Ghost Valley was eerie and terrifying.

I walked at the very front with my sword in hand and my Dark Wasp buzzing beside me. The pet was extremely intelligent. Although it was like a little engine most of the time, it was silent when attacking.

Murong Mingyue followed me and suddenly asked, “Sinks Into Sand, did you already give that Blood Skeleton to the buyer?”

I nodded.

Murong Mingyue chuckled. “It was just a bit too expensive. I was actually planning on buying it for a friend of mine who just entered the game.”

I knew she was talking about He Yi, so I said, “It’s not necessary. At this stage of the game, pets need to have good DPS. Even though the Blood Skeleton has high HP and Defense, its attack speed is low. Leveling a slightly worse Wasp is better than leveling a Blood Skeleton, let alone the fact that a Blood Skeleton sells for 1000 gold while a Wasp isn’t even worth 10. Hmph, only a rich idiot would take out that much money to buy a pet with trash DPS.”

Murong Mingyue stifled a giggle. “Right, right~”

At this time, Li Le’s face looked very bad. A few seconds later, a Level 34 mage rushed out from the forest and immediately caught up to us. It was actually Life of Luxury, the guy I had sold my Blood Skeleton to!

Life of Luxury had a face full of excitement. Waving a Creature Holding Stone at Li Le, he yelled, “Hahahaha, Young Master Le, I did it, I bought the Blood Skeleton!”

After he said that, Life of Luxury was stunned when he saw me. “Oh? Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, you’re here too?”

I nodded, then shot a glance to the side. Li Le’s face was the color of pig liver.

When Murong Mingyue saw this unfold, her smile grew even wider. She was desperately trying to suppress her laughter. The immense effort caused her entire body to shudder all over, and her trembling chest could cause thoughts to run wild.

Life of Luxury left after he delivered the Creature Holding Stone. Li Le put the stone in his bag. This guy was gutsy as hell. He actually dared to carry an item worth 100,000 RMB around everywhere at Level 21. If he died and dropped it, the loss would be huge.

A thought flashed through my mind. Bloody Mercenaries could totally kill Li Le here and when he dropped the Creature Holding Stone, that would be at least 500 gold worth of income.

On second thought, it was a pity but there were some things a gentleman couldn’t do. Forget it, the Bloody Mercenaries were a team that showed their worth in blood, not money. We didn’t need to do lawless things like that.

After bypassing the areas with Rotten Corpses and Zombies, we headed straight to the grinding zone with Blood and Cyan Skeletons. The monsters there were all Level 45 and higher.

From afar, Blood Skeletons could be seen in groups of twos and threes, pacing back and forth on the grassland.

Murong Mingyue was a bit stunned. “We’re… not really going to kill these Level 46 and 47 monsters, right?”

“We are!”

I nodded. Brimming with confidence, I drew out my Weeping Fire Blade with a clang.

“But…” Murong Mingyue was somewhat hesitant. “Sand, you’re our highest level but you’re only Level 39 and after you is Gui Guzi at 37. The rest of us are all ten or more levels lower than these monsters, how do we kill them?”

I turned around and whispered. “Easy. I and my Dark Wasp will form an attack team. We can take on 1-2 Blood Skeletons. The rest of you form another team with Gui Guzi as the main tank and damage dealer. Beauty Murong, you just focus on healing.”

Murong Mingyue’s eyes went wide. She had no choice but to nod in the end. “Then… we’ll try it. If we can’t handle it, we’ll just lure them one by one, but even this way our leveling will be a little slow.”

“Mn.”

I raised my sword and went up as my Dark Wasp swiftly lured a Blood Skeleton. That skeleton ran over, yelling while dragging a bronze sword. The sword arced with a slant and struck down from above!

Crack!

The bronze sword grazed my armor and a hum sound instantly resounded. Black light appeared on the surface of my mighty armor, then disappeared right after. That was my Rank 3 Ghost Deity Armor. This powerful defensive skill could already decrease damage taken by a great margin. It was also what I relied on to solo a Level 47 Blood Skeleton.

187!

Not a very high damage number appeared above my head.

Murong Mingyue’s beautiful eyes grew round. She said in shock, “Damn, your Defense is really high for a Level 47 monster to only hit you for that much. Your total HP is around 800 too. It’s nuts that a warrior has this much HP…”

I couldn’t hold back my smile. An even more shocking scene soon appeared. I lifted my sword and used Pardon + Slayer Slash, shaving off 1987 of the Blood Skeleton’s HP. My Dark Wasp had also flown in as well.

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh!

Flurry instantly dealt three hits, and the last one was critical!

689!

701!

1674!

The Blood Skeleton let out a miserable howl. It had been instantly killed!

Murong Mingyue was petrified. It was obvious that she had been leveling with Xu Yang, who was decent, but not an expert player, for far too long. As a result, she couldn’t accept the top-level damage I was dishing out at that moment.

Gui Guzi also lunged forward at this time. His spear shot out and Flame Thrust took off 400 of the Blood Skeleton’s HP. Even though that number was far from mine, Undead Knight was originally a class with heavy emphasis on HP and Defense. Attack power wasn’t his forte and this special trait was completely revealed soon after.

The Blood Skeleton roared and attacked Gui Guzi with its copper sword. Gui Guzi didn’t dodge as a black shield floated above him. It was his unique gatekeeper skill—Undying Shield!

Puchi!

The copper sword did not penetrate Undying Shield and two numbers appeared—

312!

+47!

When he lost 312 HP, he also recovered 47 HP. I knew that this was the special feature of Undying Shield. It could absorb a portion of the attack damage and convert it into user’s HP. At Rank 3, it healed for 15% of the damage taken. This wasn’t that overpowered, but once Undying Shield reached Rank 10, it would probably be able to convert 50% of the damage taken into HP. Then, killing an undead knight like Gui Guzi would be hard as hell!

Gui Guzi’s overall strength was impressive. His attack power could rank within the Top 100 of Floating Ice City but his survivability was absolutely in the Top 3!

Murong Mingyue was even more shocked. Her mouth dropped open as she muttered, “Why are all these Bloody Mercenaries more OP than the next…”

Du Thirteen laughed. “Don’t worry, compared to them, I’m still a normal person.”

After saying so, Du Thirteen let out a yell and attacked a monster with his sword!

74!

When the damage number flew, Murong Mingyue’s beautiful eyes swept over. She answered with an indifferent smile, “You’re not normal either. You’re even worse than a normal person…”

Du Thirteen looked like he really wanted to cry.

Li Le stood not too far away, coldly watching us. He originally wanted to strike up a conversation with Murong Mingyue to flirt with her, but who knew that Murong Mingyue was also an experienced gal. She immediately saw through the playboy and didn’t reply to any of his words. She didn’t even bother to look at him.

Li Le could only sensibly stand in place and quietly leech experience. With me and Gui Guzi’s DPS, our clearing speed was pretty high. Murong Mingyue had even summoned a Wasp to level it. The Wasp had 4.5-star Attack growth, which made it a king among offensive pets at the current stage. Priests lacked offensive potential, so for Murong Mingyue Wasp was an ideal choice.

……

I went offline at around noon to have my lunch break and rested for an hour before going back online to continue the grind.

I grinded all the way until 3 pm. Following a streak of golden light, Li Le reached Level 27, gaining a total of six levels, which was above our commission quota.

“Alright, give us the gold.”

I turned around, my voice toward Li Le cold. He hesitated briefly and then traded me 100 gold. At this point, Murong Mingyue was Level 36, Gui Guzi was Level 38, and I had reached Level 40, finally breaking through that huge threshold!

I opened Floating Cloud City’s Heavenly Ranking. I was a bit surprised. More than half a day had passed yet my ranking didn’t rise at all. It had dropped instead. The other experts in the Heavenly Ranking were definitely solo grinding at a high efficiency rate—

NameLevelClassWind Fantasy42Light WandererDominating Heaven Blade41WarriorDominating Mage God41MageInconstant40Magic KnightIron Pardon40WarriorDominating Archer God40ArcherBroken Halberd Sinks Into Sand40Undead SwordsmanDominating Warrior God39WarriorClear Perfume39ArcherGui Guzi38Undead Knight

……

I had already dropped to seventh place. It was as if I had fate with this number. Since the beginning of the game, I was the person who occupied seventh place the longest.

Lin Yixin had been close to Level 41 the day before, and now she was already Level 42 due to today’s efforts. She still had a good lead with Dominating Heaven Blade closely behind her. Half of Floating Ice City’s Heavenly Ranking was basically taken over by the Domination Clan. Lin Yixin and Clear Perfume were a team, while I and Gui Guzi belonged to Bloody Mercenaries. This kind of ranking was pretty good to a non-top gaming workshop like us.

Murong Mingyue took out a return scroll and said with a smile, “Send me a message the next time you need me~”

I gave a slight nod. Sister Mingyue had actually forgotten about the 10 gold fee and was going to head back to the city.

I shot a smile at Gui Guzi and Du Thirteen. “Get ready to go back, let’s go drinking tonight!”

Li Le coldly snorted. “Tch!”

Our Young Master Le then arrogantly walked into the not-so-distant forest. Gui Guzi yelled, “Hey, don’t run around like that, we’re not responsible if you get yourself killed!”

Li Le said disdainfully, “I’m gonna gather some herbs. You guys can leave. I don’t need your protection!”

Du Thirteen laughed. “Careful to not step on crap, there’s a ton of wild bears that shit in the forest…”

Li Le’s disdain grew even more. “Pooh, so fucking vulgar!”

Right at this moment, Li Le’s entire body suddenly froze in place. A blood-red dagger swept across his neck, followed by a dark red damage number—371!

Ambush! Level 20 Assassin skill that could stun the target for 1 second!

Once the assassin made his second move, Li Le’s HP had already disappeared. His eyes went wide and his vision dimmed as he collapsed to the ground, dropping a huge pile of items. There were several low-level Iron-grade items and… and the Creature Holding Stone the Blood Skeleton was sealed in!