Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, you have collected 0.001% of the power of rebirth necessary to complete the restoration!

……

I was a bit miffed, to be honest. One player’s power of rebirth was only equal to 0.001%? It meant that I had to absorb at least 100000 players’ power of rebirth to fully restore Xinran’s legs! There were no Nation Wars right now. Where would I even find that many players to kill?

I could find a subguild, speak to their low-level players and kill them repeatedly to restore Xinran’s legs of course. I could even compensate them handsomely for their efforts. However, it was still very exploitative and a breach of trust. I couldn’t possibly do that to them.

In the end, I decided to do things the slow and steady way.

……

I entered the area behind Wild Pheasant Ridge. The mobs here had been updated to Level 255 fiend-rank mobs, and a lot of players were grinding in this area. I had turned off my equipment luster, resummoned my apparition and Phantom Wolf King, and tweaked my appearance so that strangers wouldn’t recognize me on the spot. The fact that I was carrying a beautiful but disabled woman also made me look more like an NPC than a player. Finally, I was at Level 233, so those who were 10 levels or lower than my current level wouldn’t be able to see my name. Right now, there were less than 100 Level 223+ players in the entire Sky City.

I saw the flashes of skills and heard the sounds of fighting almost immediately after we circled around a hill. I also heard the howls of wolves. It looked like my grind was off to a good start because I could see a huge red dot with my Dark Pupils. It was a boss, and where bosses existed, players would usually die. This was my chance to absorb the power of rebirth without having to do anything!

Swhoosh!

I used Earth Escape again and slipped into the underground with Xinran. If possible, I didn’t want to show my face while I was, to put it bluntly, stealing someone’s power of rebirth. Sure, it was useless to them, but still.

……

On a clearing, a huge wolf with sharp horns on its head was roaring and attacking a bunch of players. It was called the Giant Wolf King Dilis, and it was a Level 280 Immortal Rank boss and the guardian of this part of the map. I could solo it without trouble, but a normal player couldn’t claim the same feat. At the very least, this wolf king was a deadly threat to the group of players above me.

"Hang on, brothers and sisters! Immortal-grade equipment awaits us if we succeed!"

A large man wielding a broadsword shouted words of encouragement while fighting at the frontline. The emblem on his arm marked him as a guild leader, and his name was "Number One Swordsman”. He was a 35-years-old middle-aged man commanding a guild called "The Minstrels”. He had a refreshing appearance, and his orders weren’t half-bad.

Unfortunately, the group of players he gathered were pitifully low-level. The weakest of them was only slightly over Level 180, and the strongest of them was only Level 214. There was nearly a 100-level gap between them and the boss, so this boss fight was doomed from the very beginning. I saw about a hundred cavalrymen unleashing their Barrier Break on the boss, but they dealt only 1000+ damage or so per player. It almost wasn’t enough to overcome the boss's HP regeneration.

"Roar roar…"

The wolf king roared and killed eight cavalrymen instantly with a claw swipe. Then, it fired a deadly gust of energy at the dozens of archers and mages at the back and killed them as well. The Minstrels guild was utterly incapable of fighting the boss, and they had lost hundreds of players already. The only thing they had going for them was the fact that they were almost a thousand-man party. Assuming they didn’t lose their nerve, they should be able to bring down the boss in another hour or two.

……

Anyway, I started absorbing the power of rebirth after I found a suitable spot to linger on the battlefield. Every time someone revived, the energy would be absorbed into my palm. As a Heavenly River Realm player with a Domain, I could sense and remotely control every wisp of energy around me. Therefore, absorbing the wisps of power of rebirth wasn’t a problem whatsoever.

Xinran was clinging to my neck when she let out a chuckle. "We look like a pair of thieves, don’t we, big brother? It reminds me of that Dragon Domain Scavenger…"

I shrugged. "The power of rebirth is completely useless to them anyway. Does it really count as stealing if you pick up the trash that people don’t need? Also, I don’t want to frighten them and stop them from doing what they’re doing. By the way, how did you know that Dragon Domain Scavenger?"

Xinran blinked once before replying, "Because he’s the one who stole the Dragonslaying Sword. duh. I’m guessing that you don’t know this, but Dragon Domain Scavenger was killed by Ziyan afterward. Therefore…"

"The sword ultimately fell into Princess Karinshan’s hands?"

"Mn."

"Damn."

I should’ve known that Princess Karinshan wouldn’t let an important artifact like the Dragonslaying Sword slip through her grasp. Who knows, she might even be the one who instructed Dragon Domain Scavenger to steal it in the first place. And once he had outlived his usefulness, she… actually, I’m going to stop here. For starters, my assumption was completely baseless. Two, if my assumption was correct, well… let’s just say that no one enjoyed having their dark side brought into the light, least of all their victims.

……

The restoration progress jumped by 0.1% after I had absorbed a hundred players’ power of rebirth. The process might be slow, but not impossible. Even if it was impossible, I could never leave Xinran until we had found a better solution. Her ability to walk or fly wasn’t the only thing that was impaired after she lost her legs. Her strength was nothing like it was before either.

The Winged Silver Dragon and Bloody Finger had vanished to god-knows-where as well. To be fair, Strella was a ridiculously OP boss, and they were lucky they weren’t outright one-shot. On the other hand, neither lackey had visited their master even once since the boss battle, which was all that needed to be said about their loyalty. No wonder Xinran treated them like crap back in the day. They totally deserved it.

While the wolf king was busy slapping or biting The Minstrels to death, I shifted Xinran to my left arm and gripped my Chill of the Nine Provinces with my right hand in case I needed to take action. I could’ve saved them the pain and ended this battle in five minutes, but then I wouldn’t be able to absorb their power of rebirth and heal Xinran. Just this once, I was going to ignore my guilty conscience.

……

Number One Swordsman didn’t look very happy with the state of things. His vice leader was also saying softly, "At this rate, everyone has to die 2 to 3 times at least before we can kill this Immortal Rank boss. Worse, it’s not guaranteed to drop Immortal-grade equipment. Worst-case scenario, they’ll resent us for a long time to come…"

Number One Swordsman grimaced, but he said, "I know, but we cannot not give up this boss. You know there isn’t a single player in our guild with Immortal-grade equipment. Heck, we don’t even have many Heaven-grade items. Everyone’s running around in Purple Gold, Spirit or Earth–grade equipment. How can we attract any first-rate player into our guild if we maintain our current state? If we manage to take down this wolf king though, we will have officially taken the first step toward true success. Moreover, we must do it alone to prove that we aren’t all bark and not bite.

“So take down this wolf king with all you’ve got, people! We may never be as strong as Ancient Sword or Candle Dragon, but at least we’ll be able to stand proud and declare that we are a bunch of dreamers, not trash!"

Encouraged by Number One Swordsman, the players of The Minstrels roared their battle cries, surrounded the wolf king and unleashed their magic spells, arrows and blades with renewed vigor. From the looks of it, they wouldn’t stop until the boss was well and truly dead.

……

Rustle rustle…

Suddenly, a patch of grass rustled unnaturally, and a figure manifested out of thin air. He was a Level 211 eighth-promotion assassin, and he said to Number One Swordsman, "We have a problem, guild leader. A group of Mad Dragon players is advancing toward us from the east, and they’re led by Inconstant and Coldmoon Rose. They are most likely aware that the Immortal Rank boss, the Giant Wolf King Dilis, has spawned here. What do we do?"

Number One Swordsman asked, "How many people do they have, and how strong are they?"

"They’re 500+ players strong, and they are buffed by Inconstant’s Encourage VII, meaning that their Attack is buffed by 100%. Coldmoon Rose is Roaming Dragon’s woman, and her equipment is exceptional. I heard that her bow, wristguards and cloak are all Immortal-grade. Inconstant is even better than her, sitting at 4 pieces of Immortal-grade equipment in total!"

"Very good…"

A cold gleam flashed across Number One Swordsman’s eyes. "We’re going to hold our ground and focus on taking out the boss first. If Mad Dragon attacks us first, we’ll summon the two thousand-man parties we stationed to the south of Wild Pheasant Ridge and run them over. Hopefully, we’ll be able to kill both Coldmoon Rose and Inconstant. Roaming Dragon is just a fat and useless trust fund baby who thinks he’s all high and mighty when he’s anything but that. Today, we’ll teach them not to be idiots who’d raid someone else’s boss with just 500 men!"

"The guild leader is wise. I’ll make the arrangements right away!"

"Mn!’

……

The assassin turned around and waved his arm, and a lot more footsteps followed him into the forest. Clearly, at least dozens of eighth-promotion assassins were lurking in the forest. Assassins were extremely powerful in forest battles, and Assassin’s Oath could potentially prevent even the archers’ Clear of Flame from seeing through them. Their ability to appear and disappear unpredictably was scary to say the least.

Pu!

Suddenly, a shadow cut through the air, and the assassin’s chest exploded with a mighty explosion. Shocked, the assassin glanced in the direction of the sudden attack just in time to spot Coldmoon Rose and her gorgeous-looking bow. He had lost 170k+ HP from the Explosive Arrow, and a follow-up Skypiercer claimed his life right after he entered stealth. His final words were, "Shit! How are they here already? Mad Dragon is here!"

At the same time, Inconstant entered the clearing and unsheathed his blade with a mighty shout, "Go, brothers and sisters! Everyone knows that Wild Pheasant Ridge belongs to Mad Dragon, and The Minstrels dared to take our prey!? Kill them all and take out the Giant Wolf King Dilis while you’re at it!"

The ground started rumbling, and at least 200 elite Mad Dragon cavalrymen joined Inconstant in the charge. The Minstrels’ assassins had set up Freezing and Blazing Traps along their path, but it wasn’t enough to stop Mad Dragon’s cavalry charge. Inconstant emerged from the smoke clouds with 50% HP left and roared vigorously, "50% HP is enough to deal with the likes of you!"

Seven Ultimate Strength Breaks erupted among the archers and mages, and Mad Dragon’s level advantage over The Minstrels became obvious. Practically every Mad Dragon cavalryman was an eighth-promotion player, and their Ultimate Strength Breaks dropped the mages and archers like wheat.

……

"Motherfuckers!"

Number One Swordsman’s eyes turned bloodshot. "I’ll kill you all!"