Chapter 217: Dismantling Man-eating Flowers, Nightmare Court Archers (5400)

As the battle ended, all the man-eating flowers on the field looked like eggplants hit by frost, their petals drooping to the ground.

And their bodies had lost all signs of life.

Next was the looting phase that Cao Xing had been looking forward to!

He could already see some souls and Hearts of Strength appearing where those man-eating flowers had died.

Just as Cao Xing was impatiently wanting to go and collect the loot on the ground,

a system notification appeared!

[Nightmare Man-eating Flower corpse discovered. Dismantle?]

"Huh? This thing can be dismantled too?"

At this moment, joy appeared in Cao Xing's eyes.

This was an unexpected surprise.

Furthermore, these man-eating flowers were Tier 4 creatures, so the materials on them should be very precious!

Thinking of this, Cao Xing clicked dismantle immediately.

At the same time, the man-eating flower corpse in front of him disappeared.

A large pile of materials appeared in its place.

There were spikes all over the ground, several petals, and the tentacle in the center of the man-eating flower…

Cao Xing looked over, and a system notification appeared.

[Nightmare Man-eating Flower Spike (Green) * 62]

(A spike containing toxin and the aura of nightmare, deals 176 damage to the target, adds 1 stack of Nightmare Poison effect, reduces armor by 30 points, causes 154 HP loss per second for 30 seconds, cannot stack.)

[Nightmare Man-eating Flower Petal (Green) * 6]

(A petal containing toxin, a material for making certain hallucinogenic potions or poisons.)

[Nightmare Man-eating Flower Tentacle (Green) * 1]

(The stamen tentacle of the man-eating flower, covered in sharp barbs, inflicts Nightmare Poison on hit enemies, effect unknown.)

[Nightmare Man-eating Flower Nectar (Green) * 5]

(Nectar containing the aura of life, restores 1000 HP when consumed, also a material for certain potions, but unusable due to corruption by dark energy.)

Seeing the system notification, Cao Xing's eyes lit up instantly.

"As expected, just as I thought, these man-eating flowers have many good things on them!"

"Those spikes look like they can be crafted into arrowheads, which can greatly increase the lethality of these archers!"

"And those petals can be made into poison; I wonder if Sabina can use them."

"As for the Man-eating Flower Tentacle…"

Cao Xing pondered for a moment.

Although the system said its effect was unknown.

Cao Xing thought of a different use.

That was, to craft it into a whip…

Yes, that kind of whip used to lash people.

He still had a [Moleman Overseer Whip (Green)] in his backpack, which could increase movement speed by 10% and enhance pain.

The shape of this man-eating flower's tentacle looked very suitable for making a whip.

Overall, everything on the Nightmare Man-eating Flower was a treasure.

Moreover, due to the corruption of dark energy, the functionality of these materials had greatly increased.

The only regret was that the [Man-eating Flower Nectar] had been corrupted by dark energy and could no longer be consumed.

He collected all these materials from the ground.

Then he looked at Liu Muxue and said, "Muxue, help me dismantle them."

"Okay."

After saying that, the two began to work separately.

In no time, the corpses of the ordinary and elite man-eating flowers were all dismantled.

On the field, only the last corpse of the boss-level man-eating flower, about two meters tall, remained.

After approaching, Cao Xing clicked dismantle directly.

A system notification appeared.

[Dismantling successful.]

[Obtained: Nightmare Man-eating Flower Boss Spike (Purple) * 137]

(A spike containing toxin and the aura of nightmare, seems craftable into arrowheads, deals Advanced Nightmare Poison effect to enemies, reduces armor by 80 points, causes 288 HP loss per second for 30 seconds.)

[Obtained: Nightmare Man-eating Flower Boss Petal (Purple) * 6]

(A petal containing potent toxin and the aura of nightmare, a material for making magic potions and certain poisons.)

[Obtained: Nightmare Man-eating Flower Tentacle (Purple) * 1]

(The tentacle of the man-eating flower boss, covered in sharp barbs, causes the target to enter the Advanced Nightmare Poison state upon hit.)

[Obtained: Nightmare Man-eating Flower Nectar (Purple) * 3]

(Nectar containing the aura of life, restores 4000 HP when consumed, also can be used to make certain potions, but unusable due to corruption by dark energy.)

"Not bad, the purple spikes can actually weaken an enemy's armor by 80 points, and there's a 30-second bleeding effect."

"Calculating this, if the opponent doesn't have a skill like Purify, the bleeding alone could cause over eight thousand damage."

Cao Xing suddenly had a different idea.

"A spike like this is at the artifact level for current Survivors."

"And the most critical thing is, this thing has no usage level requirement."

"Can I craft a batch of arrows and sell them on the trading channel?"

This idea should be feasible!

After all, the bleeding damage of one arrow could directly cause a Tier 2 boss-level monster to die within 30 seconds.

Many Survivors would definitely be willing to pay a high price for it.

After some promotion by Cao Xing, its value might even exceed the effect of Silver Salmon meat.

Thinking of this, an excited look appeared in Cao Xing's eyes, "Good, good, good!"

"These man-eating flower corpses contributed thousands of spikes, which can be crafted into thousands of Nightmare Arrows!"

"Even those green and blue quality spikes deal very impressive damage!"

"This is an amazing fortune!"

Plus, those petals and tentacles can all be crafted into items.

It can be said that as long as one uses their imagination, this man-eating flower is also a treasure from head to toe!

Cao Xing sighed, "It's a pity that this boss-level Man-eating Flower Nectar is also unusable."

"Otherwise, restoring 4000 HP directly would be a very powerful effect."

However, his harvest was already enough.

Not only that, besides the materials from these corpses.

There were also some items dropped after the man-eating flowers died on the ground.

These were also a huge harvest.

Cao Xing collected them all.

[Obtained: Advanced Heart of Strength * 1]

[Obtained: Intermediate Heart of Strength * 5]

[Obtained: Corrupted Man-eating Flower Boss Soul * 1]

[Obtained: Corrupted Man-eating Flower Elite Soul * 2]

[Obtained: Tier 3 Nightmare Court Archer Recruitment Scroll * 3]

[Obtained: Tier 3 Elite Nightmare Court Archer Recruitment Scroll * 1]

[Obtained: Large Attribute Book * 7]

"Oh? Another recruitment scroll? And this time it's a new unit type!"

"What is a Nightmare Court Archer?"

It seemed she heard the keyword 'Nightmare Court' mentioned by Cao Xing.

Isabelle walked over gracefully, "Lord, I heard you mention the Nightmare Court?"

Cao Xing nodded, "Yes, do you know about it?"

Isabelle nodded slightly and then said.

"Hmm, ten thousand years ago, the Nightmare Court was also a massive organization, with a scale comparable to the Dark Church."

Hearing this, Cao Xing was immediately startled.

"You mean, this is also a group of cultists?"

Isabelle pondered for a moment and shook her head, "Strictly speaking, they were not a cult."

"The doctrine they spread was about dreams, believing that the dream world was the true world."

"They worshipped the Nightmare God Démǔ."

"At its peak, the number of church members and powerful individuals even surpassed the Dark Church at one point."

Hearing this, Cao Xing nodded secretly.

He had heard Isabelle mention the [Dark Church] organization once.

That was a cult capable of contending with ancient existences like the [Holy See].

And the [Nightmare Court] actually had this kind of scale; this really surprised Cao Xing.

"What happened later? Does the Nightmare Court still exist?"

Cao Xing couldn't help but ask.

Isabelle shook her head, "It no longer exists."

"The Nightmare Court at its peak was indeed very powerful."

"But one day, the Six True Gods suddenly descended a revelation. Because the Nightmare God Démǔ had committed unjust acts, he was stripped of his divinity and lost his status as the Nightmare God."

"And the Nightmare Court lost their faith on that day, never to recover."

"Afterward, this organization was purged by the Dark Church; countless Nightmare Court followers were sacrificed as offerings, and then it disappeared from the world."

After listening to Isabelle's account, Cao Xing was lost in thought.

Put that way, the composition of the Nightmare Court's members was quite complex.

They weren't good people, nor were they bad people, equivalent to chaotic neutral.

After pondering for a moment, Cao Xing decided to summon these archers first to test them out.

[Use Recruitment Scroll?]

"Yes."

The moment Cao Xing clicked confirm.

On the ground in front of him, four balls of black-purple smoke appeared out of thin air.

In the smoke, Cao Xing saw rapidly growing vines and fragmented, blurry scenes.

It was as if it were truly a dream.

When the smoke dissipated.

Four female archers with pale pink skin, wrapped in vines, and holding a large vine bow on their backs appeared.

Those black-purple vines seemed to be their clothes, covering the key parts of their bodies.

They lifted their heads, with messy pink-purple hair draped over their shoulders.

Their features had a distinctly alien style.

Clearly, these archers were not human.

At this moment, the four archers stared at Cao Xing with their ink-black pupils, saying nothing, appearing very silent.

Cao Xing walked up directly and said, "Hello, I am the Lord, Cao Xing."

They still didn't say a word.

The atmosphere was silent for a moment.

Even Cao Xing stood there feeling a bit awkward.

At this time, Elisa jumped out and said, "Hey, hey! What are you doing?"

"Can't you hear the Lord speaking to you? You really have no manners at all!"

The little girl stood with her hands on her hips, looking very angry!

Renice also stared at the four of them with unfriendly eyes.

However, the four archers remained silent.

Seeing this, Cao Xing chuckled.

Oh?

What do these newcomers mean? They don't want to pledge loyalty to him?

Cao Xing didn't indulge them either and said directly.

"If you don't want to pledge loyalty to me, I'll give you a choice."

"Provide me with one piece of valuable information as a condition for your ransom, and then I will let you leave."

There is no other way. Once a recruitment scroll is used, there is no option to return it.

Otherwise, Cao Xing would have liked to seal them back into a scroll; selling them to other Survivors would also have been a decent profit.

However, expecting Cao Xing to just let these archers go is impossible.

After all, he is no saint.

Therefore, he made the subsequent request.

The four Nightmare Court Archers' expressions flickered slightly as they exchanged glances.

One of them fixed her gaze on Isabelle and Hilda.

A moment later, an archer about 1.6 meters tall with bare feet spoke slowly.

"Respected Lord, it is not that we are unwilling to pledge our loyalty to you."

"It is only because our faith once abandoned us, even causing us to lose our lives."

"This has made us unable to easily pledge our loyalty to any other existence again…"

Hearing this, a strange look appeared in Cao Xing's eyes.

Through Isabelle's account, he did know what these Nightmare Court members had experienced.

It was indeed a bit pitiful.

But this sounded just like the kind of talk from women who had been hurt by scumbags and no longer trusted other men…

Cao Xing couldn't be bothered to say much more to them.

He said directly: "I will not interfere with your faith; I only ask you, are you willing to pledge your loyalty to me?"

Hearing this question.

The four archers looked at each other, expressions of struggle appearing in their eyes.

A moment later, they simultaneously knelt on one knee and said respectfully: "Respected Lord, we are willing to serve you…"

"We hope you will treat us well…"

Hearing this, Cao Xing nodded slightly.

"Very well. From now on, you will honestly follow my commands. I will not send you to your deaths, understand?"

"Understood, My Lord…"

The four archers replied again.

It was clear that they were not that resistant to pledging loyalty to Cao Xing.

It was just due to their personalities that they didn't like to talk much.

"Now, tell me your names."

After hearing Cao Xing's command.

They spoke slowly.

"Mengma, Menglita, Mengluosi, Mengna…"

They remained sparing with their words, saying nothing more after introducing themselves.

Cao Xing didn't ask further, but instead checked their attributes.

[Nightmare Court Archer: Mengma]

[Race: Dream Spirit Clan]

[Level: 26 (Tier 3 Elite Creature)]

[Health: 20139 / 20139]

[Attack: 1123 ~ 1183]

[Armor: 214 ~ 237]

[Skills: Nightmare Arrow (All arrows carry a Nightmare aura; when hitting an enemy, there is a 30% chance to cause them to fall into a Sleep state, waking upon taking damage.) Nightmare Entanglement (Fires an arrow carrying Nightmare Vines, immobilizing the enemy for 1~3 seconds and applying 3 stacks of Nightmare Mark, cooldown 40 seconds) Summon Nightmare Hound (Summons two Nightmare Hounds to assist in battle, inheriting 80% of the caster's attributes. Nightmare Hounds possess skills like Nightmare Bite and Nightmare Dash, lasting 180 seconds, cooldown 5 minutes)]

[Talent 1: Dream Spirit Clan (Max Health increased by 20%, 20% increased chance to be immune to control skills)]

[Talent 2: Nightmare Mark (Every attack hitting an enemy adds 1 stack of Nightmare Mark. Upon reaching 10 stacks, the enemy falls into a 1~5 second Sleep state, and a random skill of the enemy is sealed, making it unusable for 30 seconds)]

[Bond: When 10 Nightmare Court Archers are acting simultaneously, attack speed increases by 20% At 20, Attack increases by 20% At 50, movement speed increases by 30% At 100, activates additional skill: Nightmare Invasion]

[Satiety: 68]

[Loyalty: 56]

(Description: Former member of the Nightmare Court combat team, possessing rich combat experience.)

[Nightmare Court Archer: Menglita]

[Race: Dream Spirit Clan]

[Level: 25 (Tier 3 Common Creature)]

[Health: 13872 / 13872]

[Attack: 764 ~ 797]

[Armor: 162 ~ 178]

[Skills: Nightmare Arrow, Nightmare Entanglement]

[Talent 1: Dream Spirit Clan]

[Talent 2: Nightmare Mark]

[Satiety: 71]

[Loyalty: 55]

After reviewing the attributes of the four Nightmare Court Archers.

Cao Xing nodded secretly.

They looked quite good; while balancing damage, they also had control effects.

After thinking for a moment, Cao Xing said directly: "Then, Mengma, Mengna… welcome to the team."

"According to our territory's customs, we bestow blessings upon newcomers, granting you powerful strength."

Although the loyalty of these Nightmare Court Archers was not high.

According to Cao Xing's habits, he wouldn't normally apply various statuses to creatures with such low loyalty.

But they were currently in the high-level map, [Witch Forest].

These archers' health was not high.

It was to avoid them getting one-shot when they ventured deeper into the forest to deal with powerful monsters later.

Under the puzzled gazes of these archers,

Cao Xing called over Liu Muxue, Tong Chuchu, Blot, and Hilda to apply the statuses to them.

As streams of powerful status effects descended into the archers' bodies.

Their eyes, which had always been in a state of slumber, slowly opened!

At the same time, they were filled with intense surprise!

"This is… what a miraculous power this is…"

"Gods above! How was this done?"

The archer named Mengma was incredibly astonished.

Elisa stepped forward and said triumphantly: "Hmph! You know how impressive it is now, right?"

"This is our Lord's power!"

"Previously, only those who contributed to our territory could enjoy such a blessing."

"You should be grateful for our Lord's mercy!"

Hearing this, the four Nightmare Court Archers exchanged glances, knowing that what Elisa said was true.

How could a blessing capable of surpassing the gods be casually bestowed upon others under normal circumstances?

At this moment, they all knelt on one knee.

"Thank you, merciful Lord. Your power is so great and vast…"

[Because you helped her improve her strength, territory member: Mengma's loyalty has increased. Current loyalty: 62]

[Because you helped her improve her strength, territory member: Menglita's loyalty has increased. Current loyalty: 64]

[Because you…]

Four system notifications appeared.

Cao Xing's expression remained unchanged, but he was secretly delighted in his heart.

"As expected, Eternal Power reigns above all else; no matter the faith of any god, it will be dispersed by Eternal Power."

"Even difficult people like Hilda and Isabelle could be raised to 80 or 90 loyalty by me; surely I can handle these Dream Spirit Clan members?"

Thinking of this, Cao Xing said casually: "Alright, go join the team now. From now on, you will follow Renice and Elisa."

The four archers simultaneously looked at the two women in Cao Xing's team who carried bows and arrows.

Elisa, who was beside them, heard this and said: "Hmph! You will be following me from now on. I will teach you some of the territory's etiquette!"

"Let's start with how to address us."

"From now on, you must call Sister Renice 'Captain' and call me 'Little Captain' Elisa. Understand?"

The four archers exchanged glances, then said somewhat awkwardly: "Yes, Little… Little Captain…"

Hearing their address, Elisa laughed triumphantly.

A smile also appeared on the corner of Cao Xing's mouth.

Having a lively girl like Elisa to train these four taciturn archers was a good thing.

At this moment, Cao Xing took out a bright red crystal from his backpack.

It was the [Advanced Heart of Strength] that dropped after killing that Piranha Flower leader.

He continued by handing it to Andrew.

Andrew didn't say much, but secretly decided in his heart that he must succeed this time.

He crushed the power crystal directly, and the pure red power flowed into his body.

Everyone waited silently for a while.

Three minutes later.

An ancient and powerful aura rose from Andrew's body.

Everyone cast their gazes over, looking at him with anticipation.

The next moment, a system notification appeared…

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