I felt my heart clenching a little. s.h.i.+t, I had a bounty on my head! Every NPC and player in Floating Ice City will be trying to kill me!
Countless messages entered my mailbox in the next ten seconds or so.
Lin Yixin: "OMG, what did you do again?"
He Yi: "Where are you right now, Lu Chen? Do you need me to gather our men and protect you?"
Murong Mingyue: "What did you do to make the system send out a bounty announcement, brat? Did you try to flirt with Princess Karinshan?"
Beiming Xue: "Big bro, what happened?"
Du Thirteen: "Come to Silver Moon Valley! We have a five-hundred-man b.l.o.o.d.y Mercenaries party over here. No one will dare to lay a finger on you!"
Xu Yang: "f.u.c.k! Where are you, Lu Chen? You should come to Wildfire Plains, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls" main force is here killing wolves. Do you want me to send our men over to fetch you?"
……
As it turned out, I had pretty good connections, but I didn"t want to trouble them right now. We all had electric bills to pay, and I couldn"t possibly make everyone waste their time to help me.
Swhoos.h.!.+
I activated the special effects of all the equipment I was wearing: the Purgatory War Helmet, Purgatory War Armor, Flame Dragon Gauntlet, Death Shade War Boots, and the 1-star Outstanding Purgatory Legguards. Dark gold light effects circulated around all my equipment—an indication that all of my equipment were Dark Gold–grade—and my 3-star Outstanding Purgatory Sword glowed the brightest of them all. Everyone could see that I was a super expert with a set of outstanding equipment.
Most players were intimidated by the reputation I had built for myself, not to mention that my new ID had replaced my old one in the CGL Hall of Fame. Besides that, I was backed by two giant guilds, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and b.l.o.o.d.y Mercenaries, and I was the vice leader of our alliance with Snowy Cathaya. There were very few people in Floating Ice City who would choose to ignore all the warning signs and harm me.
However, very few didn"t mean nonexistent!
At the distance, I saw a Level 71 G.o.ds of Destruction warrior glaring at me and seemingly talking to himself. He was probably talking to someone on the communicator.
The sight sent s.h.i.+vers down my spine. This was bad. It wouldn"t be long before my coordinates were revealed to everyone, and knowing how decisive and cruel Dominating Heaven Blade was, he wouldn"t stop until I was dead. Seriously, this is getting really bad!
……
Behind me, Xinran shouted at me, "Let"s go! I can sense a lot of powerful auras approaching us! Dammit, I think there"s even a dragon knight in this city!"
Clad in black armor and holding the Dragonbone Spear and Archbishop Alvis"s head in her palm, she looked like a beautiful little devil who just crawled out of h.e.l.l. I gave her a nod and started running toward the eastern bridge. A lot of players were staring at me in astonishment, probably because they had never seen a red name running openly inside the city.
"A red name inside the city? The arrogance! Brothers, let"s kill him and grab his equipment!"
A Level 65 barbarian warrior with a battle axe yelled and charged toward me. He was also followed by three Level 65 or so players who were clearly his in-game pals. It looked like they wouldn"t stop until I was dead on my feet.
Well, there was only one thing to do in this situation. Fight!
Clang!
Unsheathing the Purgatory Sword, I met the barbarian warrior head-on and unleashed Desperate Gambit!
3219!
The sword sank into his neck and dealt over 3000 damage. There was no way a Level 65 warrior could have more than 3000 HP unless he had items of the Dark Gold grade, and Desperate Gambit was my strongest offensive skill. Even without Pardon, it was powerful enough to one-shot him!
My breath stopped for a second when a Devil Piercing Arrow hit me in the chest and dealt 276 damage. Not bad!
Swhoos.h.!.+
At the same time, an a.s.sa.s.sin ran toward me along a circuitous path before bringing up his dagger to hit me beneath the armpit. It was a tricky move to pull off while moving at high speed, meaning that the a.s.sa.s.sin had to be a hardcore player or even better.
I smiled. I wasn"t expecting to run into a player like this on a shabby bridge!
I swung my weapon and turned my body a little. The blade of the Purgatory Sword appeared right in the dagger"s path and stopped it dead in its tracks, resulting in a successful parry. His Cold Blade failed to do any damage to me at all!
The eyes behind the masked features widened into shock. Clearly, the a.s.sa.s.sin hadn"t expected me to react this quickly and accurately. By the time he came to, my sword had already pa.s.sed through his chest!
"Ugh…"
The a.s.sa.s.sin collapsed to his knees and died inside the safe zone. His eyes were filled with unwillingness and shock.
Hmph hmph, the price for showing off his inferior skill in front of me is death!
After that, I quickly moved to the backline and killed the enemy archer and priest as well. This 4-man party was physically incapable of threatening me.
Behind me, Xinran was starting to stagger a little. I already knew that she was heavily injured, but her chest armor was drenched in blood, her arms were marred by multiple slash wounds, and even her legs were covered in scratches here and there. Her calf especially had a b.l.o.o.d.y hole in it, courtesy of a Red Deacon"s attack earlier. It was the main reason she was limping right now.
I had to hide my shock. There were two reasons Xinran managed to kill an Archbishop and ten Red Deacons in such a short time: one, she was absolutely stronger than them. Two, she made risky, costly moves so that she could end the battle as quickly as possible. Had she chosen to fight it out slowly, both of us would"ve perished under the templars" blades already.
I turned around and grabbed Xinran"s arm. "Quickly!"
"Mn!"
We crossed the bridge and continued toward the exit. However, we soon saw hundreds of NPC guards waiting for us at the gate. The good news was that they were only Level 80 or so, so they weren"t as deadly as the templars were.
"Xinran, you run ahead while I cover for you!" I charged forward with my sword at the ready.
Xinran called out from behind me, "Be careful!"
……
Ahead of me, the guard captain commanding the NPC guards pulled out his sword and shouted, "That evil spirit is coming toward us! warriors, let us carry out Princess Karinshan"s order and defend Floating Ice City, our home, from danger! Attack!"
"Attack!"
As the guards started charging toward me, I raised my sword and activated Thousand Mirage Slas.h.!.+
Boom!
The unfortunate guards who were caught in the blast immediately screamed in pain. A column of amazing damage numbers started scrolling above their heads.
2985!
3012!
3094!
……
Thanks to the Purgatory Sword"s splash damage, that one skill was all it took to delete half of the NPCs" HP. It was amazing! That being said, low-level NPCs like these were set to be 20 levels above the average level of the city"s players, meaning that on average, the players of Floating Ice City were around Level 60 or so.
I was leagues ahead of the normal players, and I was clad from head to toe in top-tier Dark Gold–grade equipment. Naturally, these normal NPC guards were of no threat to me. Of course, high-level NPCs such as the templars could still destroy me easily.
I cut down the enemies left and right until my sword suddenly turned cold in my hand, I immediately swung it at a large group of NPCs and opened up a wide path with the Purgatory Slash. While I was keeping the NPCs busy, Xinran managed to slip out through another path before vanis.h.i.+ng into the edge of Frost Forest.
My quest complete, I hurriedly broke away from the enemies and restored my HP to over 50% with a Rank 6 Health Potion that restored 1500 HP and Tenacity of the Dead. Behind me, the guard captain was still sticking to my back like a gum on my boots and annoying the heck out of me. So, I turned around and fired Ice Ray at him!
Puchi!
The moment the guard captain was slowed, I immediately ran a couple of steps forward before escaping into the ground!
Swhoos.h.!.+
The aggro I had accrued disappeared when my figure vanished completely into the ground. The guard captain raised his sword and shouted loudly, "d.a.m.n you for protecting an evil spirit! You are the shame of Floating Ice City! One day, I will kill you with my own hands!"
"Hmph!" I let out a sneer before moving a couple of steps toward Frost Forest just to be safe. Then, I emerged from the ground and ran straight into the forest.
"Xinran? Xinran?"
I looked around and cried out softly until someone suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me into a bush. It was none other than Xinran herself. "Quiet!"
Her complexion was deathly white, and her wounds were incredibly serious. A terrible slash wound on her shoulder was bleeding profusely even now.
Hurt by her terrible appearance, I supported her shoulder and said, "How can I help you? Xinran? Tell me, please…"
Xinran laughed a little. "It"s fine, this is nothing. I had suffered worse wounds than this while I was training in the Netherworld."
"The Netherworld?"
I sucked in a deep breath and asked her a question that I had cooped up in my head for a long time. "Xinran, who on earth are you? Or is it still a secret?"
"Ah?"
Xinran looked at me for a long time before bowing her head slightly. "I"m sorry… I"m sorry…"
"It"s fine. Just, who on earth are you?"
"I… I…"
Xinran looked like she wanted to say something, but she suddenly burst into tears and buried her face into my chest. She cried loudly as she said, "That isn"t the fate I wanted, big brother. I don"t want to recall the past, I don"t want to…"
I caressed her hair gently. "Don"t cry, Xinran. Can you tell me what happened to you?"
Xinran nodded with sorrowful eyes. "I"m not Xinran. This body is just a host for my soul. I"m an old soul who has existed for tens of thousands of years, so long that I almost can"t remember my past… When Xinran was three years old, I possessed her body, destroying her soul. Then, I sealed myself and forgot everything. That was why I thought that I was Xinran… Uuuu…"
She cried like a baby as she s.h.i.+vered in my embrace. She said, "I am a denizen of h.e.l.l. Back in those days, I was called the Wind Singer!"