15 - Hidden Instance

Chapter 15: Hidden Instance

When chasing Shen Bi through the wilderness, the ending is often very dramatic. The first category of Shen Bi player was too strong and seven or eight free skills would be combined together, so they wouldn’t know which ones would be chosen. When the brush spirit should be set aflame, they would light a firework. When it was time to throw out bricks, they would paint a stone pier, which couldn’t be thrown at all… This kind of thing was too common among Shen Bi players. Because the skills in this painting series were all free skills, the shape, function, and effect of the painted objects had to be determined by the player. Making a mess of paintings with similar effects was a problem for most Shen Bi.

But what if it was a master-level Shen Bi?

The infinite changes and completely unpredictable combinations of skills would make it so their pursuers couldn’t think straight! While they were still held up by things the Shen Bi had drawn, the Shen Bi would have already escaped to thousands of miles away… This kind of thing wasn’t made up.

Xiao Ran naturally belonged to the second category.

There were only two kinds of painted objects he could design. One was the white cloud design for the first level of Paintings Become Reality, and the other was a first level transformation into a wall of vines. 1 Those two skills alone would be enough for many players to eat a pot in pk 2 , not to mention that there’s also Brush Spirit Summoning, Shen Bi Ma Liang, and Soaring Horse 3 …… Those high-level painting skills meant that if a Shen Bi had cultivated earnestly, they were very scary.

As for the Copper Inkstick Puppet… It really was his baby. The origin was rather special and the players present couldn’t have imagined it, but it was nothing more than his drawing.

Paintings Become Reality! Throw your brush to break the illusion! Summon the Copper Inkstick Puppet while simultaneously retreating! Then activate a cooldown-refreshed acceleration scroll… When they recovered, Xiao Ran had already drilled a hole through the forest and escaped.

Youmao Bing grit his teeth: “Damn! We underestimated our enemy!”

The dragon knight player: “A Level 38 Shen Bi unexpectedly actually learned both of the free skills Paintings Become Reality and Shen Bi Ma Liang!” In his opinion, the Copper Inkstick Puppet was a live attacker, which corresponded to the characteristics of objects painted using the Shen Bi Ma Liang skill.

Although Shen Bi had many free skills, they weren’t easy to pick up. Shen Bi Ma Liang was a high lev el painting skill, even harder to get than the Level 40 necessity Brush Spirit Summoning. It could only be dropped by the Lord Boss at Level 50 or 60, so Xiao Ran’s hand had really caught them off guard…

Qianyun Chui said: “How else could he have escaped our guild master’s grasp? Forget it, it’s a lesson.”

Didi rushed back after hearing the news: “Then what should we do now? Report his location to the higher ups?”

The puppeteer player: “But I’m embarrassed!” The seven of them were Level 42-43 players, all outfitted in purple equipment. They had surrounded a Level 38 Shen Bi who had still escaped them. He was also frightened by the Copper Inkstick Puppet which he sees everyday and his mind was dulled, so he was embarrassed, okay QAQ!

Qingsha Qanzhuang: “Actually… I think he has a buff halo on his body. It would be a pity not to play an instance, but the Xue Village instances are pretty much all in this area. If he wants to go to another place or go back to the city to teleport to other towns, it would take at least an hour. At his level, would he risk coming back to play the instance? Maybe we can wait in ambush at the instance entrance…”

Youmao Bing: “……I think this proposal is very brainless.”

Dragon Knight: “I also think it’s brainless.”

Qianyun Chui: “Brainless +1.”

Puppeteer: “+2.”

Didi: “+3.”

Immortal Cultivator: “+10086……” Although we aren’t playing keyboard games, I can’t help keeping up the trend QAQ. 4

Five minutes later—

Shanyao’s seven players worked in pairs and secretly squatted at the entrance to four instances, including Han Bing Xue Field.

Left behind because he had already used his best skills, Didi was shoved in front of the Han Bing Xue Field instance alone as he stared up at the sky in tears.

Do they still have the pride and courage of the Number One Guild! Hateful QAQ!

…………………………..

It has to be said that the seven Shenyao members’ considerations were still very practical.

Xiao Ran left the battle and plunged into the Xue Wu Forest, contemplating this issue—

With the buff halo around his feet, it would be a pity if he didn’t play an instance. But—

Xiao Ran opened his NPC database and entered the IDs of three of the players into the search bar.

The NPC database, like the NPC perspective, was an auxiliary tool exclusive to NPCs.

NPCs, as part of the game data, could only use very limited permissions, even if they were God-Level NPCs like Xiao Ran.

The data that the system automatically uploaded into his mind in Han Bing Xue Field earlier was the limit of what he could hold. Once the instance exceeded Level 40 and there was too much data, Xiao Ran’s brain could no longer hold it. It could only be placed into a ‘database’ somewhat like a library.

Because the database was shared by all NPCs, it also had permission settings. Xiao Ran could find most of the information he needed in the database, but a small part related to golden equipment, golden weapons, legendary missions, etc…… his permissions were insufficient.

At that moment, there may be one that he could check….

After seeing the coordinates of multiple Shenyao members at the entrance to the instance, Xiao Ran couldn’t help but sigh.

It really would be a shame not to play an instance with this halo!

Xiao Ran blinked and suddenly thought of something. He entered the word ‘instance’ in the search bar, and after receiving the results, his eyebrows raised subconsciously.

There really is!

Xiao Ran grinned, closed the NPC database, and walked to the other side of Xue Wu Forest.

It took Xiao Ran around ten minutes to walk through the forest. At the end of the forest was an endless frozen lake. Pieces of cracked ice were floating on the azure lake, and the entire lake was shimmering and beautiful under the sunshine. It was truly a good place for couples to go on dates.

Xiao Ran, of course, hadn’t come for a date. The reason why he came to the edge of this frozen lake was because underneath it was a hidden instance – Mermaid’s Tomb.

Hidden instances existed not only in ordinary instances, but there were also some little-known hidden maps everywhere in the large map. These were also known as hidden instances or special maps.

Because the rewards were several times better than ordinary instances, these instances could usually only be entered once. After clearing the level, they can’t be entered again, or they may disappear directly. Except, if it was an instance using props, there would be no limit on the number of times. As long as there was an entry ticket, it could be entered several times, like the Level 30 special map Buyue City, which was a large hidden instance.

Although the Mermaid’s Tomb below wasn’t very large, the experience and rewards granted by the instance were very valuable and worth visiting for.

Xiao Ran was about to dive fiercely into the cold lake, but watching the beautiful bubbling view of the lake, his heart couldn’t help but pound. He paused and opened his friends list, then blushed uncomfortably at the ‘Special Friend’ at the top for a while before voice-connecting to the other party.

“Baobei is looking for me?” As soon as Yiye Feihua’s voice connected, Xiao Ran felt his heart pound like a drum.

The divine youth pretended to be calm and said: “Do you want to come play this together? Coordinates 38166.6543.”

Yiye Feihua felt this was fitting and was very refreshed: “Alright, wait for me. I’ll come immediately.”

When Yiye Feihua said ‘immediately’, he really meant immediately.

The air in front of him suddenly twisted for no apparent reason. Then, a small white teleportation rune appeared on the ground, and Yiye Feihua walked out of it.

Yiye Feihua’s occupation, Dragon of the Abyss, was a specialized occupation that included three basic occupations: Asura, Blood Warrior, and the Ghost Eater. Among those were included the various spacial transfer skills of the Blood Warrior, such as shape-shifting and shadow-shifting 5 , which could let him cross thousands of miles in a flash. This was also one main reason why Yiye Feihua could act so arrogantly in Shenzhou for so long: no one could catch him.

Dark leather armor clung to the man, and a dark golden cloak fluttered behind his shoulders in the wind. Although the glow from the equipment was turned off, the delicate workmanship and the pure dark power on the surface made the luxurious and inconspicuous full-scale godly outfit appear somewhat extraordinary.

The person who arrived also had a tall body and unwavering posture. His skin had a somewhat sickly pallor, but he wasn’t at all thin. On the contrary: he had beautifully knotted muscles with smooth lines that weren’t hidden by the decoration on the leather armor. When he walked, Xiao Ran couldn’t help but feel his throat tighten from the overwhelming explosion of masculine hormones in his aura.

He looked at this person’s appearance, his straight eyebrows and bright eyes, his high nose, the clean and neat line of his jaw, the slightly hooked and ruthless pale lips, and his eyes that were breathtakingly handsome and fierce.

The time limit for Yiye Feihua’s disguise skills had passed. His appearance had returned to its original look.

TL Notes: Omg I’m logged in finally! It’s been days QAQ

Hehe~ our XR and YF are back together again~

Footnotes

this is referring to ‘Reed Painting’ which traps people in vines. They’re categorizing it as a transformation spell I suppose lose badly Shen Bi Ma Liang: Ma Liang is a shen bi in folktalkes, idk what this spell does. Soaring Horse: From Tian Ma Xing Kong, metaphorically meaning along the lines of ‘bold and unrestrained’ or ‘unrealistic’. I TLd this loosely for flow. this +1…+number format is most common on forums and keyboard games/mobile games with chat rooms think SJW from Solo Leveling for this power, but he doesn’t need to have a spirit summon to exchange with