Chapter 1243: Hollow Thunder

Translator: alyschu

Swhoosh…

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Light flashed repeatedly at the edge of the coast. In just five minutes, all 7 of us had logged back into the game.

We made a new party and Lin Yixin the party leader to make use of her Bombshell as usual. Pure Love buffed everyone, and everyone summoned their pets and mounts. Dragon Domain was an unexplored map, and no one knew how powerful the monsters were. Going all-out was the only way to protect ourselves.

I climbed up my dragon and pointed to the distance. "We only need to traverse this forest for 10 minutes to arrive at Dragon Domain. Be ready for anything, everyone!"

"Yeah!"

All the girls unsheathed their weapons and got ready to kill the monsters.

……

Horrifying, beastial roars erupted from within the wild, untouched forest from time to time. I could tell immediately that they didn’t belong to any ordinary beast such as wolves or tigers. According to my experience, it should be a low-rank dragon of sorts. The reason I said this was because I believed a Holy Giant Dragon’s roar would be similar to the Ancient Divine Dragon’s; crisp and penetrating. However, the roars we were hearing were deep, low, and full of resentment and the promise of violence.

Rustle rustle…

Suddenly, an elk with multi-colored spots on its body darted between the trees. Lin Yixin pointed at it with her sword and commented, "Eh, that’s a Level 275 fiend-rank monster, the Flower Elk! According to the official data, the meat of a Flower Elk is delicious and a high-rank Cooking ingredient. If you add Flower Elk Meat while cooking your Magic Consumables, it’ll increase its effectiveness by 35%!"

"Oh?"

That caught my attention. Speaking of Magic Consumables, the master cooks in Sky City were producing Rank 12 Magic Consumables already. In fact, they instantly restored slightly more MP than my Rank 10 Saint Spirit Potions. If a Flower Elk Meat was added during the cooking process, then the Magic Consumables could heal over 10000 MP in one go. This was extremely important for high-level mages and priests. As eighth-promotion players became the norm, and everyone’s God Devil Break, Touch of the Dragonkiss, Galaxy Storms and more spells hit Rank 10, every spell cast cost at least 1000 MP. Simply put, a mage without sufficient MP recovery couldn’t fight a protracted battle at all. It was why most mages had to rest half a minute for every one minute of continuous spell cast during a Nation War, or switch to lousier but less MP consuming spells such as Rank 10 Fireballs. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that MP was a mage and priest’s lifeline.

When I thought up to this point, I immediately raised my Chill of the Nine Provinces and said, "Let’s take out these Flower Elks first. It so happens that my Foraging is Rank 12 already, so I can strip these mobs of their meat perfectly. They’re worth a lot of money, right?"

Lin Yixin’s giggle reached me from behind. "I don’t know how much they’re worth exactly, but I reckon that 1 set, or 100 Flower Elk Meat, is probably worth at least 500 gold."

"Haha! Come to me, money…"

"Ah. Watch out, you idiot! We’re in a forest of Dragon Domain, not Sky City!"

……

Murong Mingyue held me tightly as the Ancient Divine Dragon zigzagged around the trees. She was obviously afraid that one sharp movement would throw her overboard. "Lu Chen you idiot! It’s just a bunch of elk meat!"

"Are you kidding me? They’re heaps and heaps of cash!"

After I caught up to the Flower Elk, I immediately fired God Binding Art!

Swhoosh!

Four divine arms fell from the sky and caught it perfectly. It didn’t matter if it could run like lightning, there was no escape for it now.

I was just about to kill it when Beiming Xue’s urgent voice reached me. "Big brother watch out!"

"Roar!"

My vision darkened, but it wasn’t Bao Zheng who stood in my way. A wild bear that was at least five meters tall waved its paws, opened its bloody maw and chomped down on the Flower Elk I caught in one gulp! Before I could do anything, my heap of cash was swallowed into its stomach just like that!

"YOU MOTHERFUCKER!"

Red hot anger entered my eyes as I set down Murong Mingyue and charged the bear. I kicked off the fight with Universe Break + Burning Blade Slash, followed by Purple Frost Concentration + Pardon. Then, I plunged my weapon right through its eyes after identifying them to be its weak points!

The bear roared in pain and swiped at the Ancient Divine Dragon’s back in retaliation. However, Battle Astral Wind stopped it and lost only 4% durability.

A short distance away, He Yi and Lin Yixin were staring at me in shock. Lin Yixin said, "This guy will fight anyone or anything for money…"

He Yi nodded knowingly. "He’s been like this since the first day I knew him…"

……

As it turned out, the bear was a Level 275 Immortal Rank boss called the Iron Skull War Bear. However, a mere Immortal Rank boss could no longer threaten our lives. An Ancient Immortal Rank boss was still deadly though. The Nine-headed Fire Hydra for example was an absolute menace with its 9 heads.

"An Immortal Rank boss is even better than the Flower Elk!" a smiling He Yi said while stabbing the boss's giant thigh with Barrier Break.

"An Immortal Rank boss may not necessarily drop Divine Armaments, but it definitely drops Archean and Ancient Immortal-grade equipment, which boosts all four attributes. They’ll be very useful against God Devil Break and Ultimate Strength Break."

I replied while sending bits and chunks of bear meat flying all over the place with my sword, "Yeah. This motherfucker better die and drop an Ancient Immortal-grade ring that increases Intelligence for me! Being bombarded by God Devil Breaks at Shabby Castle was one time too many!"

Lin Yixin laughed at me. "That was your fault. You were the one who rushed ahead!"

I retorted, "If I hadn’t rushed ahead, how could I have killed all those people, earned enough contribution points to be the MVP, and won the Xuanming Bow for China? It’s one of the Twelve Divine Armaments and a Chinese-style bow, you know!"

Beiming Xue smiled sweetly as she fired many deadly arrows into the boss's head. "Thank you, big brother. The Xuanming Bow is priceless to me, and I will treasure it forever just like I will love you forever…"

Lian Xin couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes as she said, "OMG, are you really that innocent, or are you doing this on purpose, Beiming? Anyway, confessions are not allowed in the middle of a boss fight, okay? Also, what will happen to boss and Beauty Lin if you love Lu Chen forever?"

The question caught Beiming Xue off-guard, but she quickly recovered and shrugged. "It’s not an issue though? I’m the younger sister. It’s perfectly natural for me to love my big brother forever and ever. In fact, boss and Beauty Yi may be big brother’s wives in the future, but who’s to say they won’t fall out of love and even file for divorce one day?"

The comment was so unexpected that Murong Mingyue nearly forgot to heal me. She laughed so hard that tears were flowing down her cheeks. "Y-you hear that Eve, Beauty Lin!? You aren’t even Lu Chen’s wives yet, and someone’s already cursing the stability of your future relationship! Oh, my stomach! Beiming, you’re truly a cute and smart girl!"

I felt like dying. "Stop talking about stuff that isn’t related to the boss and focus! It’s weak, but it’s still an Immortal Rank boss, for fuck’s sake! Be serious!"

……

Almost 20 minutes of pummeling later, the Immortal Rank boss was close to dying. Not only was our 7-man party powerful beyond imagination, Lian Xin’s Magic Attack was super effective against its metal armor. Touch of the Dragonkiss and Ice Spiral Matrix both did a ton of damage, but the true killer here was without a doubt God Devil Break. The massive Intelligence difference meant that every God Devil Break dealt at least 300k damage to the brainless boss. It was why Lian Xin was easily the highest DPS of this boss fight.

"Roar roar…"

The boss let out a terrific roar that shook the forest. Then, when it still had 19% HP or so, it surprised all of us by smacking my Dragon God Shield once to knock me backward before running away! Its AI must be fairly amazing, because I couldn’t remember the last boss who knew to run after realizing they couldn’t win. Worse, the boss had high HP regeneration, and its HP bar grew at a visible rate after it left our range.

"Chase it! I haven’t fought it for twenty minutes just to let it slip out of my grasp!" Lin Yixin cried.

I carried out the command without hesitation and chased the Iron Skull War Bear to a clearing. The leg wound I inflicted with the Chill of the Nine Provinces earlier kept jetting blood and eliciting painful groans from the boss, but it was also healing at a legendary rate. At this rate, it was going to heal back to perfection in half an hour tops.

……

I abruptly skidded to a stop and raised the Chill of the Nine Provinces. Then, I tossed my weapon at the boss and pierced its back with Coiling Dragon Revolution. The skill dealt an incredible amount of damage, but more importantly it also triggered the Necklace of the War God’s Broken Blade effect, immobilizing the boss against its will for 7 seconds!

"Muahahahaha! You’re not running away from us!"

I cackled like a villain as I caught up to the boss. At this point, its fate was as good as sealed. Even if it didn’t drop the Ancient Immortal-grade equipment, Divine Armament or Sacred Armament we dreamed of, we could still sell the lousy stuff for cash, and it would give all of us an incredible amount of experience.

"Roar roar…"

I could almost hear the despair and helplessness behind its roar. The king of bears definitely hadn’t expected to succumb like this until it had.

……

Suddenly, the sky above the forest turned red, and the power of Domain enveloped us all. Both Lin Yixin and I backed away from the boss in alarm while exclaiming, "What the fuck? Something’s coming!"

We were both Heavenly River Realm players, so we were far more sensitive to domains than the average person was. Right now, the impossible power choking out the breath in our lungs informed us that an impossibly strong expert was swiftly approaching our location. Whoever they were, they probably weren’t a player because the game would never allow a player to grow this powerful.

Swhoosh!

A red streak flashed across our eyes, and the Iron Skull War Bear let out a death scream. The next moment, we discovered that something had punched through its head entirely!

"Fuck! What the hell is that?" I gripped the Chill of the Nine Provinces tightly and moved in front of He Yi and Lin Yixin.

……

A general covered in blood abruptly appeared in the sky. He was holding a sword that glinted a cold light in his right hand, and the brain of the bear in his left. He actually took a bite from the brain, chewed it slowly and let out a most horrifying comment, "Jiejie, what a delicious brain this is! I can barely stop myself from swallowing it whole! When will Strella awaken, I wonder? I can’t wait to eat its brain too!"

Then, he slowly looked up to the sky and said, "It’s close now, Lord Mingyu. I will revive you. I, Michael, will show you what loyalty beyond death truly means!"

……

For a time, we could only gape at the powerful boss in shock. The text floating on his head stated—

Michael the Hollow Thunder LV-290

Identity: The Abandoned

Faction: Dark

1.I guess the cap of secondary professions have been raised to rank 12 now.