"Gulp!"

I swallowed loudly. Have I ever called something a Divine Armament before? My apologies then, because this was the real Divine Armament! It might just be an item, but it could break class limitations themselves, and that could only be described as divine!

Up until this point, the reason a magic knight was able to dominate the battlefield of the Nation War was without a doubt thanks to their ability to equip a shield. It was because the stats of a shield were very similar to the total Defense provided by their chest armors, boots and helmets of the same grade. Shields held more stats than any one piece of equipment, and they increased parry chance as well. It was something no other equipment piece could compare with.

That was why Mark of the Divine Arm, an expendable item, that granted its user the ability to use a shield, was so invaluable.

……

"Wow, it looks like someone’s about to defy the heavens…" Murong Mingyue chuckled as her breasts swayed up and down to a breeze.

I shot a wary look at the exquisite beauty next to me and said, "Yiyi, you promised that you would give me any fighter-class equipment we pick up after the Seven Star Veluriyam Sword, right? So this Mark of the Divine Arm should belong to me… right?"

To my relief, Lin Yixin grabbed my arm and smiled sweetly at me. "Of course! This is all yours!"

Overjoyed, I used the Mark of the Divine Arm immediately!

Ding!

System Notice: Sorry, your Strength is below 6000. You cannot use the Divine item "Mark of the Divine Arm"!

……

"What the fuck!" It felt like someone had hit me with a bat.

Still holding on to my arm, Lin Yixin asked me, "What’s wrong, Little Cheat?"

I said sadly, "This fucking Mark of the Divine Arm has a Strength Requirement of 6000! Whoever designed this must be fucking shameless. Even a pure Strength Level 170 player like me only has a base Strength of 850 at most…"

Beiming Xue asked, "How much Strength do you have right now, big bro?"

I took a look and replied, "I have a total of 4755 Strength right now, so that means I’m 2245 Strength short."

Lin Yixin said expressionlessly, "No, you’re 1245 Strength short, stupid. Your Math teacher must’ve passed away at a young age…"

I cried a bit at that.

Lian Xin asked, "What should we do? Is there any way to fix this?"

But I shook my head as I replied, "I don’t know either. It’s not like I can magically conjure 1245 Strength out of nowhere."

It was at this moment Lin Yixin patted my arm and said, "Did you forget something, Little Cheat? My Devil Bell is a Cambrian Divine Armament that adds 1100 Strength, and the Seven Star Veluriyam Sword adds another 870 Strength. That should be more than enough to help you reach a total of 6000 Strength, don’t you think?"

Joy overwhelmed me for a moment. She’s right! I can’t believe I forgot all about the Devil Bell!

"In that case, please lend me your equipment for a moment, Yiyi! I’ll give them back to you right after I use the Mark of the Divine Arm?"

"No problem!"

After I received the Devil Bell and Seven Star Veluriyam Sword and equipped them, my Strength stat easily passed the 6000 mark. I tried using the item once more, and...

Swhoosh!

The mark turned into a bloody rune and floated atop my left arm for quite some time. Eventually, it imprinted itself onto my arm like a tattoo and became permanently bound to my avatar. Starting now, I could wield a shield with my left hand and a one-handed sword with my right!

"Hahaha! It worked!"

I was practically dancing with joy as I returned the Devil Bell and Seven Star Veluriyam Sword to Lin Yixin and reequipped my much lousier Cyan Netherworld Sword and Battle Flame Wristguards.

……

"Congratulations, big bro!" Beiming Xue beamed at me. "I can imagine the super offensive and defensive undead swordsman you’re going to become already!"

Lian Xin nodded in agreement. "Yeah. If Lu Chen didn't count as a main tank before, he does now. And unlike your usual main tank, OT can’t happen with him around because his Attack is as ridiculous as his Defense."

I looked inside my bag before gasping, "Actually, the ridiculous Defense part might have to wait for a bit. I don’t see a single shield in my bag…"

However, Lin Yixin came to my rescue yet again and passed me a pure black shield. "Don’t worry. See this Spirit-grade shield? I picked it up while we were killing the Bloody Fortress Defenders earlier. Here…"

To be honest, the shield wasn’t the finest thing to look at, and it looked more like a turtle’s shell than a proper shield. Still, its Defense was quite impressive—

Bloody Fortress Shield (Spirit-grade, Outstanding★★★★)

Defense: 2850

Magic Resist: 2400

Stamina: +190

Strength: +175

Parry Chance: +19%

Passive: Increases user’s Defense by 15%

Level Requirement: 165

Reputation: 80000

……

Well, this was a shield alright. I never thought that Spirit-grade equipment would be almost as good as my Level 160 Immortal-grade Heaven-burning Armor! How crazy was that?

Chiang! The Bloody Fortress Shield appeared around my left arm before fading into the rune on my left arm. When I tried to give it a swing, the shield immediately reappeared to block whatever was in my way. Tsk tsk, Eternal Moon Corporation never failed to come up with cool equipment visual effects.

Beiming Xue beamed. "Hehe, big bro is a super main tank now!"

I gave her a nod and said to Lin Yixin, "Dear, you may leave all the tanking to me from now on. I’ll block anything that tries to hurt you, so you just focus on being the damage dealer!"

Lin Yixin giggled as she gave her Seven Star Veluriyam Sword a wave. "Oh really? But my Attack is high, and I have Moon Gaze and Extreme Break. Are you sure you can out-DPS me?"

I grinned. "I trust you to control your rhythm and not OT…"

"Hehe!" The beautiful girl shot me a non-committal smile before continuing, "We’ve delayed long enough. Let’s distribute these enhancement gems and head to the inner area of Bloody Shield Domain already!"

"Yeah!"

The Licker was truly a generous boss. The sheer number of Rank 9, 10, 11 and 12 gems it dropped was enough to cover a section of the floor. I gave all the Attack-boosting Cyanfire Gems to Lin Yixin, and she embedded them all into her Seven Star Veluriyam Sword until only 1 slot was left, increasing the weapon’s hidden Attack by 55%. Gem drops from bosses was always a wonderful thing.

It was decided that the Defense-boosting Dragonstone Gems would be given to me, and I happily embedded them into my Heaven-burning Armor until it was fully stacked. In total, the gems increased by hidden Defense by 60%, an impressive amount to say the least. These days, it was considered "fashionably" embarrassing to wear a full set of top-tier equipment that didn’t have at least a Rank 8 gem embedded in them.

Finally, we gave Beiming Xue the speed-boosting Beast Haste gems and boosted her Windchaser War Boots to rank 11, or 11 slots taken, increasing her movement speed by a total of 55%. Thanks to this, she was as fast as a Dragonlight Cavalryman on foot, meaning that she could now join our Dragonlight Cavalry and wreak havoc with them if she felt like it!

……

We continued advancing toward the heart of Bloody Shield Domain after the loot was fully distributed.

Five hours had passed by before we knew it, and the guild channel was bustling with activity. While we were grinding the main quest, He Yi had taken Gui Guzi, Li Chengfeng, Chaos Moon and 50000 elites from the main guild to the edge of Bloody Shield Domain to take out and capture the Mingshes. Not only that, she also dispatched 100000 subguilders including the Bloody Mercenaries to the canyons beyond Bloody Shield Domain to grind the high-level Corpse Eaters over there. With this setup, we no longer had to fear the attacks of Candle Dragon, Mad Dragon, Hegemon Palace or other enemy guilds even if they learned about our activity. There was no guild in the entire China who dared to claim that they could take out 100000 Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls subguilders with minimal losses.

Of course, our efforts to keep a low profile were partially aided by the fact that the relationships in the China server were pretty unstable right now. While everyone was trying not to bash each other’s faces in and give the Northern Alliance or other enemy nations a chance to attack us, that didn’t mean that we were on amicable terms with each other. For example, the strongest force in Vanished God City was Blazing Hot Lips right now, and their very presence kept even the so-called strongest guild in China, Candle Dragon, in check. Candle Dragon wouldn’t dare to attack our main force in their domain, not to mention that most of the super guilds in Vanished God City were more or less on our side. Come See The Snow Tonight, the leader of Baidicheng was our ally, and the leader of Hunting Moon Dynasty, the CGL Hall of Famer Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties, respected our strength and honor. In fact, after he and He Yi became in-game friends, he started seeing himself as an ally of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls in most cases. Therefore, there was almost a 100% chance that he would challenge anyone who would dare to attack us in his domain!

"Ahem!"

I let out a cough in the guild channel before saying, "So, how is everyone doing in Bloody Shield Domain so far? This map is full of profits, right?"

Gui Guzi replied with a hearty laugh, "Oh yes, this map is seriously amazing. I leveled up not long after we arrived, not to mention these Level 1 baby Mingshes are super cute! Li and I both caught a Mingshe already. We look forward to unleashing Mingshe Storms in all future Nation Wars, haha!"

He Yi let out a chuckle and said, "I already have the Firelight Mouse, so I won’t be getting a Mingshe for myself."

Chaos Moon complained, "These brutes are ravenous, man! Did you know that they swept through an entire section of a forest in ten minutes?? A lot of people have gotten a Level 1 Mingshe already, but I haven’t even seen its goddamn shadow! Woe is me!"

Xu Yang said placatingly, "Calm down, you’ll find a baby Mingshe eventually. That being said, I do think that Dragonlight Cavalry and mages should get first dibs on Level 1 Mingshes."

He Yi asked me, "Xu Yang has a point, Lu Chen. What do you think?"

I replied with a smile, "Why not? By the way, I checked the guides already, and I can confirm that a baby Mingshe can sit on their master’s shoulder and launch their attacks from there. This means that our Dragonlight Cavalry will be able to use Hoof Trample and Mingshe Storm when they’re charging. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see the northern bastards’ faces already!"

Li Chengfeng laughed loudly, "Please stop, you’re making me all hot and bothered now…"

Heaven’s Rain: "Excuse us??? You will not get hot and bothered over vice leader big bro! He belongs to us, you hear me!?"

Li Chengfeng stuttered in fright. "Beauty Rain, are you alright? I’m as straight as they come…"

Gui Guzi: "Bullshit, you’ve been gay for a long time now…"

"Your sister’s gay!" Li Chengfeng raged. "How dare you sully my reputation, Little Gui! Take this: Dragonblade Revolution!"

"Oh yeah? Watch my unbeatable technique: invincibility + return scroll!"

Chaos Moon: "..."

……

Everything was progressing smoothly. Our main force had entered Bloody Shield Domain and begun tackling the Mingshe horde. I was sure that they would be a huge boost to everyone’s pet fighting power. Not only that, Purple Marquis of Snowy Cathaya had joined us as well. They traded friendly greetings with our players before moving to a separate location to capture the baby Mingshes.

……

Rustle rustle…

Our party stepped across the tiled floor and emerged on the opposite side of the fortress. We were greeted by the sight of a barren canyon that reeked with the stench of death. I had no doubt that something was waiting for us in this dark place.

"Let’s go!" I declared with a raise of my sword.