System: "New map [Demon Forest] unlocked, Chosen Ones are welcome to come and challenge it!"

...

"It’s open, it’s open!"

"Captain, hurry up and enter the map."

"Boss, Divine Armor, here I come."

"I wonder if any of these bosses still have first kills available!"

"Even if there’s no first-kill boss they’ll still drop big, just be content."

"Yeah! We’ve been in the game for over half a year and still haven’t killed a boss."

...

When [Demon Forest] officially opened, players from all the battle zones across the World surged toward the Teleportation Array like they’d gone mad.

As the white light in the Teleportation Array Plaza of each Main City flashed nonstop, the plazas that had been packed to bursting gradually became empty in just a short while.

System: "Do you wish to choose [High-level Map Lv60→Lv79]? Please select:"

[Confirm] Times: 3 [Cancel]

Looking at the options in front of him, the captain, Shiyu, selected [Confirm] without the slightest hesitation.

Immediately after, the team interface began to flash:

Lemon Bunny Lv61[]

Red Eyes Lv63[]

Famous Clan Handsome-as-Hell Lv65[]

Heaven’s Gift Lv62[]

Stable as a mountain Lv62[]

Little Bean Sprout Lv60[]

Shiyu Lv62[]

Zhan Chen Lv63[]

Xiao He Lv60[]

Yuna Lv64[]

(10/10[])

System: "Establishing spacetime channel, please wait..."

Right after that, everyone felt a sudden sense of weightlessness wash over them.

This was a sensation they had never experienced before.

Normally, when you chose Teleportation, you’d arrive at your destination almost in the blink of an eye.

But this time, they remained in that weightless feeling for nearly ten seconds before their vision brightened.

When their consciousness returned to their bodies, a damp, decaying stench rushed toward them.

Once they truly appeared in [Demon Forest], the expressions on their faces were nowhere near as excited as at the start.

After scanning the surroundings, Xiao He couldn’t help saying:

"So this is the Nine Nether Continent?"

"Doesn’t seem that different from the [Dark Forest] outside Black Tortoise City."

Handsome-as-Hell glanced at the dark, damp dense forest around them and nodded in deep agreement:

"It’s just a pity Boss Feng didn’t come."

"Otherwise I wanted Boss Feng to take us around the city for a bit."

Heaven’s Gift suddenly chimed in:

"Forget it."

"I’m guessing that now that we’re here, we won’t even be able to step out of this forest, let alone enter the city."

All of a sudden, Yuna said:

"Stop chatting, something’s coming."

When they heard that, everyone’s hearts gave a jolt:

"Is the boss coming?"

"Yo-ho, we’ve got work."

"I really want to see what the Demons of the Nine Nether Continent look like."

Yuna turned to look at the thicket of brambles to the side, her expression solemn:

"Over here."

Sure enough, in the next instant, a ferocious giant beast appeared before them with a roar:

[Demon] Three-eyed Golden Spirit King Lv75

Golden BOSS

Life Value: 69,000,000/69,000,000

With the appearance of the boss, everyone instantly entered combat mode.

Heaven’s Gift and Red Eyes exchanged a smile.

Then Heaven’s Gift let out a strange yell:

"Time to work!"

Right after, the two of them entered Stealth almost simultaneously and vanished.

Zhang Xinying immediately began buffing everyone, seven-colored radiance adding a touch of enchanting color to this eerie forest.

Shiyu and Stable as a mountain raised their Large Shields and charged the boss one in front, one behind.

The tacit understanding they’d built up over a long time was displayed to the fullest in this moment.

Facing a boss whose strength far surpassed theirs, this ten-man squad functioned like a precise machine; even without anyone calling the shots, they could still unleash one hundred and twenty percent of their power.

Just like countless other players, a battle spanning two planes was being staged in every corner of [Demon Forest].

As hundreds of millions of players poured into Demon Forest, around its borders countless native inhabitants were also charging into the Demon Forest, lured by Magic Equipment.

While everyone was immersed in the freshness brought by the new map, Lin Yi was standing on Bone Dragon Guderian’s head, staring in shock at the gigantic island slowly rising from the seafloor, his voice almost distorted:

"This is [Paradise Island]?"

Paradise Island?

Right now Lin Yi felt the sight before his eyes should be called [Hell] instead.

When Lin Yi first heard the words [Paradise Island], he’d imagined more than once what a beautiful, magnificent island it would be.

Lin Yi didn’t expect this island to deliver the same unparalleled impact as the Floating City.

But at the very least, it should be like Dragon Island—unique, with its own characteristics and full of vitality.

Yet what he saw now... it wasn’t just different from what he’d imagined; the two had absolutely nothing in common.

When Fu Bai, beside Lin Yi, nodded, Lin Yi finally confirmed he wasn’t dreaming.

Watching an endless island slowly rise from the ocean right in front of you—anyone could imagine how spectacular that scene should have been.

But when Lin Yi learned that this island was the [Paradise Island] once inhabited by the Celestials, an indescribable emotion spread through his heart.

Unlike the island in his mind, with coconut groves and birds singing among fragrant flowers, this island before him was better described not as an "island" but as "Hell."

This [Paradise Island] that Lin Yi had placed such high hopes on had, at this moment, become a vast expanse of scorched earth.

On this scorched earth lay row upon row of flattened houses and scorch marks left by raging flames.

Mountains and rivers had long since dried up, utterly destroyed.

As Lin Yi looked around, he couldn’t find a single thing that still looked intact, not even a single blade of grass.

An extremely oppressive aura was shrouding the sky over the entire island.

It was hard to imagine what this place had gone through to end up like this.

Wasn’t it said that the Celestials were the strongest race on the Rafam Continent?

Since they were already the strongest, Lin Yi was very curious: what kind of upheaval could make the strongest race vanish overnight?

At first, Lin Yi had thought they might have left this plane and gone to another one because of some mission.

Encountering the Celestial "Gonggong" on the Nine Nether Continent seemed to support that theory.

But after seeing this deathly silent island, Lin Yi immediately overturned his previous guess.

Looking down from high above, Lin Yi could tell that [Paradise Island] was extremely vast.

Even from the sky, he still couldn’t see its borders.

At this moment, Lin Yi suddenly asked the question he cared about most:

"When will this place open?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, a slovenly old man appeared next to him and replied in a shockingly concise way:

"Tomorrow!"