Chapter 86: Slaying the Serpent King and Clearing the Serpent's Lair Dungeon

At this moment, the Crow Warriors had already soared above the Serpent King's head, assailing it with their razor-sharp talons. Some of the Crow Warriors climbed high into the air, then dived down, their keen beaks aimed straight at the Serpent King. The Serpent King retreated swiftly, attempting to evade the airborne onslaught.

Suddenly, a streak of gray light descended upon its head. Instantly, the Serpent King let out a blood-curdling scream. The gray radiance enveloped it, forming a cursed sigil on its body. In a flash, the Serpent King’s movements slowed to a crawl.

Skill: Curse!

Yang Feng had joined the fray, casting his curse upon the Serpent King and interrupting its desperate attempts to escape. The Crow Warriors closed in, launching a ferocious assault.

Skill: Arrow of Feathers!

The Serpent King’s defenses were a far cry from the Dark Python’s resilience. Under the relentless attacks of the Crow Warriors, it suffered grievous wounds in an instant. The Serpent King thrashed about madly, its massive tail sweeping from side to side. At the same time, streams of green liquid spewed from its jaws.

Skill: Venom!

The Serpent King’s venom was fiercely corrosive. When it landed on a Crow Warrior, a crackling sound erupted, accompanied by wisps of white smoke. Soon, Yang Feng sensed that his Crow Warriors were being injured by the venom.

“It seems I must finish off this Serpent King quickly!” Yang Feng thought to himself.

The Crow Warriors’ attacks grew even fiercer, while Yang Feng continued to hurl fireballs at the Serpent King. Its wounds deepened, and at last, it let out a final, anguished cry. The Serpent King curled its entire body inward, then opened its mouth wide and exhaled a massive cloud of poisonous gas.

Skill: Poisonous Miasma!

In an instant, the entire cavern was shrouded in poison. The Crow Warriors inhaled the noxious fumes and tumbled to the ground one after another. Clearly, the potency of this poison was not to be underestimated. With the Crow Warriors incapacitated, the Serpent King lunged straight for Yang Feng.

One Crow Warrior shot in front of Yang Feng, taking to the air to shield him from the Serpent King’s assault. As the poisonous miasma dissipated, the Crow Warriors surged forward once more.

Though all the Crow Warriors were wounded, their fighting spirit remained undiminished. Yang Feng paid little heed to their injuries. Inside the cave, the sounds of battle rang out afresh, mingled with the Serpent King’s intermittent shrieks of agony.

Suddenly, the Serpent King unleashed a piercing scream. From the surrounding caves, countless ordinary venomous snakes slithered out. There were thousands of them, forming a dense, writhing mass. The Serpent King, like a true monarch, commanded its legion of snakes.

Faced with this spectacle, Yang Feng showed no hint of anxiety. Instead, a faintly triumphant smile appeared on his lips. “Since you are so eager to court death, I shall oblige you!”

He hurled a giant fireball, instantly blasting one of the snakes to pieces.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Explosion after explosion echoed through the cavern, shaking it to its foundations. Yang Feng unleashed a hundred fireballs in total, exhausting all of his mental energy before the tumult finally ceased. The Serpent King was left drenched in blood, barely clinging to life.

The Serpent King could not fathom what had just happened—how had it ended up so gravely injured? Then, the Crow Warriors surged forward, swarming it in a final assault.

[Congratulations! You have slain the Serpent King. Experience +200,000.]
[You have obtained a Silver-grade weapon: Serpent Longsword.]
[You have obtained the Serpent King's Demonic Core!]
[Serpent Longsword: Silver-grade weapon, Speed +50, exclusive for Swordsmen, usable by classes under level 25.]

“When I entered this instance, my experience was at zero. Now it’s at ninety percent,” Yang Feng mused. “Clearing a complete instance once yields ninety percent of the experience bar. But fully clearing the instance is a terrible waste of time—it took me a whole ninety minutes. There’s no way to break the speed record this way!”

“It seems I’ll have to run it again, rushing straight through. Only then can I set a new star-rated record and earn more points and contribution.”

Yang Feng exited the instance. After more than an hour, the instance hall was nearly empty—nothing like the time when he’d broken the record and crowds of thousands had gathered.

“Hey there, you’re finally out! Did you manage to clear the instance?”

“It’s all right if you didn’t!” another classmate chimed in. “There are just too many snakes in the Serpent Cave—no one could possibly kill them all alone!”

Everyone present was a student at Tsinghua-Beida University. You never knew when you might team up for an instance, so people were generally friendly on campus.

Yang Feng replied, “Thank you all, but I’ve already cleared the instance.”

“Really? You actually cleared it?” someone asked in astonishment.

Yang Feng nodded. “It’s true—I’ve cleared it.”

“You’re amazing! You managed to solo the Serpent Cave on hard mode!”

“Everyone knows the Serpent Cave yields a ton of experience, but it’s also incredibly difficult. With that many snakes, only a mage like you could pull it off!”

Zhang Yishu, seeing Yang Feng unharmed, breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad you’re all right.”

Yang Feng happened to have a question for her. Turning to Zhang Yishu, he asked, “Do you know which other instances give out more experience?”

He had assumed that the higher the instance level, the more experience he would earn. But now he realized that wasn’t always the case. The Dark Marsh and the Serpent Cave were about the same level, yet the Serpent Cave yielded much more experience. And now that he was familiar with the instance, his next run would only be faster.

Zhang Yishu replied, “The Serpent Cave is an excellent place to level up. For instances under level 25, the Serpent Cave gives the most experience.”

Although the experience from ordinary snakes wasn’t high individually, the sheer number of them made for an impressive total.

Suddenly, Zhang Yishu added, “But in my opinion, unless you’re chasing points, the Serpent Cave’s experience isn’t that outstanding.”

Yang Feng pondered her words for a moment and quickly understood her point. There was a lot of experience, yes—but that was because there were so many monsters. Clearing them all took time.

This run had taken him over an hour. It looked like a big haul, but the time spent was twice that of the Dark Marsh. Yang Feng could clear the Dark Marsh in under thirty minutes. The time it took him to clear the Serpent Cave would have allowed for three runs through the Dark Marsh. In the same amount of time, the Dark Marsh actually yielded more experience than the Serpent Cave.