Master the Abyss, starting from an apprentice priest

Morning, January 25, 768 in the Tianqi calendar.

The sound of horse hooves "ta, da" floated on the avenue outside the city. The guard at the gate of Songyuan City raised his head and saw a figure riding a horse approaching the city gate.

The man was wearing a white cloak, with a wide hood covering his appearance, and his face could not be seen clearly.

A guard stepped forward, stopped him with guns in both hands, and said: "Please stop, guest. Show your permission to pass, and hand over all the items you carry with you to us for inspection."

Although he said this, the man in the white cloak in front of him seemed indifferent. He just stretched his left hand to the bracelet on his right arm and rubbed it for a while.

"Please show me your ID!" the guard shouted for the second time, clenching his weapons with both hands.

The next moment, the guard saw the man in front of him take out a crimson token from his bracelet, and galloped close to him, holding the token and whispering:

"I am the emissary of Arbitrator Landauer. This is his pass. You should be able to recognize it."

"The token of the 'Arbitrator'?" The guard was stunned. The expression on his face suddenly changed from alert to respectful. The weapon he held in both hands became one-handed, and he took the token with his free hand.

He quickly confirmed that it was indeed the token belonging to an arbitrator from the "Department of Justice" branch, and the name "Landall" was indeed the name of a serving arbitrator.

"Please forgive us for our previous rudeness, sir." The guard handed the token back to Luo Xiu, then took a step back and bowed slightly to Luo Xiu.

"Please come in, my lord. We are at your disposal if necessary."

…

With the token of [Supreme] Landauer, Luo Xiu entered Songyuan City smoothly.

He doesn't want to use the identity of Bishop "Rosio Carlos" or a cleric yet, because on the surface, he should still be tracking the movements of "Hidden Elder" Babelun at this time, and he has arrived early.

He had his own purpose. After taking off his cloak at the street corner and putting on the gorgeous robe that normally symbolized the status of a minor noble, he walked towards a familiar hotel.

…

Fifteen minutes later.

——[Wolf Hunter Tavern].

Luo Xiu came to this tavern again.

The courtyard of the tavern has not changed much from the last time he came here. Even though Luo Xiu was still outside the tavern door, he could vaguely hear the thunderous voice of Isaac, the retired "Knight of the Throne" inside.

"—Bleuyere! Haha!"

"——Your war horse! Hey! It's gone!"

"..."

Isaac seemed to be playing chess with several old comrades. The tavern room was filled with the rich aroma of wine and barbecue at the same time, and the air was filled with a happy atmosphere.

Luo Xiu pushed open the iron gate and walked into the tavern.

The sound of metal friction came out, and the previous sounds in the room fell silent, and then there was the sound of tables and chairs moving.

"Wait a minute, it looks like a guest is here. Let me go check it out."

"Bleuyere, I remember, you are not allowed to move the chessboard secretly!"

Isaac's rough voice came out through the wooden door, and the old knight of the throne immediately opened the door to the room.

Isaac walked out from behind the door, and when he saw who the customer was, the expression on his face suddenly froze.

"Long time no see, old knight." Luo Xiu greeted Isaac with a smile on his face.

"..."

"Haha! It's you!"

After a brief silence, Isaac grinned and responded with a big smile, "You were the [Glorious] friend back then! I haven't seen you in a few months!"

Isaac looked quite excited. He strode towards Luo Xiu and greeted him: "You finally came to Songyuan City again! Haha! I'm very happy that you still remember me! This time it's also for the 'Holy Saint' "Cultivator's task?"

"That's right, Mr. Isaac." Luo Xiu smiled and said, "Same as last time, I will stay here for about a week, um. How much will it cost?"

"I said, as long as you come, I won't charge you anything." Isaac said cheerfully, "Come in, I will help you arrange a room. By the way, I don't know your name yet."

"Carlos, just call me Carlos." Luo Xiu answered him with a smile.

After that, he followed Isaac into the tavern. Isaac arranged for him the largest room on the third floor of the tavern and handed him the key.

"Haha, no problem. My old friend and I are still playing chess, Brother Carlos," Isaac said after arranging these things for Luo Xiu. "You can do some random things first. You can go for a walk in the city. Wait. At night, I’ll treat you to a drink!”

"Thank you, Mr. Isaac." Luo Xiu nodded, "You should go about your business first. It just so happens that I also have something to do immediately."

…

After a final chat with Isaac, Isaac went back to his previous room and continued playing chess with his old comrades. After Luo Xiu simply placed his luggage, he lay on the bed and opened the [Player Forum] and chat channel.

Today is the seventh day that the "Adventors" have arrived, and it is the day when the "Deleted Internal Beta" is about to end. In more than an hour, players will "disappear" and temporarily exit the stage of Apocalypse World.

This is also the reason why Luo Xiu chose to leave Red Maple City and come to Songyuan City at such a time - a series of guidance for the players has been completed, and during the period when the players "disappeared", he also Just enough time to go elsewhere without worrying about the instability factors that come with players.

After looking at the players in the forum and channel, they were as usual and nothing unusual appeared, so Luo Xiu felt relieved a little.

He then summoned the "Shadow Raven" and let it create his "real phantom". Then he raised his arm, poured his spiritual energy into it, and activated the red dragon claw mark on the back of his hand.

…

Holy abyss, left behind in the royal court.

Luo Xiu has arrived at the main hall. According to the order he gave to the apostles, the square in the front courtyard has been completely cleared. Now only Fenrir, who is guarding the "Spring of Spirituality", and hundreds of people stranded in the royal court are left. Famous players.

Looking at the bustling players, Luo Xiu walked towards the square and casually wrote a final task for all the players who joined the "Holy Abyss"——

[The destination of wandering (normal difficulty)]

All "Sacred Abyss" players have received this task.

It was a simple "recall". With this task, he guided the players to teleport back to the Holy Abyss "without anyone noticing" and gather in the square.

Because the completion difficulty could only be judged as "normal", Luo Xiu adjusted the reward experience value to the current maximum of 2,000 points, and at the last moment, opened more "second life paths" in the 'Holy Abyss Spring' mall. knowledge of skills and skills, and completely unlocked all the extraordinary knowledge that can be learned during the "first life path".

For the players who had previously followed Anthony to Oncica Town to perform the Holy Judgment mission, Luo Xiu had asked Maiyev to give them the "Bronze" key for the best players——

A total of only thirty were distributed to players, and the thirty "Saint Guardians" who received the keys were also among all the players in Red Maple City, the first players to be promoted to extraordinary during the internal beta test.

Once the mission was issued, thousands of Red Maple City players currently online "swarmed" into the Holy Abyss at a terrifying speed, gradually filling the square in the vestibule.

For most players, before the closed beta is about to end, they are eager to experience something new, and the new tasks they suddenly received just meet their needs.

Until more than two thousand players arrived at the Royal Court Square of the "Holy Abyss", Luo Xiu took out the staff "Lament of Death", summoned the undead to condense into wings of chaos, and flew high into the sky above the square.

He immediately attracted the attention of all the players in the square, and his low and majestic voice floated in the sky above the square:

"—I have received a revelation that you will roam for a short time!"

"——Go to a country I don't know, and come back after one reincarnation!"

"——What I know is that this is the will of 'Apocalypse'."

"——But there is no need to panic or fear, the 'Holy Abyss' will protect you, and the 'Holy Abyss' will be with you."

"——I give you new power, and that power has merged into the spring water."

"——Touch it, accept it, and be baptized by it!"

"——That is the 'Holy Abyss', a gift for you to start your journey!"

"..."

After saying this, Luo Xiu activated the dragon claw mark and teleported out of the royal court.

The "Holy Abyss" players who were left in the square had a new line of text on the panel in front of them——

[The closed beta is about to end, and "Holy Abyss" has opened up all the knowledge currently accessible]

[Learning the knowledge of "First Life Path" only consumes 50% of the experience points]

[Learning the knowledge of "Second Life Path" only consumes 70% of experience points]

【……】

Luo Xiu, who had returned to the tavern room, watched the players quickly emerge from their dazed state, their eyes flashing with excitement.

At the last moment, the "Fountain of the Sacred Abyss" that allows them to acquire extraordinary skills and knowledge of skills is now available, and it's even discounted!

After a few days of accumulation, the players’ experience value savings became abundant again. And there are already many players who want to go to the "Holy Abyss" at the last moment before the end of the closed beta to learn skills or knowledge that they were reluctant to buy before. It just happened to be a good time.

Just in Luo Xiu's "Spring of Spirituality" panel, the accumulated experience points began to rise at a terrifying speed.

It quickly reached three million from more than one million, then rose to five million, and finally stabilized at around eight and a half million. This is the final gain from the players before the end of the closed beta.

The players who had acquired new skills couldn't wait to try new abilities with each other in the Holy Abyss. The lights and shadows in the Holy Abyss Square floated for a while, and the special effects of various skills began to bloom one after another, like fireworks. Blooming beautifully.

It wasn't until the final "carnival" ended an hour later that the players finally stopped. They gathered together, saying goodbye to each other, and promising to play together again during the open beta.

[Thomas the Tank Engine]: When the public beta begins, I will join the church as soon as possible!

[Thomas the Tank Engine]: I am a die-hard fan! I'm a diehard fan! The bishop loves me again!

[Pure Love Huang Mao]: No, I want to be the Night God, Sheng Yuan! This is home!

[Sweating Soybeans]: Indeed

[Human high-quality repeater]: indeed

[Frost Moon 123]: I don’t know when the open beta will be... Has this game been announced yet?

[Aili Tianxia Diyi]: There will be, pay attention to the next generation black technology company, thank you meow

[Aili Tianxia Diyi]: We agreed to be together for life...

[Thomas the Tank Engine]: It's going offline! Goodbye, brothers!

[Iron Pot Stewed Goose]: Goodbye! I'll choose Red Maple City in my next life!

[...]:...

Until the countdown to the internal test officially ended.

The figures of all players began to become illusory and transparent at the same time, and their bodies began to fade from the edge outline and turned into spiritual threads returning to the air.

[——Internal test is over! ]

[This internal test is a closed deletion test, and the temporary "Adventer" data file has been deleted]

["NPC exclusive template" has been closed]

["World Channel" has been closed]

["Player Forum" has been closed]

[...]

[Open beta start time: 29 days and 23 hours...]

"Huh..."

Looking at the panel in front of him, refreshing the content related to "Internal Test End", Luo Xiu breathed a sigh of relief.

The players have "quit" this world, and it will be a month before we meet them again.

When the "public beta" begins, the players will truly "reside" in this world according to the version changes, but now - this group of quasi-"fourth disasters" have left, and Luo Xiu no longer has to worry too much.

Because there are only seven days of internal testing, there are not many things that players can do, and nearly 300,000 players are scattered throughout the world. The impact they can have is actually not great, and they have not attracted too much attention from the truly high-ranking people in the extraordinary world.

In the previous life, the disappearance of the players due to the "end of the internal test" did cause a shock in some parts of the empire.

But because most of the extraordinary organizations in various places have seen the magical characteristics of the players' immortality, they did not pursue their "disappearance" too much. In addition, the external situation was chaotic at the time, so the official temporarily treated these "refugees" as missing.

At this moment, all the natives of the "Apocalypse World" have not realized it yet.

It was not until the "open beta" officially began that this group of fourth disasters began to truly reveal their terrifying side... Luo Xiu knew this very well, but that was something he would have to face in a month.

Now Luo Xiu only felt that the players he had raised suddenly left him, and he felt a little empty in his heart, and a sense of loneliness arose spontaneously.

He looked at the panel of his "Spiritual Spring" again - the cold 9 million experience points were lying there, which was basically all the experience points that Luo Xiu could squander before the "open beta" started.

"I have to spend it sparingly..." Luo Xiu thought to himself. It is difficult to accumulate so many experience points by doing tasks and killing, so he decided to keep them for the time being in case of emergency.

...

After watching the players "log out", Luo Xiu stood up with the edge of the bed and looked at the door.

In his previous arrangement, after the players "disappeared", another "dependent" who lived in Red Maple City should come to him with something.

About two minutes passed.

The door of his room in the Wolf Hunting Tavern was suddenly knocked gently.

After being allowed to enter, the person gently pushed open the unlocked door. It was Intis.

She wore a dark blue wide-brimmed hat, a blue fluffy long skirt, and held a silver compass in her hand.

"Greetings, my lord." Intis bowed slightly to Luo Xiu, then held up the compass with both hands and said:

"According to your previous instructions, I have obtained this from Koros and now hand it over to you."

...