Chapter 1428: Prince Tomb

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh!

Light enveloped my body again and again as Pure Love cast her buffs. The Seven-string Yaoqin was an incredible weapon that allowed her to buff my Defense, HP and Attack by 240%. I felt so full of power that even my Chill of the Nine Provinces was trembling in response. Beside me, Xu Yang said enviously, "Damn, you’re looking good, bro! I asked Guanyue to give me a full buff earlier, and my stats were almost as good as Li’s. We’re truly blessed to have a bard with one of the Twelve Divine Armaments. By the way, what are the full buffs for, Lu Chen? Are you on a mission to run through Breeze and Rain, Vienna’s Sorrow and God of War or something?"

I snorted. "You must be joking, brother. I can beat those people even without such amazing buffs. I’m just preparing for the inevitable boss fight. This map is the map before the heart of Sainthelm Ruins, and there’s every reason to believe that there might be a bullshit boss waiting for us somewhere amid this god-forsaken snow. Anyway, make sure you’re prepared to die, brother. If your expectations are low, then you won’t be disappointed when it actually happens…"

Xu Yang shrugged. "I’ve resolved myself to death since the moment I stepped into the very first map, bro!"

I gave him a thumbs-up. "That just shows how strong your mental fortitude is, bro!"

"But of course, bro!" Xu Yang laughed.

Finally, He Yi couldn’t stand the sight of her elders bullshitting to each other any longer and said, "Less boasting, more grinding. Seriously, where do you guys get your shamelessness from…"

Xu Yang and I laughed one last time before getting serious.

I extended a hand to Pure Love and said, "Come, I’ll ride the Ancient Divine Dragon normally with you. This way, Farewell Song won’t be able to instakill you or something…"

"Mn mn!"

Guanyue leaped onto the Ancient Divine Dragon’s back and sat behind me. She then placed the Seven-string Yaoqin on one thigh and grabbed the lantern vine with her free hand. I sat closer to the front so I could swing my weapon at the enemy. Obviously, it was easier to fight without a passenger, but Guanyue’s presence wasn’t going to affect my performance too much.

……

Swhoosh!

I Charged straight into a group of mobs and began the grind!

Pure Love wasn’t anticipating the momentum behind my Charge[1], so she fell forward and accidentally pressed her breasts up against my back. She immediately let out an embarrassed giggle before saying, "You must’ve done this on purpose, Lu Chen! Does this dragon have a ‘benefit’ mode or something? Why is it holding up its butt so high? I have no choice but to press up against you…"

I shook my head before dialing up the hardness sensitivity of my Guardian Dragon Armor so I wouldn’t feel her breasts [2]. Then, I warned, "Make sure you hold tight to the lantern vine next to you, okay? I can’t help it when I’m fighting mobs, so you’re all that stands between you and falling off. If you’re going to hitch a ride, then remember to put on the safety belts!"

Pure Love giggled again. "I know!"

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

……

The fighting strength of the necropolis mobs were pretty high. They were all basically Level 310 fiend-rank mobs or higher. One such group—they were a bunch of frozen, screeching skeletons—was dragging their tattered bodies and pouncing toward us at this very moment.

"That’s a Frozen Bone Skeletal Devil, a Level 311 fiend-rank mob. It has a skill that allows it to ignore 11% of its target’s Defense!" Pure Love looked up the enemy’s data and reported dutifully. However…

Boom boom boom!

Three flaming auras, one Myriad Swords Obliteration and one War Crush later, the group of dozens dropped dead before they even got the chance to hit me. I looked back at Pure Love and chuckled. "I’m sorry? Ignores 11% of what?"

Guanyue was speechless for a moment. "OMG, just how much Attack do you have? This is…"

She pretended to be embarrassed again and hugged her chest. "This is amazing, dear! My experience actually jumped by 1% after that! Keep going, dear, don’t stop on my account…"

Me: "..."

Lian Xin and Beiming Xue were at my party. When they heard this, they said with almost perfect unison, "Sister Eve, someone’s seducing big bro again…"

He Yi replied calmly while dishing out Stormwind Slash, "It’s fine, I got used to it already…"

Lian Xin shook her head helplessly before dropping two Dimensional Storms on a group of Frozen Bone Skeletal Devils. Soul Shocker Bell increased her damage dealt by 100%, so it looked like she was critting non-stop—

790,984!

813,662!

821,540!

……

In the party channel, Murong Mingyue said in a dumbfounded voice, "OMG, Little Xin’s magic damage is literally unrivaled right now. Even Luo River God of the Capital can only hit a Frozen Bone Skeletal Devil for over 300k damage. Your DPS is literally more than twice of hers. Uwah, this experience gain is seriously amazing…"

I said smilingly, "But of course. Little Xin’s Magic Attack is really almost the same as Wang Luo’s, but Dimensional Storm is stronger than your average magic spell, and Soul Shocker Bell doubles her damage dealt. This is just the natural outcome. Also, the Soul Shocker Bell is a Ghost Armament; an item that’s only inferior to the Twelve Divine Armaments. It makes sense that it would give her this much damage…"

Guanyue said, "Speaking of ridiculously OP Ghost Armaments, you have two of them, right Lu Chen? The Flying Dragon Wristguards and the Song of Freedom…"

"Yep." I nodded.

"You’d better watch your back then! Countless people will be aiming for your treasures!" Guanyue giggled.

I replied in a casual tone, "It’s okay. In fact, I welcome them to try. With my current power level, it takes a very powerful or very stupid group of people to even have a chance to rob me of my equipment. If my Resurrection Art functioned on this map, I would declare myself the king of this hill already. If anything, you’re the one who should be taking your own advice, Guanyue. You’re just a bard with the Seven-string Yaoqin…"

Guanyue stuck out her tongue cutely. "Bully. If you weren’t so cute and lovable…"

He Yi finally said, "Can you… not seduce Lu Chen and focus on grinding please? He’s my man…"

Guanyue: "Er, of course, guild leader. By the way, you didn’t remove my vice corps commander when I wasn’t looking, right?"

He Yi: "..."

……

I progressed deeper and deeper into the necropolis as more Frozen Bone Skeletal Devils fell to the ground. I also got to absorb tons of undead soul sparks and strengthen my undead power even further. It was an amazing feeling to say the least. I was now only 13% away from becoming an Asura God after absorbing Coldblade and Thunder’s undead soul sparks. I wondered what kind of benefit I would get from that realm?

I didn’t use Death Plunder on every Frozen Bone Skeletal Devil I killed though. There were just too many of them, and my thought process was simple. If my 120+ Luck isn’t enough to drop everything there is to drop from the Frozen Bone Skeletal Devil, it simply means that the mob has nothing to drop in the first place. This was one of the reasons I didn’t use Death Plunder very often. Not only was it a waste of time, it was a waste of my precious feelings as well.

We soon entered the heart of the necropolis. Speaking of which, all the Dragonlight Cavalry who were fighting with us earlier had left us because, "Ugh, the guild leader and vice leaders are just too powerful! They’re killing everything in the area and leaving nothing behind! We need to find another spot to grind, or we won’t get to kill a single mob!"

Obviously, the heart of the necropolis lay in the deepest tomb, so that was where we went.

I looked up and read the epitaph above the tomb entrance. It was written in Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy style—

Epitaph of Prince Hongming of the Great Wei

……

"Pooh!"

I snorted. "Whoever designed this is absolutely shameless. It’s even using the Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy style[3]…"

He Yi said while carrying the Suppressing Fire Sword, "Take the lead, Lu Chen. We’re heading down there to check if there’s a boss or something."

Guanyue asked, "Can we really beat the boss with just the few of us?"

"Of course we can. With Lu Chen and your buffs, not even an Ancient Immortal Rank boss can pressure us too much…" He Yi declared confidently.

I nodded. He Yi was completely correct. With my current stats and Murong Mingyue’s healing, I could facetank even an Ancient Immortal Rank boss without much trouble.

I slowly moved my dragon deeper into the tomb. The rainbow clouds beneath its body brought just a bit of cheeriness into the gloomy place. At the same time, I lit up the place with my Chill of the Nine Provinces and spotted a sizable amount of Frozen Bone Skeletal Devils in the area. After we had taken them all out, we went to the center chamber where a huge golden door was barring our way.

"Can it be opened?" He Yi asked.

I grabbed the handle and gave it both a pull and a push. "No, I think it’s locked from the inside. Did anyone happen to pick up a key on the way?"

Lian Xin asked jokingly, "Should we call the lock picker from downstairs to help out?"

I snorted a little before raising my sword. "Nah. If the master’s too sleepy to welcome us, then we’ll just make our own way!"

……

Chiang!

After my blade cut through the door bolt, I kicked open the door and was immediately greeted by the disgusting stench of rot. Judging from the amount of jewelry and treasures adorning the chamber, it was definitely the tomb of a prince.

"Watch out! Guards!" He Yi pointed to the front.

It was as she said. Four horrible-looking monsters with green hair all over their body were slowly rising to their feet right next to a black coffin. They were Level 312 Ancient Immortal Rank minibosses called the Green-haired Zombie Guards.

"How should we fight this?" He Yi asked.

I answered, "It would be nice if we could pull the zombies over one by one and kill them, but they’re too close to one another. This is the plan. I’m going to aggro them over with a Dragon Slaying Slash. Eve will tank one, I’ll use God Binding Art on the second, and Beiming Xue will Shock Arrow the third. Then, we’ll all switch our focus on the fourth miniboss and focus on taking it out first. Level 311 minibosses have very high Attack, and we only have sis and Guanyue as our healers. There’s a high chance they won’t be able to keep up with us if we go too gungho."

However, Guanyue raised her yaoqin and declared confidently, "Don’t worry, the Seven-string Yaoqin added at least tens of thousands of base healing power to my existing stats. I’m a pretty powerful healer now…"

"Mn!"

I fired a Dragon Slaying Slash at one of the Green-haired Zombie Guards. The undead immediately howled in anger, "Who dares to invade the prince’s resting place? Surrender your lives, dogs!"

I backed away and fired Burning Blade Slash at the mob. After immobilizing one of the mobs with God Binding Art, I dropped a couple of Icy Cyclone Domains and tanked a five-hit slash from the closest miniboss with the Cyan Dragon Shield. The skill only dealt 400k damage or so and filled me with confidence. I was starting to outgrow even Ancient Immortal Rank enemies now.

1. E/N: Yes, the sudden acceleration should make her fall BACK. I guess she had no problems bearing the acceleration, and fell forward when decelerating? ☜

2. T/N: oh damn, that’s actually a neat mechanic. Also explains why he can feel the girls’ body through his armor before… ☜

3. T/N: I have no idea what the hell this means, but I think it’s probably related to plagiarism? ☜