So long as she wasn’t killed, Phantom Princess Ina would continue pestering Nie Yan.

After resurrecting from Kesa’s body, Phantom Princess Ina immediately started searching for traces of Nie Yan. She quickly saw through his stealth and went into pursuit.

Phantom Princess Ina knocked down any buildings in the way as she chased after Nie Yan through the alleyways.

A large, black tentacle stretched out and slammed toward Nie Yan.

Gale Step!

Nie Yan accelerated forward, transforming into a blur.

BOOOM! The attack partially destroyed the houses in the alleyway and left behind a deep crater in the ground.

Nie Yan evaded Phantom Princess Ina’s pursuit, all the while trying to think of a way to deal with her. He took out the Cavalry Crossbow from his bag and aimed over his shoulder. Whoosh whoosh whoosh! Five bolts flew out into the air.

Put put put! The bolts struck Phantom Princess Ina. A string of 1,000s floated up above her head.

However, looking at Phantom Princess Ina’s 60,000,000 health, it couldn’t even be considered a dent. Slowly chipping away at her health with bolts proved impossible.

Phantom Princess Ina created a huge commotion in Grin Town. Many civilian NPCs fled for their lives in a panic. Those who could fight charged toward her, only to get caught by her flailing tentacles and sent flying tens of meters through the air.

Violent tremors shook the earth every time Phantom Princess Ina slammed down with her tentacles. Cracks opened up in the ground and started rapidly spreading.

Nie Yan saw the ground disappear behind him at a frightening speed. It would swallow him up at any moment now! He immediately activated several speed skills and fled away.

Phantom Princess Ina was hot on his tail. It was almost as if a landslide were coming down as the ground shook and trembled.

The ground started collapsing under him. Nie Yan immediately crushed an Unknown Transfer Scroll and teleported 1,000 meters away.

Nie Yan had no idea where he was teleported to. Looking around, he found himself standing halfway up a mountain. Suddenly, he felt tremors beneath his feet. As he gazed into the distance, he saw a large section of earth collapsing, revealing a grand city below. It was located about 600 meters underground. There were ancient buildings stretching out as far as the eye could see.

Nie Yan’s mouth gaped wide open in shock. Who could’ve thought that beneath this vast desert was an enormous city!?

Phantom Princess Ina was nowhere to be found. Just what caused the earth to suddenly cave in and a giant sinkhole to appear? Even though Ina was a Level 150 Variant Lord, she shouldn’t be able to pull off something of this scale!

Nie Yan suddenly recalled Paternoster’s Warhammer in his bag. It was emitting a dazzling radiance.

It wasn’t Phantom Princess Ina who’d caused the earth to collapse, but rather Paternoster’s Warhammer!

A notification popped up.

Immediately after, a world-wide server announcement went out.

The entire playerbase went into an uproar.

「Barthe? What kind of city is that?」

「I have no clue.」

「I just received news. It’s located in the north of the Satreen Empire. It was originally near Grin Town, but the town sunk into the ground many years ago. Apparently it was preserved against the elements there all this time.」

People hurriedly started looking for information about Barthe. This city, cursed into the underworld by a demon, attracted the attention of all players and major guilds. Especially the name Nirvana Flame on the announcement caught their eye.

Just what kind of quest did Nirvana Flame trigger? What sort of reward did it give? Everyone couldn’t help but ponder these questions. It had to be something extraordinary!

Far and wide, people spoke of Nie Yan’s might. His equipment was something all players envied, especially Zennarde’s Sword. That was a Divine-grade weapon! Who knew what he would get this time.

These conjectures caused the interest in Barthe to soar. Afraid to miss out on the spoils, all the major guilds hurried to mobilize their forces and set out for the city. This strong reaction influenced the rest of the players. Those who had the funds paid out money to form teams made out of high level players and also set out.

Putting aside other places for now, just in the Union of Assassins alone, there were more than 600 requests looking to hire players for an expedition to Barthe.

Like a tidal wave, players from all over flocked toward Barthe.

This development was also out of Nie Yan’s expectations. One could imagine how much of an influence the name Nirvana Flame had on players.

Nie Yan received word that Angel Corps and the several guilds under the Century Financial Group had dispatched three 10,000-man expedition teams. To be able to mobilize so many players in such a short time span was quite impressive.

In less than 10 minutes, Barthe was bustling with players. They had entered here using all sorts of methods and started exploring around.

An idea popped up in Nie Yan’s head. Faintly smiling, he also entered Barthe.

The monsters that spawned in Barthe were Level 150-160 Desert Giants. They had high defense and mediocre attack.

Passing through the alleys of Barthe, the architecture here resembled that of ancient times. Tall towers poked into the sky.

While he was making his way forward, Nie Yan had already encountered five groups of players. From groups 1,000+ players strong to those with only a few hundred, everyone was making their way towards the city center.

Nie Yan roamed around Barthe, when he received a call from Guo Huai.

「Where are you right now?」

「I’m in Barthe. What’s up?」

「Sun, Xie Yao, and them are back from the underworld.」

「What? So quickly? Did they get anything good down there?」Nie Yan asked. Calculating the time, Sun and them had only spent a week or so in the underworld.

「They completed a quest and obtained two pieces of Legendary equipment. Also, they made contact with Plenty and completed a trade. I estimate we’ll make at least a 1,200,000 gold profit from this batch. Plenty also expressed his interest in teaming up against Angel Corps. He’s already dispatched over a hundred thousand players to the surface.」

「Good. It looks like it’s time to deal with Angel Corps.」Nie Yan was excited, even if he was still curious about what the relationship between Plenty and Soaring Angel was. With Fallen Angel willing to team up against Angel Corps, Asskickers United would have another powerful ally.