In front of the three tortoise-like supply carts were 100 guards. They were all Level 320 fiend-rank NPCs. They were fairly strong, but only if they were up against mobs and newbies. If their opponent was someone like Warsky or Candlelight Shadow, then they were no more powerful than a fish on the chopping block.
The captain of the NPCs was a middle-aged uncle wielding a spear. He was an Ancient Immortal Rank miniboss, and his name was “Devil Breaker Guard Morn”.
I nodded in Lu Buyi’s direction before saying, “Shall we start the quest, party leader?”
Lu Buyi replied while holding the Hidden Dragon Fan, “Sure, but uh, please don’t call me party leader. I’m just a stratagem buffer. You are the real leader of this party, not to mention that the guild leader, vice leaders and corps commanders are all here. It’s too much pressure…”
“Yes, yes…”
Lu Buyi walked up to Captain Morn and spoke with him. Very soon, the guard captain raised his spear and let out a confident laugh. “The dew waits for the breeze on the branches, and the bird shit waits to slide off the leaves and hit someone in the head! A new outdoor adventure has begun, and you will all be my companions for the trip. I hope that there will be prey who are foolish enough to challenge our group!”
I didn’t say anything. If nothing else, Captain Morn had arrogance in spades.
And so we took off at a slow pace. The supply carts moved very slowly—I estimated that their movement speed was only one-third of a mage player’s walking speed—so we had to stop from time to time to allow the supply carts to catch up with us.
I looked around with Dark Pupils. Each supply cart had 10 million max HP and 500k Defense, which seemed like a lot at first glance until you remembered that it didn’t take long at all for a group of mobs or even players to delete them. I couldn’t help but worry about it.
In the sky, He Yi ordered while holding the Suppressing Fire Sword, “Lu Chen, go to the front and open up the path for us. Li Chengfeng, stay at the back and protect our rear. Gui Guzi, Beiming, Lian Xin, protect the center supply cart. Lian Xin and Beiming, make sure you stay close enough to the supply carts that your attacks can cover all three of them. Finally, remember to change your attack mode to party.”
“Mn!”
Everyone nodded in unison.
As we continued along the path, a progress bar suddenly appeared above our interface screen. It was much longer than your usual progress bar, and it was progressing at a snail’s pace. It was impossible to say when we would reach Purple Grape City, not to mention that there was no way we would encounter no attackers along the way. It wouldn’t be classified as an SSS+ Rank quest otherwise.
I hovered about three meters above the ground and scanned our surroundings with Dark Pupils at all times, unwilling to allow even the slightest traces to escape my notice. Failure was not an option. The gang could afford to lose 5 levels, but I could not. Without exaggeration, to drop from Level 265 to Level 270 was like losing over half a year of progress…
“Chengfeng!” I shouted.
“Hmm? What is it?” Li Chengfeng answered from the back of the convoy.
I thought for a moment before answering, “Have Chaos Moon and High Fighting Spirits lead several groups of 10,000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen and Archers to grind around Purple Grape City. While I’m fairly confident that we won’t be attacked while we’re still within Floating Ice City’s borders, the same cannot be said when we enter Ice River Canton’s ruins. At the very least, Red Maple, Cyan Frost and more will be more than happy to make us fail our quest. I want our people to be able to retaliate the second our enemies try anything.”
Li Chengfeng nodded. “Got it. I’ll speak with Chaos Moon right now. By the way, can we bring several tens of thousands Holy Mages as well? I’ve seen how they slaughtered the Gold Cavalry before. In a large enough group, a single Encourage will turn them into meat grinders that will mow down anything.”
“Sure. Use them at your own discretion.”
……
Less than ten minutes later, while our three supply carts were passing through the forest, Beiming Xue suddenly pointed to the right on her Fire Phoenix and cried, “Look, someone’s coming to raid us…”
It wasn’t long before a bunch of mobs only 40 centimeters tall burst out of the foliage and charged straight toward us. It was a little devil wearing a red hat and wielding a rusted axe. At least a thousand of them were rushing toward us and shouting, “Get them! Steal their supplies! They must be hiding something good in those shells!”
At the same time, a skull appeared at the starting point of the quest progress bar. Unless I was sorely mistaken, the skull was referring to this monster attack.
“Pu…”
He Yi burst out in laughter. “Level 250 dread-rank Redcap Goblins? Is the game looking down on us or what?”
I asked, “Who wants to take them out?”
Gui Guzi offered, “Allow me!”
He commanded his Dark Crystal Dragon to swoop down on the mobs before hitting them all with a blade aura from his Ghostblade Halberd. Beiming Xue supported him with a Skypiercer, and Lian Xin dropped Sea of Flames around the supply carts to prevent the Redcap Goblins from getting over. They could try, but Lian Xin’s Magic Attack was so high that they would die long before they passed through the Sea of Flames.
I didn’t participate in the action because it was unnecessary. Just three of our members were enough to take out the thousands of Redcap Goblins. Four of the Twelve Divine Armaments—the Xuanyuan Sword, the Ghostblade Halberd, the Xuanming Bow and the Seven-string Yaoqin—were in our hands after all. We had nothing to worry about in the first couple of waves at least.
……
The convoy continued its way after we took care of the wave of Redcap Goblins. At the back, Li Chengfeng let out a cough and said, “Dammit, my hands are itchy. I didn’t even get to kill a single mob. How about Lu Chen and I deal with the next wave ourselves?”
Pure Love chuckled. “Where is your pride as a CGL Hall of Famer? Just leave the goblins to us noobs to kill, dude…”
Lu Buyi nodded in agreement. “Yes, we can handle them ourselves…”
I shrugged. “Do whatever you want. Speak up if you think you need our help.”
……
I opened the map screen to look at our travel route. While I was doing so, a lot of players grinding next to the path stopped whatever they were looking to stare at our party. Since we hadn’t hidden our IDs, they could see our guild emblems and IDs as clear as day. Naturally, it started quite the commotion—
“Holy shit! They are all the greatest players of Ancient Sword! Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, Legendary Brave, Gui Guzi, Beiming Xue, Lian Xing, and more CGL Hall of Famers are present as well! This is crazy!”
“What are they doing surrounding those three NPC carts?”
“Maybe they’re doing a quest? It’s obvious that those carts are supply carts, so maybe this is a supply escort quest or something…”
“Do you want to try raiding them?”
“I have no idea you have so many heads to spare. Go get ’em then. I’ll be wishing you luck all the way.”
“…”
……
It wasn’t long before the road led down a narrow path surrounded by two steep mountains. It was “Broken Stone Ridge”, and it was the territory of the Wild Beastmen.
“Be careful. I have a feeling that we’re going to encounter another wave very soon…” I said smilingly.
Gui Guzi answered confidently, “No problem. Just leave it to us…”
“Mn mn!” Beiming Xue looked eager as well.
It was at this moment a great number of beastmen appeared at the top of the ridges. They all wielded axes. “Those supply carts belong to the Violet Empire! Kill the undead guards and steal their supplies! It is time to pay back that bitch, Sophia, for dispatching her troops to attack our tribes!”
A sea of Wild Beastmen rushed down from both sides of the path toward us. They were Level 275 fiend-rank mobs, so they were way, way stronger than the Redcap Goblins.
“I’ll help!”
This time, He Yi joined the fight and fired sword auras from atop her Snow Crystal Dragon. Beiming Xue and Lian Xin remained close with the supply carts to prevent the mobs from attacking them.
Lu Buyi also fired off waves of Dragon Vein Art at the incoming beastmen. His Attack was pretty high and on par with a second-rate mage.
The Wild Beastmen were no match for our party, of course. They fell like wheats.
“Shit!”
Suddenly, Li Chengfeng let out a shout and pointed at a group of red beastmen. “Those beastmen are Axe-throwing Beastmen, and they possess the ability to attack from range! Oh no!”
As if on cue, the Axe-throwing Beastmen threw their axes at the supply carts and dealt between 500 to 1000 damage or so. The supply carts only had so much HP, and we still had a long way ahead of us. There was no way they could endure for long if we continued to allow the beastmen to rain axes on them!
“Chengfeng, let’s clear out those ranged mobs as soon as possible!”
Li Chengfeng and I took off toward the mountain ridge together. I flew along the mountain ridge and dropped a dozen or so Ancient Seals in rapid succession. My Tactics was high, and my stats were far superior to the Level 275 dread-rank mobs’. As a result, one Ancient Seal was almost enough to one-shot them.
It was a bit of a messy fight, but we ultimately were able to resolve the crisis and continue toward our destination.
……
As we continued, the Dragonbone Mountain Range appeared on the horizon. There was also a fortress on top of it. It was none other than the Bloody Rose Fortress we had fought at a long time ago.
I flew up to the fortress before yelling at Sky City NPCs below me, “Violet Empire is transporting a batch of supplies to Purple Grape City. Please open the gate for us!”
The Sky City NPC nodded like a bird the moment he saw my Sky City military rank. “Yes sir, right away, sir!”
We were able to pass through Bloody Rose Fortress and enter the plains of Purple Grape without any trouble. It had been a long time since we had come here. From my perspective, I could see the frozen Impassable Great Wall on one side and the Wallow—pooh, I mean Swallow Ear Canton the Japanese were relying on to survive in Heavenblessed. However, our travel route didn’t take us through Swallow Ear Canton, and we were escorting a bunch of valuable supplies right now. It would be wise for us to keep a low profile.
He Yi pointed to the north and said, “We will be arriving at the ruins of Ice River Canton after we pass through Lost Forest. There is an encampment of Protective Umbrella players in that area, and we will be much safer once we’ve reached them.”
“Yes, let us continue. It looks like the convoy was headed toward that direction anyway…”
……
Li Chengfeng smiled and tried to say something, but the ground directly in front of us suddenly collapsed without warning. Before long, the ground beneath our feet was the only piece of land that was still intact. A huge flaming claw clung to the edge, and an ugly head emerged from the pit and smiled savagely. “I smell fresh meat!”
“Fuck…”
Li Chengfeng’s smile froze on his face.
