Chapter 140: The Protection of the Holy Demon

The Panda Baby took the lead, while the other three followed behind, hacking at the monsters. Boss Wu only needed to heal the Panda Baby from time to time.

After all, these were merely ordinary mobs, and the damage they dealt to the Panda Baby was not particularly high.

Although Boss Wu’s attack power was weak, he could still inflict some damage. Besides, the monsters here were only level-thirty-five elite warriors.

They held virtually no level advantage over them.

Of course, while level-thirty-five monsters could not suppress them by level, the monsters at Tianmen Pass were far more difficult to kill than those found on ordinary maps.

“Damn, why is these monsters’ defense so high? We can barely hurt them.”

Fengyun One Blade swept his weapon through the area, yet each monster lost less than a thousand health.

His attack power exceeded two thousand. Even without any level suppression, having more than half of his damage negated was astonishing.

“Look at these monsters’ attributes. Compared with the ones we fought on the other maps, they have an absurd status skill.”

“No way. Let me see.”

Zhang Shan inspected the monster’s attributes.

Demon Elite Warrior: Level 35, Attack 1,000, Health 9,200. Skills: Slash. Status: Holy Demon’s Protection.

Slash: Increases damage by 200 points.

Holy Demon’s Protection: A protective blessing bestowed by the Holy Demon upon demon warriors invading the realm. Reduces damage taken by fifty percent. Becomes ineffective once the Tianmen Pass has been crossed.

“This Holy Demon’s Protection is insanely powerful. It directly cuts damage by fifty percent. No wonder we’re having such a hard time.”

The Holy Demon’s Protection status became ineffective once the demons crossed Tianmen Pass. That explained why they had never encountered demon monsters with this status before.

It was probably a status skill unique to the monsters on the Tianmen map.

“What exactly is a Holy Demon? How can it grant every demon warrior such an outrageous status effect?” Fengyun One Blade asked, baffled.

“Anything stronger than a Demon God is called a Holy Demon.”

When Zhang Shan had been in Eastern Capital, Grandmaster Lu had told him that the true threat to humanity came from the Holy Demons.

As for the Nine Demon Gods, they were not particularly powerful from humanity’s perspective. The Son of Heaven of Eastern Capital and Grand Tutor Jiang of Western Capital could eliminate them with ease.

However, because of the demon race’s divine positions, killing the Nine Demon Gods was pointless. New demons would soon inherit those divine positions and become new Demon Gods.

That was why the Son of Heaven and Grand Tutor Jiang had never wiped out the Nine Demon Gods.

“Holy crap, there are beings even stronger than Demon Gods? Why are the demons so powerful while humans are so weak?”

“Humanity has Sages as well. But they’re probably only part of the game’s background lore. They shouldn’t actually appear.”

Zhang Shan was not entirely certain about the setting surrounding the Holy Demons and the Sages. Grandmaster Lu had not told him much.

Still, Zhang Shan felt that beings of such a level would not appear easily. At least, they were unlikely to appear in the current version.

Unless the game entered its later stages and a version update introduced them, these elements would probably remain absent.

For current players, defeating a Demon God was still a distant dream. There was no point thinking about Holy Demons yet.

“This game keeps getting more interesting. I never knew there were Holy Demons above the Demon Gods.”

Although the monsters at Tianmen Pass possessed the Holy Demon’s Protection status and were far more difficult to kill than monsters on other maps, they also granted considerably more experience.

The experience awarded by a level-thirty-five monster was even higher than that given by a level-forty army ant.

With the three of them hunting together, Zhang Shan received more than two hundred experience points from every monster. The rapid leveling felt incredible.

But why were there only ordinary mobs here? Hadn’t they heard that Tianmen Pass was filled with bosses?

“Wasn’t Tianmen Pass supposed to have lots of bosses? Why haven’t we seen a single one?” Zhang Shan asked in confusion. He wanted to find a few bosses to fight. After all, leveling had become painfully slow.

They might as well kill some bosses and obtain equipment to sell for a little extra cash.

“I heard there are plenty of bosses here. But you have to remember, Tianmen Pass is a public map. With so many players around, just because someone else gets lucky and finds one doesn’t mean we will.”

“That’s true. We only just arrived and have encountered a few groups of mobs. It’s normal that we haven’t seen a boss yet. Keep an eye on the area chat channel. If someone else discovers one, we can go and take a turn.”

“Damn, Six-Barrel Brother, are you planning to steal someone else’s boss? There are only three of us.”

“They’re players from other factions. If we don’t steal it, someone else will.”

“Fine. You’re ruthless.”

Of course, Zhang Shan was only talking casually. If they wanted to steal a boss, they would still need an opportunity—and they had to be nearby.

If the boss were too far away, by the time they arrived, the others would already have finished killing it.

They would also need to know how strong the other party was. If it turned out to be a large group of players, there was no chance of them successfully taking the boss.

When it came to bosses, it was better to rely on their own efforts. Stealing someone else’s boss depended on fate.

Zhang Shan and the others continued farming here for two or three hours. From time to time, players from other countries found their way to the area.

However, upon seeing Zhang Shan’s group already occupying the spot and farming monsters, they did not linger and left immediately.

Although many players enjoyed stirring up trouble, most were focused on farming monsters and fighting bosses.

Without a direct conflict of interest, not everyone was so vile as to attack anyone they saw.

People like that were ultimately in the minority.

“Ugh, farming monsters alone is so boring. The experience here is better, sure, but there’s no one to kill. This is dull,” Fengyun One Blade complained smugly as he hacked at the monsters.

“Isn’t quietly farming and leveling a good thing? I honestly have no idea how you ever reached your current level.”

“Heh heh. It’s fine to kill people once in a while. It’s not as though I go looking for players to fight every day.”

Zhang Shan was about to argue with Fengyun Under Heaven when Boss Wu suddenly cut in.

“Look at that player from Qi. He’s been watching us for quite a while. He just keeps staring over here without farming any monsters. Do you think he’s planning something?”

“Hm? Really?”

Zhang Shan looked in the direction Boss Wu indicated. Sure enough, a player from Qi was standing outside the entrance, staring fixedly at them.

The player was quite far away. If Boss Wu had not pointed him out, Zhang Shan would never have noticed him.

“Could he be a scout, with a larger force waiting behind him?”

“Don’t worry about him. Let’s wait a little longer. If he still doesn’t leave, we’ll kill him and deal with the consequences afterward. Anyone who keeps staring at us like that probably isn’t a good person.”

“Why not let me handle it this time? I barely got to hit anyone earlier. Let me kill someone and enjoy myself.”

Fengyun One Blade looked eager to give it a try.

“You? By the time you run over, he’ll already be gone. How long would it take you to catch him?”

“Then what do we do?”

“If he still hasn’t left in a while, I’ll chase him on horseback. Once I catch up, I’ll dismount and finish him with two shots.”

“Six-Barrel Brother, for crying out loud, stop showing off that Red Hare of yours. You’re rubbing salt in the wound.”

“Heh heh.”