"You miss me, boy?"

Bloody Minstrel Ornos declared with a sinister and terrifying smile on his face, but it almost felt like the greeting of an old friend. To be fair, the skeletal mage was a hundred times more appealing than the Japanese players and honorless assassins chasing behind me.

"Yes, I’m back!"

I skidded a dozen or so meters to Ornos’s side while blocking Blaze Blast from him. Behind me, Red Maple asked Assassin’s Creed, "What the hell does he think he’s doing? Does he really think he can kill the boss in this situation?"

Assassin’s Creed: "Maybe he has a skill that can instantly delete 25% of the boss's HP[1]?"

"Doesn’t matter. We can survive the boss until he dies!" Red Maple declared while running toward me.

One warrior and five assassins raced toward me.

I smiled. I imbued the Chill of the Nine Provinces with a purple energy and stabbed Ornos’s stomach using the Frightening Slash. After letting out a howl of pain, the skeletal magus immediately raised his scepter and cast a Blade of Shield Breaking. Dark clouds formed above our heads, but instead of water it rained bloody swords within a hundred yards of the boss!

"Shit!"

Red Maple realized what was going on and shouted, "Guard!"

Too bad for him, Blade of Shield Breaking was a Magic Attack. Guard wouldn’t do anything to reduce the damage.

……

I swung my sword and summoned Battle Astral Wind. This was the reason I hadn’t used this super defensive skill until now.

Red Maple’s eyes just about popped out of his eye sockets when he saw me casting the Battle Astral Wind. He uttered through gritted teeth, "Shit! It was a setup! He wants us to be hit by the boss's skill!"

Bang!

978287!

Red Maple lost almost a million HP and dropped to red health in an instant.

Swhoosh!

Before he could react, I appeared in front of him and slammed an elbow against his throat. At the same time, I activated Chains of Freedom and watched as the red chains wrapped around his torso. Red Maple stared at it while muttering, "What… what is…"

I smirked. "You can die now!"

"Dammit!"

By the time Red Maple came back to his senses, it was already too late. My Burning Blade Slash had already penetrated his chest. Not done yet, I activated Heavenly River Transformation and struck him with my Xuanyuan Slash. Maybe my Burning Blade Slash had already killed him, or maybe it hadn’t. I wasn’t taking any chances.

Boom!

Far away, Lin Yixin cheered me on. "Do it, Little Cheat!"

……

There were no surprises. As Red Maple let out a groan and died, he dropped 10 levels and a floor of potions and equipment. Chains of Freedom increased my target’s equipment drop rate by 300%, and I had a total of 100 Luck. It would take an insanely lucky person to not drop a single piece of equipment while Chains of Freedom was still in effect, if that was even possible. Unfortunately, it looked like Lady Luck was at least partially on Red Maple’s side today. He only dropped two pieces of equipment, and none of them looked like his wristguards. Still, I swiped them all before casting Earth Escape to get rid of the boss's aggro.

Swhoosh!

By the time I resurfaced on the ground, the battle was already over. My Dark Pupils revealed only 3 orange figures, and they were Lin Yixin, Murong Mingyue and Lian Xin. Lin Yixin only had 31% HP left. Lian Xin and Murong Mingyue’s robes looked like they were about to fall apart, and both their HP bars were below 20%. This had been a fierce battle for sure.

"Eve, Beiming and Moon Dew all died?" I asked.

He Yi replied in the party channel, "Yes…"

Lian Xin said, "Boss died protecting me and Sister Mingyue…"

I was a bit lost for words as I stared at the corpses on the ground. "I did not think this battle would be this close…"

Murong Mingyue disagreed. "Each of these people is a famous expert in their respective server, you know? You should be proud that we managed to kill them all with just the 7 of us. By the way, you took out Red Maple with the Chains of Freedom, right? What did he drop?"

I took out the items from my bag and showed them.

Moon Spirit War Boots: War Boots, Level 220 Archean Immortal-grade, 6-star Outstanding.

God Condensation Ring: Ring, Level 210 Archean Immortal-grade, Attack increased by 70% and HP regeneration speed by 35%, 7-star Outstanding.

……

"Unfortunately, the Seventy-two Ghost Armaments Crimson Dragon Arm didn’t drop…" I said a bit dejectedly.

Lin Yixin consoled me, "It’s okay. You know, we’re lucky Red Maple ran into us immediately after he entered Bloody Shield Domain instead of, say, Warsky or Laughing At The Heavens…"

"Why?"

"Because of the Crimson Dragon Arm, of course! This Ghost Armament’s purpose is to drop one’s desired equipment. Had Red Maple run into Warsky first, there was a high chance the Immortal Blade would’ve changed hands. You saw yourself what Red Maple was wearing right? All of his equipped items were either Archean or Ancient Immortal-grade equipment. Warsky has become stronger, but he’s still an amalgamation of RMB and skill. His chances of beating Red Maple are less than 40%."

I smiled. "That is true…"

Lian Xin added, "Still, everything went well, and now you’ve dealt a massive blow to Red Maple. Even if he still has the Crimson Dragon Arm, it will take him a while to regain the 10 levels he just lost. He won’t be doing much damage to the China server in the meantime. Seriously though, both the Crimson Dragon Arm and big bro’s Song of Freedom are sooooooo stupid. How can such items exist in this game…"

I grinned. "I know right?"

Lin Yixin puffed up her 34Ds and let out a sigh of relief. "I’m really glad we won this fight. Little Xin is right though. The Twelve Divine Armaments are all straightforward equipment: high stats, high Attack, and absolutely devastating. The Seventy-two Ghost Armaments are technically utility items, but their effects are sooooooooo stupid it’s not even funny. Aaaaaaaah! Goddammit! Whether it be the Ghost Lake Mirror’s 100% detection avoidance, the Song of Freedom’s 10-level drop, and the Crimson Dragon Arm’s pre-chosen equipment drop, they’re all so, so, soooooooooo stuuuuuuuupid! If only I could have one, two or three of them…"

I couldn’t stop myself from rolling my eyes. Should I laugh or cry at the fact that this shameless girl was my girlfriend? Then again, I was also an expert, so I was just as shameless as she was. top experts were all vulgar. It was a law as immutable as Murphy’s Law and the like.

……

"What do we do now?" I asked.

Lian Xin said, "Boss told us not to wait for them and engage the boss first. All the components—tanks, healer and DPS—are present after all. There’s no chance we can’t kill a boss with only 25% HP left. Also, it’ll be 20 minutes before the gate of Bloodthirsty Castle opens again, and until then their souls are going to be stuck outside. We can also be sure that no one—not from Blood Alliance or the Japanese at least—will interrupt us until then."

I nodded. "Alright, I guess we’ll do our best to defeat Ornos during this time. Yiyi, Red Maple’s Moon Spirits War Boots should be a good fit with you, so take them. I’ll keep the ring for Eve since she needs a boost to her Attack."

After Lin Yixin put on the Archean Immortal-grade war boots Red Maple had traveled long and far to deliver to her, she beamed. "The boss is regenerating HP, so let’s not waste any more time and take it out!"

"Mn!"

……

As usual, I was the main tank of the party. There were only four of us left, but we still fought in a methodical and scientific manner. I died twice during this time and lost 1 level, but we managed to drop Ornos to 1% HP in less than ten minutes.

"Little Xin, enough. Give Lu Chen the last hit!" Lin Yixin said while withdrawing.

Lian Xin nodded and put away her scepter.

The Chill of the Nine Provinces shivered as I unleashed Burning Blade Slash + War Crush combo. One last Rise of the Guardian Dragon later, the bag of old bones finally collapsed to his knees and wailed, "I knew it. I am too old for this. I’m sorry I can’t give you your happiness anymore, girls of Spirit Capital City. I’m sorry this holy magus who used to last three hours per session can never warm your beds anymore…"

Thud!

I planted my boots against the old mage’s face and said, "The girls will naturally find strong, handsome lads to warm their beds themselves, so rest in peace already you sack of shit!"

"That is the most shameless dialogue I’ve ever heard in my life…" Lin Yixin said while lifting her dainty shoulders.

Murong Mingyue simply smirked and said nothing.

Pop pop pop…

Finally, Ornos died and dropped a floor of equipment or items. Just in case we missed an assassin or two—especially since Beiming wasn’t around to watch over us—I put all the equipment into my bag first before inspecting them. There was a fan that looked like it was concealing a divine dragon, a necklace that glowed a deep blue radiance, and a pair of cloth armor wristguards with slightly lacking luster. They all seemed to be pretty good though.

"Should we wait until the others return before we check the stats?" I asked.

"Sure." Lin Yixin nodded.

A while later, He Yi, Beiming Xue and Moon Dew revived in succession. While Murong Mingyue healed her, He Yi said, "There are a dozen or so Blood Alliance souls around the area, but they didn’t dare to revive because they think we’re camping them. Red Maple, Purple Thunder and the Japanese aren’t around though. I think it’s because their resurrection points are quite far away from here. It will probably take them an hour at least to make it back."

I nodded. "That is wonderful news, Eve. Here, take this God Condensation Ring. It was dropped by Red Maple. If everyone’s ready, I’m going to inspect the boss drops now."

He Yi smiled brightly. "Wow, I wasn’t expecting to be compensated for dying~"

Me: "..."

……

I picked up the fan first and brought up its stats screen. It was even more powerful than I had suspected it to be—

Hidden Dragon Fan (Lower Divine Armament, Outstanding★★★★★★★)

Attack: 11000~13500

Intelligence: +2550

Stamina: +2500

Agility: +2450

Strength: +2400

Tactics: +215

Passive: Increases user’s Attack by 195%

Passive: The caps of all Tactician stratagems are increased by 50%

Slots: 17

Outstanding Property: Hidden Dragon Strike. When attacking a target, a small chance to summon an invisible divine dragon to attack the target, dealing 170% damage and halving the effectiveness of healing they received for 120 minutes.

Introduction: Hidden Dragon Fan was found in the eastern mountains of ancient times. Legend says that there was a divine dragon who cultivated in the mountains for tens of thousands of years. After it attained completion, the bones it left behind were discovered by a herb collector and donated to an ancient emperor. The emperor requested an ancient divine smith to forge it into a weapon, but the smith was unable to melt the bones despite ten years of trying. In the end, he made it into the spine of an unparalleled divine fan that would be later known as the Hidden Dragon Fan.

Level Requirement: 220

Reputation Requirement: 750000

1. T/N: normally I would say this is absolutely nonsensical, but if I was a character in the story and I know all the bullshit Lu Chen has pulled up until this point, I would be asking the same thing myself