"Clang! Fans like to read:!"
The Purgatory Sword seemed to have hit something. I hurriedly lowered my body and pushed away the dirt. To my surprise, I saw a sword hilt glowing with a faint golden light. Images of the sun, moon, rain, and snow floated above the hilt, surrounded by ancient runes that I couldn't understand at all.
"Is this the Blade of Kings?" He Yi asked with a smile as she knelt on one knee and observed it closely.
I nodded. "It's about right. Let's pull it out and settle the score with Cardin The Third."
"Mn!"
I grabbed the hilt and pulled, but to my surprise, the sword didn't budge at all!
How is this possible? I put all my stat points into Strength, and with the stat bonuses from my equipment, I should have at least 500 Strength. Why can't I pull out a sword? He Yi clicked her tongue in astonishment.
"Dig a little deeper. Let's see if there's something that's restraining the Blade of Kings."
"Mn!"
I continued to dig, digging out all the dirt around the blade. The truth was finally revealed. The reason why I couldn't pull out the Blade of Kings was because it was a sealed weapon. The blade was suspended in midair, and there was a hexagram magic formation floating around it. It looked like a spider web was wrapping around the Blade of Kings, tightly binding it to the ground!
Murong Mingyue exclaimed, "What do we do?"
I gritted my teeth. "What else can we do?
Let's use force! "
"Ohh!"
I abruptly rose to my feet and put away the Purgatory Sword. Gripping the scorching hilt of the Blade of Kings with both hands, I pushed against the hexagram formation with almost all my strength and tried to pull the sword out!
Kacha … Kacha …
The blade of the sword broke against the magic formation with a series of metallic clangs. I was sweating profusely, and I felt like I was holding a thousand-kilogram rock. Veins bulged on my face as I growled, "Fuck, get out of there already!"
"Bang!"
I abruptly pulled the sword out of the magic formation, but it caused an earthquake in Floating Ice City. The ground shook violently, and the sky was shrouded by dark clouds. In the blink of an eye, the world turned dark. Then, rays of bloody light pierced through the clouds and shone around us.
"Shua shua …"
The King's Blade flashed with a golden light and gave off a low hum, as if it was very excited. Looking closely, this sword did not have any stats, and it was only a quest item. It was the same type as the Demon Suppressing Sword.
However, He Yi, Murong Mingyue, and Beiming Xue couldn't help but panic at the sight around them. He Yi stared at the bloody light in the sky with a worried look in her eyes. "It looks like things have gotten out of hand, Lu Chen …"
Beiming Xue held my arm and nodded. "Did we touch something, big bro?"
I didn't say anything. I raised the Blade of Kings, and a beam of golden light shot into the sky. It pierced through the clouds and slightly illuminated the sky above Floating Ice City. Then, the intense ringing of the system bell reverberated above Floating Ice City and lingered for a long time. Ding ~!
System Announcement: Players "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand", "From Water", "Murong Mingyue", and "Beiming Xue" have successfully activated the Blade of Kings and triggered a drastic change in Floating Ice City. The "Return of the King" version will be updated immediately. After players complete the quest, the system will be maintained for ten hours. If players fail to complete the quest, they will lose three levels and zero Reputation as a punishment!
…
"Fuck!"
I stared at the system in shock. "The system is so shameless! Who would've thought that this quest would cause such a huge mess and trigger a new patch update in Floating Ice City? We're dead if we don't complete the quest …"
He Yi pursed her lips into a smile. "Enough with the nonsense. Let's charge into the palace and kill Cardin The Third. If we're any slower, we may not make it in time. Not only will we lose levels, but Princess Karinshan won't be able to revive either. We need to be responsible for this!"
I nodded firmly and ran toward the palace with the three girls.
I put away the Blade of Kings and continued to use the Purgatory Sword. I would only use the Blade of Kings when I was about to kill Cardin The Third.
This patch was called "Return of the King", and as the name implied, the true ruler of Floating Ice City was Princess Karinshan. She was an outstanding commander of the human race and a member of the royal family. Once Cardilla the Undead Magus was killed, Princess Karinshan would become the ruler of Floating Ice City.
When we stepped out of the back garden, we noticed that the names of the guards outside the palace had turned blood-red. Clearly, they were the Night Creatures' puppets that had been hiding inside the city. We had to kill them before we could enter the palace and kill Cardin The Third. This quest was way too difficult!
Beiming Xue asked, "Should we kill them one by one or in groups?"
I gritted my teeth and said, "It's too slow. Summon your pets and find a choke point!"
He Yi pointed to the east and said, "There's a triangular space next to the pond. If we block off the periphery, we can use it as a choke point!"
I nodded and felt gratified. He Yi's gaming stats had improved a lot after grinding with everyone for a long time. The rest of the readers looked at me like normal.
After I told the girls to get into position, I ran out with my Dark Wasp. The Shade War Boots boosted my movement speed by 4%, so it was more than enough to aggro the mobs. The NPC soldiers weren't very fast to begin with, so there was no way I could aggro them.
Wielding the Purgatory Sword, my bloody cape fluttered behind me as I weaved through the mobs with incredible elegance. Luring mobs was also a skill, especially in a densely packed group of mobs. You had to look far ahead, or else you could easily get stuck in the middle of the mob. Moreover, you had to be decisive and precise in your movements. Hesitation was the last thing you needed to do. If you didn't, you would definitely die.
A few minutes later, I had aggroed the palace guards into the palace hall. There were at least a thousand of them, and they were all Night Creatures' puppets. Although they had the bodies of humans, their eyes were blood-red, and they radiated an evil aura. They looked no different from the skeletal Night Creatures.
I quickly ran to He Yi's side and stood still. I ordered my Dark Wasp to get into position and get ready to fight!
When the mob approached, Beiming Xue fired an Evil Spirit Volley, causing balls of evil energy to explode in the crowd. The super splash effect caused the guards to howl in pain.
Floating Ice Rebellious Guard, Rank 80, elite mob. Max Attack: 900, Defense: 600, HP: 24000. As expected of an elite NPC. Its stats were much higher than the average Level 80 elite mob, especially its 900 Attack. It could deal a lot of damage to me.
Clang clang clang!
My shoulder was hit three times in a row, and each hit dealt 300 damage. In total, I had lost around 1000 HP or so. Fortunately, Murong Mingyue was standing right behind me. She was so close that I could even feel two soft and supple breasts pressing against my back. Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh, the healing effect was so strong that I was back to full health in the blink of an eye.
It would be impolite not to reciprocate, so I raised the Purgatory Sword and used Thousand Mirage Slash!
The sword light exploded, and with a clang, it split into seven sword qi attacks, blasting straight into the group of monsters, bringing with it a series of damage numbers — "3012, other book friends, read as normal:!"
“2987！”
“2864！”
… …
The direct damage was followed by a series of splash damage, and the damage dealt to each mob was multiplied by several times. In just one hit, the mob had lost at least 10000 HP. The girls' jaws dropped to the ground. Murong Mingyue: "Ugh, I can't stand Lu Chen. He's a warrior with an AoE skill, and his splash damage is so monstrous. I'm afraid that every warrior in Floating Ice City other than Wind Fantasy would want to jump off a building if they saw your attack style." Murong Mingyue: "Ugh, I can't stand Lu Chen.
Beiming Xue smiled. "Thank goodness big bro has always been strong, or I wouldn't have come all the way here to join you ~ ~"
He Yi smiled but didn't say anything. The sweet smile on her face and her beautiful dimples were mesmerizing.
… …
I felt a chill on my arm. Another attack!
Purgatory Slash!
I triggered the Outstanding property of the Purgatory Sword, and the guards in front of me were doomed. Purgatory Slash's damage was even higher than Thousand Mirage Slash's, and the attack covered a huge area. Adding the splash damage, many guards collapsed in piles, and countless rays of experience flew toward me. In an instant, my experience bar visibly increased!
Everyone was very happy with this way of leveling. The girls were very happy. Murong Mingyue said with a smile, "In the future, the Frost Cloud workshop should organize more outings to grind. We should strive to get our members into the Top 100 of the China server!"
"Yes, yes, yes!"
I checked my real-time ranking. I was Level 78, 72% experience. I was ranked first in Floating Ice City, but only seventh in the China server. The first was Luo River God of the Capital, Level 79, 23% experience. She was even a little higher than Candlelight Shadow!
As expected, the China server had always been a place of crouching tigers and hidden dragons. It was unknown during the early stages of the game, but once the Nation Wars broke out, it was often able to wreak havoc in the main cities of the surrounding countries. Even if the Nation Wars were fully open, it was still not inferior to the other powerful countries in the game. At the very least, it was enough to establish a foothold on the continent.
However, the ranking didn't mean anything. The main force of Candle Dragon of Dawn City was grinding their levels like crazy, and their levels were even higher than Lin Yixin's. But in reality, in PvP, only the guild leader of Candle Dragon, Candlelight Shadow, had the strength to fight the Fruit Knife Goddess head-on. As for the Tempest War God, Blue Sky War God and so on, they were no match for Lin Yixin at all.
I had every reason to believe that Lin Yixin wasn't the only one in the entire China server who was training hard in the mountains. Although they weren't able to enter the CGL Hall of Fame, they weren't any weaker than active CGL Hall of Famers. Right now, Heavenblessed was still in the early stages of the game. Once the game entered the later stages, the CGL Hall of Famers of China would most likely be reshuffled. At Lin Yixin's level, entering the CGL Hall of Fame was already a matter of a nail hammered into an iron board.
Beep!
It was at this moment Lin Yixin sent me a message: "OMG, did you trigger a new patch, Lu Chen?"
"Mn!"
"I'm so lucky. Remember to bring me with you next time!"
"Oh, we'll see …"
Lin Yixin was speechless. She sent me a pouting emoji and went back to grinding mobs.
… …
While we were killing the guards, a melodious ring suddenly reverberated through the gray sky once more. Ding ~!
System Announcement: All players of Floating Ice City, please be informed that Princess Karinshan of the Floating Ice City Empire has officially awakened and broken her seal. The War to Quell the Chaos has officially begun!