The copy has 0 error tolerance, and the last words on the ground are all wrong for me.

Chapter 479 The Counterattack from Second

The ink-wash sycamore grove that blocked everyone's view was painted with extremely high artistic skill.

They are not flat images on paper, but three-dimensional, existing somewhere between sculpture and painting.

They retain the freehand style of ink paintings, existing in the real world without feeling out of place. They blend seamlessly with the heaven and earth. If people hadn't seen real trees, they would probably take it for granted that trees in the world should be like this.

This painting technique, which transcends two-dimensional and three-dimensional, false and real, and even to some extent distorts human perception, reminded Wu Chang of someone.

limner.

From the moment he entered the world instance, he was eerily quiet, as if he had evaporated from the world instance plane.

When the investigation of the Second Human was first launched, Xuancha Si could still find some clues that he had been there. However, everyone who had seen him could not remember his appearance or features, or even what he had done.

No further information about him was obtained after that.

Wu Chang's understanding of the painter was limited to the fact that the painter had conquered the Jade Balance Immortal Mansion, that there might be immortal opportunities within the Jade Balance Immortal Mansion, and that the Seven Stars had left behind memories of ancient times.

And while they were exploring the Demon Realm, the painter apparently activated the teleportation array and entered the Demon Realm before them.

The painter never took any major action or deliberately revealed any information.

Even so, no matter how hard Lengshan and Jianxing tried to recruit others and gain contribution points, they could only rank third and fourth in the player contribution point rankings, never reaching second place.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the painter will consistently rank second on the list.

Wu Chang's true form is an Earth Immortal of the Human Alliance, while his real self is the most powerful player in the Great Xuan Royal Family. It can be said that any major action involving contribution points by the human side cannot escape his control.

Even under these circumstances, the painter can still escape people's sight and his contribution value will soar.

If the artist didn't directly change the values, then he must have gained something in the demon realm.

It now seems that the painter's gains in the demon realm were far greater than he had imagined.

Although we are currently in the stage of collecting all the Demon-Suppressing Blood Talismans and have not yet reached the stage of officially waging war against the Demon Realm, the original intention of forming the Demon-Slaying Army is to wipe out the demons and destroy the Demon Realm.

The Fire-Character Demon-Slaying Army would not possibly stop in its tracks just because the Ink-Painted Wutong Forest is blocking its way.

"Formation!"

An Rong immediately ordered everyone to form a battle formation and press towards the ink-wash sycamore forest.

As soon as the Demon-Slaying Army's formation entered the area within five miles of the Ink-washed Wutong Forest, a plume of black and white smoke rose from the forest.

The scorching smoke instantly severed the connection between the group and the array, causing it to collapse.

Black and white smoke, white above and black below, enveloped the player.

Without the protection of the formation and the amplification of fire resistance, players whose strength had not reached the level of top-tier experts were immediately scorched by the smoke and screamed, fleeing from the smoke range as if trying to escape.

The black smoke charred the skin of anyone who touched it, with faint flames flickering beneath. It was necessary to suppress the flames with energy to prevent further damage.

The white smoke turns the skin of anyone who touches it pale, takes away all the body heat, and causes localized loss of sensation, from which recovery is slow.

In the world's duplicate plane, physics has not yet been developed.

The four elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—not only correspond to four types of energy, but also represent four states that make up the matter in the world.

Earth represents solid state, water represents liquid state, and wind represents gaseous state.

Fire does not represent the fourth state of matter—the plasma state—but rather the energy form of matter.

Moreover, fire also symbolizes changes in temperature and energy. In the eyes of the natives of the dungeon plane, solid, liquid, and gaseous states can all be transformed through changes in temperature.

Just as increasing the temperature can turn steel into molten iron, lowering the temperature can also turn water into ice.

Fire represents temperature changes, so it is not limited to high temperatures. It can bring heat and burn everything, or it can take away heat and freeze the world.

The black and white smoke that enveloped the area could burn and frostbite people; it was the smoke from a fire.

While both involve calamity energy, the new Fire Demon King's method is clearly more refined compared to the Azure Feather Bird's primitive application of calamity energy.

Experts will know if there is one as soon as they take action.

Just seeing the ominous aura made An Rong tense up.

He issued a new order, requiring all members of the Demon-Slaying Army below the Grandmaster level to wait outside. Only those who had reached the Grandmaster level were allowed to enter the Water Ink Wutong Forest with him.

The Grandmaster realm is equivalent to the top 300 players on the player power ranking. Including players like Meng Yawen and Hou Jingchuan who are hiding their true strength, the total number should be between 600 and 800.

Two hundred and forty-two of them were gathered in the Fire-Character Demon-Slaying Army.

With the addition of Wu Chang, the number of people who possess the power of the source and have the strength of ranked players has reached fourteen.

Entering the Water Ink Wutong Forest means being able to join the Fire Demon King's strategy. Whether it's contribution points or dungeon exploration progress, there will be considerable gains. Therefore, some players who rely on secret techniques and believe that their hard skills can reach the Grandmaster level have also joined in, expanding the number of people to three hundred.

Before taking action, An Rong was startled by the number of people.

He could sense that the Fire-Character Demon-Slaying Army was full of hidden talents because of the existence of peace, but he did not expect that there were so many hidden people.

Fourteen Grandmasters and three hundred Chief Grandmasters—when has he ever fought such a rich and powerful battle?

Not to mention An Rong, even Wu Chang was somewhat surprised by this lineup.

He led the Wind-Character Demon-Slaying Army to annihilate the demon horde on Calabash Island. He had to use the Disaster-Averting Banner and also use himself as bait to distract all the demon generals in order to ensure that the Wind-Character Demon-Slaying Army could fight against the demons.

If it were the Fire-Character Demon-Slaying Army, he probably wouldn't need to do anything, and An Rong wouldn't need to take action either. They would only need to help resist some of the calamity, and the players would be able to easily conquer Calabash Mountain.

These guys, if I had known they were going to be this outrageous, I should have charged them an entrance fee.

Master-level players, relying on their resistance to energy, were able to barely withstand the black and white smoke and approach the ink-wash sycamore forest.

The threat posed by the black and white smoke was far greater than that of the black wind. Slightly weaker players only managed to cross this five-mile distance by drinking energy potions.

Upon entering the ink-wash sycamore forest, they discovered that the fire on the outside was merely an appetizer.

The moment they entered the woods, they saw that the originally black and white sycamore grove had suddenly transformed into a realistic oil painting style, with the leaves on the branches turning green and then yellow in the blink of an eye.

Yellow sycamore leaves fell with the wind, turning into clusters of yellow flames in the air, like yellow fire rain, covering everyone.

The yellow flames emitted an astonishing heat, scorching and distorting the air wherever they passed.

Faced with the raging fire rain, everyone had only two choices: leave the Water Ink Wutong Forest or brave the fire rain.

Having barely survived the black and white smoke, the players were naturally unwilling to give up and wanted to see what the fire from the paulownia leaves was all about.

Among the players who entered the Wutong Forest, Lei Huo's strength was at the bottom. Thanks to his good performance in the qualification dungeon, he was ranked only 420th on the combat power list before entering the dungeon.

He's still a step away from reaching the Grandmaster level in the world dungeon, but he's skilled in both lightning and fire abilities and believes his resistance to fire is no less than that of the top 300 players on the power ranking.

If you round it up, he could be considered a minor master, so he gritted his teeth and followed along.

Upon seeing the fire rain, he first used his B-level skill, Fire Shield, to create a fire barrier above his head.

He then used an A-level special skill, Body Enhancement.

Six yin-yang symbols appeared in front of him, three above and three below, representing Zhen and Li respectively.

The lower trigram is Li (☲), and the upper trigram is Zhen (☳), forming the hexagram Feng (�

During the duration of the hexagram, Thunder and Fire will enter a state of abundance, which allows them to reach their optimal state by overdrawing future life and energy values ​​within the duration of abundance.

Body Enhancement is arguably his most trump card besides his ultimate job-change skill. After using it, no matter how much he consumes during the process, he will fall into a period of weakness.

He didn't know how long Feng Shen could help him hold on, or even whether he could hold on until he could defeat the Fire Demon King.

But he didn't need to care about those things. Anyway, with the Peace and Humanity Alliance's Earth Immortals there, it wasn't his level's turn to fight the Fire Demon King.

All he needs to do is endure the Wutong Forest with all his might, meet the Fire Demon King, and get an assist from the Fire Demon King to secure a kill.

The plan was great, but reality was not so easy.

The fire shield he erected had a fire absorption effect, providing extra protection against flames.

However, the yellow flames transformed from the paulownia leaves contain the power of the Demon King's origin and are completely unaffected by B-level skills.

The moment the yellow flames touched the Fire Shield, they rapidly consumed the energy of the thunder and fire. In just four or five seconds, the energy consumed exceeded the limit of the Body's overdraft, causing the Body to collapse prematurely.

Resisting for those four or five seconds consumed at least three times the energy of the thunder and fire, but for the Wutong Leaf Fire, its volume only decreased by about half.

With his body shattered and the lightning and fire prematurely weakening him, he could only watch helplessly as the fire from the paulownia leaves burned through the fire shield and fell towards him.

Just as he closed his eyes and awaited death, he felt a tremendous force strike him, and his body suddenly felt light.

He opened his eyes and found himself flying in the sky. Not only him, but also fifty or sixty other players were flying around him.

He looked down at the ground and saw Heping slowly withdrawing his hand. Like him, they hadn't survived the fire from the paulownia leaves and had been thrown out of the paulownia grove by Heping.

The moment they flew out of the parasol tree forest, the scenery before their eyes distorted. When they came to their senses, they had been teleported out of the black and white smoke area and arrived at the place where the main force of the Fire Demon-Slaying Army was waiting.

The fire from the phoenix tree leaves eliminated all players who were not strong enough to become Grandmasters, or who were at the bottom of the Grandmaster ranks.

But the danger did not end there; the burning sycamore leaves fell to the ground and quickly burned into black ash.

Above the ashes, the yellow flames appear to have weakened, but in reality, a touch of green has appeared at the heart of the flames.

Yellow-green flames connected to form a surface, enveloping everyone and spreading inwards from the outside.

Being in this environment, even ordinary master-level players began to feel thirsty.

Zhao Yan's instructor, Jinli, may not have a high ranking in the qualification dungeon, but her strength ranks among the top 300 on the combat power list, making her a genuine master-level player.

As the yellow-green flames smoldered, she felt the moisture on her body evaporating rapidly, especially on her exposed face, which was so dry it was almost cracking. She wondered how many face masks she would need to apply to replenish the moisture.

It wasn't just dryness and cracks; the heat was seeping into her body through the cracks in her skin, beginning to evaporate her blood and energy.

The heat was invisible and intangible; no matter how she resisted, she could not stop the loss of moisture from her body, or even her life.

Just as she was gripped by panic, she found herself lifted into the air, just like Lei Huo and the others who had been thrown away earlier, flying out of the Wutong Forest and then being teleported back to the main force of the Fire-Character Demon-Slaying Army.

There were at least a hundred people who left with her this time.

Wu Chang withdrew his hand, his gaze turning to the inner side of the sycamore grove, his expression complex.

The yellowish-green flames that were gradually dying out on the ground were familiar to both him and An Rong. They were the same dry fire that Zhu Yinhai had used before, and the only real fire that Zhu Yinhai had ever mastered.

Flames can be categorized into virtual flames and real flames.

Among them, the kind of heart fire that burns the mind is called virtual fire, while flames that have temperature and exist in a physical form are called real fire.

Zhuyinhai started with heart flames and is not good at controlling real fire, which makes it particularly clumsy when using dry fire, requiring the formation of a dry fire array to activate it.

Unlike Zhu Yinhai, the new Fire Demon King seems to be a master at controlling real fire.

The fire from the paulownia leaves and the fire from the withered leaves were both real fires with physical bodies; they were respectively yang fire and yin fire.

The fire from the paulownia leaf is hot and burns all things, while the fire from a dry branch is cold and smolders living beings. Both contain the power of the source and can be controlled with extreme precision.

The appearance of these two flames was quite natural, requiring no preparation, and it was clear that the new Fire Demon King had completely mastered them.

On the surface, the withered fire, under the control of Zhu Yinhai, was enough to burn a Grandmaster to death, but when the new Fire Demon King used it, it could only be used by a Grandmaster of Jinli's level.

In fact, this truly demonstrates the power of the new Fire Demon King.

The fact that a mid-level Grandmaster could withstand the scorching fire suggests that the new Fire Demon King is not strong enough. Of course not.

The fire from the paulownia leaves eliminated those below the Grandmaster level, as well as ordinary Grandmasters who lacked resistance to fire energy.

The withered fire then filtered out the lower and middle-level grandmasters.

Moreover, the appearance of the flames both times gave Wu Chang and the others enough time to prepare, and there was a noticeable pause before the flames could actually harm the players.

Clearly, the new Fire Demon King was sending a signal to Wu Chang in this way: he had no intention of engaging in pointless killing, but that trash was not qualified to enter the Wutong Forest.

interesting.

After the fire and the withered leaves of the sycamore trees, the surrounding sycamore grove faded, returning to its previous black and white ink-wash style.

Wu Chang said:

"The meaning of the owner of the Wutong Forest is very clear: he is rather introverted and does not want to see too many people."

"If you are not confident, you should leave now rather than be powerless to resist the flames and waste a lot of energy before leaving."

Wu Chang spoke very directly, and everyone understood the reasoning behind it, but in their eyes, having already endured this far, how could they be willing to leave now?

Moreover, Wu Chang's meaning was very clear: even if they failed, they would only lose energy and be thrown out like the previous players before they were harmed. With their lives no longer in danger, they were even more determined to give it a try.

Seeing that no one intended to leave, Wu Chang did not insist. He gave An Rong a look, and the group continued forward.

The group walked several hundred meters further, gradually venturing deeper into the sycamore forest. In a daze, they saw the shadow of a city in the distance.

An Rong said, "That city is Xinwu City, which I visited before."

Just as they saw Xinwu City, a white fire began to burn in the ink-wash-like sycamore forest.

The flames were enormous, instantly igniting the entire forest, much like the ancient fire that burned down the entire Phoenix Perch Forest.

When Hou Jingchuan saw the burning forest, he felt that the white flames were dazzlingly bright.

He reached out to shield himself, but found he couldn't lift his hand. When he came to his senses, he realized that his body had also turned into a watercolor painting style, like the surrounding sycamore trees, and he could only stand still, waiting for the flames to burn him.

In the blink of an eye, the fire spread, and the white flames landed on him, burning through his defensive skills and items, turning into a stinging pain that went straight to his soul.

He knew that this was a pure mental attack, a flame that scorched the spirit.

Without corresponding defensive measures, he would have to rely on his willpower to withstand it.

Fortunately, due to his profession, his secondary attribute is willpower, which is as high as 68 points. As long as the white flames cannot break through his willpower barrier, the pain he feels is just pain and will not cause him any real harm.

It is no easy task to withstand a Root-level flame with willpower, let alone this flame, which is even more advanced than the Dry Fire and has reached the Lord level. How could a mere 68 points of willpower be enough to withstand it?

He resisted for a moment, then cracks appeared in his willpower barrier, and the next moment his body soared into the air and flew out of the sycamore forest.

The moment they took to the air, the scorching heat that could melt the soul disappeared. Hou Jingchuan saw that there were at least a hundred people flying in the air. Almost all the players who had entered the Wutong Forest had been burned in by this fire.

It seems that only the Earth Immortals of the Humanity Alliance and He Ping, who had knocked them away, remained unaffected.

Fortunately, since everyone failed, it's as if no one failed.

The Earth Immortal of the Humanity Alliance is not a player, and as for Peace, nobody treats him as a human being anyway, so he doesn't count either.

Just as Hou Jingchuan was trying to regain his composure, he suddenly realized that there were more than a dozen people around Wu Chang who were safe and sound.

Leng Shan and Jian Xing were present. Were they both ranked players? Players who had mastered the origin were indeed not ordinary people.

Wait a minute, isn't that tall girl with black and white hair parted in half the length of her head the negotiation master? She also has mastered the power of the source.

Wait, why are the clay figure and the white horse still there? Why are they alright?

Before Hou Jingchuan could figure it out, he had already been teleported away.

Why are negotiation masters and others unaffected?
Of course, it was thanks to Wu Chang's intervention.

If we're talking about true strength, aside from Sword Star, Cold Mountain, God Tongue, and Ma Jia, White Horse and the others should have been thrown into the Wutong Forest long ago.

But they were, after all, members of the Mystic Knights, and as a long-time employee, Wu Chang naturally had to give them some preferential treatment.

Whether it was real fire or illusory fire, he conveniently blocked it for the few weaker members of the Mystic Knights.

While real fire would cause immense damage to others, it couldn't even break through the permanent shield on his body.

As for the fiery attacks that assaulted everyone's spirits, he deliberately opened his spiritual energy, diverting the fiery flames that were meant for everyone onto himself.

Hou Jingchuan's 68 points of willpower were barely able to withstand the illusory fire, and he felt as if his soul was about to melt. However, for his 300 points of willpower after the buff, it was as pleasant as soaking in a hot spring.

Seeing that there were less than twenty players left behind, and realizing that the further they went, the more dangerous it would become, An Rong accelerated towards Xinwu City, wanting to deal with the New Fire Demon King himself.

Just as real fire is divided into yang fire and yin fire, so too is false fire divided into yin and yang fire.

The fire that directly scorched everyone's will just now was the Yang Deficiency Fire; the most difficult one left to deal with is the Yin Deficiency Fire.

When An Rong was a hundred paces away from the gate of Xinwu City, he suddenly froze on the spot, his breath falling into a deathly stillness as if he were asleep.

Wu Chang could see a transparent flame with a divine quality on An Rong's body; it was a Yin Fire different from the Heart Flame.

That flame was extremely powerful; even An Rong, who had fully grasped the power of immortality, was caught in its attack and unable to escape.

No wonder the tiger-toothed girl, who possesses the strength of a lower-level god, was defeated and seriously injured in the Fire Demon King's territory.

If the new Fire Demon King's four types of fire, both real and illusory, can reach this level, then the tiger-toothed girl will indeed find it difficult to withstand him.

It seems that the Wutong Forest set up by the new Fire Demon King is not just a test, but also a show of force to make them distinguish between the big and small kings.

Wu Chang shook his head slightly. He instructed Jian Xing and the others to stay put and not move, and then strode towards Xinwu City.

Since he wanted to distinguish between the two kings, he would use his actions to remind the other party that with him around, second place would always remain second.

(End of this chapter)