Where there is gain, there is loss.
From the very beginning, cooperating with Dragon Soul Aoshi and using this method to obtain the extremely crucial third Heart of Shadow in his possession had already been part of Lin Mo's plan.
After all, Dragon Soul Aoshi's status and standing were extraordinary. The kind of coercion and inducement tactics Lin Mo had used on Wu Gang back then were absolutely not feasible on Dragon Soul Aoshi.
What's more, Lin Mo truly needed Dragon Soul's people to help him fend off interference from the Chaotic World Guild on one hand, and to guard him on the other.
Otherwise, if Shadow City were occupied by the Chaotic World Guild, Lin Mo would still have to find a way just to enter the dungeon.
Secondly, once the level 30 Shadow Legion poured into the Shadow Holy Hall, then even if Lin Mo entered the dungeon, the first hour would probably be spent dealing with the Shadow Legion alone, leaving no chance at all to explore the dungeon.
And the Dragon Soul Guild consisted entirely of strong players ranked within the top ten thousand on Blazing Ember City's Heavenly Rankings.
With them guarding him, Lin Mo could focus on clearing the dungeon without any worries.
"Sixty percent of the rewards is enough."
"And on top of that, I get Dragon Soul's people to help me farm venom bottles for free."
Ling Xiao, Xia Wanwan, and the others could at most help Lin Mo lure monsters and pick up items. They couldn't be of much help.
But earlier, when Su Muqiu had sent dozens of Dragon Soul players to help Lin Mo farm venom bottles, that had truly been a huge help.
And Lin Mo had tasted enormous benefits from it.
So naturally, he hoped Dragon Soul's people could continue working for him.
Thus, under Lin Mo's anticipation, more than ten minutes later.
Splash! Splash! Splash! Splash!
Large amounts of white light poured into the tenth floor of the Insect Nest Underground Palace, scaring Skinny Monkey and Fat Dahai so badly that they thought Wang Junjie had brought people to attack again.
Taking a closer look, they realized the newcomers were Dragon Soul Guild players.
The two of them could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"You scared the hell out of me. I thought it was that bastard Wang Junjie again."
"Wang Junjie's mind is all on the Shadow Holy Hall dungeon right now. He probably can't spare the attention for this place."
This time, Dragon Soul clearly brought more people than last time.
By rough estimate, there were at least over two hundred.
From this, it was clear that Dragon Soul Aoshi was even more anxious than Lin Mo.
He wanted Lin Mo to gather the full Venom Set and enter the dungeon as soon as possible.
Following Dragon Soul Aoshi's orders, over two hundred elite Dragon Soul players, averaging around level 23, quickly split into teams of five, forming more than forty squads that spread out throughout the underground palace.
Three quarters of them freely hunted insects.
With the Dragon Soul players' current average strength, in a five-man team, hunting a single level 30 poison Insect was still somewhat difficult, but they could manage the kill.
They handed over the venom bottles obtained from killing poison insects to Lin Mo.
The remaining quarter consisted of the group of archers, mages, and wizards who had previously worked with Lin Mo.
Just like last time, they cooperated with Lin Mo to hunt swarms of insects.
Such a lineup left Skinny Monkey, Fat Dahai, Xia Wanwan, and the others utterly shocked.
"Holy shit! Every one of them is a first-line expert within the top ten thousand of Blazing Ember City's Heavenly Rankings! And they're actually willingly helping Senior Lin Mo farm monsters and collect venom bottles!"
"So this is the charisma of the number one powerhouse on the Heavenly Rankings? If only I could become a powerhouse like Senior Lin Mo someday."
"Dream on! In dreams, you've got everything!"
It had to be said, with the help of over two hundred high-level Dragon Soul players, Lin Mo's speed in collecting venom bottles instantly increased by more than tenfold.
The number of venom bottles in his backpack skyrocketed at a visible pace.
This made Lin Mo sigh inwardly, "If I'd known earlier, I should've asked Dragon Soul's people for help back when there was the double venom bottle drop buff. I could've sucked even more blood out of Wang Junjie."
Next, the main focus was to gather the full tier-two archer Venom Set as quickly as possible.
With Dragon Soul players going all out to help, Lin Mo fired on all cylinders and slaughtered poison Insects in great numbers.
———
At the same time, on the other side.
Outside Shadow City—
Wang Junjie led a massive army of three thousand Chaotic World Guild players, arriving in force outside Shadow City.
"Damn it! Those dog bastards from Dragon Soul, dared to snatch my territory!"
His gaze swept over the countless onlookers outside Shadow City who were watching the excitement.
Wang Junjie said viciously, "Tonight, I'll let all of you see clearly who the real boss of Blazing Ember City is."
Just as Wang Junjie was about to give the order to attack the city, the strategist Chaotic World Zhuge suddenly advised, "Brother Jie, I suggest we wait a bit."
"Before, we tried every possible way but still couldn't open the Shadow Gate and enter the dungeon."
"Since Dragon Soul was willing to pay such a huge price to snatch Shadow City from us, it means they might have a way to open the Shadow Gate."
"How about we wait a bit longer. Once they use that method to open the Shadow Gate, we'll charge in and kill them. Otherwise, even if we take Shadow City back now, we still won't be able to open the Shadow Gate, and it'll all be for nothing."
Wang Junjie nodded when he heard this, "That makes sense."
"Then have everyone hold position."
"Tonight, don't let even a single fly out of Shadow City."
With Wang Junjie's order.
The three thousand Chaotic World Guild players quickly spread out around Shadow City.
In the blink of an eye, they completely surrounded the entire city.
———
Inside the city, Dragon Soul Aoshi learned that Shadow City had been encircled by the Chaotic World Guild.
At this moment, a Dragon Soul warrior player said, "Boss, should we charge out directly and deal with the Chaotic World people first, so they don't come in later to cause trouble and ruin our plan?"
"No need," Dragon Soul Aoshi said in a deep voice, "Since they're temporarily holding back, we don't need to rush either."
"Preserve our strength first. We'll talk after Rulebound finishes dealing with the Venom Set."
"When Rulebound enters the dungeon, we'll need to guard him and make sure he clears it smoothly."
"Understood!"
Thus, the Chaotic World Guild camped outside the city.
Dragon Soul also held position inside the city.
Both sides fell into a stalemate.
It looked calm.
But war could break out at any moment.
———
[Insect Nest Underground Palace]
With the full effort of over two hundred Dragon Soul players helping him, Lin Mo collected a massive number of venom bottles and exchanged them with Captain of the Guard William for large amounts of Venom equipment.
Relying on William's level 4 favorability toward him, each exchange of Venom equipment had a 4% chance of producing tier-two quality.
Out of every hundred pieces, there would be four or five tier-two items.
After three hours of effort back and forth, Lin Mo finally successfully gathered tier-two archer Venom Set equipment for three slots: necklace, headpiece, and belt.
Using a large amount of pre-stocked equipment evolution points, he evolved all three pieces from white to green quality all the way to the highest level: gold quality.
Immediately after, Lin Mo equipped all three items.
[Ding~ Tier-two Archer Venom Set skill · Eight-piece set effect "Immunity to All Poisons" has been activated!]
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