1520

Thanks to proper planning and coordination, the Quasi-Divine Rank Earthwalker couldn’t help but lose HP despite its best attempts to thwart us. When its HP fell to 2% or so, I said, "Kill it while I hold its attention, Chengfeng. You can gain more experience that way. I’m almost at the level cap, so this bit of experience doesn’t matter to me…"

Li Chengfeng disagreed, "But your Luck is more than double of mine! We’ll get much better equipment if you’re the one who kills the boss!"

"I’m your boss, so just do as I say[1], dude!"

"Yes, party leader!"

……

I cast Magic Piercing Punch repeatedly to gain a large amount of threat in a short amount of time. Then, I endured the boss's attacks even though the Dihai Shield looked like it was about to turn into a sieve. While this was going on, Li Chengfeng hit the boss with Dragonblade Revolution, Dragonbone Flurry, Crimson Firmament Slash and more skills until finally, the Earthwalker let out a death groan and died. A column of golden light surrounded Li Chengfeng and increased his level to 257.

Pop pop pop…

A ton of equipment and items erupted from the boss's body. I ran up to them with a grin on my face. "Let’s hope it drops a lot of Perfect Divine Crystals. That is what we need the most right now!"

He Yi chuckled. "Let’s hope so."

The boss had dropped 9 Divine Crystals in total, and 3 of them were of 100 Quality. I gave them all to Lu Buyi. Then, I started checking out the equipment drops. Unfortunately, they weren’t very good. For a Quasi-Divine Rank boss, the Earthwalker was surprisingly stingy. I thought it would definitely drop a Ghost Armament or a Divine Armament at least, but all we got was a pair of Ancient Immortal-grade legguards. Gui Guzi won it during a dice roll, and his plan was to sell it for money at the market. These days, Ancient Immortal-grade equipment was almost useless to top-tier players because even their weakest equipment was a Lower Divine Armament. Of course, the same couldn’t be said for the normal players. In Sky City at least, Ancient Immortal-grade pieces of equipment were still the "Divine Armaments" of all middle to high–level players.

……

Standing on top of the dead boss's head, I looked left and right before saying, "It looks like we’ll have to make a detour…"

Captain Morn nodded in agreement. "Convoy, make a right turn and walk around these pits. We’ll continue into Lost Forest after that!"

The NPCs immediately started whipping the giant beasts to turn them around. As the escorts, we followed them as a matter of course.

While walking on a lush plain of grass, I gazed into the distance and said, "The scenery in Purple Grape City is really great. It’s a shame that it’s the Japanese’s settlement. Not only have they invaded us repeatedly, they even attempted to sneak past Sky Ridge to raid Snowy Cathaya’s territory just half a month ago. A centipede dies but never falls down. They are an annoyance for sure…"

Gui Guzi clenched his fists and declared, "There’s an easy way to remedy that. All we need to do is to rally Snowy Cathaya, The Monarch Descends, Blazing Hot Lips, Warsky Alliance and more Sky City guilds, pass through Blood Rose Fortress and take out Wallow Ear Canton in one go. Without their last settlement, they are nothing more than a tiger without fangs."

I shook my head. "You’re underestimating our enemy too much, not to mention that the current situation is so that any movement can trigger a cascade of unpredictable consequences. If we dare to attack Swallow Ear Canton, I guarantee you that the Northern Alliance will invade Wind City through the Fortress of the Iron Halberd, and the Indians will swim to us through the Black Sea. Worst-case scenario, we may not be able to make it back to Sky City and can only watch as we lose our three main cities one by one."

Li Chengfeng chuckled. "Yes, this isn’t something we can decide on a whim. If Little Gui was the commander of this Nation War, I reckon that it would be GG for our server in 10 hours…"

Gui Guzi grimaced. "Fuck you, I’m not that bad."

Li Chengfeng spread his arms. "Bullshit, you are worse than bad."

I said, "Stop arguing and eyes on the front, you two. Anyway, I hope we won’t be fighting another boss with a shitty drop rate but high difficulty like this. There were multiple times I was almost instakilled by its Ice Fire Triple Strike…"

"Haha!"

……

We didn’t go far when a system announcement suddenly resounded across Purple Grape City—

System Announcement: Player "Red Maple" (Japan) triggered an ascension! They have become a god and a Death Divine Throne Guardian! The abilities they obtained are—Unusual Physique, Flight, Vanish and Mount Armor Transformation!

For a time, we could only stare at the sky in speechlessness.

I said with a deep frown on my face, "Red Maple couldn’t have chosen a better time to ascend, could he? Can anyone tell me what that Vanish does?"

He Yi did a quick check before saying, "It increases the drop rate by 20%..."

"Right. Never get killed by Red Maple, y’all."

"Don’t worry, Red Maple is just a small fry we can kill at any time…"

"Yeah. If he dares to show his face, don’t hesitate to wipe the floor with him!"

……

We entered the vast Lost Forest about two plus hours later. There were barely any Chinese players in the vicinity, but a ton of Japanese and unaffiliated players. I could see a lot of players whispering among themselves after they saw our convoy. I had no doubt that our location had already been revealed to Swallow Ear Canton.

"Stay alert, everyone. I’m certain we’ll be PvPing in half an hour at most…" I said while licking my lips.

"Will Red Maple show up, I wonder?" Li Chengfeng asked smilingly.

I smiled back. "I cannot wait…"

"That’s what I think too, hehe!"

……

Less than ten minutes later, a group of 2,000 players emerged from the forest. The blue bird on their shoulder marked them as players of Asuka Period, the third greatest guild in the China server. Their guild leader, Shogunate, was leading them with his scepter gripped tightly in his hand. A malicious grin danced across his lips as he said, "According to reliable sources, the Little Heavenly King and his goons are performing an SSS Rank quest. The China server will suffer a blow if we manage to disrupt it."

An axe-wielding knight beside him asked, "Should we attack them now, or?"

"Are you in a hurry to die or something?" Shogunate rolled his eyes at his player before explaining, "You don’t think they’re noobs, are you? Every single player in their party possesses the power to solo a small army. Hmph! There is no need to rush this. They can’t act as they pleased because they need to protect the convoy, so we’re going to use that to bring that down. Tell our archers and mages to spread out and get into position. Once they’ve formed an encirclement, we’ll launch a coordinated assault and defeat them all in one go. Be careful though. They have two gods in their party; the Little Heavenly King himself and that murderous devil of Final Duel Valley, Legendary Brave. It won’t be easy to defeat them. Try to chain-stun them and kill them before they break free!"

"Got it, boss!"

……

We heard everything clearly, and Beiming Xue asked me, "Are we just going to let them surround us, big brother? It seems a bit too passive…"

"Since when did I say that we’re going to let them do as they please?"

I unsheathed my sword and declared with a smile, "Eve, Little Gui, stay here and protect the convoy with everyone. Chengfeng, follow me to stamp out their morale. Divine players are excellent against large groups, and Unusual Physique will prevent us from being stunned, slowed or even critted most of the time. There is nothing to worry about!"

"Heh, got it. I’ll attack from the left, and you from the right. Let’s race and see who can take out that idiot, Shogunate, first!"

"Mn!"

……

Swhoosh!

A couple of green foxtails swayed back and forth as I flew toward the enemy at a low altitude. I appeared a hundred meters away from the convoy in no time before swooping down on a group of archers, smirking. "You really should’ve waited until your party was bigger!"

I raised my sword and cast the Death skill of Xuanyuan Art!

All players within the area of effect lost 70% of their HP instantly. The Asuka Period players tried to heal themselves, but there was no way they could do it fast enough to offset my following strike.

Flying so low to the ground that my feet were almost touching the grass, I moved parallel to the enemy’s formation and dropped Ancient Seal after Ancient Seal on top of them. With just 30% or so HP left, not one of them was able to tank my Divine General Skill. Death screams filled the air instantly.

"Lock him down with Shock Arrows!" A high-level archer roared.

A volley of arrows immediately flew toward me, but they bounced off the energy shield of my Unusual Physique and dealt less than 100 damage per hit. I hadn’t even activated Profound Armor yet. It was an exhilarating feeling to say the least.

I flew straight into the middle of the enemies and executed Burning Blade Slash + Thousand Ice Slash combo, reaping lives like I was reaping wheat. At the same time, bloodcurdling screams were erupting from the other side of Asuka Period’s formation as well. I had no doubt that they were caused by Li Chengfeng.

……

It was clear that the 2,000 players Asuka Period had assembled in haste couldn’t even threaten me or Li Chengfeng, much less the rest of our party. Moreover, their status condition skills were largely useless against us due to our Unusual Physique. In fact, we hadn’t been stunned even once since the start of the battle. The gap between a divine player and a non-divine player was simply too huge. Not only were we almost immune to status effect skills, we could attack from the sky and we didn’t suffer from turn rate penalties. It was like we were mowing down mobs.

"Shit! This cannot continue!"

Shogunate growled, "Retreat! We will return after our main cavalry force has arrived! The mages and archers of the eastern leveling ground simply aren’t good enough to fight Ancient Sword! Their level is too low!"

I flew at top speed before stopping directly in front of Shogunate. Sword wreathed in flames, I smiled at him and said, "Do you really think you can escape, Shogunate?"

"Do you really think I can’t?" To my surprise, Shogunate declared with a smirk before summoning a fiery magical shield around him. I see. Whatever this magical shield was, he must be very confident in its ability to protect him!

……

"Stop him! Use Charge!"

A dozen or so magic knights Charged toward me in an attempt to protect their guild leader. I simply smiled, concentrated a great amount of divine energy on my blade, and unleashed them in a whip-like form! Burning Blade Slash!

Bang bang bang…

All of the magic knights were sent flying into the air at the end of the skill. 9 of them were dead, and 3 more were almost dead.

I raced up to Shogunate and dropped Myriad Swords Obliteration + Ancient Seal on top of him!

Bang bang…

As it turned out, Shogunate’s confidence wasn’t completely unfounded. My ranged combo had only managed to shatter his Magic Shield. Still, he wouldn’t be able to resummon it until a couple seconds later. This was my chance to one-shot him!

Swhoosh!

I threw my sword at him and used Coiling Dragon Revolution!

Shogunate exclaimed in shock, "Shit!"

He hurriedly Blinked away to safety. His skill was impressive, and he actually managed to figure out where I was aiming. My Coiling Dragon Revolution missed him completely.

……

However, my movement speed was more than enough to make up for my mistake. After I came to a stop behind Shogunate, I caught the Xuanyuan Sword in mid-flight before stabbing him in the back with a flaming cone!

Pu!

2,765,521!

……

Shogunate looked back at me with eyes full of rage and resentment as his HP dropped all the way to zero. "I will be back!"

Pulling out my sword from his body I recited him his last words. "Sure, just be back with more people, okay?"

1. E/N: “It’s a dumb idea but just do it for no reason! Did he forget leveling up to 255 can make someone a divine player? Why the fuck would he waste it on Li Chengfeng that’s already a god??????? ☜

Thanks to proper planning and coordination, the Quasi-Divine Rank Earthwalker couldn’t help but lose HP despite its best attempts to thwart us. When its HP fell to 2% or so, I said, "Kill it while I hold its attention, Chengfeng. You can gain more experience that way. I’m almost at the level cap, so this bit of experience doesn’t matter to me…"

Li Chengfeng disagreed, "But your Luck is more than double of mine! We’ll get much better equipment if you’re the one who kills the boss!"

"I’m your boss, so just do as I say[1], dude!"

"Yes, party leader!"

……

I cast Magic Piercing Punch repeatedly to gain a large amount of threat in a short amount of time. Then, I endured the boss's attacks even though the Dihai Shield looked like it was about to turn into a sieve. While this was going on, Li Chengfeng hit the boss with Dragonblade Revolution, Dragonbone Flurry, Crimson Firmament Slash and more skills until finally, the Earthwalker let out a death groan and died. A column of golden light surrounded Li Chengfeng and increased his level to 257.

Pop pop pop…

A ton of equipment and items erupted from the boss's body. I ran up to them with a grin on my face. "Let’s hope it drops a lot of Perfect Divine Crystals. That is what we need the most right now!"

He Yi chuckled. "Let’s hope so."

The boss had dropped 9 Divine Crystals in total, and 3 of them were of 100 Quality. I gave them all to Lu Buyi. Then, I started checking out the equipment drops. Unfortunately, they weren’t very good. For a Quasi-Divine Rank boss, the Earthwalker was surprisingly stingy. I thought it would definitely drop a Ghost Armament or a Divine Armament at least, but all we got was a pair of Ancient Immortal-grade legguards. Gui Guzi won it during a dice roll, and his plan was to sell it for money at the market. These days, Ancient Immortal-grade equipment was almost useless to top-tier players because even their weakest equipment was a Lower Divine Armament. Of course, the same couldn’t be said for the normal players. In Sky City at least, Ancient Immortal-grade pieces of equipment were still the "Divine Armaments" of all middle to high–level players.

……

Standing on top of the dead boss's head, I looked left and right before saying, "It looks like we’ll have to make a detour…"

Captain Morn nodded in agreement. "Convoy, make a right turn and walk around these pits. We’ll continue into Lost Forest after that!"

The NPCs immediately started whipping the giant beasts to turn them around. As the escorts, we followed them as a matter of course.

While walking on a lush plain of grass, I gazed into the distance and said, "The scenery in Purple Grape City is really great. It’s a shame that it’s the Japanese’s settlement. Not only have they invaded us repeatedly, they even attempted to sneak past Sky Ridge to raid Snowy Cathaya’s territory just half a month ago. A centipede dies but never falls down. They are an annoyance for sure…"

Gui Guzi clenched his fists and declared, "There’s an easy way to remedy that. All we need to do is to rally Snowy Cathaya, The Monarch Descends, Blazing Hot Lips, Warsky Alliance and more Sky City guilds, pass through Blood Rose Fortress and take out Wallow Ear Canton in one go. Without their last settlement, they are nothing more than a tiger without fangs."

I shook my head. "You’re underestimating our enemy too much, not to mention that the current situation is so that any movement can trigger a cascade of unpredictable consequences. If we dare to attack Swallow Ear Canton, I guarantee you that the Northern Alliance will invade Wind City through the Fortress of the Iron Halberd, and the Indians will swim to us through the Black Sea. Worst-case scenario, we may not be able to make it back to Sky City and can only watch as we lose our three main cities one by one."

Li Chengfeng chuckled. "Yes, this isn’t something we can decide on a whim. If Little Gui was the commander of this Nation War, I reckon that it would be GG for our server in 10 hours…"

Gui Guzi grimaced. "Fuck you, I’m not that bad."

Li Chengfeng spread his arms. "Bullshit, you are worse than bad."

I said, "Stop arguing and eyes on the front, you two. Anyway, I hope we won’t be fighting another boss with a shitty drop rate but high difficulty like this. There were multiple times I was almost instakilled by its Ice Fire Triple Strike…"

"Haha!"

……

We didn’t go far when a system announcement suddenly resounded across Purple Grape City—

System Announcement: Player "Red Maple" (Japan) triggered an ascension! They have become a god and a Death Divine Throne Guardian! The abilities they obtained are—Unusual Physique, Flight, Vanish and Mount Armor Transformation!

For a time, we could only stare at the sky in speechlessness.

I said with a deep frown on my face, "Red Maple couldn’t have chosen a better time to ascend, could he? Can anyone tell me what that Vanish does?"

He Yi did a quick check before saying, "It increases the drop rate by 20%..."

"Right. Never get killed by Red Maple, y’all."

"Don’t worry, Red Maple is just a small fry we can kill at any time…"

"Yeah. If he dares to show his face, don’t hesitate to wipe the floor with him!"

……

We entered the vast Lost Forest about two plus hours later. There were barely any Chinese players in the vicinity, but a ton of Japanese and unaffiliated players. I could see a lot of players whispering among themselves after they saw our convoy. I had no doubt that our location had already been revealed to Swallow Ear Canton.

"Stay alert, everyone. I’m certain we’ll be PvPing in half an hour at most…" I said while licking my lips.

"Will Red Maple show up, I wonder?" Li Chengfeng asked smilingly.

I smiled back. "I cannot wait…"

"That’s what I think too, hehe!"

……

Less than ten minutes later, a group of 2,000 players emerged from the forest. The blue bird on their shoulder marked them as players of Asuka Period, the third greatest guild in the China server. Their guild leader, Shogunate, was leading them with his scepter gripped tightly in his hand. A malicious grin danced across his lips as he said, "According to reliable sources, the Little Heavenly King and his goons are performing an SSS Rank quest. The China server will suffer a blow if we manage to disrupt it."

An axe-wielding knight beside him asked, "Should we attack them now, or?"

"Are you in a hurry to die or something?" Shogunate rolled his eyes at his player before explaining, "You don’t think they’re noobs, are you? Every single player in their party possesses the power to solo a small army. Hmph! There is no need to rush this. They can’t act as they pleased because they need to protect the convoy, so we’re going to use that to bring that down. Tell our archers and mages to spread out and get into position. Once they’ve formed an encirclement, we’ll launch a coordinated assault and defeat them all in one go. Be careful though. They have two gods in their party; the Little Heavenly King himself and that murderous devil of Final Duel Valley, Legendary Brave. It won’t be easy to defeat them. Try to chain-stun them and kill them before they break free!"

"Got it, boss!"

……

We heard everything clearly, and Beiming Xue asked me, "Are we just going to let them surround us, big brother? It seems a bit too passive…"

"Since when did I say that we’re going to let them do as they please?"

I unsheathed my sword and declared with a smile, "Eve, Little Gui, stay here and protect the convoy with everyone. Chengfeng, follow me to stamp out their morale. Divine players are excellent against large groups, and Unusual Physique will prevent us from being stunned, slowed or even critted most of the time. There is nothing to worry about!"

"Heh, got it. I’ll attack from the left, and you from the right. Let’s race and see who can take out that idiot, Shogunate, first!"

"Mn!"

……

Swhoosh!

A couple of green foxtails swayed back and forth as I flew toward the enemy at a low altitude. I appeared a hundred meters away from the convoy in no time before swooping down on a group of archers, smirking. "You really should’ve waited until your party was bigger!"

I raised my sword and cast the Death skill of Xuanyuan Art!

All players within the area of effect lost 70% of their HP instantly. The Asuka Period players tried to heal themselves, but there was no way they could do it fast enough to offset my following strike.

Flying so low to the ground that my feet were almost touching the grass, I moved parallel to the enemy’s formation and dropped Ancient Seal after Ancient Seal on top of them. With just 30% or so HP left, not one of them was able to tank my Divine General Skill. Death screams filled the air instantly.

"Lock him down with Shock Arrows!" A high-level archer roared.

A volley of arrows immediately flew toward me, but they bounced off the energy shield of my Unusual Physique and dealt less than 100 damage per hit. I hadn’t even activated Profound Armor yet. It was an exhilarating feeling to say the least.

I flew straight into the middle of the enemies and executed Burning Blade Slash + Thousand Ice Slash combo, reaping lives like I was reaping wheat. At the same time, bloodcurdling screams were erupting from the other side of Asuka Period’s formation as well. I had no doubt that they were caused by Li Chengfeng.

……

It was clear that the 2,000 players Asuka Period had assembled in haste couldn’t even threaten me or Li Chengfeng, much less the rest of our party. Moreover, their status condition skills were largely useless against us due to our Unusual Physique. In fact, we hadn’t been stunned even once since the start of the battle. The gap between a divine player and a non-divine player was simply too huge. Not only were we almost immune to status effect skills, we could attack from the sky and we didn’t suffer from turn rate penalties. It was like we were mowing down mobs.

"Shit! This cannot continue!"

Shogunate growled, "Retreat! We will return after our main cavalry force has arrived! The mages and archers of the eastern leveling ground simply aren’t good enough to fight Ancient Sword! Their level is too low!"

I flew at top speed before stopping directly in front of Shogunate. Sword wreathed in flames, I smiled at him and said, "Do you really think you can escape, Shogunate?"

"Do you really think I can’t?" To my surprise, Shogunate declared with a smirk before summoning a fiery magical shield around him. I see. Whatever this magical shield was, he must be very confident in its ability to protect him!

……

"Stop him! Use Charge!"

A dozen or so magic knights Charged toward me in an attempt to protect their guild leader. I simply smiled, concentrated a great amount of divine energy on my blade, and unleashed them in a whip-like form! Burning Blade Slash!

Bang bang bang…

All of the magic knights were sent flying into the air at the end of the skill. 9 of them were dead, and 3 more were almost dead.

I raced up to Shogunate and dropped Myriad Swords Obliteration + Ancient Seal on top of him!

Bang bang…

As it turned out, Shogunate’s confidence wasn’t completely unfounded. My ranged combo had only managed to shatter his Magic Shield. Still, he wouldn’t be able to resummon it until a couple seconds later. This was my chance to one-shot him!

Swhoosh!

I threw my sword at him and used Coiling Dragon Revolution!

Shogunate exclaimed in shock, "Shit!"

He hurriedly Blinked away to safety. His skill was impressive, and he actually managed to figure out where I was aiming. My Coiling Dragon Revolution missed him completely.

……

However, my movement speed was more than enough to make up for my mistake. After I came to a stop behind Shogunate, I caught the Xuanyuan Sword in mid-flight before stabbing him in the back with a flaming cone!

Pu!

2,765,521!

……

Shogunate looked back at me with eyes full of rage and resentment as his HP dropped all the way to zero. "I will be back!"

Pulling out my sword from his body I recited him his last words. "Sure, just be back with more people, okay?"

1. E/N: “It’s a dumb idea but just do it for no reason! Did he forget leveling up to 255 can make someone a divine player? Why the fuck would he waste it on Li Chengfeng that’s already a god??????? ☜