A pitch-black, long shape mob slithered out of the bush at this moment. It attracted the girls’ gazes and rescued me from the predicament I was in. Murong Mingyue was just too powerful in that department, and not even I could discard my shame completely to fend off her "attack”.

"That’s…" Lin Yixin muttered while staring at the mob. She couldn’t find the words to describe her feelings.

The black scaly creature slithering across the black soil was a snake. It was less than two meters long, and its appearance was nothing special. However, it was Level 200 and 10 levels higher than the centipede mob—I could already foresee the sudden spike in difficulty—and the thumping noise we heard from before actually came from its rattling tail.

I moved forward slowly and caught its stats with Dark Pupils. I then shared the info inside the party channel—

Mingshe (Dread)

Level: 200

Magic Attack: 7500~10200

Defense: 9000

HP: 1000000

Skills: Flameball, Venomous Bite, Mingshe Storm

Introduction: The Mingshe is a beast that has lived on this continent since ancient times. It is said to be a natural controller of the wind element, and it can rattle its tail to disrupt the movement of wind sprites, greatly increasing the attack power of its wind magic. Proficient with wind magic, a tamed Mingshe once became famous during the human wars.

……

"God damn, a magic mob with over 10k Magic Attack…" A grimace crossed my face as I asked, "How much Magic Attack do you have, Lian Xin? Is it comparable to this snake’s?"

Lian Xin blushed. "Why do you need to know? Excessive comparison is bad, big bro…"

"Just tell me already."

"It’s over 5.5k, but not 6k yet…"

I was dumbfounded by what I heard. Lin Yixin also shot Lian Xin a look of surprise. "Your Magic Attack is over 5.5k?"

"Yeah, why?"

The Fruit Knife Goddess replied, "Our strongest mage, Shadow Chanel, only has a bit over 4.7k. I wasn’t expecting your Magic Attack to exceed hers by this much…"

Lian Xin: "..."

I spoke up. "Alright, enough. It is as Lian Xin said, excessive comparison is bad. Anyway, Yiyi, let’s charge that Mingshe together, shall we? Considering how high its Magic Attack is, it’ll be bad if it landed a hit on Beiming Xue."

"Mn."

I locked onto Mingshe from afar and launched a Dragon Slaying Slash straight at its head. A huge damage number immediately rose above its head—31827!

It didn’t matter how high its Magic Attack was, my attacks were always going to penetrate its Defense easily. My base Attack might be 5970, but with my equipment and skills, my effective Attack must be over 30000. There was no way a magic-type mob like the Mingshe could withstand it.

"Hiss hiss…"

The Mingshe raised its ugly head, opened its mouth and slithered straight toward me. Before it could even get close though, I charged it and stunned it where it was. I then followed up with a devastating Burning Blade Slash.

Lin Yixin joined in as well, and the Mingshe lost almost 300k HP in 3 seconds. If the mob had a mind, it would be quaking in fear right now.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to delete 1 million HP immediately, no matter how high our Attack was. The moment it broke free from its stun, the Mingshe’s tail rattled harder before it spat a ball of flames at me. It was its skill, Flameball!

Pa!

The ball smacked against my Heaven-burning Armor and scorched my flesh, dealing over 17000 damage. The power of 10000 Magic Attack shocked even Murong Mingyue, "OMG! Did a mob just deal over ten thousand damage to our Little Heavenly King?"

That wasn’t all. The Mingshe lifted its head high, rattled its tail and cast a big spell—Mingshe Storm!

Boom!

I felt like my body was being ripped apart as a cyclone engulfed me and Lin Yixin. At the same time, a damage number rose above my and Lin Yixin’s head—

21973!

26828!

I fared better than Lin Yixin because my equipment was better overall. Lin Yixin had the Devil Bell, but the rest of her equipment was only Earth-grade, and her equipment set was incomplete and incapable of withstanding the Mingshe’s firepower. As a result, the Moonchaser Tiger let out a painful groan as it staggered backward. This Mingshe Storm was instantaneous and deadly!

Chiang chiang chiang!

Less than half a minute later, the Mingshe lay dead on the ground. We had Murong Mingyue to heal us, but the Mingshe didn’t.

"Continue!"

I picked up the equipment dropped by the Mingshe—Spirit-grade leather-armor wristguards that added 31 Tactics—and said, "This Mingshe is too powerful to lure a group and AoE them down, so we’ll have to kill them one by one. Any more than two and there’s a real chance we might be wiped."

"It’s fine, big bro! We trust in your and Sister Lin Yixin’s tough skin!" Beiming Xue said.

Me: "..."

We continued forward. It was easy to deduce where a Mingshe was just by looking for unnatural movement amid the bushes, and very soon, Lian Xin baited out another Mingshe with a Dragon’s Roar. We managed to take out the mob at the cost of one Mingshe Storm.

There was another pop, but this time the mob dropped a card instead of an equipment. Pleasant surprise filled me when I picked it up and saw its description—

Mingshe Card: Heart of Magic. Increases user’s Magic Attack by 60%, and casting time is reduced by 25%. Duration: 120 minutes. Level Requirement: 170.

……

I immediately tossed the card into Lian Xin’s hands and said with a smile, "Use it, Lian Xin. Plus 60% Magic Attack! I’ve never seen a stronger magic-based card!"

However, Lian Xin blinked at the card once before asking in a small voice, "Big brother Lu Chen, can I save this for later? I… I’ll use it when we find another Mingshe card. I just can’t bear to waste it on grinding unless I have more to spare…"

"Sure, do whatever you like…"

A giggling Murong Mingyue hugged Lian Xin’s shoulders and said, "Hehe, our Little Xin is getting better and better at housekeeping, I see! You’ve even learned how to stock up on ‘food’!"

Lian Xin turned bright red. "Cut it out, Sister Mingyue…"

We went back to grinding after that little intermission. As it turned out, the Mingshe had crazy Magic Attack, but its drop rate was equally crazy. It dropped something almost 100% of the time, and even at the worst, it dropped at least Phantasmal Magic Stones. When the seventh Mingshe dropped another Mingshe card, Lian Xin gladly used the card she had hoarded, boosting her Magic Attack and casting speed. For the next two hours to come, she would be practically unbeatable.

When noon arrived, we set up tents and logged out of the game temporarily. The three girls and I went downstairs to eat some fast food while Lin Yixin ate the fast food she had asked Clear Perfume to pack for her. Thirty minutes of rest later, we returned to the game and continued our conquest of Bloody Shield Domain.

……

After we passed through a couple of mountain ridges and killed all the mobs that happened to be in our way, we officially left the fringes of the map and got closer to the heart of Bloody Shield Domain. The NPCs were looking everywhere for the undead, but so far, the only undeads within the vicinity were still Beiming Xue and I. Of course, I was an Asura King, so I looked exactly like a human being. Beiming Xue was a pretty woman and a natural Asura from the very start of the game, so normal human NPCs couldn’t see through her disguise. We could probably cook these NPCs for dinner, and they still wouldn’t know that we were undead.

As we continued, the bush in front of us shook unnaturally once more. It had to be another Mingshe!

Rustle rustle…

However, all tension left our bodies when this particular Mingshe crawled into the open. It was because it was smaller than the Mingshes we had encountered so far, and the text above its head revealed its true colors—

Mingshe (Dread)

Level: 1

……

It was Level 1, and as we all knew, a Level 1 mob was a capturable pet!

Everyone’s eyes widened in greed for a moment. None of us was expecting to run into a pet mob here of all places, let alone a magic-type pet that could unleash that devastating Mingshe Storm. It would be like carrying a mini mage around with you.

"Er… does anyone here have a Sealing Card?" Murong Mingyue asked.

I nodded. "Yep. I have a full set of unused Sealing Cards, all 1000 of them…"

Lin Yixin, Beiming Xue and Lian Xin nodded as well.

Murong Mingyue sighed. "It’s too bad we all have our pets already, not to mention that the Mingshe isn’t a boss pet. It just isn’t worth releasing our current pets for it. It’s such a shame though…"

Lian Xin echoed in agreement. "Yeah, it’s a shame…"

However, I said, "Now, now, it’s too early to give up just yet."

"What?" Both girls faced toward me in unison.

I looked at Lin Yixin and asked, "Yiyi, do you still have the Creature Holding Stones?"

Lin Yixin pouted. "Bastard, I knew you would want to use my babies…"

"What’s a Creature Holding Stone?" Beiming Xue asked in puzzlement.

I explained, "It’s a tradeable item that you can use to temporarily seal a pet. You can also sell it to another player. Not bad, right? Knowing Yiyi, she must’ve brought a lot of Creature Holding Stones with her, right Yiyi? Hehe."

"Hmph hmph…" Lin Yixin rolled her eyes at me before replying, "Yes, I’ve prepared 100 Creature Holding Stones. We’ll split it evenly, or 20 per person, I guess."

"That’s awesome! Hehe!" Beiming Xue and Murong Mingyue immediately clapped their hands and praised Yiyi.

Even Lian Xin looked a bit embarrassed as she accepted the 20 Creature Holding Stones from Lin Yixin. She nodded at the wanderer and said, "Thank you…"

Lin Yixin didn’t respond to the thanks. She simply said, "Well, let’s get sealing. May the lucky one get the Mingshe as their pet!"

……

And so the five of us tossed our Sealing Cards at the Mingshe at the same time. The cards spun in a circle above the Mingshe’s head before turning into a powerful magical sealing formation. Surprisingly, the Mingshe was sealed immediately, and it flew into Beiming Xue’s Creature Holding Stone!

"Wah! I did it!" Beiming Xue exclaimed in pleasant surprise.

I said, "Share its stats with us?"

"Yeah."

The beautiful dark archer waved her hand and showed us the Level 1 Mingshe’s stats screen—

Mingshe (Dread Pet)

Level: 1

Intelligence: 65

Defense: 58

HP: 45

Agility: 32

Growth——

Magic Attack: ★★★★★★★★★

Defense: ★★★★★★★★

HP: ★★★★★★☆

Agility: ★★★★★★★☆

Skills: Flameball (Level 20), Venomous Bite (Level 50), Mingshe Storm (Level 100)