Chapter 1398: Dragon Soul Ring

I felt one, no, two gusts of wind charging toward me from behind. It was God of War and Breeze and Rain attacking me at the same time.

I crouched down and raised the Cyan Dragon Shield above my head, blocking the first strike from Breeze and Rain. Then, I raised one of my legs into a full-powered back kick that struck God of War in the waist and sent him rolling at least five or six meters across the ground. Finally, I raised the Chill of the Nine Provinces and activated the Death skill of the Xuanyuan Art right in front of Breeze and Rain and God of War’s faces!

Swhoosh!

Both players lost 50% of their HP, but the same couldn’t be said for Soul Slayer. Having less than 50% HP after the massive damage I had dealt to him earlier, the bastard could only die and drop 10 levels in a row. God of War himself was in grave danger since he had only had 70% HP, and 20% now. Any one of my skills could kill him right now.

"Die with him!"

I tanked Breeze and Rain’s strike with my body and parried Red Maple’s sword away with the Cyan Dragon Shield. Then, I leaped into the air and executed Thousand Ice Slash. Out of all of my currently available skills, this one had the biggest area of effect. It was the best skill to use to narrow an opponent’s escape options.

God of War gritted his teeth and activated his invincibility skill.

Unfortunately for him, I abruptly canceled my skill at the last moment and unfolded my bloody pair of wings. Then, I dropped a golden sword dozens of meters right on top of his head.

Boom!

God of War turned limp and hit the ground with a thud. He might have had a slight chance of surviving my Thousand Ice Slash with 20% HP, but my SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skill? Never.

……

"What the hell…"

Breeze and Rain was visibly rattled after watching God of War dying right before his eyes. God of War himself must be mad as hell right now. Cyan Beast and God's Domain’s best players had joined hands to kill me, and I still managed to eliminate my primary target and claim a couple of consolation prizes on the side. I wouldn’t be surprised if God of War was throwing a tantrum in the real world right now. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Breeze and Rain told me that it wasn’t the first or even the tenth time it had happened.

Swhoosh!

The battle wasn’t over yet though. I caught the flash of a sword stabbing toward me, so I spun around and retaliated with a mighty punch. I felt my fist striking something soft and bouncy at the same time the sword pierced through my chest and dealt 400k damage to me. It was only after I knocked my attacker away did I notice that it was Flowing Cloud.

"Huh…"

Flowing Cloud stared at the messy shreds of steel and fleshy ribbons across my chest and my face. She froze.

My HP had dropped below 19%, so I hurriedly backed away from her while downing a Rank 13 Health Potion and casting Tenacity of the Dead.

Breeze and Rain shouted at Flowing Cloud in an exasperated tone, "For fuck’s sake, Flowing Cloud! There are better times and places than now to be fawning over the love of your life! Now work with me to take out Lu Chen! We’ve already lost one boss to him, we cannot lose a Purgatory Sovereign to him as well!"

Flowing Cloud replied, "R-right…"

……

However, a draconic breath and a mass of sword auras descended from the sky and drove back both Breeze and Rain and Flowing Cloud away from me. It was Li Chengfeng and his Blue Crystal Dragon finally coming to my rescue. With a faceful of arrows—seriously, his entire face was covered in arrows—he said, "Natural Flow’s Dragon Punisher Archers are so OP, man. I was stunned for 13 seconds straight, and I would’ve died if Little Gui hadn’t cast Shennong Tastes Grass…"

I grinned. "Oh shit, that makes sense. I was wondering how I managed to survive for so long against so many experts…"

Another 7 or 8 arrows struck my chest armor while we were chatting, so I broke into a run and said, "Time’s running out, Chengfeng! Let’s kill the boss before it’s too late!"

"Yeah!"

We left Cyan Beast and Natural Flow behind and raced toward the boss as quickly as we could. Ultimately, this conflict was just a case of revenge killing. In the future, there would be plenty of opportunities to "spar" with my nemeses. On the other hand, killing Skullblood was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If we missed it, it would be gone forever.

Although most of the players had switched their attention from the boss to each other, at least a thousand players from all servers were still attacking the boss. I saw Skullblood using its Earth Devouring skill on an unfortunate group of Hero Alliance players. In fact, a couple of them were even Ancient Divine Skill owners. How unfortunate for them.

I checked Skullblood’s HP bar and noted that it was still showing 1%. However, it was now flashing rapidly. This visual indicator occurred when the boss's HP had fallen below 1%!

"What do we do?" Li Chengfeng asked.

I gritted my teeth. "We attack together, but wait until I’ve injected it with Purple Frost Concentration for maximum damage!"

"Got it!"

"Also, give me a ride. We’re going to attack from atop its head!"

"Okay!"

……

I leaped into the air and caught the Blue Crystal Dragon’s talon. The second we flew above the boss's head, I let go and stabbed the Chill of the Nine Provinces right through its skull. Immediately after that, I executed my two strongest melee skills—Burning Blade Slash and Universe Break—and all of my AoE skills that didn’t fall under the melee skill cooldown limitation such as Myriad Swords Obliteration, Rise of the Guardian Dragon and Summon the Storm. Li Chengfeng also executed his Dragonbone Flurry, Reverse Scale Slash, Dragonblade Revolution and more skills at the boss's open wound.

It was chaos. Everyone was dishing out their strongest combos in order to steal the last hit. The boss let out its death throes, and many players howled in despair. It wasn’t until I saw the system announcement that I found out who was the one who killed the precious boss—

Ding~!

Congratulations to player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand" for killing one of the Nine Purgatory Sovereigns, Skullblood the Earth Devourer! They have gained 7 Luck, 1000000 Reputation, 900000 March of Chaos contribution points, and the ultimate treasure Skullblood the Earth Devourer was carrying, the "Dragon Soul Ring (Seventy-two Ghost Armaments, Outstanding★★★★★★★★)"!

……

The boss didn’t drop a Divine Armament of the Twelve, but it did drop a Ghost Armament!

I shivered as a shower of equipment erupted from the boss's head. Although the system announcement claimed that I had gained the Dragon Soul Ring, it was actually still in the air and perfectly claimable by anyone who got to it first. I was falling together with the boss right now, and my only advantage compared to my competitors was that I was the closest person to the loot. It would have to be enough!

I withdrew my sword and watched the shower of equipment closely. An instant later, I spotted a ring shining a brilliant crimson glow. This is it!

Thud!

I was just about to grab the ring when a gust of wind suddenly hit me. It was Vienna’s Sorrow hitting me with a sword aura and pushing me away. I hurriedly canceled my Fusion Armor and leaped onto my dragon’s back, but it was too late. Vienna’s Sorrow was already extending a hand toward the loot.

Thud!

It wasn’t meant to be, however. An arrow hit him at just the right time and paralyzed him. On the ground, Beiming Xue chuckled cheekily as she lowered her bow. "Ohh, look at that rain of equipment!"

There was no way she could grab anything, however. To be more specific, there was no way she could grab any equipment before the tens of thousands of players running in her direction ran her over. So, she did the only thing she could do in this situation—she cast a shameless Well of the Abyss and denied everyone within range from the loot!

However, Well of the Abyss couldn’t affect aerial units. A purple unicorn flashed through the rain of equipment, and it was Breeze and Rain successfully grabbing a leather armor helmet for himself. Before he could be happy though, he abruptly took six hits in rapid succession and nearly died. It was Gui Guzi hitting him with Burning Blade Slash, and Lin Yixin dishing out a three-hit combo. Never one to take risks when the potential loss was greater than the profit, Breeze and Rain activated his invincibility skill and escaped to safety!

……

Lin Yixin and Gui Guzi tried to grab as many items as they could. In fact, they almost bashed each other’s faces in the process despite being allies. Thankfully, our actual enemies such as Red Maple, Beethoven’s Joy and more showed up to divert their attention. Also, Beiming Xue managed to grab metal armor legguards while Well of the Abyss was still active.

"Fuck!"

However, Beiming Xue swore with a pout. "Archean Immortal-grade? What a useless piece of trash!"

Me: "..."

While leaning back on her dragon’s back and swaying her pretty legs a little, Lin Yixin showed off a pair of metal-armor boots with a smirk on her face, "These are Sacred Armament boots, so I’ll count this as a win…"

Gui Guzi said, "The gloves I got are Ancient Immortal-grade. Boss Broken Halberd, did you get the Ghost Armament?"

I opened my hand while the Ancient Divine Dragon hovered in the sky. The crimson ring shining brightly at the center of my palm was one hundred percent the Ghost Armament, Dragon Soul Ring. Then, I brought up its stats screen for everyone to see. While I was still surrounded by enemies, I was pretty sure that an army powerful enough to punch through Lin Yixin, Gui Guzi, He Yi and Li Chengfeng and snatch the Ghost Armament from my hand hadn’t been born yet. So, I leisurely admired the ring while every other top player within the area was salivating at its amazing stats. I bet they wished they were Luffy so that they could snatch the ring from me with a rubber arm—

Dragon Soul Ring (Seventy-two Ghost Armaments, Outstanding★★★★★★★★)

Strength: +2400

Stamina: +2550

Agility: +2450

Intelligence: +2850

Passive: Increases user’s Attack by 115%

Ghost Armament: Dragon Soul Regeneration. Restores 5% of user’s max HP per second.

Passive: Increases user's max HP by 40000

Level Requirement: 230

Reputation Requirement: 1200000

……

I could faint from sheer happiness. I immediately removed my Apparition Ring and put on the Dragon Soul Ring. With these two rings, I shall rule them— [1]

Ding! System Notice: You cannot equip two Ghost Armaments on the ring slot!

My heart shattered like glass into a million pieces. My 5% HP regeneration! If I could equip the Dragon Soul Ring, I could’ve regenerated 200k HP per second, an effect that rivaled even the insane HP regeneration of the Immortal Blade! Even if the Ghost Armament effect didn’t exist, 40k extra HP and 115% Attack were super attractive stats in their own rights. Why did this stupid limitation exist? Dammit…

He Yi noticed my expression and asked me, "What’s wrong? Do you not meet the item requirements?"

I shook my head. "No, no."

"Then why aren’t you equipping it?" Lin Yixin asked.

My tears immediately dripped uncontrollably[2]. "You can only wear one Ghost Armament ring at a time…"

Beiming Xue and Chaos Moon immediately giggled at my misfortune. "That’s fair. If you could, everyone else might as well quit the game right now!"

……

"Now that the boss is dead, we have some time to rest before we move onward toward the next major battle. Wanna log out and grab some lunch?" Lin Yixin suggested with a smile of her own. "It’s my treat this time. Sister Eve, Sister Mingyue and Little Xin should come too. We need to discuss how we should share Little Cheat’s Dragon Soul Ring anyway!"

I muttered emotionlessly, "Why do I feel like I’ve become a victim?"

He Yi giggled. "Yeah, let’s rest. The next leg of our adventure is going to cost us another untold amount of hours after all. Where should we have lunch though?"

Lin Yixin said, "I leave it up to you guys…"

"Let’s go to Juxiange then. I heard that even their cheapest meals there cost 2000 RMB…" Murong Mingyue suggested like a true demoness.

I shrugged. "Sure. It’s not like Yiyi is lacking in money. If you are free, you should join us as well, Beiming. Your university is super close to Suzhou anyway."

Beiming Xue nodded. "Of course."

"Alright, see y’all offline…"

……

After the brief discussion, all the executive-level players of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls logged out of the game. We had earned our pay, and it was time to catch some well-deserved rest. And yes, I was fully aware that the real reason Lin Yixin and He Yi were setting up this lunch was to steal the Dragon Soul Ring from my cold, dead hands, but whatever…

1. T/N: Yes, I took some liberties here. Like the author would know about LOTR back then ☜

2. E/N: DEEJAY LUCHEN, SUFFERING FROM SUCCESS, ANOTHER ONE ☜