I nearly spat blood upon hearing that comment. “Story? Does this look like the time for storytelling?”
Murong Mingyue smiled. “It"ll be fine. Look at them, do you see Li Le or Roaming Dragon anywhere? Do you think these people will fight to the death when their guild leader isn"t around to witness their bravery? No, they won"t, so come on, tell us a joke and cure our boredom!”
I nodded. “What kind of joke do you want to hear, the kiddies type or the adult type?”
“What do you think?”
“Ahem…” I said, “If you"re ready… I"ll begin now, okay?”
“Mn mn!” Both Murong Mingyue and Moon Dew nodded excitedly.
I cleared my throat and began, “A long time ago, there was a girl who loved eating spicy hot pot. After she got a boyfriend, she was forbidden from enjoying her favorite food…”
……
Two minutes later, Murong Mingyue and Moon Dew asked in confusion, “And? What happens afterward?”
“That"s it.”
“That"s it?”
Murong Mingyue spent another two minutes in deep thought before she suddenly raised her fist and punched me. “Oh f.u.c.k you, you little rascal…”
Moon Dew still didn"t get the joke. “What does it mean?”
Murong Mingyue replied, “You"ll understand when you"re older…”
Moon Dew: “...”
Murong Mingyue prodded me again. “Tell us another, Lu Chen. That was too short…”
I nodded and started my second joke. “A long time ago, a general married a beautiful wife, but she turned out to be an incredibly licentious woman. Worried that she would cuck him behind his back while he went to war, he made her wear a chast.i.ty belt and gave his most trusted aide the key. Only then he relaxed and went out to fight his war. But not long after he left the city, his aide caught up to him and said, "General, you gave me the wrong key!"”
Murong Mingyue: “...”
Moon Dew: “...”
This time, not even Moon Dew could miss the joke. She turned beet red and muttered, “Lu Chen is so terrible!”
Murong Mingyue giggled. “But that"s exactly why he"s so lovable, isn"t he?”
Moon Dew turned even redder after that.
It was at this moment He Yi walked out with the Soul Stealing Spear and asked, “What are you guys talking about? You didn"t even respond to me in the party channel…”
“N-nothing…” All three of us denied in unison.
……
Ten minutes pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye. However, the number of players in Pegasus Spring actually decreased instead of increasing. Puzzled by this, I asked, “What happened? Where are the people?”
He Yi smiled a little. “I think they"re changing targets?”
Inside the party channel, Lin Yixin said, “Thank goodness, Warsky Alliance is now tackling Dragon Blood Fortress, and G.o.ds of Destruction, Mad Dragon, and Flower Room are tackling Giant Rock Cave…”
Purple Marquis asked, “But why are they giving up on Pegasus Spring?”
High Fighting Spirits said, “That"s simple. Almost a thousand of our players are packed inside the divine site hall after we occupied the divine site hall. It"ll be next to impossible for Warsky Alliance to get it again, not to mention that they had lost a lot of levels and equipment before this. That was why they decided to cut their losses and tackle another divine site instead…”
I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it"s one thing to die once or twice, but any more than that is a completely different story. Warsky is a wise man for sure. Had they continued fighting for Pegasus Spring, they might lose more power than was worth. Just look at the Heavenly Ranking; Farewell Song, October Rain, and Laughing at the Heavens had all dropped out of the Top 15, while all our players gained two levels after taking over the divine site. There"s no way they can afford to lose any more than this!”
Lin Yixin giggled. “The major guilds have dropped out, meaning that Pegasus Spring is definitely ours now, This is wonderful!”
“Yep, congratulations. Don"t forget to treat us to a meal later!”
“No problem!”
……
It was at this moment Xu Yang asked, “Say… do you think we should we contest Dragon Blood Fortress and Giant Rock Cave?”
He Yi looked at me. “What do you think, Lu Chen?”
I shook my head. “No need. Warsky Alliance will do everything in their power to stop us if we do that, and the benefits aren"t really worth it. Also, we would be crossing a line if we do that. Let"s just leave Dragon Blood Fortress and Giant Rock Cave to Warsky Alliance and G.o.ds of Destruction!”
“Mn.”
He Yi and I walked out of the divine site hall while the players of Snowy Cathaya and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls chatted cordially with each other. The fight was finally over, and everyone let out a sigh of relief.
……
“Where are we eating tonight?” Beiming Xue asked.
I answered, “Anywhere"s fine as long as it fills our stomach.”
“In that case, should we go to the buffet restaurant again?”
“Nonono, eating and overeating are not the same thing!”
“Hehe…” Beiming Xue giggled.
It was at this moment Gui Guzi walked up to us and asked, “Why are you discussing dinner spots, boss Broken Halberd? Didn"t we book a place already?”
“We did? Why haven"t I heard about it?”
“Brother B is treating all of us at Fuyunlou tonight. He even booked a huge private room. If my calculations are correct, this dinner"s going to cost him at least 10k, tsk tsk…”
I exclaimed in astonishment, “You"re treating us to dinner? What on earth is the occasion, Thirteen?”
Du Thirteen chuckled a bit embarra.s.sedly. “Today is Lulu"s birthday, so I wanted to organize a birthday party for her and introduce her to everyone…”
Xu Yang frowned a little before asking, “Are you sure you want to continue dating this Xue Lu, Thirteen?”
“Mn!” Du Thirteen nodded strongly. “I"m serious this time…”
I had already noticed how deeply in love he was a while ago, but I didn"t mind it because I was glad that my brother finally got serious in a relations.h.i.+p. So I smiled and said, “Alright then, I"ll see you there tonight. I know where Fuyunlou is, so don"t worry about me. I"ll be there on time.”
“Mn mn!”
I turned around and asked He Yi and Murong Mingyue, “Are you girls going as well?”
He Yi shook her head and smiled. “Not this time, unfortunately. Mingyue and I have to return to the company because there are a couple of urgent bills that require our immediate attention. Don"t worry about us and just enjoy your night~”
“Mn, okay!”
……
Nothing happened as we predicted earlier, and an hour later the system dinged above Sky City—
System Announcement: Congratulations to guild “Snowy Cathaya” for successfully conquering Pegasus Spring and receiving a bonus of 10% attack speed and 5% movement speed for 30 days. Also, all members of the victorious guild that partic.i.p.ated in the battle will receive a reward of 2 levels!
……
The rewards were as generous as expected. I was now Level 97 and another step closer to Level 100. All I needed to do next was grind like mad, and I should be able to apply for my own land in a couple of days!
Besides that, Level 100 players could receive their fourth-promotion quest and become fourth-promotion experts. Unfortunately, that didn"t apply to me because I had killed Suren, and I hadn"t found a new cla.s.s trainer who might take me in. After all, who would want a teacher murderer like me?
Speaking of which, He Yi, Murong Mingyue, Chaos Moon, Gui Guzi, Beiming Xue, and basically anyone who hadn"t perished in combat all gained 4 levels from the two divine sites. It was always enjoyable to level up through events!
Of course, that only applied to us winners. Most people lost levels and equipment while gaining nothing in the end!
Anyway, it was time to return to Sky City!
Swhoos.h.!.+
After crus.h.i.+ng a return scroll and appearing back in Sky City, the first thing I did was take all out the equipment I"ve looted—120 high-quality items in total—and set up a stall at the best spot in Sky City. Then, I started shouting, “Fresh Level 60–80 Dark Steel, Silver and Gold–grade equipment for sale! Most of them are the best of the best! My prices are fair, and I offer a wide variety of equipment such as leather armor, cloth armor, metal armor and weapons! Buy it while you can!”
I aimed to earn as much money as I could before dinner time because I was planning to buy a car sometime in the near future. As a professional player who was worth over a million RMB, it was my duty to parade my success. It was to give the professional players in the guild a goal and something to strive toward.
It wasn"t long before a Level 78 player walked up to me and set his eyes on a Silver-grade fan. He picked it up and asked, “How much is this, brother?”
I shot the fan a glance and found it surprisingly good. If I remembered correctly, it was dropped by an unfortunate tactician from Warsky Alliance—
Fabrication Fan (Silver-grade)
Magic Attack: 180~245
Intelligence: +40
Stamina: +28
Tactics: +14
Pa.s.sive: Increases effectiveness of stratagems by 2%
Level Requirement: 75
……
It was definitely some of the best tactician fans out there, usable even by mages if they didn"t have anything better than this. The fan gave incredible Magic Attack, Intelligence and Tactics, and it had a pa.s.sive that boosted stratagems by 2%. The perfect combination of stats and pa.s.sives made it an absolute top-tier equipment for tacticians!
If I wasn"t mistaken, the Warsky Alliance tactician who dropped this must be bawling his eyes out.
I looked up and said, “I don"t need to tell you how good this fan is, do I? Tell me your price, and I"ll sell it to you if I think you"re serious about it.”
The young tactician nodded. “How does 20k gold sound?”
“Make it 30k, and it"s yours.”
“Deal!”
It was always nice to have a straightforward deal. I set the Fabrication Fan"s price to 30k, and the tactician left after making his purchase. Then, I shot him an extra glance and realized abruptly that he was a member of Hegemon Palace. This could mean two things: either Hegemon Palace hadn"t shown all their strength in the battle for the divine sites, or w.a.n.g Dongliang had given the order to purchase all kinds of top-tier equipment to strengthen his men further. Either way, it looked like Hegemon Palace wasn"t sinking into mediocrity anytime soon. After all, w.a.n.g Dongliang was probably richer than both Li Le and Roaming Dragon combined!
I felt a bit elated after selling the Fabrication Fan. I was now powerful enough to forge my own little kingdom in Heavenblessed, but I still had a long way ahead of me. Oh well, let"s take this one step at a time. It wasn"t like my dream would take forever to accomplish. I would be content once I carried Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls to the top and dominated the world!
I managed to sell a couple more items and earned a lot of gold before dinner, and I resolved to convert my gold to money after I had acc.u.mulated 100k gold in total. I was neither a gold h.o.a.rder nor a habitual consumer. I was a miser who only made money but seldom spent any of it!
It was around this moment Du Thirteen sent me a message: “Lu Chen, the birthday party will begin at 6 pm tonight. You can log out and bring Lil Beiming over now!”
“Mn, got it!”
……
After I logged out of the game, I borrowed Murong Mingyue"s car and drove Beiming Xue toward Fuyunlou. Du Thirteen finally made a new girlfriend, but this girlfriend had also increased the hostility between b.l.o.o.d.y Mercenaries and Flower Room by 300%. Was she really that beautiful, or was there something going on that I wasn"t aware of? Regardless, I must see her with my own eyes to be sure!