On the way back.

“What were you and Moonkiss talking about, big bro?” Beiming Xue asked cautiously while pressing her lips together. “She seemed a lot closer with you than before…”

“Nothing much…” I smiled. “We just talked about some stuff that happened while the two of you were still in high school, that’s all. I can’t believe you hid your friendship with Moonkiss from me, Beiming. I’m so sad!”

Beiming Xue giggled. “You can’t blame me for that, it’s Moonkiss who wanted to keep this a secret. That being said, I didn’t expect her to be good enough to become a CGL Hall of Famer in less than two years…”

“Moonkiss does have amazing Assassin skills.”

I nodded in agreement, “During the latter stage of Spirit of Grief, a lot of top experts had retired from the game out of fatigue, so you might say that Moonkiss joined the game and proved herself at just the right time. While she was definitely weaker compared to Paralyzing Wind and Sorrow at the beginning, that may no longer be the case today. After all, a talent can only become a true expert through constant practice, and she has practiced for more than a year’s time.”

Beiming Xue pursed her lips but said nothing.

I continued. “It would be nice if Moonkiss could join Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. She’s an assassin who’s also a CGL Hall of Famer, and we desperately need a walking banner like her right now. Although you, Li Chengfeng, and Gui Guzi are incredible players, you can’t join the CGL Hall of Fame yet, and I can’t float our boat all by myself.”

Beiming Xue smiled. “Unfortunately, Moonkiss is extremely loyal to Beauty Luo, so it’ll be next to impossible to recruit her into our guild. I agree that it’d be great, however. If we somehow managed to recruit her to our guild, we would gain an assassin who could go toe-to-toe with Farewell Song…”

I smiled awkwardly. In the end, it was just empty talk. At the very least, it was impossible for us to change her mind right now.

……

It was past midnight by the time we returned to the workshop. Thankfully, He Yi hadn’t driven into the city and searched for us everywhere as she said she would. When I opened the door to her bedroom, I saw that she was clutching her blanket and deep in sleep. She must be exhausted after having spent the last couple of days grinding all day and night. I checked on Murong Mingyue next. The sleeping woman looked calm and gentle and nothing like her usual invincible and arrogant self. She was also draped in a blanket and wearing a satisfied smile on her face. One of her long, well-proportioned legs was sticking out by the window sill and glowing a little under the pouring moonlight.

I smiled and closed the door behind me. I went to bed after washing myself.

I blacked out the second my head hit the pillow, almost as if someone had put an “Exhaustion” curse on me. Well, I had been busy the whole day, so it made sense that I would be tired out of my mind.

……

The next morning, I ate an early breakfast and went back online. Yesterday was over, but there were still plenty of things to do today!

Swhoosh!

The first thing I did after appearing in the inn was to turn in the Earth Lizard Dragon’s head in the adventurer tavern. It was a high-rank quest, and I would be a fool not to collect its rewards!

By the time I reached the adventurer tavern, it was already overcrowded with people, and the stench of alcohol filled the air. There was a brawny and murderous-looking mountain barbarian sitting by the window sill. He was holding a mug of ale with his left hand and the thin waist of a seductive elf woman with his right. At another table, a couple of wandering swordsmen—they were all human—were chatting loudly with each other. There was also an old man with his head covered in a black hood gripping his stuff and looking unusually grim for some reason.

Well, I couldn’t afford to offend any of them. All kinds of people were holed up in the adventurer tavern as over half of the continent’s wanted criminals, hooligans, gangsters, berserkers, mad martial artists and so on were gathered at this place. I was nothing compared to them.

I strode to the front desk and rapped the wood with my knuckle, waking the clerk from his slumber. He looked at me with dazed eyes before asking, “Is there anything you need, guest?”

“I’m here to turn in a quest, a bounty quest to be exact!”

“Oh?” His eyes lit up as he hurriedly flipped open his record book. “Is it a C Rank quest or a D Rank quest? I’ll find it for you right away.”

I shook my head.

“No? Is it a B Rank quest then? Maybe even an A Rank quest?” The clerk was starting to grow astonished.

I grinned. “I’ve brought the quest item with me. If I’m not mistaken, it’s probably an S+ Rank quest at least.”

While saying this, I took out the Earth Lizard Dragon’s gigantic head and slammed it against the desk without warning, causing the documents to scatter everywhere. The creature looked like it had died with terrible regrets because its eyes were wide open, and a bit of blood was trickling down the corner of its mouth.

“Heavens…” The clerk nearly fainted from shock. He stuttered as he stared at the dragon’s head, “Is… is that the head of the legendary monster who resides in Dragonbone Mountain Range, the Earth Lizard Dragon?”

I nodded. “Exactly!”

“You, you actually killed the Earth Lizard Dragon…” The clerk couldn’t pick up his jaw from the floor.

The NPC adventurers were stunned as well. The wandering swordsman at the table rose to their feet and exclaimed in shock, “Good lord, it’s a dragon slayer! A warrior who single-handedly killed the Earth Lizard Dragon! Just how powerful is he…”

I was filled with satisfaction in that moment. This was exactly the effect I was looking for!

I then rapped the desk with my knuckle again before reminding the dazed clerk. “Hey, do you think you can give me the bounty reward already? I’m a busy man, you know. Every second of my time is worth a couple hundred thousand gold, you know.”

“Okay, okay!”

The clerk nodded repeatedly before he finally accepted the Earth Lizard Dragon’s head. At the same time, a system notice dinged beside my ears—

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, you have completed the S+ Rank bounty quest [The Earth Lizard Dragon’s Head]. You have gained 2.7 million EXP, 60000 gold, 20000 Reputation and the quest reward: “Sword Boomerang”!

……

Swhoosh!

A golden light shrouded me and filled me with pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting to hit Level 120 this quickly! This meant that I could perform my fifth promotion quest right away!

Wait, let’s check the quest reward first. It was a light cyan skill book called “Sword Boomerang”, and it was sitting in a corner of my bag.

Sword Boomerang: Inject powerful qi into the blade of your sword and toss it at your enemy, damaging them with its powerful rotation. The weapon will automatically return to your hand after completing its cycle. The skill cannot miss. Level Requirement: 120. Class Requirement: Warrior, Magic Knight, Wanderer.

……

Very good, it was a long-range physical-based skill. I could basically throw it like a boomerang and deal damage to my enemies from range. It was at least as good as the Dragon Slaying Slash because the Dragon Slaying Slash had a poor hit rate despite its non-existent cooldown. I couldn’t use it carelessly in a fight against an expert like Candlelight Shadow. However, this Sword Boomerang couldn’t miss no matter what, so it was clearly superior in this department!

A flash of light later, the new skill appeared in my skill window. Perfect!

I then opened my bag and took out the two Outstanding Spirit-grade items I had gotten the day before. Now that I was Level 120, I could equip them now! I switched out the Purgatory Legguards for the Battle Soul Poleyn, and the Paralysis Ring for the Silver Dragon Ring. The level of my enemies were too high, and the Paralysis Ring’s level was too low, so its chance to proc Paralysis was reduced to less than 2%. It was practically useless at this point, so I had no qualms replacing it. After I put on the new equipment, my stats immediately jumped to a new level—

ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand (Title: Purgatory Thunder)

Class: Undead Swordsman (Dark Gold Swordsman)

Level: 120

HP: 15940

Attack: 1827~2345

Defense: 2415

Magic Resist: 2215

Reputation: 178462

Tactics: 187

Luck: 25

……

My HP almost broke the 16k threshold, and both my Attack and Defense had drastically increased as well. I was so powerful right now that some people could tear their hair out if they knew my stats. Even better, both the Silver Dragon Ring and the Battle Soul Poleyn gave me plenty of Tactics and boosted the number to 187. This meant that the effectiveness of my stratagem was further increased by 187%. My Martial God had a base skill effect of +40% Attack, but with 187 Tactics, the number became +115%. How powerful was that?

PvP-wise, He Yi’s Royal Road was the best Famous General Skill, and Lin Yixin’s Bombshell second. However, my Martial God was the best Famous General Skill when it came to PvE and grinding levels. After obtaining so many top-tier items, the effect of Martial God was better than ever before. Currently, Lin Yixin’s Bombshell could only boost her allies’ Attack for a maximum of 60%, but mine was almost double that number. The gap in power was as clear as day. Moreover, I now had enough Tactics to go even against Lin Yixin assuming that we fought each other with both our Famous General Skills turned on. 115% extra Attack was basically enough to nullify her 60% extra Defense.

……

I was pleased to say the least. With my current Attack, Defense and HP stat, there should be no Spirit Rank boss I couldn’t solo myself. Just like before, I’m going to continue improving my strength!

After I repaired my equipment, I checked my private message window and saw a couple of notices—

System Notice: Congratulations, the item "Fireblade Set" you consigned for sale has been sold for 35629 gold!

System Notice: Congratulations, the item "Purple Heart Dagger” you consigned for sale has been sold for 90763 gold!

System Notice: Congratulations, the item "Melody Robe" you consigned for sale has been sold for 8460 gold!

……

Almost all of the equipment I consigned for sale had been sold. I had upgraded my equipment drastically and earned a small fortune from this trip!

Next, I checked the level ranking of the China server. I was Level 120 and the number one player on the list. Luo River God of the Capital and Candlelight Shadow were both Level 118 and occupying the second and third spots. I could understand Luo River God of the Capital abusing her class advantage and mowing down mobs like a lawnmower, but Candlelight Shadow must’ve killed more bosses to be able to keep up with her. The maps of three major cities were huge, and I couldn’t be the only one who encountered a Spirit Rank boss. Also, it wasn’t like the world came to a stop when I was managing the guild territory. Lin Yixin however, was only sitting at Level 117 and the seventh place despite having killed a couple of bosses herself. It was because she had lost a bit too many levels previously. After all, China was full of talent, and Sky City was just one of the three major cities. It made sense that someone would capitalize on her downfall and surpass her in terms of levels.

The reward for being the first player to complete the fifth promotion quest was as good as mine, so I decided that it could wait a bit.

I looked at my bag again. The super-tier Spirit-grade sword “Whirlwind” and Encourage VII were still waiting for an owner to claim it. I sent He Yi a message: “Are you free right now? Come to the eastern square of Sky City if you are. I have a great gift for you!”