A suddenly appearing silver giant python bought Jiang Ye a moment of respite.
She saw the BOSS in front of her freeze for a moment and stop attacking.
At this moment, the effect attached to Jiang Ye expired.
Jiang Ye immediately began to counterattack.
With the joint efforts of her and the rest of her pet babies, Jiang Ye finally spent another five minutes and wore down the BOSS to death.
After this wave, watching the BOSS writhe and scream as it dissipated in front of her, Jiang Ye's mind suddenly twitched, as if thousands of needles were being poked into her brain.
This dense pain made her very uncomfortable, and for a moment she couldn't control her body, her legs went weak. Jiang Ye took two steps back, forcing herself to stand firm, gritting her teeth.
Jiang Ye glanced at her status bar, her Stamina was at a critical level.
She quickly ate a coconut water and recovered for a while before feeling her state return, regaining control of her body.
Jiang Ye attributed all these anomalies to the drop in Stamina. However, she didn't know that such a situation was related to her forcefully awakening the giant python just now.
Speaking of the giant python...
Jiang Ye quickly opened her backpack. The pet egg was still in its original position, looking safe and sound, completely unaffected.
Jiang Ye examined the egg repeatedly, even picking it up and holding it in her palm, scrutinizing it back and forth.
After multiple confirmations, Jiang Ye found no cracks on the egg.
She couldn't even find a single scratch.
How strange.
Then where did the giant python just now come from?
Could everything she just experienced be her hallucination?
Jiang Ye pursed her lips, put the pet egg back in her backpack, and organized her complex thoughts.
At this moment, the blank space originally created by the BOSS began to slowly collapse and disintegrate. Many things shattered. The blankness Jiang Ye saw all around was like broken glass, starting from a point of impact, slowly spreading cracks outwards, and finally collapsing.
After the blankness receded, Jiang Ye returned to the small house.
But this time, the house was no longer empty.
Li Siyu was sitting by the table, pouring tea. She looked up when she heard the movement and, upon seeing Jiang Ye, offered a gentle smile.
"You're here."
Jiang Ye walked over and, at her gesture, took a seat.
Her intuition told her this was Li Siyu, yet not entirely Li Siyu.
The other party seemed to have noticed Jiang Ye's heavy heart and slowly said, "Drink this cup of tea, and I'll tell you a story."
The woman's fair and white wrist extended, and the small, dark green teacup in her hand was filled with freshly brewed tea.
Jiang Ye took the miniature cup and looked down at the tea.
The tea was calm and still, with a slight wisp of white steam rising, forming clouds around the cup. It resembled distant mountains shrouded in mist.
Jiang Ye looked up at Li Siyu's appearance, then at the teacup, and then, without hesitation, raised her hand and drank the tea in one gulp.
After taking a sip of the tea, Jiang Ye felt herself become a wisp of smoke, rising with the steam.
After a while, the smoke descended and fell back into the teacup.
Jiang Ye felt as if she had entered an illusion.
At this moment, she stood in a wealthy family's courtyard, with Li Siyu beside her.
"I know what you might want to ask," Li Siyu said gently. "This is my home."
"I was originally the young lady of the Li family in Jinling. I lived innocently, carefree, and only within the confines of my boudoir, completely unaware of the outside world. My father doted on me, and my mother spoiled me immensely."
"Recently, my mother wanted to choose a husband for me, but I kept having the same dream."
Li Siyu's expression changed slightly.
"It was a nightmare."
"In my dream, I heard a woman crying out, desperately asking for help, hoping someone in this world would lend her a hand. But no one helped her. I had this dream day and night, and it tormented me so much that I couldn't sleep."
"My mother invited an expert to interpret the dream. The expert said that I was being haunted by a nightmare, possessed by a vengeful spirit, and if I did nothing, the dream would eventually wear me down."
"I also couldn't bear to ignore the suffering of the woman in the dream, so I told my mother that I wanted to find her and save her from her predicament."
"My mother was worried and accompanied me, and we also hired a team of guards to travel with us."
As Li Siyu reached this point in her story, her voice became softer and softer, as if afraid that speaking too loudly would alarm something.
"Guess what I saw when I arrived at the place in my dream?"
"What?" Jiang Ye asked.
"A scene of prosperity and vitality, with no signs of misery, similar yet different to the place in my dream. The people here were hospitable and welcomed me and my mother. Even when I subtly inquired about the woman in the dream, there were no clues."
"However, what was fortunate was that ever since I arrived here, I stopped having strange dreams. I could finally sleep soundly."
"I originally thought this was a sign that things were improving. No woman was suffering, and I was no longer tormented. But who knew..." Li Siyu let out a bitter laugh. "It turns out that the dreamer is also just a person in a dream."
"When I woke up, my mother was dead, and I was imprisoned. Everyone in this village said they wanted to sacrifice me to the gods!"
Li Siyu's voice became increasingly mournful.
"Who would have thought! Who would have thought! The woman who desperately pleaded for help in my dream was actually myself!"
Jiang Ye looked at Li Siyu, whose eyes were now red. Countless emotions surged towards her like an avalanche.
"What kind of world is this!"
Li Siyu cried out hoarsely.
"I just wanted to do a good deed, why would heaven treat me this way?!"
"I, Li Siyu, have never done evil in my life and have always been kind to others. Why must I be the one to suffer."
Li Siyu's tears fell, drop by drop, blooming like scarlet bloodstains on the ground.
"So I ask you, even so, was I wrong to make that choice?"
"I used the malevolent spirit to destroy my entire Li Family Village. Was I wrong?"
Jiang Ye could see the stubbornness in Li Siyu's eyes.
This girl, who had just come of age, had already experienced such pain.
Jiang Ye sighed softly, took a step forward, reached out her hand, and embraced the sobbing girl, whose shoulders were shaking.
Jiang Ye held her with one arm and gently patted her back, just as she used to coax her own sister to sleep day and night.
"You were not wrong," Jiang Ye soothed Li Siyu's emotions. "There are countless people in this world who are wrong, but you were not."
"Then why didn't you make my choice just now?" Li Siyu asked softly. "If you had, the entire Li Family Village would have survived. Who will avenge me?"
"I am not reconciled," Li Siyu trembled. "Sister, I am not reconciled to just letting them go like this."
"Your revenge, I will take it for you," Jiang Ye gently wiped the tears from Li Siyu's eyes with her fingertip. "Siyu, from today onwards, sleep well and have good dreams."
"Forget all this, all the past and hatred, I will bear it for you."
As she said this, Jiang Ye felt Li Siyu in her arms become lighter. When she looked again, the young girl had already dissipated like intangible clouds and mist.
As she vanished, the scene completely transformed.
Everything returned to its original state.
Jiang Ye stood at the entrance of Li Family Village. The village appeared prosperous and lively. The stone tablet with the words "Li Family Village" carved on it by the roadside was undamaged and perfectly clear.
Jiang Ye arrived at the moment when Li Siyu had not made the choice to rely on the malevolent spirit and destroy the entire Li Family Village.
Jiang Ye strode inside.
A grandmother selling goods sat under a tree, sewing shoe insoles, while a child with pigtails played with a cricket.
Jiang Ye walked to a large tree.
She squatted down, found a piece of wooden board, and dug up the soil under the tree.
[System: Ding dong! Congratulations to the player for finding Li Siyu's remains. Please continue to track down the truth and fulfill your promise to Li Siyu!]
Jiang Ye looked at the small neck bone in front of her. It was likely deliberately removed and buried under this tree.
So, the true meaning of the quest "Bone-finding quest" was to find Li Siyu's remains.
Only fifteen minutes were left for the quest.
Jiang Ye found Li Siyu's 108 bones in various places within Li Family Village.
She had completed her novice trial.
At the same time, a new quest appeared in her quest log.
"The Truth of Li Family Village."
[System: Congratulations to the player for completing the novice trial and clearing the first layer of "Challenge Tower". Unlock the treasure chest, come and open it!
[System: Player Level +2, Skill Mastery +100. Please name your skill!]
Jiang Ye opened the chest first. Her luck was not good. After finishing this dungeon, she was emotionally low from being too immersed, and didn't have the mood to find Monk seals to stack buffs. So she opened the chest casually.
However, she didn't expect that luck would eventually turn.
Among a pile of ordinary items, Jiang Ye found a Guild Base Construction Token.
It could be used to select a location and station, and build guild structures.
However, Jiang Ye had no plans to form a guild for now, so she put it away.
After doing this, she looked at the system messages related to skills that had just popped up.
Upon closer inspection, she realized that she had used the boning knife to a certain extent, and the system allowed her to create her own skill.
Jiang Ye unhesitatingly wrote down four characters.
— Killing Red Small Knife.
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang once called pig slaughtering "killing ten thousand grunts" or "killing red".
Now Jiang Ye borrowed this to name her own skill.
Wasn't the boning knife precisely a killing red small knife?
After successfully naming it, Jiang Ye's experience points and skill mastery increased significantly.
Now she had a certain degree of freedom to slightly modify the base transfer skills originally provided by the system to complete the skill manual for Killing Red Small Knife.
This was a simple matter for Jiang Ye.
After all, she was a versatile game designer!
It was easy to choose the most effective skills within a certain range.
Jiang Ye quickly made slight modifications to the skills based on her own characteristics and was ready to leave the first layer of the Challenge Tower.
However, the moment she teleported away, a wisp of black smoke appeared in the place where she had just stood.
If Guide 128 were here, she would surely recognize this person at a glance.
This was the supervisor she had been terrified of.
"Lord," the woman with the same face as Li Siyu stood respectfully beside the man. "That player seems to have left."
This person's voice was the same as the one she had heard from the eccentric Li Siyu when she first entered the instance.
But she was not Li Siyu.
She had another name.
"Long Ran," the man said in a low voice, his tone carrying a sleepy, low-pressure, slightly scolding tone. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
Long Ran coughed lightly.
"Lord, when I just told you, you told me not to bother you and to discuss matters after you woke up."
The man was silent for a moment.
"Never mind," he waved his sleeve. "I believe that Mirror Lian will handle this matter."
"Let's go."
With his command, Long Ran nodded, but inwardly thought that things might not be as simple as the Lord imagined.
She had been watching for a long time. The silver giant python that appeared at that moment was not an accident.
Long Ran did not tell the Lord about this.
She knew her master wanted to find this player to delete her account.
But in Long Ran's opinion, such an interesting existence should be kept around for a few more days, and she could have fun playing with her again.
Long Ran hid her thoughts and disappeared with the man.
After Jiang Ye cleared the novice trial, she returned to the island. As soon as she stabilized herself, Mirror Lian's face loomed close.
Jiang Ye was startled and took a big step back, not wanting to be too close to this man, almost stumbling and falling. Mirror Lian instinctively reached out to grab Jiang Ye's wrist to help her stabilize, but Jiang Ye reacted faster, performing a backflip, like a monkey performing a juggling act, almost doing a Thomas spin on the spot.
Mirror Lian: ......
He silently lowered his hand that had just reached out to help.
Their eyes met.
After a moment, Mirror Lian said, "You are very agile."
"Thank you," Jiang Ye said with a fake smile. "Just learned a new skill, I'm practicing to avoid getting rusty."
"Did everything go smoothly?" Mirror Lian asked.
"Smoothly," Jiang Ye stretched. "Just a dungeon, what could go wrong?"
Mirror Lian gazed at Jiang Ye's face for a while, then nodded slightly.
He thought that Mo Yue must have overslept.
Otherwise, with Mo Yue's personality, she would have rushed over to eliminate Jiang Ye long ago.
"Did you encounter anything strange while you were in the dungeon?" Mirror Lian asked patiently.
Jiang Ye's first thought was of the dragon-like giant python she glimpsed while fighting the dungeon, but she quickly shook her head and said without a guilty conscience, "No, do you want me to encounter something strange?"
She countered with a question, catching Mirror Lian off guard.
He pursed his lips and shook his head.
"I hope everything is well with you," Mirror Lian said.
Jiang Ye wasn't buying it and chuckled.
"What, you're hoping I die by your hands?"
It seemed her account was indeed highly valued and worth a lot, otherwise why would this second boss always want to personally reclaim her?
Jiang Ye sarcastically hooked her lips and ran to the island to check her harvest.
Mirror Lian was forced to follow her, saying nothing.
The forum and world channel were currently in a heated discussion.
The topic was none other than Jiang Ye breaking through the Challenge Tower and becoming the first person to clear the novice trial.
[World · Gua Tian Cuo: First person on this server to clear the novice trial!!!! Please, great god, come out for a photo opportunity!!!]
[World · Xiao Yu Di: +1+1+1, I really want to take a photo with the great god. Next time I clear it, I'll stick it on my forehead as a protective charm, hehe!]
[World · Wo Jiu Kan Kan Bu Shuo Hua: As expected of the great god, clearing it on the first try. I remember this novice trial is a random dungeon with no guide, right? I saw that on the first zone of the West Continent, many people had to try several times to clear this trial.]
[World · Ba Gua Xiao Xin: You remembered correctly. The reason for the situation you mentioned is that the randomness of this dungeon is too high, and there are many twists and turns. So, generally, people need to go through it a few times.
[World · Ba Gua Xiao Xin: The first time, you can figure out which dungeon you randomly got and search for a guide. Starting from the second time, you can try to die, and basically, you can clear it on the third try.
[World · Ba Gua Xiao Xin: If this novice trial wasn't so difficult, the game company wouldn't use it as a gimmick to give people money, right?]
[World · Gua Tian Cuo: Money O.O]
[World · Xiao Yu Di: Mentioning money and I'm not sleepy anymore.]
[World · Wo Jiu Kan Kan Bu Shuo Hua: Speaking of which, this great god won, shouldn't the game company give the great god some money!]
[World · Ji Shan Shui: Hmph, maybe she's using some kind of cheat! Why are you all praising her so much?]
[World · Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa: Exactly! A bunch of... a bunch of mindless fans!]
[World · Gua Tian Cuo: Can you two idiots stop arguing on the world channel? One person is scamming in a dungeon, the other is blocking the way and harassing. Who is the one kissing up?]
[World · Xiao Yu Di: Ji Shan Shui and Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa, you *!]
Ever since Jiang Ye exposed these two, she didn't even need to personally step in when people cursed. As soon as these two appeared, other players would drive them away like rats.
Even during the game, the two of them had trouble forming parties with others because of their bad reputation.
Finally, they gravitated towards each other like dung beetles rolling balls of dung, and flies circling toilets, finding a common stench.
They were like two unclean existences hiding in dark corners, buzzing all day, trying to find a way to get revenge on Yi Ye Zhou.
And now, Ji Shan Shui and Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa had finally reached an unprecedented unified stance. Driven by their common enemy, Yi Ye Zhou, they had successfully become each other's most important teammates in the game.
They had launched a project called "Yi Ye Zhou Revenge Opportunity".
From today on, they would pull this aloof, server-first player off their pedestal!
Of course, their own abilities were not enough.
At Ji Shan Shui's instigation, Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa privately messaged all the players in the top ten of the server, sending them the same message.
"Are you content to be suppressed by Yi Ye Zhou like this, unable to get up? Where is your ambition!"
After sending this message, Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa and Ji Shan Shui secretly waited for others' responses.
One minute.
Ten minutes.
Half an hour.
The message sank into the ocean like a pebble.
"This isn't right," Ji Shan Shui stared at Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa. "Did you not send the message?"
"Am I that stupid? Of course, I sent it." Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa said this, but still, with a lingering sense of doubt, he opened his game message interface to confirm if he had sent the message.
He finally realized that ever since Yi Ye Zhou exposed him, he had turned off the option for strangers to private message him, to avoid being cursed by other players.
No wonder no one replied. Even if others wanted to reply, there was nowhere to do so.
Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa quickly opened this restriction.
Soon, countless messages flooded in.
Most of them were curses, of course.
But among these messages cursing him, Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa still glimpsed replies from other players in the top ten of the level rankings.
Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa excitedly opened the chat box.
As a result.........
[Private Chat · Chun Deng Luan: Scram.]
[Private Chat · Jun Lin Tian Xia: Who the hell told you I was suppressed? Just you wait! It won't be long before I surpass her!!]
There were many similar replies. In short, this group of people ignored the provocation from Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa.
Except for one person.
[Private Chat · Xian Feng: Brother, be direct. You want to deal with her, you can. Pay up.]
Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa quickly told Ji Shan Shui about this message.
"The big shot ranked eighth on the level board said he's willing to take action against Yi Ye Zhou," Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa was very excited.
"Really?" Ji Shan Shui was also overjoyed. "I knew provoking them would be useful. Then what are you waiting for? Let's watch the show."
"But he wants money," Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa said.
"Damn it?" Ji Shan Shui cursed. "Is this game run by a bunch of poor ghosts? Why does everyone want money?"
"Wait..." Ji Shan Shui saw the message forwarded by Wo You Hen Duo Tou Fa. The familiar sentence structure and conversational style sent a chill down his spine. The fear of being dominated once again enveloped him.
"Could this person be Yi Ye Zhou's alt account?" Ji Shan Shui, like a person bitten by a snake for ten years fearing a well, worriedly said.