Crack crack crack!
I hacked away at our first target like crazy and killed it in no time. Less than ten minutes later, all four Green-haired Zombie Guards were dead beside our feet. Their loot drop was incredibly average as well; a mid-level Immortal-grade longblade that everyone found wanting. I tossed it into my bag to put it up for sale at Sky City later. It could probably be sold for a couple hundred RMB at most, but it was better than nothing.
“It’s time to trigger the boss, so watch out…”
I pointed at the dark wood in the middle of the coffin and said, “You see that? The wood of a Chinese scholar tree is used to make the cover and the bottom of the coffin. According to ancient knowledge and well, Chinese zombie movies, a dead person who is placed on a wood that is cut from a Chinese scholar tree for a whole night will surely transform into a zombie. Therefore, this prince is 100% a zombie boss. Anyway, I’m going to open the coffin now. Try not to be scared when it jumps out…”
He Yi nodded with smiling eyes. “Be careful…”
“Don’t worry. I’m the man who fought three hundred bouts against Thunder and Coldblade each. No way I’m going to die to a measly zombie prince…”
……
It was one thing to say boastful words, and another thing to act boastfully. Not wanting to be caught off-guard by the zombie prince, I activated Fusion Armor and fired two Dragon Slaying Slashes at the coffin. Nothing happened, however. The dark wood that made the coffin was tougher than I thought. Left with no choice, I walked up to the coffin with my apparition and the Phantom Wolf King guarding by my side. Then, heart beating like a drum, I slipped my blade into the gap between the cover and the edge and slowly opened it!
Creaaaaaaaaaaaak…
The terrible noise sounded like the overture to death. Another involuntary shudder overtook me, but I forced myself to lean forward and look inside the coffin. To my surprise, it was empty! What the hell?
Suddenly, a green arm burst out of the darkness and grabbed my blade before I could react. What the fuck! The bastard was clinging to the bottom of the cover! The next thing I knew, most of my vision was blotted by green hair, and a putrid-smelling mouth bit me on the neck! A pain yet numbing sensation quickly spread across the affected area!
352,878!
It wasn’t a particularly powerful attack, but damn if it wasn’t disgusting as fuck!
I clenched my left fist and conjured the Magic Piercing Punch. Then, I punched the zombie prince in the stomach and kicked it away from me!
192,882!
232,747! [1]
After I put some distance between myself and the zombie prince, I pointed my sword at it and used God Binding Art!
Buzz!
It was a success, and the boss was immobilized for 11 seconds!
……
Waves of pain assault the area I was bitten, and my HP kept dropping in intervals. It was obvious that I was inflicted with some sort of zombie poison. While keeping the boss busy with my Phantom Wolf King and apparition, I moved to the back and shouted, “Cure me, sis! I’m poisoned…”
Swhoosh!
A holy light descended on me, but it failed to remove the status condition.
Suddenly, Beiming Xue let out a surprised yelp and pointed at my neck. “Wow, green hair is growing out of big bro’s neck! It’s so scary!”
A chill grabbed hold of my heart. “Are you fucking kidding me?!”
I hurriedly touched my neck. Unfortunately, she wasn’t joking. The entire area felt hairy and unpleasant.
I checked the combat log next, and it stated—
Combat Log: You have been attacked by “Poison Devourer” and inflicted with the toxin “Zombify”. You will turn into a zombie in 30 seconds and lose 25% of all your stats for 60 seconds!
……
Fuck!
I groaned on the inside and took a seat at a darkened corner of the chamber. “Girls, summon your pets to tank the boss and don’t let it bite you. I’m going to transform into a zombie soon…”
“But what are you hiding there for?”
“I don’t want you to see my ugly appearance…”
He Yi was amused. “Relax, I doubt that your zombie self will be too much different from your normal self…”
I complained, “What the fuck, is this how you treat someone who’s about to turn into a zombie?”
“…”
……
It wasn’t long before I transformed into a green-haired zombie completely. Even my Chill of the Nine Provinces was covered in green hair. That being said, losing 25% of my stats for 60 seconds wasn’t too big of a deal. Thanks to Guanyue’s buffs, losing 25% Attack didn’t affect my DPS too much.
In the darkness, I abruptly threw the Chill of the Nine Provinces!
Swhoosh!
My sword put right through the zombie prince’s stomach and dragged a tube of black intestines… (Author’s Note: Sorry, today’s chapter will be rather hardcore…)
I also dropped Ancient Seal on top of the boss. I might not be able to be the tank now, but I could still be the damage dealer.
……
“Roar roar roar…”
The next couple minutes were quite the frightening sight. My Phantom Wolf King, Murong Mingyue’s Ironwing Dragon, and He Yi’s Snake King Little Qing were all bitten and turned into green-haired zombies. Physically, the Ancient Immortal Rank boss wasn’t really all that threatening. But mentally? He Yi was so scared of turning into a zombie herself that she refused to engage it in melee any longer. She ran up to me and grabbed my hands, saying, “Lu Chen, can you please be the tank—”
Then, she noticed that my hands were completely covered in green hair and nearly let go. “OMG, I almost thought you were a ghost, Lu Chen!”
I groaned, “Please, my poor heart can’t take any more abuse than this…”
“Heehee. Now go take out the boss already! It’ll reward you with event contribution points, and who knows, it may even drop a Ghost Armament…”
“Hmph hmph. I wonder how many people have died because of their greed for the Seventy-two Ghost Armaments…”
……
And so I went up to my progenitor and fought a great battle against it. The sight of two green-haired zombies battling each other to the death was quite something to say the least.
I also gained some insight into some of the map designs of Sainthelm Ruins. If I wasn’t mistaken, all 99 necropoleis surrounding the center of Sainthelm Ruins probably contained an Ancient Immortal Rank boss each. They were basically experience buffets for the players. Of course, if the players weren’t strong enough to fight them, then it would be the other way around. Regardless, players would flock to these bosses like moths to flames because such powerful bosses could only reward a humongous sum of contribution points.
Some time during the boss battle, Li Chengfeng spoke up in the guild channel—
Li Chengfeng: “OMG, the final boss of this necropolis is so bullshit. It just chain-stuns the strongest damage dealer in your party unto infinity! It’s been 5 minutes since the boss fight began, and I’m still stunned even now! Little Gui, your DPS is absolute shit!”
Gui Guzi: “Fuck, you think I like this…”
Chaos Moon: “Sigh. Anyway, Purgatory Mad Dragon was ambushed not long ago…”
“Huh. What happened?” I asked.
She answered, “Ten minutes ago, Ray of Sunshine, Wang Dongliang and Roaming Dragon were grinding a northside necropolis with about 30k players when Little Piglet and a bunch of Iron Cutter Cavalrymen appeared out of nowhere and hit them in the back. They were able to take out around 20k players before they were finally driven back by Ray of Sunshine…”
I frowned. “Did Song of Ice and Fire, God Bone and the rest of Soul Battle Robes participate?”
Chaos Moon chuckled. “Nah. Ray of Sunshine would probably be dead otherwise. Little Piglet had tried to steal the Heaven Suppressing Necklace with the Crimson Dragon Arm, but Ray of Sunshine was able to save himself with a last-minute Rise of Fire Dragon. Seriously, he was that close to dropping the Heaven Suppressing Necklace…”
I said regretfully, “That is a shame…”
Gui Guzi suggested, “Boss Broken Halberd, why don’t you use your Song of Freedom and steal the Heaven-Suppressing Necklace yourself? That item is worth several hundred million RMB. We’ll be rich if we get it…”
I shook my head. “No, no. That is simply too reckless. Do you know how many people are watching us? If we attack a fellow Chinese guild to steal the Heaven Suppressing Necklace, I guarantee that we’ll be hit by a shitstorm. Give them a reason, and the slanderers on the forums can paint even heaven into hell with their bullshit. Trust me, I would’ve robbed them of the Heaven Suppressing Necklace already if it wasn’t for this[2]…”
Li Chengfeng chuckled. “Yeah. I would’ve done it myself if it wasn’t for the same consideration…”
High Fighting Spirits: “Man, am I the only purehearted grinder in this guild?”
Li Chengfeng: “Purehearted my ass, who was the guy who added a Warsky Alliance priest to our party just because she gave him a kiss? Who?”
Me: “…”
He Yi: “…”
……
Inside the pitch-black tomb, I slashed at the boss’s head again and again with a hairy hand and a hairy Chill of the Nine Provinces. The zombie prince was just a normal Ancient Immortal Rank boss, and I had Pure Love’s super buffs and Murong Mingyue’s super healing to keep me going. Speaking of super healings, Mingyue’s healing powers had skyrocketed after she obtained the Spirit Gathering Scepter. Even her Instant Heal could heal around 300k HP per spell. Pure Love’s class was a fringe class that could buff, damage and heal to a certain extent, but wasn’t really good at anything other than buffing. Now though, the Seven-string Yaoqin had boosted her basic healing powers so much that one healing spell could heal for around 100k HP. It was an impressive amount considering that she was a bard. Long story short, I was able to go toe-to-toe against the boss despite having been turned into a zombie.
Beiming Xue’s Xuanming Bow triggered the Xuanming Flames again and again and dealt massive damage to the boss. Lian Xin dealt even more damage and made the zombie prince scream in pain with practically every spell she threw at him. As it turned out, Soul Shocker Bell also doubled the damage done by God Devil Break, so that was crazy. I would pity the boss if it hadn’t turned me into an unsightly monster.
Ten minutes later, the Xuanming Bow shivered once and triggered its Ice Kill effect, freezing the boss for around 5.2 seconds and killing it at the same time. If a player was killed while frozen by Ice Kill, they would lose 5 levels in one go. Bosses were immune to the effect as a matter of course.
……
Swhoosh! Swhoosh! Swhoosh!
Pure Love, Murong Mingyue and Beiming Xue all jumped a Level. On the other hand, I was still stuck on Level 247 and about halfway to Level 248. I was fully aware that it was going to be a slow and painful process to reach Level 250. I only jumped a level when I took out Coldblade the Infinite Storm, a Sovereign Rank boss, and that was only because I had scored the last hit. Otherwise, I would still be stuck on Level 247.
I walked up to the zombie prince and kicked its body aside. Then, I looked at the small pile of equipment in front of me.
A greenish, oily ring caught my eye. I picked it up and immediately felt a strange sensation seeping into my palm. I checked its stats and broke into a smile, “Huh, this is a ring with a special effect…”
1. T/N: so, your normal kick does more damage than your Magic Piercing Punch? Then again, I suppose you didn’t actually cancel anything, so it didn’t do extra damage… ☜
2. E/N: Damn, only if you had an item that could let you disguise yourself and do it without people knowing. Of course, using skills would clue people in, but no one would be CERTAIN, and that’s what matters. He can just say it wasn’t him, fence the necklace, never show himself with it, boom. ☜
