"It’s simple. Beat them if you can beat them, leave them if you can’t. I personally think you should leave them though. If Candle Dragon is too crippled to challenge Warsky Alliance, the latter may grow strong enough to challenge us for real. Let Candle Dragon develop their Lantern Girl legion and unleash them upon Warsky. The separation of powers will benefit us and the entire China server anyway…" I replied.

Gui Guzi clapped his hands and said, "Got it, Boss Broken Halberd. By the way, did you know that your explanation is almost exactly the same as Li Chengfeng’s? He also said that now is not the best to attack Candle Dragon especially since Candlelight Shadow had rallied a couple hundred thousand elites to Magic Lamp Canyon just to maintain his stranglehold over it. We still can give them a run for their money of course, but our forces in Bloody Shield Domain are quite scattered and unsuited for positional battles right now."

"Yes. I, Eve, Beiming and the others won’t be able to help you either since we’re grinding Bloodthirsty Castle right now. Watch your back when you grind, by the way. Chinese players aren’t the only ones who are exploring Bloody Shield Domain, and our small party has already encountered Dark Mercenaries and Blood Alliance during our grind. This map is not too far away from the Chaotic 27 and Eternal Love City either, so there’s a chance the Northern Alliance will join in on the conflict as well. Anyway, just be careful and make sure you keep everything within 5 kilometers of our players under tight watch. I leave Bloody Mercenaries and the main guild to you and Chengfeng."

"We understand, Boss Broken Halberd. Don’t worry!"

Very well. Let’s both get back to the grind!"

"Yeah."

……

Beiming Xue suddenly stopped in her tracks when I hung up. She was standing on a row of stairs and gazing to the distance with a wary look on her face. "Heads in the game, everyone. There is a boss on the second floor!"

I grew excited. "That’s wonderful! It would’ve been a tragedy if there wasn’t! Let’s go!"

"Mn!"

Sword at the ready, I walked next to Beiming and gazed to the front. There was a massive hall before the entrance to the third floor. Bronze-forged totems aligned its periphery, and there was a beam of red light shining down from above at the center. Enveloped within the red light was an unmoving general wearing copper-colored armor and wielding a gigantic, blood-red sword. He looked like he was thinking about something.

I scanned it with Dark Pupils and shared the stats screen in the party channel. The bosses of Bloodthirsty Castle were high-level alright—

Bloody General Bronze Eye (Archean Immortal Rank Boss)

Level: 300

Attack: 49000~59000

Defense: 78000

HP: 50000000

Skills: Ice Flame Slash, Bloodbreak Flurry, Stare of the Bronze-eyed

Introduction: Bronze Eye was a human general who guarded the border of Vanished God City. When the undead invaded, and Vanished God City suffered a massive defeat, Bronze Eye and his army launched a counterattack against the undead’s city by themselves. In the end, the enemy managed to capture him, but he willingly jumped into a pool of boiling copper because he would rather die than submit to the devil. His efforts were futile, however. Coldblade ultimately managed to steal away his soul, and his now copper-forged body was made into a guardian of Bloodthirsty Castle.

……

"Watch out. The boss has super-high Defense and deadly Attack."

I continued while gripping the Chill of the Nine Provinces, "I’ll be the MT, so make sure to keep me healthy, sis, beauty Moon Dew. If I lost the threat on the boss, Yiyi should reclaim it immediately with Extreme Break. He must not be allowed to approach our support and ranged players no matter what. With almost 60k Attack and god knows how many hidden stat boosts, he absolutely can two-shot Beiming and Lian Xin."

"I know. Go get 'em!"

"Yeah!"

I summoned the Phantom Wolf King and my apparition first before shooting God Binding Art at the boss. I was lucky, and the skill was able to immobilize Bronze Eye. Without hesitation, I Thunderous Charged my way to the boss and stabbed his chest with Purple Frost Concentration, reducing his Defense by a whopping 33.7%. Beiming Xue’s Bone Eroding Arrow reduced the stat by another 13.9%, and his supposedly impenetrable Defense was nullified just like that.

Swhoosh!

Next, I activated Great Earth Transformation and executed Burning Blade Slash + Universe Break combo aimed at Bronze Eye’s throat. The reason I didn’t use Heavenly River Transformation was because it cost 10 Divine Energy Points to maintain it for just 1 minute, while Great Earth Transformation only cost 1. Anyway, I was able to deal a considerable amount of damage—

270928!

312181!

321662!

410299!

However, my skills did less damage than expected. Even after reducing his Defense by so much, his hidden resistances were so broken that my damage dealt was reduced by 30% at least. This outcome was to be expected though. Bosses wouldn’t be a challenge otherwise.

……

It was about time Bronze Eye recovered himself, so I looked up. As expected, the boss was staring at me with his copper-colored, perfectly emotionless eyes and wreathing his giant sword in flames. He snarled at me and said, "Have you come to die, damned human?"

"Watch out! It’s Ice Flame Slash!"

I hurriedly ran to the boss's side in an attempt to draw his Ice Flame Slash away from the girls behind me. However, Bronze Eye moved faster than I expected and was able to land Ice Flame Slash + Bloodbreak Flurry combo almost instantly. The Cyan Dragon Shield shrieked, and my left arm turned numb. I could even see the blood vessels on my arms bursting from the impact—

490293!

602834!

612877!

The two skills had deleted over half of my HP in an instant. I hurriedly cast a Tenacity of the Dead and downed the Rank 13 Dragonheart Orchid Agent I had been holding with my mouth to heal myself. It was a very close call—

+627605!

+100000!

+125521!

+125521!

+125521!

……

I already knew that the Dragonheart Orchid Agent was incredible, but to watch it in action was something else. To heal 5% of my HP every second was like having an average priest casting their healing spells on me at all times. Of course, this level of HPS was still nothing compared to a super priest like Murong Mingyue.

"Don’t falter, Lu Chen!" He Yi cried while hacking away at the boss with her Suppressing Fire Sword.

"I know…"

I activated Battle Astral Wind and went to town with the boss myself. While I was dropping a skill + basic attack combo on Bronze Eye’s shoulder, the septuple-damage effect of Chill of the Nine Provinces triggered and caused me to deal over 1.6 million damage in one hit. Unfortunately, the bastard had 50 million HP in total, so 1.6 million damage was like a drop in the bucket.

I was able to keep the boss's aggro firmly in my grasp with Pool of Life beneath my feet. When the boss used long-ranged skills such as Ice Flame Slash, the girls would automatically scatter and avoid being hit. Also, Lin Yixin and He Yi consciously retreated to the back every time the boss executed his Bloodbreak Flurry because it was a full-damage skill. With their current Defense, it was better not to tempt fate and leave all the tanking to me.

Time passed bit by bit. It wasn’t long before Bronze Eye’s HP approached the 30% mark. He wasn’t too difficult a boss because his rank was just Archean Immortal. If he was a Level 300 Ancient Immortal Rank boss, then some of us would probably be dead already. We might even have to wipe once or twice.

My frown didn’t disappear though. Even the girls noticed that I was as taut as a string.

"What are you worrying about, Little Cheat?" Lin Yixin asked me with a smile.

I answered, "The boss still hasn’t used his third skill, ‘Stare of the Bronze-eyed’, and I’m positive it’s not because we got lucky. Just be ready to run like hell when it happens. it can be a debuff skill, an offensive skill, or both…"

"Mn!"

Not long after I said this, the boss abruptly crouched lower and glowed like a bloody sun. He fully opened his eyes—they looked like a pair of vortices—and said in a deep voice that sounded like it came from hell itself. "Come! Allow me to show you the debauchery and the hypocrisy of this world! Bronze Eye’s strength will make you the strongest person in the world!"

Swhoosh!

A bloody beam hit me, and my body suddenly started trembling uncontrollably. Then, I received a system notice: Bloody General Bronze Eye has used "Stare of the Bronze-eyed" on you. You will be a puppet for 15 seconds!

……

"Fuck!"

My eyes widened. The truth was finally revealed!

"Get back! The boss has taken control of my body!" I shouted.

"What?"

The girls were stunned, but they didn’t hesitate to pull back. Unfortunately, I was faster than they were. After I caught up to them, I unleashed Burning Blade Slash that caught both Lian Xin and Beiming Xue!

Beiming Xue was instakilled before she could do anything. Lian Xin lost her Telekinetic Shield and just barely survived with a sliver of HP.

"Kick me out of the party and freeze me now!" I shouted again.

Lin Yixin acted quickly, but she still wasn’t fast enough. The second I was kicked out of the party, I was already pressing a left palm to her chest and binding her with God Binding Art. Then, my Chill of the Nine Provinces burst with the light of Universe Break and my Ancient Divine Skill, Xuanyuan Slash. What the hell is this bullshit AI? Screw the perfect CC usage, it even knew what skills to use to instantly kill a metal-armor player!

"Shit… sorry, Yiyi!" I apologized helplessly.

Lin Yixin could only stare as the two skills crashed into her like a tsunami.

BOOM BOOM!

710192!

1790283!

The double hit instantly emptied Lin Yixin’s 2.2 million HP and sent her soul to the nearest graveyard.

……

Swhoosh!

Lian Xin’s Frozen Domain finally encased me in ice, but it was just an instant too late. While holding off the boss with great difficulty, He Yi asked, "What do we do now?"

At the back, Murong Mingyue joked, "I cannot believe you killed your own girlfriend and little sister, Lu Chen! They will surely haunt you to your death later!"

Still not in control of my own body, I complained, "Do you think I want this?? Just five more seconds, Eve. Five more seconds, and the effect will fade…"

"Got it!"

However, Murong Mingyue suddenly added me to her party before casting her Famous General Skill, Bright Mirror. Before I knew it, I had regained control of my own body. I swore, "Fuck! I should’ve known that Bright Mirror could cleanse this effect. Everyone, remember to pass the party leader to sis if the boss uses this skill again."

Murong Mingyue nodded. "Fall into the moat and you'll be wiser next time."

……

A while later, Lin Yixin and Beiming Xue revived at nearly the same time to stare at the boss's remaining 24% HP. My little sister lamented, "That was too much, big bro…"

Me: "Yes, yes, it’s all my fault. I promise to treat both you and Yiyi to dinner, movie and supper on an all-in-one-set date later, okay?"

"That’s a promise!" Lin Yixin said.

"It is. Now, rejoin the party so we can get revenge already!"

"Yeah!"