I pointed the Life side of my Chill of the Nine Provinces toward the sky and activated it immediately. Three vortices of life spun rapidly and just barely dragged Lin Yixin and He Yi from the brink of death with its 50% heal. While this was going on, I took a couple more lightning strikes and lost my Battle Astral Wind, but I fearlessly flew back to the girls and blocked a lightning strike for He Yi!

592991!

My entire body was numb after the lightning strike. It was an unpleasant feeling to say the least.

"Does it hurt, big bro?" Beiming Xue looked back at me with a look of concern.

"It’s so electrifying I could die…" I replied sarcastically.

Moon Dew: "..."

Lin Yixin and He Yi dropped below 40% HP again as we continued forward. Even I had fallen below 25% HP after blocking around 4 to 5 lightning strikes for them. After downing Lin Yixin’s Rank 13 concoction and casting Tenacity of the Dead to heal myself for another 25% HP, I shouted, "Yiyi, Eve, faster! I can’t block any more hits for you…"

It was just 500 meters, but it felt like an eternity. The fact we were flying closer to the clouds than anything else on the ground didn’t help either.

Swhoosh!

Spasming and coughing up smoke, the three of us just barely broke through the lightning formation before swerving unsteadily toward the ground. Finally, we escaped the stupidly powerful lightning formation and made it to the inner zone of Bloody Shield Domain.

……

Bang! Bang! Bang!

There were three eruptions of dust clouds and a moment of silence. Then, the girls slowly climbed to their feet. Lin Yixin and He Yi’s faces were covered in soot, and the Snow Crystal Dragon and Crimson Crystal Dragon had disappeared because the crash had destroyed the last sliver of their mount tenacity. It would take 20 minutes for the girl to resummon them. I walked up to them, wiped away the soot on their faces and said smilingly, "At least we’re not dead..."

I activated Fusion Armor so that I wouldn’t be limited by mount tenacity. It would still regenerate to full in the background, however.

It was at this moment Moon Dew poked me in the shoulder.

"Yes?"

"Look around you…"

I did and felt a shiver zipping down my spine. What are the chances!?

We were surrounded by a group of armed barbarians wearing skulls of all kinds and tattered cloaks. There were at least a thousand of them, and they all wore angry looks on their faces. This wasn’t how I imagined we would start our adventure.

"What’s going on here?" He Yi asked.

Lin Yixin pursed her lips. "It looks like our ‘landing’ disturbed the local natives…"

I activated Dark Pupils and scanned the barbarians. They were called “Clansmen of the Dark”, and they were Level 290 fiend-rank mobs. This alone made them a force to be reckoned with, but they were all wielding spears or bows as well. The second we fought back, they would turn us into pincushions. The only way we would survive that would be to activate our invincibility skills and teleport back to the city! We would have to decide our move carefully.

"Huba! Huba!"

A brawny barbarian with a pigtail walked up to Lin Yixin and extended his hand toward her chest.

You know what, forget what I said about caution. "DIE!"

I unsheathed the Chill of the Nine Provinces in an attempt to defend Lin Yixin, but the Clansmen of the Dark reacted faster than I could imagine. The second I made an unnatural move, a rope with iron balls tied to each end was immediately launched toward me. As the rope wrapped around my wrists like a vice, I received a system notice: You have been hit by the Clansman of the Dark’s trap. You will not be able to make an offensive action for 10 minutes!

Lin Yixin’s face turned cold as she unsheathed her dagger and cut the offending barbarian in the arm. His evaluation of her instantly turned from prey to predator.

Swhoosh!

This time, a giant net big enough to envelop us all dropped from the sky. All 7 players in our party were captured, and not even our pets were able to make an escape. We felt embarrassed enough to die at that moment.

The Clansmen of the Dark kept yelling "huba, huba" as they drew in the giant net and tied us up real good. Finally, they dragged us toward the inner area of Bloody Mountains.

I couldn’t unsheath my weapon since my hands were tied behind my back. The system made it clear that I couldn’t take any offensive action anyway. I wondered if an invincibility skill would help us out of this bind, but I decided to save it for later. If these Clansmen of the Dark were planning to kill us, they would’ve just done so from the start.

Murong Mingyue was lying on top of my chest as we were dragged toward god-knows-where. Giant breasts squeezing against my non-existent plot, she raised her head to shoot me a glare. "Gaming expert, I thought you said we can receive NPC quests at the foot of the mountain? If that’s true, what the heck is this situation? I feel like a pig’s tied trotters right now…"

Lin Yixin said from my shoulder, "We can’t attack them. How do we get out of this?"

I replied, "Calm down. This is probably a plot sequence or something. It’ll be fine."

He Yi blinked. "Really?"

"Really! You can’t catch the tiger’s cub without entering a tiger’s den! Believe me, we’ll definitely be rich when all is said and done!!!"

"Fine, I’ll trust you, just this once…"

……

Ten minutes later or so, we were dragged into a valley filled with countless tents and caves on the mountain walls. Many more Clansmen of the Dark exited their abodes to raise their arms, dance on their feet and shout "huba, huba"...

"What on earth does ‘huba’ mean?" Lin Yixin asked me.

I shrugged. "Something like ‘welcome’ maybe?"

"Really? Why do I feel like it’s something more sinister?"

"You’re overthinking things…"

After we were pulled to the center of the valley, the Clansmen of the Dark removed the giant net on our bodies but not the ropes around our wrists, meaning that we still couldn’t take an offensive action. It was at this moment Lian Xin whispered to He Yi, "I can cast spells without using my staff. Should I cast Ice Spiral Matrix on their faces?"

I hurriedly said, "No, wait. Let’s see what they do first…"

"Fine…"

Next, a couple of young women overflowing with barbaric beauty walked up to me and stuffed some onions under my armor. They then sprinkled some sort of fragrant-smelling water on all of us.

"What are they doing? Is this some sort of custom?" Beiming Xue blinked in confusion. "Onions and holy water… could it be…"

My eyes curved into joyful crescents. "I know! They must think that we are holy messengers or something! Prepare to get rich, girls! There must be hoards of precious treasure and beautiful barbarian women waiting to be claimed in the caves, wahahahaha…"

"Really?" Lin Yixin still looked doubtful for some reason.

……

It was at this moment two Clansmen of the Dark tied me to a wooden log, carried me on their shoulders, and led me toward a bonfire. I saw another human being propped up on top of the bonfire. Are they… are they trying to barbecue me!?

"WHAT THE FLYING FUCK, GAME!?!"

I roared in anger. As it turned out, the onions were flavoring, and the "holy water" was really just chili oil or something! This was a goddamned barbarian tribe!

It was at this moment the man on the bonfire screamed in pain, "Oh my god, it burns, it burns…"

When I saw who it was, I immediately forgot my predicament and laughed until tears were running down my cheeks. The guy was none other than Warsky himself!

"HAHAHAHA! It’s really you, Warsky! This is totally karmic retribution coming to bite you in the ass, MWAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Warsky exclaimed in surprise while wiggling his butt in a hopeless attempt to avoid the licking flames. "Lu Chen?! Why the fuck are you here…"

"Well, why the fuck are YOU here? Also, why are you alone? Who’s that pile of bones next to you?"

"That’s Laughing At The Heavens, man[1]…"

"Seriously? This fucking game…"

"Well, what are you waiting for? Save me already!"

"Wait, I have a question for you. They’ve been saying ‘huba, huba’ all this time. Is it something like ‘welcome to the tribe’ or something?"

"Are you stupid!? It means ‘food, food’!"

"..."

"Seriously, save me now! I’m literally about to be roasted alive here!"

"Use invincibility and save yourself, idiot…"

"It doesn’t work. I tried it already…"

"Huh?"

……

I paused for a second to activate my invincibility skill. However, it was restricted exactly as Warsky said.

It was at this moment cold realization finally dawned upon me. Am I actually going to be roasted alive by these barbarians?

Lian Xin asked, "Should I give it a try, big bro?"

I nodded immediately. "Yeah. Cut the ropes on me with an ice blade, and I’ll do the rest…"

"Okay! Be careful!"

"Yeah. A warrior can be killed but not humiliated, not to mention that these cannibals are trying to eat my girls too! No way!"

Warsky shouted, "Don’t forget me!"

"Bah! You think I’ve forgotten about the Immortal Blade? I’m sure you have the HP regen to roast for quite some time!"

"..."

……

Swhoosh!

In the distance, Lian Xin summoned an ice blade and sent it flying toward my wrists and ankles. It sliced through the ropes without harming a hair on my person and freed me. Perfect!

Chiang!

I immediately unsheathed the Chill of the Nine Provinces and cut apart He Yi and Lin Yixin’s ropes with my sword auras as well. Finally, I fired Burning Blade Slash at the Clansmen of the Dark!

The Clansmen of the Dark could only block my attack with their arms, but they all survived. They were Level 290 fiend-rank mobs after all. Something was strange, however. Their names remained yellow even after I had assaulted them, meaning that they were still neutral toward us. What was going on here?

Suddenly, a powerful voice boomed from across the air. "Stop!"

A middle-aged man wearing gold armor stepped out from the crowd and watched me coldly. "Distant adventurers, you should’ve been prepared to die the moment you intruded into our domain. Will you resist?"

I brandished my weapon at him and declared, "If killing you all counts as resistance, then sure!"

"Very well!"

He abruptly grabbed a battle axe and declared, "I’ll let you go if you manage to beat me!"

"Come!"

……

The NPC was a boss, but he was only a Level 290 Ancient Immortal Rank boss. Frankly, he wasn’t a threat now that I had god-tier defensive equipment such as the Cyan Dragon Shield and Guardian Dragon Armor. Also, Lin Yixin’s Bombshell was still active. I should be more than capable of beating a Level 290 boss solo.

"Hah! Explosion Slash!"

He raised his axe and launched his skill at me!

I swung my sword at his weapon using Universe Break!

Chiang!

The boss was knocked back a couple of steps after the clash. He stared at me in astonishment before saying, "I see. I admit defeat, brave warrior. Please accept our tribe’s prettiest woman as our gesture of kindness and tribute…"

The corners of my mouth twitched. "No thanks, at least not today…"

Warsky uttered through gritted teeth. "Oh my god, who the fuck designed this plot? He’s going to gift him a woman after a single exchange?"

1. E/N: Truth was right, LATE is butt of the joke for the author. He’s like a throwaway character that always dies whenever possible