The last piece of equipment was a shiny ring with a fiery shield as the crown. It glowed a white gold color, but it wasn’t the color of the Dark Gold–grade equipment. Moreover, wisps of strange energy seeped into my palm when I held it. It had to be powerful equipment. The moment I brought up its stats screen, my heart visibly skipped a beat—
Ring of Spiritual Tongue (Middle Divine Armament, Outstanding★★★★★★★★★)
Strength: +3,500
Stamina: +3,440
Agility: +3,400
Intelligence: +3,350
Tactics: +291
Passive: Increases user’s Attack by 105%
Passive: Increases user’s Defense and Magic Resist by 120%
Passive: Increases user’s max HP by 100,000
Outstanding Property: Spiritual Tongue. Increases user’s max Divine Energy increased by 100, and 1 Divine Energy Point is regenerated every minute. Regeneration remains active even when the user is offline.
Level Requirement: 250
Reputation Requirement: 2,000,000
……
Great delight filled my heart once I finished reading the stats screen. Rings were generally harder to drop than armor, but Suren, my kind and generous trainer had given me a Middle Divine Armament ring! I knew he wouldn’t mistreat his best student! The Ring of Spiritual Tongue gave a ton of Attack, Defense and even 100k HP, but none of these attributes even came close to its Outstanding Property, Spiritual Tongue. It increased my Divine Energy cap to 300, meaning that I could now unleash 300 Ancient Seals or 15 Xuanyuan Slashes in a row [1]
I took a moment to weigh my options while basking in happiness. There was no chance I was dropping the Ghost Armament, Song of Freedom for the Ring of Spiritual Tongue, but a player could only wear two rings at a time. In the end, I decided to drop my oldest equipment, the Apparition Ring. The apparition was amazing, but it had paper-thin Defense and was liable to get one-shot by powerful enemies. In that case, I might as well grab 105% Attack and 120% Defense!
Pop!
I replaced the Apparition Ring with the Ring of Spiritual Tongue, taking yet another step toward a full set of Divine Armaments. My stats and especially my max HP jumped visibly—
ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand (Title: Dark Divine Throne Guardian)
Class: Master Swordsman of Death
Level: 258
HP: 2,744,550
Attack: 60,750~82,270
Defense: 143,365
Magic Resist: 127,920
Reputation: 5,225,400
Tactics: 2,954
Luck: 139
……
My base HP had risen to 2.74 million. With the Hunter Card, my HP would be increased by 200%, or tripled, putting me at 8.22 million max HP. It was insane considering that I wasn’t buffed by a bard or tactician at all. However, I still wasn’t feeling good about my chances of surviving the remaining floors of the Purgatory. Even with my current stats, I probably still couldn’t tank more than three hits from Lin Na.
On a better note, 2,954 Tactics could only be described as formidable. The power of Divine General Skills were tied to Tactics, and the attack power of my Ancient Seal had exceeded my Myriad Swords Obliteration and Summon the Storm a long time ago. Starting now, I would be spamming Ancient Seals to grind the mobs!
As usual, the boss also dropped some magic stones. I found five Perfect Divine Crystals and stuffed them all into my bag. They might be useful in the future.
“Are you ready?” Uldan asked smilingly from behind.
I nodded. “Yeah. It’s time to go to the fifth floor!”
We stepped toward the deep blue abyss at the back of the main hall. A cold wind blew across its entrance. This was where we would be falling into the fifth floor.
Thud!
I jumped off the cliff and fell toward nothingness. Just in case there were unknown monsters in this abyss as well, I activated Battle Astral Wind to protect myself. At the same time, I whispered in my head, “Stay alive, Xinran. Wait for me. I’m almost there…”
Beside me, Uldan shot me a glance before saying, “There’s no need to worry too much. Wind Singer is a once-in-a-million-years expert. Not even Lin Na will be able to bring himself to wipe her out immediately[2]… I think…”
I nodded. “I think so too. Even if he can, Xinran will not go down without a struggle…”
“Mn mn!”
……
After we flew for a while, I brought up the forums because it didn’t look like we were reaching the other floor too soon. I noticed that Li Chengfeng was online on my friend list, so I immediately sent him a private message—
“What are you busy with, Chengfeng?”
Five minutes later, Li Chengfeng noticed the private message and replied, “Just took out a boss and am distributing the loot right now. You’re still in the Purgatory, right Lu Chen? How are you doing?”
“Not bad. I just picked up a weapon, and I wanna know if you want it. Here, I’ll send you a screenshot!” I took a screenshot of the Cyan Peak Halberd’s stats screen and sent it to Li Chengfeng.
“Holy shit!”
Li Chengfeng started his reply with a shocked face emoticon. “These stats are absolutely shameless. I never thought a Middle Divine Armament would have a higher Attack than even the Wind Severing Sword, one of the Twelve!”
I replied smilingly, “That’s because the Wind Severing Sword can evolve two more times. So, do you want this weapon or not?”
Two minutes later, Li Chengfeng replied, “Heh. Sure, I’ll take it. You already have the Xuanyuan Sword anyway. I’m better with swords, but I’m not bad with pole weapons either. They have long range, high penetration, and are much more effective at breaking shield formations than swords. I’m not so shameless that I’m going to take this weapon for free though, and it just so happened that I managed to roll a worthy piece of equipment. Give me a minute.”
Very soon, Li Chengfeng sent me a screenshot of a dark-colored Lower Divine Armament cloak. It gave its user 30% physical evasion and 170k max HP. It was a very good defensive cloak.
I asked in confusion, “Chengfeng, you can use this cloak yourself, right? You know I already have the Cloak of Divine Fervor, a Ghost Armament. I don’t need this.”
“I know, but I don’t need it either. I already have a Lower Divine Armament cloak.”
“I see. Okay, please give this cloak to Eve when you’re free. If I don’t die and drop the Cyan Peak Halberd in the Purgatory, then I’ll trade it for the cloak!”
“Okay. Don’t die, man. I need you to bring me my Cyan Peak Halberd…”
“Haha, I know. Anyway, I won’t keep you any longer. Go do your thing!”
“Mn!”
……
Swhoosh!
My vision brightened, and I saw a starry sky and a vast but withered forest beneath me. There was the constant caw of crows as well.
“The Life Shatter Realm is a plane of absolute death,” Uldan explained.
I asked with a frown, “What do you mean by a plane of absolute death?”
She smiled. “It is because it is a place of judgment. When an expert in Heaven Domain, Human Realms or the Ghost Region grows past a certain threshold, and they don’t obey the order of the three realms, then they will come here to face the judgment of death. Many divine experts such as Windchaser Karen, Annie, and more have perished in this place. Even your Wind Singer, Xinran, had been judged in this plane a long time ago. Although she was able to break free and even escape the Purgatory, it cost her both her divine power and her memories. That was how her sealed self came to meet you.[3]”
I sucked in a deep breath. “Sounds like we’ve arrived at a formidable place!”
“Yes, quite. Make sure you are more careful than ever before.”
Uldan glanced at me again before continuing, “There are no less than 10 Ghost King–level experts in the Life Shatter Realm, and each one is tasked with the responsibility of judgment. Here, a divine expert’s consciousness and Divinity are quickly destroyed, and the Ghost Kings’ responsibility is to corrode their Divinities little by little until they are nothing more but a pile of forgotten bones…”
I nodded. “What do we do then?”
“What else? We head to the passage that will take us to the sixth floor…” Uldan smirked a little. “Our biggest advantage is that the Purgatory Sovereign–level experts—Linda the Whisperer and Opero the Nightwalker—have all been sent away to the Human Realms to keep the human main cities under control. Therefore, the only Chief God–level expert we might have to face is Lin Na…”
I smiled. “Sounds good. Where is the passage to the sixth floor?”
“It’s directly south from here, but we cannot fly because it’ll draw too much attention. We’ll make our way there on the ground while taking out all the scouts and ghost soldiers we encounter along the way.”
“Got it!”
……
After we descended to the ground, I unsheathed the Xuanyuan Sword and entered the combat state immediately. It was nighttime on this plane, and I could see tiny bits of bloody light amid here and there in the withered forest. They were the flames of death and a kind of undead soul spark. Unfortunately, I could no longer absorb undead soul spark to strengthen my power because I was already an Asura God. Currently, the only way to improve myself was to cultivate my divine power. Of course, I was also a player. For a player, levels, equipment and skills were still the royal road to great power.
My Dark Pupils showed a dense group of red dots slowly making their way toward me, but the fog was too thick for me to get a good look. I raised an arm and said, “Watch out, Uldan. A group of enemies is approaching us from the south…”
Uldan narrowed her eyes that seemed capable of penetrating everything. “Oh, I know. Those filthy bastards are called Gravediggers…”
“Gravediggers?”
“Mn,” Uldan responded smilingly. “They are masterless souls who wander the Life Shatter Realm. They possess great strength, but they are unwilling to serve Lin Na. So, they became vagabonds who dig up the graves of the gods who were judged. As you know, the gods are usually buried together with their weapons, metal armors, skill books, secret scrolls and so on. That is what they’re hoping to dig up. If they can find a priceless treasure and offer it to a sovereign commander as tribute, they may be pardoned and even returned to the Human Realms to lead a life of luxury.”
I grimaced. “Wow, they sound really similar to a certain Dragon Domain Scavenger…”
“I know right…”
……
Our first enemies on the fifth floor finally emerged from the fog. As it turned out, the Gravediggers were a bunch of midgets who were only around one meter tall. They barely had any hair or tooth left on their person, and they were dressed in rags that could only be described as filthy. Worst of all, they were horny little bastards who immediately grinned like a child when they saw Uldan. “Look, it’s a pretty gal! That’s our supper tonight, brothers…”
Uldan gave her bow a tentative shake. “Hmph! These lowlifes think they can catch me?”
1. T/N: another one of those, hey, didn’t he need to activate HRT first before he can use Xuanyuan Slash, and I tell you to just assume that that requirement is no longer necessary since he’s a god ☜
2. T/N: another stupid logic, but I guess if you’re just trying to console someone anything flies ☜
3. T/N: did you guys have a conversation that the author omitted or something? For someone who has been bound to a pillar for thousands of years you know shit that you really shouldn’t be able to know ☜
