Chapter 1196: Heavenly River Transformation

Translator: alyschu

Power filled my body the moment I grabbed the Ancient Divine Skill Scroll. I didn’t dilly dally though. After dashing—or more concisely, escaping—a hundred meters away in just a couple of steps, I let out a cry and turned invisible not a moment too soon as both the Phantom Wolf King and the apparition’s avatar darkened at the same time. The wolf king’s Attack truly was out of the world. It had destroyed both my baits in just a couple of seconds!

Heart beating like crazy, I prayed that the boss wouldn’t follow me. I had run over 100 yards away from the boss, so I should be out of its detection range already, right? Also, Earth Escape was also stronger than your usual stealth, even though it was inferior to Farewell Song’s enhanced stealth skill.

"Pant, pant…"

I stared at the direction of the boss while breathing heavily. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on my side today. The wolf king let out an angry roar and ran straight toward me! It was almost as if it was attracted by a certain object!

I hurriedly ran out of the wolf cave and up the mountain range at the back. The wolf king most likely could sense the scroll no matter the range. Trickery wouldn’t work here, it seemed.

I still had some time, so I decided that I might as well check out the Ancient Divine Skill I got!

I identified the scroll while running like hell—

Greedy Wolf Howl (S Rank Ancient Divine Skill): Increases user's Attack by 75%. Land a Greedy Strike on the target and steal gold equal to the damage dealt divided by 10. Cooldown: 120 seconds. Cost: 50% MP!

……

Increase Attack by 75%, damage the opponent and steal their gold based on the damage done? That’s crazy! Assuming that the player dealt 100k damage to a target, that’s 10k gold stolen just like that! I didn’t know what the other Ancient Divine Skills were like, but this had to be one of the most inhumane ones out there…

However, I hesitated about three seconds before tossing the scroll into the forest. The moment it left my hand, it transformed into a ball of light and rolled down a cliff about 300 meters tall. The scroll was so shiny that it was visible all the way down.

The reason I had decided to discard this Ancient Divine Skill was simple: I wanted an Ancient Divine Skill that granted me absolute killing power, and one that increased my Attack by 75% wasn’t what I was looking for. While its Greedy Strike effect was undeniably incredible, I didn’t need that much money. I might as well leave it to someone else.

Just dozens of meters away from me, the Elephant City assassin from earlier abruptly exited stealth, activated Swift Dash and raced straight toward the falling scroll. At the same time, he shouted, "That’s an Ancient Divine Skill Scroll, Wind Spirit! I cannot believe that a Chinese player just tossed it like it was nothing! Well, don’t mind if I do…"

The archer named Wind Spirit hurriedly shouted, "Wait! The guardian boss is chasing after the scroll as well! Be careful!"

The assassin couldn’t hear her advice, however. After all, the person to use the scroll first would be able to ascend to the Heavenly River Realm.

Unfortunately for him, the wolf king was way faster than even the assassin with Swift Dash turned on. It was racing toward the scroll as well.

The assassin, archer and the wolf king were all racing toward the scroll, but their objectives were completely different from one another. It was an interesting sight to say the least.

……

Suddenly, an exclamation of surprise came from beneath the mountain. "Am I seeing this right? Is that an Ancient Divine Skill Scroll??"

The man at the foot of the mountain was a Japanese player. In fact, he was none other than the guild leader of Era of Strife and the leader of almost a million men, Copper Spear. He was galloping toward somewhere when the Ancient Divine Skill Scroll’s light caught his attention. It was way too shiny to miss.

Wind Spirit dashed between and over the trees and the rocks like a swallow, falling in a swift but controlled manner toward the scroll. At the same time, she notched an arrow and shouted to her partner, "Grab the scroll while I put down Copper Spear, Night Chill! The Japanese must not get their hands on the first Ancient Divine Skill Scroll of the game!"

"Got it!"

I could see that the assassin and the archer were both first-rate. No wonder they were confident enough to enter the Sky Vortex and seek out its treasure the moment it was opened.

I didn’t want the scroll to fall into the hands of Copper Spear or the two Elephant City players, so I decided that I might as well see this through until the end. So, I gathered swirls of air beneath my feet and glided down the mountain range while leaving blue ripples behind my trail. Meanwhile, the scroll kept smacking into tree branches and changing directions as it fell, causing the trio’s heartbeats to spike like crazy!

"This is mine!"

Copper Spear abruptly jumped up from its mount and raised its hand into the sky. His aim was true, and it looked like the scroll was about to enter his possession.

"Roar roar…"

However, the wolf king arrived just in time to swipe at Copper Spear with its sharp claws. Although Copper Spear raised his shield and blocked the attack, he still lost a ton of HP—

219399!

258284!

Not only had he failed to catch the scroll, the wolf king had nearly turned him into a human pancake.

The assassin, Night Chill hit the ground with a thud and dashed toward the scroll at high speed. Unlike Copper Spear, no one was around to stop him from swiping the scroll from the air!

Swhoosh!

However, before the assassin could put the scroll into his bag, a spinning sword suddenly appeared from his blind spot and sent him flying. Coiling Dragon Revolution had almost one-shot him, leaving him with just 3% HP. More importantly, the scroll escaped from his grasp and flew into the air once more.

Shocked but not deterred, the archer Wind Spirit ran toward me and fired a quick Shock Arrow!

Thud!

My movement came to an abrupt halt. Are you kidding me? The Shock Arrow had at best a 10% chance of stunning me, but it succeeded anyway and stunned me for 2.3 seconds.

"Grab the scroll now, Night Chill!" Wind Spirit shouted.

The assassin hurriedly climbed back to his feet and attempted to swipe the scroll from the air again, but in his haste he failed to notice the man running toward him from behind. Copper Spear had somehow escaped the boss, and he didn’t waste a moment to plunge his sword through the assassin’s back and cackle sinisterly. "This Ancient Divine Skill is mine, small fry!"

After that, he flicked the assassin’s corpse off his blade before downing a health potion and using War God Recovery. He then galloped straight toward the scroll.

I absolutely wasn’t going to give him the scroll, so the second the stun ended I dashed toward the guild leader like lightning and slammed my knee right into his stomach!

Bang!

The blow sent both him and his mount flying to the back and caused his eyes to widen like saucers. However, he clenched his teeth and roared, "No one can have this scroll except me!"

Golden light surrounded his body. He actually activated his invincibility skill!

Swhoosh!

However, half a second after the invincibility came active, a gigantic creature abruptly descended in front of him and clamped its nasty teeth around Copper Spear’s forehead. The guild leader shivered like a leaf, but he looked up and forced a smile onto his face, "You… you’re just a kind little animal, right? You won’t bite me, right?"

Crack!

The sickening sound of something breaking entered everyone’s ears, and blood spilled out of Copper Spear’s head like a fountain. At the same time, the man groaned, "Are you kidding me? It can ignore invincibility?"

Pu!

That was all he managed to say before the wolf king bit his entire head off. Now I knew for certain that the guardian bosses of the Ancient Divine Skills possessed the same invincibility-ignoring qualities as the skills themselves. Starting now, the age of invincibility skills being synonymous with absolute safety had become a relic of the past.

……

"Roar roar!"

Unfortunately, I was the closest player to the wolf king besides Copper Spear, so it immediately turned toward me and swiped at me three times in a row. Despite a successful Guard, I still lost nearly 200k HP. This boss's Attack was way too powerful.

While I was staggered, the archer, Wind Spirit seized the opportunity to leap into the air and stretch her hand toward the scroll. Oh no, she’s going to catch it…

It was an outcome I couldn’t accept, so while holding off the boss's attacks with the Dragon God Shield, I aimed my sword at the scroll and threw it!

Chiang!

Just like that, the Ancient Divine Skill Scroll flew into the air again and toward the forest. Wind Spirit narrowed her eyes in annoyance, "Not again! Bastard…"

She turned around and fired her Shock Arrow again. Was she the bane of me or something? She actually managed to stun me again! The boss didn’t let go of the opportunity and used me like a punching bag…

……

Thud!

Wind Spirit raced toward the grass where the scroll had landed.

However, a beautiful woman emerged from the forest, bent down and picked up the Ancient Divine Skill Scroll long before the archer could do anything. She giggled like a bell and said, "Oh my, I’ve never had a gift from heaven literally rolling to my feet before. I don’t think I can get luckier than I am today."

I was smiling too. The new arrival was none other than Chaos Moon herself!

She waved the scroll in her hand while looking at me. "Do you want this scroll, Lu Chen?"

I shook my head and punched the boss in the head. "Nope. Anyway, no time to wait, Chaos Moon! Use it now!"

"Got it!"

……

The scroll vanished into her palm in a flash, and the familiar ring entered all our ears—

Ding~!

System Announcement: Player "Chaos Moon" (China) used an Ancient Divine Skill Scroll and obtained the Ancient Divine Skill, "Greedy Wolf Howl." They’ve successfully entered the Heavenly River Realm and gained Heavenly River Transformation and Domain. As the first player to enter the Heavenly River Realm, they gain Level +2, Luck +2, and an equipment reward, "Galaxy Armor" (Archean Immortal-grade, Outstanding★★★★★★★)!

……

Air suddenly swirled beneath Chaos Moon’s feet as she opened her palm and activated Heavenly River Transformation. It looked as if a pair of snow white wings had appeared behind her back. At the same time, a force field—it had to be that Domain mentioned in the system announcement—appeared around her and froze the leaves dancing around her person.

The archer raged, "How dare you take my scroll!"

She drew her bow and loosed Bone Eroding Arrow straight at Chaos Moon.

Surprised, Chaos Moon held up her palm in front of her and forced the shot to come to a sudden stop in front of her. However, it seemed like holding the arrow in place wasn’t an easy thing to do, so she moved away from her original location before releasing her hold. Just like that, the Bone Eroding Arrow sailed past her harmlessly and caused a MISS to rise above her head.

I was stunned. This was but the tip of the iceberg that was the Heavenly River Realm.

Starting today, the word "Domain" was probably going to rewrite the existing concept of PvP completely!