Rustle rustle rustle...
The three heavyweight NPCs of our group—Sophie, Xinran and Karinshan—shuffled out of the house behind us. They were followed by commanders of Sky City and Xinran"s new subordinate, the Headless Knight, b.l.o.o.d.y Finger. Since I had taken b.l.o.o.d.y Finger"s Purple Ying Sword for myself, the man was now wielding a different, similarly awesome-looking sword. He also seemed to retain some of his former abilities. His left arm was covered in b.l.o.o.d.y runes that gave him immense strength. In a sense, he was exactly the man he used to be except that his undying loyalty had now been transferred to Xinran.
I was proud of Xinran, to be honest. I never imagined that my NPC sister would one day be powerful enough to recruit even one of the nine Purgatory Sovereigns as her subordinate. Who knows, maybe one day she would be able to defeat the Purgatory Ruler himself and recruit him to her cause as well. I couldn"t wait to wreck bosses, find loot and s.n.a.t.c.h territories all over the place with Lin Na and b.l.o.o.d.y Finger in my party...
"What are you thinking?" He Yi patted me on the shoulder and woke me from my dreams.
"Er, it"s nothing…"
I hurriedly wiped the saliva from my mouth and said, "It looks like the instanced maps won"t update until the next maintenance, so for now I think we"re pretty much done."
"Mn." He Yi nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it says here that all the instances in Sky City will open at 7 am tomorrow. A lot of players have logged out of the game to stock up on supplies already. I even heard someone saying that they"d be spamming instances for three days straight and finish all 7 S Rank instances during this time…"
I shuddered. "Holy s.h.i.+t, who"s the overlord who thinks they"re good enough to finish all 7 S Rank instances in three days?"
He Yi answered, "Gui Guzi, actually…"
"That idiot…" I shook my head before continuing, "Anyway, he"s right about one thing at least. We should definitely sleep earlier tonight. Let"s spend the rest of the day gathering resources for Duplicate Mount."
"Mn."
……
"Big bro…" Xinran walked up to my side and called out to me smilingly. “You did well to stall Sophie. If she had killed Princess Karinshan, there"s a high chance the royal family of Sky City would be lost once and for all. She is the only legal heir to the throne right now."
I shot Karinshan a glance before saying, "Legal? Didn"t she kill the previous king and claim his throne by force?"
Xinran: "..."
Karinshan shot me a look. "We"re close, but I"m still going to kick your a.s.s if you p.i.s.s me off too much… Jokes aside, thank you for everything you"ve done, young warrior."
I nodded. "You"re welcome. It is every adventurer"s responsibility to protect their city."
I looked at b.l.o.o.d.y Finger next and found the guy staring at me through his helmet. More specifically, his soul spark was the one doing the staring. Noting how big the soul spark was, I sighed regretfully. "I should"ve absorbed his undead soul spark that day. It might"ve boosted me all the way to Asura G.o.d…"
b.l.o.o.d.y Finger s.h.i.+vered from head to toe. "You!"
I ignored him and asked Xinran a question, "Xinran, it"s great you revived b.l.o.o.d.y Finger to help you, but where is his head?"
Xinran shot me a dumbfounded look. "Why are you asking me? You"re the one who took it for your quest!"
I made an expression of realization and looked at Karinshan again. The princess shrugged a little before replying, "We burned it to appease the lost souls."
b.l.o.o.d.y Finger s.h.i.+vered again.
It was at this moment Sophie let out a mighty shout before saying loudly, "Undead of the snowy region, heed my order! You will march to the forest valley outside White Rose Fortress where our new territory will be founded! On the way, you will not attack any living or retaliate if you"re hit! If engaged by a human army, run away! From now on, the undead will fight for honor and glory! Defend the order of the continent, and I, Sophie, will grant you the honor you deserve!"
It was awesome to have the second-strongest Purgatory Sovereign and super boss of Heavenblessed on our side.
Suddenly, an idea crossed my mind as I looked at Sophie. "Yo sis, you"re one of the most influential people in the Purgatory, right? Can I discuss something with ya?"
Sophie"s mouth twitched. "Who the h.e.l.l"s your sis? Hmph! You may be Xinran"s older brother, but I… Ah, forget it. Just say what you want already!"
I nodded before continuing, "I don"t know if you"ve heard of Dark Moon City, but it"s an Undead Castle and I"m its lord. Unfortunately, it takes an insane amount of resources to recruit any type of troops, so to this day, I only have a couple thousand Ghost G.o.d Knights and Umbra Sharpshooters or so. You are an undead commander with a long string of outstanding military exploits, aren"t you? I"m sure you have millions and millions of troops to spare for little old me here…"
"What?!"
Sophie"s eyes bulged as she pointed a finger at my nose. "You want my brave, undying soldiers to work for a shameless adventurer like you? No way, absolutely not! I will never allow my loyal soldiers to be enslaved by you!"
I hurriedly pulled Xinran"s hand and motioned for her to speak.
My amity with Xinran was sky-high, so she immediately obliged and shot Sophie a smile. "Sophie, we"re all in an alliance here, so there"s no need to be selfish, is there? Your troops will be fighting the legion of the dead either way, so it doesn"t matter where they"re doing their job, right?"
"I—you—Xinran—"
Sophie glared at me. "Hmph! If it wasn"t for Xinran, I would send you to the Purgatory right now! You dote on him too much, Xinran. I swear, he"ll use you to exploit Princess Karinshan next…"
Xinran simply giggled and held my arm tighter. "I dote on him because he dotes on me just as much…"
Can"t say I can disagree with that. I happily accepted the praise.
Not far away, Purple Marquis asked with a sigh, "OMG, Lu Chen, how are you favored by women both inside and outside the game? Teach me when you"re free?"
I ignored him and continued, "So… what kind of troops will you give me, and how much?"
Sophie replied reluctantly, "Ten filthy Corpse Eaters, and no more than that!"
I jumped in anger. "What is this, pocket change for a beggar? Even I can take down a Corpse Eater in a single hit, and you want me to pit them against Lin Na"s army? Are you f.u.c.king kidding me?"
"What do you want then, you greedy b.a.s.t.a.r.d…"
"Anything but a Corpse Eater. Their rank is too low. Give me something strong and intimidating…"
"You can have the Three-headed Giants then…"
"The fake Nezha?" I pondered for a moment but shook my head in the end. "The fake Nezha have powerful armor break abilities, but it"s ultimately a ground unit, which means that it can be countered by a cavalry charge. Plus, I already have a 10000-strong Dragonlight Cavalry under my command, so I don"t need more ground units. Why don"t you give me some flying units? You know, like those filthy insects you mentioned earlier…"
He Yi and Lin Yixin suppressed a smile. As expected of the intelligent girls, they figured out what I was aiming for the moment I said that. That"s right, I wanted the undead Bone Dragons. These powerful flame-spitting beasts were practically G.o.ds against cavalry and foot soldiers. A single dragon breath could devastate dozens in an instant. If I could add some undead Bone Dragons to Dark Moon City, then its defenses would truly be impregnable.
"Filthy insects, you say? Sure…" Sophie smiled.
I smiled back. "Really? Thank you! You"re practically my family, sis!"
"Hmph hmph!"
However, a tinge of malevolence entered her smile all of a sudden. "Come out, my filthy insects!"
Swhoos.h.!.+
A blood-red magical formation appeared on the ground, and three gigantic maggots with wings abruptly emerged from the center. Not only could these ugly b.a.s.t.a.r.ds fly, the way they jiggled in the air could only be described as disgusting!
"f.u.c.king h.e.l.l!"
I backpedaled until I accidentally ran into Sophie"s round, bouncy b.r.e.a.s.t.s, but it didn"t feel good at all. One, she had intentionally misinterpreted my request. Two, I was half a head shorter than her. The b.r.e.a.s.t.s pressing against my head only made me feel humiliated, dammit!
"What the f.u.c.k are these things!?"
I pointed at the maggots and said, "I won"t accept them even if you give them away for free!"
Sophie smiled. "That"s odd. You ordered filthy insects, didn"t you?"
"No, I didn"t!"
Not going to beat around the bush any longer, I said, "I"ll be frank with you, sis. I want the Bone Dragons, the kind that spit ice and fire. That is the unit that will add a whole new dimension to my troops and ensure that nothing can overwhelm my city."
Sophie replied, "Don"t even think about it. Do you know how big of a graveyard, and how many Corpse Eaters it takes to nurture a single Bone Dragon?"
"I know, actually. That"s why I"m going to buy it from you. Everything has a price, right? Tell me what your price is, and I"ll do my best to pay it!"
I was determined to procure some Bone Dragons from Sophie no matter what. It would leave a bad taste in my mouth if I failed, and pragmatically speaking, our enemies were growing stronger every day. Pop Culture was expanding at an incredible rate due to Candle Dragon"s long-range support, Warsky Alliance had never given up on their desire to conquer Dark Moon City, and Sword Lord of Jianghu was no easy pickings either. Everyone wanted Dark Moon City for themselves, and without enough firepower it was impossible to keep these wolves at bay.
"A price, you say?" Sophie smiled again and fell into thought for a moment. Finally, she said, "Alright, I"ll order my undead army to build a dark castle in the canyon next to White Rose Fortress as my undead lair. If you truly mean it, then you will give me the gold necessary to buy the stones I need to construct my city, the steel I need to arm my Corpse Eaters, and the cost to clean the Three-headed Giants. I can"t just plunder the riches I need to build my army anymore."
I nodded. "That"s fine. How much do you want?"
"I want a hundred thousand gold for each Bone Dragon…" Sophie replied.
My jaw hit the floor. "You want one hundred THOUSAND for a single Bone Dragon? That"s the price of a fully loaded Yuyan! This is daylight robbery! Don"t you love me at all, sis?"
Sophie shot me a look. "I don"t. Xinran is the one who loves you, not me. Either you pay me a hundred thousand gold per Bone Dragon, or you can forget about them. If you think it"s expensive, get it through your thick skull that it"s not even an option for anyone else."
I clenched my fists in anger. If only I was strong enough to punch her beautiful face into a pig"s snout! This d.a.m.ned, greedy, evil tyrant!
However, a sweet voice suddenly said behind me, "We accept the price. Dark Moon City will order 1000 Bone Dragons from you!"
It was He Yi who spoke up. What courage! Is this the difference between a commoner and the CEO of Raincube?