Chapter 1419: The Great War Approaches The End

I caressed the smooth lines of the chest armor while checking out the other three pieces of equipment. They were the wristguards, the helmet and the boots of the Fire Qilin set. Since I owned more than two of the equipment pieces, I was granted the ability to view its set effects. What I saw made me certain that the Fire Qilin set was going to be the new wet dream for all late-game heavy-armor class players. One full set was enough to transform a pleb into a star-level player instantly—

Fire Qilin Equipment Set:

1 piece: None.

2 pieces: Increases user's Defense by 120%

3 pieces: Increases user's max HP by 240,000

4 pieces: Increases user's Attack by 195%, and attack speed by 50%

5 pieces: Fire Qilin Oath. Summon the power of Fire Qilins. When attacking, 20% chance to trigger Fire Qilin Flame Strike and deal massive damage to all targets within a certain area.

……

The Fire Qilin set was an all-rounder—which was great—but what I really valued was the fact that it boosted all four basic attributes. This meant that any player wearing this set would have a significant amount of Intelligence. These days, cavalrymen weren’t afraid of an archer’s arrows, a priest’s curses, or even a mage’s Galaxy Storms. But God Devil Break? A skill that ignored all of your resistances and dealt fixed damage based on Intelligence difference was the bane of all cavalrymen. A high-level mage could absolutely deal over 500k damage to another metal-armor player of the same level. For that reason, many metal-armor players were traumatized by the experience that they started gathering equipment that boosted Intelligence and changed into them mid-battle to survive God Devil Break bombardment.

In this game, it took only one action to change one’s equipment. However, changing equipment mid-battle wasn’t without its flaws. For one, it wasn’t an instantaneous action. Two, the player’s HP, Attack and more would most likely become weaker and not something you would want to wear for an extended amount of time. That was why a powerful all-rounder equipment like the Fire Qilin set was the perfect choice for elite cavalrymen at this stage of the game.

My body became filled with righteous purpose. I now knew that I must kill as many Fire Qilins as possible, drop these Fire Qilin sets with my super high Luck, and equip our best Dragonlight Cavalrymen with them. Only by strengthening our players could we remain undefeated at the top of the world!

He Yi was the first person to notice my odd behavior. "Lu Chen? What did you pick up?"

I smiled and shared the Fire Qilin set’s stats screen in the guild channel. It immediately started an excited conversation—

Xu Yang: "Hot damn! What amazing stats! Are these dropped from the Undead Qilins?"

Me: "Yep. The drop rate isn’t too high, but I’m pretty sure we can collect eight or ten complete sets by the end of this wave."

Li Chengfeng: "Hell yeah! Though… I already have two Sacred Armaments. I don’t think I’ll be able to wear this Fire Qilin set…"

He Yi: "Yeah, anyone who already has Sacred Armaments or Ancient Immortal-grade equipment should leave the Fire Qilin equipment set to the others. How do you want to distribute this, Lu Chen?"

I thought for a moment before answering, "I’ll give you a specific answer when this wave is over, but for now the plan is to put them all in the guild warehouse and let our best players buy them with their guild contribution points. We need at least ten sets so that we can have a small squad of Dragonlight Cavalry who all wear the Fire Qilin equipment set. They’ll be almost unstoppable when they’re buffed by Knight God, hehe! Oh right, remember to pass all the equipment pieces you drop to me. I’ll keep them safe until the event is over."

Heaven’s Rain: "I’m reserving a set, vice leader big bro…"

Me: "Heaven’s Rain! I thought both you and Diamond Dust were dead? Are you back yet? How much longer will it take you to reach Crossroads Valley? Our situation is pretty dire right now. We can use your reinforcements as soon as possible."

Heaven’s Rain: "We’re still about 20 minutes away from you. Hang on until we get there, okay? 70k Dragonlight Cavalry is coming to your rescue! The priests and mages are on the way too, but it’ll probably take them another 2 to 3 hours to reach Crossroads Valley. By then, the monster attack will probably be over. Oh right, is Thunder dead yet? That boss is so scary…"

"Unfortunately, no. The NPC legions are still decreasing his HP, and we’re holding back the seventh wave mobs. Anyway, talk to you later. When you arrive, send us a message, and we’ll set out and… Actually, we don’t have enough people to receive you, so you’ll have to fight your way in with the Dragonlight Cavalry. Think you can do that, Little Rain?"

"I will. Let’s all do our best!"

……

I turned off the chat interface and returned my focus on the sea of Fire Qilins around me. While withstanding the pain of being burned alive by their Ancient Divine Flame Shields, I swung my Chill of the Nine Provinces and patiently deleted the mobs’ HP little by little.

Meanwhile, lightning strikes were still hitting Crossroads Valley Fortress with a frequency that could only be unnatural. Thunder was still fighting the NPC legions, and both Karinshan and Sophie were dispatching more and more elites to kill him. It was clear that both queens had resolved themselves to bury Thunder in the barren lands of Crossroads Valley one way or another. Karinshan especially wouldn’t be satisfied until her trusted commander, Stark, was finally avenged!

On the west side of Crossroads Valley Fortress, a dozen or so gigantic hurricanes were ripping the Northern Alliance’s defense line to shreds right now. Players, pets, NPCs; no one was safe from the tarot that was Coldblade the Infinite Storm. His attacks seemed greater than even Thunder, and as the final boss Coldblade was much more cunning than Thunder was. It was just as Xinran said a long time ago. Coldblade was incredibly cunning and difficult to kill. There were many times the Purgatory Sovereign had pulled off a surprise escape before she could kill him.

"Damn!"

Gui Guzi glanced toward the west after killing a Fire Qilin. His face looked bright and bloodied under the lightning storm. "Who would’ve thought that two Purgatory Sovereigns would show up on the battlefield at the same time? Man, if Lin Na shows up as well, then it will truly be a riot. I wonder who will get the last hit on the final boss?"

Li Chengfeng said, "You mean, who will SURVIVE the final boss when this is all over. This fight has long since gone out of us players’ hands. Lu Chen’s stats are out of the world, and he still cannot withstand one full-powered strike from Thunder. Coldblade? That guy can probably wipe the floor with all of us single-handedly…"

I said, "None of that is our concern right now. We’ll think on it after we take out the undead qilins in front of us!"

"Yeah!"

……

New undead qilins were continuously spawned on the mountains. Officially, these vile beasts were teleported over directly from the Purgatory. Every time we took out a group of Fire Qilins, another new group would appear on the mountaintops and run toward us. As a result, over 10,000 Fire Qilins were engaging the eastern battle line at all times. It was a most bloody and depearte affair. The painful groans of the players and the angry roars of the Fire Qilins mixed together constantly. Countless people died to their Flame Spits nearly every second, though the number of Fire Qilins was slowly but steadily decreasing as well.

Twenty minutes later, we suddenly heard a stampede of hooves from somewhere. It was our reinforcements finally arriving to rescue us. Heaven’s Rain and over 60k Dragonlight Cavalrymen had managed to break through the valley entrance and reached our formation in short order. They cooperated with the original defenders and cut down at least a couple hundred Fire Qilins before they fully entered our formation. Heaven’s Rain wiped away some blood stain on her face before beaming at me, "We have arrived, big brother Lu Chen. 61k+ Dragonlight Cavalrymen at your service…"

I asked, "Little Rain, I thought you said 70k earlier…"

Heaven’s Rain stuck out her tongue at me. "We were attacked by the mobs and the Northern Alliance on the way, so. It’s not a one-sided loss though. We took out at least 10,000 Iron Cutter Cavalrymen during the breakthrough…"

I laughed. "Well done! Now, let’s continue defending our formation. More Fire Qilins are spawning, and it won’t take them long to reach us!"

"Mn!"

……

The pressure on our shoulders lessened tremendously after reinforcements had arrived. We were now 64k Dragonlight Cavalrymen strong, and we could lose 20k or even 30k troops and still be the dominant force on this entire battlefield because the Dragonlight Cavalry was the champion of all cavalries on Heavenblessed. On a related note, it took another 30 minutes before the 70k Gold Cavalrymen Warsky Alliance had lost earlier finally made it back to their formation. Moreover, they had lost almost 20k troops on the way due to the Fire Qilins’ assault. Both Warsky and October Rain were exasperated with this outcome, but some reinforcements were better than no reinforcements at all.

For 50 minutes, we ran and fought and ran and fought and ran. We had to pay a huge price to kill the Fire Qilins, but at least we were able to save our formation. A ton of equipment was mixed among the sea of Fire Qilin bodies, especially the area about 30 yards away from the battle line where I was fighting. At some point, I was literally knee-deep in dead mob bodies, magic stones and equipment.

I didn’t take any loot besides the Fire Qilin equipment set, and I definitely didn’t claim pieces of the Fire Qilin set that had been dropped by my Dragonlight Cavalrymen and Archers. For one, I had no right to their loot as a matter of course, and two, their Luck was so low that it was a minor miracle every time they dropped a Fire Qilin set piece anyway. After over an hour of non-stop fighting, I was almost out of consumables, and my Guardian Dragon Armor, Chill of the Nine Provinces and Cyan Dragon Shield only had 15% durability or so. It was worth it though. I had 15 full Fire Qilin sets in my bag, and a couple of individual pieces.

……

It was at this moment Lin Yixin appeared to our formation with Purple Spirit Sword that looked like it was about to fold up on its own in her grip. She shot me a smile and asked, "So? How many Fire Qillin sets did you manage to gather?"

I chuckled. "You first."

Lin Yixin had pretty high Luck too. She lifted five fingers and answered, "Snowy Cathaya managed to gather 5 full sets in total. And you?"

I took a look in my bag before answering, "I’ve got 15 full sets and many more individual pieces…"

"OMG!" her jaw hit the floor. "I know you have double my Luck, but 15 full sets and many individual pieces? That’s more than 3 times what I got! Uu, this is so unfair…"

He Yi slowly walked up to me and asked, "What else do we lack?"

I checked my bag again before answering, "We’re 5 chest armors, 4 helmets, 3 pairs of wristguards and 1 pair of boots away from 20 full sets!"

"Alright!"

He Yi said with a dimpled smile, "I’m leaving to buy the pieces you need then. Let’s gather 20 full Fire Qilin sets and create 20 top-tier cavalrymen for Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!"

"Mn mn!"

……

Less than 5 minutes later, He Yi traded the 13 individual equipment pieces I needed to complete 20 Fire Qilin sets. In total, I had 100 pieces of an amazing set in my bag. What a wonderful feeling!

Boom!

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning erupted from the fortress’s direction and broke me out of my reverie. It was Thunder’s skill.

I gripped my Chill of the Nine Provinces tightly and parted the crowd. "Alright, Thunder only has 3% HP left. We’ll join the battle at the last moment and take him out. If we don’t engage the boss at all, it’s possible that the system won’t reward us anything. You don’t want that, do you?"

"Yeah. Let’s go!"

Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi and everyone else looked eager as well.