Chapter 450: Seven Stars

Translator: alyschu

OMG, Gui Guzi became a Famous General? Knight God?

The skill boosted Attack and Defense by 50%, and if I were to add Tactics into the mix—assuming average Tactics stat for all elite players was around 100 or so—it was a whopping 100% boost to Attack and Defense!

Gui Guzi’s famous General Skill was absolutely OP. 100% Attack was OP enough, but this skill boosted Defense by 100% as well, tsk tsk! I was absolutely sure that Knight God would play a huge role during the upcoming guild wars and nation wars. Riders already had crazy high stats after they equipped mounts, and now Knight God was going to double that number. Mere mortals couldn’t stop him anymore.

......

Meanwhile, the guild channel was brimming with happiness—

Xu Yang: "Hahaha, this is awesome! 50% boost to two stats? I can’t believe Little Gui learned such an OP skill! Hahaha! Once the rest of us foot soldiers hit Level 150 and gain a mount slot, we’re gonna kill some people and pillage some settlements with Little Gui as the party leader!"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun: "That’s right, Little Gui’s Famous General Skill is seriously OP. Dude, don’t forget to take us out after I’m qualified to ride an Earth Lizard!"

Chaos Moon: "Hehe, this is nice. From now on, our knights can grind with just Health Recovery and War God Recovery. That frees up our priests considerably..."

He Yi: "Do your best, Gui Guzi!"

Murong Mingyue: "Hehe, I knew that the return of Bloody Mercenaries would push the wheels of history. Who would’ve thought that three of the five members who joined us back then would become Famous Generals? Just unbelievable!"

Me: "Little Gui, from now on you should grind with riders exclusively. In the future, we expect you to become the corps commander of the guild’s cavalry..."

Gui Guzi laughed loudly. "No problem! Thanks for the praise, everyone! I promise I’ll do my best!"

......

I was pleased. Gui Guzi’s new Famous General Skill was without a doubt a huge boon to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. The fact that it boosted mounted units by 50% meant that it was at least at the same level as Beiming Xue’s Bow God. Even more surprising was the fact that he learned a Famous General Skill before Li Chengfeng. What a lucky guy.

I continued to raid the mobs with my dark knights until the surroundings of my territory were cleared out completely. Well, that was only natural. Mobs and resources weren’t infinite, and I had gathered almost everything I could gather for the day. It would be a while before they respawned again.

I returned to the territory and checked the resources. Each resource was sitting at thirty thousand or so, and that was enough to build a lot of things.

First, I should check the territory’s development. Hmm, I guess we’re only lacking a teleportation formation now—

Dark Moon City

Level: Rank 2 Undead Castle

Gold Production: 80 per hour

Wood Production: 70 per hour

Stone production: 80 per hour

Crystal Production: 80 per hour

Dark Insects: 31

Buildings: 9

Troops: 121 (30x Skeletal Spearman, 50x Zombie, 40x Dark Knight)

Wall Durability: 200

Teleportation Formations: 0

......

It was very average. I should recruit even more Dark Insects to maximize my production capacity. However, that must happen after the teleportation formation is built.

I opened the construction window and noted that there was now the option to build a teleportation formation. However, it cost 20k resources across the board. What a gold sink. The good news was I had enough to build a teleportation formation since I had been slaving away the entire morning.

I chose "Confirm"!

After spending most of my accumulated resources on the teleportation formation, I summoned 100 Dark Insects in one go. Resources obtained had to be converted into production for even more resources. While a lot of resource mobs had spawned outside the territory for the past couple of days, it was hardly a consistent thing. And without resource mobs, the only way to farm resources was through production.

I logged off and gobbled down a packed lunch quickly. Then, I went back online and continued killing the mobs around the territory with my Dark Knights.

......

It was a little past 3 pm when a system announcement dinged across the map—

Ding~!

System Announcement: Player "Beauty At First Sight (Sky City)" has successfully defeated the Dark Gold Rank Boss, One-horned Devil, and reached Level 109. They have also met the criteria to become a Famous General and become the twelfth Famous General of China! They have gained Luck +1, Tactics +1, and the exclusive Famous General Skill, "Seven Stars"!

Seven Stars: Increases allies Attack by 20% and reduces enemy’s stratagem’s effectiveness by 20%. Skill effect depends on the player’s Tactics.

......

Looks like Lin Yixin gained yet another powerful general, tsk tsk! If the holy bard didn’t count as the best bard in China before, she definitely did now. This Seven Stars skill didn’t sound bad at all. Not only did it increase her allies’ Attack by 20%, it also reduced the opponent’s stratagem effectiveness by 20%. It was a classic PvP Famous General Skill!

I sighed quietly. Even Snowy Cathaya’s growing in numbers of both foot soldiers and generals, huh? I bet Lin Yixin is plotting something.

As if planned beforehand, another system announcement dinged across the sky—

Ding~!

System Announcement: Player "Transient Smoke and Clouds (Wind City)" has successfully defeated the Dark Gold Rank Boss, Thunder Hyena, and reached Level 110. They have also met the criteria to become a Famous General and become the thirteenth Famous General of China! They have gained Luck +1, Tactics +1, and an exclusive Famous General Skill, "Dissension"!

Dissension: 40% chance to immobilize a target for 30 seconds. Duration of the effect is tied to the player’s Tactics.

......

"Hahaha..."

I couldn’t help but hug my stomach and laugh. Should Candlelight Shadow cry or laugh in this situation? Candle Dragon finally gained their second Famous General, but the Famous General Skill was named "Dissension"! The name alone was humiliating enough, but the actual effects were even worse! Everyone else’s Famous General Skill buffed their allies en masse, but this Dissension could only make a single player stop moving. Sure, it was downright broken in a 1v1 scenario, but what does one player matter in a large-scale battle?

Candle Dragon must be crying a waterfall right now. Transient Smoke and Clouds was one of their best generals, but his Famous General Skill was situational at best. Worse, each player could only have one Famous General Skill. I wonder if Candlelight Shadow is having suicidal thoughts right now?

......

I roamed around the edges of the territory. It wasn’t long before I realized that I had more or less taken out all the resource mobs there were. Suddenly, I received a message from Lin Yixin: "Hey, did you check out Candle Dragon’s new Famous General yet? Hohoho~"

I could literally imagine the devious smile on her face right now. "Congratulations. Beauty At First Sight’s new Famous General Skill should be a huge boost to Snowy Cathaya’s strength..."

"Hehe, thank you~ thank you~"

"Oh right, Yiyi, what are you doing right now?"

"Clearing a map, killing a boss, why?"

"What level is it?"

"It’s a Level 135 Purple Gold Rank boss. Seriously, what’s wrong?"

"Nothing, just asking. Do your best and level up soon..."

"Hmph hmph, I know!"

......

Because she died during the territory war, Lin Yixin dropped to the 5th place on the Heavenly Ranking and was now at Level 111. However, I was sure that she would make a comeback to the Top 3 without any problem whatsoever. After all, even Beiming Xue, the second player on the Heavenly Ranking was only Level 112, so it should be no effort for her to catch up whatsoever.

The ding of a system notice entered my ears at this moment. It was the beep that signaled the completion of the teleportation formation!

I ran back to the territory excitedly, but I quickly discovered that all the connectable teleportation points cost a wicked amount of money—

Sky City: 50000 Gold

Wind City: 100000 Gold

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Vanished God City: 100000 Gold

Violet City: 70000 Gold

......

Floating Ice City was in the list of connectable teleportation points as well, but that was unnecessary. In fact, the only city I wanted to connect to was Sky City. It was because I wanted to charge the players for the service of teleporting directly to the foot of Dragonbone Mountain Range. It was a win-win for both the customer and the service provider, right?

I bade a sad goodbye to my 50k gold and unlocked Sky City as a teleportation point instantly. However, the system didn’t advertise my success for free this time. Left with no choice, I gritted my teeth and splashed 5000 RMB on a Shout—

Ding~!

System Announcement (Player Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand Shout): All students, please be informed that the number one territory in Sky City, "Dark Moon City" of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is officially online! It is situated at the foot of Dragonbone Mountain Range and at the edge of Black Coast. With monsters ranging from Level 100 to 175 and common to shadow rank, it is the perfect location for you to grind your levels! Moreover, Dark Moon City’s teleportation formation is now officially connected to Sky City! For a cheap price of 10 gold, you may teleport here and travel to your leveling map in the blink of an eye! Dark Moon City also provides equipment repair, potion supplies, and other services, so feel free to visit us anytime you wish!

......

Right after I made the announcement, I spoke with the teleportation formation attendant and set the teleportation price for Snowy Cathaya and their sub-guilds to 50%, and the price for The Monarch Descends and their sub-guilds to 70%. With this, I had officially made up with Lin Yixin and Ling Xueshang. Of course, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and our sub-guilds also got to enjoy a discount of 50%.

It wasn’t long before the teleportation formation started flashing rapidly. Countless players soon swarmed into Dark Moon City like never before!

Xu Yang, Li Chengfeng, Du Thirteen, and the others also stepped out of the teleportation formation. While wiping the sweat on his forehead, Du Thirteen said, "Holy shit, there were so many people. A couple of girls even pushed me out of the way with their boobs..."

Xu Yang grinned. "Isn’t that exactly what you wanted?"

But Li Chengfeng quickly made a silence gesture. "Shh, don’t say that. He brought his girl with him today..."

Xu Yang: "..."

As mentioned, a Level 97 female tamer appeared right behind Du Thirteen. She wore a leopard-spotted leather armor and wielded a leather whip. She was also accompanied by a fearsome tiger. Both her butt and her face were smooth, wholesome, and entirely familiar. It was clearly Du Thirteen’s girlfriend and my former classmate, Xue Lu!

Xue Lu was still called Xue Lu in the game. She hadn’t bothered coming up with a new ID. Her equipment looked pretty great, and she carried the emblem of Bloody Mercenaries on her shoulder. She was also a corps commander.

......

Xue Lu looked at her surroundings for a moment before smiling at me. "Not bad, Lu Chen. To think that you’re the lord of a castle already. My Thirteen is still running around pantless..."

Du Thirteen looked flabbergasted, but he didn’t say anything.

I looked at Xu Yang. "Thirteen looks pretty whipped, huh?"

Xu Yang nodded. "Yeah, he’s whipped right and proper for sure!"

Li Chengfeng laughed. "Vice leader, have you been managing the territory this entire time?"

"Yep. Not bad for half a day’s work, right?"

"Not bad at all!"

......

That being said, I didn’t really want to spend the afternoon working inside the territory. The resource mobs had more or less stopped spawning, so it was time for me to head down and grind my own level. I could farm them again after they respawned in a day.