460: Chapter 460 Bounty Completed? What bounty?

As Chen You switched his fashion display back on, the Supreme Tower felt noticeably dimmer.

Beside him, Hill finally recovered from the onslaught of the intense light.

She steadied herself against the counter and stood up, looking at Chen You, who had returned to his low-key appearance, with an expression that was incredibly vivid.

"Congratulations to the Boss on mastering your divine arts and donning your divine equipment! That display just now was simply the greatest miracle since the creation of the Source Realm!"

She blinked hard, trying to dissipate the lingering spots of light on her retinas.

She then handed over a cup of hot tea, her face once again wearing that signature professional smile.

"That style—even if a true god from the temple descended to the mortal realm, they would have to kowtow before speaking to you after seeing your outfit."

"Since the creation of the Source Realm, you are definitely the first person to trample the enhancement probability under your feet!"

Chen You took the teacup, took a sip, and his expression remained calm.

"Stop the flattery." Chen You set down the teacup and tapped his fingers on the solid wood counter twice.

"I spent nearly 300,000 gold coins; if I couldn't even see a splash, I would definitely tear down your Supreme Tower and sell it for building materials."

Hill chuckled dryly, "How could that be? It's worth more than the price, absolutely worth more than the price."

"Alright, enough about the enhancement." Chen You stared intently at Hill, "Let's talk about serious business."

"You previously swore to me that as long as I reached level 50, I would be able to touch the core rules of the Source Realm."

"What's the deal? The core rules you spoke of are just this ridiculous enhancement system?"

"Boss, how can you say that?" Hill straightened her back, "How can the enhancement system be called ridiculous? It's the essential path to increasing one's strength."

"Look at you now, with a +16 set equipped. Isn't this a concrete manifestation of the rules?"

"Don't try to pull a switcheroo with me." Chen You sneered, "Enhancement is just stacking stats; what I want are quests."

"What about my hidden monster siege quest that got swallowed? Don't tell me the system patched it again."

Hill's eyes began to wander, and she reached out to straighten the ledger on the counter.

"Well... touching the core rules is a gradual process."

She began to speak in bureaucratic jargon, "You have already obtained the admission ticket."

"As for the clues to the hidden quests, the Source Realm is free. It requires you to explore and discover them yourself."

"Speak plainly."

"The system did indeed patch it for you; certain things have been restricted." Hill sighed and lowered her voice.

"But the blind box mechanism is already in effect. You are level 50 now; as long as you go to specific areas to trigger it, a crisis could descend at any time."

"I can only give you one hint."

Chen You raised an eyebrow: "Speak."

"Don't just keep your eyes on the main city." Hill pointed outside, "Go to those places that even the gods are unwilling to look at."

Chen You rolled his eyes.

That was as good as saying nothing.

"You're a terrible customer service representative; thumbs down." Chen You leaned back in his chair, just about to continue applying pressure to pry some substantial information out of her.

Just then.

"Ding—"

A crisp system notification sound rang in his mind.

[Notification: The bounty quest you posted has been completed! Please check it.]

Chen You frowned.

A bounty?

Chen You quickly went over his recent actions in his mind, "What bounty? I haven't posted any bounties recently."

Hill watched Chen You suddenly fall into deep thought and asked tentatively, "Boss, what's wrong?"

"Do you think my service here isn't thorough enough, and you want to find someone to beat me up?"

"Shut up."

Chen You raised his hand and tapped the air to bring up the system interface.

He clicked into the bounty module.

At the very top of the interface, a highlighted message was flashing frantically.

That was a quest he had casually posted using the bounty system to find a World Boss, back when he wanted to make the Five Elements mutual generation rules of the Ten Thousand Fox Cave public.

At the time, he had just used the bounty as a world loudspeaker.

Now, has a player actually found a clue to a World Boss?

Chen You clicked on the notification.

[Completed by: Adventurer "Song Yixue".]

[Submission: Song Yixue has discovered the NPC "Old Man Dongxing" who can trigger a World Boss; location: Reef Tavern in Cangxing Bay.]

Chen You closed the bounty interface and looked up at Hill, who was still pretending to organize the ledger behind the counter.

"I'll settle the score with you about the hidden quests later." Chen You dropped that sentence and turned to walk out the door.

Hill felt as if she had been granted amnesty and hurriedly waved from behind, "Take care, Boss! I wish you an early ascension!"

Chen You stumbled, then turned back to glare at her.

Nothing good ever comes out of this capitalist NPC's mouth.

After leaving the city, Chen You headed in the direction indicated by the system.

Cangxing Bay, about 500 kilometers east of Cangxing City.

For Chen You, who was now at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment and had equipment that crushed everything through enhancements, it was just a matter of stepping on the gas.

In less than three minutes, a salty, fishy sea breeze flooded his nostrils.

Below was a huge, crescent-shaped bay, with black reefs interlocked along the coastline like dog teeth.

A few dilapidated three-masted sailing ships were docked at the pier, swaying with the waves.

Seagulls circled over the murky sea surface, emitting ear-piercing cries.

This was Cangxing Bay.

A gathering place for smugglers, pirates, and daring Adventurers.

Following the bounty coordinates, Chen You turned into a dark alley and stopped in front of a wooden door hanging with half a rusted ship's wheel.

On the sign, four words were crookedly carved: Reef Tavern.

Pushing open the door, it gave a "creak."

The sour smell of inferior ale, the stench of sweat, and the burnt smell of roasted sea beast meat rushed to his face.

The light in the tavern was dim, and a dozen greasy round tables were filled with people.

There were pirate NPCs gambling loudly, as well as groups of two or three casual players with ragged equipment.

Chen You scanned the entire room.

"Song Yixue?" He called out tentatively.

In the corner, a furry head suddenly lifted up.

It was a female Dwarf player with somewhat ragged equipment.

Her face was round, she wore two pigtails pointing to the sky, she was covered in dust, and she was tightly gripping half a piece of gnawed black bread in her hand.

When she saw the ID above Chen You's head, her eyes instantly lit up like two searchlights.

"Boss! Over here, over here!" Song Yixue jumped onto the wooden chair and waved the black bread in her hand frantically, afraid that Chen You wouldn't see her.

Chen You's mouth twitched.

He had originally thought that someone named "Song Yixue" would at least be a cold and aloof Elven marksman, or a cool, detached female Mage of the Roman race.

As it turned out, it was a little Dwarf less than 1.2 meters tall.

Chen You walked over, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

"You are the one who completed the bounty?" Chen You asked.

Song Yixue hurriedly stuffed the black bread into her mouth, and her eyes instantly welled up with tears.

"Boss, you don't know, to complete this bounty of yours, I traveled over mountains and through waters, braved the seas..."

"Stop, stop, stop!" Chen You interrupted directly.

"You should have already received the gold coins; where is that NPC?"