Pa!

Beiming Xue shot a Shock Arrow into the Black Dragon’s eye, spilled its blood and stunned it for 1.7 seconds. I only had 57% HP left, so I immediately took a step back and allowed Murong Mingyue and Pure Love to heal me. While waiting, I checked out the long, deep gashes on my Cyan Dragon Shield. Not only did the black dragon have a high Attack, it possessed some sort of durability-devouring effect as well. Every time it triggered, my shield would lose 3% of its durability. It was clear that the Cyan Dragon Shield had become a thorn in the black dragon’s side, and it wouldn’t be satisfied unless it was wholly destroyed.

Unfortunately for the black dragon, I still had the equipment durability recovery potion Lin Yixin gave me in my bag. It could restore 100% durability instantly. It would never be able to destroy my shield before it perished, not to mention that the Cyan Dragon Shield was a Sacred Armament, meaning that it regenerated durability very quickly. It could recover at least 10% durability per hour. If the rate at which the boss wore down my shield was faster than expected, I could take a break and regenerate some durability as well. With luck, the black dragon and Mingyu would kill themselves through sheer indignation!

……

"Come forth, draconic flames of darkness! Burn everything to dust!"

The earth rocked under the black dragon’s roar, and jets of black flame scorched everything within a 100-yard radius. Thankfully, the skill had a long channeling time, so Beiming Xue, Lian Xin and the rest of the squishies were able to escape out of range before it struck. The three of us protected ourselves, and Lin Yixin drank a Rank 12 HP potion the moment the Giant Dragon Flame Curse struck her. We were all able to survive the boss's killer move!

Golden light suddenly erupted from my Chill of the Nine Provinces. I couldn’t let an OT happen while Lin Yixin and He Yi were retreating, so I made the snap decision to unleash my SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skill, Xuanyuan Slash!

Buzz buzz!

The golden light illuminated the sky of the third floor. It struck Tiggris and Mingyu with earth-shattering power and elicited a painful groan from both. Moreover, a chilly sensation had entered my palm during the swing, so I realized that the attack had triggered the Chill of the Nine Provinces’ septuple damage effect. A huge damage number rose from the boss's head, and a massive chunk of HP disappeared from its health bar just like that—

15002470!

+3000494!

……

Another reason I decided to use the Xuanyuan Slash at near point blank range was because the Giant Dragon Flame Curse had left me with 10% HP only. As expected, the lifesteal took effect even when the boss was less than 5 yards away from me. I instantly returned to full health!

Behind me, the girls’ mouth were agape in shock—

Lin Yixin said, "OMG, I’ve never seen anyone delete 20% of a Level 295 Ancient Immortal Rank boss's HP in one strike! Little Cheat is definitely not human!"

Lian Xin agreed. "20% in one strike is seriously…"

There were even people talking about it in the guild channel—

Li Chengfeng: "What the hell? I think I saw the Xuanyuan Slash flash from the Dragon God Cave Third Floor just now. Did you do it, Lu Chen?"

Gui Guzi: "Damn, SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skills are truly one of a kind. I can’t believe we could see it all the way from the first floor!"

I replied, "Yeah, it was me. It was purely out of necessity though. We’re fighting the third floor’s boss right now, and so far it’s proven to be a pain to fight against. We might’ve been party wiped if I chose to save it…"

Gui Guzi: "If we could see the Xuanyuan Slash, I’m sure that everyone else could see it as well. That means that your location has been exposed, Boss Broken Halberd. You’d better finish the boss as soon as possible before danger finds you."

I nodded. "Thanks for the warning. You guys should be careful too. Are you guys doing okay?"

Li Chengfeng chuckled. "Du Thirteen got careless and was one-shot by two Blade Devils, but otherwise, everything is going smoothly. You probably aren’t surprised to hear that Warsky Alliance, Candle Dragon and more have all lost some first-rate experts to the Blade Devils as well. These Level 280 fiend-rank mobs are way, way stronger than all the fiend-rank mobs we have encountered so far, and I myself was nearly instakilled just a couple minutes ago…"

I shook my head. "Well, be careful. Strella the Dark Magma is waiting at the seventh floor, and we’ll need every man and woman to even have a chance at killing it!"

"Got it. You too!"

"Yeah!"

……

Time passed bit by bit. Everyone except Pure Love had activated Heavenly River Transformation to fight the boss. Even so, we weren’t able to beat the boss without losing levels. As the main tank, there were many times I had come close to death. Even with the Cyan Dragon Shield and Guardian Dragon Armor, I had still died twice in five minutes—triggering Immortality once, and using Resurrection Art to revive the other time. The boss's Attack was just too high, and if it triggered a consecutive chain of critical hits, not even Murong Mingyue could save me.

"Keep it up, people! The boss only has 7% HP now!" Lin Yixin encouraged while staring at Mingyu. "Lu Chen, keep the black dragon busy, will you? I’m gonna try and instakill Mingyu the second it dies. Bastard thinks he can talk shit to me with 3% HP? I’m so going to…"

"..."

Suddenly, our attention was caught by a chain of bloody explosions about 1000 meters away from where we were. They almost looked like bonfires from where we were. Less than three minutes later, I received a message from Stranger of Three Lifetimes. "Lu Chen, our 10-man party was party-wiped. I myself was removed from Dragon God Cave just 30 seconds ago!"

I was shocked. "How is that possible? Who could possibly wipe your party so cleanly? Was it Candle Dragon? Those fuckers…"

Stranger of Three Lifetimes stayed silent for a couple of seconds. "We’re not actually sure who our attackers were. What I can tell you is that they’re eighth-promotion assassins because they all used the eighth-promotion skill, Assassin’s Oath. My party was slaughtered before they could put up a fight, and even I only managed to kill one of them with Touch of the Dragonkiss."

I processed the information in my head while parrying the boss's attacks. Assassin’s Oath was the Assassin class’s eighth-promotion skill, and it greatly enhanced an assassin’s stealth ability. It was probably strong enough to render my Dark Pupils useless, and Stranger of Three Lifetimes and her party had been ambushed by an entire party of them. It was no wonder they didn’t survive.

Nearly a minute later, Stranger of Three Lifetimes sent another message: "Found it. The assassin who killed me is called Assassin’s Creed, and he's a Level 217 Coldblood Assassin; a hidden class that possesses exceptional armor penetration. He’s one of the Top 10 assassins of the China server, and he has kept a pretty low profile until now. His guild is called ‘Blood Alliance’, a mercenary guild made up of assassins only. They usually stuck to Wind City only, so I don’t understand why they came all the way to Dragon God Cave and attacked Blazing Hot Lips so brazenly. Maybe someone paid them to assassinate our players? Ugh, this is going to be such a headache[1]."

I nodded affirmatively. "Don’t be sad, Momo. We’ll fuck them up for you once we take out this boss!"

"Yeah. Be careful though, I have a feeling that your party is their next target!"

"Got it!"

I exhaled a bit after closing the chat. Blood Alliance was a low-profile guild, but their players were notoriously bloodthirsty, and they specialized in open-world PK ambushes and guerilla warfare. It was why many major guilds would rather provoke the likes of Flower Room, Mad Dragon or Gods of Destruction than Blood Alliance. Sometimes, a vile man was scarier than a noble man. I didn’t think that Blood Alliance would come all the way to Dragon God Cave to assassinate their targets though. What on earth were they planning?

……

Swhoosh!

My arm chilled again, and my Pardon + Universe Break combo triggered my weapon’s septuple damage effect again, dealing unbelievable amounts of damage. After Tiggris lost its final sliver of HP and collapsed with a scream, Lin Yixin immediately dashed toward Mingyu with her Dragonfrost at the ready. She flew over the black dragon’s head and attempted to delete Mingyu’s paltry 3% HP with Extreme Break.

"Hmph!"

However, Mingyu saw her coming and was able to cancel her attack with a single punch. Still, Lin Yixin managed to land Ice Flame Slash that was empowered by her Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, doing a lot of damage.

"Goodbye!"

The smirking boss abruptly jumped into the pitch of darkness and ditched his so-called "old friend”.

……

Everyone leveled up after we killed the black dragon, but I paid it no mind and focused on executing War Crush + Myriad Swords Obliteration combo on top of our loot. Dropping my stat points could wait until I cleared out the surrounding assassins first.

Beiming Xue said, "You don’t need to do that, big brother. I had Clear As Flame turned on…"

I smiled. "It’s better to be careful than sorry. Blood Alliance managed to assassinate even Stranger of Three Lifetimes and Eyes Like Water. That means that Assassin’s Oath can potentially elude your Clear As Flame and my Dark Pupils’ detection."

"That’s true. So, what goodies did we get, big brother?"

"Haha…"

……

I bent down and stared at the loot pile for a moment. First, there was a rainbow-colored shield that looked similar to the Cyan Dragon Shield, except that its light was dimmer. There was also a fiery scepter, a cloth-armor robe, and a ring.

I grabbed the rainbow-colored shield first and felt a great surge of energy immediately. I knew from the sensation alone that it was a high-Defense piece of equipment. I waved my hand, and its stats screen appeared as a hologram to everyone—

Rainbow Shield (Ancient Immortal-grade, Outstanding★★★★★★★)

Defense: 25400

Magic Resist: 19000

Stamina: +1850

Strength: +1900

Agility: +1850

Intelligence: +1700

Tactics: +220

Parry Success Rate: +69%

Passive: Increases user’s Defense by 110%

Passive: Increases user's max HP by 70000

Outstanding Property: Rainbow. When successfully Guarding an attack, 50% chance to reflect the damage received back to the attacker as basic attack damage.

Slots: 16

Level Requirement: 220

Reputation: 600000

……

"Rainbow Shield, huh? Both its name and its appearance are plenty gorgeous…"

I passed it to He Yi while saying to the others, "This is an item for magic knights, and it so happens that Eve could use a new shield. Are there any objections?"

Lin Yixin replied cheerfully, "Of course not! It’s only right for Sister He Yi to have it!"

He Yi gladly accepted the Rainbow Shield and smiled so wide that her eyes were narrowed into slits. "I almost have 80% of Lu Chen’s Defense now, woohoo…"

1. T/N: OMG, Ubisoft’s game has come to life to haunt everyone!