71: Level 999 dungeon, Lava Mine cleared!

The Jinling Ye Family,

Was the premier great Family in Jiangdong Province.

The Family's industries touched every aspect of life, and the Crystal Hotel was just one of many properties under its umbrella.

Its sheer scale

Was hundreds or even thousands of times larger than the recently annihilated Jiang Family; even on a national level, they were a renowned existence.

Furthermore, the current head of the Ye Family was a War King!

One must understand that a Family with a War King and one without were worlds apart!

At this very moment,

Inside the Principal's office,

The Dean of Discipline let out a heavy sigh and suggested with a bitter face,

"Principal, I think we should just give up!"

"To say something you might not like to hear,

Now that Ye Yuan has awakened an S-rank Combat Talent, the Ye Family will surely pour every resource into helping him grow.

And from the rumors I've heard, the Ye Family no longer even cares about the provincial top scholar title; they are aiming for national top scholar..."

Hearing the words 'national top scholar',

The Old Principal's cloudy eyes became even more vacant, looking like he had dementia, and he didn't say a word.

The Dean of Discipline continued,

"Setting aside the fact that Ye Yuan's awakened Talent is inherently stronger than Su Yan's, look at Ye Yuan's Family background versus Su Yan's. Is there even any comparison?"

"Besides, Jinling No. 1 High School is also a wealthy powerhouse. They've produced several War Kings and aren't short on money at all.

If our Jiangnan No. 2 High School tries to arm-wrestle them, it's like throwing an egg against a rock; we'll only end up battered and bloodied."

After a long silence,

The Old Principal suddenly shook his head.

"No, you've overlooked a very important point!"

"Overlooked what?"

The Old Principal said forcefully, "Su Yan's girlfriend is Xiao Panxue!"

The Dean of Discipline was momentarily speechless.

"Principal, first of all, speaking for myself, I don't encourage boys to live off a woman..."

"This isn't a matter of living off a woman; this is Su Yan's unique ability!

Tell me, since Ye Yuan can rely on his Family, why can't Su Yan rely on his girlfriend?"

The Dean of Discipline had no response.

That actually made a lot of sense!

The Old Principal said in a deep voice,

"With Xiao Panxue's natural Talent, she certainly won't sit by and watch her boyfriend be inferior to her.

Perhaps that explains why Su Yan's Rank is increasing so quickly."

"I see."

The Dean of Discipline came to a realization.

He couldn't help but feel a bit of jealousy in his heart,

Thinking that if he had a girlfriend like that back then... "But Xiao Panxue is still in university after all. The help she can give Su Yan can only go so far.

Compared to the boost the Ye Family can give Ye Yuan, it's just a drop in the bucket."

Thinking of something, a worried look appeared on the Dean's face again.

The Old Principal said,

"I know that all too well, but I don't plan on giving up just like this."

"Principal, you..."

The Old Principal stood up and walked to the window, his voice turning weary with age.

"Me, my life is nearing its end.

Now that I've finally encountered an S-rank Combat Talent Genius like Su Yan, I'll stake everything to take a gamble, no matter what."

The Dean of Discipline looked at the Old Principal in surprise.

Suddenly, the Old Principal's image seemed to grow taller in his eyes.

"Principal, how are you going to gamble? I'm with you!"

The Old Principal showed a gratified expression and asked,

"Ye Yuan awakened his Talent yesterday afternoon, so he can only enter Divine Punishment to level up today, right?"

"Right!"

A sharp light flashed in the Old Principal's aged eyes.

"Then I'll bet that Ye Yuan's Rank will never catch up to Su Yan's!

That way, during the National College Entrance Examination, Su Yan can use his Rank advantage to suppress Ye Yuan and take the provincial top scholar title!"

"..."

The Dean of Discipline's mouth twitched.

He thought the Old Principal was going to announce some earth-shattering stakes, but it was just this?

Isn't this just a fantasy!

One must realize that behind Ye Yuan,

Was the powerful alliance of the Ye Family and Jinling No. 1 High School; the resources they could provide were terrifying.

How could his Rank possibly not catch up to Su Yan's?

By relying on Su Yan's ordinary Family? Or our struggling Jiangnan No. 2 High School?

"Principal, where are you going?"

Seeing the Old Principal suddenly stand up and head for the door, the Dean of Discipline hurriedly followed and asked.

The Old Principal said,

"I'm going to the bank to take out a loan! I'm going all in against the Ye Family!"

The Dean of Discipline was scared witless and quickly tried to stop him.

"Principal, are you crazy? Even if you borrow all the money in the bank, it won't even come close to the Ye Family's assets!"

"Then what else can we do? Do we just give up like this?

The Ye Family doesn't lack a single provincial top scholar, but for Su Yan, and for our Jiangnan No. 2 High School, it can change our destiny!"

Speaking to this point,

The Old Principal turned around and added, "By the way, I've already decided to sell my house."

"Do you want to sell yours too?"

... *Ring ring ring...*

The bell for class rang.

Inside the Top Scholar Class, the students' chatter gradually died down, and the atmosphere became quiet.

Su Yan glanced at the classroom door, finding it a bit strange that the Old Principal wasn't there today.

"Where did that old fellow go?"

But he didn't dwell on it and reached his hand toward the link crystal.

*Whoosh!*

In an instant,

His consciousness faded rapidly.

Su Yan appeared in Molten Fire City.

Because this map was filled with rolling heatwaves, the temperature was much higher than in the Endless Desert.

Whether they were Human Race NPCs or players, everyone here generally dressed quite lightly.

In just a short moment,

Su Yan saw at least five or six female players wearing swimsuits whistling past him.

This couldn't help but make him feel

That sometimes, being able to party up with female players was actually quite nice.

"Let's head to the Level 999 dungeon."

After a brief moment of appreciation, Su Yan left Molten Fire City and headed toward the location of the strongest dungeon on this map.

The Level 999 dungeon was called the Lava Mine.

It took only five minutes for Su Yan to arrive at the dungeon entrance.

Since he would be fighting in this dungeon for nearly the next two months,

He had done his homework starting from last night.

Su Yan already knew the Lava Mine dungeon like the back of his hand.

Right now,

The number of players at the dungeon entrance wasn't high.

After all, those who could reach this level were only one step away from the Level 1000 War King Rank.

In reality, these would all be powerful figures in their respective regions.

Su Yan walked quickly to the dungeon NPC.

He wasn't in a hurry this time, so he opened the historical clear time rankings to check.

1st Place: Ye Zhibai, Mo Wen, and Dugu's team, time: 9 minutes 16 seconds.

Clear Rating: SSS-Rank.

2nd Place: Li Yueqing's team, time: 26 minutes 32 seconds.

Clear Rating: SSS-Rank.

3rd Place: Shen Xiu's team, time: 42 minutes 48 seconds.

Clear Rating: SS-Rank... 10th Place: Lin Nan's team, time: 51 minutes 36 seconds. Clear Rating: SS-Rank...

After glancing through the clear rankings,

He didn't have much to say, but the only thing Su Yan found slightly strange was

That a team which had strongly fought its way into the top ten for both the Level 50 Wolf King Valley and Level 200 Elven Tomb dungeons,

Seemed to be called the Xue Wuyue team,

Yet in this Level 999 dungeon, they hadn't even made it into the top 500.

And if he remembered correctly,

This team also hadn't appeared on the rankings for the Level 500 Desert Cave dungeon.

"Logically speaking, once you reach the level of being tenth in the overall rankings, your strength shouldn't fluctuate that much."

Su Yan took a thoughtful pose and immediately thought of three possibilities.

The first possibility:

After clearing the Level 200 dungeon rankings, the entire team or several members had unfortunately died in battle on the front lines.

This possibility was quite high.

Because during the early stages of the Demon Race's descent, many early human experts were urgently sent to the front lines after reaching Level 50.

The number of sacrifices was countless.

The second possibility:

This was a new team whose level hadn't reached 500 yet, so they couldn't run the Level 500 dungeon.

The third possibility:

The team members were worried about being conscripted by the Demon Slaying Institute, so they were intentionally keeping a low profile and didn't dare to aim for the clear rankings anymore.

But Su Yan felt that whatever the truth was didn't really matter.

He was just making random guesses after seeing it.

Then,

Su Yan summoned the Goddess of Dawn and the Goddess of the Desert and entered the dungeon, intending to grab the ranking rewards first.

And so, very quickly,

The world announcement rang out once again:

"Congratulations to player [Demon Slayer] for clearing the Lava Mine dungeon solo! Time: 0.45 seconds!

Clear Rating: SSS-Rank!"