Suddenly, a strange feeling struck me. I stared at Chaos Moon and asked, "Wait a f.u.c.king second, didn"t you tell me that it"ll only take four hours to reach your place? So why are we heading to a train station now?"
Chaos Moon smiled deviously and pulled out a pair of red-colored train tickets from her pocket. "To tell you the truth, my grandmother lives here. Sorry, but we"re going to have to ride the train for another 5 hours before we actually reach our destination…"
It was clearly stated on the train ticket: "Ürümqi to Tekes County."
Feeling as if lightning had struck me in the head, I grabbed Chaos Moon"s shoulders and shook her back and forth, "Chaos Moon, you liar! You told me it"s a four-hour trip, and now we"re not even halfway there!?"
Chaos Moon blinked cutely. "You can"t blame me, it was the only way to trick you to come with me. Heehee! Now settle down and be a good boy! Just treat this like a holiday trip or something…"
I gave up and leaned against the seat. "So, we"re sweeping the grave tomorrow and returning the day after. Have you booked the return flight yet?"
"No…"
"Right. I"ll call the Raincube Suzhou branch manager and tell them to take care of it."
"Raincube"s manager has to listen to you?"
"Hmph hmph, who do you think I am? I"m the man who holds 10% of Raincube"s shares!"
"OMG, I didn"t know that I"m in the presence of a bigshot…"
"Wors.h.i.+p me!"
"Yes, I expect you to pay for my lamb paomo later…"
Me: "..."
……
After we arrived at the train station, we ate some food and entered the train in a hurry. The wheels turned, and we traveled toward Tekes County amid a chorus of squeals, clacks and whistles.
I was completely befuddled, to be honest. I had never even heard of a place called Tekes County. Still, Chaos Moon probably wouldn"t sell me to the slavers, so just like she said, I should treat this like holiday and relax.
It was nighttime when we finally arrived at Tekes.
Standing in the open and staring at the vast county in front of me, I asked a bit dazedly, "Ah s.h.i.+t, what do we do now? Where is your grandma"s house?"
Chaos Moon chuckled and grabbed my hand. "Grandma"s house isn"t in the county, and I doubt we can catch a taxi that will travel to that location at this time. For now, let"s find a hotel with internet and pa.s.s the night there. Tomorrow, we"ll take a taxi straight to the graveyard—it"ll take around two hours or so to get there—sweep the grave and… head back the day after tomorrow. We won"t be staying in auntie"s house."
I nodded. "Mn. Let"s find something to eat first. What kind of food do you recommend here?"
"Lamb…"
"Okay. Let"s find a hotel first and eat dinner later!"
"Mn."
……
We explored the entire county, but there was only one hotel with a dedicated line to Eternal Moon Corporation"s servers. It was a rather expensive 4-star hotel, but we didn"t really have another choice. It was either that or borrowing a dedicated line from a nearby residence, which would"ve been awkward to say the least. Also, I"m a southerner who knew absolutely nothing about the lay of the land, so it was better if I kept a low profile.
After we entered the hotel, we booked two rooms—each room cost 1000 RMB—dropped our luggages, and went out for dinner. Chaos Moon knew this place to an extent, so we went to a restaurant of her choosing and ordered a serving of dapanji, lamp pot and beer. It was amazing. I wasn"t expecting to enjoy such amazing delicacies at an unfamiliar place at all, and I was seriously regretting not bringing He Yi and Lin Yixin with me on this trip. It would"ve been the perfect complement to this meal.
After we satisfied our tummies, we returned to the hotel, connected to the network and logged into the game. There is nothing to do anyway, so I might as well grind some low-rank instances and level up the Ancient Divine Dragon.
Swhoos.h.!.+
The moment I appeared in Sky City, I immediately received five messages—
Lin Yixin: "Ohh, you"re online! I thought you"d be lost for way longer, like a stray child."
He Yi: "You"ve arrived? Have you found a place to settle in? The local food of Xinjiang isn"t bad, right?"
Beiming Xue: "Big bro, I miss you…"
Lian Xin: "Lu Chen, Beiming missed you so much she PKed some randoms just a while ago…"
Murong Mingyue: "You ate yet, brat?"
I smiled when I saw the messages. It felt very nice to be missed by someone. I replied to everyone one by one—
To Lin Yixin, I replied: "My back nearly broke from a whole day of sitting. You miss me, Yiyi? If you do then give me a kiss please, haha…"
To He Yi, I replied: "Mn, we settled down in a 4-star hotel. There"s internet here, and the food is pretty good."
To Beiming Xue, I replied: "I"ll be back the day after tomorrow. Grind hard, Beiming!"
To Lian Xin, I replied: "You need to help her if someone bullies her, Little Xin!"
And finally, I replied to Murong Mingyue: "Yep, I did. Rest soon, sis…"
……
We formed a party later, and our wise leader, He Yi, took us to the A4 instance. This was a huge challenge as the mobs were Level 210 dread-rank mobs, and the bosses were at least Level 220. The good news was that everyone in our party was at least 10 levels above the average player level thanks to the WEL nationals and internationals, so it wasn"t impossible for us to beat A4.
This time, we teleported to Silver Fir City because it was closer to the A4 instance.
We agreed to meet up outside Silver Fir City. The girls were already waiting for me when I finally arrived.
"Big bro!"
A smiling Beiming Xue rode up to me and asked, "So? How is it like to screw around with sister Chaos Moon the whole day?"
I shrugged. "Eh, so so? She tricked me saying that it"s just a four-hour flight to her place. In reality, we had to take a five to six–hour train ride to reach this place called Tekes County. I almost died from sheer exhaustion. Heck, we"re not even at her place yet, so the grave sweeping will have to wait until tomorrow. That"s why I"m logging into the game and grinding instances with you guys now. So? Did anything happen while I"m gone? Did anyone try to challenge any of the S Rank instances?"
"There is!"
He Yi nodded affirmatively before adding, "Beauty Lin took Purple Marquis, Nangong Lexi, Shadow Chanel and a priest into S1 and successfully beat the first boss, but the second boss managed to party wipe them twice in a row. Deciding that the level loss was too much, Yiyi ultimately gave up and left the map."
Beiming Xue added, "Song of Cloud and Water, G.o.d Bone, Song of Ice and Fire, Ringwraith and their priest were also stuck at the same boss. The boss was just too strong for a five-man party to defeat right now."
I smiled. "But of course. The bosses in the S1 instances are at least Level 250 Immortal Rank, and right now, everyone is between 50 to 80 levels behind it. It"s just suicide to attempt it right now. If Immortal-grade sets were this easy to collect, they would"ve flooded the market a long time ago…"
He Yi smiled. "That"s why our choice to grind A4 is wise. Oh right, how is your Ancient Divine Dragon right now? Can you ride it yet?"
"Give me a sec…"
I brought up my character window and tapped the Ancient Divine Dragon"s icon. An immature roar immediately reverberated the air as a blue hexagram appeared in front of me. Slowly, the Ancient Divine Dragon slowly crawled out of the center of the magic formation and lay lazily on the ground. Its appearance was mostly the same—dark silver scales and red hair around its head—except that it was now a lot bigger than before.
"This is so funny. Most dragons know how to fly, so why not this one?" Lian Xin laughed.
I was shaking my head myself. My WEL champion reward was looking more and more like a trap. An Archean Immortal-grade item would"ve been more useful than this dragon!
Beiming Xue said, "Big bro, why don"t you show us its stats screen again? Maybe we can find a way to grind it faster?"
"Mn!"
I waved my hand once and brought up the Ancient Divine Dragon"s stats. To my surprise, the little dragon had evolved somewhat while it was asleep—
Ancient Divine Dragon
Level: 83
Rank: Divine Rank Mount
Stage: Formative
Effect: Cannot be Mounted
Growth Stages—
Infancy (Level 0~50): No Effect
Formative (Level 50~100): No Effect
Adult (Level 100~150): Mountable
Awakening (Level 150~200): Fusion Armor
Divine Awakening (Level 200~250): Unknown
……
I laughed and rubbed my palms together when I saw this new information. "f.u.c.k yeah! It"s mountable at Level 100? I had no idea it was so close. Let"s try and get it to Level 100 in the next few days!"
He Yi said with a smile, "Yes. It"s too bad there won"t be another Fury of the G.o.ddess of Death event anytime soon, or I"m sure it"d reach Level 100 in a day!"
"Come on, let"s enter A4 already. Surely it"ll get to Level 100 once we grind the A Rank instances a dozen times!"
"Mn!"
The Ancient Divine Dragon was extremely powerful, but its experience requirements were also 100 times that of a normal pet"s. Thankfully, grinding experience was my favorite pastime, and with the girls to keep me company there would never be a dull moment.
……
After we exited Silver Fir City, He Yi pulled Murong Mingyue up her mount and said, "Come on, take Lian Xin with you, and we"ll technically have a full cavalry party!"
I said, "Little Xin can ride with Beiming, right?"
Beiming Xue shrugged. "But she wants to ride with you, not me…"
"Fine, fine. Get on now…"
I pulled Lian Xin up my horse and sat her in my lap. She waved her scepter with a laugh, "Go, Armored Ice Qilin Horse! Full speed ahead!"
Thwack!
Her scepter hit me in the head.
"f.u.c.k…"
And so, the five of us and three mounts rode through the forest at high speed. It wouldn"t take more than ten minutes for us to reach the entrance of the A4 instance. Not long after we departed though, a ton of blue dots suddenly appeared on the map.
……
"Hmm? What"s the situation? Why are there so many people?" Murong Mingyue asked puzzledly.
I spurred my mount forward and found a large group of players occupying an empty s.p.a.ce between the forest. They all wore the same guild emblem—an iron sword—and they were of course Sword Lord of Jianghu. What are they doing? Are they seriously trying to occupy the entire A4 instance for themselves?
I slipped into the crowd of spectators and slowly pushed my way forward. It was then I saw a bunch of tanks lining up like a wall and a smiling mage corps commander. He said with a smile, "Welcome, welcome! The A4 instance is right behind us. Sword Lord of Jianghu has been clearing out the mobs around the instance map day and night for everyone"s convenience, but a lot of us suffered injuries and even levels as a result. To compensate them, we would like everyone who wishes to enter the instance to pay us a fee of 10 gold. Please understand our pains, and thank you."
……
I couldn"t help but blurt aloud, "Heavens, have they gone mad for money?"