Xiao Jie glanced at the poem and immediately realized that it was likely a word puzzle. It seems that getting into this Painting Realm would take some effort.
"Everyone, take a look at the poem on the painting. Do you have any clues?"
"No need to worry, I’ve already solved it. Just waiting for you all to come."
Chen Tianwen spoke, and who knew what he did, but his character gently waved his hand towards the painting. Immediately, a ripple of white light appeared, and the scenery in the painting became vivid and lifelike.
Even the trees and plants on the desolate mountain swayed with the wind, just like a 3D painting.
"Please," Chen Tianwen said, leading the way inside.
The group followed each other in and entered the painting.
Xiao Jie was the last to enter. Before going in, he first used the Time Swapping, leaving an invisible Teleportation Gate in the village’s open space.
Upon entering the painting, they were faced with a sky-piercing peak. A steep path twisted upwards, leading to the top of the mountain, which was surrounded by numerous bones scattered everywhere, even on the path.
The scene was a bit eerie, but Xiao Jie wasn’t bothered. Instead, he looked towards the mountain peak’s top, relieved to find no ’Immortal’ present there.
"The Magic Altar should be at the top of the mountain. Let’s go up, be careful, these bones seem suspicious."
Indeed, not far along the mountain path, they encountered some skeletal remains. As soon as they got close, the skeletons twitched and stood up.
Holding rusted swords, spears in their hands, and donning tattered armor, they advanced towards the group.
There was no doubt these were the defenses set up by Wang Xie.
Just as the Great Wilderness Hermit was about to act, Xiao Jie said, "Hermit, save your strength. We’ll deal with these minions, and you take care of Wang Xie later — Cheng Xian, lead the way!"
I Want to Be Immortal responded and immediately charged ahead. Among the group, he was the only Heavy Armor Unit and belonged to the Divine Profession, making him the most suitable to deal with these Undead Minions.
Demon-suppressing Spirit Light!
Giant Spirit Embodiment!
In an instant, he transformed into a three-meter tall Golden Armored Giant, radiating Divine Light. As he approached, the Corpse Soldiers showed fear and hesitated to move. I Want to Be Immortal wasted no words, swung his Dragon Bone Hammer, and instantly shattered bones, breaking tendons.
It was a one-sided slaughter.
They easily cleared a path up the mountain.
They ascended to the peak in one breath, with no more bones around. Then, I Want to Be Immortal withdrew his magical form.
Xiao Jie surveyed the surroundings. On the peak was a spacious platform, with a massive Magic Altar standing in the center.
The altar had seven layers, with flags at its four corners. These flags did not display star patterns or the Five Elements Eight Trigrams, but rather strange runes.
They were the runes from the Demon Talismans, indeed.
As expected, just as he had hypothesized, this must be where Wang Xie planned to activate the Demon Talisman Formation.
Suddenly, Bai Ze exclaimed, "Hey, look at the sky, there’s a scene!"
Everyone looked up. Previously, they hadn’t seen anything from below. Now, standing at the mountain peak’s edge — in the very spot where the Immortal in the painting was portrayed — they looked towards the direction of the pavilion in the sky. Sure enough, a scene appeared, but it wasn’t the Heavenly Palace Immortal Court; it was the scene inside the Ten Extremes Formation instead.
This was a live broadcast!
Xiao Jie understood, realizing he had guessed correctly. When the battle reached a critical moment, Wang Xie would surely teleport here to execute his plan.
This ’illusion’ before them must have been designed for him to monitor the battlefield and facilitate spell-casting.
Examining the scene, at that moment, the army led by the Five True People had just entered the formation and had yet to confront Long Wushang and Wang Xie, indicating a little time remained.
Xiao Jie said in YY, "Okay everyone, listen up, I’m going to lay out the strategy now."
Everyone perked up, listening intently.
Xiao Jie glanced at them, took a deep breath — it was impossible not to feel nervous. This battle would be an unprecedented challenge in his gaming experience: a Level 58 World BOSS, with a potential risk of a team wipe.
If it weren’t for the massive benefits and the importance to Ascension to Immortality, he truly wouldn’t take this risk.
Of course, his confidence in his gaming experience was the main factor.
Based on Xiao Jie’s past experiences running a studio, leading guild teams to conquer numerous instance BOSSes, and his recent gaming journey in Old Soil.
Xiao Jie had quite a bit of confidence in taking down Wang Xie.
"Based on my observations so far, Wang Xie’s combat ability will be extremely powerful. However, like any strong BOSS in a game, as long as we have the right strategy, coordinated teamwork, and a strong enough team, we have a chance of victory.
The biggest weakness of a Magic System BOSS is low defensive power and resilience. Considering Wang Xie is a standard humanoid BOSS, his base resilience should be like a normal humanoid monster.
Theoretically, as long as we can continuously apply control effects, we can control him to death.
Of course, given he’s a World BOSS, he might have system-provided traits like domineering body, immune control, resilience, etc., so we must prepare for the worst-case scenario.
Thus, the upcoming BOSS battle could have three possibilities.
In the first scenario, if Wang Xie is susceptible to control and interruption, the BOSS battle will be very straightforward: we just need to take turns using control skills while everyone else goes all out with damage output, easily taking him down. No matter how powerful Wang Xie’s spells are, if he can’t cast them, they are useless.