A cave on the southwestern side of the Ashenfire Hills.
After Chi Lan sent the coordinates, Shi Feng quickly had everyone gather. The group of 128 moved silently through the dark cavern.
"The flames here seem to be growing stronger," Yu Luo said with a hint of worry, feeling the toll on her physical and mental stamina increasing. "And the deeper we go, the more intense the burning sensation becomes. If we keep advancing, this scorching pressure will likely make it impossible for us to focus in combat."
"Indeed, the burning sensation keeps intensifying." Zhu Feng Tianxia nodded, carefully sensing the effect, and couldn't help but remark, "Under this kind of scorching pressure, even ordinary Perfection masters probably wouldn't be able to fight at their full Perfection level."
Before, the burning sensation merely drained their mental and physical stamina, but now it felt as though their entire bodies were being scorched at every moment. The pain, though faint, could have a tremendous impact on anyone whose willpower wavered.
Whether players were using combat skills or magic, it all required precise control—even the slightest disruption could mean the difference between vastly different levels of effectiveness.
Lion Heart Boiling Blood surveyed the surroundings and looked at Shi Feng, unable to hold back a suggestion: "Brother Black Flame, this cave really is unusual. When the fighting starts, I think we should leave the cave and battle outside if we can. Otherwise, it'll seriously hinder our performance."
"That won't be possible!" Shi Feng shook his head with absolute certainty. "We have to deal with that Tier 4 young dragon inside this cave. Moreover, this is our only chance—once we leave, finding another Tier 4 young dragon will be nearly impossible."
The Dragon race ruled the skies. Fighting outside might seem advantageous on the surface, but it would actually work against them—especially for Tier 3 professionals. Without special abilities, third-tier professionals couldn't fly at all. That meant every Tier 3 in the group would simply have to stand by and watch.
As for relying on the Crimson Dragon Airship, that was simply a joke.
Even a high-grade airship would likely not withstand three or four strikes from a Tier 4 young dragon, and it was entirely possible it would be destroyed in a single hit. After all, the Crimson Dragon Airship could only defend against attacks from ordinary Tier 4 Legendary monsters. A destructive power on the scale of Tier 5 was more than enough.
After a short while, Shi Feng and the others spotted Chi Lan, who was hiding amongst the rocks.
At the moment, Chi Lan's complexion wasn't good; his very expression seemed somewhat dejected.
"What happened?" Lion Heart Boiling Blood asked, puzzled by Chi Lan's state.
"It's nothing." Chi Lan shook his head slightly and gave a bitter smile. "I was just wondering... can we really beat that Tier 4 young dragon?"
"Even though it's a Tier 4 young dragon and practically unbeatable at its level, our team is no pushover. How will we know unless we try?" Blood Blade's Endurance said, brimming with confidence as he looked at the somewhat dispirited Chi Lan. "Don't forget, we have nine Tier 4 professionals this time. That young dragon is only Tier 4 as well."
However, right after Blood Blade's Endurance finished speaking, the massive cavern entrance leading forward came into view for everyone, and within it, a colossal creature nearly a hundred meters tall with a pale golden body became visible to all.
Golden Young Dragon, Dragon, Legendary, Level 140, HP 112,000,000.
"How is this possible?!"
After everyone saw the data on the young dragon before them, they all gasped in shock. Even Jing Wuming and Gu Jiuji, who had encountered half-step Demon Kings before, found it utterly unbelievable.
Setting aside the terrifying pressure radiating from the Golden Young Dragon, its mere presence lying there made it hard to breathe. And what was with that absurd HP of over 112 billion?
Just its passive combat recovery alone was enough to make anyone despair.
That meant in five seconds, it could recover 2.24 billion HP — over 400 million per second. Even if their four Tier classes could deal 50 million damage per second each, and even excluding the two healers, the seven of them would only be putting out 350 million damage per second. And that was calculated on the assumption that the Golden Young Dragon had weak defenses and put up no resistance at all…
And that was without even mentioning that this was a Golden Young Dragon — a bloodline naturally superior to other dragons, second only to the Divine Dragon bloodline among all dragonkind.
"No wonder they say a four-tier young dragon is unbeatable at its level, completely incomparable to other four-tier classes. With HP like this, even if we could survive its attacks, we'd never be able to kill it." Even Zhufeng Tianxia was starting to waver.
While HP didn't tell the whole story, it was the most direct indicator of a creature's power.
If its HP was already this absurd, one could only imagine how terrifying its base stats must be — at least two to three times that of an upper-tier Legendary monster of the same level.
And what did two to three times the stats of an upper-tier Legendary monster of the same level actually mean?
An upper-tier Legendary monster of the same level could already inflict serious injuries on a four-tier class simply by trading blows, even without landing a clean hit. Against this Golden Young Dragon, if they were lucky, a single strike might leave them clinging to life with a sliver of HP. If they weren't lucky, it would be over in one hit…
Which meant that in their battle against the Golden Young Dragon, they couldn't even afford a single collision — otherwise, it would be instant death.
The more than hundred executives standing with Lionheart Burning Blood and the others finally understood why Shi Feng hadn't assigned healers to their team.
Because in this battle, their Tier 3 Classes were nothing but ants — utterly insignificant. They were the kind of beings that would simply cease to exist if they were even slightly caught in the crossfire. There was naturally no need to assign any healers.
"A Golden Young Dragon?" Shi Feng looked at the young dragon before him, as massive as a mountain, and let out a faint, bitter smile. "No wonder this quest was rated as quasi-mythical."
The Tier 4 Golden Young Dragon before him definitely possessed combat power approaching mid-tier Tier 5 — a being that even Demon Lord Floibairo at full strength would not be a match for.
Or rather, this Tier 4 young dragon was simply not an existence that Tier 4 players could hope to fight against.