Chapter 25: Purgatory-Level Difficulty Activated, Ye Chen Reveals His True Colors!

[Blood Curse] (One of the exclusive forbidden items for the Bloody Forbidden Zone dungeon)
[Description: A curse seal containing bloodthirsty power. Once used, it can consume the blood within the city to reinforce the seal of the Bloody Forbidden Zone...]

Looking at the scroll in his hand, Sunset laughed, "Talk about searching high and low only to find it effortlessly!"
Priest Luo was equally excited, "Indeed! Who would have thought we’d get so lucky, finding a forbidden item in such an obvious spot!"
Ye Chen smiled calmly, feigning ease, "Luck is also a form of skill!"
Only Qing Yan seemed to notice something. She said nothing, merely glancing silently at Lu Ming.

Right now, they faced two choices:
Either use the Blood Curse to reinforce the Bloody Forbidden Zone seal, end the dungeon, and receive the standard difficulty clear rewards.
Or, consume the Blood Curse to elevate the dungeon difficulty to Elite level.

"The rewards for every difficulty level in the Bloody Forbidden Zone dungeon increase exponentially, but raising the difficulty carries risks," Luo analyzed the pros and cons before making a choice. "If we fail the next level, we lose the clear rewards from the previous one."

Ye Chen said confidently, "The previous difficulty levels were quite simple. With the three of us being so strong, and given our luck in the first stage, I doubt our luck will run out now! In my opinion, pushing for Legendary or even Nightmare difficulty is perfectly fine!"

With the group’s unanimous approval, Sunset chose to consume the [Blood Curse]. As the scroll in his hand turned to ash and drifted away, the system prompt arrived.

[Ding! Dungeon difficulty has been raised to Elite! Dungeon time has been reset! Dungeon monsters have been reset and strengthened!]

Checking the quest panel, the requirement for Elite difficulty had changed to finding two forbidden items within an hour. The reward had shifted from "?" to "??". While the specific rewards remained unknown, it was clear their value had doubled.

With the dungeon reset, vampires began spawning from every direction. The Elite-level vampires were still level 10, but their total attributes had increased by about 30%!

"Come on! Let’s make a killing today!" The lead knight, Sunset, slammed his shield against the ground to taunt the monsters. Ye Chen grabbed his dagger and charged from the side, starting a new round of slaughter.

Meanwhile, Lu Ming followed suit. On the surface, he continued to doze off and slack, but behind the scenes, he manipulated his undead legion to wreak havoc on the perimeter. Even with the vampires’ 30% power boost, they were nothing more than fodder to the undead warriors, easily cut down with a single stroke. Two hundred undead warriors rampaged in all directions!

In the Bloody Forbidden Zone, the drop rate of forbidden items from killing monsters was minuscule. Yet, under the merciless slaughter of the undead warriors, they successfully harvested two forbidden items within just ten minutes: the Holy Sword and the Blood Seal. Just as before, Lu Ming had his undead warriors place these items in obvious spots along the path Ye Chen and his team were bound to take.

Thus, arranged by Lu Ming, Ye Chen and Sunset "lucked out" by finding the Holy Sword and Blood Seal in an open manhole and an overturned trash can, respectively! Consuming these items successfully activated the Epic difficulty of the Bloody Forbidden Zone. With the reset, vampire strength increased by 60%, and they were required to find three items within an hour.

At first, Ye Chen hesitated, thinking it might be better to quit while ahead to avoid being too greedy and ending up with nothing. But the ease with which they found the forbidden items in the subsequent levels made him feel as if he were truly a child of destiny!

Cleared Normal difficulty in 15 minutes!
Cleared Elite difficulty in 22 minutes!
Cleared Epic difficulty in 28 minutes!
Cleared Legendary difficulty in 33 minutes!

Now, having gathered five forbidden items in just forty minutes to clear the Nightmare difficulty, Ye Chen was riding high. "Is this really the strongest dungeon in Tianyuan for the last hundred years? Is this really the dungeon that holds the highest record for Nightmare difficulty in the Great Xia Empire for the past century??"

At this point, Sunset said with lingering fear, "Maybe we should quit while we’re ahead. The rewards for Nightmare difficulty are already quite good."

Ye Chen dismissed this, "What are mere Nightmare rewards? The Purgatory difficulty rewards are the truly priceless ones! That’s the infinite growth skill scroll the Americans have offered one billion dollars for! One billion dollars! Do you have any idea what that means?!"

Ye Chen’s eyes were filled with endless desire. To get Luo, Sunset, Lu Ming, and Qing Yan to reach a consensus, he said excitedly, "Money is the most wonderful thing in this world! With money, you can have everything! To be honest, a few days ago, I was just a poor loser looked down upon by everyone!"

"I couldn't afford medical treatment when sick, couldn't buy the food I wanted or the clothes I liked. My high school roommates never invited me to dinner because they knew I couldn't split the bill. 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 felt inferior and endured cold stares from everyone! The funniest part? My sister had a boyfriend three years ago. He was incredibly kind to her, to me, and even took meticulous care of my parents! But I didn't like him because I thought he wasn't good enough for my sister! Yet, he gave me money, bought me phones, computers, clothes, and shoes. It was only because of him that I regained a little bit of face..."

For a moment, Lu Ming almost thought Ye Chen had finally regained his conscience and felt regret. But the next second, he realized he was dead wrong.

"But he was 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 piece of trash!"

Hearing this, Lu Ming smiled. In his past life, it wasn't that he lacked money. It was that every cent he earned was spent on the Ye family! In his five years at Tianyuan, Lu Ming had certainly earned seven or eight hundred thousand, yet his savings never exceeded fifty thousand.

"No one ever cared about my sacrifices. You only knew how to take, and once you’d sucked my blood dry, you called me useless? How laughable..."

At this, Ye Chen continued, "Besides, we’ve cleared everything so easily so far! We’re so strong! Our luck is so good! Ten billion dollars is right in front of us—you don't want it?"

Lowering his voice, Ye Chen leaned toward Sunset and whispered, away from Lu Ming and Qing Yan, "Once we open Purgatory difficulty, we kill those two. We split the billion three ways—three hundred million each. Are you sure you don't want that?"

Sunset and Luo exchanged glances. Clearly, they were tempted. They were just ordinary people who had gotten lucky enough to register accounts with three-star aptitude. To put it bluntly, they were just dogs for the rich. How could they not desire a life of wealth and luxury?

"Fine," Sunset said, his gaze hardening. "Let's gamble!"

Activating Purgatory difficulty required five people. Fearing that Lu Ming and Qing Yan might change their minds and refuse to continue, Ye Chen said to them, "Once we clear Purgatory and get that billion-dollar skill scroll, we’ll sell it and give you each two hundred million!"

Lu Ming, getting exactly what he wanted, feigned excitement, "Great! Sounds good!"
Qing Yan also chimed in, "I have no objections."

Ye Chen sneered inwardly, *What a pair of idiots.*
The five of them each held a forbidden item and activated the Purgatory difficulty.

[Ding! Dungeon difficulty has been raised to Purgatory! Dungeon time has been reset! Dungeon monsters have been reset and strengthened!]

The moment the system prompt sounded, a flash of murderous intent flickered in Ye Chen’s eyes. Suddenly—*Swish!* He raised his sharp dagger and launched a surprise attack on Lu Ming!

However, to Ye Chen’s surprise, Lu Ming dodged the attack with a simple backward step, as if he had expected it all along. Ye Chen didn't take it to heart, merely saying with slight surprise, "Fast reflexes, huh? Too bad, you won't escape."

As he spoke, the knight Sunset and the priest Luo also revealed their murderous intent, weapons drawn against Lu Ming and Qing Yan. Ye Chen watched them coldly, sneering, "You didn't really think you were going to make it out of here alive, did you?"

At this moment, not a hint of panic could be seen in Qing Yan’s eyes; instead, she looked somewhat gleeful. "Has it occurred to you that something is off? Haven't the previous stages been a bit too easy?"

"Of course that’s because the three of us are strong!" Ye Chen, clearly not grasping her meaning, remained arrogant. "Don't tell me you think it was because of you two losers? Kill them, before things get complicated!"

As he spoke, the knight Sunset lunged forward with his spear. Suddenly, Qing Yan took the initiative. *Boom!* She raised her staff, and a fireball spell unexpectedly struck Sunset.

-371!

The massive damage instantly slashed a huge chunk off the health bar of the level 10, second-turn knight, knocking him back several steps. Ye Chen was stunned. Only then did he notice that Qing Yan’s white-tier gear had been replaced by a full set of Black Iron equipment!

Ye Chen finally realized, "Damn it! She was hiding her strength?"

Even Lu Ming was slightly taken aback. Although he knew Qing Yan was hiding her power, he hadn't expected her true capability to reach such a level! When they were farming the Buried Land, doing the Slayer quest, and clearing her second-turn promotion, Lu Ming had never discovered such potential.

*She can't deal that much damage with just Black Iron gear. If I'm not mistaken, her account aptitude must be three-star, maybe even four-star!* Lu Ming found himself looking at Qing Yan in a new light.

Meanwhile, on the field, Sunset, having been knocked back by the fireball, remained dismissive. He scoffed with disdain, "So what if you hid your strength? I still view you as an ant!"

"Did a gym teacher teach you math?" Qing Yan asked with a playful smile. "I’m not alone, you know!"

As she spoke, Sunset turned his gaze to Lu Ming. He sneered, "What, are you trying to say he’s also hiding his strength? A mere sewer-tier class, a one-star aptitude Array Trickster—does he even have anything worth hiding?"

"Then show me your full strength!" Sunset activated his three-star talent [Blood Demon Shield] and charged at Lu Ming with his spear.

Lu Ming stood rooted to the spot, unmoved. He watched Sunset with the gaze of someone looking at a dead man, a flicker of killing intent flashing in his eyes.

The next second—*Hum!* A shimmering, blood-red soul mark appeared on Sunset’s chest! Just as Sunset looked down, puzzled by the mark’s origin—*Swish!* An undead warrior clad in silver armor with glowing eyes manifested out of thin air, instantly striking him down. Amidst the flash of blades, Sunset was decapitated.