Otherworldly Skeleton Evolution

【Sky-Splitting Blood Hell Sword】

Quality: Rare

Attack: 90-190

Critical Hit Rate: 15%

Devastation: Increases critical damage by 30%

Void Split: Ignores 10 points of the opponent’s armor when attacking.

Blood Hell: Attacks trigger bleeding damage. Inflicts Bleeding status, dealing 20 HP loss per second for 60 seconds. Chance to cause Severe Injury, reducing the target’s movement speed by 20%.

…

“The damage increased by 30 points and it gained the Blood Hell property.” After reading the description, Jiang Cheng’s interest was piqued.

The early game bleeding effect was incredibly powerful. Losing 1200 HP over a minute was more total HP than many monsters had at this stage!

Most importantly, the Severe Injury status could reduce movement speed!

“Excellent, time to start upgrading skills.” Jiang Cheng glanced at his remaining Evolution Points, ready to begin evolving his abilities.

However, he noticed something amiss.

Every time he finished evolving in the past, A Silly Cutie would excitedly prance around him. However, this time there was no reaction…

Jiang Cheng felt a bit unsettled.

Upon standing up, Jiang Cheng finally realized that the adorable fool had fainted…

With his rich gaming experience, he immediately understood the Stun mechanism.

He couldn’t help but shake his head wryly.

Looking at A Silly Cutie’s cracked lips and pale face, Jiang Cheng knew she hadn’t replenished her hunger and thirst values for a long time.

To reach the point of fainting, she must have been starving four hours ago already. Yet she never said a word, diligently grinding Bone Powder for him the whole time.

Jiang Cheng had to admire her endurance and stubborn streak.

“Seems she’s quite the tenacious one too.”

With a sigh, Jiang Cheng crouched down and gently scooped her up in his arms.

A Silly Cutie’s body was soft and limp in his arms, her waterfall-like hair spilling over his arms, her complexion deathly pale.

Without a second glance, he placed her gently inside a cave, instructing the Skeleton to watch over her, then set off to find food and water.

But as soon as he left, a party of five players emerged in the Stone Forest.

Leading them was a swordsman wielding an enormous iron blade, trailed by four beautiful female Undead Players clad in undead robes.

The four Undead Player girls all stared at the swordsman with eyes full of endless admiration.

After all, this player was a reserve member of the illustrious Shanhe Club.

Shanhe Club was one of the top ten gaming clubs in China.

The club boasted one of the Twelve Gods – the famed “Fist Sage” Zhen Shanhe!

They ranked seventh among the major clubs.

The swordsman, who went by the nickname “Qi Tun Tianxia”, had been fortunate enough to be taken in as a disciple by the Fist Sage himself three months ago, thanks to his exceptional talent.

No wonder the four undead maiden players practically worshipped Qi Tun Tianxia.

“Oh great one, it must be such a blessing to be accepted as the Fist Sage’s apprentice, right?” one girl gushed.

“Blessing?” Qi Tun Tianxia, hearing this, suppressed his proud smile and cursed inwardly.

Like hell it was a blessing!

None of those called the Twelve Gods are normal people!

The past three months had been a living hell for him!

Over eighteen hours of training each day, three whole months, just to learn a single footwork…

Day in and day out, he was forced to accompany a wild beast in the game, stuck in the same monotonous viewpoint.

He’d nearly vomited from the sheer tediousness of it all!

It wasn’t until those three mind-numbing months had passed that his master, the Fist Sage, finally revealed to him the name of the technique he’d been practicing…Phantom Step!

Wait, what?

He’d been learning the legendary Phantom Step of the fallen god, the Great Demon King Jiang?!

In that moment, Qi Tun Tianxia was so overwhelmed with joy that he passed out on the spot.

But when he came to, he discovered that his training had progressed from one wild beast…to three.

The Fist Sage then informed him that even after three months, he had barely scratched the surface…

Despair threatened to crush his spirit then and there.

Because to truly master the Phantom Step, one needed to face a hundred frenzied wasps and avoid being stung even once within the span of an hour!

Was this a technique meant for humans to learn?!

He nearly broke down completely.

If not for the timely early access launch of “The Great Wasteland”, he likely would’ve been trapped in training hell for another two to three years before making any real progress…

But after logging into the game, he realized that the three months of effort hadn’t been in vain.

With just a casual display of his skills, the eyes of the four girls lit up as if they’d been injected with chicken blood, eagerly hailing him as a gaming god.

Upon learning of his status as the Fist Sage’s disciple, their reverence for him exploded to even greater heights!

This feeling…was pretty damn amazing.

“By the way, oh great one, why did you bring us to this Stone Forest?”

An Xiang Yun, the Undead Player from Subtle Fragrance Guild, looked around the Stone Forest in confusion.

“Why else? We’re here to level up, of course! My master told me that this place is home to a monster called the Stone Man. Back when he was in beta testing, this was his go-to grinding spot. Only those with over 60 attack points can even set foot here.”

Qi Tun Tianxia said proudly, heading deeper into the Stone Forest.

“Wow, the Fist Sage himself participated in the beta test?”

The four girls gazed at Qi Tun Tianxia, their eyes sparkling with awe and admiration.

“But of course! In fact, my master once mentioned that he had an epic clash with an absolute expert here,” Qi Tun Tianxia added.

“No way! An absolute expert? Could it have been one of the other Twelve Gods? Quick, tell us with the details! I love hearing these juicy tales about the gaming gods~!” An Xiang Shu Ying grabbed onto Qi Tun Tianxia’s arm, practically bouncing with excitement.

The other girls also crowded around Qi Tun Tianxia, peppering him with questions and fawning over him, much to the swordsman’s immense satisfaction.

However, An Xiang Yun’s brows furrowed as she stepped on a pile of rubble. “Hold on, oh great one…are you certain there are monsters here?”

“No monsters? That’s impossible. My master would never lie to me!”

Qi Tun Tianxia decisively shifted his gaze away from An Xiang Shu Ying’s…distracting assets and surveyed the Stone Forest.

In an instant, he was dumbfounded.

“What the hell? This place…has already been cleared?! How could this be?!”