When Old Dong Ge finished telling the story of the Ring of the Nibelung, everyone gasped.

This S-grade equipment... it looked like you'd be risking your life to use it...

The way they looked at Joe Elm and the others was no longer envious, but gleeful.

The Inner World official had indeed brought out an S-grade piece of equipment, and an extremely powerful one at that, but they weren't envious at all.

The Inner World's Ring of the Nibelung was just like the one in the legend; anyone who wore it would meet an untimely and tragic death.

A god's curse was already terrifying, let alone the curse of a group of gods.

To put it this way, if Tyson wore this ring, he'd get beaten into a teddy bear; if Tang Sanzang wore it in the morning, he'd be in the Western Paradise by the afternoon. Even Buddha, who suppressed Sun Wukong without hesitation, would hesitate for three days before wearing this ring, fearing that his *sharira* would be knocked out of him.

Song Qingshan, however, had a calm expression on his face. He had known for a long time that the S-grade equipment was the Ring of the Nibelung.

As a staunch materialist, he didn't believe in any of that nonsense about curses. He only believed that all fear stemmed from insufficient firepower.

The reason why the people who wore the Ring of the Nibelung before met with accidents was because they weren't strong enough!

Back when he was just an ordinary general, he came across a mass grave where there were strange cries at night, which were very scary. The surrounding villagers also warned him not to get close to that mass grave, saying that it was haunted and that bad things would happen!

Without saying a word, Song Qingshan brought in several cannons and bombarded the mass grave with shells for a full half hour.

After the smoke cleared, he transformed into Namo Gatling Bodhisattva, with six pure gatling cannons, rotating three thousand six hundred times per breath, mercifully saving all living beings.

From then on, there were no more strange noises in that mass grave at night, and it was quiet. The nearby villagers also said that it was no longer haunted.

"I hope that after you obtain stronger equipment, you will be able to achieve even greater accomplishments!" Song Qingshan handed the tray to Joe Elm and the others.

After Joe Elm took it, his eyes lit up with a green light.

Four A-grade pieces of equipment and one S-grade piece of equipment were an unparalleled temptation for anyone.

Joe Elm didn't know what kind of dark history that S-grade equipment had, he only knew that this ring was very strong!

"Brother Elm, put it on. We can't win the championship in this combat competition without you. This S-grade ring is yours!" Yang Xiangdi was the first to speak.

"Tch! A mere S-grade piece of equipment is not worthy of my, Ma Fei's, attention!" Ma Fei hugged his sword with a smug look on his face.

"S-grade equipment!" Zhao Ziyue's eyes lit up, then she shook her head. "What a pity! Why is it gold! Gold is too tacky, I don't want it!"

Zuo You didn't speak, just quietly looked at Joe Elm. Her eyes had already said everything.

Joe Elm took a deep breath, then bowed to his friends!

"Thank you! Thank you!"

Joe Elm choked up a little, as if something was welling up and blocking his throat.

The temptation of S-grade equipment was self-evident, but he had met four companions who were willing to give up the S-grade equipment to him. Joe Elm really didn't know what he had done to deserve such friendship.

Joe Elm's heart was full of gratitude! However, the next second, Yang Xiangdi's words ruined the rare atmosphere.

"Hey! Brother Elm, why are you being so polite? Why are you getting so sentimental!"

Joe Elm: "..."

The choking feeling disappeared instantly, and the tears that had already welled up in the corners of his eyes were instantly taken back.

Joe Elm picked up the Ring of the Nibelung and slowly put it on the ring finger of his left hand.

At the same time, the Inner World's announcement rang out.

[Congratulations to necromancer player Joe Elm for binding the S-grade equipment, Ring of the Nibelung, in the game. Reward: 10 free attribute points. We hope that other players will continue to work hard.]

The next second, something strange happened!

The Ring of the Nibelung, as if it had its own life, instantly conformed to Joe Elm's finger. The Skeleton King's Ring and the Corpse Ancestor's Ring trembled, and then actually fell off Joe Elm's hand!

Joe Elm wanted to put them back on, but he couldn't, no matter what he did.

Joe Elm was a little surprised. Was this S-grade ring so domineering? It wouldn't let him wear other ring items?

After trying unsuccessfully, Joe Elm could only shake his head with a wry smile, then gave the Skeleton King's Ring to Ma Fei, and the Corpse Ancestor's Ring to Zhao Ziyue.

With the Corpse Ancestor's Ring, Zhao Ziyue could be considered to have a little self-protection ability, at least the agile assassins wouldn't be able to catch up with her after she stole their agility.

As the former owner of the Corpse Ancestor's Ring, Joe Elm knew very well how shameless the skill of stealing 50% of agility was.

As for why he didn't give it to Yang Xiangdi... he already had Retreat! Retreat! Retreat! to protect himself, and he hadn't completely digested the power of the Five Elements Heart yet.

The remaining four A-grade rings were also divided up by Zuo You and the others, and Joe Elm also looked at the attributes of the Ring of the Nibelung.

[Ring of the Nibelung]

Grade: S-grade

Effect: Provides a percentage increase to all attributes equal to the player's level.

Warm reminder: This is an evil ring cursed by the gods. The wearer will encounter all kinds of misfortune. Please take care.

"Damn it!" Joe Elm instantly became excited. S-grade equipment was S-grade equipment, the effects were outrageously heaven-defying!

Providing a percentage increase to all attributes equal to the player's level meant that the higher Joe Elm's level, the greater the increase provided by this ring.

For example, if he was level 30 now, then the effect provided by the Ring of the Nibelung would be a 30% increase to all attributes!

This was an increase to all attributes of strength, defense, agility, intelligence, and spirit! You must know that Zhao Ziyue's Drunken Milk state only provided 10%!

Joe Elm looked at the Ring of the Nibelung, his eyes full of excitement. With such a strong effect, what curse was he afraid of? Joe Elm would dare to fire a cannon at the Heavenly King.

Compared to Joe Elm's excitement, the other players looked regretful, as if they were regretting that a rising star was about to fall.

Under normal circumstances, if they saw a mid-level player with S-grade equipment, they would definitely try their best to snatch it, but this time was an exception.

After all, none of the people who had worn the Ring of the Nibelung before had lived for more than half a year...

After three or four people had died in a row, this ring was also recovered by the Inner World official. They didn't expect it to be given out again as a champion reward.

What a sin...

"Alright, don't just get excited, there's still one last reward!"

Song Qingshan smiled and unveiled the last tray, on which lay five rhombus-shaped tokens quietly.

Joe Elm and the others then realized that the champion seemed to be allowed to enter a special dungeon, were these tokens the key to enter?

The tokens were a little cold to the touch and felt comfortable to hold, they didn't know what material they were made of.

"Congratulations! Five young people! You are the champions!"

After awarding the champion's prizes, Song Qingshan smiled kindly, his loud voice resounding throughout the arena.

The audience felt honored and began to cheer and celebrate.

At this moment, an eerie voice rang out inappropriately.

"The prizes have all been collected, and the combat competition is officially over, right? Then please don't interfere with the Western Alliance's affairs!" Sharster's eyes were full of gloom.

Joe Elm's heart sank. Just as he thought that Sharster was going to target him because of An Liya's matter just now, Sharster pointed his finger at Zuo You next to him!

"Divine Guards, take that girl down!" As soon as Sharster finished speaking, two people wearing golden armor that covered even their faces rushed out from behind him.

The aura of these so-called Divine Guards was so powerful that it was suffocating, even Joe Elm, who had just greatly increased his strength, felt despair.

These must be two existences above the King tier!

*Clang!*

The Kunwu Sword was instantly unsheathed, and countless sword intents condensed into a sword net, blocking the two Divine Guards. As long as they dared to take another step forward, they would surely be decapitated!

"Sharster, what do you mean by this? On the territory of my Great Xia Ancient Kingdom, are you arresting students from my Kyoto University?"

Ji Pingyang's calm voice rang out, containing a chilling killing intent. The thing he was most worried about had finally happened.

"Ji Pingyang!" Sharster shouted, this Western Alliance representative was acting like a madman.

"Don't play crazy here, you must have seen it long ago! That girl named Zuo You is not human at all!"