Shadowy figures slowly emerged from behind the curtain of ice and snow. It was a troop of cavalrymen. The snowstorm was too strong for them to move faster than a trot, but I could still sense the sharp danger emanating from their blades even from ten meters away. It made sense that the Hunters would be pretty strong considering that they were the soldiers of the fourth floor of the Purgatory. The stat screen I captured with Dark Pupils proved that as well—
Hunter (Ancient Immortal Rank Miniboss)
Level: 326
Attack: 71,000~84,000
Defense: 90,000
HP: 55,000,000
Skills: Swift and Violent, Peerless Strike, Rapid Mode Switch
Introduction: An infamous bunch of huntsmen who hunt their prey with their sharp blades. The core of the undead legion, they are natural born killers with extremely high speed and powerful attacks. After they successfully tamed the Undead Warhorses, they became even stronger and mastered the secrets of Rapid Mode Switch. They can change between offensive and defensive mode in a flash and catch their enemies off-guard.
……
Licking my slightly dry lips and gripping the Xuanyuan Sword tightly, I said in a low voice, “They are as powerful as expected. I’m going, Uldan. Please save me if I’m in danger…”
Uldan nodded. “Mn, don’t worry!”
I aimed my palm at the troop of cavalrymen. Ten targets were too much for the two of us to handle, so my plan was to immobilize one of them with the God Binding Art.
Swhoosh!
The God Binding Art easily caught the foremost Hunter and immobilized him, causing the other 9 Hunters to fly into a rage and gallop straight toward me. They shouted, “Enemy invasion! Enemy invasion! No one, not even a god, is allowed to enter the fourth floor of the Purgatory! You must die! You must be cut into many pieces!”
I moved backward while dropping a bunch of Icy Cyclone Domains on the ground to lower the bastards’ movement speed. If they were faster than me, then I wouldn’t be able to block and defeat them one by one.
Bloody runes rose from their mounts’ hooves when the Hunters emerged from behind the curtain of snow. It was the Swift and Violent skill, and it greatly increased their attack and movement speed. How troublesome!
“Die, boy!”
Blue flames appeared on three Hunters’ blades as they attacked me at the same time. It was none other than their second skill, Peerless Strike. They hit my shield and triggered three very impressive damage numbers!
352,718!
341,672!
313,277!
Still back away, I launched a phantom dragon at the nearest Hunter and disarmed him. However, the bastard didn’t even slow for a moment as he proceeded to punch me in the throat for 80k damage.
“Motherfucker! Do you think I’m weak because I’m not retaliating yet!?”
Flames erupted around the Xuanyuan Sword as I fired Burning Blade Slash at the offending Hunter.
However, he noticed the danger in time and immediately summoned a bloody shield to protect himself. At the same time, the words “Rapid Mode Switch” rose above his head. My skill struck his shield squarely and only dealt less than 1 million HP. How OP is this AI?!
There was an easy way to counter this though. Crushing Blow!
1,212,773!
Very good. The guy’s AI was good, but not that good!
The Hunter wasn’t alone, however. Some of his companions attacked me and deleted my HP rapidly while I was busy dealing with the guy. Knowing that I couldn’t allow this to continue, I moved back again and fired a long-range Thousand Ice Slash to stop them. It was then I noticed that the mobs used Rapid Mode Switch only when the offensive skill was executed within 5 yards of them. In other words, all I needed to do was to cast my skill from beyond that range, and they wouldn’t be able to respond to it!
Now that I had figured out the trick, I activated Cold of the Nine Provinces to freeze all 9 Hunters at the cost of 3 million HP or so. After I moved about ten yards away from them, I unleashed Burning Blade Slash and dealt massive amounts of damage. Not only that, my second hit triggered the septuple damage effect, so that was 5 million damage even before counting the splash damage.
At the distance, Uldan loosed multiple arrows in a cone shape at the Hunters, hitting them five times in a row and greatly damaging them. Now that I knew how to fight them, the Hunters couldn’t threaten me anymore. No matter how powerful their Peerless Strike was, it wasn’t enough to one-shot me through my Unusual Physique. In that case, I would always emerge the victor. In a protracted battle, I could never lose with my 50% lifesteal~
It took less than two minutes for two of the Hunters to drop to almost no health. This was also a chance to drop some amazing loot. They were Ancient Immortal Rank minibosses, so there was a chance they might drop a Divine Armament, right? With my Luck, the chance certainly wasn’t zero…
My sword fell, and both Hunters died and dropped a small pile of items. While the Phantom Wolf King was covering for me, I threw all the items into my bag and gave them a quick look. They dropped three disappointing pieces of Heaven-grade equipment and…
Hunter Card: Increases user’s Attack by 170%, max HP by 200%, and parry success rate by 20%. Duration: 300 minutes. Level Requirement: 250. Luck Requirement: 75. Cost: 1,000 gold per use!
……
Damn, this is awesome. This was without a doubt the strongest card I had ever seen since I joined Heavenblessed. It was stronger than even the cards dropped by proper bosses. Both the 170% Attack boost and 200% HP boost were godly stats already, and I could hardly believe that they were allowed to exist in the same card. That being said, the requirements to use it were just as insane. The Level 250 and 75 Luck requirements already disqualified most players—in fact, I bet that there were less than five players in all the servers who could use this card—but it also cost 1,000 RMB per use. To say that it was beyond the ability of a normal person to use would be an understatement.
However, I might have to face the boss of the fourth floor very soon. It was worth paying 1,000 gold if it allowed me to survive longer and find Xinran!
Swhoosh!
A Hunter Card rose from my head. I didn’t hesitate to use it immediately because there were plenty more Hunters to kill, not to mention that I could hardly afford to be stingy in a merciless map like the Purgatory.
My max HP immediately jumped to 6.7 million after I used the card. The Attack boost from my card had also jumped to 170%, which was over three-fourths of my Martial God. All these increases would increase my odds of winning against the bosses of the Purgatory.
I resumed fighting after putting away the other Hunter Cards. I baited the Hunters to run into each other and damaged them with long-range skills such as Burning Blade Slash, Myriad Swords Obliteration and even my SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skill, Xuanyuan Slash. The minibosses gave me 10 Divine Energy points per kill, so I didn’t need to worry about conserving my points.
Seven minutes of fighting later, the remaining Hunters died and dropped another 3 cards for me. That was 5 Hunter Cards in total and a most wonderful haul. The equipment they dropped was worth much less, however. I even suspected that it was a way to balance the fact that the Hunters dropped such amazing cards. They did drop a couple of Divine Crystals, but they were all below 50 Quality. I would have to kill a proper boss, or more specifically Divine Rank bosses, if I wished to get more Perfect Divine Crystals.
……
“Alright, let’s continue!”
I beckoned Uldan after I looted the battlefield. She gave me a small nod and said, “Yes. Let us proceed with caution.”
“Yeah.”
We went against the snowstorm and got close to the fortress. Its gate was wide open, but every 5 minutes, a troop of Hunters would ride out of it. There were also 14 Hunters guarding the gate at all times. Using the same strategy as before, we aggroed the 14 guards to a safe place and killed them all. Again, they dropped a couple of Hunter Cards. After that, Uldan and I slipped into the fortress during the lull between the Hunter squads’ patrols.
The streets looked devoid of life. I rubbed my palms together as I walked along a row of rotten houses. “This damned place is so cold!”
Uldan burst into a giggle. “That’s because you haven’t truly acclimatized after becoming a god. A god is capable withstanding any extreme temperature, and this is but the most basic trials you may encounter in the Purgatory.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well duh. I just become a god a few days ago; I’m not even a Basic Divine if you really think about it. Of course I cannot compare to you…”
However, Uldan gripped my hand tightly, watched my eyes and said seriously, “I sense a huge well of hidden strength in you though. Mm, your potential should be greater than mine…”
I laughed. “That’s my equipment you’re sensing…”
Uldan: “…”
That was the truth. Right now, not even a boss might necessarily have better equipment than me. The Xuanyuan Slash, the Cloak of Divine Fervor, the Cyan Dragon Shield and more were the reasons I was able to survive in the Purgatory. Otherwise, I would just be a divine fodder.
……
We continued along the snowy road. Uldan looked around for a bit before pointing in one direction and saying, “There is a scout party of Hunters in that direction. You’ll need to lure them over and kill them all before we can continue. We’ll have to kill between 7 to 9 such 20-man parties before we can enter the palace and reach the spatial rift.”
I nodded. “No problem!”
There was nothing much to say except that killing the Hunters wasn’t a bad experience both literally and figuratively. Even better, they dropped cards that were absolutely going to be critical for the rest of my journey. Did I mention that I loved its effects to death? Well, now I did.
……
I grinded for 4 hours in the fortress and until over 7 pm in real life. During this time, I had killed at least 20 Hunter parties, grown my experience bar to around 40%, and gained 74 Hunter Cards in total. It would definitely be enough for and after my adventure in the Purgatory!
Rustle rustle…
Our boots scraped against snow and stone bricks of the fortress as we walked toward the city hall. Snow blew in constantly from the outside and formed a thin layer of snow on the ground.
Uldan abruptly stopped in her tracks and looked back at me. Then, she whispered into my ears, “The city hall is the famed palace, and the entrance to the fifth floor of the Purgatory. It may be guarded by a powerful guardian. Are you ready?”
I gripped my sword tight and caused flames to circulate faster around its hilt. I smirked at Uldan and said, “Of course I am. In fact, I would be disappointed if there wasn’t a guardian…”
Uldan: “…”
……
We rounded a wall and arrived at a cold, wide space. There was a giant throne at the center of the hall, and a gigantic, icy abyss some distance behind it. It was none other than the entrance to the next floor. We had a more pressing concern, however. There was a knight holding a halberd and wearing blood-red armor sitting on the throne. When he saw us, he let out a disdainful sneer and said, “Finally. I’ve been waiting for you two!”
