Rustle rustle rustle...

The leaves were wet with autumn dew, but they barely made a sound as I stepped on them with the Divine Martial War Boots, not to mention that it was softer than the sound of rustling trees in the area. It was a cool and comfortable morning, and the thought that I could earn experience from killing people only made me happier.

I didn’t summon the Phantom Wolf King because it had the habit of letting out an ear-piercing howl upon making an appearance, and the last thing I needed was for everyone to know that I was here. I could handle dozens of ten-man parties without problems, but hundreds or even thousands of players? I wasn’t that vain. This was especially true if the parties had a high number of magic knights and archers. Shock Arrows and Trapping Nets were the bane of peak-level experts like me. There was absolutely nothing we could do if we were stunned or immobilized.

……

"That magic knight called From Water is so cute. Her face is cute, her breasts are wholesome, her waist is thin and her butt is just the right shape. Tsk tsk, I was going to steal a kiss from her at that time, but that goddamned brute called Hot Sun killed me before I could do so…"

The axe wielder sounded incredibly sad for having missed the opportunity. "I should’ve activated Charge, dammit. I wouldn’t mind dying right after if god gave me another chance to fix my mistake…"

The assassin laughed. "Hahaha, no wonder you’re the boss. Your wisdom knows no bounds…"

Before he could finish, I abruptly appeared behind their boss and stabbed him through the chest. Then, I activated Burning Blade Slash and killed the assassin, a magic knight and a couple mages to shreds. Just like that, seven players of the ten-man party had died!

The remaining three players panicked. The archer Leaped away while the warrior tried to rush me. I simply hit him with Pardon + basic attack, dealt 190k damage, and killed him where he stood. I moved on to killing the priest with two well-placed Dragon Slaying Slashes. It was around this time the archer shouted, "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand online! The mad killer is finally online!"

Whoosh!

I flung the Purple Ying Sword at the archer and blew a huge hole at the center of his chest with Coiling Dragon Revolution, one-shotting him. Unfortunately, he managed to holler out in warning before I killed him, so the enemy pretty much knew where I was now!

I took a moment to look at my experience bar. It was just one ten-man party, but my experience still jumped to Level 195 and 22%. Killing someone in Final Duel Valley was an inhuman thing, but if it was a Japanese player then it could only be a joyful and happy experience.[1]

……

I summoned the Armored Ice Qilin Horse, mounted up, and slipped into the mist next to me. I couldn’t stay in one place for long, or it would be all too easy for my enemy to surround and kill me. I also took the opportunity to summon the Phantom Wolf King and use a Ghost Chariot Card to strengthen myself. I had a total of 100 Ghost Chariot Cards in my bag, and I had 64 left after the Nation War. It should be enough to last me for a while. Its buffs to Attack and armor penetration were perfect for this type of battle.

I looked down at my arm and noted that the Ancient Divine Dragon had grown a bit bigger after partaking in around 30% of the experience I had gotten. It was still a long way from reaching adulthood though. I would have to kill thousands, if not ten thousand players at least before I could finally pump it to Level 100. It was an acceptable price, however. Immortal Rank mounts didn’t even exist at the current stage of the game, so it made sense that my Divine Rank mount would have such a hard limitation to it.

Pa pa pa...

The sound of hooves crunching against the wet maple leaves rang constantly in my ears. While riding, I brought up the world map and activated Dark Pupils to increase my vision range so drastically that I could see every target within 1000 yards of me on it. This meant that I could identify the weaker points of the enemy’s formation, but the enemy wouldn’t be able to see my dot on the world map. Dark Pupils was amazing like this. The Asura-exclusive skill might appear basic at first glance, but it was critical in open world PvP battles like this.

I saw a 40-man party to the southeast. It was also the weakest party of all the forces who were coming after me. Very well, you are first!

I paid close attention to the terrain so that I didn’t accidentally ride into a dead end. The moment I was within range of the enemy, the Armored Ice Qilin Horse let out a long neigh, and both the Phantom Wolf King and I charged them before they could react.

Swhoosh!

I raised the Purple Ying Sword, found a good angle and fired Thousand Ice Slash, tearing apart countless archers, assassins and warriors with high Attack and splash effect. All the players who were standing close to me were either dead or lamenting their misfortune. At least 20 enemies had been hit by the skill.

The Phantom Wolf King roared and slipped in between the crowd, killing a couple low-health players with casual swipes here and there. I myself had circled to another side and caught the enemy in a pincer attack, killing everyone left standing in my way. The party had been caught completely off-guard, so they were barely able to put up any sort of resistance at all. One of the archers had just notched an arrow when I put my sword through his chest. It was futile.

The battle was over less than half a minute later. As I stared at the floor of bodies, equipment and potions, the super-tier ability I had been honing when grinding with the girls came active. One glance was all it took for me to identify what equipment was worth looting, and what wasn’t. I picked up a golden ring, and just as I thought it was an Earth-grade item that increased Attack by 19%. These days, any equipment with +10% Attack or higher was incredibly popular, and this one might as well be a Divine Armament in the eyes of the plebs. I tossed it into my bag and plotted to sell it when I could return to Sky City once more. There was always time to make bank!

I picked up a couple more shields and war boots, but that was all. I had very little time to cherry pick while my enemies were still hot on my tail!

I looked at the world map again and noted that a ring of red dots was closing on my location at high speed. I was sure the Purple Grape City players were communicating with each other, or they couldn’t have found me out this quickly.

Unfortunately for them, the Armored Ice Qilin Horse was too fast. I was able to break out of the encirclement from a corner and even kill an assassin who attempted to ambush me. As I picked up his dagger and leather boots, I noted that Final Duel Valley was practically heaven to a top-tier expert. Anyone who died here had a 70% chance of dropping their equipment, and in the case they were killed by me, it was even worse thanks to my super high Luck stat. Moreover, they were no Li Chengfeng or Heaven’s Rain. It would take them at least two to three months before they could even grind back to their current level.

I couldn’t deny a sense of satisfaction. In fact, now that I thought about it, in a way I was repaying my country by killing the Japanese players and zeroing their level. The China server might not recognize me right now, but my blood was as Chinese as anyone else in the country’s. They could reject me, but I still would willingly sacrifice blood and sweat for the word "China"!

Suddenly, my eyes narrowed when I looked to my right flank. It was because I saw a vulgar-looking magic knight approaching my position with an orange shield in his hand. Motherfucker, it had to be Heaven-grade at the very least. No way I was letting go of this loot!

Swhoosh!

I activated Earth Escape and slipped underground. The Phantom Wolf King also let out a low growl and entered stealth as well. Tsk tsk, who said that a warrior couldn’t be stealthy? Sure, this was pretty despicable all things considered, but it was worth it for a Heaven-grade shield!

A group of players emerged from the morning mist led by none other than the vulgar-looking magic knight I spotted earlier. He looked around 25 years old or so with thin eyebrows. He asked his subordinates in a low voice, "Fuck, where did that kid go? How did he disappear like a ghost? He can’t have teleported back to his city, can he? What a coward!"

The mage beside him said, "That’s definitely not the case, young master. Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand lost his nationality and is now an unaffiliated player, so his return scrolls are practically a waste of space. There’s nowhere he can teleport to even if he wanted to. He could’ve logged out of the game, but I heard that he’s as proud as they came. There’s no way he would log out and admit defeat."

"Hmph. Send out the assassins and archers and drag him out of his hole. He must die in our hands. I will tell Red Maple that Devil’s Domain can do what his God’s Domain cannot!"

"Yes, young master!"

It took all of my energy not to burst out laughing. I could hardly believe that I had encountered a modern day young master. Don’t they feel embarrassed addressing each other as such? Whatever, I was going to enjoy this kill. Hell, it was the destiny of any short ugly poverty-stricken person like me to kill a young master like him...

I slowly approached him while controlling the Phantom Wolf King to encircle the group from the other direction. Currently, the young master was surrounded by less than a hundred players, and a large majority of them were mages and priests. I supposed that he wasn’t stupid. He knew that the greatest counter to a metal-armor class like me was a super powerful single-target spell like Touch of the Dragonkiss. Assuming that one Touch of the Dragonkiss could deal ten thousand damage to me, then a dozen should be almost enough to kill me.

However, he seemed unaware of the fact that Touch of the Dragonkiss had a slightly longer casting time compared to other spells. Anyone whose reaction speed was lower than 0.5 seconds could dodge the spell with ease. He Yi, Gui Guzi and Chaos Moon all could perform this feat, so of course I could dodge the attacks as well.

When the time was right, I leaped out of my hiding spot!

I activated Great Earth Transformation right after my body took form next to the young master. I then pressed my sword to the young master’s chest and unleashed Burning Blade Slash. Surprisingly, he was able to raise his shield and nullified at least 30% of the skill’s damage despite being caught completely off-guard. His shield flashed blue every time the flaming auras hit it.

Pa pa pa…

The young master had less than 40% HP left, and the mages and priests behind him had all been killed. I had activated both Great Earth Transformation and Martial God, so the first hit of my Burning Blade Slash alone was enough to break through their shield. That the second and third hit would one-shot a cloth-armor player was just the natural outcome.

"The bastard can go into stealth! Heal me now!"

The young master shouted as he retreated, but the priests behind him were busy burning to death. I had made the Phantom Wolf King use Purgatory Storm while they were distracted.

"Hehe!"

I charged toward the young master one last time as a cyan-colored bagua diagram appeared beneath my feet. A moment later, Universe Break pierced his shield and killed him where he stood!

Pop…

The young master dropped to Level 0, and I caught his dropped shield even before it hit the ground. As I thought, it had a passive skill that had a 75% chance of nullifying 40% of the damage he took! What an incredible loot!

The battle wasn’t over yet though, so I fired one more Thousand Ice Slash before resummoning the Armored Ice Qilin Horse. A minute later, I turned my back on the floor of corpses and left the battlefield, looking cool as hell...

1. (Author’s Note: I think joyful and happy means the same thing? Whatever, my language class was taught by my sports teacher anyway…)