Volume 1, Chapter 62: Entering the Forbidden Land Once More

Cheng Nannan raised her slender index finger.

"Shh."

"Brother Chuan, I am here to help you."

With that, the woman pulled at her cloth armor and began to strip it off, instantly revealing large expanses of snowy-white skin.

Li Chuan regained his composure and understood what the woman wanted to do.

Cheng Nannan undressed quickly, and within moments, she was left in only two dainty pieces of undergarments, exposing her slender waist and long, flawless legs.

Her eyes carried a seductive allure as she trailed her slender, pale fingers all the way down Li Chuan's chest.

Slap!

Li Chuan caught that mischievous hand in a firm grip.

"Not interested! Get back, go to sleep!"

Startled by Li Chuan's icy voice, Cheng Nannan gave a slight start, then hurriedly gathered her clothes and trotted back to her makeshift bed.

Damn it! Damn it! Is he even a man, jerk.

Li Chuan calmed his emotions alone for a moment, brushed away the chaotic thoughts, and closed his eyes once more.

He knew all too well why this woman had acted this way—she simply wanted to use her body in exchange for Li Chuan's protection.

Yet obviously, in Li Chuan's mind, she was not worth that price.

There was another reason as well: Gao Han's quality was simply too high. Having tasted such fine delicacies, Li Chuan found himself somewhat unimpressed by ordinary beauties of this caliber.

...

The next morning, exactly at eight o'clock.

That familiar yet despair-inducing giant curtain of light appeared in mid-air once again.

[Aman Forest, Giant Shelter Central Light Curtain.]

[Today's Weather: Scorching]

[Daily Quest: I long to gaze upon that peerless work of art once more.]

[Quest Difficulty: Advanced]

[Art is impartial, transcending race and boundaries. Will you help me go deep into the Forbidden Forest and take a few photographs of that golden stone statue?]

[Quest Rewards: Gold Coins *100, Experience *10,000, Silver Treasure Chest *1, Temporary Photosynthetic Capsule (Blue) *1.]

[Quest Penalty: Transform into a stone statue with nothing left but sentient thought!]

[Time Remaining to Accept Quest: 1 hour 59 minutes]

[Ding, today's leaderboard rewards have been successfully distributed.]

[Your rankings: 2nd on the Combat Power Leaderboard, 3rd on the Red Name Leaderboard. Rewards obtained: Evolution Core (Cyan) *1, Evolution Core (Green) *1]

With two evolution cores credited to him, Li Chuan tossed them directly to the impatient Little Green, then continued to stare up at the central light curtain overhead.

The quest penalty is to become a sentient stone statue?!

The penalty sent a shiver of chill straight through Li Chuan's heart.

Damn it!

Could it be that all the stone statues inside the Forbidden Forest were created this way?

Lin Yaoyao tilted her head upward, her lips twitching.

"Go back to that ghost place? Who on earth would dare accept a quest like this?"

Just as Li Chuan was about to speak, a chilling system notification rang directly in his ears.

[Do you wish to skip today's daily quest? (Note: Daily quests can be skipped a maximum of two times; the third time will be accepted automatically.)]

Damn it!

Without even looking, Li Chuan could guess the expressions of all the players right now.

Daily quests had changed from optional to mandatory!

The third time being an automatic acceptance meant that once you skipped two daily quests, no matter what difficulty the third daily quest was—even if it was Hell-tier—you had no choice but to do it.

Those players who had lost their plant spirits and thought they could finally escape the torment of daily quests were plunged into extreme despair.

Lin Yaoyao placed her hands on her hips.

"Even so, nobody is going to accept this quest!"

Li Chuan quietly raised his hand.

"Uh, I'll take this quest."

Lin Yaoyao and Cheng Nannan widened their eyes simultaneously.

"Huh? Brother Chuan, have you lost your mind?"

Li Chuan shook his head.

"Not at all."

"The mechanics for this daily quest have changed; it must be completed once every three days. Given that the two of us currently cannot enter daily quests together, if we skip today's quest—even if someone else does tomorrow's daily quest—someone will still be forcibly assigned the quest the day after tomorrow."

"That's far too dangerous."

"I have a fair bit of confidence regarding this quest, so let me do it first. You stay here to look after Little Green, or you can take a short trip out to scout the situation inside the palace."

Lin Yaoyao looked up.

"As for Little Green... I feel like she doesn't really need me much. Be sure to come back alive, Brother Chuan."

Li Chuan's mouth twitched.

"Stop laying that kind of death flag on me, damn it!"

"Accept daily quest!"

[Do you wish to use a Daily Quest Exemption Ticket to offset this daily quest? (Using a Daily Quest Exemption Ticket will refresh the daily quest skip privilege, but will grant no rewards)]

No!

Li Chuan hesitated not for a second.

This exemption ticket could bypass advanced quests; it was equivalent to a get-out-of-death-free card. There was no way he would waste it on a quest he felt confident about completing.

Swish!

Li Chuan's figure vanished from the spot without the slightest hesitation.

Awestruck by Li Chuan's courage, Cheng Nannan cautiously looked over at Lin Yaoyao.

"Big sister, can I, can I do anything to help?"

Lin Yaoyao gazed at the magnificent golden palace.

"Shouldn't you be figuring out how to get bloodline factors? Or do you want the quest to fail?"

"But I—I simply can't handle giants like that."

Lin Yaoyao narrowed her eyes, studying Cheng Nannan's pretty face.

"Well, you could always ask someone else to help you—for instance, by using that method from last night."

...

Aman Forest — The Forbidden Land.

The reason Li Chuan accepted this advanced-difficulty quest was partly due to the mechanics update, but the greater reason was his strong confidence in completing it.

His Probability Glasses could be said to be the nemesis of every single forbidden stone statue in this forest! As long as he remained vigilant and made no mistakes, it was extremely difficult to trigger a statue's taboo.

Moreover, he and Lin Yaoyao had previously explored deep into the vicinity of the Forbidden Forest's core. The level of danger here was entirely within Li Chuan's capacity to handle.

Amidst a desolate and decaying withered forest, Li Chuan glanced around.

This seemed to be a place he hadn't visited before, likely a different sector from the areas explored previously.

However...

A bold idea formed in Li Chuan's mind.

If he could find the areas he had explored before, would he encounter the players who had been left behind here, as well as any newly arrived players?

If so, would that prove that what he experienced was not virtual, and that events did not merely revolve around him?

And if he did encounter them, what would happen if he warned them about the trials to come?

Forget it, forget it!

Whether he could even find those areas was another question entirely.

Moving on!

The Silence Statue!

The Leaping Statue!

The Gaze Statue, the Retreat Statue, the Fusion Statue!

Relying on his familiarity with the statues, Li Chuan bypassed them one by one, walking deeper into the withered forest.

Li Chuan had originally thought encountering the Fusion Statue meant approaching the core of the forbidden land.

Clearly, however, that previous assumption was mistaken.

Strictly adhering to the statues' rules without triggering a single taboo, Li Chuan walked several hundred meters further into the depths of the withered forest.

Stepping over a massive fallen dead tree, Li Chuan spotted a stone statue with a remarkably unique appearance.

[Rule Statue: Purple]

[HP: 5000/5000]

[Lv30, a bizarre stone statue corrupted by rules. It will attack anything within its range that dares to swing its arms, walk on two feet, turn its head, ...!]

[Attack Range: 17-meter radius. Attack Type: Incineration. Trigger Time: 0.5 seconds. Weakness marked!]

Purple! A king-tier stone statue! Its name had even changed! It was called a Rule Statue?

The appraisal results listed as many as seven or eight taboo rules, and for a moment Li Chuan felt that some of those taboos might even contradict one another.

Maybe I shouldn't go in; it's far too dangerous, and it's not like I can't walk around it.

Yet if he didn't go in, Li Chuan couldn't help but covet the treasures this king-tier stone statue monster might drop.

After hesitating for a long while, Li Chuan finally made his decision!

Go in!

Damn it! Fortune favors the bold, while the cowardly starve to death.

Along the journey, many of the dead players Li Chuan had seen had died weak precisely because they were too cowardly to take risks.

He was different. He still had the truth to pursue; he must not die here.

"Enter!"