“Well, aren’t you the picky eater,” Nie Ya smiled. “I suppose I’ll have to feed you only Darkness Life Cores from now on.”

Nie Yan tossed a Darkness Life Core into the air.

The Darkwing Dragon turned back around and snapped up the Life Core at lightning speed, then swallowed the whole thing down with glee.

Nie Yan could sense the Darkwing Dragon growing a bit stronger, albeit vaguely. He had no idea when it would rank up.

After eating the Life Core, the Darkwing Dragon stared at Nie Yan with sparkling eyes, almost as if begging for more.

Nie Yan took out another Darkness Life Core and threw it to the Darkwing Dragon.

The Darkwing Dragon swallowed one Life Core after another. Since it was a Rank 6 creature, the effects of Rank 1–3 Life Cores were limited. However, the quantity helped make up for this difference. Nie Yan could sense a powerful darkness aura radiating from the Darkwing Dragon. It was extremely corrosive. All the plants within a three-meter radius wilted and died.

The Darkwing Dragon let out a satisfied burp. Its belly was round and full, having probably eaten a dozen or so Life Cores.

Like anyone after devouring a big meal, the Darkwing Dragon seemed to be getting drowsy. So, Nie Yan recalled it back into his pet space.

Looking at the world inside, the Darkwing Dragon had already found a corner to curl up in and sleep. A dense mist of darkness energy shrouded its body, wrapping around it like a cozy blanket.

The Darkwing Dragon fell fast asleep.

Nie Yan could sense a powerful force stirring within the Darkwing Dragon. He didn’t know what kind of changes would occur once it woke up.

Nie Yan withdrew his gaze. His time was dedicated between training his artisan skills or clearing the Luminous Dancer class advancement quest. As he trekked deeper into the forest, far off in the distance, a strange structure hovering over the forest canopy caught his eye.

An enormous castle floated high in the air; nothing supported it off the ground. Though it was more ruin than castle, bearing traces of the flames of war—fallen towers, partially destroyed walls, and so on—it still looked exceptionally grand.

It was just like Calore, a floating city.

You have discovered the World Heart.

“W-what? The World Heart!?” Nie Yan was dumbstruck.

In the Ancient Book of Curtis, the World Heart was the center of the world. Floating above the Atlanta Continent, it was the abode of the gods. But after the Third War of the Gods, it vanished without a trace, never to appear again.

Since the World Heart was only briefly described in ancient history books, it was treated as fiction, a myth of old.

Nie Yan’s intuition told him that the World Heart was directly related to his Luminous Dancer class advancement quest. He immediately set off toward it.

As he got closer to the World Heart, he started running into stronger and stronger monsters. Nie Yan gradually slowed down. He raised his head and saw black dots circling around the World Heart. They were flying creatures. Even though he had never seen them before, judging from their enormous sizes, he could tell they were quite high rank and much more powerful than his Darkwing Dragon.

In the blink of an eye, another 10 days passed by. On this day, Nie Yan completed Path of the Luminous Dancer 3. A notification popped up.

Path of the Luminous Dancer 4:

? Sneak into the World Heart.

? Retrieve the lost inheritance.

There was finally a break to the monoton! If Nie Yan was forced to grind mobs any longer, he would’ve gone mad! Rank 3 monsters were already pretty difficult to deal with, let alone Rank 4 or 5! However, this new quest wasn’t necessarily easier. In fact, sneaking into the World Heart made the last three quests look like a walk in the park!

Staring at the World Heart in the distance, it appeared getting in without a flying mount would be impossible. Nie Yan looked at his pet space. The Darkwing Dragon was still fast asleep.

“Forget it. I’ll just wait for the Darkwing Dragon to wake up.” Nie Yan went all around harvesting materials and continued training his various artisan skills. Checking his progress, Engineering, Forging, and Spell Scribing were already Advanced rank, and it wouldn’t be long before they reached Master rank. Besides this, Alchemy Master was already 52% of the way to Grandmaster. He could concoct even more different kinds of potions now.

As Nie Yan learned more and more skills, his knowledge of crafting grew deeper and deeper. An odd idea suddenly popped into his mind. “Is it possible to make my own weapons?”

Nie Yan took out some metal extract from his bag. With the help of the Forging skill, he gradually beat them into needles about three inches long and half a thumb thick. One of the needles was made exceptionally sharp, to the extent that it could easily pierce through any armour. Then with the Alchemy Master skill, he concocted a poison which glistened with an azure coloured hue and coated the needles in it.

“Not bad... They’ll definitely come in handy if I encounter anything unexpected.” Nie Yan pondered for a moment. “I could probably improve them even further.” With the Engineering skill, he added a special property to these needles. Once they pierced skin, a mechanism would trigger to release serrated hooks. If you tried to forcefully pull it out, it would rip out a huge chunk of flesh.

This was a clever idea Nie Yan had come up with on the spot. While he was marvelling at his ingenuity, a notification popped up.

You have invented a new weapon. Attack power evaluation: Strength x 5 + 5,000. Special properties evaluation: deal 20% additional bleed damage every second for 10 seconds, chance to inflict cripple status effect. Please name this weapon.

Nie Yan checked the properties of the needles. He didn’t expect them to have this kind of effect; the attack power in particular was quite astonishing. There was even an additional bleed and cripple effect. He had about 6,000 Strength. If he attacked an enemy with one of these needles, it would deal 35,000 damage and an additional 70,000 in bleed damage.

“What would be a good name for these things?” Nie Yan pondered for a moment. “Let’s just call them Flesh Biters.”

Naming successful!

You have successfully invented Flesh Biters. +500 skill proficiency to Forging and Engineering.

Two rays of light enveloped Nie Yan. It was the sign of something ranking up! He quickly checked his skill list. Forging and Engineering had both advanced to Master rank. He didn’t expect to receive so much skill proficiency at once!

“Wow, my artisan skills are improving so quickly!” Nie Yan crafted another Flesh Biter. However, this time, he merely gained five skill proficiency in Forging and Engineering. It appeared only inventing something new would give such a large amount of skill proficiency.

Even so, crafting Flesh Biters provided much more skill proficiency than crafting ordinary weapons. Not to mention he could train Forging and Engineering at the same time. It was two birds with one stone.

Nie Yan suddenly felt that learning all these artisan skills was even more worthwhile than he originally thought.

Most players usually learned only one artisan skill. Even if they trained it to a high rank, they still had to find recipes and blueprints, unlike Nie Yan who could research and create high rank items all by himself. In general, high rank items involved at least two or more different technologies in their creation. Even concocting a new type of potion couldn’t be done all willy nilly. You still needed the help of other artisans in obtaining specialized receptacles and other Alchemy tools.

The Flesh Biters turned out better than Nie Yan expected. They would become powerful supplementary weapons in the future. In a few more days, he could raise all his artisan skills to Master rank. At that time, he could come up with even more new inventions, which he could use to make himself stronger.

While Nie Yan was lost in thought, he felt a violent fluctuation as a powerful darkness energy overflowed out of his pet space.

“What’s going on?” Nie Yan’s heart trembled. Looking inside his pet space, all he saw was a dark haze spewing out from his Darkwing Dragon.

The Darkwing Dragon awoke from its slumber and got up on its feet. It radiated a domineering and invincible pressure. Standing taller than before, dense, grayish black scales now protected its body, reflecting a glossy black luster. With a beat of its powerful wings, two small tornadoes wreaked havoc in the pet space.

Nie Yan examined the Darkwing Dragon. All of its stats had risen by at least 30%. It wasn’t far from ranking up, only a few Life Cores away. It would probably advance to Rank 7 in no time. At that point, its strength would increase severalfold.

At present, the strongest flying mounts other than his own were Rank 4 at best. With a difference of three ranks, his Darkwing Dragon could easily slaughter all of them.

The Darkwing Dragon was finally fully awake. For the time being, he couldn’t feed it any more Life Cores. Nie Yan looked up at the World Heart. He needed to fly up there!

Nie Yan made some preparations, crafting over 50 Flesh Biters, a large amount of Master Health Potions, and some Advanced Combat Bandages. Afterwards, he chanted out an incantation and summoned his Darkwing Dragon.

When the Darkwing Dragon emerged, a wave of darkness energy swept out, causing all the plants in a 10-meter radius to wither and die.

Nie Yan looked up at the Darkwing Dragon, who now stood five meters high. He briefly admired the scales protecting its body. They seemed practically invulnerable.

Nie Yan hopped on its back. The Darkwing Dragon flapped its wings, then shot into the sky, instantly ascending more than several dozen meters in altitude.