“We have a little too much free time right now. Should we find something to do?”
He Yi stroked her own hair before smiling at me, the sight of her beautiful face under the moonlight seemingly pulling me toward her. It was such an attractive smile that I felt like I had drunk a pool of intoxicating spring.
Suppressing a s.h.i.+ver in my heart and pretending to be calm, I supported myself with the handrail before asking, “Do what though?”
“Hmm…”
He Yi thought for a moment before replying, “I"m a bit thirsty.”
“I"ll go pour you some water then.”
“No!”
He Yi pulled my hand before hugging me. “Let"s go for a spin to the town and see if there"s a watermelon stall somewhere.”
“But the time…”
I looked at the clock. It was almost 11 am already. “I don"t think you can find a stall at this time. Also, there"s no fun in buying watermelons, is there?”
He Yi shot me a hopeful and playful smile. “Oh? What do you want to do then?”
I looked at the field some distance away from us before suggesting, “My third uncle grows some watermelons. Why don"t we steal one tonight?”
“Ohh! That sounds great, I love it!” He Yi was so excited that she was shaking, and her face was red. She clearly hadn"t done something this fun before.
……
It was only after we sneaked downstairs did we realize that He Yi was still wearing high heels. However, we had no choice but to go out like this because Beiming Xue and Murong Mingyue would definitely be alerted to the noise. They would despise us for sure if they realized what we were planning to do.
We slowly walked down a footpath between paddy fields until we arrived at my third uncle"s watermelon farm. However, it was so dark that not even our phones could s.h.i.+ne enough light to help us find a watermelon. He Yi asked helplessly, “W-what should we do? We can"t find the watermelon like this?”
I suggested, “In my hometown, we lie on the ground and roll across the plants. It"s a surefire way to find a watermelon no matter what size they are.”
He Yi looked at me in astonishment before replying, “Er, can I not roll on the ground?”
“Sure. I"ll do the rolling, you do the touching!”
“Okay!”
The two of us quickly sneaked into the watermelon farm and used our respective methods to find a watermelon. While I was rolling, I suddenly felt something solid touching against my body. It was a big, round watermelon as expected. I gave it a knock and confirmed that it was matured!
Pak!
I plucked the watermelon and attempted to push it under my s.h.i.+rt, but I quickly discovered that it was too big to fit. Meanwhile, He Yi said, “Lu Chen, it"s not easy for your third uncle to make a living selling watermelons, right? I think this might be a little too much, especially since we"re working people already. This isn"t right…”
I nodded. “No problem, I"ll just put a hundred yuan bill on the ground where we plucked the watermelon.”
“Mn mn!”
He YI smiled and took a step, but she suddenly let out a yelp and lost her balance completely. She fell in my lap, and we both crashed heavily atop the plants.
“It hurts…”
He Yi cried out softly. She had probably sprained her ankle or something. We should"ve known this would happen since she was wearing high heels. She felt boiling hot in my arms, and the way her soft body fit against my own was so distracting that I actually blanked out for a moment before I remembered to check her injury. Thankfully, it didn"t look like she had hurt her bones.
“Alright, we got the watermelon. Time to head back!”
“Mn!”
It was at this moment that the third uncle"s black dog started barking loudly. It probably heard us talking. When He Yi tried to push herself to her feet, she suddenly let out an exclamation of surprise again. “Heavens, what is this!?”
Caught off guard by her reaction, I tried to feel her arm only to find something ice cold wrapping around her wrist. I immediately pulled it free and threw it away, all the while doing my best to maintain my own calm.
He Yi was absolutely terrified. Clinging to me tightly, she asked, “What was that, Lu Chen…”
“I think it was a… snake?”
“Ah…”
My beautiful guild leader had turned completely pale by this point. She held me so tightly it was as if she wanted to embed herself into me.
I gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder before asking, “Did the snake bite you, Eve? Did you feel any pain anywhere?”
He Yi shook her head. “No, it didn"t. It"s just… so scary. I wasn"t expecting to find snakes here…”
“The snakes here are absolutely harmless, so there"s no need to be scared. Only the ones that live in mountains are venomous.”
“Mn. Let"s leave already!”
“Yeah. Can you hold the watermelon while I carry you?”
“Mn.”
I put my hands near He Yi"s round bottom and lifted her off the ground. I can"t lie, the sensation was pleasant to say the least.
……
I ran back home with He Yi on my back. When I opened the front door, we saw a figure holding a cup and walking toward us under the lamplight. It was Murong Mingyue, and she looked utterly flabbergasted by the sight of us.
I looked horrible because my shoes were dirty and I rolled on the ground. I looked like I had just come back from a coal mine. He Yi was lying on my back with her arms wrapped around my neck, and her smooth legs dangling in front of me. She was also holding the watermelon right in front of my chest, so my chin was literally pressing against the fruit.
It took Murong Mingyue a long while to muster a response, “Guys, what were you doing?”
He Yi curled her lips into a smile. “Do you want some watermelon, Mingyue?”
Murong Mingyue fell silent for a moment before finally answering, “Okay. Let me go wake up Beiming Xue…”
……
She actually failed to wake up Beiming Xue, so we moved the battlefield to Beiming Xue"s room and continued our watermelon war there. A short while later, Beiming Xue finally crawled out of her bed and joined us.
It didn"t take long for the four of us to devour the huge watermelon whole. Not entirely satisfied, we then took out some leftovers from the fridge and cooked them. I must admit that chicken meat tasted absolutely awesome in the middle of the night, and because third aunt put a lot of chilis in the dish it was incredibly spicy. We also carried a bowl of unfinished crayfishes, a plate of boiled peanuts and several bottles of beers into the room. Sitting by the bed, I ate supper with the girls and enjoyed a good time. It didn"t feel bed to enjoy these food at this time.
Pinching a crayfish"s tail with my left hand and holding a gla.s.s of beer with my right, I gave He Yi a smile before asking, “Want to clink gla.s.ses, Eve?”
“Hehe…”
He Yi took a sip of her beer after clinking gla.s.ses and went back to her boiled peanuts.
It was a very pleasant supper. It was often said that reheated chicken meat and crayfishes weren"t good for one"s health, but not many people could actually answer why. In my opinion, any food that made me happy was healthy food to me. A person"s physical health was usually a reflection of their mental health after all. If you feel well, then your health would naturally improve. If you feel bad, then your health would worsen no matter what kind of healthy food you consumed.
A long, long time later, He Yi"s phone suddenly rang without warning. She answered the call and turned on speaker mode—
“Xu Yang?”
“Yes, it"s me, boss!”
“It"s really late. There must be something really important you want to report if you"re calling me at this time.”
“Correct!” Xu Yang spoke in a deep voice. “An hour ago, after the server reopened, a lot of people went to complete their fifth promotion quest immediately. This is nothing surprising, except that a lot of people actually became a Famous General after receiving the experience reward from the promotion quest and leveling up! In fact, five new Famous Generals have appeared in China for the past hour!”
“Five?” He Yi exclaimed in astonishment.
“Yeah, and one of them is High Fighting Spirits! His Famous General Skill is called Stamp, and it ignores the enemy"s Defense and Magic Resist for 20% up to a maximum of 65%. I haven"t checked the skill of the other four players yet, but you can find it on the Famous General Ranking at the forums. The reason I called you at this time is to tell y"all to come back tomorrow if possible. Ancient Sword can"t function properly without its leader…”
He Yi chuckled. “Okay, thank you for the report. You should sleep soon!”
“Mn, got it!”
……
After hanging up the call, He Yi and the rest of us exchanged glances with each other. Murong Mingyue then wiped her claws—I mean hands before leaving to bring her notebook to the room. After she went online, she clicked the link to the Famous General Ranking at Heavenblessed official forum. As mentioned earlier, China now had 5 new Famous Generals, and their IDs and skills were in full display—
High Fighting Spirits: Stamp. Target"s Defense and Magic Resist is lowered by 20%. Skill effectiveness is affected by Tactics.
Shadow Chanel: Beauty. Damage taken from male players is reduced by 15% for all allies. Skill effectiveness is affected by Tactics.
Farewell Song: Sneak Attack. Invisibility and stealth movement speed is increased by 20% for all allies. Skill effectiveness is affected by Tactics.
Blue Sky Scar: Frenzy. Attack for all allies is increased by 35%. Skill effectiveness is affected by Tactics.
Ling Xueshang: Unyielding. Recovery speed of all stats is increased by 100%, and attack is increased by 25% for all allies. Skill effectiveness is affected by Tactics.
……
The girls" eyes turned wide as saucers. Right now the battles between larger guilds were basically a battle of the quant.i.ty and quality of Famous General Skills, and five Famous Generals just popped up in one night. It looked like the compet.i.tion between the strongest guilds in all China servers was about to enter a feverish period.
He Yi asked me while staring at the screen, “What do you think, Lu Chen?”
I pondered for a moment before replying, “Out of all five Famous General Skills, Blue Sky Scar and Farewell Song"s are the best because one increases attack power, and the other increases invisibility and stealth movement speed. Farewell Song"s Famous General Skill is specialized to a.s.sa.s.sins, so he"s going to become the spiritual leader of all rogue players from now on. Blue Sky Scar"s going to become a main force in Candle Dragon because his Frenzy isn"t too far behind my Martial G.o.d.”
Murong Mingyue smiled. “Sigh, High Fighting Spirits is such an unlucky boy. His skill only lowers his target"s Defense and Magic Resist by 20%...”
But I said, “It"s okay. With 200 Tactics, he can lower his opponent"s defense around 60% or so. Unless his opponent is Little Piglet, anyone who goes up against him will definitely have a bad time. Shadow Chanel"s Famous General Skill isn"t bad either. With 200 Tactics, it can reduce the damage of all enemy male players by 50% or so. It"s like giving everyone an Undying s.h.i.+eld, and that"s awesome. The same goes for Ling Xueshang. Our ally finally has their first Famous General…”
Suddenly, He Yi pointed an oily finger at the screen. “Hey, look at this…”
Murong Mingyue hurriedly slapped away her hand. “OMG, put your oily claws away from my screen, Eve. This is a limited version HP-notebook…”
My eyes lit up. He Yi was pointing at a small icon behind the Famous General Skills, and the popup text said—Famous General Skill Caps.
“Caps?”
My heart started beating harder. Finally, the devs had announced the hidden caps on the Famous General Skills!
I clicked the icon. The cap values of the Famous General Skills immediately appeared to me—
Martial G.o.d: Attack power increased by 200% max. Skill exclusive to Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand.
Bombsh.e.l.l: All stats increased by 80% max. Skill exclusive to Wind Fantasy.
Royal Road: All allied stats increased by 50%, and all enemy stats reduced by 30% max. Skill exclusive to From Water.
Bow G.o.d: Attack power increased by 150%, and attack speed increased by 60% max. Skill exclusive to Beiming Xue.
Knight G.o.d: Attack power and defense power increased by 150% max. Skill exclusive to Gui Guzi.
Blitz: Attack speed increased by 200% max. Skill exclusive to Legendary Brave.
Stamp: Target"s Defense and Magic Resist reduced by 70% max. Skill exclusive to High Fighting Spirits.
Insight: Enemy"s Famous General Skill chances of getting sealed is 70% max. Skill exclusive to Purple Marquis.
Beauty: Damage is reduced by 40% max. Skill exclusive to Shadow Chanel.
Seven Stars: Attack power for all allies increased by 50%, and enemy Stratagem effectiveness is reduced by 30% max. Skill exclusive to Beauty At First Sight.
Hegemon: Critical hit rate increased by 40% max. Skill exclusive to Warsky.
Heartpiercer: Lifesteal increased by 25% max. Skill exclusive to October Rain.
Hundred Battles: Attack power increased by 100%, and attack speed increased by 30% max. Skill exclusive to Laughing At The Heavens.
Sneak Attack: Invisibility and stealth movement speed increased by 70% max. Skill exclusive to Farewell Song.
Renown: Attack power increased by 120%, and defense power increased by 40% max. Skill exclusive to Lin Bing Dou Zhe.
Vajra: Defense power increased by 200% max. Skill exclusive to Little Piglet.
Ghost G.o.d Prophecy: N/A. Skill exclusive to Candlelight Shadow.
Resolute: Attack power increased by 120% max. Skill exclusive to Tempest Shadow.
Dissension: N/A. Skill exclusive to Transient Smoke and Clouds
Frenzy: Attack power increased by 150% max. Skill exclusive to Blue Sky Scar.
Unyielding: Recovery speed of all stats increased by 200%, and attack power increased by 100% max. Skill exclusive to Ling Xueshang.
Mage Soul: Magic Attack increased by 150%, and movement speed increased by 50% max. Skill exclusive to Luo River G.o.d of the Capital.
Repel: Attack power increased by 150%, and enemy attack power reduced by 30% max. Skill exclusive to Stranger of Three Lifetimes.