The impermanence of life is like a pair of blood-stained red sleeves. [1].
I weep into my pale hands thinking of the death that parts us forever.
……
Dong Zhen’s “Duel” woke me up from my slumber. It was the new alarm tone Lin Yixin had set for me, and as far as I could tell it was working wonderfully. It woke me up, but I felt no irritation whatsoever.
I checked the time and confirmed that 3 hours had passed by. I hurriedly got out of my bed, put on some clothes and went to the toilet to take a pee. After that, I drank some water and returned to Heavenblessed to fight yet another day!
Swhoosh!
My vision brightened as I appeared at Godslayer Fortress. The fortress was in ruins, but it was jam-packed with players, and the body of Skullblood the Earth Devourer still hadn’t despawned. A ton of players were pointing fingers and talking about at it—
“You see this? This monster here is one of the nine greatest bosses in the entire Heavenblessed. It was here it took out over 14 million players including CGL Hall of Famers like Laughing At The Heavens. It’s so OP that it cast killing spells with a radius of a kilometer [2] like MP isn’t a thing! Still, it was ultimately defeated by the top players such as Falling Dust, Candlelight Shadow, Beautiful Little Pepper, Breeze and Rain and more!”
“Falling Dust is the best of all of them in my opinion. He was the one who landed the last hit, and I heard that he got 7 Luck in total for his efforts. It’s just crazy!”
“The best my ass. I was an observer of the battle, and I can tell you that Lu Chen was sent flying again and again just like any other player in the boss fight…”
“Did you just insult my idol to my face? If you were the one of the combatants, I guarantee that the boss would’ve shattered both your body and your dick in one hit! Don’t believe me? We can find a Purgatory Sovereign to murder you right now!”
“Fuck you, I don’t have a death wish!”
“Say, do you think the dragon scales of this Earth Devourer can be extracted? If they can, even one of its scales can be made into a super OP dragonscale armor, won’t it? Tankiness and cavalrymen go hand-in-hand!”
“Keep dreaming. You think you’re the first one who came up with the idea? People have tried, but it doesn’t work at all!”
“Is that so…”
……
As I climbed out of my tent, Beiming Xue greeted me smiling from her Fire Qilin, “Thanks again for Xiaomeng’s signature, big bro~~”
I replied, “You’re welcome. It was my duty as your brother. Also, Zhou Xiaomeng knows of you and promises to visit you when she’s free.”
“OMG, really? That’s wonderful! I love you, big bro!”
“Love you too, daughter…”
“…”
While trading banter with Beiming Xue, I arrived next to Skullblood’s body and hummed thoughtfully to myself for a moment. Then, I decided to put a hand to its head and use Death Plunder. The skill had a 95% chance or higher to fail when used against a boss, but a chance was a chance.
I was right. My heart pumped with excitement the moment I felt a warmth in my hands. I had used Death Plunder on countless bosses to no avail up until this point, and to have it work on a Purgatory Sovereign of all things was almost a miracle! [3]
Ding~!
System Notice: Congratulations, you have gained “Holy Dragon Scale” x1128 using the skill “Death Plunder”!
……
I immediately checked the stack of dragon scales that had appeared in my bag. They were as great as I expected them to be—
Holy Dragon Scales: A key material in armorsmithing. Can be forged into “Holy Dragon Armor (Archean Immortal-grade, Outstanding★★★★★)” if they are fused with high-rank ores.
Holy shit!
I clicked my tongue as the full realization dawned upon me. Death Plunder had netted me 1128 Holy Dragon Scales in total, which meant that I could use them to forge a total of 1128 Holy Dragon Armors. Obviously, an Archean Immortal-grade metal armor was useless to me, but to players like Du Thirteen, Xu Yang and High Fighting Spirits, it might as well be the equipment of their dreams, literally!
Well, time to contact Yamete. Leave the armorsmithing to the armorsmith!
“Mamate, where are you right now? How far are you from Godslayer Fortress?”
Yamete replied very quickly, “We were heading back to the Ancient Chaotic Secret Realm to repair our equipment, and we will be passing through Godslayer Fortress in 10 minutes. Is there anything?”
“Yep. Come to the center of the Ancient Chaotic Secret Realm. I have some good stuff that I would like to give you!”
“Okay!”
……
A while later, He Yi, Lin Yixin, Lian Xin and more all came online as well. It was around the time Murong Mingyue lazily crawled out of her tent when Xu Yang finally appeared on his Dragonscale Beast, and Yamete on foot.
Hugging his pot belly and panting heavily, Yamete asked me, “Ah, I’m so tired. So, what is this good stuff you wish to give me, Lu Chen?”
I smiled and traded him all 1128 Holy Dragon Scales. “Take a look at these. You were troubled that you couldn’t find the materials to create excellent armor, weren’t you? Well, here’s your chance to mass produce the Archean Immortal-grade Holy Dragon Armor…”
“Holy shit!”
Yamete’s eyes widened like saucers. “This… this is insane! Do you know how many people dream of laying their hands on even one of these, let alone a thousand? Where did you even find these?”
I pointed a thumb at the stripped Skullblood the Earth Devourer behind me. “I looted its body with Death Plunder. Not bad, right?”
“Not bad at all. It so happens that my Armorsmithing skill is now Rank 12, so the blueprint for the Holy Dragon Armor has been unlocked for me. Honestly, I thought this armor would remain a legend until a long time later, but I should’ve known that you would blow my expectations out of the water. I can’t wait!”
Yamete rubbed his hands together as he showed us the materials necessary to forge the equipment—
Holy Dragon Armor (Level 230, Metal Armor): Holy Dragon Scale x1, Wilderness Meteorite x40, Wild Silkworm Thread x50, Magic Silver Cloth x100, Rank 12 Armorsmithing.
……
I asked thoughtfully, “Which of these materials do you still lack?”
Yamete shrugged. “I’ll need to check…”
Xu Yang let out a hearty laugh. “I can answer that question. My secondary profession is Mining, and my Mining skill is now Rank 13. Therefore, I have a ton of Wilderness Meteorites just gathering dust in my warehouse right now. Even if it isn’t enough, I can always mine more of them from the outer lands. I know Pure Love has a stock of Wild Silkworm Threads. Again, we can collect more if it turns out to be insufficient. As for the Magic Silver Cloth, Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust have a ton of them in their warehouses. They were thinking about removing them because there wasn’t any craftable equipment that used it, but that obviously isn’t the case anymore!”
Overjoyed, I praised, “Well done! I’ll be counting on you guys to forge this batch of Level 230 Archean Immortal-grade armors then!”
He Yi asked, “Are you planning to equip our Dragonlight Cavalry with these Holy Dragon Armors, Lu Chen?”
I smiled. “Why not?”
She smiled back. “Indeed. You have my full support!”
I turned around to face Xu Yang again. “Let’s begin this activity after this event is over. We’ll forge a special force of Dragonlight Cavalry who are equipped with the Holy Dragon Armor! As compensation for your efforts and contributions, Xu Yang, you may pay out 10k RMB to Mamate, Pure Love, Heaven’s Rain, Diamond Dust and yourself for every forged Holy Dragon Armor. See it done!”
Xu Yang nodded. “No problem!”
Yamete suggested, “You know, I think I want to teleport back to the main city and store these scales safely in the warehouse first. Once the materials are gathered, I’ll begin forging the Holy Dragon Armors right away. It’s not like one priest is going to affect the course of this March of Chaos event, right? Xu Yang, can you tell everyone with the materials to teleport back to the main city and give them to me? It won’t delay you all for too long. If possible, I’ll try to get you guys 500 Holy Dragon Armors in three days!”
Xu Yang nodded again. “Of course. We’ll do as you say!”
He Yi ended the conversation, “Thank you for your work. Don’t let us keep you any longer!”
……
And so Yamete and Xu Yang crushed a return scroll each and teleported back to Sky City. I tried Death Plundering the boss’s body a couple more times, but unfortunately it didn’t give me anything else. In fact, I received a system notice saying that the body could no longer be looted during my tenth attempt.
“Let’s repair our equipment and stock up om our potions, shall we?”
I looked around me. Out of all the top players, we were literally the only ones who were still loitering around. Everyone else had continued toward the mysterious ruin mentioned in the patch announcement to do battle against the legions of the Night Creatures. All I could say about these people who valued contribution points more than their own lives was that they were stark raving bonkers.
I formed a temporary party with me, He Yi, Lin Yixin, Beiming Xue, Lian Xin and Murong Mingyue in it. We lacked a powerful bard, but that wasn’t a problem. Once we had returned to the frontline, there would be tens of thousands of bards to keep us buffed to the end of time.
I climbed onto my Ancient Divine Dragon and pulled Beiming Xue up with me. He Yi carried Murong Mingyue on her Snow Crystal Dragon, and Lin Yixin carried Lian Xin on her Crimson Crystal Dragon. We first flew back to the temporary supply camp set up by the Silver Moon Alliance to repair our equipment and stock up on potions. Also, Lin Yixin gave all of us around 400 new Rank 13 potions each. Well, this was expected. Beauty Lin was normally stingy, but if you did her a great favor—in this case, it was the Dragon Soul Ring—then she was more than willing to return it.
When everything was done, we took to the sky once more and traveled toward the ruin. The Crimson Crystal Dragon and Snow Crystal Dragon flew next to the Ancient Divine Dragon’s left and right almost as if they were its bodyguards. A while later, we had passed through the Ancient Chaotic Secret Realm completely and arrived at a new map. The new map was just as barren as the previous, but there were a lot more players, NPCs, and dead mob bodies on the ground. Obviously, these people hadn’t been idle while we were grabbing our lunch and catching some ZZZzzzZZZzzz.
……
I asked in the guild channel, “Little Gui, Chengfeng, where are you two? And where is our main force right now?”
Li Chengfeng replied immediately, “Just open the world map and travel to the red zone about 25 degrees to the southwest from the Ancient Chaotic Secret Realm. With your Ancient Divine Dragon, you should reach it in 5 minutes at most. As for what is going on, well, come find it out yourself…”
Me: “Oh come on, just tell it to me straight. I’m a curious guy, I don’t like being kept in the dark…”
Gui Guzi laughed. “Just come, Boss Broken Halberd. I promise you that it’s a riot. Sky City, Vanished God City, Wind City, Burning City, Frostsword City and Cyan Earth City’s NPC legions had temporarily joined hands and formed a mini Silver Moon Alliance force of sorts. It is to launch a massive assault against the Night Creatures. To that end, they’ve built a temporary fortress in Crossroads Valley. Furious at this turn of events, Coldblade the Infinite Storm declared that he would send seven waves of undead legions and destroy this temporary fortress. We must hold the fortress before we can continue onward.”
Me: “…”
Li Chengfeng: “Little Gui, What the fuck! You spilled literally everything…”
I laughed. “Sounds good. We’ll be arriving in a jiffy…”
Li Chengfeng: “Oh right, watch out for the mobs when you fly over. Undead mobs are spawning all around Cross Roads Valley, and they practically have the entire fortress surrounded.”
“Got it!”
1. T/N: the color red is usually considered lucky. Red clothes are what you wear when you and your bride attend a Chinese traditional wedding. But for it to be dyed in blood, well, you catch the meaning ☜
2. T/N: probably an exaggeration and not a mistake. People like to boast nonsense after all ☜
3. T/N: this confirms that Lu Chen DID use Death Plunder on all kinds of mobs, the author just didn’t write it because it’s redundant ☜
