Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 427 Endless
After hearing Yuan Tao's words, Wang Qiqing hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said firmly, "No, most of the ancient gods did not die, or rather, at least they did not die in the Guixu Realm. They actually left the Guixu Realm many years ago. As for where they went, that is the real mystery."

Since the research on the Guixu Realm and the human race both depend on the assistance of the Quanxian Clan, there is no need to conceal much information—at least regarding the ancient gods, there is no need to hide anything, so Wang Qiqing chose to tell them everything.

This information was obtained through testing and research during the project team's previous study of the Douxuan Treasure Mirror. At that time, the project team tested most of the names of suspected ancient gods they came across, and almost without exception, the images displayed showed them leaving the Guixu Realm through a strange portal.

After discussion, many professors believed it was possible that these ancient gods had come to the Blue Star Realm. However, others disagreed, arguing that the timelines didn't match up at all—the ancient gods of the Guixu Realm disappeared at least ten thousand years ago, while the myths and legends passed down by the Chinese on Blue Star are at most five or six thousand years old! Many of these myths and legends only have a verifiable history of a little over a thousand years! Even the few pre-Shang and Zhou dynasty sites of Chinese human civilization unearthed in recent years are only a few thousand years old—a difference of more than double the timeline!
Therefore, Wang Qiqing did not mention these matters that lacked evidence and conclusions, but only spoke about the information that they had archived.

Yuan Tao listened with some doubt: "What are you talking about?"

Wang Qiqing further explained, “Our Taiyin Sect has a shattered Douxuan Treasure Mirror, and its spirit resides within the sect. We have exchanged some information through the Douxuan Treasure Mirror before. If the Douxuan Treasure Mirror is not mistaken, it did indeed show us many scenes of ancient gods leaving the Guixu Realm. We have saved this information and can make a copy for you later.”

Yuan Tao suddenly realized: "So that's how it is. Since the Douxuan Treasure Mirror answered in this way, it should be correct. I must thank you for your generosity, fellow Daoist, for adding another piece of historical material to the Wisdom Palace."

"Fellow Taoist, you're welcome."

The Wisdom Palace is one of the largest buildings in Quanxian Royal City. It is somewhat like a library, but it contains not only books, but also various magical artifacts, audio and video recordings, and many ancient relics. In the words of the Quanxian people, the Wisdom Palace preserves the wisdom of the Quanxian people over tens of thousands of years and records the rise and fall of their entire race.

The Quanxian people's writing system hasn't changed much; it's a standard ideographic script with many strokes, but the pronunciation is chaotic—often a single character has multiple pronunciations. This is because the Quanxian people weren't a single regime, but rather composed of multiple tribes. Each tribe and region would have a different pronunciation for the same character, though the meaning would be the same. Since they are a race born with innate intelligence and spiritual awareness, they don't need to specifically discern the content of others' speech by sound; most communication can be done through spiritual power.

Therefore, when translating the Quanxian script, they were able to match almost every word, which greatly pleased the professors in China who studied the language of the Guixu realm.

……

"Bang bang bang-"

"boom--"

In the [Endless Ruins] instance, explosions rang out one after another.

The firepower coverage tactic employed by players like Nietzsche proved highly effective. After swallowing three more rockets with its belly-shaped mouth, the BOSS seemed to finally give out and was once again blasted to obliterate its remains.

The health bar disappeared, but the players dared not be happy in advance—how could the initial raid be so easy!

In the team chat, several experienced players were giving each other pointers:
"If it uses that resurrection method again, ignore the BOSS and focus fire on the minions first! The more minions die, the weaker the BOSS will become in the end! If this cycle repeats a few times, it will be easier for us to defeat it!"

"Use the Gatling gun! Save your other attack methods like spirit talismans for when the boss is completely weakened. At least the Gatling gun only consumes spirit power!"

"Don't worry about the talismans, use them freely. I have several thousand stockpiled here. If you need more later, just ask me!"

Holy crap, these girls are insanely rich!

"Those using Gatling guns can stay in the back, since they have a longer range. Those of you using spirit talismans should stand in the front... Those of you in the Golden Core stage should all bring a low-level one, in case the BOSS uses point-to-point attacks, let the support die in your place, otherwise your resurrection cooldowns will be too long!"

"Me! Me! Me! My level is low! I'm only at the Foundation Establishment stage! I can be used as a tool or cannon fodder!"

"Then you come with me, let's try to kill as many monsters as possible..."

Just as the players were discussing tactics and strategies, the BOSS was indeed not completely dead.

This time, however, the Red Feather Night Owls did not appear again. Instead, the earth began to shake, and the scattered pieces of bones rolled around. Even the standing dragon skeleton was shaken apart, with several bones falling to the ground.

Immediately afterwards, at the spot where the BOSS "died" in the distance, the ground began to collapse, and the already chaotic spiritual energy became even more disordered, gradually forming several spiritual energy storms that rolled like tornadoes, swirling up soil, rocks, and bone fragments on the ground, making it difficult for everyone to open their eyes.

One player complained, "Why does this boss have so many phases?! When will it ever end?!" A skilled player in the team chat suggested, "How long is the resurrection cooldown for those who died? Why don't we just buy rocket launchers? I have a feeling we won't have enough for the remaining three!"

Another player typed, "How about we step back a bit? I feel like this scene is a bit too big!"

Only Nietzsche adopted an unprecedentedly tense posture, staring intently at the collapsed ground—this reaction was quite unlike her usual calm and composed demeanor in the face of any situation!
Renxin Huadao assumed Nietzsche was in a bad mood because he had his first call stolen, so he deliberately didn't say much. Instead, taking advantage of his own group microphone privileges, he tried his best to liven up the atmosphere, complaining from time to time or saying some witty remarks in the group microphone. His mouth never stopped.

However, Guantangbao, who was closer to Nietzsche, noticed something was wrong when Nietzsche failed to give timely instructions on several occasions.

Of course, Guantangbao didn't think too much about it, only guessing that Nietzsche had encountered some trouble in real life. So, during a break in the "storyline," he privately messaged him: "Captain, are you busy with something in the real world? If it's really not possible, it's okay if you don't do any raiding. What's more important than the real world in the virtual world? Don't put too much pressure on yourself! It's not a big deal if you don't get the top five!"

As soon as the private chat notification sounded, Nietzsche saw the message from Guantangbao.

She felt both touched and helpless.

The virtual world may not be more important than the real world, but what if... it's not a virtual world?

My thoughts had barely shifted when the "plot" in the distance was already over—

A creature resembling a large slime, made of shattered bone fragments held together by black mist, emerged from the collapsed pit.

It was tens of feet tall, almost blotting out the sky when it stood up. It emitted a foul stench, and its entire body was made up of gray-black bones. Thick black mist—which players called demonic energy—filled the gaps between the bones and stones.

"Holy crap—what an ugly thing!"

The team chat was filled with complaints. Just a dozen seconds later, the giant "slime" changed shape again, becoming a long, thin thing. Then, four claws grew out. On its head—or rather, on the top of its head, since this thing doesn't have eyes or a nose, it's really hard to tell the head from the butt. Anyway, two incredibly ugly lumps still stubbornly grew on the top of its head.

Renxin Huadao let out a disgusted "Eek!": "Could this be... a dragon?"

In the team chat, the turtle-like Qi Pure player made some trash talk: "It's a 'dragon'! No, right? And it's so ugly, it's obviously a fake!"

Huangzhucao and Guantangbao, who had been with Fengliqi, also saw the BOSS in this form. They quickly got the information from Fengliqi and posted it in the team chat:
"Guild Leader! The NPC said that because the BOSS once ate the Dragon Lord, it can imitate the Dragon Lord's appearance and abilities! She also said that the Dragon Lord who died was some kind of Candle Dragon, and it could breathe fire!"

No sooner had the message been sent than a raging fire rose from the ground.

The players were startled and scrambled into the air, fearing they would be burned by the spreading fire.

The flames were initially orange-yellow, but quickly turned bluish-white. The air was completely distorted, and even with all five senses blocked, beads of sweat rolled down the faces and bodies of all the players.

Nietzsche pondered for a moment, then asked over the microphone, "Rocket launchers are out of the question, and it seems the lightning rifles might not work either. Let's try water talismans or spells related to water and ice. Do you have any magic practitioners?"

This presented a challenge for many players.

In "Ten Continents Chronicle", the most powerful spells and talismans are usually related to fire and thunder. Spells related to water are basically useless except for daily farming and some occasional emergencies.

Whether it's the current [Endless Ruins] or the previous large and small thunder dungeons, the monsters and bosses inside are all Nine Nether Demons. These things are naturally afraid of lightning attacks. Using ice or fire spells to scratch them for a long time is not as effective as a small lightning talisman. Therefore, everyone has never studied other spells and has been busy with lightning talismans and lightning spells.

In the team chat, someone cautiously typed: "Even if the fire talisman doesn't seem to work, the lightning talisman should... work, right? Can't lightning and fire cause an overload explosion?"

Other players couldn't help but complain: "What the hell is this overload explosion?! Do you think this is Teyvat?!"

However, just as everyone was looking at each other in bewilderment, a message that cheered everyone up quickly popped up in the team chat: "Leader! Me! Me! Um, I got [Rain Prayer] as my initial skill! It should be useful!"