As Nie Yan continued browsing the guild treasury, he found two map pieces called Cahill’s Memories.

Nie Yan recalled he had such a treasure map fragment in his bag. He’d gotten it from a Thief called Jack the Ripper who he killed many years ago. This item had been sitting in the corner of his bag ever since. He’d forgotten all about it. However, seeing the two other map pieces jolted his memory. He placed the three pieces together. They just happened to make a complete treasure map.[1]

Nie Yan wondered what the grade of this treasure map was. There was a complex route drawn on it. It was likely the introduction for a quest. However, he had no interest in going treasure hunting right now, so he decided to put it on the backburner. He tossed the treasure map into his bag.

Continuing his search of the guild treasury, Nie Yan found nothing else that caught his interest. Many Special Items were related to quests. Their stats weren’t that great, but they could trigger follow-up quests to obtain better loot.

Nie Yan thought for a moment. His main priorities were to collect the Inheritance Gems and complete the Book of Order.

Becoming the Supreme Pontiff wouldn’t just be important to him but the entire guild as well. Even though Asskickers United and Fallen Angel hadn’t had any major conflicts, if a war were to break out, Plenty would have a significant advantage since he could mobilize the army of the Evil Faction. Three years ago, Plenty had said that he wouldn’t touch Asskickers United as long as Nie Yan was around. However, that was then, and this was now. The only reason Plenty had said those words was because he feared Nie Yan’s strength. Now, Nie Yan was no longer the Mad Rogue who instilled fear in all. He lacked all leverage to force Plenty to comply with their previous promise. If he could attain the Supreme Pontiff title, however, he would at least have some way of alleviating the pressure coming from Fallen Angel.

Nie Yan decided to do some power leveling first as well as finding the remaining Inheritance Gems. Right now, he was too lacking in both level and gear. If he didn’t get stronger, obtaining the remaining chapters from the Book of Order would be impossible.

Sun and the others had tried to collect the remaining four chapters, but they all failed. With Nie Yan’s current strength, the results wouldn’t be any different.

Nie Yan made a trip to the auction house but failed to find any gains. He teleported to the outskirts of Okoron with Instant Transmission, then summoned the Darkwing Dragon and took off in the air.

The Rank 9 Darkwing Dragon was no longer one of its kind. In the entire Righteous Faction, apart from his there were already five other Darkwing Dragons, two of which were also Rank 9. So, Nie Yan didn’t have to worry about being recognized.

Nie Yan glanced at his bag, his gaze landing on the Demon Realm Stone inside. This was something he’d obtained a long time ago.

Description: A stone from the remote demon realm, from where all darkness energy originates. It contains powerful darkness energy. In times long past, the demons had stolen three Demon Realm Stones from the demon realm. They didn’t get far, as the Demon Realm Sentinels hunted them down and killed them. But the Demon Realm Stones were never retrieved, lost somewhere within the human world.

Possible Effect: If directly consumed by a creature with the darkness attribute, it can raise their strength, completely transforming them or allowing them to directly break through. It can also lead to several unexpected side effects.

Nie Yan wondered if he should feed the Demon Realm Stone to the Darkwing Dragon.

Back when he first obtained this item, the Darkwing Dragon was Asskickers United’s sole Rank 9 flying mount. It was an extremely important asset in the war against Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group. If it ate the Demon Realm Stone and died, it would’ve been a huge blow to the guild. Now, however, Rank 9 flying mounts were no longer that rare. Perhaps he could try his luck to see if it could help the Darkwing Dragon break through to Rank 10.

Rank 10 was within the realm of Legendary.

The Rank 9 Darkwing Dragon had fallen to mediocrity. If he fed it the Demon Realm Stone, he would at least have a chance of getting it to Rank 10. There was no harm in trying.

Having made up his mind, Nie Yan enjoyed the scenery down below.

Roughly 15 minutes later, Judgement Valley was already within view and Nie Yan had his Darkwing Dragon land on the ground.

Nie Yan took out the Demon Realm Stone from his bag. The Darkwing Dragon instantly focused its attention on the stone in his hand.

The Demon Realm Stone couldn’t look any more ordinary, but it was extremely enticing to dark attribute creatures. Contained inside was the purest darkness energy.

As a person climbed toward the peak, the path would grow increasingly narrow. Sometimes, there was no choice but to brave risks. If they succeeded, they would look down on the world. If they failed, they would fall back to the earth. This reasoning could also be used for the Darkwing Dragon. If it wanted to break through the ranks of Legendary, it would have to take some risks.

Nie Yan tossed the Demon Realm Stone in the air. The Darkwing Dragon opened its mouth and swallowed it in one gulp.

The Darkwing Dragon’s body erupted with a dazzling black radiance. The incredibly pure darkness energy ignited and started burning like scorching hot flames. It let out a mournful cry as it started trashing about in pain, toppling down several trees in the surroundings. Under the black flames, they were reduced to ash on touch.

Nie Yan wrinkled his brows. The Demon Realm Stone was more frightening than he imagined. The darkness energy contained within these black flames was incredibly volatile. He didn’t know if the Darkwing Dragon could endure it. If it could, its strength would go up by leaps and bounds. If it couldn’t, it might even die.

Mulling it over, Nie Yan decided to retrieve the Darkwing Dragon back to his pet space. He would check up on it later.

A red sun hung just above the mountain peaks far in the distance, dying the woods a crimson colour. The air was brimming with the stench of blood.

Judgement Valley!

This place was one of the first passages between the underworld and surface. It was where the two great factions clashed. The map had five occupation points. Players from the Righteous Faction and Evil Faction would fight for control of them. The number of PvP battles that occurred here on a daily basis exceeded at least 10,000. The deaths were innumerable. This was one of the places where the experts of both factions gathered. If it were before, Nie Yan would’ve walked around the place like he owned it. Now, however, he had no choice but to be careful.

At present, Nie Yan was only Level 156, far behind the top players. His equipment was also no longer the best, nor did he have an advantage in terms of skills. Plus, extremely skilled players could be found everywhere. He didn’t dare to think he was still superior. If he encountered an expert, he wasn’t confident he could win, let alone crush them like three years ago.

I’ll get the Inheritance Gem and leave! Nie Yan didn’t want to linger here for too long. Recovering his strength was the greater priority.

Just when Nie Yan was about to head in the depths of Judgement valley, he heard a rustling in the distance.

Nie Yan’s heart trembled. People! He immediately entered stealth.

Five silhouettes flew out of the woods. They were all Evil Faction Players: a Slayer, Mystic, Dark Zealot, Necromancer, and Dark Incantist. Their average level was over 180, with the strongest among them being Level 186. Most of their gear was also chaos equipment.

Chaos equipment came from the Chaos Temple. They all shared one trait, and that was high defense.

Facing this lineup of people, Nie Yan immediately felt the pressure. He carefully snuck over, activating Extreme Disappear. The players today all had frighteningly high Awareness. If he wasn’t careful, he would be discovered.

If Nie Yan had kept playing over these past three years, he would definitely be well over Level 200 by now. Crushing these people would be as simple as could be. However, he couldn’t linger on hypotheticals and what-ifs. Now, he wasn’t even remotely their match. For better or for worse, he simply wasn’t under that much pressure, nor was his desire to raise his strength that intense.

“What happened here?” the Dark Zealot asked with a frown. It appeared as if a fire had gone through this place. Six trees had been toppled over and burned to ash.

“That dragon cry we heard just now came from here. Could it be that a dragon died here? But where’s the corpse?” the Slayer said suspiciously.

The group started investigating the place.

These people had come here because they heard the Darkwing Dragon.

The Dark Zealot was the leader of this group. Upon closer inspection, Nie Yan saw a Fallen Angel emblem on his chest. He was a member of Fallen Angel!

These people were unfamiliar to him. Likely, they had joined after his departure. Countless experts had popped out of the woodworks over these past three years. Nie Yan didn’t dare to underestimate them.

Transcendent Insight!

Nie Yan circled around to an area about 20 meters from the Dark Zealot. He wanted to take a look at their stats.

At this moment, the Mystic in the group sensed something off. “A Thief!”

Their faces turned cold. The Necromancer waved his staff and placed down a green wooden stick. At the top was an eye. As it looked around, a light shone on Nie Yan, revealing him from stealth.

Nie Yan’s heart trembled. His Stealth stat was already too low. In the past, he could be within five meter of these people, and they wouldn’t notice a thing. Of course, the biggest factor here was the fact that he was over 30 levels lower than these players.

“It’s a Righteous Faction player! Kill him! Don’t let him run!” the Dark Zealot ordered.

1. Nie Yan gets the map piece in Chapter 265 against the strongest Thief in Radiant Sacred Flame, Jack the Ripper.