"What’s wrong?" Lin Yixin cocked her head at me.

As my phone screen dimmed, I answered, "Our Silver City is located on the edge of Bloody Shield Domain, and Bloody Shield Domain is the biggest and highest-level grinding zone of Vanished God City right now. A lot of players have been setting out from Silver City to explore the secrets of Bloody Shield Domain. Little Gui was saying that the boss of Bloody Shield Domain is a super boss, and that we should kill it to drop a Divine Armament or something…"

Lin Yixin chuckled behind her palm. We were currently standing on the pavement outside the station, and the wind was unfurling her long hair like a curtain. "Not everyone has the luck or the Luck to drop it, you know. Do you remember that Level 280+ Ancient Immortal Rank boss that against all odds somehow dropped one of the Twelve Divine Armaments? Other people have tried killing bosses of the same rank and level, and even after hundreds of them, no one has gotten even Ancient Immortal-grade equipment. To put it bluntly, it’s all up to Luck and pure destiny. Also, Sister Qin Yun from Eternal Moon Corporation told me a secret…"

He Yi suddenly perked up in interest and placed an arm across Lin Yixin’s shoulders. "What is this insider information, Yiyi?"

Lin Yixin shot her a meaningful smirk before answering, "It’s not really insider information per se. Since the previous patch, Luck has undergone a hidden update where only players with over 10 Luck can drop an Ancient Immortal-grade equipment, 30 Luck for a Divine Armament, and 90 Luck for an Ancient Divine Armament…"

"Holy shit! No wonder my Chill of the Nine Provinces is an Ancient Divine Armament! It’s all thanks to my Luck total!"

"What are you talking about? Your Chill of the Nine Provinces became an Ancient Divine Armament via evolution. Sigh. Not only is it the only Ancient Divine Armament in all the servers, its stats are even higher than some of the Twelve Divine Armaments. I have no idea how you managed it. I’m still stuck with the Seven Star Veluriyam Sword to this day…"

I chuckled at her dissatisfied expression before grabbing her hand. Now, I was holding hands with both Lin Yixin and He Yi. "Very well. After we head back to our homes, the Frost Cloud workshop will form a party with Moon Dew and Yiyi. Then, we’ll all explore Bloody Shield Domain together. You’ll get priority over any high-grade melee weapon we find during the journey. How does that sound?"

Lin Yixin broke into a smile. "Now we’re talking! Should we head back right now?"

He Yi nodded. "Yes. Lil Beiming should be arriving at her university any minute now, so let’s head back, log into the game, form the party, and depart from Silver City. We’ll go around the common mob areas and straight to the deeper parts of the map. Unless we run into Coldblade the Infinity Storm himself, there should be nothing that can threaten our party."

I smiled. "It’s settled then! Our next adventure will be set in Bloody Shield Domain! Anyone who hasn’t accumulated enough Divine Energy Points yet can quickly do so on that map, and if we’re lucky to receive an SSS Rank main quest along the way then even better! We all can use a Luck reward after everything we spent on the Cities of Heaven, and we need to consider the future as well. It will suck if we can’t drop something better than an Ancient Divine Armament because our Luck doesn’t meet the requirement. There are competitions like the WEL, sure, but it’s an annual competition, and you need to become the MVP to get the really good stuff. That’s just too unreliable."

He Yi nodded. "Mn. Let’s go!"

……

Lin Yixin drove back to her villa, while the rest of us went back to the Frost Cloud workshop. The beauty had been growing more and more like a professional player as of late—skipping all classes except those that were absolutely mandatory to spare more time for Heavenblessed—but it wasn’t an easy life for sure. During my stay at Snowy Cathaya’s workshop, she had been reading textbooks while sitting next to me in the living room. Make no mistake, Lin Yixin was a true genius. Despite juggling two different lives, she was able to secure the first-class scholarship every semester. Her dedication and ability put shit stains like me and Du Thirteen to shame. However, even a true genius couldn’t pass an exam if they never studied for it in the first place[1].

I was driving in silence when Lian Xin asked me smilingly, "Have you considered Sister Lin Yixin’s suggestion yet, big brother Lu Chen?"

"Sorry, which suggestion are you referring to exactly?"

"The one where we move our workshop elsewhere…"

"Er…"

Now that I thought about it, Lin Yixin had mentioned something like this before. Our workshop was located in the downtown area, and she thought that it was a bit too noisy to provide us the kind rest we needed after a hard day’s work. Considering our current income, she believed that we were perfectly capable of moving to a better place. She wasn’t wrong. Our workshop was earning more—a lot more—than 10 million RMB per month.

He Yi said while looking out of the window, "Yiyi is right about this… I think we can find a good district in the suburbs of Chengnan and rent a villa there. It’ll also save us the effort of having to pay the rent monthly."

I considered the idea for a moment before answering, "Very well…"

"What is the plan?"

"I’ll ask Lin Yujia to find a district at Chengnan. I’m not going to rent a villa though. Instead, I’m going to spend 10 million and buy it right away. It’s a good investment since Chengnan borders the elevated roads and highways, making it easier to commute around."

He Yi broke into a smile. "OMG, Lu Chen has grown wiser today! He’s spending money to buy us a house, and he’s even using the word ‘investment’!"

I smiled back. "Nah. I just want to leave a little something behind for dad and third uncle, you know? When they’re older, they can live in the villa and enjoy their retirement…"

Lian Xin frowned. "Why do you have to put it like that, big bro? Usually, it’s the elders who leave something behind for their children, not the other way around. It almost sounds like you believe that you’ll leave us sooner than even uncle…"

I hid my emotions and didn’t reply.

He Yi noticed something and asked, "Lu Chen? Is something wrong? Are you hiding something from us?"

"Of course not."

I smiled to mask the odd expression on my face, "What could I possibly hide from you all? I even gave sis my underwear to wash. If that isn’t honest enough, what is?"

"Fine. Anyway, let’s do our best to grind a real weapon for Yiyi today. Really, she should’ve changed her Seven Star Veluriyam Sword for something else a long time ago, but she refused to, probably because it was a gift from you…"

I smiled again but didn’t say anything else.

……

After we returned to the workshop, I drank some water and logged into the game. Bloody Shield Domain was categorized as the outer lands, meaning that it didn’t fall under the jurisdiction of Vanished God City. It also meant that outer land players such as Dark Mercenaries, Protective Umbrella and more could be roaming this place. It wasn’t going to be an easy adventure.

Swhoosh!

I appeared inside Silver City’s territory hall. The second I stepped out of the door, I was greeted by a sea of people. I knew that Silver City’s geography was the best of all the Cities of Heaven. It wasn’t like players didn’t want to explore Bloody Shield Domain before today, but back then it took at least four to five hours of travel from the nearest city just to reach there. Now though, it only took them 2 RMB to teleport over. Already, Silver City was the temporary rally point of countless players.

I went to the blacksmith to repair my equipment. The moment the brawny uncle saw my Chill of the Nine Provinces, he immediately out a sigh of admiration and said, "Oh my god, I did not think I would ever get to lay my eyes on a Divine Armament of this level in my lifetime, much less repair it with my own hands! Honorable assistant city lord, the materials necessary to repair this sword are naturally expensive, but due to your noble status I will only accept 50% of the repair fee. Please pay me 32889 gold…"

I grimaced. If the Chill of Nine Provinces wasn’t as good as it was, I would be filing a report to Eternal Moon Corporation already. Assuming that this venture into Bloody Shield Domain was a dud, I might not even make enough money to repair my sword. Worse, it cost a total of over 160k gold to repair all the equipment on my person. Thank goodness being the assistant city lord helped to cut the price in half, or I would have to pay the price of a Passat just to repair my Divine Armaments and almost-but-still-not-one-of-the-Twelve-Divine-Armaments just once.

……

We had agreed to meet up in front of the territory hall, so I sat on the stone stairs and searched for information regarding Bloody Shield Domain while waiting for the others to arrive. I discovered that the entire map had been refreshed since the previous war, and Coldblade and his legion of death were lurking somewhere in this new map. So far, most players were stuck at the edges of Bloody Shield Domain because the mobs were too high-level. As a result, there was almost no data on the new Bloody Shield Domain at all, and the devs, as usual, were stingy as fuck with their descriptions. We would have to explore everything on our own.

"Big bro!"

A smiling Beiming Xue greeted me with the Xuanming Bow behind her back. She was as punctual as usual. It wasn’t long before Lian Xin, Murong Mingyue, He Yi and Moon Dew showed up as well. Lin Yixin was the last one to arrive. With that, our 7-man party was ready to take off.

After Lin Yixin added everyone into her party, she asked, "Has anyone planned our attack route yet? Just so you know, it’s a traffic jam of mobs and players out there, so…"

I leaped up to the roof of the territory hall and chuckled. "Yes, I see what you mean. We can just bypass them completely with our flying mounts though. Yiyi and Eve’s Holy Giant Dragons can carry one player each, while my Ancient Divine Dragon can carry 1 to 3 players in total. That means we can carry our entire party over in one go. There’s a place called Bloody Mountains in the inner area of Bloody Shield Domain, and I suggest we officially begin our adventure from there."

"Okay! Has everyone brought their potions, consumables, cards and everything else? If so, let’s go!"

"Mn!"

I summoned the Ancient Divine Dragon. As a Level 187 mount, its appearance was more mature than what it used to be. Its dark silver scales looked tough and impenetrable, its body was long and thick, and even the blue vine lamp looked as solid as steel. Including me, the interface showed that it could carry three players in total.

After I leaped onto the dragon’s back, I grabbed the vine lamp for support and stretched a hand downward. "So? Who’s flying with me?"

Beiming Xue joined me without hesitation and sat in front of me. Moon Dew was the next to follow because her Amity with me had reached 100. Now, we were just waiting for He Yi and Lin Yixin. He Yi and Lin Yixin quickly summoned their Snow Crystal Dragon and Crimson Crystal Dragon respectively. Lian Xin sat with He Yi, and Murong Mingyue sat with Lin Yixin. After that, I took to the sky first and led the way.

……

I flew about a hundred meters above the ground. I didn’t want to go too high because I might miss some important details on the ground otherwise.

1. E/N: Oh a beg to differ, how does he think I’m finishing bachelor’s?!