Swhoosh!

The cost of entering the Sky Vortex was 1000 gold and 10000 Reputation. One moment I was spinning rapidly inside the vortex, and the next, my feet had found solid ground. When I opened my eyes, I saw that I was inside a jade green forest.

Suddenly, a flash appeared right in front of me. It was another player teleporting to my exact location. Not only was he a red name, he was the vice leader of Hero Alliance and the legendary Knight of Stars, Beethoven’s Joy! He was a fairly powerful player in the USA server, and he was Vienna’s right hand!

Thud!

Debris floated where my foot had pushed off as I dashed toward Beethoven’s Joy. I managed to stab his chest and execute Burning Blade Slash before he could react—

152787!

193200!

231773!

The Knight of Stars let out a shout of dismay and anger. Well, I would be if I was him. Not only had he teleported to the same location as me, we were barely a couple of steps apart. He never had the chance to run away from me.

Beethoven’s Joy grabbed the back of my blade and pushed me off him. At the same time, he summoned his mount, climbed on and escaped toward the mountain range directly in front of him. He knew that he was no match for me, so he chose to escape as quickly as possible. Here at the Ruins of the Gods, dying was a one-time thing. Whoever died here before finding their Ancient Divine Skill would never be able to enter it again, thus losing their account’s one and only chance to enter the Heavenly River Realm.

……

Gusts of wind gathered beneath my feet as I brandished my weapon and gave chase. Although I was floating about half a meter above the ground, the Ghost Spirit War Boots still gave off shockwaves every time I took a step. Like a shadow, I hounded the Knight of Stars until he was forced to down a health potion and shout, "Must you be so ruthless, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand?!"

I shouted back just as harshly, "Ruthless? Who’s the ruthless mofo who invaded Sky City and Wind City just a couple of days ago? Blame your luck for running into me so soon!"

The Ancient Divine Dragon was much, much faster than the Knight of Stars’ mount, so he knew then he wouldn’t be able to escape. He turned around and executed a five-hit Star Slash + Armor Break Flurry combo!

The air felt like it was being torn apart as a violent storm of heat and steel made its way toward me. However, I narrowed my eyes, swung my sword four times and parried all the attacks with almost effortless ease, causing Beethoven’s Joy to turn even greener than he already was. He turned around and tried to escape again, but...

"Seriously? Give it up and drop dead already!"

I raised my arm and cast Rise of the Guardian Dragon about ten meters away from me. Beethoven’s Joy and his mount were immediately pushed into the sky. Before he even fell down on the ground, I tossed the Purple Ying Sword at him and watched as a huge, gaping hole appeared at the center of his chest. Just like that, his final sliver of HP was gone.

……

Ding~!

System Announcement (Ruins of the Gods): Player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand" (China) killed the Heroic Bannerman "Beethoven’s Joy" and obtained 1 Sky Kill Points!

The ringing sound wouldn’t stop for a time, but I paid it no heed. All my attention was on this "Sky Kill Point" thing I got. I wondered what it was for? Oh well, I supposed that I would find out eventually. I picked up the boots Beethoven’s Joy dropped and found that they were pretty good Immortal-grade equipment. Obviously, they were leagues behind my Ghost Spirit War Boots, but they were easily something that could sell for tens of thousands of RMB if I dropped it on my stall at Sky City, with buyers climbing over each other to get it.

I looked around and found that all was silent. It would appear that my killing of Beethoven’s Joy hadn’t triggered any reaction whatsoever. There was also the fact that the Ruins of the Gods was an incredibly huge map, so running into another player was an incredibly rare thing. Now that I had time to think over things, it truly was a tragedy for the Knight of Stars to appear so close to me right from the get-go...

……

I checked the map screen and saw a blood-red region right in front of me. I had no doubt that it would have mobs, bosses and even my Ancient Divine Skill.

I activated Dark Pupils as I strode forward. Despite my confidence, I wasn’t about to let my guard down for a second. Only elite eighth-promotion players could enter this place, meaning that everyone I encountered had a chance to threaten me, no matter how slim that chance might be. Carelessness would most definitely result in a deadly outcome.

The red on the map grew darker and darker as I ventured deeper into the region. Soon, I began hearing wolfish howls coming from nearby. A gigantic wolf covered in cyan fur jumped out of the forest, stopped on top of a pile of rocks and stared at me with its bloody red eyes. Judging from the saliva dripping down its gaping mouth, I dared say that it hadn’t tasted flesh for a very, very long time…

Cyan Wolf Guard (Fiend)

Level: 270

Introduction: The Divine Wolf is a natural protector that has guarded the Ruins of the Gods for tens of thousands of years. Born with the ancient god’s bloodline in their veins, their only goal is to bury all the invaders who vie for their treasure. Their numbers are incredible, and the Ancient Divine Skill they guard remains as new as ever despite the passage of time.

……

The Divine Wolf Race?

I was surprised. I wasn’t expecting to encounter signs of the first Ancient Divine Skill so quickly. I was curious about the details of the Divine Wolf’s Ancient Divine Skill, but making my way there clearly wasn’t going to be an easy task. Even with my level and Dark Pupils, I couldn’t see the exact stats of this level 270 fiend-rank monster. As of now, only a handful of players could solo a monster like this.

I summoned the Phantom Wolf King and my apparition. Let’s test things out with a Dragon Slaying Slash first, shall we?

Pa!

The cyan energy blade hit the Cyan Wolf Guard in the head and dealt only 157892 damage. As I thought, the 50-level gap was so huge that my insane Attack was suppressed to a massive extent. Enraged by the attack, the Cyan Wolf Guard rushed toward me with even great murderous intent only to be intercepted by my apparition’s Thunderous Charge!

78937!

Holy shit, my apparition’s Attack almost couldn’t breach the Cyan Wolf Guard’s Defense. The mob retaliated by swiping at the apparition’s head with thunderous energy and dealt a level of damage I had never seen before from a mere mob—

140024!

I was stunned to say the least. I should’ve known that a Level 270 fiend-rank mob would be absolutely bonkers!

I charged toward the Cyan Wolf Guard and cut through its Defense with Burning Blade Slash and Universe Break. Not only did it take almost a minute for me to finally defeat it, my HP had dropped to 74%, and the apparition 23%. It was crazy. I had never fought against a mob that felt like I was challenging a boss until now.

Thankfully, the experience reward was well worthy of the difficulty. Although my main goal was to obtain an Ancient Divine Skill, I didn’t mind earning a ton of experience or two along the way. Moreover, if I couldn’t cut down the mobs like vegetables, then everyone else could only fare worse than me. I doubted anyone expected the monsters of the Ruins of the Gods to be this powerful, and I bet that many of them were regretting entering this place too hastily. This was a one-time thing. They would never be able to come in again if they left now.

Anyway, I stepped over the Cyan Wolf Guard’s body and continued forward. This time, a dozen or so Cyan Wolf Guards entered my view, and at the very end of the canyon was a wolf cave with some sort of orange light shining from the inside. Unless I was mistaken, it had to be the Ancient Divine Skill I was looking for, hehe!

I took out the dozen or so Cyan Wolf Guards blocking my way before circling around the tens of thousand of Cyan Wolf Guards at the center of the canyon. It would take forever to kill them all, and time wasn’t on my side. I could always come back after I learned the Ancient Divine Skill and entered the Heavenly River Realm!

I used Earth Escape to slip closer to the wolf cave until I was about a dozen or so meters away from it. I had a feeling that the Cyan Wolf Guards at the distance would be able to see through my stealth, but I wouldn’t know until I tried. Unfortunately, my feeling was correct. When I was 17 yards away from the closest Cyan Wolf Guard, the mob abruptly let out a roar and pounced straight toward me!

I hurriedly backed to an empty space and killed the Cyan Wolf Guard there. Then, I used Dragon Slaying Slash to aggro the Cyan Wolf Guards blocking the entrance one by one and killed them as well. In total, it took me almost an hour to kill all the mobs guarding the cave.

"Roar roar…"

I smiled when the last Cyan Wolf Guard blocking my way dropped dead and died. Every Cyan Wolf Guard gave me around 1% experience or so, which was absolutely crazy considering my current level.

It was at this moment I spotted a pair of purple dots with my Dark Pupils within the forest some distance away from here. They were players, not monsters. One of them was an archer, and the other, an assassin. They both hailed from Elephant City. Considering that I was surrounded by high-level monsters, I had no intention of engaging them right now.

I quickly used Earth Escape again and entered stealth before the two of them could spot me. Then, I entered the cave. The first thing I noticed was the terrible stench that permeated every inch of the place. Even a Divine Wolf’s den was still a wolf’s den, I supposed. Still, the Ancient Divine Skill had to be inside here, right?

There were many twists and turns inside the cave, and it took me five minutes of navigation before the familiar orange light finally entered my vision again.

……

Rustle rustle...

My sword drew a shallow line across the ground as I exited Earth Escape. However, I was immediately treated to a shocking sight when I looked up. A gigantic wolf with red fur was curled in front of the Divine Wolf’s temple, and behind it was a platform with an orange scroll on top of it.

My eyes lit up. It had to be the Ancient Divine Skill!

……

I gulped inaudibly when I used Dark Pupils on the wolf king, however. It was a motherfucking Level 280 Divine Rank boss! What the hell were the devs thinking? How could I, a Level 220 player, possibly fight against it? Maybe there was a chance if I was wearing a full set of Divine Armaments, but as I was challenging the boss could only be suicide!

What should I do?!

I gritted my teeth. I wanted the scroll, but I was no match for the OP wolf king. What should I do?

Suddenly, an idea entered my mind. I immediately summoned my apparition and the Phantom Wolf King. Maybe I could use these two to lure the boss away and steal the scroll in the meantime?

The second the Phantom Wolf King darted forward, the wolf king immediately rose to its feet with an angry roar and a blood-red totem surrounding its body. I knew that this guardian boss was anything but ordinary. The very first thing it did was to throw a gust of burning gale at the Phantom Wolf King, and my poor pet screeched and lost 400k+ HP just like that. Holy shit!

……

Pa!

I activated Ghost Spirit Step Art and dashed straight toward the scroll. Two jumps later, the warm-feeling scroll was in my hand!