Crack!

Blood dripped down my Chill of the Nine Provinces as I took out another assassin girl. There was something I wanted to complain about though. First, the assassin girl always let out a shocking moan when she died. Okay, whatever. However, every time the mob collapsed on the ground, her cape would cover her entire person except her deep blue-colored underwear. At this point, it became obvious that the designer of this floor was a bit of a pervert. I didn’t want to look at it, but it was an impossible task when your goal was to grind the mob over and over.

"Say, do you think Dark Mercenaries, Blood Alliance and God’s Domain will come after us again?" Lin Yixin asked while picking up a card.

Murong Mingyue waved her scepter. "Who knows? Common sense doesn’t work on crazy people like them."

I answered, "Let’s start with God’s Domain. Red Maple lost 10 levels and 2 of his main pieces of equipment to my Chains of Freedom. Cyan Frost, Purple Thunder and the other JGL Hall of Famers have also dropped a level. They probably won’t come after us anymore. Red Maple is arrogant, but he isn’t stupid. If he couldn’t beat us earlier, what are the chances he can beat us now that his party has suffered a devastating blow? He may as well just gift me his Crimson Dragon Arm. No, the wiser option for him would be to seek out the other Chinese players in Bloody Shield Domain and gather their equipment with the Crimson Dragon Arm. Of course, I can’t say he won’t come after us once his level and equipment are back to par."

He Yi nodded. "Lu Chen is right. After Red Maple lost Purple Grape City, he has been accumulating his strength in Wallow… ah pooh, I mean Swallow Ear Canton for several months straight. An enduring man like him definitely won’t commit suicide willy-nilly. Dark Mercenaries and Blood Alliance though, they are much harder to predict."

I smiled in agreement. "Yes. It’s very possible that Dark Mercenaries will say ‘fuck it’ and come after us even after Now and Forever has lost 10 levels. It’s because they are extremely far behind us to begin with, and Amber Pupil is nothing but bold. If they wipe again, but they manage to steal any one of my equipment as a result, then it’ll be an overall win for them."

Murong Mingyue said, "Yeah. Now and Forever’s equipment is nothing compared to Lu Chen’s Divine Armaments, Ghost Armaments or even Sacred Armaments…"

Lian Xin smiled. "That’s fine. Let them come. It’s not like we have anything better to do…"

Me: "Let’s continue…"

……

Three hours later, we had killed almost every mob on the floor and collected 11 complete Moonshadow Walker sets in total. We still didn’t see the boss though. The only area we hadn’t cleared yet was the centermost area, so Bloodthirsty Emissary had to be there.

I pointed my sword to the front. "Bloodthirsty Emissary is most likely 100 yards ahead of us…"

He Yi said, "He’s an assassin-type boss, right? Do you think Dark Pupils and Clear As Flame can see through his stealth?"

Lin Yixin shrugged. "Hard to say."

Beiming Xue replied, "I’m not confident at least…"

I declared, "There is only one answer, and that is no. Bosses are basically cheat existences. Not only do they have superior stats, I bet you that Bloodthirsty Emissary has an item like the Ghost Lake Mirror that gives perfect stealth…"

Beiming Xue said, "That’s good though, right? If we can drop another Ghost Lake Mirror, we can turn Cute Little Naughty into a top-tier assassin…"

"Nah. The Seventy-two Ghost Armaments are supposed to be unique. On the off chance the boss does drop an equipment of the same effect, it won’t be called the Ghost Lake Mirror…"

"Why are we wasting our breath then? Go kill that Bloodthirsty Emissary already, big bro…"

"What a great younger sister you are. Alright, I’m going…"

……

I activated Battle Astral Wind before approaching the center of the map cautiously. The area looked crimson red on the minimap, so the chances that the boss was here was extremely high. I kept my footsteps as light as possible even though the boss most likely could hear it coming anyway. A cold breeze blew in from the window and rustled the dead leaves and dust on the ground. This place—this entire castle in general—didn’t look like a good place to live in, but the important thing was that it was advantageous to me. The dust, the leaves and even the wind would help me identify the boss's position later.

Stealth wasn’t impossible to beat even if it was completely impossible to see through it with detection skills. After all, one hit was all it took to break it.

As I progressed forward, I entered a huge indoor square that was covered in drawn runes. They looked like parts of a gigantic magic formation. At the center of the magic formation was a crystal coffin with a young and beautiful woman in it. She had clearly been dead for some time, and unless I was sorely mistaken, she was none other than Frederick’s daughter, Serena. What a shame that she had passed away...

Kneeling on one knee and bowing his head toward the crystal coffin was a war general clad in battle armor and blood-red cloak. Heaven knows how long he had been kneeling like this. All I knew was that he was utterly silent.

My Dark Pupils finally worked when I came within 50 yards of him. The general was none other than Bloodthirsty Emissary, and he was an assassin who also wore metal armor. What a shameless motherfucker...

Swhoosh!

The girls sucked in a deep breath when I shared his stats screen in the party channel. The true challenge was finally upon us, and our enemy was a Level 310 Ancient Immortal Rank boss. This was going to be sick—

Bloodthirsty Emissary Zishui (Ancient Immortal Rank Boss)

Level: 310

Attack: 59000~72400

Defense: 80000

HP: 200,000,000

Property: Stun skills land 100% of the time.

Property: Shield Breaking. Ignores Magic Shield and invincibility shields.

Skills: Remote Assassination, Bloody Blind, Kingly Cripple, Bloody Massacre

Introduction: Bloodthirsty Emissary Zishui was the commander-in-chief of the ancient Zishui Empire. He was a martial arts experts since young, and he was especially proficient in the arts of assassination and stealth. He was considered a once-in-a-millennium genius. However, the Zishui Empire lost its royal power during a war and was taken over in a barbaric fashion by the Clansmen of the Dark afterward. Ziyu was imprisoned in a cage without any food or water until the princess of the Clansmen of the Dark, Serena, released him. After that, Zishui formed a thief group to survive in the wilderness. Seven years ago, he infiltrated the Clansmen of the Dark and stole Princess Serena away.

……

Chiang!

I slammed my blade into the ground and declared, "Your time has come, Bloodthirsty Emissary."

Zishui didn’t look back, but he conjured an ice and a fire dagger before saying in a low tone, "Leave, human adventurer. This is no place for you, and I have no wish to kill you. Appreciate your second chance in life and leave while you still can."

I was surprised. It was rare to find a kind-hearted boss.

I smiled a little before continuing, "I cannot. I have accepte Frederick’s request to take his daughter away from Bloodthirsty Castle. I won’t leave unless you surrender Serena."

"What?!"

Zishui shuddered violently and turned around to face me. His handsome face warped by an expression of rage, he glared at me and declared, "You want to take Serena with you? Dream on! I won’t surrender Serena to anyone! No matter the odds, I will protect her until the day I die!"

Buzz!

Energy rippled from the Chill of the Nine Provinces as I activated the Great Earth Transformation. I said quietly, "Then we fight, Zishui. Remember, I didn’t want to kill you…"

"Die!"

Zishui exploded into motion and slammed his icy dagger into my blade. The impact was so powerful that my boots left a pair of skid marks on the ground. I responded immediately by thrusting the Cyan Dragon Shield into Zishui’s face and unleashing the Burning Blade Slash. The flaming auras cut into Zishui’s battle armor and triggered three damage numbers—

198283!

223772!

273737!

Dammit, I should’ve expected this outcome. Without Purple Frost Concentration, not even I could breach the Defense of a Level 310 Ancient Immortal Rank boss!

A smirk flashed across Zishui’s lips as he stabbed my chest with his flaming dagger. There was a scorching sensation, and my vision abruptly turned into blackness. It was his Bloody Blind skill, and the combat log informed me that it lasted 4.9 seconds and couldn’t be interrupted.

Puchi!

Relying on my other senses, I swung my sword in a wide arc and successfully landed my Purple Frost Concentration, lowering Zishui’s Defense by 31%. At the same time, I cast War Crush and Rise of the Guardian Dragon to damage him. The combat log informed me that both skills had struck my target.

Anticipating a devastating counterattack, I activated Cyan Dragon Scale to increase my Defense and resistances. I wasn’t wrong. Just half a second later, Zishui landed Blade Vortex + Bloodbreak + armor break combo on my person and dealt a shocking amount of damage—

392984!

419391!

412092!

719293!

671766!

The combo would’ve been enough to delete my HP from 100 to 0 if not for Murong Mingyue and Moon Dew’s timely heals. Tenacity of the Dead and Xuanyuan Art later, I just barely avoided a most gruesome death. I fired a blind Thousand Ice Slash around me and against all odds, managed to freeze Zishui for 1.2 seconds. It wasn’t nearly long enough though!

"Give me the party leader!"

Murong Mingyue immediately used Bright Mirror to remove my Blind status. Then, she returned the party leader to Lin Yixin. It took only 2 seconds to do so, so it didn’t affect the combat too much. When I regained my vision though, I saw that Lin Yixin was dueling against Zishui. Unfortunately, the stat gap between the two of them was so huge that Lin Yixin had lost 50% of her HP in just the blink of an eye. I hurriedly ran over and regained the threat in a few hits.

Behind us, Beiming Xue and Lian Xin were going all out. Zishui had 200 million HP, so there was literally no reason to hold back!

"Hah! Die!"

Suddenly, Zishui defied the standard rules of aggro and fired a flaming sword aura with his fire dagger. It pierced through Lian Xin’s Telekinetic Shield like nothing and hit her hard—

974772!

Lian Xin couldn’t believe it. She had nearly been one-shot by the skill.

"Watch out!"

I shouted, "It’s that Remote Assassination skill! It has an attack range of 35 yards, so make sure you’re at least that far away from him! He’ll kill you otherwise"

Lian Xin stuck out her tongue while moving to the back. "What a ridiculous boss!!"