1591

Bang!

My sword struck against the thick, hard ice, causing the glacier itself to shake a little. The attack successfully left a one-meter-deep gorge on the ice, but from the looks of it there was another 9 meters to go at least.

"Keep it up! Use your Ancient Divine Skill this time!" Lin Yixin encouraged me from above.

"Yeah!"

I raised the Xuanyuan Sword and summoned a gigantic golden blade. According to the new patch, Ancient Divine Skills that were matched with the right weapon—for example, my Xuanyuan Slash and the Xuanyuan Sword—would have their hidden power increased by 20%. If the Axe of Pangu was matched with Pangu’s Axe, then its power would be increased by 25%. Unfortunately for Candlelight Shadow, the Axe of Pangu was in High Fighting Spirits’ hands right now. On a related note, Li Chengfeng’s Crimson Firmament Slash should be used together with the Crimson Firmament Sword, but unfortunately, the Divine Armament hadn’t made its appearance yet. It seemed that Li Chengfeng would have to use the Cyan Peak Halberd a bit longer.

Bang!

The ice shook, and the gorge deepened to 4 meters or so. I then followed up with Burning Blade Slash. My sword’s Mountain Crush effect was practically magical in situations like this, allowing me to dig through the ice like a Transformer. It wasn’t long before I was almost through the ice. It was around this time Lin Yixin called out to me again, "Faster, Little Cheat! I see another group of Chaotic 27 players approaching us from a distance! They belong to the same guild, and they’re clearly here for revenge! My spy within the Chaotic 27 also just informed me that they had made a server-wide announcement[1] and are organizing their troops to hunt us down!"

I chuckled incredulously without stopping my work, "Seriously? They’re going to mobilize their main troops just to deal with us two? What are they gonna do if we fly or return-scroll away to safety? Wouldn’t it just be a waste of time then?"

She giggled. "I bet it’s because they have nothing else to do. Their maps are of poor Quality and quantity, and the ones beyond are too high-level for them to beat. Perhaps that is why they grew to become as bloodthirsty as the players in the outer lands. Anyway, dig faster already. We have nothing to fear once we’ve entered the Immortal Cloud Ice Cave."

"Yeah. And even if we’re too late, we can still kick their ass anyway!"

"Heehee. Good, good!’

A tiny warmth flickered in my heart. I might not be able to cause havoc with her in the future, which is why I should appreciate our time together even more.

……

Boom! I finally cut through the icy layer of the glacier completely. I had opened a round hole about 4 meters in diameter beneath my feet. I couldn’t see anything beneath the hole except some reflected light, but the system notified me that I was close to the Immortal Cloud Ice Cave. This is it!

An unnatural dark cloud gathered above my head and spat lightning at something I couldn’t see. I had no doubt it was Lin Yixin casting Thundercloud Storm at some foes and killing them. My map screen also revealed a lot of red dots converging on our location from all sides. They were clearly Chaotic 27 players.

"It’s through, Yiyi! Come down now!" I said in the party channel.

"Mn!"

With a bloodied blade in hand, Lin Yixin descended from above and right through the hole I had made. I jumped down after her and received a system notice: You have entered the map "Immortal Cloud Ice Cave"!

……

Thud!

I grabbed Lin Yixin’s hand mid-flight and pulled her to the right. Above us, a dozen or so Chaotic 27 magic knights had also jumped through the hole in an attempt to catch up to us. There was just a tiny problem, however. One man noticed the endless abyss beneath their feet and screamed like a pig, "Oh no! There’s no land down here! We’re all going to fall to our deaths! Those cunning motherfuckers!"

All the players who had jumped into the hole fell several hundred meters before skewering themselves over a pit of icicles. Lin Yixin and I were perfectly unharmed as a matter of course. The Flight ability allowed a divine player to navigate nearly any type of terrain. It certainly wasn’t something a normal player could hope to match. If they insisted on fighting us here, they were going to lose a lot of men.

Some arrows sailed harmlessly past us as their archers attempted to shoot through the hole. A while later, someone roared, "Fuck! The magic knights who jumped into the hole and died from fall damage have confirmed that the map they entered was the Immortal Cloud Ice Cave. That accursed Little Heavenly King had dug through the icy layer and made his own way into the map! Contact the Northern Alliance[2] and tell them to dispatch a troop of griffin riders to reinforce us now! Our flying players are assembling as well. Once everyone is ready, we will fly into the map and kill them dead!"

I shook my head incredulously when I heard that. "Are they seriously going to keep up the pursuit? Just how bored are they?"

Still holding my hand, Lin Yixin let out a giggle and said, "Come on, let’s stop wasting time on these useless people and gather the Immortal Cloud Grass already!"

"Mn!"

I fully activated my equipment luster to reveal the cave interior in a shower of gold. Just like most ice cave maps, the cave was separated into multiple floors. Normally, a player must find the second floor entrance before they were able to make it to the second floor. Since both Lin Yixin and I could fly though, we didn’t need to find the entrance nor fight our way through floor by floor. We could simply fly to the location of the Immortal Cloud Grass.

"So, which floor is the Immortal Cloud Grass at?" I asked.

We flew close to the walls as Lin Yixin replied, "I’m not sure myself. The Immortal Cloud Grass is a Rank 15 herb, which makes it a boss among herbs. I’m sure it won’t be easy to find. There’s no need to worry though. It shouldn’t take us too long…"

The first floor corridor was filled with Ice Wolves with red eyes. They were Level 325 fiend-rank mobs, and every mob was just two to three meters away from another. A player who wished to grind this floor might have to fight between 3 to 5 Ice Wolves at once. I highly doubted that it would be a pleasant experience.

"Look. I see green light over there. Are they herbs?" I pointed at an ice wall and asked.

Lin Yixin shook her head. "It’s a herb, but it’s not the Immortal Cloud Grass. It’s the Rank 12 Blue Nether Grass that every assassin needs to Envenom their weapon. One set of Blue Nether Grass is sold for 1,000 RMB in Sky City. Expensive, isn’t it?"

"Way too expensive… So, are you going to gather it, or?"

"I don’t wanna. Our goal is to gather the Immortal Cloud Grass, remember? You are now the CEO of Eternal Moon, so why are you still acting like a miser who found a yuan on the ground? Have some dignity…"

"Fine, fine. Let us continue!"

We flew down the first floor and circled around the second floor for a bit. It was at this moment I spotted a bunch of oddly-shaped herbs at the edge of a cliff. I couldn’t help but say, "This is it, right?"

Lin Yixin looked back at me with a disdainful look on her face. "You’ve seen these herbs before, man. It’s the Dragonheart Orchid you gathered with me back at Dragon Domain. How could you forget about it? Do you not love me anymore[3]?"

I immediately hugged her and pecked her once on the cheek. "Of course not. I was testing you to see if you remembered, dear…"

"Shameless…"

"..."

We flew past the third and fourth floors until we reached a flat ground. It was the fifth and final floor of the Immortal Cloud Ice Cave. Surprisingly, the floor was crawling with fire-type mobs called “Fire Bears”. They were Level 335 deity-rank mobs with super-high Attack and incredible HP.

"Look…" Lin Yixin pointed around her. "There are 7 cave entrances in the main hall, and one of them leads to the boss's location. I suspect that we will find the herb next to the boss. It is an invaluable Rank 15 herb after all. This means that we will have to kill the boss before we can gather the Immortal Cloud Grass[4]…"

I nodded. "No problem. With our current stats, we can beat most bosses without a priest. Your Bombshell is an extra layer of assurance as well."

"Yeah. Should we explore the caves one by one?"

"Sure. Let’s take out the Fire Bears blocking the leftmost cave first. I’m going!"

"Yeah!"

I descended on top of the Fire Bears and treated them to Burning Blade Slash. After I landed on the ground, I backed a few steps and executed War Crush that deleted the HP of an entire group of Fire Bears. Then, Lin Yixin landed behind them and cast Ice Flame Slash that killed them all. The mobs dropped a surprising amount of equipment pieces. Lin Yixin must’ve gotten a lot of Luck after becoming the second highest contributor in the recent Nation War. Her drop rate wasn’t far behind mine now.

I ignored the drops and focused on killing the mobs outside of the cave while Lin Yixin flew inside to scout. Less than three seconds later, she came out and shook her head at me. "It’s a dud. Let’s go to the second cave after we clear out the mobs!"

"Okay!"

……

After clearing out 4 caves’ worth of mobs, we finally found what we were looking for. The corners of my lips turned up as I said, "This is it. I can see a big red dot with my Dark Pupils!"

"There’s no hurry. Let’s clear out the rest of the mobs first!"

"Mn!"

A few minutes later, all of the Fire Bears transformed into experience for Lin Yixin. I got nothing because I was at the max level already.

I turned around and entered the cave carefully. An icy sensation immediately gripped my entire body. It felt like I had entered a freezer or something. Lin Yixin’s teeth nearly shattered as she followed right behind me, "Heavens, it’s so cold inside…"

I smiled. "Look, I think the boss is hibernating or something…"

"Yeah!"

A huge beast with azure fur was sleeping soundly on the ground before us. It looked like a massive lion. Its ID said—

Ice Lion King (Quasi-Divine Rank Boss)

Level: 335

……

"Quasi-Divine Rank…"

Lin Yixin grimaced before shooting me a smile. "Do you think you can kill it?"

I raised the Xuanyuan Sword and declared confidently, "Yeah. I’m level-capped, so this is about as short as the power gap can get. I’m certain we can kill it with my Profound Armor and 50% lifesteal. That said, let’s try and use Intercourse as often as possible to speed up our progress. I can sense a lot of Chaotic 27 players outside, and I don’t want them to disturb us in the middle of a boss fight…"

"Yeah. Let’s go!"

1. T/N: she’s referring to player shout I believe ☜

2. T/N: the fuck, this seems to suggest that the ten guild leaders are still in charge despite their catastrophic failure. Get your act together Ẅho Will Fight Me ☜

3. T/N: what a trauma-inducing line this is ☜

4. T/N: that herbalist who fell down a hole and into this map must be INCREDIBLY lucky then ☜

Bang!

My sword struck against the thick, hard ice, causing the glacier itself to shake a little. The attack successfully left a one-meter-deep gorge on the ice, but from the looks of it there was another 9 meters to go at least.

"Keep it up! Use your Ancient Divine Skill this time!" Lin Yixin encouraged me from above.

"Yeah!"

I raised the Xuanyuan Sword and summoned a gigantic golden blade. According to the new patch, Ancient Divine Skills that were matched with the right weapon—for example, my Xuanyuan Slash and the Xuanyuan Sword—would have their hidden power increased by 20%. If the Axe of Pangu was matched with Pangu’s Axe, then its power would be increased by 25%. Unfortunately for Candlelight Shadow, the Axe of Pangu was in High Fighting Spirits’ hands right now. On a related note, Li Chengfeng’s Crimson Firmament Slash should be used together with the Crimson Firmament Sword, but unfortunately, the Divine Armament hadn’t made its appearance yet. It seemed that Li Chengfeng would have to use the Cyan Peak Halberd a bit longer.

Bang!

The ice shook, and the gorge deepened to 4 meters or so. I then followed up with Burning Blade Slash. My sword’s Mountain Crush effect was practically magical in situations like this, allowing me to dig through the ice like a Transformer. It wasn’t long before I was almost through the ice. It was around this time Lin Yixin called out to me again, "Faster, Little Cheat! I see another group of Chaotic 27 players approaching us from a distance! They belong to the same guild, and they’re clearly here for revenge! My spy within the Chaotic 27 also just informed me that they had made a server-wide announcement[1] and are organizing their troops to hunt us down!"

I chuckled incredulously without stopping my work, "Seriously? They’re going to mobilize their main troops just to deal with us two? What are they gonna do if we fly or return-scroll away to safety? Wouldn’t it just be a waste of time then?"

She giggled. "I bet it’s because they have nothing else to do. Their maps are of poor Quality and quantity, and the ones beyond are too high-level for them to beat. Perhaps that is why they grew to become as bloodthirsty as the players in the outer lands. Anyway, dig faster already. We have nothing to fear once we’ve entered the Immortal Cloud Ice Cave."

"Yeah. And even if we’re too late, we can still kick their ass anyway!"

"Heehee. Good, good!’

A tiny warmth flickered in my heart. I might not be able to cause havoc with her in the future, which is why I should appreciate our time together even more.

……

Boom! I finally cut through the icy layer of the glacier completely. I had opened a round hole about 4 meters in diameter beneath my feet. I couldn’t see anything beneath the hole except some reflected light, but the system notified me that I was close to the Immortal Cloud Ice Cave. This is it!

An unnatural dark cloud gathered above my head and spat lightning at something I couldn’t see. I had no doubt it was Lin Yixin casting Thundercloud Storm at some foes and killing them. My map screen also revealed a lot of red dots converging on our location from all sides. They were clearly Chaotic 27 players.

"It’s through, Yiyi! Come down now!" I said in the party channel.

"Mn!"

With a bloodied blade in hand, Lin Yixin descended from above and right through the hole I had made. I jumped down after her and received a system notice: You have entered the map "Immortal Cloud Ice Cave"!

……

Thud!

I grabbed Lin Yixin’s hand mid-flight and pulled her to the right. Above us, a dozen or so Chaotic 27 magic knights had also jumped through the hole in an attempt to catch up to us. There was just a tiny problem, however. One man noticed the endless abyss beneath their feet and screamed like a pig, "Oh no! There’s no land down here! We’re all going to fall to our deaths! Those cunning motherfuckers!"

All the players who had jumped into the hole fell several hundred meters before skewering themselves over a pit of icicles. Lin Yixin and I were perfectly unharmed as a matter of course. The Flight ability allowed a divine player to navigate nearly any type of terrain. It certainly wasn’t something a normal player could hope to match. If they insisted on fighting us here, they were going to lose a lot of men.

Some arrows sailed harmlessly past us as their archers attempted to shoot through the hole. A while later, someone roared, "Fuck! The magic knights who jumped into the hole and died from fall damage have confirmed that the map they entered was the Immortal Cloud Ice Cave. That accursed Little Heavenly King had dug through the icy layer and made his own way into the map! Contact the Northern Alliance[2] and tell them to dispatch a troop of griffin riders to reinforce us now! Our flying players are assembling as well. Once everyone is ready, we will fly into the map and kill them dead!"

I shook my head incredulously when I heard that. "Are they seriously going to keep up the pursuit? Just how bored are they?"

Still holding my hand, Lin Yixin let out a giggle and said, "Come on, let’s stop wasting time on these useless people and gather the Immortal Cloud Grass already!"

"Mn!"

I fully activated my equipment luster to reveal the cave interior in a shower of gold. Just like most ice cave maps, the cave was separated into multiple floors. Normally, a player must find the second floor entrance before they were able to make it to the second floor. Since both Lin Yixin and I could fly though, we didn’t need to find the entrance nor fight our way through floor by floor. We could simply fly to the location of the Immortal Cloud Grass.

"So, which floor is the Immortal Cloud Grass at?" I asked.

We flew close to the walls as Lin Yixin replied, "I’m not sure myself. The Immortal Cloud Grass is a Rank 15 herb, which makes it a boss among herbs. I’m sure it won’t be easy to find. There’s no need to worry though. It shouldn’t take us too long…"

The first floor corridor was filled with Ice Wolves with red eyes. They were Level 325 fiend-rank mobs, and every mob was just two to three meters away from another. A player who wished to grind this floor might have to fight between 3 to 5 Ice Wolves at once. I highly doubted that it would be a pleasant experience.

"Look. I see green light over there. Are they herbs?" I pointed at an ice wall and asked.

Lin Yixin shook her head. "It’s a herb, but it’s not the Immortal Cloud Grass. It’s the Rank 12 Blue Nether Grass that every assassin needs to Envenom their weapon. One set of Blue Nether Grass is sold for 1,000 RMB in Sky City. Expensive, isn’t it?"

"Way too expensive… So, are you going to gather it, or?"

"I don’t wanna. Our goal is to gather the Immortal Cloud Grass, remember? You are now the CEO of Eternal Moon, so why are you still acting like a miser who found a yuan on the ground? Have some dignity…"

"Fine, fine. Let us continue!"

We flew down the first floor and circled around the second floor for a bit. It was at this moment I spotted a bunch of oddly-shaped herbs at the edge of a cliff. I couldn’t help but say, "This is it, right?"

Lin Yixin looked back at me with a disdainful look on her face. "You’ve seen these herbs before, man. It’s the Dragonheart Orchid you gathered with me back at Dragon Domain. How could you forget about it? Do you not love me anymore[3]?"

I immediately hugged her and pecked her once on the cheek. "Of course not. I was testing you to see if you remembered, dear…"

"Shameless…"

"..."

We flew past the third and fourth floors until we reached a flat ground. It was the fifth and final floor of the Immortal Cloud Ice Cave. Surprisingly, the floor was crawling with fire-type mobs called “Fire Bears”. They were Level 335 deity-rank mobs with super-high Attack and incredible HP.

"Look…" Lin Yixin pointed around her. "There are 7 cave entrances in the main hall, and one of them leads to the boss's location. I suspect that we will find the herb next to the boss. It is an invaluable Rank 15 herb after all. This means that we will have to kill the boss before we can gather the Immortal Cloud Grass[4]…"

I nodded. "No problem. With our current stats, we can beat most bosses without a priest. Your Bombshell is an extra layer of assurance as well."

"Yeah. Should we explore the caves one by one?"

"Sure. Let’s take out the Fire Bears blocking the leftmost cave first. I’m going!"

"Yeah!"

I descended on top of the Fire Bears and treated them to Burning Blade Slash. After I landed on the ground, I backed a few steps and executed War Crush that deleted the HP of an entire group of Fire Bears. Then, Lin Yixin landed behind them and cast Ice Flame Slash that killed them all. The mobs dropped a surprising amount of equipment pieces. Lin Yixin must’ve gotten a lot of Luck after becoming the second highest contributor in the recent Nation War. Her drop rate wasn’t far behind mine now.

I ignored the drops and focused on killing the mobs outside of the cave while Lin Yixin flew inside to scout. Less than three seconds later, she came out and shook her head at me. "It’s a dud. Let’s go to the second cave after we clear out the mobs!"

"Okay!"

……

After clearing out 4 caves’ worth of mobs, we finally found what we were looking for. The corners of my lips turned up as I said, "This is it. I can see a big red dot with my Dark Pupils!"

"There’s no hurry. Let’s clear out the rest of the mobs first!"

"Mn!"

A few minutes later, all of the Fire Bears transformed into experience for Lin Yixin. I got nothing because I was at the max level already.

I turned around and entered the cave carefully. An icy sensation immediately gripped my entire body. It felt like I had entered a freezer or something. Lin Yixin’s teeth nearly shattered as she followed right behind me, "Heavens, it’s so cold inside…"

I smiled. "Look, I think the boss is hibernating or something…"

"Yeah!"

A huge beast with azure fur was sleeping soundly on the ground before us. It looked like a massive lion. Its ID said—

Ice Lion King (Quasi-Divine Rank Boss)

Level: 335

……

"Quasi-Divine Rank…"

Lin Yixin grimaced before shooting me a smile. "Do you think you can kill it?"

I raised the Xuanyuan Sword and declared confidently, "Yeah. I’m level-capped, so this is about as short as the power gap can get. I’m certain we can kill it with my Profound Armor and 50% lifesteal. That said, let’s try and use Intercourse as often as possible to speed up our progress. I can sense a lot of Chaotic 27 players outside, and I don’t want them to disturb us in the middle of a boss fight…"

"Yeah. Let’s go!"

1. T/N: she’s referring to player shout I believe ☜

2. T/N: the fuck, this seems to suggest that the ten guild leaders are still in charge despite their catastrophic failure. Get your act together Ẅho Will Fight Me ☜

3. T/N: what a trauma-inducing line this is ☜

4. T/N: that herbalist who fell down a hole and into this map must be INCREDIBLY lucky then ☜