I picked up the silvery Dragonscale Chain Armor and commented with a smile, "Not the best loot drop we’ve ever gotten, but at least we got an Ancient Immortal-grade item out of it. This Dragonscale Chain Armor is not too far behind my Guardian Dragon Armor either. So, who’s going to get it? Yiyi, Eve?"

Lin Yixin snuck a glance at He Yi and pursed her lips. For a moment, she looked like a beautiful little thief. "Do you want it, Sister Eve?"

He Yi smiled amusedly and she caressed her own chest armor. "My chest armor is Level 215 Immortal-grade with 8200 Defense. What about you? If your equipment is weaker, you can have it."

"Well, my chest armor is the Level 200 Immortal-grade S3 piece, so…"

I tossed the Dragonscale Chain Armor into her hands immediately and said, "Take it[1]. A true top-tier expert won’t be seen with instance equipment. They’ll only wear the legendary equipment dropped by a super boss or two."

Murong Mingyue took a step forward and unconsciously jiggled her massive breasts. Pure Love looked like she would suffocate at the sight of it. "He’s right. Instance equipment is ultimately generic, and true pros like you shouldn’t resign themselves to generic stuff. And if nothing else, you can always trust Lost Leaf to cheat for us!"

Me: "..."

Lin Yixin: "..."

……

We rolled for the rest of the equipment. None of them was worth keeping, and they were worth 10k gold at most, an insignificant amount of money for a top-tier party like ours. On a related note, the Giant Dragon Plate Armor was a tad better than He Yi’s existing armor, but she rejected it because it made her look like a giant turtle, or so she claimed. Appearance will always come first for women, I suppose.

I rose back to my feet and looked at the pitch black map behind me. I wondered what else could be waiting for us on the second floor of Dragon God Cave.

"Well, time to move on. I wonder if there’s another boss on the second floor…" I started.

However, Lin Yixin declared without hesitation, "Nope! There are no bosses on the second floor!"

"How would you know that?"

"Because the devs just added the data regarding Dragon God Cave to the official website. Bosses only exist on the first, third, fifth, and seventh floors, and the seventh floor’s boss is none other than Strella the Dark Magma itself. They also claimed that the difficulty level of this SSS Rank map is 100, and the survival chance of any player is a big fat zero…"

"Sounds like a scam. Well, let’s continue…"

"Mn!"

……

The seven of us continued along the spiraling path when sunlight abruptly shone down from the top of Dragon God Cave. Dawn had finally arrived, and they chased away some of the darkness that was plaguing this land.

"Eh?"

Suddenly, Lin Yixin pointed at the edges of a cliff wall and said, "Look! Why is there a patch of purple soil about 2 to 3 meters wide near the edge of the cliff?"

Beiming Xue chuckled. "Yeah. It’s really beautiful though. I see a ton of small, white flowers growing on it!"

"Oh…"

Lin Yixin’s eyes widened even further. "Are those… Dragonheart Orchids? OMG, I’ve searched the entire Sky City domain for them! I had no idea that they were here at all…"

I shot her a surprised look. "What is this Dragonheart Orchid, Yiyi? Is it useful?"

"Oh, it is!"

Lin Yixin nodded before launching into a serious explanation, "Dragonheart Orchid is a Rank 13 herb, and it is about as rare as god itself at the current stage of the game. People have been putting up requests to purchase Dragonheart Orchids at the square as soon as half a year ago, but as far as I’m aware, no one has even seen it until now. Dragonheart Orchid is the key ingredient in developing the Rank 13, Heaven-grade, potion called the Dragonheart Orchid Agent, and its effects are incredibly good to say the least. It restores 100k HP to a player instantly, but also regenerates 5% of their HP per second!"

I shuddered. "God damn, that is OP. This potion can heal a mage player to full health almost instantly."

Lian Xin didn’t share the same opinion, however. "Really? How about a mage with a max HP of 820k after Roland Bloodknight Card and Bombshell?"

I replied, "Obviously, bullshit OP mages don’t count…"

"Screw you!"

"..."

The 100k HP insta-heal aside, the 5% regeneration per second was absolutely amazing especially for a high-HP player like me. I had a base HP of 750k, and with buffs my max HP easily exceeded the 2 million mark. This meant that the potion would heal me for 100k per second, which was almost as good as the Immortal Blade itself. It wasn’t as good against bosses because they could often instakill players in a hit or two, but in PvP battles it was practically godlike. Of course, at least one of its key materials was ridiculously difficult to gather, and so far Dragon God Cave seemed to be the only place to gather the Dragonheart Orchid. This potion was destined to only ever be a luxury item among top-tier experts and P2W players. Less than 1% of the entire player population would ever get to use it.

……

Lin Yixin ran up to the patch of purple soil cheerfully. "Here I come, Dragonheart Orchid! I’m going to be the best alchemist Sky City has ever seen, heehee!"

"Huh? I thought you were a herbalist? When did you become an alchemist?"

"I’ve gotten my second profession three months ago, stupid! You don’t care about me at all!"

"I…"

Lin Yixin crouched down beside a Dragonheart Orchid, produced a small spade and carefully started to dig up the herb. However, my heart suddenly skipped a beat, and I sensed a near indiscernible change in the air flow. It felt like… the activation of a Domain!

"Yiyi watch out!"

I hurriedly rushed to her side, but it was too late. A bloody light was already flying toward her at high speed!

Chiang!

Lin Yixin shuddered as a long, red spear pierced her right arm and spilled blood everywhere, deleting 700k+ HP in an instant. Not only that, a dozen more spears soon followed!

I stopped in front of her and held up the Cyan Dragon Shield. I was able to block all of the spears, but they turned my arm numb and dealt over 1 million damage in total. What the hell was attacking Lin Yixin? And how were they able to deal so much damage even from range?

I didn’t wait for an answer. On a hunch, I dragged Lin Yixin out of the purple zone and was rewarded with blissful silence. The attacks only came if we entered the purple zone.

"Uuu, it hurts…" Lin Yixin said with a deep frown on her face. Now that I had the closer look, the "spear" was really a sharp spike that was shaped like praying mantis claws with sharp chipped edges. In fact, it looked more like a creature’s body part than a forged weapon. Most importantly, it remained lodged in Lin Yixin’s arm, and it ate away at her HP continuously.

"We need to pull this spike out now, or you’ll lose too much blood and die!" I urged.

"Okay!"

I pulled Lin Yixin into an embrace and grabbed one end of the spike with my right hand. She pressed her face into my chest looking like a fearful girl who was about to receive an injection. She lost another 200k+ HP when I pulled the spike out of her arm. Thank goodness Murong Mingyue was here, or she would be in some serious danger.

Clang!

I tossed the two-meter-long spike to the ground and watched it slowly vanishing over time. I then asked, "What the hell was that? That’s some insane attack power…"

Beiming Xue immediately pointed. "It’s the creatures we saw clinging to the totem!"

My pupils shrank. She was correct. The savage-looking giant dragons were pretty small for their race—about three times the size of a human being—but their limbs were sharp enough that they could sink their feet into the totem and hang themselves. There were also quill-like spikes growing out of their arms and their bodies!

Blood Hook Dragon (Miniboss)

……

No wonder Lin Yixin took so much damage. It was a miniboss, and super-long-range attacks were its specialty. The Dragonheart Orchid on the ground was a bait to lure players into the Blood Hook Dragons’ range so that they could kill them all. What a devious design!

Meanwhile, Lin Yixin was staring reluctantly at the Dragonheart Orchid on the purple patch of soil like a tempted cat. Then, she looked at me and started sweetly, "Little Cheat…"

I shuddered. "Don’t you even start! I refuse!"

"Yes you will…"

"No I won’t!"

Murong Mingyue interrupted, "Can you two stop arguing like little kids?"[2]

I nearly spat blood. "Yiyi, you saw how powerful the Blood Hook Dragons’ Attack is! What if you get killed? You won’t be able to return for 24 hours!"

She blinked. "I’ll be fine with you protecting me. Just block the Blood Hook Dragons’ attacks with the Cyan Dragon Shield while I gather the herbs. I promise I’ll be quick. I also promise to share the herbs with everyone after we’re done."

I gave him some consideration before agreeing, "Fine, but let’s leave this patch of Dragonheart Orchid alone and gather the ones 10 meters further. We’ll rinse and repeat until we reach the end of the road. How does that sound?"

"But why?" Lin Yixin looked confused.

He Yi got my plan though. She burst out in a giggle and said, "You’re so bad, Lu Chen!"

Lin Yixin realized something. "Ahh! You are bad! You want to leave behind some Dragonheart Orchids as bait and make the Blood Hook Dragons kill our enemies for us!"

I shrugged. "All is fair in love and war after all. Oh right, can you message Li Chengfeng and Little Gui and tell them to leave the Dragonheart Orchids alone, Eve? They’re totally going to fall for this otherwise…"

He Yi chuckled. "Got it. I’ll send them both a message now."

"Alright. Time to gather some Dragonheart Orchid!"

……

A bunch of Dragonman Blade Devils were blocking the corridor, but thanks to our earlier experience, we were able to kill them with little trouble.

After we took out all the Dragonman Blade Devils in the area, we began gathering the Dragonheart Orchids. I carried Lin Yixin in one arm and the Cyan Dragon Shield in the other. While I was tanking the Blood Hook Dragons’ attacks, Lin Yixin would gather the herbs behind our shield with lightning speed. We were able to clean out the Dragonheart Orchids like some man-shaped lawn mowers, and thanks to Guanyue and Murong Mingyue’s healing we weren’t in too much danger.

Pa pa pa...

After we left the purple patch of soil, I looked at the Cyan Dragon Shield and was stunned by the sheer amount of bloody spikes that were stuck to its surface. After I cut them all using the Chill of the Nine Provinces and shook them off, I turned to Lin Yixin. "My shield is losing durability like crazy. I don’t think we can keep this up for long…"

However, Lin Yixin produced a golden potion from her pocket and declared, "This is an equipment repair lotion I bought using 7000 RMB. I only have this one bottle. So?"

I shuddered. "What else do you want me to say? Let’s continue, princess…"

"Good boy~~"

1. E/N: Sure Lu Chen, break her set bonuses, I’m sure 5-piece set bonus wasn’t completely broken!

2. T/N: there is a sex joke here in the original where it sounded like Yiyi was trying to force Lu Chen to have sex, and Murong Mingyue is making fun of them. Unfortunately, I can’t think of any way to put it in English, so you get the kiddies version instead, literally