It had to be said, this really was all thanks to Empress Xiyue's strategy.
If not for her "sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight," how could Lin Mo be so relaxed right now, calmly farming venom bottles in the Insect Nest Dungeon and collecting the Venom set?
Otherwise, not only would Lin Mo have to constantly face retaliatory attacks from the Chaotic World, even if he ultimately went through countless hardships to successfully gather a full Venom set, he would still have to deal with the Shadow Legion in Shadow City before he could enter the Shadow Holy Hall dungeon.
But now, Wang Junjie was leading people to hunt down the Shadow Legion, which undoubtedly helped Lin Mo a great deal.
By the time Lin Mo finished collecting the Venom set on his end, Wang Junjie would almost have completely cleared out the Shadow Legion obstacle on his side as well.
Then Lin Mo could head straight into the dungeon without any hindrance.
"I wonder what Wang Junjie will feel when he finally realizes that after burning through massive manpower and resources and working himself to the bone for days, he was actually just working for me for free?"
Just imagining Wang Junjie's expression when he learned the truth made Lin Mo feel a bit excited.
He continued to focus all his attention on killing poisonous insects, completing dungeon tasks, and exchanging for the Venom set.
———
At the same time, elsewhere—
[Shadow City]
The battle between over a thousand Chaotic World players and the Shadow Legion was still raging intensely.
Wang Junjie himself was harvesting last hits on Shadow Guards that his underlings had beaten down to low health, rapidly leveling up.
Shhk!
As Wang Junjie swung his sword and cut down a level 17 Shadow Guard left at 1 HP, he watched as the Shadow Guard revived on the spot and evolved to level 18.
He started to grow impatient.
"Damn it! When the hell does this end? When am I supposed to get into the hidden dungeon?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the strategist Chaos Zhuge calmly analyzed from the side, "The more obstacles there are, the higher the value of this hidden dungeon proves to be."
Hearing this, Wang Junjie immediately brightened up again.
"That makes sense."
"Hmph! Rulebound, I'll let you enjoy a few more good days. Once I take down the hidden dungeon, it'll be your death."
At this moment, Chaos Zhuge continued, "Oh right, Brother Jie, earlier there was a guy called Chasing Dreams Pure Heart who privately messaged me. He said he has the key to enter the Shadow Holy Hall dungeon."
"That idiot again?", Wang Junjie said impatiently, "I already blocked him, so he went looking for you instead, huh?"
"Does he think I'm stupid? A broken rock selling for ten million. He really dares to dream! And calling it a dungeon key? Who does he think he is, a game designer?"
However, Chaos Zhuge now had a serious expression, "I thought so too at first, but Chasing Dreams Pure Heart said that stone couldn't be traded to Rulebound, so in the end, they set up a trap and blew it up."
"If it's something that even Rulebound was willing to use any means to get, then it might really… not be so simple."
Hearing this, Wang Junjie's expression immediately changed.
"Damn it! Why didn't you say so earlier?"
Chaos Zhuge replied, "Brother Jie, I only just found out myself…"
"If I'd known it was something that trash Rulebound wanted, even if it was useless, I still wouldn't have let him get his way!"
"Damn it…"
Wang Junjie clenched his teeth. In a moment of urgency, he opened his friends list, removed Chasing Dreams Pure Heart from his blacklist, and sent him a message.
[The Heart of Shadow you told me about last night, did Rulebound really get it?]
Ding!
When Chasing Dreams Pure Heart saw Wang Junjie take the initiative to message him, he hurriedly replied.
[Brother Wang, don't worry! I've already figured out a way to take the Heart of Shadow back from him.]
[Good. I don't care what method you use. Don't let that thing fall into Rulebound's hands,] Wang Junjie said, [As long as you get it back from him, I'll pay ten million and buy it from you.]
Chasing Dreams Pure Heart was overjoyed.
"Don't worry, Brother Wang! Leave it to me!!"
.
.
.
The entire morning passed in the blink of an eye.
[Insect Nest Dungeon]
The progress of Lin Mo's five-man team had already reached the seventh floor of the Insect Nest Dungeon.
On the seventh floor, the venomous mosquitoes, which were as high as level 26, were already so strong that Lin Mo had to use Ice and Snow, Extreme Cold Grasp plus Heaven-Slaying, Seven-Star Volley, this combo of two SSS-tier skills, just to kill a single one.
At this stage, even for Lin Mo, it was becoming somewhat difficult to move forward.
Fortunately, after painstakingly clearing the seventh floor and turning in the quest to receive the reward, a beam of golden light descended from above Lin Mo's head.
"Hah!"
"Finally level 20!"
Having waited a long time for this moment, Lin Mo could not help but let out a long breath, his heart filled with excitement and joy.
He eagerly opened his backpack and took out the level 20, tier-two, golden-quality weapon he had been craving for so long, the "Skyvault: Venomous Crossbow," replacing the outdated level 8, tier-two, orange-quality "Hero's Golden Bow" in his hands.
Then he opened his status panel and took a look.
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[Golden Gear War God, Rulebound (Lv20 Trainee Archer)]
— Talent: Soul Fire (SSS-tier, Unique)
— Race: Human
— Reputation: 296
— Physical Attack: 1364
— Physical Defense: 525
— Magic Defense: 504
— HP: 2710
— MP: 665
— Skills: Detection (A), Ice and Snow, Extreme Cold Grasp (SSS), Heaven-Slaying, Seven-Star Volley (SSS)
— Money: 33 gold, 25 silver, 44 copper
— Experience: 5200/1,800,000
[Description: There are still nine powerhouses like you in this world]
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
His attack power had finally broken into four digits.
From 893 skyrocketing to 1364, an increase of a full 471 points.
Lin Mo could not help but exclaim, "Golden-quality, tier-two Venom set equipment really is insane."
It was a pity that although he had already reached the seventh floor of the Insect Nest Dungeon, among the Venom set equipment he had obtained along the way, aside from this weapon, the rest were either mismatched in class or failed to meet the quality requirements.
Otherwise, even if there had been just one more piece, Lin Mo could have immediately evolved it into golden gear.
Of course, Lin Mo was not in a hurry.
Because, "With this weapon in hand, I should be able to get back the feel I had when farming the first and second floors. If nothing unexpected happens, I should be able to clear the remaining three floors this afternoon."
"As long as I reach the tenth floor, the poisonous insects there will have a one hundred percent drop rate for venom bottles. By then, every ten venom bottles can be exchanged for one piece of Venom gear. Collecting the full Venom set will be easy."
Thinking this, although Lin Mo was already itching to immediately enter the Insect Nest Dungeon and test the power of his new golden Venom Crossbow, he checked the time and saw that it was already noon.
He could only put that thought off until the afternoon.
Turning to Ling Xiao, Xia Wanwan, and the others who were turning in their quests, he said, "After turning in the quest, log out and go eat. We'll regroup online at one o'clock in the afternoon."
"Okay, Senior Lin Mo!"
After saying that, Lin Mo crushed a return scroll on the spot, turning into a beam of white light and disappearing.
Skinny Monkey could not help but marvel.
"Damn! A ten-thousand-yuan return scroll, and he doesn't even blink! Big boss really does whatever he wants!"
Fat Dahai scratched his head.
"Then how are we getting back?"
"What kind of stupid question is that?", Skinny Monkey slapped Fat Dahai on the head, "Walking back, obviously! Even if we sold you, we still couldn't afford a return scroll."
After returning to the city, Lin Mo did not rush to log out to eat.
Instead, he made a trip to the Flowing Fire City auction house, planning to sell the "Hero's Golden Bow" he had just replaced.
Although it was only level 8, the key point was that it was a tier-two orange-quality piece.
At the current stage, where level 10 or so tier-one white and green gear was mainstream, and even blue gear was considered rare, this tier-two orange gear was absolutely a red-hot top-tier godly item.
And Lin Mo had deliberately not evolved the Hero's Golden Bow to gold ever since he obtained it, precisely for this very moment.
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