The Song of Freedom was a ring equipment that increased all four basic attributes by 2500, Attack by 75%, and both Defense and Magic Resist by 80%. These benefits alone would’ve made it as good as a standard Divine Armament, but it had one more effect that made it truly worthy of being ranked as one of the Seventy-two Ghost Armaments, the Chains of Freedom. The Chains of Freedom was an active effect that allowed its user to curse its target for 7 seconds. If the target was killed during this time, they would lose 10 levels and have their equipment drop rate increased by 300%. Some spells were called forbidden because they were devastatingly powerful and unfair, and this Song of Freedom was the Divine Armament version of that.

I declared, "I’m fine with just this ring. Seriously, please don’t make me roll for this ring. In return, I promise to absolutely cripple the enemy’s super-tier players to the utmost during the upcoming Nation Wars…"

He Yi giggled. "Alright, enough. Beg too much and you’ll just look pathetic, you know? Anyway, you have nothing to worry about. Didn’t you notice that the ring has a luck requirement of 100? Right now, you are literally the only player in all the servers who meet this requirement. Of course you should have this ring."

Beiming Xue agreed. "Even if that wasn’t the case, you haven’t gotten any item up until this point. You definitely have the right to claim this equipment."

Their support bolstered my confidence, but just in case I asked one more time, "Are you sure? If you are, I’ll be equipping it now."

"Yeah!" All the girls nodded in unison.

Clack! The Song of Freedom appeared on my right finger, and the Purple Cloud Ring officially exited the stage. The problem with the Purple Cloud Ring was that the Purple Cloud Strike’s trigger rate was insanely low. To this day, I could count the number of times it triggered on one hand. Even if that wasn’t the case, an active skill that I could use whenever I chose to was still more useful than a passive with a low proc chance.

I felt a dense, powerful aura floating around my finger. At the same time, my stats jumped up visibly—

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

Class: Master Swordsman of Death

Level: 234

HP: 912820

Attack: 36750~41970

Defense: 97865

Magic Resist: 88920

Reputation: 1259400

Tactics: 2160

Luck: 100

……

My base HP was getting close to the 1 million mark. If I could hit a million base HP, I could have a maximum HP of 4 million or more with full buffs. My Attack and Defense stats also surpassed the magic knights who dropped all their stats into Stamina by a few times over. This was the power of high-level and high-grade equipment. They could increase a single person’s powerlevel so much that even 1v100 wasn’t an impossibility.

Once again, I had obtained a skill that god himself would hate if he was playing Heavenblessed as well. Yes, Chains of Freedom only affected players, but that was perfectly fine by me. Once this skill became widely known, even the most careless, battle-hardened enemies would have to think twice before appearing in my sight.

We distributed the rest of the loot such as enhancement gems, Divine Crystals and more via rolling. When all was said and done, Moon Dew and Lian Xin became the proud owners of two expensive Divine Crystals. Divine Crystals were amazing loot because even a 1 Quality Divine Crystal could be sold for 1000 gold, or 100k gold for 100 Quality. There was a saying that one Divine Crystal equaled a Mercedes-Benz, but it honestly wasn’t too big of an exaggeration. Theoretically speaking, four or five Divine Crystals would be enough to buy a middle-class Benz.

I looked at the entrance leading to the third floor and said, "Come, the third floor’s mobs and equipment are waiting for us. You don’t want to burn the midnight oil all the time, do you? There’s a reason people say that girls who sleep after 11 care little about their appearances. If you don’t want to become one of those girls, then let’s finish this as soon as possible…"

"Yeah!"

We went to the third floor. The passage wasn’t a staircase, but a 10-meter-tall ruined wall. It was covered by a dozen or so thorny vines. Clearly, the designers intended for us to climb our way up using the vines.

Pa!

My metal gloves crushed the thorns to pieces when I grabbed a vine. Obviously, I felt no pain whatsoever. After I planted my Ghost Spirit War Boots on the moss-covered wall and jumped upward a couple of times, I was able to land on the third floor without a hitch. I activated Dark Pupils to scan the surroundings for any danger. The closest mob was almost a hundred meters away from this entrance, meaning that there was nothing to worry about.

"It’s safe up here. Come up, girls!"

The melodious cries of two giant dragons echoed, and Lin Yixin and He Yi carried our party members up to the third floor. It was at this moment a system announcement resounded in our ears. As it turned out, another one of the Twelve Divine Armaments had emerged into the world, and it belonged to Elephant City of the India server—

Ding~!

System Notice: Player "Flowing Cloud" has obtained one of the Twelve Divine Armaments, "Scepter of Divine Flame"! (Ancient Divine Armament, Outstanding★★★★★★★★)!

……

Speaking of which, the Twelve Divine Armaments had different names based on language. What we read now as the "Scepter of Divine Flame" was really just the Chinese translation of the Indian original. Anyway, the emergence of the Scepter of Divine Flame meant that a top-tier mage was soon to appear in the India server.

I stared at the sky while rubbing my nose. "Fuck, I thought that the Scepter of Divine Flame would first go to us, not Flowing Cloud… This is so fucking unfair…"

Lin Yixin chortled. "Are you serious? We already have the Chill of the Nine Provinces, the Xuanming Bow, the Immortal Blade and the Ghostblade Halberd. It would truly be unfair if the other nine of the Twelve Divine Armaments were to appear in the China server as well. Also, it’s not necessarily a bad thing for the Scepter of Divine Flame to appear in Elephant City right now. Twelve Divine Armaments are extremely powerful, but that power also attracts much strife and conflict. With luck, India may be too busy fighting a civil war over it to attack us, which translates to more time to solidify our hold over Hot Sand City."

He Yi nodded in agreement. "Yes, Yiyi is correct. This Scepter of Divine Flame may earn us the recuperation time our server needs."

I smiled. "I guess. Now that I have the Song of Freedom, it doesn’t matter who the Scepter of Divine Flame belongs to. I’ll make them give it to me with the Chains of Freedom and Xuanyuan Slash. Let’s check the Top 10 mage ranking of Elephant City and Cyan Earth City later. Flowing Cloud is a careful woman, and she would definitely entrust the Scepter of Divine Flame to a super-tier mage. Once we’ve identified them, it’s just a matter of killing them…"

"Yes. For now though, let’s focus on grinding and dropping our own Twelve Divine Armaments. Yiyi is still using the Seven Star Veluriyam Sword, you know…"

"Yeah, you’re right. Let’s grind!"

……

I took point and stepped toward an eerie green light in the darkness. It was the glow of a mob’s scepter. Unless I was sorely mistaken, the third floor of Bloodthirsty Castle was guarded by undead mages. I raised the Chill of the Nine Provinces high and increased its light until the darkness hiding the mob was fully chased away. As I thought, the mob was a true skeletal mage wearing tattered robes and wielding a scepter. I said ‘true’, because I literally couldn’t find a single scrap of flesh on its white, bony body. The scepter looked fairly impressive with a dark green magic stone embedded to its top, but the mob’s stats were even deadlier—

Undead Purgatory Mage (Fiend)

Level: 305

Magic Attack: 42000~55000

Defense: 46000

HP: 3200000

Skills: Fireball, Undead Blaze Blast, Summon Skeletal Warrior

Property: Master of Magic. The cooldown of all magic skills decreased by 40%

Introduction: The Undead Purgatory Mage is a soul walker whose soul has been refined at the entrance to hell. These undead mages have even greater control over magic than your average liches, and their understanding of magic far outstrips the average person. They are often called the artists of hell because their ability to kill people with magic is itself a kind of art. They also have the ability to summon skeletal warriors infinitely.

……

"God damn, a Level 305 fiend-rank mage with 55k Magic Attack…" Murong Mingyue stuck out her tongue. "I bet a hundred RMB that this Undead Purgatory Mage can hit Lu Chen for at least 150k damage with a Fireball…"

"Really?" Beiming Xue frowned. "Big bro’s Magic Resist is super high, you know. You know what, I’ll take that bet!"

"Very well. Go, my little hero…" Murong Mingyue waved me away while puffing up her chest.

Me: "..."

I Thunderous Charged the mob the moment I entered within range, but this time I failed to land a stun. Still, I followed up with Burning Blade Slash that dealt over 1 million damage in total and rocked its body like a leaf. Another Universe Break later, the Undead Purgatory Mage’s HP had dropped to almost 50%.

"You are courting death, damned boy!"

Angry, the undead mage raised its scepter and fired a crimson fireball at me. I didn’t activate Battle Astral Wind because the girls wanted to know how much damage it could do to me with a Fireball. As it turned out, the winner of the bet was—

179282!

Lin Yixin exclaimed in disbelief, "OMG, I can’t believe it actually did more than 150k damage. The mobs here are seriously bullshit…"

Before she could even finish her sentence, the Undead Purgatory Mage unleashed Undead Blaze Blast that dealt 210k damage to me and 330k damage to Lin Yixin because she happened to be in the way. What is magic damage? This is magic damage. DPS-wise, this mob was almost as strong as Lian Xin.

"Stop chatting and start fighting…" I yelled while swinging my sword.

The mob’s AI was surprisingly good. As it backed away from me, it waved its scepter and summoned skeletal warriors from the ground. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by a dozen or so Level 305 fiend-rank skeletal warriors. Their Attack was just as high as the Bloodthirsty Corpse Eaters’, and even with my tankiness I almost died after just a round of attacks. It really was as Yiyi said. The mobs here were absolute bullshit!

While activating Battle Astral Wind to protect myself, I shouted, "That Undead Purgatory Mage only has less than 1 million HP left! Kill it with ranged attacks, and its summoned units should automatically drop dead!"

"Okay…"

Lian Xin and Beiming Xue immediately unleashed their skills. I too unleashed my Coiling Dragon Revolution. Thankfully, the triple attack was good enough to one-shot its remaining HP!

"Ohhh, I will be back…"

The Undead Purgatory Mage dropped to its knees and yielded to us a stream of experience each. This was normal. What wasn’t normal was his 12 skeletal warriors collapsing into dust and yielding their experience to us as well!

……

Swhoosh!

My experience bar flashed visibly after I received all the streams of experience. Even now, I still couldn’t believe that the 12 skeletal warriors gave experience as well. I guess the high risk came with high reward after all!