【Blood Curse】 (One of the Forbidden Items exclusive to the Scarlet Zone Dungeon)

[Description: A seal containing the power of bloodlust, which can absorb the blood within the city to reinforce the seal of the Scarlet Zone...]

Holding the scroll in his hand, Sunset laughed heartily, "It's true what they say, you find what you're looking for when you least expect it!"

The Priest, Luo, was equally excited, "Yeah, who would've thought we'd be so lucky to find a Forbidden Item in such an obvious place!"

Ye Chen smiled calmly, pretending to be relaxed, "Luck is also a kind of strength!"

Only Qing Yan seemed to have sensed something.

She didn't say anything, just silently glanced back at Lu Ming.

At this moment, there were two choices.

Either use the Blood Curse to reinforce the seal of the Scarlet Zone, end the dungeon, and receive the normal difficulty completion reward.

Or consume the Blood Curse to increase the dungeon difficulty to elite level.

"The rewards for each difficulty level in the Scarlet Zone Dungeon increase exponentially, but raising the difficulty comes with risks."

"If we fail the next difficulty, we'll lose even the rewards from the previous level."

Before making a decision, Luo analyzed the pros and cons.

Ye Chen, full of confidence, said, "The earlier difficulties were pretty easy, and with our strength, plus our good luck in the first stage, I think our luck will hold!"

"In my opinion, we can push for legendary, or even nightmare difficulty, without a problem!"

Thus, with unanimous agreement, Sunset chose to consume the Blood Curse.

As the scroll in his hand turned to ashes and floated into the air.

The system notification followed.

[Ding~ The dungeon difficulty has been increased to elite level! Dungeon time has been reset! Dungeon monsters have been reset and strengthened!]

At this moment, the task panel showed that the elite difficulty requirement had changed to finding two Forbidden Items within an hour.

And the task reward changed from "?" to "??".

Although the specific rewards were unknown, it was clear that their value had doubled.

With the dungeon reset, vampires began to respawn from all directions!

The elite-level vampires were still level 10, but all attributes had increased by a full 30%!

"Come on! Today, let's make a killing!"

The leading knight, Sunset, slammed his shield into the ground, releasing a taunt to draw the monsters.

Ye Chen grabbed his dagger and charged from the side, starting a new round of monster slaying!

At the same time, Lu Ming followed suit.

On the surface, he continued to do nothing, but secretly he was controlling the undead army to slaughter on the outskirts.

Even though the vampires' strength had increased by 30%, they were still nothing but fodder for the Undead Warriors, who could cut them down with a single sword strike.

Two hundred Undead Warriors rampaged in all directions!

In the Scarlet Zone Dungeon, the drop rate for Forbidden Items from killing monsters was extremely low.

But under the ruthless slaughter by the Undead Warriors, they still managed to collect two Forbidden Items: the Holy Sword and the Blood Seal, in just ten minutes.

As before, Lu Ming had the Undead Warriors place these two Forbidden Items in conspicuous spots on the path Ye Chen and Sunset were bound to take.

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Thus, under Lu Ming's arrangement, Ye Chen and Sunset, thinking their luck was off the charts, found the Holy Sword and Blood Seal in an uncovered manhole and a toppled trash can, respectively!

Consuming these two Forbidden Items successfully activated the epic difficulty of the Scarlet Zone Dungeon!

With the dungeon reset, the vampire strength increased by 60%, and the requirement was to find three Forbidden Items within an hour.

Initially, Ye Chen was a bit hesitant, thinking it might be wise to stop early to avoid being too greedy and ending up with nothing.

But the ease of finding Forbidden Items in the later difficulties almost made Ye Chen feel like he was the chosen one!

15 minutes to clear normal difficulty!

22 minutes to clear elite difficulty!

28 minutes to clear epic difficulty!

33 minutes to clear legendary difficulty!

Now, in just forty minutes, they found all five Forbidden Items and cleared the nightmare difficulty.

Ye Chen was floating with pride, "The so-called strongest dungeon in Sky Abyss in a hundred years, is this it?"

"The highest difficulty dungeon in Great Xia's history over the past century, is this it??"

At this point, Sunset, a bit apprehensive, said, "Maybe we should quit while we're ahead; the nightmare difficulty rewards are already quite good."

Ye Chen, however, was dismissive, "What are the rewards for mere nightmare difficulty worth? The rewards for purgatory difficulty are the most priceless!"

"That's the infinite growth skill scroll that the Americans offered ten billion dollars for!"

"Ten billion dollars! Do you know what that means?!"

Ye Chen's eyes were filled with endless desire.

To persuade Luo, Sunset, Lu Ming, and Qing Yan to reach a consensus with him, Ye Chen said excitedly, "Money is the most beautiful thing in this world! With money, you can have everything!"

"To be honest, a few days ago, I was just a poor guy looked down upon by everyone!"

"Sick and unable to afford treatment, unable to buy the food I wanted to eat or the clothes I wanted to wear,"

"My high school roommates would never invite me to their gatherings because they knew I couldn't afford to split the bill with them,"

"I liked a girl for two years, but I couldn't even afford to take her to a movie!"

Ye Chen sneered, "Growing up, because I had no money, I was self-conscious and endured cold stares!"

"Here's the funniest part! Three years ago, my sister dated a guy who was really good to her, to me, and even took care of my parents! But I didn't like him, I thought he wasn't good enough for my sister! Yet he gave me money, bought me a phone, a computer, clothes, and shoes, and because of him, I finally regained a bit of dignity..."

At this moment, Lu Ming almost thought Ye Chen had finally come to his senses and felt remorse.

But the next second, he realized he was completely wrong.

"But he was just poor! That's why I didn't like him, no matter how good he was to my sister or us, he was just a useless waste!"

Hearing this, Lu Ming laughed.

In his past life, it wasn't that he had no money.

It was because all the money he earned was spent on the Ye family!

In five years in Sky Abyss, he had earned at least seven or eight hundred thousand, if not a million.

But his savings never exceeded fifty thousand!

"No one ever cared about my sacrifices; you all just kept demanding, and after draining me dry, you turned around and called me useless?"

"How ridiculous..."

At this moment, Ye Chen continued, "Moreover, we cleared the earlier stages so easily, we're so strong! So lucky! With ten billion dollars within reach, don't you want it?"

Hearing this, Ye Chen lowered his voice, speaking to Sunset behind Lu Ming and Qing Yan, "Once we activate purgatory difficulty, let's kill those two and split the ten billion among the three of us, three billion each, don't you want that?"

With Ye Chen's words, Sunset and Luo exchanged a glance.

Clearly, they were tempted too.

They were just ordinary people who got lucky with a three-star account registration.

To put it bluntly, they were just rich people's dogs.

Didn't they also want to live a life of luxury and wealth?

So, Sunset said with determination, "Alright, let's take a gamble!"

Activating purgatory difficulty required all five people together.

Fearing that Lu Ming and Qing Yan might change their minds and not dare to continue the challenge, Ye Chen said to them, "Once we clear purgatory difficulty and get that ten billion dollar skill scroll, we'll sell it and give you two billion each!"

Lu Ming couldn't have asked for more.

He pretended to be excited, "Sure, sure!"

Qing Yan also chimed in, "I have no objections."

Ye Chen sneered inwardly, thinking, "What fools."

So, each of the five held a Forbidden Item, activating the purgatory difficulty of the dungeon.

[Ding~ The dungeon difficulty has been increased to purgatory level! Dungeon time has been reset! Dungeon monsters have been reset and strengthened!]

Just as the system notification sounded.

A flash of murderous intent passed through Ye Chen's eyes.

Suddenly.

Swish!

He swung the sharp dagger in his hand, launching a surprise attack on Lu Ming!

However, to Ye Chen's surprise, Lu Ming seemed to have anticipated it, effortlessly dodging the attack with a backward step!

Ye Chen didn't take it to heart, only slightly surprised, "Quick reflexes, huh?"

"Too bad, you can't escape."

As soon as he finished speaking, the knight Sunset and the priest Luo both showed fierce expressions, drawing their weapons against Lu Ming and Qing Yan.

Ye Chen coldly watched Lu Ming and Qing Yan, sneering, "Did you really think you could walk out of here alive?"

At this moment, Qing Yan's eyes showed no trace of panic; instead, there was a hint of schadenfreude.

"Didn't you notice something?"

"The earlier stages of this dungeon were too easy, weren't they?"

"Of course, it's because the three of us are strong!" Ye Chen clearly hadn't grasped the meaning behind Qing Yan's words, still arrogant, "Or do you think it's because of you two losers?"

"Kill them, lest we regret it later!"

As he spoke, the knight Sunset lunged with his spear at Lu Ming and Qing Yan.

At this moment, Qing Yan suddenly launched an attack.

Boom!

Raising her staff, she unexpectedly hit Sunset with a fireball spell.

-371!

The massive damage instantly knocked a chunk off the health bar of Sunset, a level 10 second transition knight!

The impact sent him stumbling back several steps.

Seeing this, Ye Chen was taken aback.

In his shock, he finally noticed that at some point, Qing Yan's whiteboard equipment had been replaced with a full set of Black Iron Equipment!

At this moment, Ye Chen finally realized something.

"Damn! She was hiding her strength?"

Even Lu Ming was slightly surprised.

He knew Qing Yan was hiding her strength, but he hadn't expected her true power to reach this level!

During the Buried Bone Land grind, the Slayer quest, and helping Qing Yan with the second transition task, Lu Ming had never realized she had such potential.

"With just Black Iron Equipment, she couldn't deal this kind of damage."

"Most likely, her account aptitude is three-star, maybe even four-star!"

Lu Ming couldn't help but reevaluate Qing Yan.

Meanwhile, on the field, the knight Sunset, who had been knocked back by the fireball, was unfazed.

He snorted, filled with disdain, "So what if you hid your strength? I still see you as an ant!"

"Did your PE teacher teach you math?" Qing Yan smiled playfully, "I'm not alone, you know!"

As Qing Yan finished speaking, Sunset's gaze shifted to Lu Ming beside her.

With contempt, he said, "What, are you saying he hid his strength too?"

"A mere sewer profession, and a Trickster with only one-star aptitude, needs to hide?"

"Then show me your full strength!"

As he spoke, Sunset activated his three-star talent [Blood Demon Shield], lunging at Lu Ming with his spear!

Lu Ming stood still, unmoved.

With a gaze as if looking at a dead man, he quietly watched Sunset.

In his eyes, a flash of killing intent appeared.

The next second.

Buzz!

A blood-red soul mark suddenly appeared on Sunset's chest!

Just as Sunset looked down at the mark, wondering where it came from.

Swish!

An Undead Warrior clad in silver armor, with glowing eyes, suddenly appeared in front of Sunset.

In a flash of blades and swords, Sunset was decapitated.

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