Chapter 454: ‘Civil War’ in the Imperial Sky
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After picking up the loots, the dead body of the Rogalli vanished without a trace. The five of them went back to the place where they had first encountered the boss, and made their way down the the fourth floor of Treasure Cove.
"Little Yang! Let me tell you a great piece of news!" right after Zhang Yang and the ladies stepped foot into the passage, Zhang Yang received a voice message from Fatty Han.
"What is it?" Zhang Yang was not really interested to find out, as he knew Fatty Han a little too well to know that most of his ‘great’ news were either baseless rumors, or idle gossip. His news was of no help.
Fatty Han laughed and tried to build up his story dramatically, but he had always been a ‘big mouthed’ person! So, he let the words slipped out of his mouth after a brief while, "One Sword Stroke and Liu Wei have turned on each other!"
"Hmm!" Zhang Yang widened his eyes. That really caught his interest! So he quickly pressed, "How did you know about this?"
"My god! Someone exposed this ‘scandal’ at the forum, and that someone is one of the high-tiered members of Imperial Sky!"
Was it because One Sword Stroke no longer had any value to Liu Wei, and now Liu Wei was trying to end their ‘honeymoon’? Zhang Yang gave it some thoughts and then he asked, "How did they end up turning against each other in the first place?"
"Hehe! I heard that it’s because of one woman!"
"What?"
"According to the rumors flying around in the forum, One Sword Stroke had laid his hands on Liu Wei’s girlfriend! In the end, they were caught red-handed by Liu Wei, in bed! The two of them actually got into a fistfight, right in her face! Hehe! That’s really messed up man! Haha! This Liu Wei tried to ‘steal’ Imperial Sky over for himself, but ended up getting his girlfriend stolen by One Sword Stroke! Ironic, poetic justice!" Fatty Han burst out laughing.
Zhang Yang was shocked. Were they talking about a girlfriend? So is it possible that they were talking about Luo Xin Yan? He quickly asked Fatty Han, "Do you know the name of his girlfriend?"
"Her name is erm... Luo something... Xin something... You see... I can’t really remember, you know how my brain works."
"Luo Xin Yan?"
"Right! That’s right! Her name is Luo Xin Yan! Wait, how do you know?" Fatty Han asked as he was very curious, but immediately came up with an assumption and said, "So, you already saw that post earlier on! Gah, why did you try to make me happy? You should have told me from the start!"
Zhang Yang laughed and said, "I haven’t seen the post yet, but I do know that this Liu Wei does have a girlfriend. Carry on! Tell me more!"
Fatty Han also ‘knew’ that Zhang Yang had his reasons for hating Liu Wei. After all, Zhang Yang was almost played out by Liu Wei, barely making it to the Soaring Sword Competition in Shang Hai! So, Fatty Han would not be surprised if Zhang Yang had been keeping an eye on Liu Wei.
Then he continued, "But! Liu Wei is also not simple in other regards. After he left Imperial Sky, he took a large number of players along with him and formed his own guild. I think the name of his guild is ‘The Myth’. Hate to admit it, but it sounds awesome!"
The Myth?
Zhang Yang felt a terrifying chill down his spine. In this life, although Liu Wei had been progressing very differently in 'God’s Miracle' under Zhang Yang’s influence, but in some aspects, they were uncannily similar! The guild that Liu Wei had founded in his previous life was also called ‘The Myth’!
"Oh, I see. So, how about One Sword Stroke? Did he say anything at all?"
"Of course he’s mad! He began a quarrel with that son of the beach Liu Wei!" Fatty Han laughed. Be it Liu Wei or One Sword Stroke, Fatty Han had always hated these two guys. So now that these two were quarreling with each other like a cat and a dog, of course he would be satisfied watching the ‘drama’ progress, "Now that the two guilds are hurling insults at each in the forums, some ‘bored’ people have joined in and have added some ‘seasoning’ to the fight, making situation even ‘better’! Haha! Now, the forum is chaotic, thanks to them!"
Zhang Yang was at a loss on whether to cry or to laugh. His initial intention was to send Luo Xin Yan to Liu Wei, hoping to plant an eye and an ear next to Liu Wei, so that he would truly be able to keep an eye and ear on Liu Wei’s every single move! With that, he could at least prevent that son of the beach from planning in the dark! But now that things had escalated to a whole new level, his move of sending the girl to Liu Wei had led to the ‘dissolution’ of the gay partnership between Liu Wei and One Sword Stroke!
But now, One Sword Stroke should be the one Liu Wei hates the most! No men could ever endure the sensation of being cuckolded! Liu Wei, likely to harbor a grudge for a long time, would surely think of a way of ‘handling’ One Sword Stroke’. So he shouldn’t be planning any evil schemes on Zhang Yang for at least a brief period of time.
In other perspectives, Zhang Yang and One Sword Stroke did not really hate each other as much. Imperial Sky and Lone Desert Smoke had been rivals since the earlier stages of the game. Competition between guilds was inevitable. No one would like to play second fiddle. If Zhang Yang was in the other man’s position, he would have also done anything to crush his rivals, making his Lone Desert Smoke, the best guild in the entire China server!
The survival of the fittest applied to all online games. The strong would step over the weak. This phenomenon was very common in all online games!
But, who would have thought the almighty number one tanker in the entire China server had once fallen into a love trap with Luo Xin Yan, in his previous life! Although Zhang Yang had been rivals One Sword Stroke for so long, Liu Wei had been the perpetrator of most of it. He actually had deep respect for One Sword Stroke’s capabilities! But, to think that One Sword Stroke would actually steal other people’s ‘wife’, that was really something that Zhang Yang could not understand!
Zhang Yang shook his head and decided to put his thoughts on the matter aside. His main focus at the moment was to clear the entire Treasure Cove!
After walking down a few flights of stairs, Zhang Yang and the ladies arrived at the fourth floor of the Treasure Cove.
"Rawh ---" The moment they walked out of the stairwell, a large white skeletal tiger lunged out from a dark corner by the stairs and bit Wei Yan Er. ‘Crack!’ The skeletal tiger left four teeth marks on the armor of the little girl!
‘-14,216!’
Wei Yan Er was inflicted with a high damage value in an instant! She had almost immediately lost 25% of her health bar!
[Starving White Skeletal Tiger] (Elite, Spectre)
Level: 95
HP: 3,000,000
Defense: 2,000
Note: Pet of the First Prince, Jesse Rogue. After a long period of time, this creature has turned into a Spectre. But they have never forgotten their natural instinct, that is to feed!
The surroundings were too dark. Only after the little girl was attacked did Zhang Yang realize that they were being ambushed! He then quickly ‘Displayed’ the special visual effect of his Titan Set Armor, radiating in a mesmerizing holy light, that made him look like a god that had descended down from the heavens. His holy light then shone 2 to 3 meters out, illuminating everything around the area.
Zhang Yang let out a thunderous roar and activated {Provoke} on the White Skeletal Tiger. The White Skeletal Tiger immediately charged towards him right after that. With his sword raised, Zhang Yang inflicted the White Skeletal Tiger with a damage of about 4,000 points, and instantly hooked the aggro of the monster over to him.
His basic damage ranged from 4,168 to 4,568, but the {Strength Aura} of Wei Yan Er was already at Level 4 right now, along with the title of ‘Divine Radiance of the Warriors,’ which allowed him to deal an additional 10% damage to all demons and spectre type monsters. With all the buffs on him, his normal attacks ranged from 4,568 to 5,025 points!
The White Skeletal Tiger was afraid of pain, so it immediately let out an intimidating roar of a tiger. With it’s mouth opened wide, the monster revealed four long and sharp fangs, and it leaped towards Zhang Yang.
"You stinky tiger! How dare you put holes in my armor! I’m not through with you!" Wei Yan Er was raging with fury as she screamed at the tiger.
"The tiger had only bitten you once, why are you so mad about it?"
"... Wu wu wu... this stinky tiger did some damage to my armor and the durability of my armor has dropped by 1%!" Wei Yan Er revealed a miserable and bitter expression on her face as she violently hacked the White Skeletal Tiger up.
When the durability of an equipment drops, players would have to spend coins to repair it. That was the main reason why the little girl was so mad about it! Asking her to spend coins or money was like asking a tiger to lose its teeth!
The White Skeletal Tiger was quickly hammered into a pulp under the combined attacks of the party! The skeletal body of the tiger shattered into pieces across the ground, and dropped a Yellow-Gold shield!
[Tiger-Tooth Thorny Shield] (Yellow-Gold, Shield)
Defense: +1,008
Vitality: +504
Equip: Absorbs 344 damage.
Equip: Reflects 100 physical damage when engaged with melee attacks.
{Unidentified}
Required Level: 90
"Wahaha! This is a fitting compensation for biting me so hard!" Wei Yan Er smiled while she took the shield and placed it into her inventory.
Zhang Yang shook his head and said, "One Yellow-Gold shield could at least earn us 40,000 to 50,000 gold coins you know. How much gold coins would it take for you to repair that 1% damage of your armor?"
"... although it doesn’t require that much gold coins to repair my armor, I was emotionally affected, I scared sh*tless, mind you! So the remaining balance shall be the compensation for my emotional trauma!" Wei Yan Er tried to justify her words.
The party continued to move forward. The design of the fourth floor was a little different from the third floor. The walls in the surroundings did not have lit-up torches on them, not even one. There were no pillars that looked like fluorescent light tubes to support the ceiling of the floor as well. Every corner of the floor was just dark. Only god knew what kinds of monsters lurked in the darkness.
Fortunately, the special effect of Zhang Yang’s Titan Set Armor was a great deal of help. Although it illuminated the surroundings by about 2 to 3 meters, at least they won’t be completely blind. Whenever a monster lunged out from the darkness, the party could react in time.
"Wooh!" Another roar of a wolf was heard, followed by the appearance of a large, white skeletal wolf. This time, the monster had pounced at Han Ying Xue! While it was still flying through the air, it opened it’s foul mouth and was ready to bite Han Ying Xue off! The foul smell from the mouth spread across the air and threw everyone off!
Zhang Yang was prepared for the moment. He would not let the monster get what it wanted. He lifted a leg up and sent it flying into the buttocks of the white skeletal wolf, knocking it off its flight pattern!
"Wow! That was very cool!" Wei Yan Er’s eyes glittered as she praised Zhang Yang. Such was a perfect example of a perfect ‘Supporting Attack’. It could actually dissolve a monster’s attack without the need of activating any skill!
Zhang Yang laughed and said, "Little girl, you should train on this as well!" With a quick flick of his hand, he launched a {Spear of Obliteration} at the wolf.
"Rawgh---" the lunge attack of the white skeletal wolf was interrupted mid-air, then it got struck by Zhang Yang straight away even before it could regain its stance. The monster let out a raging roar and began to lunge at Zhang Yang. The large body was like a dark cloud, hovering over Zhang Yang as it lunged towards him.
However, such elite monsters only had longer health bars and higher attack power compared to other regular monsters. Against the insanely equipped party of Zhang Yang, they were swiftly reduced to dust.
Unfortunately, this monster did not drop anything. Naturally, the little girl sulked.
The party went on forth, having no knowledge of how many more monsters lurked in the dark corners of the floor. Monsters lunged at them from time to time, sometimes it was a tiger, sometimes a leopard, and sometimes a wolf, or even a lion! These monsters would lunge at them, and Zhang Yang would just use his ‘Supporting Attack’ to counter them. As the ‘Supporting Attack’ was really effective and successful against the monsters, the ladies clearly saw its use, and were greatly motivated to start practicing them!
After spending about seven to eight hours, the party had finally reached the end of the floor, and Zhang Yang had also earned tons of experience points, which was sufficient for them to hit Level 98! He was about to reach Level 100 real soon!
"Silly Yu, you’re about to reach Level 100!" Looking at the flashy stream of golden light streaming through Zhang Yang, Han Ying Xue asked, "So, the first to get into the Chaos Realm will get a definitive advantage in the game right?"
Zhang Yang nodded as he added the 5 free attribute points that he had just earned from leveling up, channeling them to his Vitality. But the truth was that, at the current stage of the game, with their immense Violet-Platinum equipment, such basal attribute points hardly made any difference! For example, when a player reaches Level 100, they would only have 500 free attribute points. One piece of Violet-Platinum helmet could already add 1000+ vitality attribute points. So, when players reach the standards of Mythical, Ethereal or greater tier already, then the free attribute points would barely make any difference.
Then Zhang Yang went on to say, "The first thing that we should focus on after getting into the Chaos Realm is to secure one Territory. Then, it will become much more convenient for our guild members to step into the Chaos Realm. And of course, more income!"
The four ladies agreed with what he said, and they nodded in unison. A Territory is like a money printing machine! They have already experienced the benefits of it.
The party pushed forward for some distance before they saw a large humanoid skeleton glowing luminously in the dark! This skeleton was about 10 meter tall! Every single one of the bones looked like fluorescent tubes. It was such a strange, spooky sight!
[The First Prince, Jesse Rogue] (Violet-Platinum, Spectre)
Level: 100
HP: 10,000,000
Defense: 2,900
"Haha! Another Violet-Platinum boss! So, after we have slain him, we should get enough gold coins to last us for at least a year or two!" Zhang Yang laughed.
"Guildmaster, are you really that short on money?" Daffodil Daydream was asking him, out of her own curiosity.
"Oh, whem I’m living with so many ‘Ah Jiaos1’ in a plush apartment? I do need money, as much as possible!" Zhang Yang teased.
"You bustard (Bastard)!"
"Hoodlum!"
The ladies scolded Zhang Yang playfully, except for Wei Yan Er, as she could not understand what they were talking about, so she said, "I’m your sister-in-law, so I’m eligible to stay here for free, and eat here for free!"
Zhang Yang waved his sword and his shield, "Alright, let’s move!"
As he charged towards that skeletal boss, he threw a {Spear of Obliteration} over and inflicted 4,867 damage on the boss.
"Who dares interrupt me while I’m deep in thought?" The boss roared in a thunderous voice as he began to walk towards Zhang Yang. As the boss had a luminous body, it made him a walking, visible lamp post of a target. It was a lighthouse, directing all blind ships to itself!
Crack!
The boss suddenly tore of one of its ribs and used it as a makeshift dagger! The tip of the ‘dagger’ shot towards Zhang Yang!
{Block}!
‘-5894!’
‘-10000!’
‘-10000!’
‘-10000!’
‘-10000!’
Although Zhang Yang had raised up his shield to block against the attack of the boss, the rib bone blew up, and tiny pieces of the shattered bones shot out into the surroundings, inflicting everyone with damage of 10,000 on each of them! It was an AOE attack!
"I hate humans! They are just a bunch of hypocritical, filthy animals! No... they do not even deserve to be called animals either! They only deserve painful deaths!" Jesse Rogue let out a raging roar before he went on to ‘pluck’ another one of his rib bones off. Once again, he made to stab Zhang Yang!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Every single time when the boss stabbed Zhang Yang with his ‘rib bone dagger’, the ‘rib bone dagger’ would explode, 40 meters across the surroundings, and inflict damage to all targets within the effective range of the explosion. It wouldn’t hurt to mention that it hurt like hell too!
Fortunately, Han Ying Xue is a Priest, her speciality happened to be AoE healing, she could heal the entire party members at the same time. With the additional support from the {Recovery Aura} of Daffodil Daydream, which had already been leveled up to Level 4, everyone in the party could recover 800 health points every 3 seconds! Although that amount of healing was not really that high, it came at such a rapid rate that the healing efficiency could not be underestimated!
The battle had already hit its peak point, not long after Zhang Yang and the ladies had engaged the boss. Han Ying Xue had already been put to work at full capacity. There was no slacking for this lazy woman!
TL Notes:
1. Ah Jiao - means a mistress or a young wife (as in second/third wife).