I checked out the scepter next. It was a 5-star Outstanding Immortal-grade scepter that added a lot of Tactics. It wasn’t bad, but its Magic Attack was lower than Lian Xin’s Thunder God Scepter, so we gave it to Pure Love. The Tactics boost would only increase the effectiveness of her buffs slightly, but that was fine. Every true expert accumulated their power this way.

We rolled for the robe since it was just a Heaven-grade item; something we would sell on the streets the moment we returned to Sky City. The ring was a great accessory that granted7% lifesteal, so we gave it to Lin Yixin. The royal road of Heavenblessed was to fuel aggression with aggression.

……

After the loot distribution was complete, I walked to the edge of a cliff and looked down. All we needed to do was jump off this spot, and we would be able to enter the fourth floor.

It was at this moment a blue magic formation suddenly appeared hundreds of meters away from us on the fourth floor. It was a party teleporting directly to the fourth floor. For whatever reason, our luck with the teleportation scrolls was absolutely horrendous. We still hadn’t gotten a teleportation scroll until now.

"Let’s go!"

I nodded toward the girls before jumping off the cliff. The wind whistled beside my ears, and my cloak flapped behind me. When it looked like I was about to hit the ground face first, I did a backflip and landed perfectly on my feet. My boots skidded across the ground and left behind a trail of metallic sparks before I finally came to stop.

After I gave the OK signal, the girls started jumping down one after another. Soon, all 7 of us were on the fourth floor of Dragon God Cave.

We walked a dozen or so meters forward and didn’t encounter any mob. However, we did notice that the purple vines on the third floor were shaking unnaturally.

Lin Yixin’s eyes widened for a moment. "I think I know how Blood Alliance’s assassins managed to skulk their way down the floors of Dragon God Cave now…"

I grimaced. "We should’ve noticed way sooner that they’re swinging down the vines while in stealth. Since Assassin’s Oath upgrades their stealth, not even the Blood Hook Dragons were able to sense them…"

He Yi clenched her fists. "We don’t know how many Blood Alliance players there are on the fourth floor right now, but we must be careful. The first thing Blood Alliance did after entering the Dragon God Cave was to annihilate Blazing Hot Lips’ best party. They’re not the type to work for free, someone must’ve hired them to ambush Blazing Hot Lips. And if Blazing Hot Lips is on their list, then Snowy Cathaya and Ancient Sword are probably on their list as well. They haven’t attacked us yet because we’re too strong, but it’s only a matter of time."

"Mn."

I nodded. "I’m relieving you from DPS duty, Beiming. Starting now, I want you to focus on guarding sis, Lian Xin and Guanyue with Clear As Flame only. Since there’s a chance the enemy may elude that skill, I also want you to drop a Skypiercer on us from time to time!"

The Dark Archer giggled. "Got it, big brother!"

……

We resumed our journey after the discussion and encountered the fourth floor’s mobs soon after. They were still Snot Dragons, which probably meant that a new type of mob was introduced only every two floors.

We cautiously moved forward while grinding the Snot Dragons. This time, we got lucky and found the cliff that led to the fifth floor in less than half an hour. We jumped down.

Thud!

The moment I hit the ground, an intimidating howl immediately entered my ears. "I sacrifice my soul to obtain the power of the Dragon Speakers! You will never be able to study this power, humans of the future! Hahaha…"

An old man wearing a blood-red robe was standing about 25 yards away from me. His eyes were dim, his cackle was eerie, his face was rotted, and even his robe was riddled with holes wrought by the passage of time. The scepter he carried marked him as a mage of sorts.

"Oh no, the mobs of this floor are mages? Even Lu Chen will be in trouble if four or five of them attack him at once…" Lin Yixin said worriedly.

I scanned the mob with Dark Pupils and quickly proved that Lin Yixin’s worries were true—

Undead Dragonspeech Mage (Fiend)

Level: 295

Magic Attack: 42500~55500

Defense: 40000

HP: 2000000

Skills: Crouched Dragon Curse, Dragonspeech Bombing, Death Prophecy

Introduction: Once upon a time, the Dragonspeech Mage was a profession that every magic academy student and teacher wished to obtain. When Dragon Domain was still at its prime, a group of youngsters with great talent in the elements were selected from the human empire and sent to Dragon Domain to study magic of the dragons. Legend says that those who learned Dragonspeech magic will gain the greatest magical power in the world. However, despite a lifetime of study, less than 10% of them were able to truly learn it. When the undead plague struck, they lost control over their own souls and became the puppets of Strella. They were remade into evil guardians of the Dragon God Cave.

……

"Holy shit. 50k+ Magic Attack? This is going to be ‘fun’!" I asked Little Xin while gripping the Chill of the Nine Provinces, "By the way, how much effective Magic Attack do you have, Little Xin?"

She blinked once before answering, "500k!"

"Hmm." I pondered for a moment. "The Dragonspeech Mage is at least 60 levels higher than us, and their rank gives them hidden stat bonuses. Therefore, their real Magic Attack should be ten times their base Magic Attack at least. It’ll be like fighting a ton of Lian Xins, except worse. Oh man oh man…"

Murong Mingyue chuckled. "Well, just be careful. Now go get ‘em, Lu Chen!"

"Will do!"

I Charged toward the closest Dragonspeech Mage, but something unexpected happened. The mob actually raised his scepter and fired a red draconic image at me long before I reached him! It was almost as if he could predict my movement!

Swhoosh!

Combat Log: You have been afflicted by "Crouched Dragon Curse". You are immobilized for 7 seconds!

……

Fuck! Crouched Dragon Curse?!

I hurriedly shouted, "I can’t move! Yiyi, your turn!"

Lin Yixin was a smart girl, so she realized everything the second she saw my unnatural freeze. She immediately charged the mob and hit him with Extreme Break + Ice Flame Slash combo. Far away, Beiming Xue also cast her Evil Spirit Volley and flicked every shot onto the Dragonspeech Mage. It took us nearly 10 seconds to finally break the fiend-rank mob’s Magic Shield.

After I regained my freedom, I charged toward the mob and seized his attention with a devastating Burning Blade Slash + Universe Break combo. In retaliation, he howled in fury and cast his Dragonspeech Bombing, which was a triple-hit fire blast spell of sorts. The blasts splashed against my Cyan Dragon Shield, seared me through the metal, and dropped my HP like crazy—

449928!

481277!

452723!

……

Murong Mingyue healed me while chuckling. "That was definitely stronger than Lian Xin’s spells. Who would’ve thought that a mere mob would hit Lu Chen for so much damage?"

I cackled. "It’s too bad that it only has 2 million HP then!"

I brought down my sword for one last strike! Shing!

"Ahhhhh…"

The Dragonspeech Mage lost his remaining HP and collapsed to the ground. However, he howled, "Damned adventurers! I curse you!"

Swhoosh!

A ray of bloody light struck me, and a heart-skipping notice rang beside my ears—

Beep!

Combat Log: You have been afflicted with Death Prophecy by Undead Dragonspeech Mage. You have a 30% chance of dying in 5 minutes, and you may not revive on this map if you die to the skill!

……

"What the fuck!?"

My eyes widened in disbelief. "What is this, the superior version of Candlelight Shadow’s Ghost God Prophecy? Sis, take the party leader and see if you can cleanse it with your Bright Mirror. If you can’t, then I guess this is where our adventure ends…"

Swhoosh!

A column of holy light surrounded me. Thankfully, it successfully canceled the effects of Death Prophecy!

The wild beating in my heart changed from fear to joy. I immediately gave Murong Mingyue a bear hug and laughed. "Man, it’s so nice to have you in the party, sis…"

She complained with reddened cheeks, "I get it, but let go of me, please! I can’t breathe!"

After I released her, I said, "So, this is basically the same as Ghost God Prophecy. We have sis to cleanse us of its effects, but what can the other parties do about this?"

Lin Yixin answered, "Lose a party member every five minutes, duh. What else can you do?"

Lian Xin said, "I wonder. It may be possible to bypass this floor completely by swinging our way down the vines. However, that is only possible if you’re a great tank, or if you’re an invisible assassin. Everyone else will get killed if they make the attempt."

I nodded. "Let’s send a message to Li Chengfeng and Gui Guzi. We can’t let our people suffer without a warning."

"Yeah. Now, let us continue!"

……

It had been a good many hours since we embarked on this adventure. Our eyes were bloodshot, and we were all pretty tired at this point. No one was willing to log out of the game and rest, however. There was only one Strella, and if we missed it and its unique Divine Armament because we took a break, we would surely regret it for a long time to come.

One and a half hours passed by as we grinded our way through the fifth floor slowly and methodically. So far, we had cleared out around 25% of the map and gained a ton of experience. We had also obtained a ton of Dragonspeech Mage Cards—which were incredibly OP mage-centric cards—which we gave away to Lian Xin and Pure Love. So far, nothing bad had happened to our party yet since Beiming Xue was keeping a close watch on our surroundings.

Swhoosh swhoosh...

I suddenly stopped in my tracks when I sniffed the air and caught a whiff of something ominous. "Everyone, be on high alert please. I smell a stench of blood, but this tang shouldn’t be coming from our blades…"

Beiming Xue immediately dropped Skypiercer on us, but nothing happened. She asked, "I don’t see anything yet, big brother. Do you want to try using your Xuanyuan Art?"

I shook my head. "No. The Xuanyuan Art has an effect radius of 1000 yards, so it will hit the Blood Hook Dragons on the totem and aggro them toward us. If that happens, I bet 100 RMB that they’ll wipe us in under two minutes!"

"Who would even contest that bet, you’d automatically win…"

……

Lin Yixin circled around Murong Mingyue for a bit as she gazed at her surroundings with her sharp, purple eyes. Then, her expression grew frigid as she uttered, "Shit, here they come! Watch out!"

I glanced in her direction when the dry leaves behind me moved suddenly and unnaturally. I immediately turned around and fired Burning Blade Slash!

Thud thud thud!

My skill struck true, and three assassins emerged into existence, dead. As I thought, they were Blood Alliance players, and they had us on their kill list. Neither Beiming Xue nor I could see them with our skills because they all had Assassin’s Oath turned on. If they hadn’t disturbed the terrain, we still wouldn’t have seen them coming until it was potentially too late.

Pu!

A bloody light flashed across Murong Mingyue’s slender neck and dealt 170k damage to her. To her credit, she stepped away and healed herself with incredible speed. Lin Yixin was prepared for this, so she immediately swung her Dragonfrost in a half arc—knocking aside the enemy’s follow-up attack before it could land—and thrust her Veluriyam Sword forward. The Ice Flame Slash instantly engulfed the assassin and killed him.

Crack!

Not everything went well, however. Behind us, Pure Love suddenly let out a scream and slumped to the ground, dead. An assassin wearing bright red leather armor and covering his features with a black mask had stabbed her in the back through the chest. He declared coldly after the successful kill, "That’s 100k. Withdraw now!"