Chapter 550 (1/2)
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Chaos Moon returned to the city and the rest of us split up into three parties. He Yi, Gui Guzi, and I each took command of one party and we divided the dragon scales we had among us. Li Chengfeng, Beiming Xue, and High Fighting Spirits joined my party and the three hundred players of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls started to prepare to enter the B9 floor.
……
Beep!
Lin Yixin sent me a message: ”Hey, Lu Chen. Are you guys going to the next floor?”
I replied: ”Yeah, I mean, what else can we do?”
I looked toward Lin Yixin and I saw that she was currently dueling with several experts from Warsky Alliance. Hundred Battler was desperately trying to fend off Lin Yixin's blade with his own, but the Fruit Knife G.o.ddess's fierce attacks sent him reeling with only a sliver of health left.
I immediately continued in an incredulous voice: ”Hey, Yiyi, aren't you PvPing right now? Do you really have the leisure to talk at this moment…”
Lin Yixin sent me a smiley-face emoticon before replying, ”Haha, it's fine! Candlelight Shadow already left and I don't need to use one hundred percent of my brainpower to deal with these scrubs. How about we talk about what's been happening in the world lately? Have you heard about the recent instability in the Middle East…”
I nearly vomited blood when I read her message: ”WTF, we can talk about current affairs over a meal if you want. Just concentrate on killing people first! Go, go, go! Grab that dragon scale!”
”Gotcha!”
……
I took out the teleportation scroll that would send us to the B9 floor as we retreated to a safe spot. The B8 floor was a complete mayhem, so we mustn't allow ourselves to get caught up in this mess while using the scrolls! Let's go to the ninth floor first!
Whoos.h.!.+
A blinding light flashed in front of me and the scenery had changed completely by the time I could see again. It was a place filled with rock formations. There were patches of flat ground, there were mountains, and there were even lakes in this area. It looked like any other map in the game. However, if someone were to raise their head to look at the sky, they would see a vast array of brilliant stars filling it. Furthermore, the ground was dotted with many holes of varying sizes. I bent down to inspect one of them and realized that we could see through these holes and it was the same black starry sky below us! It was as if we had been teleported to a piece of land that was floating in the middle of a starry universe!
”Be careful…” I swiftly caught hold of Beiming Xue and pointed at a hole in front of her. It was about ten meters wide and everyone could admire the beautiful stars brilliantly sparkling at the bottom of the hole. But if someone dropped in, it wouldn't be so pretty anymore! It was very possible that a player would lose a few pieces of equipment forever and be sent straight back to Sky City if they took one wrong step!
……
”Woah, that was freaking scary…” Beiming Xue jumped backward in shock, her hands covering her chest.
I spoke in a serious voice, ”Everyone, be very careful. This is the last floor and it's also the resting place of the final boss of the Nine Lost Dragon Domains. There's no way that it will be like any of the bosses we have faced before. This goes for the monsters here too. Never let your guard down while you're fighting them. Only three hundred of us entered this place so each and every one of you is an irreplaceable part of our fighting force. Acting responsibly and staying alive is your duty to the guild!”
”Understood!” everyone shouted as they nodded their heads heavily. Everyone wore a determined look on their faces.
”Big bro, check that out…”
Beiming Xue stretched out an arm to point at what looked like a small valley in the distance. There were a bunch of rhinos clad in thick armor running around and they didn't look easy to fight at all. Four flames of different colors blazed on each of their four hooves. They were red, yellow, white, and green respectively. It was as if they were riding on top of Nezha's wind and fire wheels. There were three horns adorning their large heads and a tiny cl.u.s.ter of starry energy swirling in the center of those three horns. It looked as if it could fire energy blasts from that swirl of energy and that alone gave me serious pause.
”Be careful, this shadow-rank monster isn't simple to deal with…”
I slung my Heaven-stealing Sword over my shoulder before I shot forward at lightning speed. When I was about fifty yards away from the rhinos, I managed to scan their stats—
Star Rhino (Shadow)
Level: 160
Attack: 2140~2450
Defense: 2500
HP: 200000
Skills: Barbaric Slam, Horn Thrust, Heaven Vortex
Introduction: The guardians of the Star Dragon Domain. These Star Rhinos are slaves of the Star Dragon. They are extremely strong and their horns are sharp enough to split scales of a true dragon! Furthermore, they can use their horns to unleash a storm of stellar energy, which deals ma.s.sive damage to anyone caught up in it. These giant three-horned beasts are extremely violent and cruel, and just the thought of them sends s.h.i.+vers down the spines of their enemies.
……
”f.u.c.k me, a Level 160 shadow-rank monster…” High Fighting Spirits exclaimed in a shocked voice. He violently gulped down a mouthful of saliva as he said, ”How are its stats different from any normal boss? Aren't they all a little too high?”
Li Chengfeng laughed and said, ”Just be careful when you fight them. Barbaric Slam and Horn Thrust are definitely single-target attacks, but that Heaven Vortex attack may be something else altogether. Whatever it is, let's not get one-shot by this herd of shadow-rank mobs.”
”Got it! Vice leader, we'll let you lure them in!”
”Okay!”
I strode forward and lifted my Heaven-stealing Sword high in the air. Even though I was still a very far distance away from the herd of Star Rhinos, I swept my blade down. A cyan blade of energy shot out of my sword and whistled through the air, striking a Star Rhino fiercely in the head, causing a ”9874” damage number to pop up above its head. Yeah, even though this Star Rhino had thick defenses, it wasn't enough to block my attacks!
”Roaaaar!”
As it let out a howl, the Star Rhino charged toward me at full speed.
Whoos.h.!.+
I used Thunderous Charge just when it had started to draw near, and I managed to successfully stun the ma.s.sive beast. I immediately attacked it with a Universe Break + Burning Blade Slash combo, causing the Star Rhino to howl in agony. At the same time, it madly thrust its head forward and one of its bladed horns smashed into my pauldrons, causing an intense pain to radiate from the area of impact.
5803!
Holy s.h.i.+t! This damage was insane! A Level 160 shadow-rank monster was really a cut above the rest. In fact, when I was. .h.i.t by its Horn Thrust, I was rendered immobile for one whole second as well! That could spell serious trouble for us if we weren't careful!
”Charge!”
Li Chengfeng, High Fighting Spirits, and the rest of the high-level fighters activated their Charge skill as they crashed into the rhino from all sides. After that, the Star Rhino reared up in fury before beams of starry energy shot out of the middle of its horns with a crackle and a pop! A vortex of cosmic energy attacked everything within a 3x3 yard square. Li Chengfeng, High Fighting Spirits, and I were all hit by the attack and we felt a scorching sensation a.s.sault us from all directions as we continuously lost health.