Beep!

System Notice: You have a trade request from player “Wind Fantasy”.

I was flying in the sky when Lin Yixin sent me a trade request. I looked back to see her beaming at me and saying, "I have some good stuff to trade you. Open the trade window now…"

"Okay!"

I accepted the trade request and received 5 sets of health potions from Lin Yixin. Its strange purple-red color already set it apart from the other potions, but its effects were what truly wowed me. I had no idea that Beauty Lin had something so powerful. If she had sold them in Sky City, it would’ve one-shot all the self-proclaimed royal Level potion masters in the squares.

Dragonheart Orchid Agent (LV-13): Instantly restores 10000 HP to the user and regenerates their HP by 5% per second for 20 seconds. Cooldown: 60 seconds.

……

"Holy shit! This potion is amazing!"

I exhaled in astonishment and admiration, "This has to be the strongest or second-strongest potion available on the market! The 100k HP instant healing alone would one-shot my Saint Spirit Potion, but this 5% HP regeneration every second for 20 seconds basically guarantees that anyone who uses it, regardless of their HP pool, will be restored to full health! It’s absolutely bonkers!"

Beauty Lin said with a clear look of delight on her face, "But of course! Do you remember the Dragonheart Orchid we went through great pains to gather at the Dragon God Cave? It was to create this batch of potions! Currently, the highest-rank potions sold on the market are Rank 11, and they restore 15000 HP in one go. Rank 12 Health Potions haven’t hit the market yet, not to mention Rank 13 ones. I’ve given everyone in the party one stack, or 100 Rank 13 Dragonheart Orchid Agents, so don’t use them up too quickly, okay? I literally cannot produce more unless someone can gather the Dragonheart Orchid for me…"

Confusion flashed across my face. She claimed that she had given everyone 1 stack of Dragonheart Orchid Agents, but I got 5 stacks, 500 potions!

Still smiling, Lin Yixin put a finger to her lips and hushed me soundlessly. At that moment, she looked so cute that I nearly fell off the Ancient Divine Dragon’s back. I’m so blessed to have a girlfriend like her!

……

As we flew toward our destination, we saw that the huge forest clearings outside Silver City were crawling with players. There were both people who were forming parties and people who were looking to join—

"10-man party lacking a damage dealer! We’ll accept any mage or archer with over 40k DPS! Don’t bother if your DPS is only a couple thousand, my hip thrusts would’ve done more damage than that…"

"10-man party looking to kill Spirit Foxes in Bloody Shield Domain! There’s a chance we may encounter a Heaven Rank boss Spirit Fox pet! We’re missing 3 players right now, and we’re looking for a mage with high DPS, a priest with high HPS, and an eighth-promotion tactician with 150% Iron Wall!"

"Level 220 average 10-man party looking to venture into the inner areas of Bloody Shield Domain! We already have everyone except 1 pretty woman with long legs and huge breasts! We promise to roll for every piece of equipment to ensure that everyone gets their fair share of loot, so please! LFP! Looking for pretty! LFP!!"

……

I laughed. "That party’s probably going to be stuck there for a long time…"

He Yi chuckled as well. "To be fair, it looks like that party is full of males. They do need a nice lady to liven the atmosphere while they explore the inner areas of Bloody Shield Domain…"

I replied, "I guess. At least I don’t have this problem… or wait. Am I the problem here?"

Moon Dew giggled. "Don’t sell yourself short, vice leader. You’re quite the handsome guy yourself, not to mention that you have high DPS and high drop rate. There are countless girls in the guild who want to form a party with you, you know? Even a few seconds would be enough for them..."

Me: "..."

Lin Yixin tilted her head at me before teasing, "In that case, why don’t you oblige to their request and spend an afternoon forming parties with them? You know, be a proper vice leader and actually help out your guild members for once…"

Murong Mingyue chuckled from atop her Snow Crystal Dragon. "Are you sure, Yiyi? There are a lot of them who want to sleep with him, you know? Seriously, I’m not even kidding. Do you still think he should fulfill their requests?"

Chiang!

Lin Yixin unsheathed her Dragonfrost and uttered in a murderous voice, "Is that so? Do you perchance have a list of their names, Sister Mingyue? I would like to treat them to dinner…"

"Why does it sound like they would be the dinner? You do have your Dragonfrost and Crimson Crystal Dragon to make a good barbecue..."

"How… how did you know?" Lin Yixin asked with a blush. Her jealous expression was intoxicatingly beautiful.

He Yi simply smiled from the side. She had gotten used to this a long time ago.

……

Our three Holy Giant Dragons quickly left the forest clearings behind and vanished behind the horizon. On the ground, many players were pointing their fingers at us and making all sorts of comments. "Wow, those are dragon riders! I wonder if they are Ancient Sword or Candle Dragon’s?"

"Eh, there are other flying mounts in this world, you know? They can be Worm Riders!"

"That’s right! They may even be Fly Riders!"

"Could also be Maggot Riders…"

"What the fuck is wrong with you people? Urk…"

……

Like every other map, there was an outer zone and an inner zone to Bloody Shield Domain. The outer zone had mostly been explored, so the ten-man and hundred-man parties were setting their sights on the deeper areas of the map. These days few people formed thousand-man parties because one, it made loot distribution difficult, and two, many people believed themselves to be strong enough to strike out with just a couple of powerful teammates after becoming eighth-promotion experts. After all, there was no reward without risk; no chance of becoming a true expert that stood above tens of thousands until you truly challenged yourself.

Naturally, things didn’t end well for the large majority of these parties.

The ground we were flying over was infested by light cyan-colored poisonous worms called the Corroders. They were Level 285 fiend-rank mobs with extremely high Attack and deadly toxin. They dealt at least 200k damage to a normal heavy-armor player with each hit. Long story short, it wasn’t the kind of damage the players on the ground were equipped to deal with right now. One such Corroder was being surrounded by seven or eight cavalrymen, but it easily killed them one by one with the sharp spike on its forehead—

"What the fuck! This thing deleted 30% of my HP in one hit, and it inflicts the Poisoned status effect! All the healing I receive during this time is reduced by half! OMG, did another Corroder just spawn over there!? We’re all gonna die!"

"Priest! Where’s the priest!? I need healing…"

"Third is dead! Boss, lock onto the one on the left and Charge it before it’s too late! What? Boss was killed 5 minutes ago? Are you kidding me!?"

"Archer, Shock Arrow the one on the left so we can retreat! We’ll wait for boss and Third to revive, head back to the clearing and add a couple more priests to our party! These damned Corroders just have too much DPS! They attack faster than the woman who shook her hips above me last night!"

"Bro! Now is not the time to think about women!"

"Oh shit, Fifth is dead as well! What the fuck are the priests doing? Are they eating shit or what!?"

"Our last priest just died…"

"Shit, this is looking like a party-wipe…"

……

Some people did well, and some people did not. Party wipes happened everywhere, and they usually happened to those who underestimated the mobs of Bloody Shield Domain too much. There were a lot of ten-man parties who performed well, however. For example, I spotted one exceptional party who advanced when the time was right and retreated when it wasn’t. They only fought the Corroders they marked and followed a systematic battle plan. Their main tank’s selection of targets and ability to withstand attacks were excellent as well. These people most likely would be able to make it to the inner areas of Bloody Shield Domain, although how much they would be able to achieve in the end was of course unknown.

"Big bro, look! Bloody Mountains are over there…"

Beiming Xue wriggled against my chest while pointing toward the distance. As she said, a blood-red mountain range shrouded by thin black clouds had entered our view. I also smelled a bit of blood in the air. As it turned out, Coldblade the Infinity Storm’s map aesthetic was as vile as his taste. I hadn’t even fought in the map yet, and I already felt disgusted enough to turn back. If I knew this would happen, I would’ve asked Sophie to join us. Not that she would comply with my request of course.

I steered the Ancient Divine Dragon lower and made toward the foot of Bloody Mountain Range. Some people might wonder why I chose to start from the bottom of the mountain when I could fly anywhere I wanted. One, we were here to grind, and it was standard practice to start from the bottom and end at the top. Two, there were usually human NPCs to be found in the safe zones at the foot of a mountain, meaning that we might be able to accept quests before we grinded. Why wouldn’t we want to grind efficiently and earn additional rewards?

"Careful, Lu Chen!" He Yi suddenly pointed at the clouds above our heads. "That cloud’s rumbling unnaturally!"

"Oh?"

I looked at the direction she was pointing to see a furious lightning striking down to the earth just four or five meters in front of me. Heavens! That would’ve hurt like a motherfucker if it hit!

On the ground, an unfortunate rhino mob disintegrated into ashes after the lightning strike. It was a Level 285 fiend-rank mob, and it had died in a single hit! This map is a total trap!

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh...

More lightning fell from the clouds in front of us. If I wasn’t mistaken, this was a lightning barrier meant to kill everything that entered its zone. It was also big enough to cover nearly the entire Bloody Mountains. We would have to fly through the 500-meter-long lightning formation somehow if we wished to make it to our destination.

"What do we do?" Moon Dew sounded a bit scared.

Pa!

I uncorked a Rank 13 Dragonheart Orchid Agent and held it between my teeth. Then, I said in an unclear voice, "What else? We’re going to fly through it as quickly as we can and use our new health potions to save ourselves when things look bad. Sis, cast Restore on us all. Yiyi, activate Bombshell to give us all additional Magic Resist. Is everyone ready? Don’t worry, I’ll cover for you if things get dicey."

"Yeah. Let’s go!"

Last but not least, I activated Battle Astral Wind to protect myself. It should be enough to protect me for the short journey, right?

I led the way and flew straight toward Bloody Mountains like a silver comet while the Snow Crystal Dragon and Crimson Crystal Dragon followed closely behind. Lightning tore through the night sky furiously and far too frequently to be natural. Suddenly, my entire body trembled. I had taken a lightning strike, and Battle Astral Wind immediately lost 31% of its durability. Truly, the power of nature was to be feared. I didn’t pause to tempt fate a second time.

Behind me, the Snow Crystal Dragon and Crimson Crystal Dragon were being struck by lightning as well. A bunch of damage numbers rose from their backs—

710239!

712626!

682920!

……

Fuck! I hope it wasn’t enough to instakill Lin Yixin or He Yi...