“Nonsense!” Bu Yi cried out in shock and embarrassment.
The moment she used Ocean’s Heart to teleport, she appeared right at the entrance of Sakura’s bar. Right after, she saw Lin Jie’s familiar face. Who else would it be but him?
Lin Jie patted Bu Yi’s shoulder, gesturing for her to enter the room. He waved his hands at everybody and said, “Sorry for making you guys worry.”
“Lone Wolf…”
“Jie…”
“F*ck, so you’re actually alright, boss?”
The group of people stood up. What they saw in the video was General’s Tomb, which turned into a sea of blood, with the sky collapsing and the ground cracking. The intensity of this Map Kill was really too terrifying. Yet, Lin Jie was safe and sound, which was an astonishing feat.
“Naturally, I’m alright. I only went to investigate and wasted my time.” Lin Jie smiled. He waved his hand, and the Wind Earl’s body appeared in the room. Although it had become a corpse, the intimidating aura of a general still remained, leaving everybody out of breath.
“Sub-Legendary Overlord, Wind Earl!” Everyone was stunned.
Fat Cattle stuttered, “Boss, it can’t be that you’re so ridiculously overpowered that you can defeat a Sub-Legendary Overlord, right? What the heck are we doing then!?”
Lin Jie rolled his eyes. “Did you really think I’m Superman? It took a lot of luck to kill him. No matter what, absorb this body first. After absorbing a Sub-Legendary Overlord, your stats will increase greatly.”
Lin Jie did not get the happy response from his companions that he was expecting. Instead, their faces revealed a sort of awkward expression.
Lin Jie asked in puzzlement, “What’s wrong? It can’t be that you guys are treating me like an outsider, right?”
Fat Cattle, Qiu Yuan, and Star Kill hesitated to speak. In the end, it was I’m No. 1, the boss of the healing trio, which had little presence in the team, spoke up. He coughed dryly and said, “Three hours ago, we received a challenge letter.”
“Challenge letter?” Lin Jie was shocked.
“Yes, it’s from the Second Savage Blade and Third Savage Blade. Back when you assigned these groups, you said that if their strength were to exceed any members in the First Savage Blade, they would be able to replace them. A few of us… lost.” I’m No. 1 said guiltily.
Netherblue bit her lips and said, “There were a total of 5 challengers, and four of them won. The people who were defeated include I’m No. 1, I’m No. 3, I’m No. 4, and—”
“And me. I’m out.” Qiu Yuan finished Netherblue’s sentence.
“Little Yuan…” Bu Yi tugged at Qiu Yuan’s robe. She knew that Qiu Yuan’s personality was even more stubborn than a bull. Now that she was defeated and might possibly be moved to Second Savage Blade, her pride must have been badly bruised.
Bu Yi sent a message to Lin Jie discreetly. “Can’t you let Little Yuan stay?”
After hearing this, Lin Jie was put in a difficult spot. Although the three members of “I’m No.” were pretty average, they were the kinds who “do not stand out, but also do not make mistakes”. In all the group activities, their performances were very stable, and compared to normal players, they were naturally much stronger. As for Qiu Yuan…
Speaking of Qiu Yuan, Lin Jie came to a sudden realization. He did not know since when, but Qiu Yuan’s presence in the group had become close to zero. It was as if there had been no such person in Lin Jie’s world anymore, and that she was nothing but a stranger.
Thinking of this, Lin Jie was horrified. There were many people in Savage Blade, and Lin Jie was always playing solo, so he had spent little time with the members. However, Bu Yi and Qiu Yuan were best friends. On top of that, whether it was his previous life or the present, he had a deep relationship with her.
Yet today, in this period of time, he had completely forgotten about her presence. ‘Just what in the world happened? It’s not rocket science, doesn’t this mean that she had been purposefully hiding her own presence? But why?’
Lin Jie could not come to an explanation. However, it was currently more important to deal with this situation.
It could be said that without Qiu Yuan, Lin Jie would have never known Bu Yi. With their ties in both lives, Lin Jie really could not make the decision for Qiu Yuan to leave the team.
“What about this, our Savage Blade team didn’t have full members, to begin with, so why don’t you guys just stay for now?” Lin Jie was coming up with a plan to appease the minds of everyone first before discussing the other matters.
The decisive and swift Codename Lone Wolf who would never go back on his words, was now struggling to make a choice. Qiu Yuan saw this and let out a heavy sigh. She said, “It’s okay. The rules are the rules. Since we’ve lost, we have to move to the second team immediately.”
Bu Yi replied, “Little Yuan, don’t be so stubborn. Didn’t Lin Jie say you can stay in the team?”
“My good wife, I’m not being stubborn.” Qiu Yuan looked deeply at Bu Yi and smiled. “The strength of a team is not determined by the most powerful members, but their weakest. For a long time, I’ve been dragging the team down. I know this better than anybody. I’ve been working hard to catch up with the team’s pace, but my strides are too small.
“During our group activities, I contributed the least, yet I also had a share in all the benefits. This is not fair, to begin with. Furthermore, I can also tell that among all you, powerful people, I’m insignificant. Only when I rise to the same level as you guys can I fight alongside all of you without worry.” Qiu Yuan smiled.
I’m No. 1 nodded and said, “Us three brothers feel the same way.”
Lin Jie’s heart ached. He could understand Qiu Yuan’s sentiments. As a stubborn bull that could not take defeat, she sought acknowledgment even more than others. She did not want to be trailing at the back without unleashing her potential despite having good equipment and skills.
She wanted to find a way to make it work as a melee Shadow Priest. Although she put in a lot of effort and had improved greatly, her contributions in Savage Blade was still too small.
After a long while, Lin Jie took in two deep breaths and said in a heavy tone, “Okay, I declare that Qiu Yuan and the I’m No. brothers will be leaving Savage Blade to join Second Savage Blade. Recently, there haven’t been any group activities. Everyone should explore the maps and see if you can run into a chance encounter.”
“Mmmh…” Qiu Yuan made a sound of agreement. She turned around and kissed Bu Yi on the cheeks, before saying, “Wifey, I’m going to go and fight. You have to guard your body like it’s a treasure, and don’t let anyone take advantage of you.”
With that, Qiu Yuan raised her fist charmingly. Her body went dark, and she went offline.
Bu Yi sighed and said, “Little Yuan is very upset. I’ll go and console her.”
“Me too.” Netherblue shook her head and went offline too.
Lin Jie was breathing heavily. After a moment, he finally regained his focus. He exclaimed, “About the Wind Earl’s body, we’ll—”
“I want to continue exploring Death Desert.” Baili Changcheng stood up. The few remaining people followed suit.
“Fu Sheng, I know you meant well. However, we don’t wish to rely on you to become strong.”
“Let’s go to Death Desert! We’ll break into the shrine in the most central.”
Since Qiu Yuan and the I’m No. brothers left the team, the atmosphere in the bar was gloomy. At the same time, a sense of danger rose in everybody’s heart, propelling them to work harder and train themselves.
In the end, there was only Lin Jie left at the bar.
“An unshakable fortress but without an army…” Lin Jie sighed quietly. He then looked at the information on the new members. The five people were the Poison Bandit, Demon Sword, Retribution Paladin, Ten Thousand Men’s Enemy, Holy Priest, Jiangnan Yanyu, Holy Priest, Lingyun Xiaoxiao, and Rune Master, Hardworking Pants.
‘Wait a second!’
‘Hardworking Pants? What the heck?’ Lin Jie opened the group member column and saw this familiar ID! ‘Isn’t this trash the Enchant Master from Xuanyuan Alliance? Why did he join Savage Blade and through a challenge at that?’
Ding~
He called Hardworking Pants, and a chirpy voice answered the call. “Hi, boss!”
“Are you here as a spy?” asked Lin Jie.
“Well… Of course not. If that were the case, I would’ve been gotten rid of since the start.” Hardworking Pants smiled. “We’ve worked together at General’s Tomb before. I used the video to join the team and defeated that cute Shadow Priest girl. Hehe, boss, you definitely have more methods on how to use the runes, right?”
Lin Jie was silent. It turned out that this piece of trash had been tempted over by this. A powerful Enchant Master and Rune Master. This was a great deal for him.
“You, inform the other four new members that I’ll be organizing an activity later on.” Lin Jie waved his hand. With the new members, he naturally had to test them.
Now, a happy occasion of distributing battle loots was completely ruined.
Lin Jie did not have an interest in observing it in detail and devoured the entire Wind Earl without care. The essence of a Sub-Legendary Overlord was a great supplement for a Berserker. The EXP bar of Heart of Enrage increased by 1/3.
Next up, it was Lin Jie’s main goal.
[Wind Walker] (Sub-Legendary Fragment)
Requires: Level 50, Strength: 200
Defense: 274-354
Strength: +55
Endurance: +55
Agility: +40
Additional effect: The effect of any speed decrease skill will be reduced by 40%.
Additional effect: When you are restrained by skills like Bind, there is a 10% chance of negating the effect.
Note: Wind Walker in an incomplete Sub-Legendary Fragment. You need to find Wind Walker’s Blood Insignia to unleash its full strength.
The other stats of this Sub-Legendary leg armor were not impressive, but it had a really high Defense, comparable to that of a Shield Specialist. On top of that, the ability to reduce any speed decrease skills by 40% of the effect was very useful. When facing Ice Mages or Hunters with the skills to slow down their opponent’s movements, it would be useful to help with escaping or tracking.
Other than that, there was a skill book.
[Wind Walk]: Active skill. Increases the Movement Speed of all allies by 40% and jump by 20%. Cooldown time of 10 minutes.
‘What a rare group buff skill!’ It was widely known that the greatest use of a speed buff was to chase after targets or escape, and there were many jobs that lacked this sort of skill.
One could imagine just how powerful a Mage in the team, who had slow speed, would be with this Wind Walk skill. Just how vicious they would be when chasing after targets? How useful would they be when defending against concentrated fire?
Also, with a buff like that, the team’s Knights and Shield Specialists would just be like Flesh Bomb Chariots when charging forward.
