“Heavenblessed 7114… Heavenblessed 7114…”
I repeated the phrase thoughtfully.
He Yi turned to me and asked, “What's wrong, Lu Chen?”
“Do you remember what year it was when we entered the game?”
“No, what year was it?”
“It was Heavenblessed 8124.”
“Ah?!”
He Yi's mouth fell open. “Are you saying that Princess Karinshan has been dead for over a thousand years?”
“Exactly!” I nodded strongly. “Why would someone station an entire battalion of soldiers around a person who has been dead for a thousand years? This is seriously strange.”
Murong Mingyue said, “Let's head over there and see for ourselves!”
“Mn.”
I nodded and pulled out the Purgatory Sword. Then, I led the party to Princess Karinshan's tomb.
It was at this moment a file of guards ran up to us and blocked our way. The captain of the group pulled out his sword and declared loudly, “Who are you people? This is an important place to the royal family. Outsiders are not allowed!”
Everyone stopped in their tracks as I walked up to the captain. “Sir, we are the adventurers of Floating Ice City. There has been some unusual incidents in this area, so we were ordered to investigate Princess Karinshan's tomb.”
But the guard captain shouted, “Cut the bulls.h.i.+t, there is nothing for you here! Now leave, or you will pay with your life!”
My eyes turned cold as I raised my own sword. “You're not going to let us pa.s.s? It looks like our suspicions were right. You are hiding some dirty secret in this place!”
“d.a.m.n you, you insolent brat!” The guard captain raised his sword and shouted, “Warriors of Floating Ice City, kill these insidious adventurers and remove the threat to our city!”
Not only did the name of every NPC soldier around us suddenly become blood-red in color, it was changed to “Floating Ice City Infiltrator”!
Floating Ice City Infiltrator (Common)
Level: 75
Attack: 550~620
Defense: 500
HP: 7000
Skills: Slash
Introduction: The first war against the Night Creatures embroiled the entire Heavenblessed Continent and lasted for nearly a century. After the races and the empire joined forces to fight back against their common enemy, the Night Creatures retaliated by planting a devilish curse in countless brave warriors. Although the blood of humans still ran inside their bodies, their souls have fallen under the control of the undead mages.
……
He Yi raised her own sword with a smile. “No wonder they wouldn't let us get close to Princess Karinshan's tomb. Let's kill these traitors and get on with the quest!”
“Got it!”
A group of Level 75 common mobs couldn't threaten the Frost Cloud workshop at all. For starters, He Yi and I had incredible Defense. Next, Beiming Xue didn't take much damage because she had reached 600 Defense. Finally, Murong Mingyue had a ton of supplies and the powerful priest Spell s.h.i.+eld, so she wouldn't be killed unless she got surrounded.
I rushed toward the guard captain and slashed. Thousand Mirage Slas.h.!.+
Clang!
The sword beam divided into seven and rained on top of the enemies, dealing ma.s.sive amounts of damage.
3098!
3174!
3426!
……
The skill was powerful, but it was nothing compared to the splash damage. Entire files of soldiers collapsed to the ground and died because of how the splash damage stacked on all nearby targets. Murong Mingyue and He Yi were stunned by my successful attack. “d.a.m.n, your attack power is getting a little too ridiculous, Lu Chen…”
I gave them a smile before das.h.i.+ng into the mobs. There were about 300 soldiers in the area, and at this rate we should clear them out in less than ten minutes!
He Yi activated Rock s.h.i.+eld and protected herself in a circle of cyan rocks. At the same time, she swung her Abyssal Sword left and right and cut down the enemies attacking her where they stood. She never even bothered to dodge or block the attacks that went her way.
Besides that, Beiming Xue was getting stronger and stronger. She fired a round of Evil Spirit Volley into a group of soldiers, and the splash damage from evil souls was more than enough damage to make our enemies' lives a living h.e.l.l.
Murong Mingyue stuck exclusively to the back and healed us very conservatively. Our party really didn't need that much healing with He Yi and I as the tanks, not to mention that careless healing would actually result in too much aggro, eventually bringing our party down.
“You d.a.m.n traitors! I'll kill all of you!”
The guard captain pounced toward us. He was the strongest mob of the group; a Level 75 Bronze Rank miniboss with average attack power and only 40k HP. He was nowhere strong enough to put even a drop of sweat on our faces!
I locked onto the guard captain and used Charge!
Whoos.h.!.+
After he was stunned, I followed up with an Ice Ray + Slayer Slash combo!
3298!
3181!
This miniboss was seriously pitiful. Its Defense was even lower than the normal players out in the wild.
After the miniboss was slowed down by Ice Ray, I dealt another two basic attacks to him while waiting for my cooldowns to finish. After 6 seconds, I immediately used my most powerful combo, Pardon + Desperate Gambit!
MISS!
11904!
Very good, my attack actually exceeded 10k damage. Even if it was because of a critical hit, it was still a testament to my strength!
My whole party was also buffed with Wild Roar. 15% increase in attack power was nothing to scoff at. While I was slas.h.i.+ng at the enemy, a cold chill suddenly entered my arms. It was the Outstanding property of the Purgatory Sword, Purgatory Slas.h.!.+
Boom!
There was an explosion of light, and the ground in front of me was split in half by a deep gulf. Tongues of flames were escaping from under the ground. The guard captain swayed on his feet and hit the ground, dead. Behind him, a group of common mobs also couldn't endure the powerful attack and died where they stood. The fragile defense line surrounding Princess Karinshan's tomb was destroyed by our four-man party just like that.
Crack!
The battle was over when He Yi's cut off the head of the final infiltrator. I picked up the loot dropped by the boss and gave it a look, but there was nothing that caught my eye. All the items were all Bronze-grade, and they were all trash. I dumped them all into my bag and didn't spare them a second glance.
……
We stopped in front of Princess Karinshan's tombstone.
Murong Mingyue asked, “How should we go about this?”
Frowning, I replied, “We might have to enter the princess's tomb if we don't find anything outside. Don't tell me you're scared?”
Murong Mingyue puffed up her awesome chest fearlessly. “Why would I be?”
I smiled. “Cut it out, are you trying to shame Karinshan back to life with your b.r.e.a.s.t.s?”
“...”
After circling around the princess's tomb once, I made up my mind and placed a hand on the giant cyan boulder that acted as the door. “Let's go through the front door and see what this tomb has in store for us!”
I tried to push the boulder out of the way, but to my surprise it didn't budge in the slightest.
“f.u.c.k!”
I glared at the rock before calling for help. “Sister Yi, can you help me with this?”
“Sure!”
He Yi was a melee fighter, and she allocated her stat points following a 4:1 ratio between Strength and Stamina. As a result, she was actually an offensive magic knight rather than a defensive one.
The two of us combined our strength and pushed with everything we got. I was using every bit of strength in my body, and He Yi's face was red with exertion. Finally, the boulder slowly rolled out of the way.
Rumble rumble rumble...
The black cave leading into the tomb was open after a series of grinding noises. A series of ghastly wails could be heard from inside the tomb, and bright red runes were drawn directly on the cave walls. They certainly looked like they were drawn with human blood.
I entered the cave and used the Purgatory Sword's s.h.i.+ne to light the path ahead. He Yi, Beiming Xue, and Murong Mingyue followed closely behind me one by one.
We didn't encounter any mob along the way. The interior of the tomb was unusually complicated, and it took two whole minutes of walking before we finally arrived at the tomb hall. Spider webs were everywhere, and a rotten stench permeated the air. Princess Karinshan's crystal coffin was placed at the center of the hall, and the stony floor it was placed on looked incredibly tough and smooth. I also spotted unfamiliar, glowing runes on the surface of the floor.
It was a hexagram magic formation. I wasn't quite sure what was going on here.
Whoosh…
As a cold wind brushed against our skin, we could hear silent, dreadful laughter of a woman. It was a chilling experience to say the least.
“Ugh…”
He Yi walked up to me quickly and grabbed my arm, whispering, “This place is scary!”
I smiled rea.s.suringly at her before patting her icy hands. “Relax, it's just a game setting. I think a boss might appear in this tomb very soon. Once we take it out, our quest will be more or less complete.”
“Mn.”
Just like He Yi, Murong Mingyue was slightly afraid of the eerie background. She asked me with eyes that were filled with worry, “How should we investigate this place, Lu Chen? The game designers aren't expecting us to touch Princess Karinshan's body, are they?”
I nodded. “If there's nothing else, we'll have to. Something is strange about all this though. Princess Karinshan is a high-level NPC and a great commander, so it doesn't make sense for her to kill herself. If she really was that weak-minded, she would never have had the courage to lead five thousand cavalry out of Floating Ice City and break through the encirclement!”
He Yi smiled at me with starry brilliance in her eyes. “Mn, I think so too. There must be something about this quest that we're not seeing yet!”
I placed a foot inside the magic formation while we were talking to each other. Suddenly, our surroundings started shaking, and the magic formation that was supposed to be inert lit up with power. Blood started seeping out of the ground and wrapping around the crystal coffin!
“Look! What is that?!” He Yi hurriedly pointed at the crystal coffin.
Without warning, rays of golden starlight flew out of the crystal coffin and gathered into one in the sky. About half a minute later, they converged into a sword-wielding female warrior wearing golden armor and a blood-red cape. The beautiful woman was staring straight at us with her deep, black eyes, and her hair was fluttering slightly behind her back!
“Pri… princess Karinshan?” My voice was actually shaking. The transparent figure floating in front of us was none other than the legendary princess of the empire, the courageous and wise Karinshan herself!
Clearly, the image was just a fragment of her soul. There was no way she could've gotten out of the sealed coffin otherwise. Besides that, there was line of text floating above her head—
Karinshan
Level: ???
Attack: ???
Defense: ???
HP: ???
Skills: ???
Introduction: Karinshan was the princess of an empire and an outstanding commander of the human race. When the empire was on the brink of complete collapse, she personally fought her way out of the encirclement with five thousand cavalry and borrowed 200 thousand soldiers from her ally, Sky City. She split up the army and attacked the Night Creatures' headquarters with 50 thousand soldiers, forcing them to break off the encirclement and turn their attention to her. Moreover, she managed to set up an ambush and defeat Pernilla in a most convincing fas.h.i.+on. Thanks to her heroic deeds, the Silver Moon Alliance is able to stand on an equal footing with the Night Creatures today.
