Don't mess with that necromancer; his summoned creatures level up on their own!

The atmosphere inside the car was somewhat somber.

Everyone had a lot to say, but no one dared to speak.

Zhang Kai and Zhao Tianci sat in the back row, not daring to move an inch.

The reason is simple: in the passenger seat sits a wealthy young master radiating wealth, while in the driver's seat sits a ruthless female assassin.

Even if these young people are usually very talkative, they can't let loose at this moment.

Lu Zhixing didn't think that much about it.

He took a bottle of iced tea (chilled) from the car's small refrigerator.

He glanced at Song Xiaohe behind him.

The little girl sat quietly with her hands on her lap from the moment she got on the bus.

She would steal glances at the iced tea in Lu Zhixing's hand every now and then, then quickly look away.

Lu Zhixing took another bottle of milk from the refrigerator and handed it over.

"Give."

Song Xiaohe's eyes lit up. She took the milk with both hands, hugged it to her chest, and her face flushed slightly. "Thank you, brother."

The car entered a bumpy section of road, and the body swayed slightly.

Zhao Tianci cleared his throat.

He forced a fawning smile at Lu Zhixing. "Um... Young Master Lu."

Lu Zhixing turned his head and glanced at him. "Hmm."

Zhao Tianci rubbed his hands together, carefully choosing his words: "This time we're going to a difficult-level dungeon, and the monsters inside are extremely fierce."

Unlike those silly wild monsters, you see, the three of us have been working together for a long time, and our tactical system is quite sophisticated…”

He paused, seemingly waiting for Lu Zhixing to respond.

Lu Zhixing didn't take it, he just looked at him.

Zhao Tianci forced himself to continue, "You're just an F—oops, an all-around summoner! Your skills might be... well... a little lacking, and you might easily disrupt your rhythm."

The atmosphere in the carriage subtly shifted.

"So our suggestion is that when we enter the instance, you and Ms. Song should stand at the very back."

Leave the dirty and tiring work to us. Just think of this as a...trip?

He chuckled twice, and seeing that no one else was laughing, he quickly stopped. "Even if you don't do anything, it's still the biggest contribution you can make to the team."

The air inside the carriage seemed to freeze instantly.

Xia Qingyue frowned slightly.

Lu Zhixing remained silent.

Zhao Tianci's words sound nice: "worried about safety"; but to put it bluntly, he was just complaining about being a burden.

An F-rank necromancer entering a difficult dungeon is seen as a liability by them.

As for the 1570 on the training field, they've probably already attributed it to the potion.

Lu Zhixing hadn't even had a chance to speak.

"squeak--"

The speeding SUV suddenly braked, the vehicle jerked violently, and everyone's bodies were thrown forward due to inertia.

Zhao Tianci was sitting in the middle of the back row. The huge inertia threw him forward, and his face slammed hard against the back of the seat in front of him.

"Bang!"

A muffled thud. He covered his face, tears and snot streaming down his face.

Zhang Kai fastened his seatbelt, but it still caused him chest pain from the tightness.

Xia Qingyue braced her hands on the back of the front seat to steady herself.

The milk in Song Xiaohe's hand almost flew out of her hand. She held the bottle tightly with both hands, leaned forward slightly, and was pulled back by the seat belt.

She blinked, glanced at Lu Zhixing, then at Ye Qinglan in the driver's seat, and didn't dare to say a word.

Lu Zhixing remained motionless. He had fastened his seatbelt.

The carriage was silent for about two seconds. Only the sound of Zhao Tianci sniffling echoed through the room.

Ye Qinglan held the steering wheel with one hand, leaned back slightly, and stared at Zhao Tianci in the back seat through the rearview mirror.

"You mean, our young master is too weak?"

Zhao Tianci's face turned deathly pale instantly.

"Or are you teaching the young master how to do things?"

The carriage was so quiet that you could hear Zhao Tianci's teeth chattering.

"I...no, sister, that's not what I meant. I...I just wanted to keep Young Master Lu safe...I'm so bad with words! I deserve to die!"

He raised his hand and slapped himself in the mouth.

"Young Master Lu, please don't mind me. I'm just a slip of the tongue. Just ignore it!"

Lu Zhixing leaned back in his chair, looked at Zhao Tianci's pale face in the rearview mirror, and sighed inwardly.

Why does it seem like I've become a major villain?

Xia Qingyue took a deep breath and spoke.

"Sister Qinglan, Zhao Tianci is indeed clumsy with words, but he didn't mean any harm. He was simply worried about Young Master Lu's safety, since difficult-level dungeons are indeed not very friendly to beginners. His words were inappropriate, but please don't take it to heart."

After she finished speaking, she glanced at Lu Zhixing.

Lu Zhixing shook his head, a hint of helplessness in his voice: "Alright, Sister Ye, let's drive."

Ye Qinglan snorted coldly and didn't say anything more, then stepped on the gas again.

Zhao Tianci slumped in his chair, his back soaked with cold sweat.

[Little Zombie: What did that skinny guy just say?]

[Little Zombie: "Slightly lacking in operation"? "Easily disrupts the rhythm"?]

[Little Zombie: I'm going to wage a bloody battle against him!]

About an hour later.

The car stopped.

The car door opened, and several people crawled out.

"This cold wind feels so comforting..." Zhang Kai whispered to Zhao Tianci.

Zhao Tianci didn't dare to speak, he just nodded frantically.

Ye Qinglan walked around the front of the car to the passenger side, opened the car door, and turned slightly to the side.

"Young Master, we've arrived."

Lu Zhixing got out of the car and looked around.

Song Xiaohe got off the car from the other side and ran to stand next to Lu Zhixing.

Xia Qingyue was the last to get off the bus.

Her movements remained composed, but her gaze swept around her, and her brows furrowed slightly.

This was her first time in this place, and the magical energy fluctuations in the air seemed off, creating an indescribable sense of oppression.

Ye Qinglan took out the antique scroll from her bosom.

"Coordinates are correct."

The edge of the roll began to burn.

"Buzz—"

A crack appeared.

This is the entrance to the instance.

Zhang Kai and Zhao Tianci swallowed hard at the same time. They had seen dungeon entrances before, but this was the first time they had seen a "hard" dungeon entrance.

Just standing at the doorway, the overwhelming sense of oppression was enough to make one's legs go weak.

Song Xiaohe moved closer to Lu Zhixing, her little hand unconsciously tugging at the hem of his clothes.

Ye Qinglan turned to look at Lu Zhixing, her expression softening slightly.

"Young Master, although this is a trained team, the situation inside the dungeon is unpredictable, so please be careful. Don't be reckless if you encounter danger; survival comes first."

Lu Zhixing nodded: "Don't worry, Sister Ye, I'll take good care of myself."

Ye Qinglan's gaze swept over Xia Qingyue and the other two. That gaze was cold and uncompromising.

"You guys, listen carefully."

"Since we've taken the Lu family's money and accepted their mission, we must risk our lives to protect the young master and young lady."

Her gaze swept across the faces of the three people one by one.

"If when they come out, the young master and young lady are missing a piece of skin—"

Zhang Kai and Zhao Tianci nodded vigorously, almost kneeling down to swear an oath on the spot.

"Yes, yes, yes! Don't worry, Sister Ye! We will protect Young Master Lu and Miss Song with our lives!"

Zhang Kai chimed in, "Yes, yes, yes! Don't worry, Sister Ye! As long as he's here, Young Master Lu is here! Even if he's not—pfft, pfft, pfft! He'll definitely be here!"

"Don't worry," Xia Qingyue nodded, "As the team leader, I will be responsible for the safety of my team members."

Ye Qinglan glanced at her, nodded slightly, then took a step back and waved towards the entrance of the dungeon.

"Go."

Lu Zhixing took a deep breath and stepped towards the purplish-black spatial rift.

Song Xiaohe jogged up behind her.

Five people, one after another, walked into the purplish-black crack.

The five figures disappeared into the purplish-black crack, which slowly closed.

Ye Qinglan leaned against the hood of the extended luxury car, her gaze falling on the translucent light screen above the crack, where lines of glowing text floated.

[Hard Mode - Necropolis]

[Historical Pass Record]

First place: 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 10 seconds

Record holders: Feng Jiuge, Qin Baisheng, Yang Jian, Fang Shiming, and Taitus

Record creation time: 18 years ago.

Ye Qinglan exhaled a smoke ring and murmured, "1 hour and 5 minutes..."

1 hour, 5 minutes, and 10 seconds. This number, like an insurmountable mountain, has stood in the way of all new professional players below level 5 in the Dragon Kingdom for a full eighteen years.

Those five people were the most brilliant geniuses of their time, and were known as the "Golden Generation".

The day after they awakened, they set this astonishing record with an average Lv.4 configuration.

Over the past eighteen years, countless talented young people have challenged it, but all have failed miserably.

If it were the young master—with his terrifying micro-management skills and unparalleled control, he certainly deserves to challenge this record.

But records are never broken by one person alone; they require perfect teamwork from all five.

Xia Jia's daughter is an A-level water magician, with solid basic skills, but that's all she has.

Those two kids are pretty good, but only pretty good.

As for Miss Song, she's only Lv.2, just a meat shield.

To the average person, this might seem like a luxurious elite squad.

But in Ye Qinglan's eyes, who had witnessed Lu Zhixing's abnormal operations, this team's configuration was not worthy of her young master.

Passing the level is definitely not a problem, but I want to break the record.

These little guys will only become a burden that slows down the young master.

Ye Qinglan leaned against the hood of the car and closed her eyes.

Her mission wasn't to help the young master break the record, but to stay here and wait for his triumphant return.

---

The dizziness suddenly disappeared. I stepped onto a hard stone slab.

He opened his eyes.

Before me lay a gloomy and terrifying ancient castle corridor.

A skull lamp hangs every few meters along both sides of the corridor.

Lu Zhixing looked around and said calmly, "It's a bit like the underworld."

[Little Zombie: The Underworld?]

[Little Zombie: What's wrong with this place? The air is fresh, the temperature is pleasant, and the lighting is soft. I feel quite comfortable here. Much more comfortable than your noisy and brightly lit human living room.]

"Is a putrid smell considered refreshing? Is a ghostly blue flame considered gentle?"

[Little Zombie: You don't understand. Your taste is too low. In my eyes, this is a five-star resort.]

Lu Zhixing noticed a new buff in the little zombie's status bar.

[Instance Environment: Necropolis (Necromantic Affinity)]

[Effect: All stats of all undead units +15%.]

No wonder the little zombie felt comfortable.

It's not that its aesthetics are flawed; it's that the environment is really giving it a boost.

Xia Qingyue's voice came from ahead.

"Everyone, pay attention. This is a difficult dungeon. In terms of attributes and combat skills, it's on a completely different level from monsters of the same level in the wild. Everyone, listen to my commands and do not act on your own."

She was already in battle mode. A pale blue staff was held in her right hand.

"Set up the formation. Zhao Tianci, you're at the front. Be careful to draw aggro and absolutely do not let the monsters break through the defense line."

Zhao Tianci carried the giant shield and strode to the front of the group.

"Zhang Kai, you're on my left, responsible for ranged physical attacks and reconnaissance. Always keep an eye on the ceiling and shadowy corners."

Zhang Kai drew his longbow, stood sideways to Xia Qingyue's left rear, arrow tip slightly lowered, his gaze sweeping back and forth in the shadows.

Xia Qingyue's gaze fell on Lu Zhixing: "Young Master Lu and Miss Song, you two stand in the middle of the line."

She turned to Zhang Kai and emphasized, "Zhang Kai, if any monsters attack from behind, you must support Young Master Lu immediately."

Zhang Kai patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, Captain! As long as I have a breath left, I will not let Young Master Lu lose a single hair!"

Lu Zhixing smiled and said in a relaxed tone, "Okay, I'll cheer you all on from behind."

He pulled out some wind-attribute jerky from his pocket, tore open a bag, and grabbed a piece.

Song Xiaohe, who was standing to the side, suddenly spoke up: "I...I'm also a meat shield, I should be standing at the front."