I took a moment to change my armor color to pure black, and to create a shadow to cover up my face. Then, I changed the golden hue of the Xuanyuan Sword from gold to black. Now, I looked almost similar to those undead dragon knights.
Pa!
After I climbed onto the Winged Silver Dragon’s back, I said in a hushed voice, “Let’s go. We’re going to fly straight into the inner area of Bloody Hall as fake undead dragon knights! With luck, we may be able to enter the Banished Lands without trouble!”
The Winged Silver Dragon was literally shivering from head to toe as it begged, “Oh, my heroic master’s older brother, is it possible for you to find another dragon to replace me? I worry that my size isn’t big enough to conceal your magnificent physique!”
I slapped its head with my sword and said, “What the fuck should I ride into the air on if not you? A dog? Now get moving. Every second Xinran stays in the Banished Lands is another second of danger. Do you truly not worry about her safety at all?”
“I… I… fine. Just this once, I will be the mount of a brave!”
……
The Winged Silver Dragon carried both me and Uldan into the sky. Gradually, we joined up with a party of undead dragon knights and flew with them for 20 minutes. I actually managed to chat up the dragon knights to the point where they were one dialogue away from asking us to join them for a hot pot dinner when suddenly, the Winged Silver Dragon started descending toward the Bloody Hall.
“Careful! Don’t get too close to the archers!” I warned. There were tens of thousands of miniboss Dark Archers on the castle. We would all be dead if they saw through our disguise.
The Winged Silver Dragon wasn’t a big dragon. In fact, it was smaller than Lin Yixin’s Crimson Crystal Dragon. Although I was a player, a group of Dark Archers still looked up in alarm when we flew over their heads. One of them cried out in warning, “Shit, I smell the stench of a human! That dragon knight is not one of us! Shoot him down now!”
Twang twang twang!
Innumerable bloody arrows struck the Winged Silver Dragon’s stomach constantly. At the same time, I lost a ton of HP. Individually, the Dark Archers weren’t particularly powerful, but they more than made up for it with sheer numbers—
172,376!
197,263!
184,377!
……
In just a moment, we had lost nearly 5 million HP. Thank goodness I had warned the Winged Silver Dragon in time, or we might’ve plummeted to our deaths already! The show of strength by the guards of the Bloody Hall was nothing to scoff at!
“Those damned, filthy worms! They nearly ripped my stomach apart with their arrows!”
The Winged Silver Dragon roared in anger. It wasn’t my real mount, so it actually tanked most of the Dark Archers’ attacks with its own HP. As a result, its wings were covered in arrows, and it was unable to maintain its stable glide any longer. It crashed into a tall building on one side of the castle!
“Fuck…”
I muffled a groan as I barely steered the Winged Silver Dragon to crash through a crystalline window. All three of us rolled across the floor for a moment before I climbed back to my feet and healed myself with Tenacity of the Dead and Dragon Bloodboil. At the same time, I unsheathed the Xuanyuan Sword and examined my surroundings carefully. We had invaded the inner area of Bloody Hall, and I could sense an extraordinary power right in front of me. Unless I was sorely mistaken, the power was none other than Lin Na himself.
Next, I looked outside of the room. There was a long, dark corridor, and a party of Hunters were walking toward us. There were only 15 of them though. They were the scouts of the castle.
……
However, they were just NPC mobs, and their AI wasn’t high. Our rather loud crash landing hadn’t caused too big a commotion. As long as I didn’t attract any aggro, the mobs wouldn’t attack me on their own. If this was real life, the alarm would’ve been sounded, and we should’ve been swarmed by tens of thousands of Hunters already.
I raised my hand and stamped an Ancient Seal in the middle of the Hunter party. They immediately raced toward me.
After I returned into the room, I summoned the Phantom Wolf King and said loudly, “Help me, Winged Silver Dragon! We’re going to take out these Hunters as soon as possible!”
Puchi!
I didn’t even finish my sentence when the Winged Silver Dragon bit a Hunter in the neck, shook its ugly head left and right a couple of times, and pulled the poor undead’s head right off its shoulders. It was a stunning sight alright. I should’ve known that Xinran’s lackey was still stronger than the low rank bosses of this castle.
A bit of fighting later, all 15 Hunters were killed without trouble. I put away the loot and looked out of the door once more. This time, I didn’t see anyone.
Behind me, Uldan said in a soft voice, “Lin Na lives on the bottom fifth floor of Bloody Hall, and we are on the ground floor right now. We need to find a way to get there while drawing as little attention as possible!”
“Got it…”
I pulled my cloak over my head so that I would look like a warrior in black robes. Then, I retrieved a thick iron chain from a corner of the room and clasped it around the Winged Silver Dragon’s neck. Finally, I bent my back so that Uldan would look like my hunched back. As I held the Winged Silver Dragon’s chain, I asked smilingly, “How do I look? I’m the spitting image of a Dark Tamer, aren’t I?”
Uldan smiled back. “Yes, you are…”
The Winged Silver Dragon muttered resentfully, “I’m a Holy Giant Dragon, an ancestor-level dragon among the Holy Giant Dragons no less. I cannot believe someone as noble as I would be led around like a dog one day…”
I yanked at its leash and said in annoyance, “Cut the crap. You should’ve known this would happen when you abandoned Xinran. This is the atonement you deserve, unless you would prefer to be cut into several pieces by Xinran?”
The Winged Silver Dragon’s last bit of resistance evaporated into nothing at the mention of Xinran. It drooped its head and said, “I will throw myself to death for my beautiful master!”
……
With the Winged Silver Dragon behind me, I leisurely walked out of the room and took a moment to analyze the interior structure of the castle. I quickly found the entrance to the second-to-bottom floor, and even better, it was currently unguarded, so we easily reached it.
The ground of the bottom second floor was covered in ice. Behind me, Uldan whispered again, “This is where the great mages reside.”
I nodded and, still keeping a tight hold over the Winged Silver Dragon’s leash, leaped down from the circular hole at the center of the floor and landed on the bottom fifth floor right away. No one ever said that I had to go down the floors methodically. This was clearly the faster and more straightforward way.
I opened the map details. The fifth floor was called also Bloody Hall, and Lin Na’s living quarters were directly ahead of me. However, I would have to pass through a row of bloody rooms to get there.
It would take even longer to walk around the rooms, and I couldn’t wait even a second longer. I walked up to the door and kicked it open.
Bang!
What I saw turned my mind completely blank—
(10000 words omitted here) [1]
……
I unsheathed my sword and slashed toward the wall at the back, yelling, “Mountain Crush!”
My luck was good, and Mountain Crush actually took effect. After a giant hole appeared on the wall, I jumped through it with the Winged Silver Dragon right behind me. The dragon screamed, “Oh, the ecstasy!”
“Are you kidding me right now?” I shouted. We could die at any moment, and this beast is talking about ecstasy!
Directly ahead, a group of guards wielding golden swords rushed toward us while shouting, “Assassin! Kill him!”
The bodyguards were called Dark Blood Guards, and they were Level 334 Ancient Immortal Rank bosses. I counted at least a hundred of them. There was no way I was going to fight them head-on!
Thud!
I jumped over their heads and landed behind them. It was then I saw a huge throne at the center, and Lin Na himself was sitting on it. He was holding Starlight in one hand and hugging a woman with the other. They were playing with each other.
Behind the throne was a blood-red abyss. That had to be the entrance to the Banished Lands!
I sped up! Now was the time to finish this in one spurt of energy!
……
Lin Na abruptly looked up with chilly, bloody eyes. “You again? You dare cause all this trouble in my Purgatory? I will pull out your tendons, skin you alive, and put you through all the punishments there are in the world!”
As the Starlight shone brightly, I finally noticed that Lin Na’s right up was made up of energy. The Hundred Beast Elder did mention that Xinran had cut off one of his arms.
Even so, Lin Na still possessed the power to one-shot me. He was the final boss after all!
Profound Armor!
Heavenly River Transformation!
Xuanyuan Slash!
I clashed swords with Lin Na using my greatest power. All I needed was one opportunity to enter the Banished Lands! Just one!
……
Bang!
There was a terrific explosion, and my arm turned numb from the impact. Before I could react, Lin Na abruptly kicked me in the stomach and dealt over 4 million damage. This guy’s Attack is just crazy! Then, he swung his Starlight at me again!
In response, I yanked at the Winged Silver Dragon’s leash and threw it at Lin Na!
Boom!
The moment the Winged Silver Dragon slammed into Lin Na, I vanished from my original spot and entered the spatial rift in the blink of an eye. Behind me, I heard the Winged Silver Dragon crying, “Oh! Must I atone with my life, despicable older brother of my master? Please take me with you to the Banished Lands! I don’t want to be ravaged by Lin Na…”
1. T/N: if you read ATG, you’ll know what this means ☜
