Published: February 11, 2025
The cold wind blew, as if it had come from the ancient times, raging through the Hundred Caves Marsh, wrapping this adventure site, which barely existed between heaven and earth, in a layer of chill.
Yet, this cold wind did not disperse the fog here; the world felt interconnected, as if there was no sky, or perhaps it was all sky.
Countless half-height cat-ear-shaped cave entrances jutted out from the marsh, arranged in a chaotic manner, like giant mouths ready to devour anything that approached.
“Are you even capable? We’ve been stuck here for dozens of hours, failing time and time again. Are we going to be stuck here until the Brightwater Realm closes?”
A man with raised eyebrows sternly reprimanded the Red Hair woman sitting in front of a deep cave entrance, clearly dissatisfied.
The woman was wrapped in a blanket, her body trembling slightly. The white frost on her fiery red hair indicated that she was exuding vapor, a result of the frost melting and evaporating.
Beside this Red Hair woman stood another tall and graceful woman. Hearing the man's words, she crossed her arms and retorted, “Zhang Zhongzheng, can you speak a bit more politely? You know how many times Garan has gone in; each time it was a life-or-death struggle. Even if she hasn't succeeded, it's not due to her lack of effort, but because it's extremely difficult.”
As the woman spoke, her anger grew, continuing, “If you think she can't do it, then send someone else, or go in yourself. What’s the point of blaming her here? Our Nalan team can’t do it, but your Resistance Zone can, right?”
These two women were Garan and Mina, who had a fleeting acquaintance with Ye Zhongming during the Linhai Ghost City incident. They had known each other before the apocalypse, then turned against each other but were now trapped together in Linhai. Finally, they had put aside their previous grievances, reconciled, and formed a battle team named after the two of them—Nalan.
Thanks to Ye Zhongming’s previous assistance with potions and the fact that both were the team leaders, their foundation was solid, so once the new team was established, their development went very smoothly.
In fact, due to their excellent foundation, they even made it onto the comprehensive strength ranking list for the China region; although they were at the tail end, it was still quite commendable.
However, the strength of Nalan was its overall average capability, with the downside being that individual combat power was not outstanding.
This time, they received an invitation to the Brightwater Feast, and it was a special invitation.
Such special invitations were specifically prepared for certain adventure sites, utilizing the characteristics of the invitees to tackle resource points that the royal guild had researched and devised precise solutions for.
Part of the reason Nalan was invited was because Garan's frequency insight profession was extremely suitable for the Hundred Caves Marsh, even appearing particularly favorable to the royal guild, thus receiving exceptional treatment. When Ye Zhongming and his group took a fishing boat to the Brightwater Realm, they had already passed by Garan and Mina, who were on a luxurious yacht enjoying fine wine.
However, upon arriving at the Hundred Caves Marsh, things were far from the anticipated simplicity, as Garan's profession encountered problems.
This issue had been mentioned by Ye Zhongming before; the frequency insight auxiliary profession had a strong sensitivity to anything and could provide capabilities for concealing one's movements, making it very suitable as an assassin profession—one of the few highly valuable auxiliary professions in the apocalypse.
Garan was fortunate to possess it, but her main profession was a fire type—soulfire igniter, a pure fire attribute profession similar to flame sprite master, yet different in that unlike the flame sprite master who could transform, the soulfire igniter's body was continuously surging with fire energy, making her very easy to detect.