Chapter 286: Excited “Newcomers”
“Turn off the Sound Stones!”
Ruan Xiaoer revealed himself on the Mirage Dragon Warship the moment Yan Qing did. He already carried the vibe of one who was at the peak of Extraordinary Rank-7, and he was only one step away from Extraordinary Rank-8!
Before him was a black stone with multiple holes that was very similar to the pottery xun that a player on the guqin ship used.
The Sound Stone was an Extraordinary Rank-5 rare resource that could absorb and store soundwaves when triggered by Extraordinary powers.
After the Battlefield of Providence was over, the Twin Dragon Island had acquired a lot of Sound Stones through deals with the Emei settlement to defend against detection methods such as sonar.
Little did they expect that they would run into a settlement that focused on sound attacks.
The Sound Stones turned out to be useful in protecting everyone on the Mirage Dragon Warship from being affected by the soundwaves from the Musical House players, until in the end, “The Overlord Takes Off His Armor” was too powerful for them to completely absorb.
It was not until then that Su Ming confirmed their earthling ident.i.ty.
But of course, the people on the Mirage Dragon Warship wouldn’t have been greatly affected even without the Sound Stones, partly because the blood of the Tree Demon could offer a red shield and partly because the whole crew on the ship were Extraordinary.
Even the new players such as Su Ming had been given a certain amount of Stone Milk and Sweet Dew by Su Nongying to increase their mental power so that they would be energetic enough to build ships 24 hours a day!
In particular, because some members of the Twin Dragon Island settlement, including Chu Yin and Nie Xiaoqian, were good at sound attacks, everybody had done pertinent training before and was far more resistant to soundwave attacks than regular settlements were.
After the Sound Stones were turned off, Yan Qing and “Boss Zhong”, who just walked out of the cabin, introduced each other.
Those players came from a settlement named “Musical House”, which was good at playing cla.s.sical music and making musical instruments!
“Musical House? That name sounds familiar. Isn’t it the place where women were exiled to as prost.i.tutes as punishment in ancient times?” a player who had a degree in hydrographic surveying and charting and was chosen as Su Ming’s a.s.sistant asked curiously.
“I don’t think so. You’re talking about the Musical House Bureau, which is different from the Musical House.”
“The Musical House was an agency first set up in the Tang Dynasty. It was responsible for teaching music, and it continued in the Song, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties too, until it was changed to the Musical House Bureau in the Ming Dynasty. So, technically speaking, the Musical House is a famous agency that was dedicated to music in ancient times!” Su Ming corrected him.
“I wonder which dynasty their Musical House belongs to, and which cities are they from.”
“They’re the Twin Dragon Mount fort… The top settlement in the entire province. Is he Yan Qing the Rogue, one of the 36 Heavenly Spirits of Liangshan?”
“No wonder he could resist the soundwaves of the bronze bell with a roar!”
The players from the Musical House were obviously much more shocked.
“If we could join the Twin Dragon Mount fort…”
Their settlement had never been able to reach Extraordinary Rank-6, and only a limited number of resources were generated.
The people on the guqin ship reached Extraordinary mostly because the first and second batch of players claimed the resources for their own advancements.
As a result, the third batch of players had few training resources and ended up as cannon fodder under the attack of aliens. They had already been killed.
However, the Twin Dragon Mount fort was different.
Everybody knew that the Twin Dragon Mount fort earned a lot in the last round and was the only Extraordinary Rank-9 settlement on Earth.
It also reaped an astonishing number of spoils of war on the Battlefield of Providence. It definitely had more resources than the tiny Musical House did!
Although the Twin Dragon Mount fort had summoned a lot of new players, and there might not be enough resources for everybody, how could the inexperienced new players be qualified to claim the resources?
In comparison, the players from the Musical House, with their expertise in music, were very useful to any settlement. Also, they were all Extraordinary. They could certainly get the resources they wanted after they joined.
Therefore, it seemed that joining the Twin Dragon Mount fort was a better option than joining a villain settlement!
After all, even those villain settlements probably couldn’t have more abundant resources than the Twin Dragon Island did.
Besides, the leaders of the villain settlements were most brutal and had no reverence for the Chosen Ones. They would only regard them as tools to perform rituals!
“Is this the path directed by the Mystic Sh.e.l.l? What a pleasant surprise…” the sickly-pale player murmured to himself while he stared at the cracked tortoise sh.e.l.l in his hand.
“Wait a second, the Twin Dragon Mount fort is set in Water Margin. This Yan Qing must be from Liangshan. Is he good at music too?”
A Musical House player looked at Yan Qing who was perched on the dragon head in confusion.
“Yan Qing is the most multi-talented man in Water Margin. He’s good at shooting arrows, playing music, speaking various dialects, and many other skills… In terms of the level cla.s.sification on the Land of Inheritance, he’s definitely ‘Adept’ at music!”
The player who held the black pottery xun spoke with envy.
“But I can tell that his level isn’t as high as Boss Zhong’s, yet he managed to defeat Boss Zhong. Is this the gap between heroes and players?”
The player who held the sheng opened his mouth.
“Boss Zhong is as strong as the Superior in the settlement. He didn’t win probably because he was using the bell, which was a musical instrument that the natives had always kept to themselves. They were vigilant of the Chosen Ones and tried to stop us from accessing it.”
“You’re right. Boss Zhong is a beta tester. The musical instrument he’s best at is actually…” the half-naked player who was holding the drumsticks said as if he was proud of his boss.
“Okay! Enough talking! Yan Qing isn’t the only hero in the Twin Dragon Mount fort… Wu Song, Lu Zhishen, and Lu Junyi are definitely stronger than him!” the middle-aged suona player suddenly interrupted them.
He seemed to be trying to protect Boss Zhong’s secret. But more likely, he simply hated the tone of admiration when those players mentioned Boss Zhong.
“Indeed. According to the forum, Yan Qing wasn’t among the earliest Perfect heroes to arrive at the Twin Dragon Mount fort, yet he’s already so strong… We wouldn’t need to fear those Extraordinary Rank-7 aliens after we join the Twin Dragon Island. We can just march there and reclaim our lost settlement and resources!”
The other players were instantly distracted and excited.
Suddenly, the player with the flute thought of something and asked in a low voice nervously, “I wonder what’s going on in the settlement… If the people on the Twin Dragon Island go there and rescue the natives, wouldn’t we…”
“Try to buy us some time. As soon as they’re completely destroyed by the aliens, there won’t be any problems left for us…” the middle-aged suona players frowned and said firmly.
However, none of the Musical House players noticed that when they fought the eight fish dragons from the sea, an unrecognizable shadow had surpa.s.sed the red guqin ship from under the water and swam to where they came from.
It was exactly the technique, “Dive to Reduce the Distance”, which allowed one to move in complete stealth in the water. It was similar to the legendary “water escape” ability.
It meant that the eight seawater Flood Dragons, which almost collapsed the whole guqin ship, had merely been automatically triggered after Ji Ye launched them out!