I revived myself with Resurrection Art, dropping a level but increasing my Attack by 10%. I ran deeper into the cave immediately after the revival, just in time to avoid the Tianyuan’s head smashing into the cave I had been in a while ago. I had no idea where I was going, and it was pitch black inside. It didn’t matter though. If I didn’t find a terrain I could use to fight the boss soon, I would become turtle food!

Swhoosh!

I relied on the Purple Ying Sword’s light to illuminate my way as I dashed into the darkened map. Suddenly, I emerged into a cavern that was filled with countless totem poles that were shaped like Xuanyuan Swords. It was a wide hall, and the minimap called it “Xuanyuan Hall”. Well shit, if there was one place my hope resided, this would be the place!

……

"Do you think you can escape death, boy?"

To my surprise, the Tianyuan opened its mouth and spoke in a most unpleasant voice. It had to be the Evil Spirit of Chiyou. Ew!

The stone-carved totem poles looked like swords standing on the tip of their blade. A pair of them formed some sort of a two-man wide entrance that was more than wide enough for me to pass through, but not the Sacred Beast. Sure, its head could just barely pass through the opening, but there was zero chance its gigantic body—especially its turtle shell—could come through without crushing the totem poles outright.

I dashed through three or four pairs of totem poles along a beautiful S-shaped path while tossing the Purple Ying Sword at the same time. Coiling Dragon Revolution struck the Tianyuan’s head and dealt around 200k+ damage or so, causing it to roar out again and fire a bunch of icicles at me.

I made my apparition attack and slow down the Tianyuan as much as possible by controlling every step I took. As the boss kept firing icicles at me, I changed direction and speed repeatedly to dodge them. The turn rate penalty removal of the Fusion Armor and my own skill showed its true power at this moment. Not a single one of those icicles were able to hit me!

The Tianyuan didn’t give up, however. Still carrying a whopping 98% HP after all the damage I had done to it, it chased relentlessly while roaring my ears off from time to time. Behind the Tianyuan, the sword-shaped totem poles reformed itself like they had never been damaged. It was probably because the Xuanyuan Hall was overflowing with immortal qi. They were useless as obstacles though, since none of them could withstand the Tianyuan’s weight.

Pu!

Suddenly, the Tianyuan expanded its meaty wings and almost surfaced completely into the air. A memory flashed across my mind. In real life, the Tianyuan was actually a kind of flying dinosaur from the Jurassic period, the Pterosaur. What did this mean inside the game? Well, it meant that it had turtle armor, super Defense, and the ability to cultivate all four systems of magic. It was also one of the deadliest monsters in ancient Chinese mythology.

A sharp, rending pain pierced my shoulder as the Tianyuan bit me. I tried to turn around and kick myself free, but well, I shouldn’t even have bothered. It was like kicking a steel wall. The Tianyuan raised its claws and swiped at me twice, and three damage numbers rose above my head—

390717!

312784!

712388!

The last hit was even a critical hit. I didn’t have OP Famous General Skills like Bombshell or Royal Road, or bard buffs on my person right now. My total HP was just—relatively speaking—a palty 600k times 1.8 right now. Naturally, I let out a death groan and died yet again. Luckily, I triggered Immortality this time and resurrected on the spot.

I took off like an arrow the second I revived. I even used Thunderous Charge on an empty spot just to put as much space between myself and the boss's seemingly all-encompassing claws as possible. Not only that, I activated Ghost Spirit Step Art to further protect myself, and use Rise of the Guardian Dragon and Myriad Swords Obliteration to whittle down the boss's HP some more. After that, I ran some more as a matter of course.

While running and attacking the boss, I opened the map screen and checked out the Xuanyuan Hall’s structure. There were eight groups of totem poles in the hall in total. Each one was made up of 3 to 6 rows of totem poles. The moment I saw their shape though, realization struck my head like a thunderbolt. Isn’t… isn’t this the legendary Fuxi bagua?

The totem poles directly in front of me were arranged in a 1-2-1 formation facing toward the south, the Li trigram. A quick check revealed that it was the Vermillion Bird’s Outlook Door, Ding Wu Bing, and… What the fuck, I don’t get this at all!

Still running, I waved my head in front of me and manifested a hologram of the bagua above my head. It spun slowly like an aurora wheel. Right after I passed through the Outlook Door, I took an icicle hit and lost a ton of HP. Instinctively, I dashed toward the Growth Door and... holy shit! It healed me!

+500000!

That was almost half of my HP healed just like that. Unfortunately, the effect didn’t just apply to me. The Tianyuan behind me was also healed by 500k HP before it crushed the Growth Door to pieces. Dammit...

The Tianyuan continued to attack like crazy as I zigged and zagged across the arrangement of rocks. This time, I chose to pass through the Injury Door and lost 200k HP immediately. The Tianyuan was the same, however!

"Roar roar…"

The damn thing fired the Xuanyuan Sword Soul through my chest, and I died again. Again!

I was about to go crazy from frustration. I had barely begun whittling down the boss's HP, and I had dropped two levels already! Worst case scenario, I could lose 100 levels and still not kill this motherfucking thing!

My eyes lit up as I dashed toward the side, however. It was because I had found the Death Door!

Swhoosh!

I crossed under the Death Door and executed another Myriad Swords Obliteration + Burning Blade Slash combo against the Tianyuan at the same time. Screeching in pain and anger, the Tianyuan expanded its wings and attempted to knock aside this arrangement of totem poles as well. However, a miracle happened—

Bang!

Not only did the Tianyuan fail to knock apart the totem poles that made up the Death Door, the knockback impact was so huge that it actually stumbled toward the back! I knew that the Death Door would be different from the other doors! In this case, the totem poles that composed it were indestructible!

Finally, I saw a chance to turn the tables on the Sacred Beast. The gap between the Death Door was small enough that only I could pass through, but the boss could not. It was also big enough for me to launch my AoE skills and ranged skills. Yes, this is it!

I executed Myriad Swords Obliteration + Dragon Slaying Slash combo at the same time I dodged the hail of icicles and wind blades it spat at me. Neither skill was powerful enough to one-shot me even if they hit, meaning that I could finally do more damage to it than it could do to me. I gobbled up my Saint Spirit Potions and Magic Consumables again and again as I fought the Tianyuan around the Death Door.

The boss wasn’t stupid enough to stay in one place so that I could hit it with little trouble. It kept trying to circle to my sides and damage me with its ranged skills. Moreover, Xuanyuan Sword Soul was almost an instakill. I had to die almost every time it used the skill!

Boom boom boom!

The six rows of totem poles that formed the Death Door shook under staggering weight that was the Sacred Beast, but a constant infusion of divine energy and immortal qi kept it steady and indestructible. I had a feeling that the Xuanyuan Huang Emperor had left this formation behind precisely so that his descendants could deal with the Evil Spirit of Chiyou. In fact, without it, I would’ve been forced to engage the Tianyuan in melee range. It would’ve been impossible for me to win no matter how many times I could revive. The Tianyuan could fly, so it had higher movement speed that even me. My ploy to use the apparition and my Phantom Wolf King to block its way was completely useless as well. And even if it worked, the Tianyuan could just fire its ridiculously powerful Xuanyuan Sword Soul and kill me, my apparition and my pet all in one go.

……

You would think that this fight should be easy peasy now that I had the Death Door to act as an indestructible obstacle, but you would be wrong. I already mentioned how goddamn intelligent the Sacred Beast was earlier, and the fact that it towered over me meant that it still had more than enough room to open its stinky maw and bite my poor head again, and again, and again. It was to the point where I felt like the Fire God Helmet was going to smell permanently of saliva from now on. Did I at least survive the bite attacks, you ask? Of course… not!

The battle lasted 3 whole hours when the Tianyuan’s health finally dropped to 5%. I had revived 19 times through Immortality and 12 times through the Resurrection Art, so I was only Level 211 now. I had died a total of 31 times, and my Battle Astral Wind was destroyed many more times than that. The entire Xuanyuan Hall was flashing with the light of skill from a mythical beast and the best player in the world. It was a legendary moment in the game for sure.

I took a moment to check my bag. My potion and consumable supplies had dwindled considerably since I had been chugging them down almost off cooldown for the past 3 hours. Assuming that I hadn’t brought any potion with me, I would’ve been lucky to die just one time per minute. Take the boss's Icicle Thrust for example. It was a common skill, and yet it was fast enough that even with my skill I wasn’t able to dodge it more than 40% of the time. I died so many times that I had grown bored of dying at this point.

There was a growing smile on my face, however. As I fired another Ancient Seal, I daydreamed about the reward the Tianyuan might drop for me. I knew that the Ruins of the Gods map prevented bosses from dropping OP rewards for some reason, but come on, this was an Ancient Divine-Rank boss! If a Divine Armament was impossible, then at least drop a Divine Rank pet egg or something!

The boss's HP dropped even more while I was daydreaming. My smile grew even wider.

3%……

2%……

1%……

It’s gonna die!

I swung my arm one last time and fired Burning Blade Slash across the boss's body. The Tianyuan let out a death groan, and finally, it… lived!? My knees nearly buckled when I saw the soul-rending green healing number rising above its head—

+10000000!

It had revived with 10 million HP, which was 5% of its total HP. In other words, this Sacred Beast Tianyuan had a total HP of 200 million. Motherfucker! If I had 200 million HP, I would go to Hero City, slay every single player in it and claim the royal scepter solo right now!

……

I forced myself to think positive and kept fighting. Heaven-bound Fate was a skill that gave its user a 50% chance to revive with 5% HP, basically a coin flip! It had to die eventually!

Unfortunately, I died a couple more times and dropped a couple more levels before it did. Well, this was expected.

Ten plus minutes later, I deleted its final sliver of HP, and the Tianyuan… let out an undying roar and revived with 10 million HP AGAIN!

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!”

I let out a pathetic groan before continuing this goddamned boss fight.

When the boss revived for the fourth time, I had dropped to just Level 205. I didn’t even have enough levels to meet the requirement to enter the Heavenly River Realm now! What the hell is going on here!?

I cursed the boss again and again in my head. I’ll die if you revive again! I swear!

……

Incredibly, the heavens finally heard my prayers!

Swhoosh!

The moment Myriad Swords Obliteration penetrated the Tianyuan’s body, six columns of golden light enveloped my person and increased my level to 211. This Ancient Divine Rank boss carried so much experience!

At the same time, a dark green-colored Ancient Divine Skill Scroll and a ton of equipment dropped from the boss as well.

My arms nearly shook when I picked up the scroll. Tears threatened to break loose when I gave it a look and noted that my 4 hours and the tens of levels I dropped weren’t for nothing after all—

Xuanyuan Slash (SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skill): Increases user's Attack by 180%. Summon the Xuanyuan Sword and deal Xuanyuan Battle Soul Strike to all targets within 35 yards in front of you. All targets lose 90% Defense for 12 seconds, and have a 25% chance of being instantly killed. Cooldown: 120 seconds. Cost: 50% MP.