"This fan…"

I gave the Hidden Dragon Fan a wave before putting it back in my bag. "This is clearly Lu Buyi’s fan. Since the guy isn’t here, I want to thank everyone on behalf of Lu Buyi for helping us make the number one tactician of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, if not the entire world!"

He Yi couldn’t stop smiling. "This Level 220 tactician fan is incredibly strong and perfect for Lu Buyi. It increases one’s stratagem cap by 50%, meaning that his Purple Dragon can now increase all stats by 150%! That’s so OP…"

I nodded. "Yes. Just imagine our Holy Mage Legion blasting away at the enemy from behind 4000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen commanded by Lu Buyi himself, with their Defense, Attack, HP, Magic Resist all boosted by 150%. Now imagine that this army is standing side by side with Gui Guzi’s 4000 Knight God–buffed Dragonlight Cavalry as well. No way Warsky Alliance can punch through our formation, no matter how many Gold Cavalrymen they possess."

Lin Yixin mused while holding my hand, "Man, I’m so jealous of Ancient Sword’s troop composition. Your Holy Mages are the unstoppable force, and your Dragonlight Cavalry are the immovable object. On the other hand, Snowy Cathaya only has…"

I tilted my head at her. "You’re not going to say that you ‘only’ have the Dragon Punisher Archers, are you? Offensive-wise, your Dragon Punisher Archers and our Holy Mages are more or less on the same level. Their DPS may be inferior to ours, but the 100-yard boost to their attack range more than makes up for it. They can now pepper enemies hit Shock Arrows and Spiraling Arrow Blades from 150 yards away without losing any attack power due to Far Shot. If that isn’t OP, what is?"

"I guess you’re right…"

I moved onto the next equipment. It was a deep blue necklace with a rhombus-shaped deep sea gem for a pendant. Magical runes were floating all over it. I waved my hand over it, and its powerful stats caused the girls’ jaws to hit the floor—

Dragon Demise Necklace (Lower Divine Armament, Outstanding★★★★★★★★)

Intelligence: +3150

Stamina: +3100

Agility: +3050

Strength: +2900

Tactics: +220

Passive: Increases user’s Magic Attack by 155%

Passive: Increases user’s max HP by 90000, and MP regeneration speed by 40%

Slots: 18

Outstanding Property: Dragon Demise Protection. The durability of the user’s Magic Shield is increased by 100%, and the cooldown period after the Magic Shield is destroyed is reduced by 75%.

Introduction: In ancient times, when the giant dragons still dominated the world, the dying dragons would seek out their own tombs and lay in wait for death. Most of them had decomposed to just bones, but one dragon’s energy had transferred itself to the nearest gemstone instead. When a cultivator with incredible magical power discovered this gemstone, he forged it into the Dragon Demise Necklace. It is said that the wearer of this necklace is protected by the God of Magic themself.

Level Requirement: 225

Reputation Requirement: 850000

……

"Gulp…"

I gulped visibly before looking at Lian Xin. "Aren’t you happy you’re the only offensive magic user in this entire party, Little Xin? You don’t even need to roll for this Lower Divine Armament! This Dragon Demise Necklace will increase your survivability and magic power considerably, right?"

Lian Xin moved closer and tentatively touched the Dragon Demise Necklace. Then, she beamed like the sun and said, "Wow! Are you sure about this, big bro? Can I really have this amazing necklace?"

I nodded. "Do you even need to ask? You’re literally the only one who can use it to its fullest potential."

"Mn mn!"

Excited, Lian Xin accepted the Dragon Demise Necklace and equipped it on her person. The translucent beads around her neck looked incredible, and the deep sea gemstone was sitting right above her cleavage. Speaking of which, Lian Xin’s low-cut mage robe was excellently designed. Lian Xin wasn’t much older than Beiming, meaning that she hadn’t fully matured into an adult woman yet. The robe made her look less like a girl and more like a woman. It should be obvious, but both Lian Xin and Beiming had a ton of admirers in Sky City. According to Beiming, she had a two-digit number of players messaging her and requesting to meet her offline every day. It got so bad that they were forced to turn off the option to accept friend requests from strangers.

I asked Lian Xin, "How do your stats look now, Little Xin?"

Lian Xin replied smilingly while caressing her new necklace, "My base max HP is at 400k, so I have over 1 million HP with the buffs from my card and Sister Lin Yixin’s Bombshell. My Magic Attack has gone up by a lot as well. I love this Dragon Demise Necklace!"

I smiled. "That’s good…"

Beside me, Moon Dew exclaimed in astonishment, "OMG, you’re now a mage with 1 million max HP and a Magic Shield with 200% durability. Is there anyone in the world who can beat you 1v1 now?"

Lian Xin pointed at me without hesitation. "Big bro can still one-shot me with a single Xuanyuan Slash since my equipment only reduces my damage received by 14%..."

I disagreed. "Theoretically yes, but practically speaking it’s not that easy. Xuanyuan Slash has plenty of length but only a width of 5 to 10 yards. With your reaction speed, you absolutely can Blink away from my Xuanyuan Slash before I can hit you. That’s why I always force the enemy mages or archers to use their escape tools before ending their lives with Xuanyuan Slash…"

Lian Xin shot me a somewhat exasperated look. "You don’t have to tell me that, big bro…"

Lin Yixin giggled. "Yeah, yeah, stop bringing up your younger sister’s trauma, you evil man. Anyway, show us the last piece of equipment already so we can run up to the fourth floor and finally get rid of Bloodthirsty Emissary. I want to sleep before dawn arrives…"

"Yeah!" I nodded.

Unfortunately, the third piece of equipment was a complete downer. It was a pair of Silver-grade wristguards that was worth at most 5 gold in Sky City and would be better off sold to the NPCs. It did have a high level requirement—235 to be exact—but all the same, who the fuck would want to wear such a thing!?

……

I dropped the Silver-grade wristguards on the ground because even the random drop of a Dark Mercenaries player was better than it. Then, I distributed the enhancement gems to everyone. While doing so, I discovered I had mixed up a Purple Gold Divine Crystal and gave it a look. To my surprise, it was a Quality 100 Divine Crystal. Who would’ve thought that this tiny crystal could be traded for 100k gold with the NPCs?

Moon Dew covered her mouth as she exclaimed, "OMG, this is just… so unfair!!"

"What? What’s wrong?"

"When I was grinding the Snow Wolf Cave at Dragonbone Mountain Range with Xu Yang and Gui Guzi, we killed 5 Level 280 Archean Immortal Rank bosses in total but didn’t drop a single Divine Crystal. However, Lu Chen dropped 3 Divine Crystals in just 2 bosses! How is this possible?"

"That’s the power of 100 Luck, girl. Let’s get rolling, shall we?"

A short while later, Murong Mingyue became the proud owner of the 100 Quality Divine Crystal with 78 points. She said happily, "Yay! I can imagine all the good food I’m going to buy with this money already…"

He Yi snorted. "It’s always food with you. Let’s head to the fourth floor now…"

"Mn!"

……

With me as the point, we returned to the hexagram formation Ornos had been sealed in and looked up. There were stone stairs leading toward somewhere that was fully shrouded by darkness. There was no telling what might be waiting for us up there.

Thud thud...

I lit the way forward with the deep blue light of my Chill of the Nine Provinces and walked up the stairs. When I entered the fourth floor, I suddenly felt a terrible chill and shuddered. The fourth floor was almost the same as the third floor in that the map was all rocks and passages. There were also no hints as to the boss's location.

I activated Dark Pupils, and this line immediately appeared above the skill interface: Current range due to environmental limitation: 75 yards.

God dammit, this map was so high-level that it limited the range of my Dark Pupils. The Aegis Combat System with a scanning range of over 1000 yards had suddenly been limited to just 75 yards or slightly better than a Clear As Flame. Still, it was better than nothing.

In the dim lighting, I saw a red shadow standing directly in front of me. She was a high-level fiend-rank assassin girl. She had long, pale legs and an incredibly sexy figure. She wore a triangular chain leather armor that just barely concealed her private parts and a cloak that was almost transparent. Her face was covered by a black mask, but I could see that her eyes were full of murderous intent.

"Watch out. This floor is full of assassin-type mobs. Do your best, Beiming!" I said.

Beiming Xue giggled. "Don’t worry, big bro. I always do my best. Let’s go!"

"Yeah!"

I gripped the Chill of the Nine Provinces and used Thunderous Charge to engagethe stealthed assassin girl, stunning her. Then, I cut her neck with Burning Blade Slash. Level 308 or not, there was no way she could tank the power of the Chill of the Nine Provinces.

"Ugh…"

After the mob had recovered herself, she danced lithely to my side and stabbed me with a Gouge, successfully stunning me for 1.7 seconds. Then, she hit the same area with Blade Vortex + armor-breaking skill combo that deleted over 400k HP in an instant. As usual, a high-level assassin’s ability to ignore armor was no joke.

Thud!

Thankfully, Beiming Xue managed to Shock Arrow the assassin girl before she could do any more damage, and a couple of swings from He Yi and Lin Yixin were all it took to kill the leather-armor class mob. As she died, she dropped crimson wristguards.

I picked them up and smiled widely—

Moonshadow Walker Wristguards (Heaven-grade, Outstanding★★★★★)

Defense: 5400

Magic Resist: 4980

Agility: +1450

Stamina: +1500

Intelligence: +1300

Passive: Increases user’s physical attack power by 27%

Passive: Increases user’s Agility by 10%

Slots: 12

Outstanding Property: Moonshadow, increases user’s stealth effectiveness by 12%

Property: Moonshadow Walker Set, Wristguards

Level Requirement: 220

Reputation Requirement: 400000

……

"Looks like this mob drops a Level 220 Heaven-grade set that is on par with the S2 set, but unlike the S2 set we can sell them since they’re not bound. As a full set, the equipment increases stealth effectiveness by 70%. We should gather a full set for Cute Little Naughty or sell it for gold."

The girls all nodded. "Let’s get grinding then. I don’t want to wait until Dark Mercenaries and God’s Domain ambush us again…"