Chapter 40: The Crimson Hidden Era

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One day in the Lesser Spirit Realm—two hours in the real world—the five-man team emerged from the realm. The three people at the front wore exceedingly excited smiles. Their gains this time were far better than before.

“Brother Qiu, your aura is incredible! I didn’t have to use a single potion during the fights. You saved me a fortune!” Lei Peng said with an exhilarated grin.

Under normal circumstances, in order to gather materials more quickly and maximize their profits, Lei Peng and the others had to use potions while exploring the Lesser Spirit Realm to replenish their health and spiritual energy, thereby improving their combat efficiency.

Good potions, however, were anything but cheap. They required a considerable number of spiritual energy points to purchase. Although they still earned more overall, the spiritual energy points spent on potions were no small expense.

Immortal Through a Hundred Battles not only greatly enhanced their endurance in combat, but also eliminated their need to spend spiritual energy points on other potions. Their combat expenses were reduced enormously, causing their profits to rise by a corresponding amount.

That was why it did not matter whether Ye Mingqiu sat off to the side reading a book or even idly cracked walnuts and strolled a bird near the battlefield. As long as this benefactor’s Immortal Through a Hundred Battles aura remained active, he was their absolute savior.

“Come on, it was nothing. I only provided the aura effect. You fought all the battles yourselves, so I didn’t really contribute much,” Ye Mingqiu said modestly with a smile.

“How could you say that? Your contribution was enormous! Do you know how much our profits increased this time?”

“How much?”

“Threefold! They tripled—three whole times!”

Lei Peng grinned with uncontainable excitement and continued, “With your aura, along with control and enchantment, we managed to defeat a lot of bosses we couldn’t handle before. On top of that, we fought more frequently and barely used any potions at all. It was incredible! If you ever need someone for a Spirit Realm trial, you have to come find me!”

“I’ll do my best.”

Ye Mingqiu smiled, then asked, “So, roughly how much did we earn this time?”

“Quite a lot—more than a thousand spiritual energy points, I’d say. Once it’s divided up, each person should get three or four hundred. That’s almost enough to match the gains from a single Spirit Realm trip.” Lei Peng answered.

“Oh, that’s quite a sum.” Ye Mingqiu replied politely.

“I’ll handle the items. I’ll transfer your share of the spiritual energy points to you in a couple of days. Don’t refuse—it’s what you deserve.” Lei Peng patted Ye Mingqiu on the back with one hand.

“All right.”

....

Two days later, Sunday.

At home, Ye Mingqiu took out Blood Soul Revenge, the item Tang Ruobing had given him earlier—the special artifact that forcibly transported its user to the Spirit Realm for a trial.

He had looked into it. The Crimson Hidden Era world accessed through Blood Soul Revenge was a low-level world governed by powerful rules. For a Level One spiritual energy user, it offered only a difficult-grade challenge. Its danger level was not particularly high, while its rewards were fairly decent. It could be considered a relatively good world.

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But...

If it was merely difficult-grade, the rewards were still a little too low.

[You have used the item—Blood Soul Revenge]

In an instant, several blood-red tentacles emerged from the void, wrapping tightly around Ye Mingqiu before dragging him into the darkness and pulling him into the Spirit Realm—the Crimson Hidden Era plane.

...

[Entering world—Crimson Hidden Era]

[Difficulty level: Hell]

Notice: The original difficulty was Difficult. Your premature arrival has angered the Scarlet Sovereign, causing the difficulty of the Crimson Hidden Era world to rise dramatically. It has now increased to Hell.

The Scarlet Sovereign?

The corner of Ye Mingqiu’s eye twitched, and fear stirred in his heart. If the Hell-level Crimson Hidden Era world was like the previous Destruction of Chaoge, with an overlord-level powerhouse, then the Scarlet Sovereign was most likely that overlord-level entity. If he had provoked an overlord-level existence right at the start, was there any chance he would survive?

Description: Among human society, a type of blood-colored monster lurks among mankind. Under ordinary circumstances, they possess appearances indistinguishable from those of humans. Only when they need to feed do they reveal their grotesque true forms to certain people.

[Main Quest]

First Stage—Initial Entry

Objective: Find a place to settle in the world of the Crimson Hidden Era, or find a faction where you can take shelter. You may choose to join either the blood-colored monsters or the human faction.

Time limit: Three hours

Quest reward: 200 spiritual energy points

Quest penalty: All attributes -2

The familiar sensation of traveling through space and time gradually faded. When Ye Mingqiu opened his eyes again, he found himself in an unfamiliar city. Torrential rain poured from the sky, accompanied now and then by the rumble of thunder.

After carefully observing his surroundings, Ye Mingqiu discovered that he was crouched in the corner of a narrow alley.

He slowly rose and walked out of the alley. A splendid, bustling world came into view. Brilliant lights flickered everywhere, illuminating the night.

According to the guide, although the Crimson Hidden Era was a difficult-grade world where one could be attacked and killed by blood-colored monsters at any moment, as long as one remained among crowds and in public view, it was absolutely impossible for a monster to launch a direct attack. They were merely rats in the gutter, creatures that could not bear the light.

At present, there were supposedly two factions he could join: the human faction or the blood-colored faction. But Ye Mingqiu was a pure-blooded human. How could he possibly blend in with the monsters? Even if he took the initiative to join them, would those monsters be willing to accept him?

Being surrounded and slaughtered was far more likely.

First, he needed to go somewhere crowded!

....

Two minutes later, Ye Mingqiu arrived at a café and took a seat by the window. He gazed at the rain-soaked world outside and felt the warmth of the room, yet he still found no sense of security.

“Young man, what would you like to drink?”

An elderly white-haired man approached with a kindly smile. Though he was advanced in years, his clothes were neat and immaculate, without a single wrinkle. His appearance made people feel inexplicably at ease.

“A hot latte,” Ye Mingqiu replied.

Before long, the old man brought over the latte with a smile and placed it steadily in front of him.

“Please enjoy.”

“Thank you.” Ye Mingqiu expressed his gratitude.

As he drank the hot latte while watching the scene outside, he felt somewhat calmer. Yet an inexplicable unease lingered in his heart, accompanied by a faint sense of palpitations. He did not know why he felt that way, but he was certain that something was deeply wrong.

Soon, he finished the latte. Ye Mingqiu reached into his pocket, only to “discover, to his astonishment,” that he had not brought any money with him. He looked toward the kindly old man, scratched his head awkwardly, and said, “Um... Grandpa, I forgot to bring money when I left home today. Could I work for you to pay for this latte?”

The old man frowned slightly and pondered for a long while. In the end, however, he still smiled.

“All right. You only need to work for me for one hour.”

“Thank you! Thank you very much!”

Ye Mingqiu beamed with delight and asked, “What exactly should I do? Is it all right if I work in these everyday clothes without changing? Don’t worry, I’ll work hard!”

“Heh heh.”

The white-haired old man smiled and said, “There’s no need to change. Just help carry things and clean the café. After all, one latte isn’t worth very much.”

“Understood.”

[Notice: Main Quest—First Stage completed]

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