Chapter 329: In-Depth Exploration and Research on the Female Nightmare (6200)

Chapter 329: In-Depth Exploration and Research on the Female Nightmare (6200)

Cao Xing was delighted. "So this is the treasured item of the weapon shop."

"Not bad, not bad, but now it's mine, haha!"

He stepped forward directly and took down the shield.

"Clang!"

The heavy shield was held in his hand.

He glanced at its attributes.

[Holy Radiance Great Shield (Gold)]

[Quality: Precious]

[Level: 40+]

[Equipment: 847~893]

[Special Effect ①: Spirit +300, Constitution +300, Health +10000, Agility -300]

[Special Effect ②: Advanced Block (Increases block chance by 40%)]

[Special Effect ③: Descent of Holy Radiance (Activates the phantom of a two-winged angel on the shield, granting all friendly units within a 100-meter radius a powerful blessing, increasing maximum health by 20000, and instantly restoring 20% of friendly units' health, lasting 60 seconds, cooldown: 30 minutes)]

(Equipment Description: A shield once used by the strongest knight of the Ice Crystal Kingdom, 'Reyna'. In battle, he raised the shield high, and all soldiers followed the guidance of the holy radiance, invincible!)

…

Seeing the attributes above, a look of shock gradually appeared in Cao Xing's eyes.

"Good heavens, the special effects of this shield are quite powerful, directly increasing maximum health by 20,000!"

"If this were applied to a first or second-tier soldier, wouldn't their health multiply several times?"

"Although it's only a gold shield, these attributes are truly terrifying!"

No wonder it could become the treasured item of the shop!

Moreover, the special effects of this shield can also be amplified by [Eternal Power].

Cao Xing could totally use it to apply the effect to those goblins and Arctic People.

Combined with their terrifying recovery ability, they would be impossible to kill!

Thinking of this, Cao Xing satisfiedly put it into his backpack, planning to equip it on Liu Muxue once he went out.

Then, he cleared out all the other weapons in the entire shop.

[Obtained: Obsidian Knight War Boots (Purple)]

[Obtained…]

…

Looking at the pile of equipment in his backpack, Cao Xing nodded in satisfaction.

"Not bad, not bad. In this weapon shop, all the weapons plus those notes are worth at least over ten million crowns!"

"Worthy of a big city, the first shop already gave me quite a harvest!"

This made him even more eager for the upcoming plundering!

After confirming there was nothing else in this shop, he returned the same way and jumped out the window.

And swaggered out, continuing to wander around the city.

Soon, he set his sights on the second shop.

It read [Liesel's Secret Medicine Shop].

Same old routine.

First, he entered the alley, then jumped in through the nearby shutters.

Steadying himself, he saw that the various cabinets inside had fallen all over the floor.

Obviously, this shop had already been searched once.

Looking at the broken glass bottles on the ground and the dried remnants of secret medicines.

Cao Xing sighed, "What a waste!"

"These secret medicines must be worth a lot of money."

He shook his head.

He didn't find anything useful here.

He directly jumped out the window and continued searching for targets in the city.

He had to admit, this feeling of plundering under the enemy's nose was really thrilling!

Cao Xing walked along, taking in the sights.

He saw many shops that were rarely seen normally.

Such as [Harness Shop], [Timber Shop], [Spice Shop], [Candle Shop], etc…

As the names suggested, these shops sold various specialized items.

Although they seemed inconspicuous, they actually contained daily necessities for the people.

Accumulated over time, the monthly tax revenue they generated was astonishing.

This was also the scene that a commercially mature city should have.

Cao Xing thought of his own territory.

Compared to Lake Doron City, it could only be described as miserable.

Not only did it lack a variety of buildings, but it also lacked a complete commercial system.

But he was not discouraged.

After all, he had only been in this world for a little over a month, and his territory was already approaching town level.

If other Survivors were to progress to Cao Xing's current territory level, it would be impossible without three to five years.

So, as long as he maintained this speed of development.

It wouldn't be long before his territory could absolutely reach the level of Lake Doron City, or even become more prosperous!

Of course, Cao Xing didn't let these inconspicuous shops go either.

He went into each one and cleared out everything inside.

He collected some miscellaneous items that were currently useless, such as saddles, horseshoes, spices, etc…

Various messy materials directly occupied two slots of backpack space.

Of course, just because they were useless now didn't mean they would be later.

If all else failed, Cao Xing could also sell them all at a general store in another city, which would still be a considerable income.

After removing the miscellaneous items, there were the crowns.

Cao Xing tallied it up.

In these seven or eight shops.

He had accumulated [Coins * 1.74 million].

Plus 9 [Kadina Money Shop Universal Notes], worth 4.8 million.

Cao Xing said joyfully, "Although it's much less than the harvest from that weapon shop, it's still not bad."

"After all, the few shops combined took less than twenty minutes."

He was in need of money right now.

After all, after the Divine Altar was upgraded, it activated the function for warriors to break through from the fourth to the fifth tier.

This required a massive amount of resources.

And just then, Cao Xing arrived at an area that interested him.

It looked like just an ordinary alley.

However, there was a faint magical fluctuation coming from inside.

"Hmm? Is it a special area of Lake Doron City?"

With some curiosity, Cao Xing followed this alley all the way in.

When he reached the end, a wall appeared in front of him.

He seemed to have walked into a dead end.

However, under Cao Xing's [True Sight Eye], he immediately discovered that the wall in front of him was fake.

Behind this wall, there was a hidden path.

"Interesting, it's indeed a hidden area, even the Church of Light didn't discover this place."

"Or did they discover it but not care?"

Without hesitation, Cao Xing continued forward.

At the end of the passage, a small house appeared.

There seemed to be a light still on inside…

Cao Xing narrowed his eyes.

"Oh? Could there be living people inside?"

Maintaining a cautious mindset, he came to the door and listened carefully.

There was no sound from inside, nor did he sense any presence.

After a pause, he simply pushed the door open.

"Creak!"

The first thing that caught his eye was an ordinary house, with tables and chairs scattered all over the floor.

The only difference from an ordinary residential house was that he saw a corpse on the ground.

From its features, it should be a woman, but it was different from a normal woman.

Her body was very tall, unusually tall, almost as tall as the half-giant Putana.

However, compared to Putana's muscular build, her figure was more seductive.

At this moment, she was half-lying on the ground, clothes disheveled, and one could see her snow-white thighs and half-exposed rounded buttocks at a glance.

However, Cao Xing had no other thoughts.

Because he saw that this woman had a pair of curved horns on her head, and her feet were not normal female legs, but a pair of goat hooves!

"Good heavens, what kind of monster is this?"

Cao Xing glanced at it.

[Female Nightmare Melanie Kirkland]

(Note: A Nightmare hiding in Lake Doron City, who usually targets the opposite sex in the city. Many nobles in the city are investigating her identity. If you can capture her, you can go to the City Guard to claim the bounty.)

…

"So that's it, this is a Nightmare disguised in the city, but ended up dying in the Church of Light's city massacre."

Nightmares are different from demons.

Nightmares are considered a low-level creature.

They cannot have the rebirth ability like demons, and their combat power is also very weak.

It is said that this creature often appears at night, carrying endless desires, and every night brings home a different person of the opposite sex.

Then squeezes them dry.

Cao Xing looked at the seductive corpse on the ground and immediately reached out his hand.

He turned it over.

Instantly, a face with standard Western female features, slightly demonic, appeared before Cao Xing.

Even though there was no life fluctuation anymore, her lips were still blood-red, revealing white and sharp teeth, making one shudder.

Cao Xing's gaze fell on her neck, where he saw a string of keys.

Then he directly pulled it off.

[Obtained: Key to the Nightmare Cabin]

…

"Hmm? Since there's a key, there should be a locked place, right?"

He continued to scan the surroundings.

Sure enough, he found a small wooden door in the corner of the first floor.

But the door was tightly closed, with a large lock hanging on it.

"It seems this key is used to open this door."

Without hesitation, Cao Xing walked directly to the small wooden door.

As the key was inserted.

"Click!"

The large lock opened.

Cao Xing directly pushed the door open.

[You have entered a hidden area, Nightmare Cabin…]

…

"Indeed, a hidden area."

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

This world is full of opportunities and unknowns, and many places have puzzle-solving elements.

If you explore carefully, you will find many places different from usual.

For example, some basements hidden in villages, mysterious shops in a corner of the city, tree holes in the forest, etc…

These places will present some difficulties when entering.

Find the clues, solve the puzzle, and you can enter.

And each hidden area may have something special.

This also made Cao Xing slightly expectant.

He looked around and found that it looked like an ordinary room.

A simple bed, a quilt, and a pillow.

A faint scent of perfume came from the room.

Cao Xing began to rummage through everything.

[Obtained: Lace Underwear *1]

[Obtained: Maid Uniform *1]

[Obtained: Leather Whip *2]

[Obtained: Iron Collar *5]

[Obtained…]

…

His mouth twitched.

"Damn, worthy of a female Nightmare, playing really wild."

After rummaging around, he didn't get anything useful.

This made him lose some interest.

And just then, he saw a book on the bedside table.

He reached out and picked it up.

[Obtained Book: In-Depth Exploration and Research on the Female Nightmare]

…

He glanced at its attributes.

[Book: In-Depth Exploration and Research on the Female Nightmare]

[Book Attributes: After reading, increases Spirit by 10, increases mental resistance to Female Nightmares by 5%]

[Reading Time Required: 12 hours 13 minutes…]

[Click to Read]

…

Cao Xing directly clicked to read.

After flipping through it, he roughly understood what kind of creature a female Nightmare is.

[part:gemini-3.5-flash-lite]

This is a kind of beast of desire that can lure people into an endless vortex of desire.

Of course, the Female Night Demon doesn't take people's lives, but rather sucks dry your power.

Those who are bold enough can go and try it out.

Cao Xing shook his head and muttered inwardly: "Is this all the loot from this hidden area?"

"It shouldn't be just this, right?"

After carefully checking again, Cao Xing actually discovered some unexpected loot.

Under the bed, he saw a hidden compartment that looked like a drawer.

He pulled it straight out.

Inside the drawer were two glass bottles filled with a flowing pink liquid that exuded an aura of mist.

Cao Xing picked up the potions.

[Obtained: Female Night Demon's Demonic Flame Potion (Orange) * 2]

…

In an instant, his pupils constricted.

"Good grief! It's actually an epic-quality potion, and there are two full bottles!"

This was his first time obtaining an epic-quality secret medicine.

With a sense of anticipation, he checked the attributes.

[Female Night Demon's Demonic Flame Potion (Orange)]

[Quality: Epic]

[Potion Effect: After use, it causes any creature (beast, human, non-human) to enter a state of burning desire. It can affect targets below Level 80 at most, and the potion effect will last for 12 hours]

(Note: A secret medicine refined by the Female Night Demon by collecting the desires in the hearts of a large number of living beings. Just a single drop can ignite an endless fire of desire in a person's heart.)

…

Seeing the attributes of this thing, the corners of Cao Xing's mouth twitched,

"Damn, isn't this just an aphrodisiac?"

"This effect is truly outrageous! It can actually affect Level 80 beings, and it lasts for a full 12 hours."

"Who the hell can withstand this?"

Although he said that, Cao Xing still directly put it into his backpack.

After all, it was still an epic-quality secret medicine; who knows when it might come in handy.

By this point, the things inside this Night Demon Cabin had almost been completely looted by Cao Xing.

Although he didn't obtain coins or other resources.

But overall, the harvest was still very good.

After all, just those two bottles of secret medicine couldn't be measured with money.

Then, he turned around and left this secret room.

And when Cao Xing reached the doorway, he discovered that something was missing from the floor.

The Female Night Demon, who had just been lying on the ground with her clothes half-undone, had vanished into thin air!

The door at the entrance was wide open, as if some creature had escaped!

Cao Xing narrowed his eyes.

"Oh? Did this night demon resurrect, or did her corpse spring back to life?"

At this moment, Cao Xing remembered.

The information displayed by the system earlier didn't say that this Female Night Demon was dead; it only displayed the other party's name.

"Interesting, a Female Night Demon that knows how to play dead?"

Cao Xing chuckled.

He wasn't worried at all.

Although the other party ran away.

But that Female Night Demon's strength wasn't strong; otherwise, she wouldn't have been hiding here.

Furthermore, Cao Xing wasn't worried that the other party would expose his identity upon seeing him.

After all, he maintained a disguised state throughout the entire process, always acting under the identity of a white-robed priest.

A white-robed priest entering your house, what does that have to do with me, Cao?

Thus, Cao Xing swaggered out.

Then he continued along the street, looting those shops!

Once again obtaining quite a bit of resources.

Among them were over 700,000 crowns, plus 3 million in commercial bank notes.

And up until now.

Cao Xing had entered the city for less than half an hour!

The combined earnings had already exceeded 20 million!

"Haha, this is a money-making speed even faster than a printing press!"

Moreover, because of his identity as a white-robed priest, those cultists wouldn't put up any obstruction at all when they saw him.

Therefore, he was almost unimpeded, able to go wherever he wanted!

But very soon, Cao Xing faded the smile on his face.

He muttered inwardly: "I still need to act low-key. After all, it has been confirmed that there are three red-robed bishops in this city."

"I don't know the strength of these red-robed bishops yet. If they exceed me by 20 levels, the other party will be able to see through my disguise."

Thinking of this, Cao Xing continued to search for other targets to strike.

He had almost searched the outer street from end to end.

Soon, Cao Xing arrived at the location of the second block.

The first thing that came into view was a tall, luxurious building with as many as three floors.

The floor height was close to twenty meters.

This building was situated in the exact center area of the street, covering an area of at least five or six hundred square meters.

It was equivalent to a T-shaped entrance intersection.

One could imagine how terrifying the human traffic here used to be.

This was a rather luxurious location, and anyone who could open a shop here definitely had extraordinary skills and background.

There was a plaque on the building, with four large characters written in vigorous and powerful fonts.

[Phantom Dream Tavern]

"Oh? So this is a tavern?"

"As expected of a big city; even a tavern is built so luxuriously, with quite a lot of swagger."

Cao Xing narrowed his eyes, his gaze already locked onto this tavern.

Still the old method: first enter the alley next to it and look for a place to get in.

Soon, he found a window.

Pushing open the window directly, Cao Xing jumped in.

After landing steadily, a whiff of wine aroma mixed with the smell of blood wafted into the tip of his nose.

There was no light inside the tavern, making it look very dim.

Cao Xing took out the magical energy torch from his backpack.

In an instant, the blue light dispelled the surrounding darkness, illuminating the scene inside the tavern.

Just as expected.

The space on the first floor was very large, and many areas were set up inside.

There was a stage area and an audience area.

Among them, a VIP area and a regular area were also separated.

However, the tables and chairs inside had all been overturned, presenting a scattered scene.

It was evident that when the incident happened in Lake Doron City, there were still many people making merry here.

But before they could even react, they were directly sacrificed as offerings.

Looking at the empty tavern, the corners of Cao Xing's mouth curled into a smile.

"Very good, now everything inside this tavern belongs to me!"

As an entity that often did this kind of thing, Cao Xing could be said to be full of experience.

He went straight to the bar counter of the tavern and began rummaging through boxes and cabinets.

After a bout of fussing, he rummaged out a large pile of crowns and keys to many rooms from the counter drawer.

[Obtained: Coins * 72318]

[Obtained: Phantom Dream Tavern Guest Room Key * 24]

…

Taking another glance at the wine cabinet behind him, there were many sealed alcoholic drinks inside.

Cao Xing didn't refuse any of them either, putting them all into his backpack.

[Obtained: Crafted Thorn Plum Red Wine * 2]

[Obtained: Fisherman's Fruit Red Wine * 6]

[Obtained: Spelt Wheat Beer * 7]

[Obtained…]

…

A cumulative harvest of 36 bottles of wine, value unknown.

Compared to such a large tavern, this little harvest definitely wouldn't satisfy this person surnamed Cao.

He muttered inwardly: "According to general circumstances, a tavern like this should have a basement."

"The basement is the place where the most supplies are stored."

After all, last time in that village's tavern, Cao Xing had picked up quite a few good things.

He began searching inch by inch in the first-floor area.

The Eye of True Sight constantly swept across, missing not a single corner.

Then, strangely enough, no matter how he searched around, he couldn't find any signs of a basement.

He stamped on the floor, and the sound was also very heavy.

A look of confusion appeared in Cao Xing's eyes: "Could it be that this tavern doesn't have a basement?"

"Their alcoholic drinks were transported from somewhere else?"

It wasn't that there was no such possibility.

If there really was a hidden area like a basement, under Cao Xing's meticulous exploration, it would have been exposed long ago.

However, even without a basement, Cao Xing did not give up.

After all, he still had 24 keys in his hand.

Looking at the stairs leading to the second floor in front of him, he stepped right in.

Arriving at the second floor, there were individual rooms above.

Casually coming before a room door, a plaque hung above it.

[Phantom Dream Tavern Room 1: 1 hour / 3500 crowns]

[Attendant: Sadie Romano]

[Weight: 52 kg]

[Age: 31 years old]

…

Seeing the system prompt, the corners of Cao Xing's mouth twitched.

"Damn it, this price is really expensive, 3500 crowns per hour."

Obviously, this was a place usually used by those drunkards or rich people to rest and make merry.

Cao Xing directly fished out that string of keys and found the number for Room '1'.

Inserting the key, he then pushed open the door and entered.

A simple room appeared before him, inside which was a large red bed and some wooden furniture.

Of course, there was definitely not a single person.

Cao Xing began rummaging through boxes and cabinets.

[Obtained: Coins * 7321]

[Obtained: Women's Underwear * 5]

[Obtained: Olive Essential Oil * 2]

[Obtained…]

…

They were all messy, random things.

After searching one room, Cao Xing proceeded to the next.

Soon, all the rooms on the second floor of the tavern had been searched by him.

A cumulative total of seventy to eighty thousand crowns was obtained.

Cao Xing shook his head and said: "This won't do. Such a big tavern actually only has this little stuff."

"It's way too shabby."

But fortunately, there was still a sliver of hope.

Because there was still a third floor left unlooted.

Walking straight up the steps, a corridor appeared before him once more, with twelve rooms on each side just like before.

Among them, two rooms were rather special, seeming to be at the very innermost part of the passageway.

Glancing at the first room at the entrance.

[Phantom Dream Tavern Room 13: 1 hour / 7000 crowns]

[Attendant: Sade Behrens]

[Weight: 48 kg]

[Age: 19 years old]

…

The rooms on the third floor were even more expensive, directly doubling in price.

However, the service personnel inside were also younger.

Cao Xing shook his head and quickly looted the ten outer rooms.

They were still some coins and other miscellaneous things.

Now, only two rooms remained unexplored on the entire third floor.

These were also the two most special rooms.

Cao Xing came straight to the end of the connecting corridor.

These two rooms were positioned almost directly opposite each other.

The special thing about them was that one used an exquisite carved wooden door, while the other used an iron door.

[Phantom Dream Tavern Room 23: 1 hour / 50000 crowns]

[Attendant: ???]

[Weight: ???]

[Age: ???]

…

"It actually costs fifty thousand crowns an hour, that's highway robbery!"

However, the Phantom Dream Tavern priced its services based on the figures and appearances of these women.

Since they dared to charge fifty thousand crowns an hour, it indicated that the identity of the person inside the room was probably quite special.

Furthermore, neither name nor age was listed above, which also stirred a trace of curiosity in Cao Xing's heart…