Clang!

The Cyan Netherworld Sword stabbed into the stone ground, seemingly summoning the soul of a divine dragon that had been slumbering beneath the ground. In the next instant, purple energy began to coalesce into existence around the sword and ancient symbols made of faint cyan light began to spread out from around my feet. My entire body started to tremble as countless streams of energy surged into me with great vigor!

I forcefully pulled the Cyan Netherworld Sword out from the ground. A large cluster of purple energy had already formed on its tip at this time. I immediately activated God’s Rage and unleashed Purple Dragon Howl! The huge cluster of energy shot out from the tip of my sword and instantly obliterated everything that it touched. The fragments it left in its wake swirled violently in the air, as a small hurricane began to form around it.

The swarming purple energy dragons slammed straight into the Mad Warrior’s chest like a storm conjured by a heavenly dragon. Buffett let out a howl of rage as the first dragon head hit him. He tried to swing his axe at the storm of draconic energy, but he just couldn’t defend against it.

God’s Rage ensured that all of my hits would be critical hits for the next sixty seconds!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A string of damage numbers flew up in the air. My heart sang with joy when I saw the ultimate expression of my incredible attack power.

90468!

94220!

92124!

……

After he suffered a dozen more hits from my empowered Purple Dragon Howl, Buffett let out a miserable wail and collapsed to the ground in a heap. The Purple Dragon Howl had destroyed an arm and half of his head with its incredible power. I grinned with satisfaction when I saw the destruction it had wrought on the Mad Warrior’s body.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three people had successfully killed a Level 170 Heaven Rank boss. This was definitely something that had never been done before! In a single instant, I shot up four levels. I had lost two levels due to dying twice, but I had more than made up for that loss with the death of this boss. I was finally Level 148, only two levels away from the ultimate cut-off point!

Both He Yi and Murong Mingyue didn’t gain as many levels as I did, but they still managed to gain three levels each. Everyone had made out like bandits after this boss fight.

Furthermore, the Mad Warrior had dropped an incredible amount of items when he died. This boss caused our items to drop like crazy when he killed us, but he had also dropped a similar amount of items when it was his turn to be killed!

"Okay, we did it!"

I walked up and sliced off Buffett’s head with a single stroke of my sword. I tossed the quest item into my inventory and coolly kicked the Mad Warrior’s body aside. A huge pile of loot was glimmering directly below me.

"Hohoho, just as expected! He really did drop a lot of items!" Murong Mingyue crowed with joy.

I nodded my head and picked up all of the items. We had to secure the items first so that no assassin could try to steal these items from us. This was also part of the reason that I had used Purple Dragon Howl to kill Buffett. It was an AoE skill, so any assassins near him would have been torn to shreds by it. However, I did have Dark Pupils activated. It was quite unlikely for any assassin, NPC or player, to be close and steal these items from us.

When I stared at the string of items in front of me, my eyes started to swim. There was a pair of metal gauntlets that glowed with a mysterious metallic sheen and ancient symbols floating about them. It was clear that this was no ordinary item

The next item was an exquisite longbow made from dragon bones. The bones that had been used to make this bow seemed to be very special and I could even faintly hear the roar of a dragon emanating from it. Yeah, this bow would definitely be OP as fuck!

There were three more items. A translucent, beautiful shield, a golden pendant in the shape of a sword, and a sharp sword shining with golden light. All of these items looked to be Earth-grade at the very worst.

He Yi’s tiny hands balled up into fists as she stared at those items with fevered eyes. Murong Mingyue was also staring at the items with nervous excitement as she waited for me to share their stats. The two girls squealed with delight as they said, "Wah! Are we going to get a Heaven-grade item? Are we going to get a Heaven-grade item?"

I laughed. "Well, only the heavens know right now, but we’re about to find out!"

As I said that, I waved my hand over the first item, the gauntlets glowing with mysterious metallic light. A hologram of its stats appeared in the air, causing the mouths of the two girls to drop open. They had never imagined that the first item that Buffett had dropped would already be so OP.

Battle Flame Wristguards (Earth-grade, Outstanding★★★★★)

Defense: 850

Magic Resist: 700

Strength: +165

Stamina: +160

Tactics: +31

Passive: Increases user’s physical attack power by 25%

Passive: Increases user’s chance to parry by 20%

Slots: 5

Outstanding Property: Raging Flames. Grants user a 10% chance to apply Burning effect to their target with every attack. Burning will deal 25% of the target’s HP in damage over 10 seconds. The effect is weakened against bosses.

Level Requirement: 145

……

Holy shit, it was actually an 5-star Outstanding Earth-grade item! Awesome!

My eyes widened into saucers. Both the offensive and defensive stats on this item were incredible! It boosted all physical attacks by 25% and it also had that Raging Flames passive! However, the thing that really caught my eye was its last passive, which improved the user’s chance to parry a blow by 20%. This effect would greatly heighten any player’s ability to parry attacks and it was even more invaluable than a critical hit when it came to fighting experts like Candlelight Shadow or Farewell Song. After all, when you went up against the best opponents, the strength of your attacks was never the most important factor. You needed to be able to hit your opponents first, and if you couldn’t do that, then even the strongest attack would be useless.

I immediately threw the Battle Flame Wristguards into my bag and pointed at the sword. "Eve, I’m taking these Battle Flame Wristguards. You can take the sword, I don’t care what stats it has! Even though your Whirlwind is one of the game’s trademark Level 120 weapons, you’ve already hit Level 142, so it’s high time that you got a new weapon. The Whirlwind is only a Spirit-grade weapon too, so it really is time for a change."

He Yi gave a helpless laugh. "Alright, you can take the wristguards. The Soul of the Earth Bracers that you’re using right now are Purple Gold–grade, right? I can’t believe that our Little Heavenly King is still wearing that tattered old thing! Honestly, I had grown quite irritated seeing you run around wearing those inferior bracers. If you hadn’t stopped me the last time, I would have already gotten you a pair of Earth-grade wristguards from the auction house!"

"Please don’t! As professional gamers, we should always be selling equipment, not buying it! I started from the bottom and now I’m here! I won’t break my personal rules over some bracers, haha."

As I said that, I equipped the Battle Flame Wristguards. A pair of ebon gauntlets appeared on my arms and they looked extremely menacing. They were much better looking than my Soul of the Earth Bracers. These Battle Flame Wristguards were also a Outstanding 5-star item, so my stats had definitely gone up by a good amount.

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

Class: Undead Swordsman (Platinum Swordsman)

Level: 148

HP: 30970

Attack: 2852~3530

Defense: 4565

Magic Resist: 4110

Reputation: 259480

Tactics: 414

Luck: 38

……

As a mount-less melee player, my HP had finally hit the 30000 mark. My basic Defense and Magic Resist were both above 4000 points in raw stats. This was an excellent thing, because all of the percentage bonuses given to a player by their equipment scaled off the base stats. Logically, the higher the base, the higher the flat increase. Furthermore, these raw stats were also what Famous General Skills, buffs, and stratagems took into account, so the higher they were, the better!

It was just like learning martial arts in a wuxia novel. Even if a person managed to learn ultimate techniques like the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms, the Sunflower Manual, and the Breast-grabbing Dragon Claws, they still needed internal energy to use these skills. Raw stats were similar to internal energy. The stronger one’s internal energy, the stronger one’s skills would be! [1]

After that, I picked up the longbow made of dragon bone, which shone with a menacing light. I waved a hand over this priceless treasure, causing its stats to appear in the air. Our jaws immediately hit the ground as we stared at the bow in shock. Weren’t we just a little too lucky today?

Dragonbone String (Earth-grade★★★★★★)

Attack: 1150~1375

Agility: +185

Stamina: +190

Tactics: +55

Passive: Increases user’s physical attack power by 45%

Passive: All of the user’s bow skills will do 30% splash damage.

Slots: 7

Outstanding Property: Proud Dragon. There is a 1% chance of unleashing a Proud Dragon Arrow when attacking. The Proud Dragon Arrow will deal extreme damage to all targets in front of the user.

Introduction: In ancient times, wicked dragons used to wander around the borders of the human realm. Occasionally, one of these evil and violent dragons would descend the human world to kill and destroy, and there was no evil that they would not commit. The protectors of the continent gathered in response to this threat and killed the evil dragons who resided in those ancient mountains. They took their bones and gave them to the mountain dwarves. The best divine smith amongst the dwarves chose to forge these dragon bones into a weapon. He used the spine to make the body and the tendons to make the string. After many years of painstaking labor, he finally crafted a divine weapon, the Dragonbone String.

Level Requirement: 145

……

When I picked up the Dragonbone String, I felt a bone-chilling power seep into my hands. Damn, this bow was OP as hell! Its attack power wasn’t much different from my Cyan Netherworld Sword, and it even gave all bow skills an additional 30% splash damage. This meant an archer’s Multi Arrow and Volley would deal splash damage as well! That would easily double any archer’s DPS!

It also had the Outstanding Property "Proud Dragon”. It only had a 1% chance to trigger, but it would hit every enemy in front of the user. It was definitely similar to my Cyan Netherworld Sword’s dragon soul attack! Even though there was only a 1% chance to trigger this skill, it would absolutely turn the tides of a battle once it was triggered! Archers were an Agility-based class, so their attack speed was extremely high in the first place. This meant that the actual proc rate of this skill would be far higher than the description might suggest.

As I looked at the Dragonbone String, a faint smile appeared on my face, "It looks like we’ve found Lil Beiming’s Level 145 weapon. A 6-star Outstanding Earth-grade weapon. This weapon is nuts…"

He Yi couldn’t help but laugh. "Yeah, give it to Beiming when we get back to the city. Heehee, Lil Beiming’s equipment keeps on improving and she grows ever closer to her goal of becoming the best archer in China."

I gave a soft sigh as my smile turned into a grin and I said, "Perhaps she already is."

……

After I said that, I carefully stored the Dragonbone String into my inventory. This item was really quite precious. I instinctively handled it with the greatest care.

Next up was that exquisite-looking shield made of a translucent, crystalline material. It really did look like a work of art.

Crystal Shield (Earth-grade, Outstanding★★★)

Defense: 1250

Magic Resist: 1100

Strength: +165

Stamina: +170

Tactics: +19

Passive: Increases user’s max HP by 2400.

Passive: Increases user’s Defense by 40%

Slots: 5

Outstanding Property: Crystalline Thorns. When defending against an attack, there is a very high chance that crystal spikes will shoot out from the shield and strike the enemy, dealing great damage to them.

……

Hmmm, it was a pretty good shield.

"Eve, this shield is yours," I said as I prepared to pass the Crystal Shield to her.

He Yi stared at the Crystal Shield longingly before she shook her head and said, "Forget it. The shield that I’m using right now is pretty good as well. It’s about as good as the Crystal Shield. You should give this shield to either Heaven’s Rain or Diamond Dust. Our two lady Knight Generals are very popular right now…"

1. Breast-grabbing Dragon Claws, or 抓奶龍爪, is a joke skill from Wong Jing and Stephen Chow’s comedic take on the Deer and the Cauldron. The first two skills, however, are legit ultimate techniques from the other Jin Yong novels. The Sunflower Manual is famous for requiring its user to castrate themselves though, lol.