"Oh, what is it Beiming? Tell me!"

"Mn, I’m heading out at 9 pm tonight," Beiming Xue said carefully.

"9 pm? That’s pretty late." I hesitated. "What for? It’s not exactly safe for you to head out alone at that time, is it?"

I didn’t want to interfere with Beiming Xue’s personal business, but I didn’t want something bad to happen to her either. That was why I couldn’t help but voice my concern.

Beiming Xue smiled. "Relax, I’m not meeting an online pal or something. Why would I need to when the strongest, most handsome and hot-blooded man in all the servers is already by my side?"

I replied expressionlessly, "Right. Now tell me why you’re heading out at that time.”

"Mn, it’s like this. It’s almost been half a year since I left Wuxi, and earlier today a group of my high school friends came to Suzhou to have fun. Since they’re leaving tomorrow, they wanted me to join them for a late dinner."

"I see…" I thought for a moment before replying, "I don’t see any problems with that. Take care of yourself."

"I will."

The line went silent for a couple of seconds before Beiming Xue spoke up again, "Big bro, are you really going to let me go alone? Aren’t you worried at all?"

"Fuck, what am I supposed to say? It’s a gathering between you and your classmates! I have no place there."

"It’s fine, just come with me, please? One of my prettier classmates wants to meet you in person!"

"Oh? Who’s that?"

"Come with me to the dinner and you’ll get to know her. Oh right, what are you doing right now?"

"I’m grinding mobs. I should be able to finish by 9 pm, but we’ll see!"

"Okay. Do your best, big bro!"

"You too!"

……

I cut the call after exchanging words of encouragement with each other. It really was a bit inappropriate for me to participate in Beiming Xue’s private gathering with her classmates, but on the other hand, I couldn’t trust her to take care of herself completely. In this day and age you never knew what a person was really thinking. Although Beiming Xue was fairly mature compared to her classmates, and I did believe in her ability to protect herself, that didn’t mean the youngsters wouldn’t be tempted to make a move on her. She was a beautiful girl after all. There was no way in hell I was going to let her get hurt again, and anyone who wanted to be my brother-in-law had to survive me first!

Back to the action, the Earth Spike Beasts were dying one after another. Despite being concealed shadow-rank mobs, they didn’t drop anything besides a generous amount of experience. Stingy bastards.

After I cleared out the area of Earth Spike Beasts, I began hunting for a choke point that I could use to kill the Fire Lizards. A long search later, I found a perfect location that allowed only two mobs to attack me at a time at most. Now I was sure that I would be fine even if the Fire Lizards petrified me for a second or two every once in a while!

The Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf left again to aggro the mobs, and this time it was almost petrified and mobbed. After barely stumbling back to my side and occupying a spot, I launched a Thousand Ice Slash to the Fire Lizards’ faces and taught them a lesson from hell!

I then followed up with a War Crush. It was just as devastating as the first attack.

Everything was progressing exactly as I imagined it would be. The Fire Lizards dropped like flies, gave me a ton of experience and dropped a lot of good items.

The massive boost in experience was what I really enjoyed. Killing mobs that were 25 levels above mine had turned out to be far more beneficial than I initially thought. If I could continue solo grinding shadow-rank mobs that were Level 140 or above, then the day I hit Level 150 couldn’t be too far away. For now though, I should focus on hitting Level 120. Looking too far into the future would only serve to demoralize myself.

……

Inside the guild channel, the gang was grinding and chatting merrily—

Gui Guzi: "Fireblade Cavalry, assemble! Is everyone here yet?"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun: "More or less. I’m replacing the three riders who had to log off for private business. What are we doing this time?"

Gui Guzi: "We’re tackling the Level 132 Ice Plains Wolves in the middle section of Dragonbone Mountain Range today. These mobs yield great experience, have great attack speed but their max Attack isn’t too heaven-defying. Anyway, I’ll aggro about 100 Ice Plains Wolves or so in a line, and the rest of you will charge them back and forth until they’re all dead. Make sure to split them up so that no one person is taking too much damage at a time, and remember, don’t face-tank the mobs even if your Defense is doubled by Knight God! Quick and safe leveling is our motto, alright?"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun: "Okay! Brothers and sisters, prepare for battle!"

High Fighting Spirits: "Fuck, the Fireblade Cavalry are having one helluva time. When will we be able to join their ranks? Sigh, I should’ve chosen to become a magic knight back then…"

He Yi chuckled. "Relax, the warrior’s ray of hope lies in Level 150, and even then, Level 150 is just the middle point. We still have a long way to go!"

Li Chengfeng said, "Yeah, the guild leader is right. We’re not even Level 120 yet, so there’s still a long road ahead of us. Warriors will get mounts eventually, we only need patience. The advantage of Magic Knight and Wanderer won’t last forever.

Xu Yang: "Where is our archer squad, by the way? Summoning Lil Beiming to the chat!"

Beiming Xue chuckled in response. "We’re grinding Dark Beastmen at the edge of Black Coast. What’s wrong?"

"Dark Beastmen?" Xu Yang’s voice sounded shaky. "You mean those Level 140 shadow-rank mobs? I was nearly one-shot by a Dark Beastman once. Those things are hard to kill even one-on-one. Are you sure you’re doing okay?"

Beiming Xue giggled. "Of course. We have Shock Arrows, Multi Arrows, and Volleys. Those Dark Beastmen can’t even get close to us. We’ve all leveled up once in three hours, and we’ve killed a Purple Gold Rank beastman boss and got a lot of good stuff. You have a problem, Big Brother Xu Yang?"

Xu Yang replied tearfully, "Yes I do. Please add me to your party…"

Everyone was having a good time right now. Ignoring Tactics, Gui Guzi’s Knight God buffed all allies’ Attack and Defense by 50%, and Beiming Xue’s Arrow God, by 50% Attack and 20% attack speed. Both these Famous General Skills were so amazing that the two 40-man parties were leveling several times faster than almost everyone else!

It was a good thing, of course. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was thoroughly exploiting the two powerful skills to strengthen themselves. In the future, who could possibly fight against Gui Guzi’s 40 high-level and well-equipped Fireblade Cavalry and Beiming Xue’s 40 super archers?

……

It was at this moment He Yi smiled and said, "Alright, alright. Xu Yang, go party Chaos Moon, High Fighting Spirits, Pure Love, and so on and gather a total of 38 players. Then, we find a good map and grind some levels! I’ll be the party leader and carry you all with Royal Road!"

Chaos Moon replied happily, "Yay! Sister He Yi’s going to carry us personally! Royal Road is awesome!"

High Fighting Spirits chuckled. "No problem, give me a moment to log out and drink some water, because once I come back online I’m not jumping off the guild leader’s train until I die…"

Pure Love said, "Mn mn, I’m coming right away! By the way, where is Big Brother Lu Chen right now? I really want to party up with him…"

Murong Mingyue replied helplessly, "You mean you want to seduce him."

Pure Love replied embarrassedly, "Oh you! You don’t say such things out loud, you know!"

Me: "Fuck…"

Li Chengfeng: "Very good, the man in question has finally appeared. Feel free to tease him all you want girls. It’s rare our vice leader shows his face in the guild channel, so bring your torture devices, your candles, your leather whips…"

Me: "You guys have fun. I’m gonna leave…"

Everyone laughed heartily.

……

At Dragonspine Basin.

When it was past 6 pm, I finally killed enough One-horned Rhinos and Fire Lizards to meet the quota. The battle had lasted almost 7 hours, and it only took this short because of my powerful DPS. A different player might not have been able to finish this in 70 hours, not to mention that barring top-tier players, there was almost no one who could withstand the mobs’ assault.

I checked my bag and counted over 300 equipment drops in total. Among them, 47 were of the Dark Gold grade, and dozens were Outstanding. My Luck played a huge factor here. These items alone should net me at least 100k RMB. In games, the pyramid of power was very clear and well-defined: the players with the strongest equipment and skill should always be placed at the top. If they put their heart into it, then they could earn 100k every day without any pressure whatsoever. Meanwhile, those at the center of the pyramid felt like they struck a 500 million lottery when they found Outstanding Dark Gold–grade equipment, and the ones at the bottom… I didn’t need to elaborate, did I? The cost of Health Potions and Magic Consumables alone was enough to make them cry.

……

The Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf and I left the center of Dragonspine Basin and returned to the fringes. Even from a distance, we could hear the green dragon’s low rumbles. As expected, Dragon Knight Tia hadn’t moved from her original spot, and she was looking a bit healthier than before. As it turned out, the Dragon Knight’s self-recovery ability was pretty good.

"You’re back." A ray of hope entered Tia’s features.

I nodded. "I’ve killed 1000 One-horned Rhinos and 1000 Fire Lizards and completed the task you requested of me. Have I proven myself?"

"You have." Tia nodded with a smile. "Young warrior, you truly are the hero who was praised by Princess Karinshan herself. Both your strength and your courage gladden me greatly. Now come and receive the reward you deserve!"

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, you have completed the S+ Rank quest [Tia’s Trial]. You have gained 1700000 EXP, 40000 gold, 12000 Reputation and the quest reward: "Magic Piercing Punch"!

……

Hmm? Magic Piercing Punch?

Pleasantly surprised, I opened the bag and discovered that the Magic Piercing Punch was a light purple skillbook. When I checked out its description, my heart immediately started pumping excitedly—

Magic Piercing Punch: Gather your qi and attack the target with everything you got. Deals massive damage to the target and has a 100% chance to interrupt their skill. Level Requirement: 110. Class Requirement: Warrior, Magic Knight

……

Hell yes, this was exactly the skill I needed right now. A 100% chance to disrupt my opponent’s skill? This was going to be OP. From now on, I didn’t need to fear any boss's ultimate anymore, especially since they usually took time to channel. Everything was fine as long as I could hit them with the Magic Piercing Punch during this time!

Swhoosh!

The skill book vanished from my hands, and a new skill button appeared in my skill window. I had to check it out right now!

I used the skill. Blood red flames abruptly enveloped my fist, and I threw a punch in front of me!

Boom!

The punch exploded into a brilliant burst of light. I wasn’t targeting anything, but the skill looked very pretty all the same.