Boom!

A streak of swordlight swooped across the heads of the Vine Flowers and dealt a ton of damage to all of them, and that wasn’t even accounting for the splash damage!

Purgatory Slash, or should I say an Outstanding weapon, was just godly at this stage of the game! After getting the Purgatory Scepter and returning to Ice Moon City, Luo River God of the Capital had been leveling at an insane rate. She was now Level 85 and the indisputable highest-leveled player in all of China, higher than even Candlelight Shadow himself!

But of course, Candlelight Shadow was still the most popular player. Although Floating Ice City was full of outstanding players, and Lin Yixin and I both had the potential to replace him, as the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day. It would take slow and steady effort to outperform Candlelight Shadow in the popularity department.

……

The number of Vine Flowers was absolutely insane, and they all had high HP and Defense. However, the experience they yielded was equally generous, so everyone was having a very good time.

An hour later, Murong Mingyue’s Hellish Rockfall ranked up again with a ding!

"What rank is it now?" I asked, "Man, it’s going up like crazy!"

Murong Mingyue giggled. "I know right? It’s already Rank 5! I love AoE skills with short cooldowns!"

She raised her staff and cast yet another Hellish Rockfall. The meteorites had grown to half a meter in diameter, and they were all covered in fire. The damage they dealt was as impressive as their animation effect.

1445!

1532!

1440!

……

It was wonderful. Her DPS was actually starting to creep up close to Beiming Xue’s. That being said, it was only because the Vine Flower was a heavy armor mob. If that were the Earth Mice we had fought, then there was no way in hell Murong Mingyue’s DPS could ever rival Beiming Xue’s.

As the battle continued, the Purgatory Sword’s durability dropped all the way from 87% to 54%. It was terrible, to be honest. Only three hours had passed since the start of this battle, but my weapon had already lost 33% durability. This battle was trying to murder my weapon!

Thankfully, the Vine Flowers continued to fall in droves until finally, only a couple of them were left in the entire valley!

Swoosh!

A golden column of light enveloped me as I leveled up to 85. The rest of the girls had gotten a couple of levels as well!

I opened the Heavenly Ranking of Floating Ice City and took note of the changes:

NameLevelClassBroken Halberd Sinks Into Sand85Undead Swordsman

Wind Fantasy82Light Wanderer

Beiming Xue81Dark ArcherDominating Heaven Blade80WarriorPurple Marquis80WarriorClear Perfume80Archer

Shadow Chanel80Mage

Gui Guzi79Undead Knight

Indigo Collar79Warrior

Murong Mingyue79Priest

……

Lin Yixin, Beiming Xue, and I were leading at the front. Dominating Heaven Blade, Purple Marquis, Clear Perfume, and Shadow Chanel were sticking closely behind our backs. Finally, there was Murong Mingyue, possibly the only priest ever in China to make it to the Heavenly Ranking of a tier 2 main city. It was a precious moment to say the least!

"Hey sis, you’re in the Top 10 now…" I let out a cough before speaking up.

Murong Mingyue looked pleasantly surprised. "Ah? Really? Hehe, that’s awesome! This is the first time I got onto the Heavenly Ranking!"

"Yeah. Let’s keep this up!"

I fired another Purgatory Slash and killed off the last Vine Flower with everyone. It was past 8 pm at this point, so I asked if the girls would like to have dinner before we continued. Surprisingly, no one was in the mood to have dinner, and instead, they all insisted we grab supper after clearing out Hundred Flower Valley completely. I agreed, of course. Starving and burning the midnight oil were my specialties.

We took a moment to scour the battlefield for loot. The Vine Flower was a Level 92 elite mob, so the loot it dropped wasn’t too shabby. For starters, there were a ton of Rank 8 alchemy ingredients. I was forced to use Death Plunder on every Vine Flower corpse because Lin Yixin wanted them.

It took over 20 minutes before we finally finished plundering the battlefield. Lin Yixin held her bag half-full of herbs with a joyful look on her face. My own bag was filled with a dozen or so top-tier items I couldn’t use such as weapons that added Attack, armors that added Defense, and miscellaneous items that added Tactics. Long story short, I collected all the good stuff that could actually be turned into profit.

……

"Alright, we’re almost at the end of Hundred Flowers Valley. Let us continue!"

With the Purgatory Sword in hand and the Dark Wasp by my side, I stepped on the path once more and continued our journey. Not far away from me, He Yi was crouching on the ground and extending a hand to her Firelight Mouse. She said affectionately, "Come on up, little fellow!"

"Chirp chirp!"

The Firelight Mouse and climbed up her hand nimbly. A second later, it had climbed up to He Yi’s shoulder and ran around happily.

I shot it a glance before asking, "What level is it, Eve?"

"47. A bit more and it’ll hit Level 50 and learn a new AoE skill!"

"Oh, that’s good. It should definitely hit Level 50 by the time we complete this quest!"

"Mn!"

In front of us, Lin Yixin suddenly stopped in her tracks and lifted up her sharp ears. Purple pupils staring straight toward the front, she said warily, "Did anyone feel that? There’s danger up ahead!"

I tensed up a bit myself. Succubi had excellent senses, so I trusted her judgment.

We took a few more steps forward before we heard a strange noise coming from underground. Before we could check out what it was, countless vines burst out of the ground and wrapped around my legs instantly. There were at least a dozen or so tenacious vines all around us, and I couldn’t even move a step!

Beep!

System Notice: You have been attacked by the Root Protector. You are inflicted with Bleed and Root. You will lose 50 HP per second for 60 seconds!

……

"Ah! Lu Chen?!"

He Yi cried out and tried to rush to my side, but she barely managed to take a few steps before she was wrapped in vines as well!

Lin Yixin narrowed her eyes. "The boss can’t attack unless we’re inside its attack radius, so it has to be somewhere close by! Let’s find it as soon as possible!"

She gripped her Moonlight Sword and tried to circle around He Yi and me, or more specifically the boss's attack radius, but she underestimated just how wide it was. She still got caught despite her best attempts to avoid the vines.

Murong Mingyue and Beiming Xue froze where they stood, but they failed to escape their fates as well. All five of us were trapped by vines a second later!

Everyone was losing 50 HP per second, and this status effect would continue for 60 seconds! This was bad!

……

"What on earth is this Root Protector?" He Yi said angrily, "How did it get all of us?"

I replied, "It has to be the boss, the big bad wolf among the Vine Flowers. The disgusting part is that we’re rooted and losing health, we don’t even know where it is!"

"What should we do?" Lin Yixin asked.

"I don’t know… sis, heal anyone who’s low on health…"

"Some of you are too far away from me!"

It was at this moment I noticed that every vine binding my limbs had some sort of durability bar on them. My eyes lit up. Could it be that this skill wasn’t completely immune to player intervention like most boss restriction skills?

I immediately attacked a vine with the Purgatory Sword!

Crack!

Two vines crumbled immediately under my attack. I was right! These vines couldn’t withstand even a basic attack from me!

Excited, I shouted my discovery to everyone. "The vines have a durability bar! If you cut them all you can free yourself before 60 seconds are up! Quickly, this is an impossible fight unless we drag the boss out of its hidey hole!"

"Ohh!"

Lin Yixin and He Yi immediately obeyed my order. As I expected, one hit was all it took for them to slash the vines apart. They did have pretty good Attack, so it took them little time to free themselves.

Meanwhile, I had slashed apart the vines completely and regained my freedom. I looked around and spotted a particularly dense thicket. Considering that it was the only greenery in the entire stone-riddled valley, I was almost certain that something was up with that thicket. The boss could very well be attacking us from there!

I charged toward the thicket, but I barely managed to take a couple of steps before I was caught by the vines again!

"Holy shit, this is so annoying!"

The vines didn’t just entangle us, they also pressed the barbs on their stems deeply through the gaps of our armors, burrowing into our flesh. It was how it was dealing damage to us; sucking our blood out of our veins like the Old Demon of Black Mountain! So disgusting!

Cutting all the vines down, I ran toward the thicket, locked onto a grassy area and activated Charge! It wasn’t the time to hesitate because the threat of a party wipe was very real if I couldn’t find the boss as quickly as possible!

Whoosh!

The moment I got close, the ground started rumbling. As I thought, I was finally able to activate the boss!

Rumble…

Dust flew everywhere as the ground shook. The earth in front of me cracked as if something was trying to crawl onto the surface. Then, a gigantic creature suddenly burst out of the ground! It was a tree demon with an incredibly thick trunk and vines instead of branches. They danced in the air like a thousand snakes. Seriously, it looked incredibly disgusting!

"It’s finally out. Get ready, everyone!" Lin Yixin tried to use Charge, but she was entangled right before she was about to take off. She groaned in frustration as she began hacking away at the vines again.

I stared at the boss and shared its stats screen in the party channel—

Root Protector (Dark Gold Rank Boss)

Level: 92

Attack: 1050~1120

Defense: 950

HP: 285000

Skills: Group Wrap, Thorn Burst, Root Crush

Introduction: A creature of the earth that has lived long enough to turn demonic. The Root Protector transformed into an evil treant that would kill anything that intrudes upon its territory. Since ancient times, it has guarded Hundred Flower Valley and killed countless adventurers with its sharp thorns and thick roots.

……

"Lu Chen, aggro the boss while I bring Sister Mingyue and Beiming Xue over!" Lin Yixin shouted while cutting through the vines entangling her feet.