Chapter 110

After killing a dozen or so Flaming Cat Spirits, I finally got to the mouth of the cave in the Green Qilin Abyss . Here, piles of black limestone were stacked into a precipitous, jagged slope . My heart raced anxiously; I had high expectations and would hate to be disappointed . If I can find some Green Qilin Grass here, there’s a good chance that I could make a lot of money . If I go back empty-handed then I will have no way to fund my studio .

……

Rustle…

As I made my way through the grass, I caught a glimpse of a Flaming Cat Spirit in the distance . It hasn’t seen me yet, so I continued on cautiously . I clambered over the pile of black limestone at the edge of the cave and became sorely disappointed . There wasn’t even a single blade of Green Qilin Grass . Damn, is it possible that the legendary Green Qilin Grass really doesn’t grow in the Green Qilin Valley? Or perhaps my method of searching is flawed?

I reached out with my hands to feel the wet stone walls and let the cool feeling spread in my palm . I clenched my teeth in frustration . I just can’t figure it out! Why can I not find the Green Qilin Herb? Even if it is a Lv 6 herb, I should be far enough in the map for Lv 6 herbs to spawn . Maybe the system is intentionally preventing players from crafting Lv 6 pills at this stage of the game?

No, that’s not right . The system is controlled by the main computer; even the company can’t interfere with it . There has to be something I’m missing here .

I silently stood and my eyes wandered over the terrain for a long time . Suddenly, I saw something out of the corner of my eye; something poking out of a piece of limestone . I kicked the rock, cracking its surface to reveal a seed-like object breaking through the rock . My heart sunk . My first impression was that some kind of monkey would jump out at me but of course that’s impossible . With the help of a little poking and prodding, the rock gradually broke open with a few crackling noises, and there, before my eyes, was a dark green seed —— the Green Qilin Grass!

TL: The monkey is a reference to Journey to the East, a classic in Chinese literature .

Great!

I am so excited! I was finally able to find the Green Qilin Herb . Although it’s extremely small and looked like any other old bean sprout, a dark green light shone from its tiny leaves, a sign of its power . Lv 6 herbs are really special!

I needed to collect the Green Qilin Herb without damaging the roots, so I carefully tried to scoop out the top of the limestone using my trowel . However, upon failing to make even a dent to the stone after many attempts with the trowel, I realized that this rock is abnormally strong!

Out of anger, I stabbed at the rock with my sword, breaking it to reveal herb inside . I then used the trowel to collect it——

Ding!

System Notification: You have collected [Green Qilin Herb] x 2, [Herb Collecting] proficiency +5 . Since you are the first player to collect the Green Qilin Herb, you received +1 charm!

……

Not bad, I even got a point in charm…

Continuing my search, I carefully examined each rock for bumps on their surfaces while killing some more Flaming Cat Spirits to clear the area . Not long after, I had 100 Green Qilin Grasses in my inventory . However, having already spent 2 hours or so in the area, I felt a premonition telling me to get moving . Danger is coming . The Tyrant of Western Chu I know would not just leave matters the way they are right now .

I gripped my sword tightly as I scanned the area, seeing that there were still many Flaming Cat Spirits around me . Although they give a lot of experience, it is tough to take one down, let alone a whole group of them . Their [Flame Fan Dance] ability is particularly dangerous, since it deals up to 1000 damage, which is more HP than I can afford to lose . They also seem to be very sensitive to my chain skill and can sense where my chains appear from . Once they see my chains, all of the surrounding Flaming Cat Spirits immediately lock on to them and destroy them using the [Flame Fan Dance] skill . They must hate being restrained .

I cracked open the last black rock and carefully harvested another Green Qilin Herb .

After collecting all of the herbs in the area, I continued searching for more Green Qilin Grasses . As I headed deeper into the Green Qilin Abyss, in search of more grasses, I came across an enormous stone wall, which was carved with the ancient etchings of a mighty beast . It stood, like a totem, towering over everything in the vicinity . This beast must have something to do with the name of the area I’m in, the Green Qilin Abyss . It did, in fact, resemble the figure of the legendary Qilin .

I sat down to take a quick breather, contemplating whether or not I should wait and go back to check if the Green Qilin Herbs have respawned . I can only craft 30 Green Qilin Pills with the 100 Green Qilin Herbs I have in my inventory and that is nowhere near enough to make the amount of money I need .

Giving up, I checked my friend list to find that Song Han and his party were already Lv 30 . Those guys are amazing; they grinded to Lv 30 in only 3 days, an incredible feat .

I sent a message to Song Han, “Little Wolf, how are you guys doing?”

He replied, “Everything is going according to plan . We recently recruited a Healer for our party . He runs a small shop selling shoes and hats so he has a lot of free time on his hands . He’s been online a lot and grinding is so much easier with a Lv 33 Healer . ”

“Mm, nice . Don’t be afraid to give him any equips that he needs and make sure not to chase him away . It would be extremely beneficial to have a Healer on Zhan Long as well since the four of us isn’t going to be enough . ”

“I understand . Don’t worry, with Fox here, he’s not going anywhere . ”

“Ah, okay . How much money did you guys make while grinding?”

“Eh…It’s been almost 5 hours and we’ve since collected a total of 34 gold coins . Convert that into 340 Yuan (~$55) and dividing among us nets me, Fox, and Old K 110 Yuan per day . That’s currently more than enough to pay for our game card and groceries… But don’t worry, just wait until we hit the higher levels and get to the high leveled mobs . Coins will literally be dropping from the sky, and making 100 gold coins in a day should be easy as finding them on the ground . ”

I chuckled . “Don’t forget that the gold coins’ value is still dropping due to the inflation in game while the number of coins dropped by a mob doesn’t change . To keep things short, making money like this can only be a temporary plan, the methods of a noob studio . You need to hurry up and grind to Lv 40, so we can go and do the higher level missions . Your list of priorities should be helping others, killing bosses, making money, and guaranteeing that the studio functions normally!”

“Got it . Oh yeah, Xiao Yao, don’t forget that the server will be down from 3 to 12 AM tomorrow . Although we won’t be able to go online for a while, we should be able to get a good 11 hours of sleep, so we can be in good condition for tomorrow .

“Okay, sleep tight, I’ll also sleep 11 hours…”

“Haha!”

“Good night!”

……

With the conversation dying down, I returned to my task of clearing the area of Flaming Cat Spirits . I aggroed them one by one to make it easier and within 2 hours I gained 31% of my experience . If I wiped out the rest of the Flaming Cat Spirits, I should be able to reach Lv 47 and regain my spot in the Top 10 in the Ba Huang City leaderboards .

The task of killing Flaming Cat Spirits quickly became tedious so I opened up the forum to check the top posts . Surprisingly, one of the posts is about me ——

【Video】Xiao Yao Zi Zai is being chased by [Wrath of the Heroes] in Green Qilin Valley!

I clicked on it and watched as my character jumped down from a tree to quickly take out a group of Wind Elf class players . I remember fighting a total of 22 of them and even making them retreat . Apparently a lot of the players thought that it was an amazing feat and the video already had several thousand replies—

【Post 1 (Player General Li Mu)】: Cough cough, Xiao Yao Zi Zai V5, destroy those [Wrath of the Heroes] members!

TL: V5 is slang for something… probably like OP or great job

【Post 2 (Player Half City)】: It is almost impossible to even fight a 1 v 22, let alone win one! Times are changing quickly; can the [Wrath of the Heroes] really believe that they will be one of China’s top 10 guilds? How stupid are they? Keep dreaming…

【Post 3 (Player Yan Zhao Warrior)】: To the above post . It’s not that the [Wrath of the Heroes] members are weak, it’s just that Xiao Yao Zi Zai is strategically stronger than them . He was able to quickly analyze the terrain and use the tree to ambush his enemies . Not only did he outplay his opponents but his gear is also very good . He also has [Heal] which he learned as a Healer so his HP is always high . On top of all that, his pet is god tier and he even created his own [Combo], which is rumored to be S-ranked . It is a combination of these factors which allowed him to fight 1 v 22 and win .

【Post 4 (Player Cang Tong)】: Li Xiao Yao’s pretty stupid…

【Post 5 (Player Cang Yue)】: Love him so much

【Post 6 (Demacia)】: The #1 healer pulls out different surprises out of his bag of tricks each time . It’s so fun watching Xiao Yao Zi Zai do the unexpected . Haha, I wonder if [Wrath of the Heroes] will continue chasing him after this defeat . Hopefully they don’t all die in the Green Qilin Abyss or else their guild would lose a ton of face LOL!

【Post 7 (Frozen Gravestone)】: Damn, he’s so strong! It’s hard to imagine that Xiao Yao Zi Zai is a Ba Huang City player like me . He’s way out of my league and really scary too…I wonder, in a 1 v 1 between him and Jian Feng Han, who would win?

【Post 8 (Crazy)】: Stop dreaming last post! It doesn’t matter how strong Xiao Yao Zi Zai gets, he won’t match Jian Feng Han . Don’t forget… Jian Feng Han has the strongest sword on the server, the Purple Rank Heavenly Plan Sword . Xiao Yao Zi Zai may not even be able to take one round of Jian Feng Han’s [Combo]!

……

There were countless posts on the forums but I stayed calm and didn’t bother leaving even one reply .

After that I looked at the website information and discovered new information, it’s is called “Hero Chaos: CBN’s Destiny Battle Network Leaderboard Officially Opens!”

I clicked on the description and stared blankly at it——

CBN (China-Destiny Battle . net) Destiny’s leaderboard: Called “China’s Destiny’s Overall Leaderboard”, it will be the most scientific way of judging the strength of the players!

……

Damn, only one sentence and nothing more . What the hell?

I opened my friends list and just as I was about to chat with someone to find out more, I heard a drop, and found Wan Er’s call request . I immediately accepted it and heard a sweet voice——

“Hi, Li Xiao Yao have you seen the new game mode? Don’t always PvP other players…”

I nodded, “Mm, I saw it but I didn’t understand it . ”

Wan Er smiled, “In short, just search online for your own ranking tomorrow and you’ll know . I’ve got the information from a certain place and this CBN leaderboard is reliant on the player’s PvP battle achievements in all sorts of games . So, you player killing enthusiasts might even be ranked very high since every time you battle with other players the system will automatically record it . Hehe, from now on if the guilds are looking for players they won’t only look at the level, they’ll look at the CBN leader board too…”

I smiled, “So that’s how it is, I understand now, but as of right now, Q-Sword and Jian Feng Han‘s rankings will be pretty high…”

Wan Er is speechless, “Don’t compare yourself to them, those are the skilled and high-tiered players, people like you……should compare yourself to Tyrant of Western Chu, that would be wiser…”

I laugh, “Miss, you are too unloving…”

“I’m not joking…” In the calling screen, Wan Er smiled, showing her dimples and acted poutful .

……

Whoosh!

Suddenly, I heard movements above me . I immediately raised my head and I see several vines swinging back and forth . My heart couldn’t help but sink and I said quietly, “Wan Er, I can’t chat anymore, I have a bit of a problem!”

Lin Wan Er is smart; she realized what was happening and warned me: “Be careful, and don’t die!”

“Ok!”