30: Chapter 30 Black Lotus Demon Lord

The surrounding noise was instantly stifled, as if by an invisible hand.

Those carrying plaques, moving pillars, or with arms full of medicinal pills—all the players froze for a moment, their gazes turning in unison toward a small corner at the end of the procession.

The air was still filled with the fervor of a successful raid and the scent of blood, but now, a brand new, bone-chilling cold was silently spreading from the black letter as its center.

"The Demon Lord's... emblem?"

The player who discovered the letter trembled, nearly dropping the envelope to the ground.

He swallowed hard, feeling his throat so dry it seemed to be burning.

To all the "Filial Sons and Virtuous Grandchildren," this term carried a legendary quality.

It was the ultimate mastermind mentioned personally by the Ancestor, the one who had placed a bounty on his ashes, and the synonym for the "Version Big Boss" they often spoke of.

Previously, it had just been a distant goal, a joke on their lips, a backdrop used to motivate everyone to buy a golden coffin for the Ancestor.

But now, this backdrop had appeared in their hands in an incredibly concrete and icy manner.

"I Love Exploiting Loopholes" wore an expression of unprecedented gravity; ignoring the inquiring gazes of the surrounding players, he carefully took the letter from the player's hand.

The texture of the envelope was extremely eerie; it felt cold and slick, as if he were touching not paper, but a solidified shadow.

The black lotus emblem seemed more like a living thing, quietly branded onto the wax seal, like a closed demonic eye that might open at any moment to peer into everyone's soul.

"Damn it, is this real?" "Demolition Office Director" squeezed over, carrying his ghost-head broadsword. The greed and excitement on his fleshy face had faded, replaced by an expression mixed with violence and curiosity. "Did that so-called Demon Lord really write this? Why write a letter to Chen Xiao? Does he want to become sworn brothers with him?"

"Sworn brothers? Is there anything in your brain besides muscles?" "Gossip Reporter Little Trumpet" also pushed through. The live-streaming jade slip in her hand was already aimed at the envelope, flickering with light as it clearly recorded every detail of the black lotus.

Her voice was low, yet she couldn't hide her excitement. "This is earth-shattering news! A hidden storyline! Haven't you realized? This letter didn't appear after we finished the fight; it was in Chen Xiao's study all along!"

At these words, the surrounding players instantly realized the implications.

"Holy crap! You mean..."

"It means that while we were locked in a death match with the Chen family, that Demon Lord was already in contact with Chen Xiao!" "I Love Exploiting Loopholes" took over, his gaze sharp as a knife as if trying to pierce through the envelope. "Chen Xiao was his pawn, or rather, a pawn he wanted to develop. He wanted to use the Chen family to deal with us, or rather... to deal with the Ancestor behind us!"

This analysis struck the players' minds like a thunderclap.

What was originally a simple "PVP" for survival and resources was instantly elevated to a whole new dimension.

They were no longer just fighting a neighboring family; they had unknowingly been drawn into a higher-level game.

"Quick! Open it and see! See what kind of nonsense is written inside!" "Demolition Office Director" roared impatiently.

"Don't rush." "I Love Exploiting Loopholes" shook his head. He held up the envelope, carefully examining the black wax seal against the light. "This thing might have something fishy about it. Triggered traps, curse marks... you know the game's tropes."

At his words, the few players who had been eager to try immediately shrank back.

"Then what do we do? Just stare at it?"

"Let me," a voice said, and the life-skill player "Skillful Hands Mending" walked over.

Unlike the other combat players who were filled with murderous energy, she had a quiet and gentle temperament.

She pulled a few silver needles as thin as ox hair and a bottle of colorless, odorless liquid from her bosom.

"This is 'Glue-Dissolving Fluid' I researched, specifically used for opening various trapped treasure chests without damage; it should be able to handle this wax seal."

Under everyone's gaze, "Skillful Hands Mending" carefully dripped the liquid onto the wax seal.

With a soft "hiss," the sturdy black wax seal softened and decomposed like a melting candle, revealing the letter paper inside. The black lotus emblem twisted during the melting process, as if letting out a silent sigh, before finally dissipating into a wisp of black smoke.

Everyone felt a shiver; it was a good thing they hadn't used brute force.

"I Love Exploiting Loopholes" took a deep breath and used two fingers to pick out the paper, which was as thin as a cicada's wing.

The letter paper was also black, and the words on it were written in some kind of scarlet liquid. The handwriting was wild and domineering, with a sense of evil and Majesty that looked down upon the world in every stroke.

Just one glance made one feel a wave of bloody aura rushing toward them.

"To the Head of the Chen Family..." "Gossip Reporter Little Trumpet" leaned over and read it word by word.

"I have heard of your endless conflict with the remnants of the Lu family of North Mountain. They act with madness, fearless of death, and are not creatures of this world; they are, in fact, puppets possessed by extraterrestrial demons."

Reading this far, all the players' expressions became strange.

"Extraterrestrial demons? Is he talking about us?"

"Possessed puppets? Damn, this NPC has quite an imagination!"

"Little Trumpet" ignored the players' complaints and continued reading.

"The source of these demons lies in the false ancestor worshipped in their ancestral hall. This false ancestor is a wisp of a remnant soul from beyond the realm, stealing incense from this world to survive. Its bones, tempered by extraterrestrial power, have become a rare treasure capable of nourishing the soul. I am quite fond of it."

"Boom!" All the players' heads were buzzing.

The rumor about the bounty on the Ancestor's ashes had been confirmed!

And the opponent's purpose was stated clearly—the ashes were a "rare treasure" capable of "nourishing the soul"!

"Holy crap! This Demon Lord wants to steal our hidden quest boss!" a player blurted out.

This sentence instantly woke everyone up.

In their eyes, the Ancestor was the quest giver, the ultimate backer, and their cheat code.

And this Demon Lord was a big boss from an opposing faction trying to steal their "server-unique quest item"!

"Little Trumpet" cleared her throat, suppressed the shock in her heart, and continued reading the letter.

"If you can assist me in breaking into their ancestral hall and seizing the remains, I can help your Chen clan form Golden Cores and dominate for a hundred miles. If you have any doubts, you may send a trusted subordinate to meet me at Black Wind Mountain. This is your proof."

There was no signature at the end of the letter, only a black lotus mark drawn in the same scarlet liquid, identical to the one on the wax seal.

The content of the letter ended there.

Dead silence.

In front of the ransacked Chen family estate, this team returning fully loaded fell into a long, dead silence.

Everyone was digesting the terrifying information contained in this letter.

The Demon Lord not only knew of their existence and their immortality, but even knew the Ancestor's background clearly!

He was even trying to turn the Chen family against us!

If, if they hadn't won this time, if they had let the Chen family and the Demon Lord collude...

The consequences would have been unimaginable.

"Damn it!" "Demolition Office Director" stomped his foot hard, cracking the ground.

His eyes were bloodshot as he roared, "That Chen Xiao, dying was too easy for him! If I had known he was colluding with this demon, I should have hacked him into seventeen or eighteen pieces and scattered his ashes to the wind!"

"It's useless to say that now." "Infrastructure Maniac" said in a deep voice, pushing up his non-existent glasses, his eyes flickering with rational light. "The key is, what do we do next? This letter is a hot potato. Since the Demon Lord sent someone to contact the Chen family, it means his forces are not far from us!"

"What's there to be afraid of!" a reckless player carrying a dismantled roof beam said in a muffled voice. "Soldiers come, generals block; water comes, earth covers! If he dares to come, we'll swarm him to death just like we did Chen Xiao! We are immortal!"

"Immortal, but it hurts, and resurrection costs money!" another player retorted. "A single late-stage Qi Refining Chen Xiao wiped us out several times. That Demon Lord sounds way more badass than Chen Xiao just from his title. How are we supposed to fight that?"

Arguments broke out.

Some advocated for war, believing this was a huge opportunity, the key to unlocking a new map, new bosses, and new equipment.

Some advocated for caution, believing they should first digest the Chen family's resources, develop safely, and wait until they were strong enough before provoking such a high-level boss.

"Everyone, stop arguing!"

In the end, it was "I Love Exploiting Loopholes" who cut off the argument.

He carefully folded the letter, placed it back into the special envelope, and said in a deep voice, "This matter is not something we few can decide. Our primary task right now is to transport all the spoils safely back to the ancestral hall. Then, we hand this letter over to the Ancestor!"

"Hand it to the Ancestor!"

These five words were like a sedative, calming all the agitated players down.

Right, they were not fighting alone.

Above them, there was still that mysterious and unfathomable Ancestor who had created all of this with his own hands!

When the sky falls, the tall ones hold it up.

"That's right! Listen to 'Loopholes'!"

"Go home! Back to the ancestral hall!"

"Let's show the Ancestor the fortune we made this time, and while we're at it, ask him how we should deal with this demon brat who wants to dig up his ancestral grave!"

The team regained its vitality, but unlike the pure fervor on the way there, they now had a heavy sense of mission and a faint sense of crisis in addition to their excitement.

The massive team, carrying, dragging, and pulling a vast amount of loot, set off on the return journey in a grand procession.

When the first ray of dawn pierced the darkness and illuminated the dilapidated ancestral hall on North Mountain, the entire Lu Family Hollow was abuzz with activity.

The players, like victorious heroes, piled boxes of spirit stones, bundles of magical artifacts, and scrolls of cultivation jade slips like small mountains in the open space in front of the ancestral hall.

Golden light, spiritual light, and treasure light shot into the sky once more, even more brilliant and dazzling than when they were in the Chen family treasury.

The wealth seized this time was enough to make any small immortal cultivation sect go crazy with jealousy.

Meanwhile, on the ancestral hall's system panel, the number in the family contribution points column was soaring at a visible speed, quickly breaking through to an astronomical figure.

However, inside the ancestral hall, the atmosphere was completely different from the carnival outside.

Only a few core player representatives stood before that familiar spirit tablet.

"Demolition Office Director," "I Love Exploiting Loopholes," "Infrastructure Maniac," "Gossip Reporter Little Trumpet"... they stood with solemn expressions, awaiting the final "judgment."

"I Love Exploiting Loopholes" stepped forward, holding the black letter with both hands, and respectfully placed it on the incense table in front of the spirit tablet.

"Ancestor, we... we took down the Chen family." He spoke, his voice slightly dry. "This is something we found in Chen Xiao's study. It seems... related to that Demon Lord you mentioned before."

On the incense table, blue smoke curled.

The letter lay quietly there, the black color on the envelope seeming to swallow the surrounding light.

Inside the ancestral hall, one could hear a pin drop.

Everyone was holding their breath, waiting for the Ancestor's reaction.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

The spirit tablet showed no movement.

Just when the players thought the Ancestor might have "disconnected," an indescribable, bone-chilling pressure descended abruptly from deep within the spirit tablet!

This pressure was different from the pure magical power suppression of Chen Xiao.

It was older, more vicissitudinous, and carried a... rage that came from the depths of the soul!

No, it wasn't just rage. There was also a hint of... killing intent from having a taboo touched!

Hum—!

The space inside the entire ancestral hall seemed to have solidified.

The players felt as if they had been thrown into ten-thousand-year ice, their very thoughts on the verge of freezing.

They discovered in horror that a negative buff they had never seen before had appeared in the status bar on their game interface—[Ancestral Spirit's Wrath]!

[Ancestral Spirit's Wrath: Within the range of pressure, all attributes are temporarily reduced by 30%. If the mental resistance check fails, you will fall into a 'stunned' state. Duration unknown.]

"Holy crap..."

This was the only thought in the minds of all the players still capable of thinking.

For the first time, they intuitively felt the tip of the iceberg of the power of this Ancestor, whom they had always treated as a "kind and approachable NPC" and "System GM."

Just at this moment, the black letter, without wind, slowly floated into mid-air.

An illusory, almost transparent figure condensed and formed in front of the spirit tablet.

It was the Ancestor—Lu Bei's spirit body.

But at this moment, his spirit body was more solid than ever before, and colder than ever before.

His gaze fell upon the black lotus emblem on the envelope—which had already dissipated but seemed to have left an eternal mark. In those illusory eyes, it seemed as if stars were collapsing and worlds were being destroyed.

"Black... Lotus... Demon... Lord..."

A voice that seemed to drift from beneath the nine underworlds echoed in the depths of every player's soul.

That voice contained hatred and monstrous killing intent that they could not comprehend.

The next moment, in the shocked gaze of all the players, Lu Bei's spirit body extended an illusory finger and gently tapped the letter.

There was no fire, no explosion.

That letter, made of special material that even the players' violence could hardly damage, just like that, in the dead silence, disintegrated inch by inch, turning into the most primitive particles and returning to nothingness.

After doing all this, Lu Bei slowly turned around and "looked" at the few players in front of the incense table.

The cold pressure receded like a tide.

But the terror of that fleeting glimpse was forever branded into their hearts.

Immediately afterward, a system prompt that shook the heavens and echoed in every player's ears descended with a boom!

[World Event Triggered!]

[Faction Quest Line Opened—'Shadow of the Black Lotus']

[Quest Description: The voyeur from afar has cast a greedy gaze upon this place. The sleeping enemy is awakening in the darkness. That burning black lotus is a mark of shame, a declaration of a sea of blood. Since it has reappeared, it must be completely wiped out with blood and fire!]

[Phase 1 Quest: 'Mountain Rain Approaches']

[Quest Goal: Investigate the signs of activity of the Black Lotus Demon Lord's force, the 'Black Lotus Sect,' in the North Mountain area, and make all preparations for the coming war.]

[Quest Reward: ???]

[Failure Penalty: Family destroyed, ancestral grave dug up, all player accounts permanently deleted.]

Inside and outside the ancestral hall, there was dead silence.

All the players, whether they were still counting their loot or planning how to spend their contribution points, were now staring blankly at the blood-red font on the quest panel.

Especially that last line, "Failure Penalty," made every player's pupils shrink to the most dangerous pinpoints!