“Fuck…”

My heart sank as I exchanged astonished looks with Lin Yixin. “It looks like Candlelight Shadow became a Famous General after killing a Purple Gold Rank boss and leveling up because of it.”

“Mn…”

Lin Yixin nodded. “And right before the chapter ended too. The way to become a Famous General is finally revealed…”

“...”

I opened the Famous General Heavenly Ranking and saw Candlelight Shadow, and only him, sitting at the first spot of the ranking. As the first player to become a Famous General, he was rewarded with the super General Skill, “Ghost God Prophecy”. The exact effects of the skill were described on the ranking list as well.

Ghost God Prophecy: Select a target and cause them to die 600 seconds later. The effect is nullified if the skill user is killed!

……

My heart sank even lower. Select a target and cause them to die 10 minutes later? Isn’t that the same as killing someone outright? Fuck! The only real flaw I noticed was how long it took to kill an opponent. If it was 60 seconds instead of 600 seconds, practically everyone would avoid Candlelight Shadow like a plague. This General Skill was best used against a top-tier opponent. All he needed to do was cast Ghost God Prophecy, slip away and wait 10 minutes to collect his target’s dead body. What a ridiculous skill it was!

I sucked in a deep breath. “Not good, I can’t believe Candlelight Shadow got ahead. Just how strong is that bastard really? And come on, it’s just a Purple Gold Rank boss, if that’s all it takes to become a Famous General then I…”

Lin Yixin gave me a comforting pat on the shoulder. “C’mon, lighten up. Candlelight Shadow is the number one ranker in Wind City, so his chances to become a Famous General criteria were higher than most players’ in the first place. Plus, he killed a Purple Gold Rank boss that’s probably several levels higher than him, so it makes perfect sense that his feats qualified him to become a Famous General. All things considered, his chances were at least 25% or higher.”

I nodded and relaxed. She was right. According to the rules, the Top 15 players of each super city—those who were named in the Heavenly Ranking to be exact—had a chance of becoming a Famous General, and the higher the placement, the higher the chances. Candlelight Shadow was ranked first in Wind City, and he was as famous as the sun in China. It was only a matter of time before he became a Famous General.

Still, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had to beat Warsky Alliance and Hegemon Palace at the War Holy Temple to establish their reputation in Sky City. We didn’t even have time to bask in the limelight before Candlelight Shadow stole it from us again. Of course I wouldn’t be happy about this!

……

Hmm whatever. Grind first, everything later!

The Arctic Temple wasn’t particularly huge. In fact, I might even call it a mini-sized map. Although the mobs were higher level and stronger than normal, we were able to clear them out at a reasonably fast pace. I was very glad to learn that my Purgatory Sword might just hold out until the end even though it was sitting at mere 10% durability.

The first floor of the Arctic Temple was only as wide as an apartment building. I still hadn’t leveled up yet despite having killed almost 50 Ice Hounds, but we did find a couple of good items. The problem was the level requirements on them were too high—Level 115 or so—and they were only Silver-grade or even Dark Steel–grade, so unless they were especially good, the only place for them to go was a stall.

We continued to press forward until we arrived at the end of the map!

We saw a cave with wind and snow blowing out of it. It was the entrance to the second floor.

I couldn’t help myself. “Are there no bosses on this floor?”

Lin Yixin suddenly pointed to the right and smiled sweetly. “Hey, look! That ice sculpture looks so cute!”

“Huh?”

I turned around and was surprised by what I saw. I hadn’t noticed it earlier, but there was an ice sculpture to our right. In fact, it wasn’t really an ice sculpture, but a fox that was frozen in ice. The fox had bright indigo fur and a beautiful appearance, but it was completely immobile due to the ice trapping it inside!

Both of us walked closer to check out the “ice sculpture”. Lin Yixin stared at it with a yearning look in her eyes before complimenting, “What a beautiful fox!”

I nodded. “Mn, it looks just like you.”

“Fuck…”

I stepped forward and poked it with the Purgatory Sword. I wasn’t trying to do anything at all, but then the ice suddenly shattered into pieces!

“You!”

Lin Yixin would’ve gotten angry with me if the fox trapped inside the ice didn’t suddenly come to life and glared at us with harsh eyes. Crouching with puffing up its indigo fur to make itself more intimidating, it growled as if it would attack us at any moment!

A blood red line of text was floating above the little fox’s head. My mouth fell open when I read it. A boss? A Purple Gold Rank boss even? WTF?

Then I saw its level and almost burst out in laughter—

Ice Fox (Purple Gold Rank Boss)

Level: 1

Introduction: An Ice Fox is a creature born from the essence of the cold air in the arctic regions. It is a natural magic beast that wields great mastery over ice magic. Sightings are few and far between because it usually resides within the ice caves deep below the ground.

……

“Wah! Level 1, Level 1…”

Both Lin Yixin and I exchanged a smile with each other. We’re rich! My Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf is unique, but this Purple Gold Rank boss can’t be too far behind!

I stared at my little wolf for a couple of seconds before saying, “Yiyi, I have my little wolf already, so you should be the one to seal this. You’re long overdue for a pet change anyway. Good luck. If your karma is good, then this Ice Wolf is all yours!”

“Mn.”

Lin Yixin shot me a grateful look before pulling out her Sealing Cards. To be entirely honest, I hadn’t acted completely out of generosity and good will. It would threaten my image if I ran around with a pet fox, especially with all those stories about foxes turning into great beauties. What if someone saw me grinding with it in the morning and wondered if I grinded with it at night as well? That would be too degenerate!

Swhoosh!

The first Sealing Card circled the air for a moment before transforming into a magic formation. The fox screeched at its shackles a bit more violently than expected, but it didn’t evolve and become uncapturable. In the end, the magic formation disappeared and announced Lin Yixin’s first failure!

Lin Yixin bit her lips, but the bravery and determination in her eyes didn’t diminish in the slightest. She tossed out her second Sealing Card!

Swhoosh!

Again, the card spun in the air for a moment before falling atop the Ice Fox, shrinking it and dragging it to the center of the magical formation. As it turned out, the Fruit Knife Goddess had amazing karma, because she actually succeeded in just two tries! Lin Yixin had acquired a new magical pet!

“Hehe, I did it! I finally have a high-rank pet…”

Overjoyed, Lin Yixin spun around and gave me a passionate hug to express her jubilance. I wrapped my arms around her waist in return and smiled just as brightly. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s see its stats already!”

“Mn!”

The Ice Fox’s stats appeared in the party channel, and it was truly astonishing—

Ice Fox (Purple Gold Rank Boss)

Level: 1

Intelligence: 47

Defense: 42

HP: 40

Agility: 48

Growth——

Magic Attack: ★★★★★★★★☆

Defense: ★★★★★★★

HP: ★★★★★★★★☆

Agility: ★★★★★★★☆

……

Tsk tsk, the Ice Fox was truly an amazing pet. With a BN value of 177, it was only slightly inferior to my Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf’s BN 192. More importantly, it was a magical pet with a Magic Attack growth of 8.5 stars. Once it learned a powerful AoE magic skill, it would be practically unbeatable. Of course, I was talking about its offensive prowess. Only an idiot would expect a magic-based pet to have ridiculous Defense and HP as well. That being said, the Ice Fox was a high-rank boss pet, so its Defense and HP were pretty good all things considered. At the very least, it was several hundred leagues ahead of the Fire Blade!

It was at this moment a bit of experience leaked out of the Sealing Card and entered our bodies. What was this? This was a new addition of the latest patch. In the past, successfully sealing a boss pet wouldn’t yield any experience whatsoever. That was changed so that it wouldn’t be a complete waste of time and effort to everyone except the pet sealer. It made sense. You did manage to tame a boss pet after all, so it was only right you got some experience for it!

I didn’t expect this tiny trickle of experience to become the last push I needed to reach Level 100, however. Not only that, I received a system announcement that made me wonder if I had gone mad from desire—

Ding~!

System Announcement: Player “Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand (Sky City)” has reached level 100 because their teammate has captured the Purple Gold Rank boss—Ice Fox. They have met the criteria to become a Famous General, and they are the second Famous General of China! They have gained Luck +2, Tactics +10, and the exclusive Famous General Skill, “Martial God”!

……

My eyes turned as wide as saucers. Beside me, Lin Yixin’s reaction was exactly the same. A while later, we finally stared at each other and laughed. Who would’ve thought that that trickle of experience would push me to Level 100 and make me the second Famous General of China as well? And what was my exclusive Famous General Skill called again, Martial God?

Lin Yixin urged me. “Come on, come on! Show me what your Famous General Skill does!”

“Mn!”

I hurriedly opened my skill list and checked my stratagem bar. An orange skill had appeared where there was only Bloodlust, and both Lin Yixin and I turned into statues when I tapped open the tooltip to check its effects—

Martial God: Beseech the power of the Martial God and increase the attack power of all party members within 1000 yards by 40%. Costs 1 MP per second. Skill exclusive to player “Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand”.

……

“OMG, it’s a 40% attack buff…”

Lin Yixin stared at me with hazy eyes and said, “This is ridiculous. You have 87 Tactics right now, so that means your General Skill actually buffs your party members’ Attack by 75%...”

I nodded while trying not to scream in joy. “Yiyi, your mental arithmetics are pretty good…”

“This is just OP, uuuu…”

……

I felt full of manliness after I switched out my current stratagem for “Martial God”. 75% attack buff was absolutely OP and many, many times more practical than Bloodlust’s +35% attack speed. I could only imagine how powerful we would become after I applied the buff to both of us. We truly deserved to be called “Martial Gods” now.

I had no doubt in my mind that Martial God was one hundred percent better than Candlelight Shadow’s Ghost God Prophecy. Ghost God Prophecy was a fixed effect that didn’t benefit from his Tactics at all, but not my Martial God. The better my equipment, the higher my Tactics, the stronger the effects of my Tactics skill become. In the future, I wouldn’t be surprised if I could buff myself and my party members’ attack power by 100% or even 200%! Mn, we truly are the generals of the future! The future where the best of the best clashed against each other in epic warfare was nigh!

There was one more thing I was absolutely delighted about, and it was the fact that my General Skill was called Martial God. Everyone in China called Candlelight Shadow Martial God, but I was the one who was named Martial God by the game itself. With that in mind, who was the real Martial God of China? I was sure that many people were thinking the same thing right this moment.

Candlelight Shadow must be feeling like someone had dropped him to the ground all the way from heaven. He had to be smarting like a bitch right now, hehehe!!