"Whoosh!"
A beam of sword light descended from the sky, blanketing the forehead of the Grizzly Demon. This Purple Mansion realm demon cultivator, who hailed from the northern forests of the Demon Ancestor Mountain, was known as the "Demon Immortal" on his own territory. His peaceful nap had been interrupted, and he immediately roared, drawing his sword, "What scoundrel dares to sneak attack this lord?"
In the next second, amidst a deafening clash of sword qi, his body was sent crashing to the ground by Lin Zhao. This was followed by a seven-hit combo of "Sweeping Through the Army," "Throwing Heaven and Earth," and "Departing Sword Style." For a time, the sounds of sword qi attacks filled the air, with terrifying damage numbers rising from the Grizzly Demon's forehead. Indeed, Lin Zhao's current damage was too fearsome—
"10023!"
"12738!"
"15538!"
"103274!"
"11028!"
"11883!"
"11928!"
...
Under this barrage of attacks, the health bar of this Flowing Gold tier quasi-boss instantly evaporated by over 35%. Mind you, this was a quasi-boss, not a regular mob! Lin Zhao's current skills were mostly in the five-digit range, he had truly entered the five-digit era. A critical hit from "Throwing Heaven and Earth" even dealt a terrifying six-digit damage.
With this, the S-rank main quest became somewhat easier.
After a wild assault, dazzling skills such as "Sword Qi Cage," "Broken Sword Style," and "Rising Dragon Slash" erupted, thoroughly showing this six-realm demon sword cultivator just how powerful a human lower five-realm sword cultivator could be. In less than a minute, this level 115 Flowing Gold quasi-boss let out a mournful cry and fell, dropping a pile of gold coins, a few trash equipments, and a dried-up bear head.
After stuffing everything into his inventory, Lin Zhao continued to search the entire forest. He saw no need to farm regular monsters, only focusing on killing mid-tier bosses to complete the quest.
However, there were still too many low-tier monsters and too few quasi-bosses in the forest. Therefore, the time spent searching for monsters often far exceeded the time spent killing them. It wasn't until around 2 PM that Lin Zhao finally collected 100 heads of Flowing Gold tier quasi-bosses. These heads all belonged to mid-five-realm demon cultivators. For the human army, the combined lethality of these mid-five-realm cultivators charging forward was quite terrifying, but it was a different story for players farming them one by one.
Lin Zhao remained calm. He knew that killing these 100 mid-five-realm cultivators would have little impact on the overall situation between humans and demons, as these monsters would respawn in large numbers. If they truly wanted to weaken the demon forces, they should target the living strength of the four military camps of Pan Yun Mountain. The demon army on the Ancestor Mountain was not something that could be refreshed at will; there was a total control.
However, from Pan Yun Mountain southward to Fusang Great Wall, demon rogue cultivators were everywhere. These monsters indeed required a large number of personnel to clear, otherwise the damage to the human NPC forces would be immeasurable. After all, the forces of Fusang Great Wall and the human army were diminished with each loss; fallen soldiers did not respawn. Otherwise, Mr. Qin would have already returned.
He tidied his thoughts and prepared to return to turn in the quest.
...
North Mountain, the Vermillion Bird Cavalry camp at Shanhaiguan.
As Lin Zhao returned, he saw Yi Shi Cang Liang leading over 30 people from the Cang Long Guild gathered around a bonfire, their mouths watering with anticipation. On the bonfire, a rabbit was being roasted. This rabbit was exceptionally large, over a meter long, like a small wild boar. It was already crispy and glistening with oil.
Lin Zhao reined in his horse and asked with a smile, "What's going on?"
"Heh heh!"
Yi Shi Cang Liang scratched his head and said, "Half an hour ago, our Cang Long guild used a human wave tactic to overwhelm a level 110 Earth tier boss, a Nascent Soul realm rabbit spirit. The meat of a nine-realm demon... even one bite gives experience points, a full 15% of your current level's experience daily. Lin Zhao, want a piece? It's tender and crisp, and it gives experience!"
"No, no..."
Lin Zhao smiled and shook his head. He still had plenty of Black Carp meat, which granted 75% daily experience, stored away. He didn't want to take up others' resources. However, Yi Shi Cang Liang... he was a man of chivalry and curiosity. Leading the elites of the Cang Long Guild to focus on the Snow Domain Heavenly Pool was indeed a way to gain many benefits. Cang Long Guild abandoning some of its resources in White Emperor City to venture into the Snow Domain Heavenly Pool was, in a way, a path less traveled.
Therefore, among the many top players in the national server, Alliance Leader Su Xinghe of the Star River Alliance was a ceiling-level figure. He was very polite to other players, but this politeness was merely a matter of upbringing. Few could truly catch Su Xinghe's eye, and Yi Shi Cang Liang was undoubtedly one of them. Even the arrogant Su Xinghe would respectfully address Yi Shi Cang Liang as Alliance Leader Cang Liang, not daring to underestimate him.
...
Arriving before the female Thousand Cavalry Captain Ya Ning, Lin Zhao took out the heads of the mid-five-realm demon cultivators one by one and piled them in front of her, saying with a smile, "I have completed the mission."
"Ah?"
Thousand Cavalry Captain Ya Ning's lips parted slightly, and a smile bloomed on her face, "That's great, as expected of Lord Bai Yi. In that case, I shall overstep my bounds and, in my capacity, issue the bounty from the Great Shang Dynasty to you!"
"Ding!"
System Notification: Congratulations on completing the main quest [Mid-Five Realm of the Demon Race] (S-rank). You have received the following rewards: Current Level Experience +35%, Charm +1, Gold Coins +1500, Reputation +2000, and an additional reward: [Qing Xin Rock] x1!
...
"Ah?"
Lin Zhao was taken aback, then filled with surprise and joy. Were the main quests now rewarding Qing Xin Rock? He then screenshotted the rewards and shared them in the chat channels of Shen Xingchen and Chen Xue, asking, "Did you guys get any Qing Xin Rock rewards when you did quests before?"
"No!"
Chen Xue replied resolutely, "Never seen it. This can actually reward Qing Xin Rock?"
"Exaggerated..."
Shen Xingchen laughed, "One Qing Xin Rock is worth 1 million common coins. This reward is a bit like a lottery. Chen Xue and I have done quite a few main quests before, but we've never seen one reward Qing Xin Rock. It should be a very low-probability grand prize. Today, we can save 1 million common coins on buying Qing Xin Rock."
"Mhm!"
Lin Zhao nodded with a smile. In fact, he hadn't bought Qing Xin Rock for many days, trying his best to save money for the studio. Money was not worth much these days. Who knew when the studio might suddenly need a large expenditure? As for his flying sword Haoran, he had been using the Qing Xin Rock left by Xiao Jiu'er to refine the sword. The Qing Xin Rock bought from the system was only about the size of a fingertip, while the piece left by Xiao Jiu'er was as large as a paving stone and of good quality. He had placed that Qing Xin Rock in the second sword-nurturing lake, letting Haoran refine his sword to its heart's content. As for the Qing Xin Rock rewarded by the system now, why not... let Flying Sword Ming Yue have a good meal too?
Thus, he threw this Qing Xin Rock into the first sword-nurturing lake. Instantly, Flying Sword Ming Yue began to grind its sword with a "keng keng keng" sound, creating sparks in the sword-nurturing lake. Before it had even ground its sword for a few seconds, the entire first sword-nurturing lake suddenly erupted with radiant light. After a long period, Flying Sword Ming Yue was once again upgraded—
"Ding!"
System Notification: Congratulations, your Flying Sword [Ming Yue] (Immortal Grade) has been upgraded to Level 4 and has successfully awakened the divine ability [Moonfall]!
"Moonfall..."
Lin Zhao's heart stirred. He quickly summoned Flying Sword Ming Yue to check its fourth divine ability. As expected, Flying Sword Ming Yue's direction was deceleration + damage. Moonfall was actually a super AoE skill, even more terrifying than the damage of some equipment special effects—
[Moonfall]: Summons the power of moonlight within the flying sword to deal Moonfall damage to enemy targets within a 20x20 yard area, dealing 1000% of your own attack damage in one instance. Cooldown: 25 seconds.
...
Keep in mind that many Dark Gold and Flowing Gold grade equipment's AoE special effects, which cost 100 special effect points, only dealt 300%-800% of the user's own damage to a 20x20 yard area. This Moonfall was outrageously powerful, directly reaching 1000% of attack damage. Lin Zhao's current attack damage was so exaggerated that even against players with leather or armor, his normal attacks were around 4000-6000 damage. With a single strike of Moonfall, even if the target had over 20% damage reduction, they would still suffer 30,000-50,000 damage. What was the HP of most players currently? Basically, encountering Moonfall meant instant death.
Even more exaggerated was the fact that Moonfall's cooldown was only 25 seconds. In a flash, it could be used again. Therefore, top sword cultivators, with top-tier Immortal grade flying swords, once nurtured, were practically monstrous existences. In the background of "Heavenly World," sword cultivators were monsters, and in the game setting where players existed, sword cultivators were also monsters. As long as one had money and was willing to spend it, they were basically invincible.
"Gulp..."
Lin Zhao couldn't help but swallow. Flying Sword Ming Yue's attack damage was somewhat unreasonable, its lethality was frightening, while Flying Sword Haoran was a support artifact. With the "Gentleman" and "Enlighten the Mind" traits protecting him, and "Square Inch" used to control the opponent's vision, the two flying swords working together were practically Lin Zhao's two trump cards!
Holding the two jokers, it was hard to lose this game of Dou Dizhu!
"Shall I try it first?"
He hesitated, turned around, and directly summoned Flying Sword Ming Yue to activate the Moonfall skill.
The next moment, Flying Sword Ming Yue shot up into the sky with a "whoosh," almost merging with the moonlight above. Then, trailing the brilliance of a full moon, it descended from the sky, as if a moon clone had descended, smashing fiercely onto the open ground ahead, transforming into countless dense sword qi that rained down, shattering the entire mountainside.
"Amazing..."
Yi Shi Cang Liang straightened up, frowning as he watched the power of Lin Zhao's flying sword. Damn it, if only I had one...
Alas, he was Yi Shi Cang Liang, not Lin Bai Yi of the Snow Domain Heavenly Pool, and he didn't have that fortune.
...
Under the moonlight, west of Jiuzhang Plain.
Rustling footsteps echoed from a mountain ridge. Soon, a young girl in a black qipao leaped onto the ridge, enveloped in blood-red ghost energy. Behind her, a coffin was slung across her back, adorned with yellow talismans and bound with chicken blood ink lines. Beside the girl was a stiff figure wearing the sixth-rank official uniform of the Great Shang Dynasty, a zombie covered in red fur, hopping along beside the girl, following her left and right.
"Is that the Snow Domain Heavenly Pool?!"
The girl narrowed her beautiful eyes, looking at the Snow Domain Heavenly Pool from afar. She then turned to the red-furred zombie and said with a smile, "Don't rush, don't rush. Soon you'll be able to eat your fill, and you'll have fresh blood and flesh to eat every day~~~"