was covered in tears, still shaken; the other two damage dealers were even more disheveled—whatever pride of a genius they had had was already crushed to pieces in that life-or-death moment just now.

Just as they rushed out of the secret realm vortex, returned to the outside world, and were sitting or standing in a daze, gasping for breath, an invisible figure had already silently descended to the edge of this area isolated by the barrier.

Lin Muyang naturally saw the five disheveled Class Transferees who were resting and also heard fragments of their conversation about surviving the ordeal:

"It was too terrifying; that's simply not something human beings can fight!!"

"My shield almost shattered!! I was nearly incapacitated in one hit!!"

"Thanks to Brother Wang Jie's scroll... I heard that thing is worth over ten million??"

"I never want to enter an epic-grade instance again in this lifetime..."

"If anyone could solo this, I'd kneel and take them as my master on the spot!! No, I'd even acknowledge them as my foster father!!"

"Forget it, they might be a woman..."

"Even if they're a woman, I'd still acknowledge them!! This simply isn't something human power can contend with!!"

Listening to these discussions filled with lingering fear and disbelief, the invisible Lin Muyang stroked his chin, a strange look appearing on his face.

"It seems this epic-level secret realm has left quite a psychological shadow on these little kids..."

"Is it really that exaggerated??"