“Well, aren’t you a cocky bastard?” the warrior snarled as he whirled his battle axe with a fierce gleam in his eyes. “Your daddy’s going to tell you one more time! This Windmill Forest has been reserved by the Mad Dragon guild. You can enter if you dare, but we won’t be able to guarantee your safety, hahaha….”

I grinned back at the warrior and brushed past him on my way into the forest with my sword in hand.

This loser wants to threaten me? Who the hell does he think he is?

“Damn you! You’re looking to die!” The warrior’s enraged voice rang out from behind me. The wind whistled as he launched a fierce Explosion Slash at my back, but I just kept on walking forward as if nothing had happened. It was as if I hadn't even noticed his attack.

Boom!

974!

A damage number flew up above my head, but it hadn’t even cracked four digits. The power behind the swing wasn’t bad and it actually managed to cause the tattered Soul Suppressing Cloak to flap in the air. The warrior stared at my back with a dumbfounded look on his face. "How is this possible? I only hit him for less than a thousand damage, and it’s just a melee fighter without a mount! What kind of defensive power is this…"

I turned around, a warm and gentle smile appearing on my face. "Remember, you were the one who started it!"

Whoosh!

Light exploded out from the Cyan Netherworld Sword as a spiral of blazing indigo energy formed around its tip. When the Eight Trigrams formation appeared underneath my feet, the stagnant air suddenly swirled around me, causing the dead leaves to whirl up from the ground. A shudder ran through the warrior’s spine as my blade exploded forward and instantly blew a hole in his chest!

Puchi!

24572!

I slowly retracted the Cyan Netherworld Sword as the light slowly faded from the warrior’s enraged and unhappy eyes. The difference in our levels was just too wide. In fact, he hadn’t even been able to see my ID before he died, and I didn’t even bother to look at the potions that had dropped on the ground in the wake of his death. He hadn’t dropped any equipment, but I was sure that a small fry like this wouldn’t have dropped anything that was capable of catching my eye in the first place.

I turned around and continued walking into Windmill Forest. To think that Mad Dragon would actually go so far as to reserve this place. Fucking hell, could there be something precious hidden here?

……

The occasional roar of some wild beast broke the tranquil silence of the forest. Mysterious flowers glowed with an enchanting light under the bright moon, but these herbs weren’t what I was looking for. They were at most Rank 6 or 7, and my skill had already grown past the need for them. I couldn’t be bothered to pick them up. My Herbalism was already at Rank 10 thanks to Spirit Cooking, and if Lin Yixin found out about this, she would be boiling with uncontrollable rage. She’d spent many long hours toiling to raise that skill to Rank 10, but I had gotten it as a quest reward.

Crack...

The Stormy Waves War Boots suddenly shook when I stepped on something. I looked down to see that I had stepped onto a pile of withered animal bones. As I carefully inspected the area around me, I discovered that the floor was filled with the bones of animals. What the hell, what happened in this place? What creature killed all of these wild beasts in a fit of savage rage?

As I parted the branches in front of me, my entire body trembled at the sight that greeted me. A skeleton of a gigantic dragon was actually lying in front of me in the middle of the woods. It looked for all the world like a little mountain and it was clear that this dragon had died a long time ago. Its bones had been washed a stark white by the elements, and its skull resembled a gigantic hut. When I walked closer, several wild bears roared in fright as they bounded out of the skull and fled into the depths of the woods.

"Oh?"

My eyes fell on a purplish-red plant sticking out of the ground. Its leaves were sticking up like triangular blades and it looked very beautiful. The name of the herb slowly materialized in front of me. Ah, this was the Agave herb that I had been looking for!

I stretched out my hand and used my herb-gathering skill!

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, you have gathered Agave x7!

……

Hehe, this was good news! I could gather seven Agave plants at one go! My Rank 10 Herbalism was really living up to its reputation. The rate at which this skill gathered herbs was extremely efficient!

I looked up to scan the area. There was another stalk of Agave not too far away from me. I happily ran over to collect it as well. And then I found another not too far from it! And another! I was practically bouncing to and fro, throwing stalk after stalk of Agave into my bag. My heart was dancing with joy.

Hmmm, could it be that these Agave herbs only grew around dragon bones? If that’s true, that’s not too bad. This skeleton is huge, so there should be a lot of Agave growing right here, around it!

As a result, I ran all around the dragon skeleton, managing to find more than thirty stalks of Agave in the process, resulting in over 200 Agave in my inventory. However, even though my Herbalism skill let me gather around 7 Agave per stalk, I needed far more. I have to find some other dragon skeletons.

But it was at this moment that I heard a yell not too far away from where I was standing. "Second Brother, that’s the bastard who killed me! He’s inside that dragon skeleton! He’s definitely gathering Agave. Damn it, this punk really did come for the Agave herbs!"

"Let’s go!" A deep voice boomed out of some trees nearby. I looked up to see a familiar face. It was the Level 121 warrior who I had killed just now and he had brought a dozen people with him this time. The person who seemed to be leading this little band of ruffians was a big-bearded man riding on a warhorse. He was casually spinning the broadaxe in his hand as he approached me. There was an ominous glint in his eyes as he yelled at me, "Friend, you are gathering herbs in Mad Dragon’s territory and you even killed one of our brothers. What do you have to say for yourself?!"

I stood up and brandished my Cyan Netherworld Sword, a smile surfacing on my face. "I only came here to gather herbs. Besides, your brother was the one who attacked me first. My actions afterward were pure self-defense. Why do I even need to explain myself?"

"Fucking hell, you’re trying to be a smartass, huh?" the magic knight roared. A bloody light shone from the broadaxe in his hand as he spurred his warhorse toward me. He yelled, "You can take that smart mouth of yours to the grave! The dignity of the Mad Dragon guild is not to be impinged!"

I twirled my sharp sword in the air as I assumed a proper combat stance. I let out a dry chuckle as I said, "What fucking dignity does Mad Dragon even have left? I’ve been pissing all over your dignity since Chapter 6!"

"You’re looking to die!" the magic knight roared in anger. He suddenly activated his Charge skill, fiery energy erupting from the blade of his battle axe.

A smirk immediately formed on my face. This dumbass was a Level 127 magic knight but he was a fucking noob! He actually thought that he could use a simple Charge to hit an unmounted warrior? His warhorse wasn’t anything special either, so its turn rate had to be pretty abysmal. He’d basically doomed himself the moment he activated Charge. I only needed to shift slightly to the left or right to dodge his attack and the two seconds he would need to slow his horse down was all I needed to kill this hapless fool.

As my feet danced across the ground, I made a diagonal cut to my right and appeared three yards away from where I had previously been standing. This simple movement caused the magic knight’s rage to instantly vanish from his face. A look of shock soon replaced that rage as he realized that he hadn’t run into some noob. This was a second-class expert at the very least! He wouldn’t be able to deal with him as easily as he had originally thought!

MISS!

Just as I had predicted, the magic knight and his horse continued to charge forward several yards even after missing me with his attack. His mount’s abysmal turn rate also prevented him from whirling around to defend against my attacks, so I rushed in with my blade raised high in the air. I stamped on the ground, and an Eight Trigrams formation lit up the ground. A blazing spiral of indigo energy formed on the tip of the Cyan Netherworld Sword as it drilled through the magic knight’s shield and armor. I immediately followed that up with Burning Blade Slash. Three howling blades of fiery sword energy smashed into the unlucky magic knight as four damage numbers popped up above his head.

22098!

8762!

11023!

15239!

This magic knight’s Defense wasn’t bad, but his ruined body was still sent tumbling to the ground by my flurry attack. Even his warhorse had been killed by the explosions of flame.

The Mad Dragon players standing behind the magic knight stared at me with widened eyes. "That son of a bitch just killed Second Brother! Charge! Let’s kill this bastard and take revenge!"

I couldn’t help but grin when I heard those words. I stretched out a leg to kick up the broadaxe that the magic knight had dropped. Tsk, it was only a 1-star Outstanding Purple Gold–grade item. I kicked the shitty piece of iron contemptuously aside. This piece of trash wasn’t worth picking up.

"Hey, Second Brother’s weapon…"

The eyes of the dozen Mad Dragon players followed the arc of the flying broadaxe. After that, all of them immediately started scrambling after it. Just because I didn’t want the item didn’t mean that other people wouldn’t want it.

I took advantage of this moment of this distraction to dash forward and shoot Thousand Ice Slash in the direction of the broadaxe.

Boom!

Thousands of blades of icy sword energy erupted out of the Cyan Netherworld Sword before crashing into the crowd of players. All of them instantly collapsed to the floor in the aftermath of my attack. The archers and mages had been one-shot, and a few of the warriors followed soon after due to splash damage. My already insane attack power had been further boosted by Martial God’s 193%, so I had been able to send most of these scrubs to the grave with a single attack.

My sword drew a brilliant arc in the air as I cut through the remaining fighters. Not having much health left, all of them collapsed to the ground in a heap. Only a few seconds had passed since I had kicked that broadaxe away, but all of my enemies had been cleaved to death. That Level 121 warrior was now a Level 120. He stared at the Purple Gold–grade broadaxe longingly as he toppled to the ground. He then shot me a glare of resentment as he said, "That was too underhanded..."

……

I grinned as I looked at the array of equipment on the ground. It'd be a waste to just leave them lying on the ground, so I picked up all of the items, the Purple Gold–grade broadaxe included. I would sell them all when I returned to the city. I should be able to get a few grand for them. It was better than nothing!

I took a quick look around the area. There were definitely a lot of Mad Dragon players in Windmill Forest, and once news of this battle spread, the other players would start closing in on my position. Once that happened, it was very likely that I would soon be encircled and ambushed.

I wasn’t scared of taking on a few dozen people at once, but if there were too many enemies, a few concentrated barrages from a group of mages was still enough to send me to heaven! The thought of thousands of Ice Arrows, Windblades, and Fireballs smashing into my body instantly sent a shudder down my spine. Damn, the mere thought alone caused goosebumps to appear on my skin. Yup, I’m not gonna be a training dummy for Mad Dragon!

I continued to search for new dragon bones. While I was exploring the forest, I suddenly saw a large group of people burst out from the east. Shockingly enough, Inconstant was leading this group of people. He was riding a high-grade warhorse as he surveyed the area. "Goddammit, all of them had been killed off so quickly. Just who the hell is this OP son of a bitch? I can’t believe he killed all of them so quickly…"

A Level 120 mage at his side replied, "None of the ones who died could identify him. Their levels weren’t very high, so they couldn’t even see how high the enemy player’s level was. That means that his level is definitely higher than 135…"

Inconstant gritted his teeth in disbelief and frustration. "There are only around twenty players in the entire Sky City whose level is higher than 135! What is this dogshit luck of ours? Which expert did we offend this time?!” He ruminated for a moment before exploding. “Ahhh, who cares! We’ll find this guy, no matter what! We’ll even flip the entire Windmill Forest upside down if we have to! After that, we’ll rip him to shreds!"

My body trembled with barely-restrained laughter. Fuck, that punk Inconstant was getting a little too big for his britches!

The same mage replied, "Brother Inconstant, you should go over and help our boss. It seems like there’s a guild killing a boss over where he is. The guild leader wants to take advantage of the situation and kill both the boss monster and the guild once the boss monster’s HP has dropped to 10%!"

Inconstant grinned. "Alright, I got it. I’ll head over immediately. I want the rest of you to keep looking. Hmph, our imperial-grade herbalist is about to arrive. It’s said that these Agave plants are necessary to create Rank 10 assassin poisons. We need to monopolize the market while we can! Heh heh!"

……