Chapter 1456: Solo

"Eraser, Level 310 Sovereign Rank boss, 84,000 Attack, 125,000 Defense…" I muttered to myself while reading the boss's stat screen. “Yes, I see why you guys are having trouble with this boss. Its Defense is too high for your attacks to be effective, and its Attack isn’t bad either. Little Gui, what is your average damage received from the boss?"

Gui Guzi replied from atop his Dark Crystal Dragon, "The boss hits me for around 500k damage per hit, dammit. It has a bullshit axe skill that ignores a certain amount of Defense and dishes out a ton of hits. That one skill can delete more than half of my HP even with the priests healing me at all times. There was also one time it nearly one-shot Chaos Moon."

Chaos Moon stuck her tongue out. "That was an accident, an accident! Anyway, what’s the battle plan?"

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

……

I hummed to myself for a moment before shooting everyone a smile. "Can you fully buff me, Beauty Guanyue? I want to see if I can solo this boss."

"Ah?" Beiming Xue’s mouth fell open. "Are you sure you want to solo a Sovereign Rank boss, big bro? What if you die?"

However, He Yi said, "It’s fine, Beiming. Don’t forget that Lu Chen’s Xuanyuan Sword has evolved, and his Ancient Divine Dragon is now at the Divine Awakening Stage. He also has 3 Ghost Armaments.[1] Theoretically speaking, he should be able to go toe-to-toe with a Sovereign Rank boss…"

Li Chengfeng also nodded in agreement. "Yes, this is a good chance for Lu Chen to test his mettle. Lin Na dragged Xinran into the Purgatory, and Lu Chen is going to go after her alone. He’ll surely encounter plenty of Sovereign Rank bosses during his journey. If he cannot even solo this boss, then he may as well give up now."

"Chengfeng is right…"

I nodded. "Please leave this boss to me, everyone. In exchange, you can have all of the loot as compensation."

"Okay!"

Very soon, Pure Love began playing the Seven-string Yaoqin and applying her buffs on me. I also used an Undying Berserker Card and activated my Famous General Skill, Martial God. My HP was now 3.4 times higher than it was originally, or 9.81 million HP in total. If Lu Buyi was here, then Purple Dragon could’ve boosted it even higher to 13 million HP. I could declare with confidence that there was absolutely no one who could beat my stats right now. The Ancient Divine Dragon’s 1 million HP boost was just that good!

……

I gave my sword a tentative wave, planted my feet on a patch of grass, and Charged straight toward the boss. However, instead of dashing across the ground like normal, my body shot into the air and stayed there thanks to my character’s Flight attribute. It was like a passive ability that was inherent to my character, like a stat. A trail of ripples followed me as I sailed over the blood pool and, to my own surprise, stunned the boss. Even better, its Defense dropped by a whopping 35.7% when I stabbed it in the throat and used Purple Frost Concentration. It was most likely because I was a ninth-promotion player now. All of my hidden stats and effects such as stun rates, skill effectiveness rates and more had been massively increased!

"Roar roar…"

Eraser’s face twisted into an ugly visage as it roared in pain. It then waved its axe and sneered disdainfully at me, "You dare challenge me, lowly brat? Prepare to die! I shall deliver you to hell myself!"

I smiled back. "Oh really? Please do that! I just so happen to be looking for a way to get there!"

Eraser roared again as a fiery cone much like Barrier Break suddenly erupted from its axe blade. It was the five-hit armor-piercing skill Gui Guzi had warned me about earlier! Despite my attempts to parry the attack, the skill went through like my sword didn’t exist and struck me squarely on the Guardian Dragon Armor five times in succession. It was basically a superior version of the players’ Barrier Break—

221,736!

212,335!

231,994!

MISS!

213,889!

Eraser’s attack was fierce, but it failed to delete even 10% of my HP. Seemingly infuriated by its own pathetic damage, it summoned a sinister tiger head appeared on its blade and roared, "Die!"

It was none other than Warsky’s signature skill, Cyan Tiger Shatter!

Bang!

I was driven back a few steps while a scorching pain ravaged my shoulder. The attack had dealt 1,193,735 damage to me, meaning that I would’ve received almost 2.4 million damage if I didn’t have the Cloak of Divine Fervor. Tsk tsk, as expected of a Sovereign Rank boss!

It was my turn to attack. I swung the Xuanyuan Sword and executed Universe Break + Burning Blade Slash four-hit combo. Metallic sparks erupted from the boss's metal armor, and it lost a ton of HP rapidly. The boss was simply incapable of withstanding my superior Attack—

897,554!

472,762!

572,626!

712,989!

That wasn’t all. Besides dishing out an incredible amount of damage, the Xuanyuan Sword further displayed its superiority by converting 50% of my damage dealt as HP. Let’s just say that I would be cussing up a storm if I had to fight myself—

+448,777!

+236,381!

+286,313!

+356,494!

……

Behind me, my guildies were so stunned by my power that they nearly forgot to breathe—

Gui Guzi murmured, "Incredible… Boss Broken Halberd is going toe to toe with a Sovereign Rank boss…"

Chaos Moon shook her head. "Toe to toe? No, he is clearly superior to the boss…"

Li Chengfeng chuckled. "Lu Chen’s current stats are absolutely OP. Not only does he have high HP and Defense, the 50% lifesteal of his Xuanyuan Sword is absolutely broken. No wonder the Xuanyuan Sword is the greatest weapon of the Twelve Divine Armaments!"

Murong Mingyue puffed up her chest and said proudly, "But of course. He is Lu Chen after all…"

He Yi was smiling with pride as well. After all, I was both Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ and hers.

……

When the boss's HP dropped to 50% or so, everyone immediately backed away from it. As expected, Eraser began using its long cooldown ultimate, Freezing Point Erasure and dealt indiscriminate damage to everything within a hundred yards of it. I stayed where I was and continued hitting the boss, however. The ultimate dealt around 500k damage per hit, and I could easily recoup that much HP with just one critical hit. I easily survived the ultimate without ever dropping below 75% HP!

Of course, the main reason I was able to face-tank the boss was because Pure Love had buffed my stats by 240%. Otherwise, I would still have to rely on my combat techniques and skills to defeat it.

Less than twenty minutes later, the boss's HP finally hit rock bottom!

Before landing the last hit, I made sure to scan my surroundings with Dark Pupils just in case there were assassins waiting to killsteal the boss. On my 11th strike, the septuple damage effect of the Xuanyuan Sword triggered and easily one-shot the boss's final sliver of HP. I was very happy with this outcome, of course. After the Chill of the Nine Provinces had evolved into the Xuanyuan Sword, the septuple damage effect trigger rate had jumped from 5% to 15%. It made my DPS so much higher than before.

Pop pop pop…

As the boss collapsed face first into the blood pool, I grabbed all the magic stones, gemstones, equipment, skill book and more before flying back to my friends. I landed lightly in front of He Yi before throwing all the loot into He Yi’s hands. "Here. I said I wouldn’t be taking the loot after all. That being said, if there is a Ghost Armament here that I can use, then please consider trading it to me. Ghost Armaments are the only thing I’m lacking right now…"

He Yi let out a chuckle and scanned the loot once. "Unfortunately, there are no Ghost Armaments…"

"That’s fine. I should’ve known that Ghost Armaments wouldn’t drop that easily…"

……

The gang began distributing the loot. Although the boss hadn’t dropped a Ghost Armament, my 139 points of Luck still got us 3 pieces of Ancient Immortal-grade equipment and 2 Lower Divine Armaments. The Ancient Immortal-grade items were one sword-type weapon called the Silver Moon Blade, one Ancient Immortal-grade helmet, and one Ancient Immortal-grade bracelet. The sword went to Chaos Moon, the helmet went to Tiger Leopard Knight, and the bracelet went to He Yi herself. It added a lot of Attack and max HP. As for the Lower Divine Armaments, both the Level 235 legguards and the necklace that added 18% lifesteal went to Li Chengfeng.

Li Chengfeng’s stats jumped a lot after he acquired the Lower Divine Armaments. He asked me with a wide smile on his face, "My base HP is 1.4 million now. How much base HP do you have, Lu Chen?"

I answered, "2.23!"

"God damn!"

For a few seconds, Li Chengfeng looked at Pure Love like he wanted to say something. Then, he looked at me and said, "Lu Chen, I still don’t think you should go to the Purgatory alone. After all, we have no idea what is in the Purgatory or even what death penalties there are there. Just say the word, and we will gladly follow you to the ends of the world!"

I nodded. "I understand, and I’m truly thankful for your offer, but the reason I’m going to the Purgatory is purely selfish. I cannot possibly drag you all along with me. Moreover, I already told you about the winds of Purgatory. Any player who isn’t a god is sure to suffer a huge amount of damage. That is why I must go alone."

"At least bring Guanyue with you[2]," Gui Guzi suggested. "We’ll all feel much better about your chances if you have her buffs."

Pure Love blinked cutely before shooting me a smile. "Please allow me to accompany you to the Purgatory, handsome. It’s a desolate and uninhabited place. If you want to do a little something there to me, no one will ever know or stop you…"

I just barely suppressed a grimace. "No thank you. The last thing I want is for the Seven-string Yaoqin to drop in the Purgatory. If we both die, then we won’t even be able to retrieve it. There are only so many of the Twelve Divine Armaments in the game, and we absolutely cannot lose one over something so trivial. Moreover, the ultimate dream is to gather all Twelve Divine Armaments and…"

He Yi rolled her eyes. "... summon the Shenlong to make a wish?"

I closed my eyes and said, "Yes. If that’s a thing, I would wish that Xinran could break out safely from the Purgatory…"

Beiming Xue walked up to me and held my hand. "Don’t worry, big bro. Xinran is extremely powerful. You saw how she managed to punch a hole in his chest and drag him back to the Purgatory even after he had absorbed the Great Saint’s power. He definitely won’t have the power to hurt Xinran afterward…"

I sucked in a deep breath before replying, "Yes, I hope so… Eve, can you check what that skill book is so we can officially pack it and get back to our respective businesses?"

He Yi shot it a glance and answered, "It’s called Jump Slash, a Level 220 fighter-type offensive skill book. It allows the user to jump a far distance and deal 150% damage to all targets. Do you want it?"

I shook my head. "Nah. A fighter can only execute 2 melee skills at most per 6 seconds, and I already have Burning Blade Slash and Universe Break. Anything else would just be a waste. We may as well use it to strengthen someone else…"

"Mn!"

In the end, High Fighting Spirits was the proud winner of one Jump Slash. That was good because High Fighting Spirits only ever used two skills, and they were Whirlwind Slash and Xiezhi Howl. He would finally have some variety in his repertoire!

1. E/N: Yeah, mention everything by name, except the only thing that gives him that confidence, the damn cloak with 50% damage reduction. Someone might say “Oh, Gui Guzi has that passively”. Yes, and no. He has 50% damage reduction IF he survives the skill. ☜

2. E/N: For eff’s sake. Which part of “winds of Purgatory, isn’t a god, huge damage” did you not understand? ☜