The truth proved that everyone’s mental preparation was absolutely correct.

The upcoming expansion experience was nothing short of tragic, dying a thousand deaths.

Especially in the first few days, at every transition stage, the Original Demon Venerable would annihilate the entire party with a wave of his huge hand, regardless of the Immortal Divine Power used by everyone. Facing the huge hand, the result was always being crushed in an instant.

Fortunately, the players never lacked creativity, and the more they died, the more experience they gained.

They finally found a way to counter that huge hand.

At the instant the field transition started, five Daluo Golden Immortals who practiced "Fatian Xiangdi" simultaneously activated Divine Skills, their forms swelling to a thousand feet tall. Each held up a finger, resisting the descending Five-Finger Mountain. Meanwhile, the others seized the opportunity to fully attack one finger. As long as one finger broke, everyone could fly out through the gap and avoid the calamity.

However, in the formal Second Stage battle, it was similarly a brutal process of annihilation.

After entering the Second Stage, the white-robed Taoist became as large as a planet, with all attacks covering an enormous range, leaving players unable to rely on tanks to hold aggro while DPS unleashed attacks as in the First Stage.

Everyone had to not only output damage but also constantly avoid various catastrophic large-scale spells.

This tested the entire team’s overall strength, requiring not just the removal of eighty million Blood Volume but also limiting the death count as much as possible.

If too many players were lost, insufficient DPS could lead to getting consumed by the enemy, making subsequent stages unplayable.

The expansion team wiped seventeen times in this stage before finally pushing through.

Transitioning to the Third Stage went smoothly—however, the Third Stage Boss fight proved even more brutal than the Second.

In the Third Stage, the Original Demon Venerable returned to normal size, then raised his hand to send everyone into the "past, present, future" Triple World.

In each world, players had to confront a Three-Corpse God incarnation of the Demon Venerable, fighting simultaneously in three illusions, requiring the team to split into three groups, each fighting alone.

This stage saw them wiped out thirty-nine times.

Everyone continuously adjusted tactics, revised the profession setup of the three teams, and pondered the ability mechanics of the Three-Corpse Gods in each illusion.

Eventually, they managed to fight through with difficulty.

By this point, everyone became numb to dying.

Resurrection, assembling, initiating battle, annihilation, and resurrection again...

The players from Embers City grew accustomed to one scene—a sudden flash of white light, forty-something Daluo crawling out stark naked...

Fortunately, the Fourth Stage wasn’t too outrageous—only slightly harder than the Third Stage.

After entering the Fourth Stage, the Original Demon Venerable’s body began to emit a faint golden light, which wound around him like threads, wrapping him into a cocoon of light. Inside the cocoon, his form gradually blurred as though about to vanish completely from space-time.

Yet, simultaneously, there emerged a strange humanoid similar to the white-robed Taoist, replacing him to attack the players.

Every attack from this entity left a "Cause and Effect Crack" in the space. Players touched by this crack would be erased from the Cause and Effect chain, incapable of reincarnation, but could only rely on reconstructing their Primordial Spirit and body from the trace of Primordial Spirit entrusting in the Chaos Pearl.

In this stage, the test for players was not output but survival techniques.

Each battle saw the team continuously decrease in size, necessitating the removal of the last eighty million Blood Volume while preserving their lives, as fewer hands led to lower output and faster deaths.

Time and again, they faced annihilation and more annihilation.

Had these individuals not been top players from various worlds, each having experienced frequent wipes, typical teams wouldn’t withstand such massive frustration.

It took a full twenty-seven days, over a hundred wipes—

Finally!

Boom—!!!

With the final blow landing, the white-robed Taoist’s body suddenly froze, his light cocoon dissipated, his physical form returned to solidity, and the bizarre twisted humanoid promptly vanished.

The white-robed Taoist’s hollow and lifeless gaze gradually dimmed.

Afterward, he lowered his head to glance at everyone.

That gaze held none of the previous indifference but instead a hint of... relief?

In the next moment—

The light surrounding him shattered like broken glass, falling apart piece by piece!

"Hahaha—finally made it! Damn it! So what if it’s the Demon Venerable? Didn’t I still take him down?" The Full-time Expert shouted excitedly.

Xiao Jie couldn’t help but shout with delight. Cheers, laughter, applause, and embraces filled the forty-something team channel, which instantaneously erupted!

Everyone was venting their excitement and joy, as well as the frustration of persistent annihilation over these days.

Experiencing death too many times, particularly being repeatedly erased in the Fourth Stage, then reconstructed within the Chaos Pearl, left people a bit unhinged.

At this moment, the entire White Jade Palace reverted to its original appearance.

The white-robed Taoist returned to his cushion, sat cross-legged with eyes lowered.

However, compared to his previous powerful state capable of generating Spiritual Energy gravity, the white-robed Taoist’s body was now covered with cracks—spiderweb-like cracks densely spread across him, from forehead to chest, from arms to waist, each slowly expanding, like a porcelain sculpture crumbling.