Chiang!

Cloudway’s sword slipped through his fingers and pierced the ground. He knelt next to Dios’s dead body and murmured to himself, "I’m sorry, teacher. I… really didn’t want to kill you, but more innocent people would die in your hands if I hadn’t. I had no choice… May your soul find redemption in the Purgatory!"

Cloudway slowly closed his eyes after that. He could no longer fight because had suffered too much damage when pushing through the forbidden spell. The good news was that he still had a sliver of HP, so he wasn’t dying anytime soon.

Swhoosh!

Murong Mingyue cast Restore on Cloudway and said with a smile, "It’d be a shame to lose such a handsome prince!"

I teased her, "Oh? Does that mean you want to make him yours, sis?"

Murong Mingyue shot me an aggrieved look before replying, "Don’t worry, I still prefer cute little gangsters like you. It’s not like I can eat handsome for breakfast…"

"Who are you calling a cute little gangster?" I retorted. "Also, did you just imply that I’m ugly? I’m almost as handsome as Cloudway, okay? Beiming, Lian Xin, what do you girls think?"

Beiming Xue replied with a sweet smile, "No one is more handsome than big bro, of course!"

Lian Xin echoed in agreement, "No objections there! Big brother Lu Chen is the most handsome man in the entire world!"

Lin Yixin shook her head in amusement. "You satisfied now?"

I grinned. "I guess. Now, let’s check out the boss loot already. I’m sure a Level 215 Immortal Rank boss dropped something amazing for us!"

"Yeah!"

……

The first thing I did after approaching Dios’s dead body was to absorb his undead soul spark. His soul could fly into the sun for all I cared, but I wasn’t going to let his undead cultivation slip through my grasp. A tremendous energy instantly filled my chest. As expected of an Immortal Rank boss, his undead soul spark was richer than 10 Bloodblade Ghost Generals combined!

Next, I crouched on the ground and inspected the loot scattered amid the rubble and grass. Dios only dropped three pieces of equipment in total, but they all seemed mighty impressive in their own way. There was an orange helmet, a red battle shield, and a ring with the image of a black dragon engraved onto its surface. I picked up the helmet first, and just as we hoped it was the equipment we needed the most right now—

Windchaser Helmet (Heaven-grade, Outstanding★★★★★)

Defense: 1000

Magic Resist: 920

Agility: +355

Stamina: +380

Strength: +310

Tactics: +29

Passive: Increases user's hit rate by 80%

Passive: Increases user's ranged attack power by 15%

Outstanding Property: Windchasing, increases user’s attack and movement speed by 15%

Property: Windchaser Set, Helmet

Introduction: 25000 years ago, archery was a popular sport on the Heavenblessed Continent, and empires all across the land started a war called the Bow God War to determine the Bow God of them all. Many wars later, the title was won by a young man who came from the mountains. It wasn’t until later that it was revealed that the young man was actually the incarnation of the Bow God of the Heavenly Domain. When the Bow God collapsed during the War of Gods and Devils, his body split into five and transformed into five armor pieces. They are called the Windchaser set.

Slots: 10

Level Requirement: 170

Reputation Requirement: 250000

……

It was the best kind of karmic retribution. Who would’ve thought that Dios would drop the final piece of the Windchaser set? With this, Beiming Xue’s search for the Windchaser set had come to an end!

I passed the Windchaser Helmet to Beiming Xue with a smile. "Here. Let’s see what the final effect of the set is, shall we?"

"Mn."

Pop! The Windchaser Helmet covered Beiming Xue’s head for a short while until she tweaked the settings and made it invisible. Most girls preferred to show their features rather than hide them after all. A moment later, the full stats of the Windchaser set were shared inside the party channel—

Windchaser Set:

1 piece: None

2 pieces: Increases ranged attack power by 50%

3 pieces: Increases ranged attack power by 30% and attack speed by 60%

4 pieces: Increases Defense and Magic Resist by 75%. Increases max HP by 70000

5 pieces: Blade of Windchasing. Increases user’s movement speed by 150%, lets user ignore 45% of the target’s Defense, adds 40% splash effect to all attacks and increases evasion rate against physical attacks by 35%

……

For a while, Lin Yixin, Murong Mingyue, Lian Xin and I couldn’t say anything. To say that this Heaven-grade set defied common sense was a massive understatement. In total, the set increased Beiming Xue’s Attack by 80%, Defense and Magic Resist by 75%, attack speed by 60%, and even added 70k max HP. Could you really call an archer with over 100k HP an archer? She was practically unbeatable at this point.

Right now, the best archers in China such as October Rain and Transient Smoke and Clouds only had a max HP of 70k or so. Beiming Xue’s Windchaser set not only put her max HP at over 120k, her Defense was as good as some of the metal armor players out there. She even had 45% Defense ignore and 40% splash effect added to all her attacks! I don’t think that I have ever heard of an all-rounder archer until now!

Even better, the set also granted Beiming Xue 35% chance to dodge all physical attacks. Archers already had high evasion rate, and this set pushed her right past the 50% mark. In an archer versus warrior duel, assuming that the warrior was just average, she could potentially end the enemy’s life before they even landed a hit on her!

Lin Yixin smiled at Beiming Xue and said, "Beiming?"

"Yes, Sister Lin Yixin?"

"Starting now, shoot me a message before you head to the champion arena, okay? I don't want to run into you…" Lin Yixin said with a giggle.

I echoed in agreement. "Me too, I ain’t fighting against you either…"

Murong Mingyue said in a dumbfounded tone, "No need to tell Farewell Song though. At this stage, he’s probably the only player in the entire country with over 50% chance to beat Beiming."

However, I said, "Not necessarily. I can think of a couple of players."

"Who?" Lin Yixin asked.

"Luo River God of the Capital, Lian Xin, Stranger of Three Lifetimes and Moonkiss. Don’t forget, this set only increases Beiming Xue’s Magic Resist by 75%, and Beiming Xue has to punch through a mage’s Magic Shield before she can kill them. Luo River God of the Capital, Lian Xin and Stranger of Three Lifetimes all have at least a 40% chance to beat her."

Beiming Xue nodded humbly. "Big bro is correct. It’s never easy to beat a mage as an archer, and now that everyone’s sixth-promotion, failing to pierce a mage’s Magic Shield is equal to death. Not much we can do in that department though, mages just hard-counter archers right now."

I consoled her. "It’s okay. Maybe it’ll be the other way around when you hit Level 180 and learn your seventh-promotion skills."

"Yeah. Anyway, let’s look at the rest of the equipment, shall we?"

"Yeah."

……

Next, I picked up the glowing red shield. It looked like it was made from dragon armor, and its surface was etched with draconic patterns. There were also illegible runes circulating around it. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that it was an extraordinary item. Even so, the girls were shocked when I brought up its stats screen—

Dragon God Shield (Immortal-grade, Outstanding★★★★★★)

Defense: 7200

Magic Resist: 5500

Stamina: +920

Strength: +900

Agility: +850

Tactics: +120

Parry Chance: +54%

Passive: Increases user's Defense by 70%

Passive: Increases user's max HP by 40000

Outstanding Property: Divine Dragon Protection. Summon the Dragon God to protect oneself. Become invincible for 25 seconds.

Introduction: During the ancient times, the humans and dragons fought a great war that ended in the devastating defeat of the humans. A dozen or so empires sent hundreds of their greatest sword saints and magi into battle, but they only managed to kill 17 Holy Giant Dragons despite losing over 90% of their numbers. In the end, an expert known as the Thief God slipped into the Dragon God’s residence, killed the Dragon God’s child and stripped them of their dragon armor. The draconic scales he had ripped off were then used to forge the Dragon God Shield. However, enraged by the cruel murder, the Dragon God attacked several border empires with a great army and destroyed them all. The Dragon God Shield was the witness of that destruction.

Slots: 12

Level Requirement: 175

Reputation Requirement: 300000

……

Overjoyed, I laughed like a madman while saying, "Hahaha! What luck! A godlike shield is exactly what I need right now! Is this fate?"

Lin Yixin let out a happy chuckle and said, "Well, what are you waiting for? Equip it already. I’m sure your final stats will look impressive!"

"Yeah!"

I was qualified to equip the Dragon God Shield because I was now Level 175. I switched out the lowly Bloody Fortress Shield without hesitation and watched as the image of a divine dragon appeared across my arm. At the same time, I felt a great power inside me like nothing I had ever felt before. If my Defense and HP didn’t count as overpowered before, they did now!

ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand (Title: Purgatory Thunder)

Class: Undead Swordsman (Great Earth Swordsman)

Level: 175

HP: 204290

Attack: 5610~6870

Defense: 15515

Magic Resist: 12950

Reputation: 328900

Tactics: 759 (+672)

Luck: 54

……

A single shield was all it took to boost my base defense way past my base Attack, as it should be. One only needed to look to the Nation Wars to know how tanky a shield-wielding magic knight could be. These days, it was very difficult for a mounted player to break apart a shield formation because there was really only one common fighter skill that could penetrate one’s Defense, and that was Barrier Break. Therefore, the best way to defeat a shield formation was to exploit class advantage and let a group of mages blast them with AoE spells. Nothing would be good enough if the players failed at teamwork though.

All things said, my current Defense was stupidly high right now. Already, I couldn’t wait to meet the Northern Alliance players in battle and savor their incredulous expressions. The Dragon God Shield was a 6-star Outstanding Immortal-grade shield with a 25-second long invincibility skill and pretty good Magic Resist. In fact, it was starting to look like I might be a better tank than an attacker.

……

So far, Dios had turned out to be a most excellent kill. Not only did he gift us an extraordinary amount of experience, he also gave me and Beiming Xue exactly what we needed the most! How lucky!

It was at this moment Beiming Xue broke my bubble of ecstasy and urged me, "Big bro, there’s still a ring to check."

"Oh, right."

I picked up the black dragon ring and brought up its stats screen. Murong Mingyue cheered, "Oh my god, finally!"

Dark Dragon Arcane Ring (Immortal-grade, Outstanding★★★★)

Intelligence: +790

Stamina: +800

Agility: +755

Passive: Increases user's healing effectiveness by 85%

Passive: Increases user's max HP by 24000

Outstanding Property: Wings of Dark Dragon. Reduces damage taken by 30%.

Level Requirement: 170

Reputation Requirement: 150000