102: Wang Yao won MVP, Zhou Yan was just an easy win.

Ignoring Yuan Chenling and having no time to notice his surroundings, Zhou Yan immediately clicked on the battle details to check.

BOSS [Demonized · Old Ma]

[Rank: Core Formation Late Stage]

[Zhou Yan]

Participation Rate: 50% / Damage: 1% / Damage Taken: 0% / Healing: 0%

NPC [Wang Yao] MVP

Participation Rate: 50% / Damage: 99% / Damage Taken: 100% / Healing: 100%

Looking at the string of zeros for damage taken and healing data, Zhou Yan couldn't help but gulp.

Good grief, although Wang Yao has over two hundred thousand HP, his healing and damage taken actually broke through a million.

This... is there even a single piece of meat or a drop of blood on his whole body that's original?

Fortunately, the settlement screen showed that Wang Yao still had quite a bit of HP left and no negative status effects, otherwise Zhou Yan would have been ready to go back and save him immediately.

But this isn't a long-term solution either; it seems he needs to pass this floor as quickly as possible and then go back to check the situation.

Zhou Yan opened his inventory and saw the items inside at a glance.

"Holy crap, has my luck really turned around!"

Riverside.

Ignoring the corpses all over the ground and the grateful crowd, Shi Suiyan walked straight toward a small boat.

"Give me the Legacy."

Hearing the voice, the Ferryman turned around and looked at Shi Suiyan.

"I don't understand what you're saying."

Shi Suiyan didn't reply; in an instant, her figure flickered as if dropping frames.

The lean old Ferryman's pupils suddenly contracted, and he blurted out subconsciously.

"It really succeeded? I thought that was just an ideal scenario..."

"Then you're here for..."

"Feng Xu's armillary sphere."

"Then you..."

"I won't tell you the purpose."

"But I..."

"No need to say more."

"You should have understood from the first glance you took at me that I have practiced all of this countless times."

"Handing it over to me directly now is the optimal solution."

The lean old man's eyelids twitched.

He couldn't even finish a single complete sentence.

But this exactly proved that what the other party said was true.

"Sigh... clearly it succeeded, so why does it feel like I'm the one who failed."

The old man dissipated into particles of light, and before he completely vanished, Shi Suiyan had already taken out a small token.

That was the key to entering the Secret Realm.

The moment the light particles formed, they flew toward the token.

The pattern of the archer on it gradually changed, becoming a person holding a strange object composed of multiple overlapping rings.

Shi Suiyan remained expressionless from beginning to end; only when it was over did she take out a mirror fragment.

"Senior Brother, are you there?"

"No."

"Senior Brother still loves to joke like this."

Zhou Yan looked at the half-veiled face in the mirror and was speechless for a moment.

The video call was already connected, yet she still asked if he was there.

If he wasn't there, what was he doing?

"It's over on my side, and I'm about to go to the final floor."

"Senior Brother needs to hurry up too, otherwise, a young girl like me being all alone will always be a bit scared."

Hiss—

Zhou Yan's teeth felt sore from listening.

He was wrong; when it came to being "greasy," Long Tianxing's level was far below hers.

"If there's nothing else, I'll get busy; I still don't know what to do on my end."

After saying that, Zhou Yan began to study how to close the communication, but Shi Suiyan disconnected first.

After disconnecting, Shi Suiyan seemed to finally breathe a sigh of relief, a slight smile appearing at the corners of her mouth.

"This time finally... I've really reached this step."

Zhou Yan scratched his head, unable to figure out what Shi Suiyan was trying to do for a moment.

Was it just to urge me to be faster?

But I haven't even figured out what I need to do yet.

Zhou Yan had calmed down from his previous joy and was about to use the reward items when he saw the fragment react.

After picking it up, it was just a few meaningless sentences.

On the side, Yuan Chenling was getting a bit anxious.

"Boss, let's hurry up too; we've been delayed for half a day already."

"Look at you, anxious again," Zhou Yan said with a nonchalant look.

He didn't pay attention to the anxious Yuan Chenling, but prepared to quickly cash in the drops.

Because compared to clearing this floor's Secret Realm now, the items that just dropped were clearly more important.

Because the items dropped by the BOSS this time could make his combat power swell once more, and extremely so!

Knowing he couldn't explain it to this Hachikō, he directly gave an order.

"Be my Protector; I'll take you through a speedrun in a bit."

After saying that, Zhou Yan sat cross-legged on the spot, pretending to enter a state of meditation.

Yuan Chenling's expression turned serious at this moment.

He began to seriously suspect that he was actually already in the middle of a trial.

This boss in front of him, maybe... before he could think further, Zhou Yan punched him on the head.

Yuan Chenling took a rap on the head, but his eyes cleared up quite a bit, and he obediently squatted to the side to act as a Protector.

Zhou Yan was meditating on the surface, but in reality, he was checking his panel and inventory.

There was only one item dropped by the BOSS this time, and that was... [Yao Race Inner Core]

[Quality: Fine]

There wasn't much of an introduction, simple and clear, yet of extraordinary significance.

Just as Spiritual Roots are equipment, this thing is also equipment.

It's just that Zhou Yan can't equip it.

A Cultivator's Core Formation isn't simply generating a Golden Core in the body; it's more like a description of this Realm, meaning the Dao Foundation is stable, the dao body is integrated as one, and it is flawless and leakless.

To some extent, this is somewhat similar to the characteristics of Zhou Yan's digitized body.

At that Realm, traditional vital points no longer exist.

Whether the heart is shattered or the head is severed, it's just a loss of a large amount of vitality.

As long as vitality remains, these can only be counted as superficial injuries, and severed limbs can be repaired.

Therefore, Zhou Yan cannot equip this Inner Core, nor can he directly incorporate it into his body; at most, it can only be used for Alchemy.

But as luck would have it, Zhou Yan has a Yao Race panel.

Although that panel is a mount panel and has no equipment slots, wouldn't it work to just refine it directly?

A member of the Yao Race refining a Yao Race Inner Core—nothing wrong with that, right?

Items dropped by the System don't have rejection reactions like other people's Yao cores.

Just like the perfectly adapted servant attire that dropped back then, this item must also be compatible.

So... Zhou Yan first glanced at the mini-map to confirm there were no monitoring devices that needed to be destroyed, then no longer had any scruples.

His body rapidly changed, scales covering him and horns growing, as a terrifying aura erupted.

Yuan Chenling, acting as the Protector, had trembling limbs—not because he thought Zhou Yan's form was hideous, but because his body was instinctively shivering.

This is the body's self-protection mechanism when facing a higher-level existence.

This feeling, he had only experienced it from his "Green-Hatted Old Man."

Dragon Clan!

Zhou Yan's body continuously grew longer and thicker; Yuan Chenling hurried back, fearing he would be crushed underneath.

Actually, the moment he released his Dragon body, Zhou Yan regretted it.

The last Dragon Transformation process was completed on the panel, so the panel only simulated the transformation process and didn't show the specific numerical changes of the body.

Plus, after obtaining this panel, he had never truly released his Dragon form and had no concept of the size; he thought that since he couldn't even fill a room when turning into a Flood Dragon, the Dragon Transformation shouldn't be much larger.

As a result, now that it was released, just his coiled body was comparable to a basketball court.

His current body length was at least over a hundred meters, instantly filling the center of the village, and it was even a bit cramped.

But now wasn't the time for embarrassment; since he had already transformed, he should finish it quickly!

A Yao Core emerged and was taken into Zhou Yan's mouth.

He circulated his entire body's magic power and began to refine it.

Yuan Chenling, on the side, fell into shock once again.

Since following this new boss, the number of shocks in one day was more than in the past year.

Yuan Chenling felt that he should never claim to be knowledgeable and experienced again.

That bit of experience of his really didn't amount to anything at all.