I didn’t receive any quest notification, but if Xuan Nu said it was a quest, then it was a quest. Moreover, she was the holder of the Xuanyuan Sword, the divine weapon of every Chinese’s dream. While it was unlikely that Xuan Nu would gift me the sword as a reward, even a screw from the sword would make me laugh in my dreams for many days to come.

The Xuanyuan Sword wasn’t just a simple weapon. It was the faith and totem of our entire nation. Any Chinese player who was granted the honor to even just hold the Xuanyuan Sword could claim that they had achieved one of their life’s goals.

……

Rustle rustle...

The Ghost Spirit War Boots made some rustling noises as I walked along a passage of the abode. The walls were covered in gems, luminous gemstones, and totems engraved using oracle bone scripts. The giant dragon engravings on the walls already looked plenty scary, but the possessed Sacred Beast was supposed to be even stronger. Heaven knows how I was going to beat it. I had promised Xuan Nu that I would succeed though, and I wasn’t going to go back on my word no matter what.

After traveling about 500 meters, the path started widening just as Xuan Nu promised me it would. I could even hear the sound of streaming water from here. Suddenly, my vision widened into a tall, magnificent mountain range with a single waterfall rushing down from above. Right beneath the waterfall was a huge, deep pond that had to be the Sacred Pond Xuan Nu was talking about.

The supposedly sacred Sacred Pond was glowing a bloody color. It made me certain that the Sacred Beast was slumbering inside of it. It just hadn’t surfaced yet.

I softened my footsteps and carefully followed the wall to the front. Just a few seconds later, I immediately spotted the first Chiyou Elite Guard. It was a wolfman miniboss covered in armor and wielding a long blade. It was about 120 yards from me and to the east. I activated Dark Pupils and quickly discovered a second Chiyou Elite Guard as well. It was an undead general riding a Qilin Beast. Normally, this miniboss would be a boss in its own right, but both the undead general and the Qilin Beast were skins and bones, probably because they had been starving for hundreds and thousands of years.

Finally, Dark Pupils revealed a red dot inside the pond, and it was enormous. I had no doubt that it was a super boss. This was going to be fun!

……

I considered my options for a bit before deciding that I would kill the Chiyou Elite Guards first. Not only that, I was going to lure them to me one by one. Both minibosses were Level 280 and Ancient Immortal Rank, so they could easily instakill me if I aggroed both of them at the same time.

Before that, there were some calculations to be made. My Level was 58 below the minibosses, and their detection range was probably something like… 70 yards or so? Moreover, they were close enough to each other that trying to aggro just one of them to me wasn’t very doable… unless I waited for them to move apart. So that was what I did. I didn’t want to use Resurrection Art on either one of the minibosses—the levels must be saved for the Sacred Beast—so I waited.

I hid behind the stone wall for three whole minutes before the two Chiyou Elite Guards finally made a move. Unfortunately, they were moving along the same angle. If I jumped out now, I would still be attracting two minibosses, so I waited some more.

It was said time and time again that patience was one of the critical factors to success. It was true. It took almost half an hour of waiting, but finally the two Chiyou Elite Guards walked away from each other. This is my chance!

Pa!

I nimbly bounded out of my hiding spot and moved straight toward the wolfman to my left. The moment I entered within 72 yards of it, it immediately let out a low, menacing growl and rushed toward me. Not daring to tempt fate and fight it here, I immediately turned back and returned to the passage.

After that, I summoned the Phantom Wolf King and apparition, kicking the battle off.

My little wolf had good Attack but poor survivability, so I had it zigzag in front of the wolfman repeatedly to block its way while the apparition and I used Dragon Slaying Slash, Burning Blade Slash, Myriad Swords Obliteration and more ranged attacks.

Pu!

I thrust the Purple Ying Sword through its chest armor and executed Purple Frost Concentration, greatly reducing its Defense. A miniboss's resistance wasn’t as good as a boss’s, so it lost 36% of its Defense instantly. At the same time, the wolfman landed a skill on my shoulder!

Astral Blade Sweep!

197742!

182366!

173263!

Mn. I had let it hit me to learn exactly how much damage it could do to me, and it was pretty deadly to say the least. Neither hit was particularly deadly on its own, but three of them in quick succession? That was half of my HP gone just like that.

I withdrew deeper into the passage and activated Battle Astral Wind. It was one thing to test out the miniboss's strength, and another to overdo it and die.

The Chiyou Elite Guard roared furiously, but there was a skill gap between us that it couldn’t bridge no matter what. Thanks to my apparition, my pet, and my ability to control three characters at once almost perfectly, I kept shooting ranged skills at it while zigzagging left and right to keep the damage I received to a minimum. Even better, Battle Astral Wind provided me with an extra thick blanket of security, losing only 15% of its durability per hit. There was no chance I was going to die to this miniboss.

Twenty minutes of high APM and top-notch fighting technique later, the wolfman dropped dead and gave me 24% experience. Considering that I was Level 222 right now, that was an incredible amount of experience. I should be leveling up—or be on the brink of leveling up—after killing the second miniboss. Then… I should be prepared to lose many levels fighting against the Sacred Beast!

……

It only took me half an hour to take out the undead general. According to its description, it used to be a trusted aide of the Evil Spirit of Chiyou. Its strength didn’t match the position it was entrusted with though.

Just like all the bosses I had killed so far, it didn’t drop anything good at all. The best equipment I got was only a Heaven-grade helmet. The good news was that the mob gave enough experience to level me up to 223.

"Okay!"

I sucked in a deep breath and looked at the rippling pond some distance away from me. Finally, the decisive battle was about to begin!

……

The closer I got to the Sacred Pond, the more I could feel the violent aura of the Sacred Beast. In fact, the pond suddenly bubbled like it was boiling hot or something. When I reached within a hundred yards of the pond, the Sacred Beast finally noticed me and began surfacing. I immediately resummoned the apparition and the Phantom Wolf King. I also buffed myself with a Fire War God Card so I could face the boss in my best condition. I even used the Iron Wall stratagem—a basic stratagem that buffed my Defense by 100%—instead of my Martial God because I knew that this was going to be a long, drawn out fight where survivability was more important than power.

I gripped the Purple Ying Sword tightly. Despite being a veteran of the battlefield, I couldn’t help but feel nervous—or maybe it was excitement?—to the point where my blood felt like it was boiling in my veins just like the pond around. Chiyou had already been an ancient evil god in its own right, and now it also possessed the body of the Sacred Beast. Just how strong was this boss going to be? Well, ‘terrifying’ would be a good place to kick off the string of adjectives...

I moved closer and dropped two Icy Cyclone Domains on the edge of the pond in front of me. It froze the water surface within its area of effect, but I could see that the ice was very thin.

Bang!

As expected, a sinister-looking head burst through the ice I made like nothing and glared down on me with its dark blue eyes. Its head somehow resembled both a dragon and a turtle. The top of its head was covered in thick armor, not unlike a snapping turtle’s. More ice shattered into pieces as it gripped the edge of the pond with its claws.

It had a shell that made it look like a ten-thousand-years-old giant turtle. That already had ‘bad news’ written all over it, but it also had a pair of wings. It unfolded them, opened its bloody maw and let out a shrill cackle that could only be described as disgusting.

I was surprised, but for a different reason from what one might expect. I immediately executed Coiling Dragon Revolution and sent my sword flying into its exposed mouth. Talk about a freebie!

128873!

I had struck a weak point, but my damage was still sorely lacking. It was because I hadn’t reduced its Defense with Purple Frost Concentration.

"Jie jie!"

The Sacred Beast abruptly bounded out of the Sacred Pond and rushed toward me at high speed. It was like a mountain or the sky itself falling toward me. It let out another brutal roar before spitting a mouthful of ice at me. One of the icicles rocked my Dragon God Shield. Although Battle Astral Wind had canceled the damage, my speed was still reduced by the attack. Worse, it had deleted 51% of the Battle Astral Wind’s durability. One more hit like that, and I would have to wait 120 seconds before I could resummon my life-saving skill.

I backed away as quickly as I could and activated Ghost Spirit Step Art at the same time. For 15 seconds, there was a 75% chance that any attack I received would be nullified!

By now the Sacred Beast had pulled itself completely out of the water. It stretched its long, ugly neck toward me and attempted to bite me twice in a row. The reason I said attempted was because Ghost Spirit Step Art had turned them all into misses. Its effects couldn’t be understated in a boss fight!

I activated Dark Pupils and found a 10-centimeter-wide weak point beneath the boss's chin. The skin there was weaker than normal. I stabbed my sword through it and used Purple Frost Concentration, and the next moment I was informed that its Defense had been lowered by 24.4%. That was enough!

Thud thud thud...

I blocked and parried as best I could while retreating to more favorable terrain. There was zero chance I was going to beat this motherfucker on an open clearing like this. The caves behind me were my best chance.

Of course, I didn’t forget to use my ranged skills like Summon the Storm and Myriad Swords Obliteration to whittle away at the boss's HP. Also, I finally had an opportunity to actually read the stats I had gleaned through Dark Pupils—

Sacred Beast Tianyuan (Ancient Divine Rank Boss)

Level: 285

Attack: ???

Defense: ???

HP: ???

Skills: Icicle Thrust, Cruel Bite, Xuanyuan Sword Soul, Heaven-bound Fate

Introduction: The Tianyuan is the totem and symbol of the Xuanyuan Clan. The ancient beast stays underwater most of the time, and it was worshipped as the Sacred Beast of Xuanyuan. However, the 170000-years-old Tianyuan was attacked by the Evil Spirit of Chiyou and turned into a violent creature. In the following hundreds of thousands of years, the Tianyuan had killed countless humans. Its eating habits even changed from that of a herbivore to that of a carnivore with a very special interest in human flesh. The Tianyuan also possesses the power to decide the life or death of any individual, including itself. When it dies, it has a 50% chance to revive on the spot with 10% HP.

……

Swhoosh!

After I ran back into the cave, I swung my sword behind me and hit the Tianyuan’s head with Burning Blade Slash. The damage I dealt was considerable, but the big fellow had so much health that the HP bar above its head didn’t even budge.

"Roar!"

My plan had been to get it stuck between the caves while I attacked from relative safety, but it was foiled when the goddamned flying turtle just burst right through the rocks. The terrain just wasn’t strong enough to stop an Ancient Divine Rank boss. As the Tianyuan’s head slammed into my chest, I saw it staring at me with ridicule before opening its mouth and conjuring not an icicle, but a golden sword this time. Fuck! It’s that Xuanyuan Sword Soul skill!

Pu!

The Xuanyuan Sword Soul pierced through my body instantly. Battle Astral Wind had already been canceled during the head butt from earlier, so I had no choice but to pray that Ghost Deity Shield was enough to block it. It wasn’t. A tearing pain exploded from my chest, and the damage number above my head was an unbelievable—

982663!

That one hit had almost killed me. This Tianyuan was Xuanyuan’s totem alright. Even after it was possessed by the Evil Spirit of Chiyou, it still retained the Xuanyuan Emperor’s unique skill to this day.

Crunch!

One more Cruel Bite later, I felt my body slacken as I died!