Dragon Race Blood Boil was a healing skill, but it made MY blood boil instead, almost giving me a heart attack. 15% HP didn’t sound like much, but on a boss like Strella it equaled to one and a half hours of non-stop fighting. At this point, I was both physically and emotionally spent. Every time Strella’s HP jumped from 5% back to 20% HP, I felt like I had died all over again.

Finally, Strella used all three charges of his Dragon Race Blood Boil. He wouldn’t be able to use it again until a day later. By now, my Chill of the Nine Provinces was chipped and warped in many places, and its durability had fallen below 10%. Strella was a super-tough target, and the mere act of attacking it cost a ton of weapon durability. Thankfully, it should last me until the end of this battle.

Buzz!

The necklace around my neck suddenly trembled, and my next attack triggered the Broken Blade effect. Not only was Strella stunned for 5.2 seconds, the second hit of my Burning Blade Slash triggered the septuple-damage effect as well—

190877!

1699418!

312735!

……

This time, it was the Dragon God’s turn to feel physically and emotionally spent by my ridiculous DPS. It was 3 am in the real world right now, and I noticed on my friend list that He Yi, Lin Yixin, Murong Mingyue, Beiming Xue and more had all logged out of the game and gone to bed. Even the so-called "Midnight War Gods" of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls—Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, and High Fighting Spirits—had logged out of the game. I bet the number of players still grinding inside the Dragon God Cave had dropped to an all-time low as well.

Even if it wasn’t the case, I wasn’t worried that someone might steal the kill from me. Strella the Dark Magma had literally pummeled me about ten kilometers into the earth, and I highly doubted there were any players with the balls or the HP to jump down this height. Even if there were, they would’ve died the instant they made contact with the flames on the Dragon God’s back.

On a related note, both the Winged Silver Dragon and Bloody Finger had returned to Xinran’s summoning space after they were overwhelmed by Strella’s flames. How could a normal player succeed where a dragon and a Divine Rank boss had failed? Even I would’ve died to Strella’s breath repeatedly if Xinran hadn’t blocked it with the Phantom Umbrella.

The clock ticked to 4:30 am, and Strella’s HP finally scraped the bottom of the barrel. He only had 1% HP left, and he could die at any moment.

A pale-looking Xinran was slumped against my chest and looked like she might faint at any moment. She had injected almost all of her power into the Phantom Umbrella, and judging from the growing cracks on the spell, she wouldn’t be able to hold it for much longer.

I made up my mind then. I drank a potion to heal my HP and MP to full before activating Heavenly River Transformation with my final 12 Divine Energy Points. Then, I thrust my sword forward and unleashed my greatest skill, Purple Dragon Howl. Strella’s body was already bruised and battered from the fighting, but the skill literally stripped his scales piece by piece until the hurricane of energy looked more like a hurricane of dragon scales. Blood gushed profusely from his wounds, and his dying screams filled the air. Finally, Strella cursed one last time before his demise, "Dragon Domain will sooner be destroyed than fall under your control! Just you wait, the Purgatory Ruler will take revenge for me!"

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh…

Golden light enveloped my person again and again. I had more or less solo’d Strella the Dark Magma, and Xinran couldn’t receive experience since she was an NPC. I instantly jumped 10 levels and returned to Level 231. All of my wounds vanished like they were never there, and my HP went back to full—or it would’ve gone back if I hadn’t already been at full health. Xinran though, had fallen into a deep coma. She wouldn’t wake up no matter how I tried to shake her awake.

Ding~!

System Announcement: Congratulations to player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand" (China) for killing one of the Nine Sovereigns of the Purgatory, Strella the Dark Magma! Their rewards are: Level +2, Luck +10, Reputation +100000, gold +200000, and their main city NPCs’ Defense +10%! Due to the death of Strella the Dark Magma, Dragon Domain is officially unlocked. The map will be refreshed in 10 hours!

Killing a Purgatory Sovereign was nigh impossible, but when you succeed, the reward could only be described as amazing!

……

Pa!

With Xinran in my arms, I leaped out of the perforation in the Stone of Sealing and stared at the huge corpse that was the Dragon God Strella. There was a pile of shiny loot underneath its body, and I was almost certain it contained the objects of desire we traveled all the way to Dragon Domain to obtain!

I walked up to the corpse and kicked away the claw covering the loot. Then, I slumped down to my butt and just lay there for a moment. Be it inside the game or in the real world, I was close to approaching my absolute limits.

After a short rest, I checked out the equipment first. The first piece of equipment that caught my eye was a burning whip. It was obviously not ordinary. The second item was a pair of divine-looking poleyn, and the third was a halberd with apparitions lurking across its surface, and lightning energy slithering along the tip of the blade. I immediately had the feeling that this halberd was going to absolutely OP. Anyway, Strella only dropped 3 pieces of equipment (and the usual items that I couldn’t care to check right now), so I picked up the whip to give it a closer look.

The flaming whip was almost 3 meters long, and it looked like the perfect weapon of an S&M queen. All it lacked was a couple of candles to complete the picture. I waved my hand over it, and the stats looked very impressive—

Dragonbone Whip (Lower Divine Armament, Outstanding★★★★★★★)

Attack: 12500~14000

Strength: +2450

Stamina: +2400

Agility: +2350

Intelligence: +2300

Tactics: +245

Passive: Increases user’s Attack by 200%

Passive: Increases all tamer’s pets’ stats by 70%

Slots: 16

Outstanding Property: Draconic Possession. Applies the Dragon Soul effect to the user, increasing their Attack, Defense and HP by 90%, and the level of all their summons by 20.

Effect: Soul Devouring. When attacking a target, 15% chance to trigger the Soul Devouring effect and inflict the Crippled status condition.

Introduction: Dragonbone Whip. In ancient times, the gods and the devils had fought each other in a war for supremacy, and the race closest to the gods was involved in that war as well. One brave and formidable dragon warrior called the Holy White Dragon fought the Purgatory Devil God, but he didn’t prevail and was killed in battle. The Purgatory Devil God extracted his bones, hung it atop the flames of Purgatory, and burned it for tens of thousands of years. Over time, the bone became an indestructible whip called the Dragonbone Whip.

Level Requirement: 225

Reputation Requirement: 650000

……

I was somewhat surprised, to be honest. The stats of this Dragonbone Whip could only be described as dominating. The Dragonbone Whip was good enough to be used as a melee weapon, and just the image of a magic knight swinging the whip around like a mine supervisor sent waves of chuckles through my belly. That being said, the Dragonbone Whip had a passive and an Outstanding Property that massively boosted a tamer’s capabilities, so it would be a waste if it didn’t go to a Tamer class player.

However, there were no outstanding tamers in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and I doubted that there was anyone who would dare to accept it as a gift. Even if there was, Gui Guzi, Yamete, Du Thirteen and the rest of my brothers would never accept it. Good steel should be forged into blades, and the Dragonbone Whip’s stats was almost as good as one of the Twelve Divine Armaments. It had to go to a player who was deserving of it. Anyway, I put it in my bag and decided to deal with it later.

Tamers had been a rather lukewarm class since the start of the game. It wasn’t like there were no famous tamers in Sky City—in fact, there were a ton of players praised as "Wild Gods" or "Wild Souls"—but none of them were truly super-tier. For starters, the Tamer class was a support class. Two, tamers had to be able to cooperate with their pets and control multiple characters at the same time to bring out their full potential. It already sounded hard, but actually doing it was hard on a completely different level. The average players just wanted to enjoy a good time, and the Mage class, as well as all fighter classes, provided exactly that experience with a much lower difficulty curve. It was the main reason the Tamer class had remained unpopular and underpowered even now.

Pop!

I moved onto the poleyns after throwing the Dragonbone Whip into my bag. The draconic blade aligning its edges was all I needed to see to know that it was going to be amazing. I subconsciously looked down on my own poleyn and felt deep embarrassment entering my face. The Sea Suppressing Poleyns I wore were Level 155 Outstanding Heaven-grade equipment, and I should’ve swapped it out a long, long time ago. The only reason I hadn’t was because none of the poleyns I picked up really met my fancy, until now. I put a finger on the poleyn and immediately felt a hot surge of energy; an energy that could only belong to a Divine Armament. That was all the confirmation I needed. I brought up its stats screen and nearly forgot to wipe my saliva as I stared at it. Man, all that hard work wasn’t for nothing after all—

Dark Magma Poleyns (Lower Divine Armament, Outstanding★★★★★★★★)

Defense: 14000

Magic Resist: 12500

Strength: +2450

Stamina: +2400

Agility: +2330

Intelligence: +2200

Tactics: +190

Passive: Increases user’s max HP by 70000

Passive: Increases user’s Defense by 80% and Magic Resist by 50%

Slot: 17

Outstanding: Dragon Race Blood Boil. Instantly regain 15% total HP. Cooldown: 120 seconds.

Active: Dark Shield. Focuses the power of darkness to protect oneself from any harm. Lasts for 30 seconds. Cooldown: 120 minutes.

Introduction: Strella the Dark Magma was the last reigning Dragon God. This black Holy Giant Dragon that had existed since ancient times possessed incredible power and intellect. He could also transform into a human and see through one’s mind. Unfortunately, he became a puppet of darkness after Lin Na took control of his soul during the Dragon Domain War. The Dark Magma Poleyns are the proof of Strella’s strength.

Level Requirement: 225

Reputation Requirement: 800000

……

I was overjoyed to say the least. Not only were its stats befitting of an equipment that was dropped by a Purgatory Sovereign, its 30-second invincibility skill more than made up for my lack of invincibility skill right now. As long as I wasn’t ganged up on by a group of Ancient Divine Skill owners, there was practically no situation I couldn’t escape. Moreover, the poleyns also gave me the skill that had made my life hell earlier, Dragon Race Blood Boil, and it could restore 15% HP to me every 2 minutes. It would be easier to live than it was to die with this equipment!

I immediately replaced the Sea Suppressing Poleyns with the lower Divine Armament metal-armor poleyns. My stats immediately jumped visibly—

ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand (Title: The Frostblade of Death)

Class: Master Swordsman of Death

Level: 233

HP: 845820

Attack: 35250~40270

Defense: 97865

Magic Resist: 88920

Reputation: 1259400

Tactics: 2033

Luck: 109

……

I now had over 100 Luck, 2000 Tactics, and 14k Intelligence. Divine Armaments were truly godlike. If I was a mage, I could cast God Devil Break on another mage at my level and make them squeal in terror of my power. Behold the power of good equipment!

It was time to move on to the third and final equipment. Strella had dropped the Dragonbone Whip, the Dark Magma Poleyn, and an extraordinarily gorgeous and murderous halberd. The halberd was about 2.5 meters long, and it emanated a very familiar energy of death. I nearly froze when I checked its stats screen. What is a Divine Armament? This is a Divine Armament!