Chapter 17: The Shameless Duo Forms; Zhao Kai Offers a 1 Million Real-World Bounty

The entrance to the Wolf King Secret Realm was a black vortex, exuding a cold and chilling aura.

The moment Lin Ye and Su Qinghan stepped inside, the scene before them changed completely—from the bright grasslands of the Novice Village to a dim, gloomy forest.

Dead trees, bones, and thick fog; everything was filled with an eerie atmosphere.

[System Prompt: You have entered the [Wolf King Secret Realm] (Highest Difficulty). Dungeon Level: 15-20. Recommended party size: 10 people. Current party size: 2 people. Clear rate: 0%.]

Su Qinghan looked at the prompt and frowned: "Two people taking on a ten-person dungeon; aren't you being a bit too confident?"

Lin Ye laughed: "Confident? I call this strength."

He raised his hand and applied a Decay Debuff to the nearest level 15 Elite Wolf.

[System Prompt: Target [Secret Realm Patrol Wolf] has been afflicted with Decay Debuff, current stacks: 50.]

That Elite Wolf's health bar dropped by half instantly.

It came charging over while howling, but halfway there, it was worn down to death by the debuff.

Before its corpse even hit the ground, it dropped a piece of blue equipment.

Su Qinghan watched this scene, the corner of her eye twitching: "Fifty stacks? When did you stack that?"

"Just now." Lin Ye shrugged, "With my Talent, as long as the target is locked, stacking is just a matter of a single thought. No casting time, no cooldown, infinite stacking."

Su Qinghan fell silent.

She finally understood why Zhao Kai had been driven crazy.

This Talent was simply a bug among bugs.

The two continued walking deeper into the dungeon.

Lin Ye cleared the path in front, applying the Decay Debuff to any monster he saw, starting at fifty stacks with no upper limit.

Elite monsters got one hundred stacks, mini-bosses two hundred, and the main boss three hundred.

All the monsters died before they could even reach them, so Su Qinghan's Holy Shield wasn't even needed.

"Are you having me here just for sightseeing?" Su Qinghan couldn't help but say.

Lin Ye looked back at her: "Don't worry, there will be a time for you to shine later. The final boss is a level 20 Elite Wolf King; I can't withstand its burst damage, so I'll need to rely on your shield."

Su Qinghan felt a bit better at this.

She followed behind Lin Ye, watching him steamroll through everything, and was secretly shocked.

This person's Talent was even more outrageous than she had imagined.

Ten minutes later, they arrived at the final area of the dungeon—a massive altar.

In the center of the altar lay a giant wolf three times the size of a normal Wolf King.

Its body was covered in silver-white scales, and its eyes were blood-red, emitting a suffocating aura.

[BOSS: Silver-Scaled Wolf King (Elite)] Level: 20. HP: 50,000. Skills: Silver-Scaled Armor, Rending Charge, Wolf King Roar, Berserk Burst.

Su Qinghan gasped when she saw the BOSS's panel: "Fifty thousand HP? And four skills? This is more than ten times stronger than the Wolf King outside!"

Lin Ye didn't speak; he raised his hand and applied 100 stacks of Decay Debuff to the Silver-Scaled Wolf King.

[System Prompt: Target [Silver-Scaled Wolf King] has been afflicted with Decay Debuff, current stacks: 100. Deals 100% of maximum HP as true damage per second.]

The Silver-Scaled Wolf King's health bar instantly dropped by one-fifth.

It let out a roar, sprang up from the ground, and lunged toward Lin Ye.

It was as fast as lightning, and Su Qinghan couldn't even react in time—

"Holy Shield!" She quickly cast a shield on Lin Ye.

The Silver-Scaled Wolf King's claws struck the shield, and the shield shattered halfway.

Lin Ye's HP dropped by one-third, but he could still hold on.

"Keep stacking!" Su Qinghan shouted.

Lin Ye was unhurried and added another 100 stacks.

200 stacks.

The Silver-Scaled Wolf King's health bar dropped by 40%, its total attributes were reduced by 40%, and its speed and attack power dropped significantly.

But it wasn't dead yet; instead, it was enraged.

It roared at the sky and activated the skill "Wolf King Roar"—a sonic wave spread out from its mouth, shaking the entire altar.

Su Qinghan quickly cast a shield on both herself and Lin Ye.

The sonic wave hit the shields, shattering them, but the damage was blocked.

"It still has two skills left." Su Qinghan reminded him.

Lin Ye nodded and added another 100 stacks.

300 stacks.

The Silver-Scaled Wolf King's health bar dropped by 60%, its total attributes were reduced by 60%, its speed was as slow as a turtle, and its attack power was far worse than before.

It panicked and activated "Berserk Burst"—its whole body glowed red, its attack power and attack speed doubled, but the cost was losing 5% of its HP per second.

Su Qinghan's expression changed: "It's going all out!"

Lin Ye laughed: "Let it."

He raised his hand and applied another 100 stacks.

400 stacks.

The Silver-Scaled Wolf King's health bar dropped by 80%, its total attributes were reduced by 80%.

Its "Berserk Burst" was canceled out by the debuff as soon as it was activated; even with doubled attack power, it was still inferior to a normal Wolf King.

It struggled one last time and activated "Rending Charge"—charging toward Lin Ye, but it was as slow as slow motion.

Lin Ye even had time to stretch before stepping to the side.

"Too slow." Lin Ye shook his head and applied the final 100 stacks.

500 stacks.

The Silver-Scaled Wolf King's health bar hit zero, its total attributes were reduced by 100%, and it let out a desperate wail before crashing to the ground.

[System Prompt: Congratulations to players [Lin Ye] and [Qinghan] for clearing the [Wolf King Secret Realm] (Highest Difficulty). Clear time: 12 minutes and 38 seconds. You have broken the server-wide record!]

[Server-wide Golden Announcement! Congratulations to players [Lin Ye] and [Qinghan] for being the first to clear the [Wolf King Secret Realm] (Highest Difficulty) and securing the server-wide First Kill! Reward: Level +5, Gold +5000, SS-Rank Treasure Chest x1!]

[Server-wide Golden Announcement! Players [Lin Ye] and [Qinghan] have become the first team to clear a highest-difficulty dungeon since the launch of [gods domain: origin]! Entered into the server-wide Hall of Fame!]

Three consecutive announcements! The whole server exploded again!

[World Channel]

[Player "Wocao Wuqing": Holy crap! Wolf King Secret Realm First Kill?! And it was done by two people?!]

[Player "Brick-Moving Expert": Isn't this dungeon a ten-person dungeon? They cleared it with just two people?]

[Player "Invincible Sword God": Brother Ye is awesome! Sister Qinghan is awesome! What kind of god-tier combo is this?!]

[Player "Yes Little Follower": Isn't Su Qinghan the number one divine priest of the whole server? She teamed up with Brother Ye?!]

[Player "Onlooker": Master Kai is going to cry. The person he spent 500,000 gold coins to hire is now teamed up with Brother Ye, hahaha!]

Zhao Kai also saw this announcement.

He stared at the golden words on the screen, "Player [Lin Ye], [Qinghan] cleared the Wolf King Secret Realm," his face turning deathly pale.

Su Qinghan had really teamed up with Lin Ye.

He had spent 500,000 gold coins to ask for her help, and she didn't accept.

He offered a 10 million gold coin bounty, and she ignored it.

Yet now, she had taken the initiative to team up with Lin Ye.

Zhao Kai slumped in his chair, his eyes unfocused.

It was over, completely over.

Meanwhile, at the entrance to the Black Wind Ridge dungeon, Lin Ye and Su Qinghan were walking out.

Both of them had leveled up several times; Lin Ye went from level 8 to 13, and Su Qinghan went from level 15 to 18.

Su Qinghan opened her inventory and glanced at what the BOSS had dropped—two pieces of purple equipment, one suitable for a Warrior and one for a Priest.

She tossed the Warrior one directly to Lin Ye.

"Here. I don't need it."

Lin Ye took it and looked; it was a ring—[Silver-Scaled Ring], and its stats were quite good: Strength +30, Critical Hit Rate +10%, Attack Speed +15%.

He put it on directly, and his stats increased by a notch.

"Thanks," he said.

Su Qinghan shook her head: "No need to thank me. This is what you deserve. You were the one doing all the damage the whole time; I just cast a few shields."

Lin Ye laughed: "Without your shield, I couldn't have withstood the BOSS's burst. So, for this ring, let's split it half and half."

Su Qinghan glanced at him without speaking.

She found that although this person was unscrupulous, he was actually quite generous to his friends.

As the two were talking, another message popped up on the World Channel—

[World Channel] [Master Kai]: Brothers of the whole server! Whoever can kill Lin Ye once, I will give one million in real currency! I mean what I say! Not game currency, but real currency! One million!

The whole server went completely crazy.

[World Channel]

[Player "Wocao Wuqing": One million in real currency?! Has Master Kai emptied out his entire savings?!]

[Player "Brick-Moving Expert": One million! That's enough for me to buy a house!]

[Player "Invincible Sword God": One million in real currency? Master Kai, are you serious?]

[Player "Yes Little Follower": Don't go to your deaths, guys upstairs. Brother Ye is not someone you can fight!]

But the temptation of one million in real currency was too great.

Less than five minutes after the message was sent, hundreds of players across the server accepted the bounty.

Some were solo players, some were from small guilds, and there were even a few top experts ranked in the top hundred.

They teleported from various main cities to the Novice Village, surging toward Black Wind Ridge in a massive throng.

The area near the respawn point was packed with people, just waiting for Lin Ye to appear.

Su Qinghan watched the commotion on the World Channel and frowned: "One million in real currency; Zhao Kai is truly crazy."

Lin Ye laughed: "Crazy is good. A crazy Zhao Kai is even easier to fleece."

Su Qinghan looked at him: "What do you plan to do? There are so many people; you can't handle them alone."

Lin Ye thought for a moment: "Who said I was going to handle them alone?"

He turned around and shouted at the dungeon entrance: "Wolf King, come out and greet the guests!"

The Silver-Scaled Wolf King's corpse hadn't respawned yet, but the Elite monsters inside the dungeon had.

Lin Ye applied the debuff to all the Elite monsters near the dungeon entrance and then activated "Directional Tracking"—these Elite monsters would automatically attack the players who had accepted the bounty.

Su Qinghan watched this scene and was completely impressed: "Are you using the dungeon as an armory?"

Lin Ye shrugged: "Otherwise? It's a waste just leaving it there."

He had just finished setting it up when the first batch of bounty-hunting players arrived.

The leader's ID was "Overlord War God," a level 15 Warrior ranked 231st on the server.

He brought over twenty people, charging into Black Wind Ridge with great momentum and aggression.

"Lin Ye! Come out and die!"

As soon as he finished speaking, over a dozen Elite Wolves rushed out from the dungeon entrance, each carrying over a hundred stacks of the debuff, pouncing toward Overlord War God and his group.

"Holy crap! What's going on?!"

"Why are these wolves so fierce?!"

"Don't touch them! You'll die if you touch them!"

But it was already too late.

Overlord War God slashed a sword at an Elite Wolf and was instantly infected with the debuff, his health bar dropping wildly.

"Priest! Heal me!"

"Heal my ass! The Priest can't even hold on themself!"

In less than ten seconds, all twenty-plus people were dead.

Overlord War God stood up from the respawn point, looking at his level which had dropped by 5, his face livid.

"Damn it! What kind of hellish dungeon is this?!"

His underlings behind him were also cursing—

"Whoever wants this bounty can have it! I'm done!"

"One million in real currency? You'll have your life to earn it, but not to spend it!"

Overlord War God gritted his teeth and opened his private messages to send a message to Zhao Kai—

[Private Message] Overlord War God: Master Kai, I'm not taking this job. I'm refunding your money. This Lin Ye is simply not someone a human can fight.

Zhao Kai received this message and trembled with rage.

He contacted other players who had accepted the bounty, but the result was the same—all of them had been wiped out by Lin Ye's Elite Wolf army.

Over a hundred people, all dead.

Their levels dropped by at least three, and up to five.

Equipment was scattered all over the ground.

The one-million real currency bounty had become a joke.

[World Channel]

[Player "Invincible Sword God": I told you not to go to your deaths! You wouldn't listen!]

[Player "Brick-Moving Expert": Master Kai, did you team up with Brother Ye to scam us? This bounty is just a trap!]

[Player "Yes Little Follower": Hahaha! One million in real currency? Master Kai, your money has probably gone down the drain!]

Zhao Kai watched these messages and completely broke down.

He spent 500,000 gold coins to hire people, and they were wiped out.

He offered a 10 million gold coin bounty, and no one dared to take it.

He offered a one-million real currency bounty, and got slapped in the face again.

He had poured all his money into this, and hadn't even hurt a single hair on Lin Ye.

He slumped in his chair, staring at the ceiling, his eyes unfocused.

"Why... why can't I beat him every single time..."

Meanwhile, Lin Ye was standing on the summit of Black Wind Ridge, looking at the equipment and materials scattered all over the ground, the corner of his mouth curled into an unscrupulous smile.

"This wave from Zhao Kai has gifted me at least 500,000 gold coins worth of items," he said to Su Qinghan.

Su Qinghan shook her head speechlessly: "You really are... addicted to fleecing others."

Lin Ye laughed: "It's not addiction, it's professionalism. Let's go, it's time to head to the main city."

"The main city?" Su Qinghan was stunned for a moment, "You are only level 13; the minimum entry level for the main city is 20."

Lin Ye opened his inventory and glanced at the SS-Rank Treasure Chest dropped by the Silver-Scaled Wolf King—after opening it, he leveled up directly to 18.

Combined with the experience from grinding monsters earlier, he was exactly level 20.

"Now it's enough," he said.

Su Qinghan looked at his level and was completely impressed: "Your leveling speed... is just too outrageous."

Lin Ye shrugged: "Good Talent, can't help it."

The two walked out of Black Wind Ridge side by side, heading in the direction of the main city.

Meanwhile, in a corner of the World Channel, a message quietly popped up—

[World Channel] [Heavenly Temple Qin Wentian]: Lin Ye, see you in the main city. When the time comes, I will let you know what true strength is.

Lin Ye saw this message, and the corner of his mouth curled into an unscrupulous smile.

"Qin Wentian, see you in the main city," he said in a low voice, "When the time comes, I will let you know what true unscrupulousness is."