Zhan Long

Chapter 113 - Green Qilin

Rustle…

I quickly retreated from the field with use of a [Haste] to a more secure location 100 meters back, making sure not to pull any aggro from the surrounding monsters. I was not going to join Lui Ying’s fight, lest I wanted to die in the hands of a few mob monsters. I just stood where I was, watching Liu Ying’s group get picked off one by one.

……

“Ah!!!”

One of the Healers shrieked. She had fallen, torn by the sharp claws of a Cat Spirit. Even I couldn’t afford to take a direct hit from one of the Cat Spirits. Judging by how fragile Healers are, it’s wasn’t hard to guess what had happened to her…

Satisfied with the easy kill, the Spirit Cat meowed and turned towards the next Swordsman. It was not long before he fell too.

Liu Ying sheathed his sword quickly and ran for his life with Piggy following closely behind. Using [Haste] to run faster, Liu Ying left Piggy in the dust. Soon, Piggy faced a blast of scorching heat and was rapidly engulfed by the Cat Spirit’s [Flame Fan Dance]!

“Boss! Return to the city when you get the chance!” Piggy yelled with his dying breath.

Liu Ying had barely managed to escape the two Cat Spirits on his tail. His face was purple from exhaustion. He couldn’t believe that over 300 of his guild’s elites had fallen prey to the Flaming Cat Spirits.

……

Whoosh!

I cast a quick [Heal] which restored me to full HP. I called Baby Bobo and rushed towards Liu Ying, my sword ready. The sword pulsed with energy, ready to cast [Fierce Ice Blade] at a second’s notice. I gave the Tyrant of the Western Chu a fierce smile on my face. “Guild Master, allow me to see you off!”

“You!”

The Tyrant of Western Chu’s face turned a nasty shade of purple. He brandished his sword and roared, “Come at me!”

[Combo]!

I meet my opponent’s charge head on, letting him strike my armor in a shower of sparks. Four damage numbers appeared above my head——

211!

197!

189!

207!

……

Liu Ying’s face turned deathly pale as he watched my HP stay above 50%. He could no longer deny the rumors of my incredible defense.

I unleashed my [Fierce Ice Blade].

774!

The Tyrant of Western Chu dropped to his knees, shaking. His HP bar dropped rapidly and settled around 50%. I hollered a battle cry, cast for .2 seconds, and executed the [Wind Blade] skill!

819!

Bobo quickly followed with another attack, and Liu Ying was dead!

……

Whoosh! A light rose from his body, surrounded by loot. A longsword was among the assortment of potions. Holy crap! Did I really manage to seize the weapon of [Wrath of the Heroes]’s Guild Master? Damn, it has been a long time since I felt this good.

I picked up the longsword, placed it in my inventory, and noticed the two Cat Spirits bounding towards me. Time to leave!

I used [Binding Chains] to hold one of the Cat Spirits, and turned, easily killing the other one. Afterward, I took my time to pick up the loot dropped by the [Wrath of the Heroes]’s players. I cleared the remaining Cat Spirits in my vicinity and searched their bodies for loot. There was a total of 11 Bronze and Silver equips along with various other one-use items such as Arrows, all obtained free of charge. How kind of them to have died and left these to me…

I pulled the longsword that the late Liu Ying had “gifted” me from my inventory ——

【Firewood Sword】 (Silver-Tier Equipment)

Attack: 185-280

Strength: +29

Endurance: +24

Extra: Increases attack by 2%

Level Requirement: 40

……

Not bad. Not bad at all. These stats matched those of my own sword. A quick check of the rankings told me that it was 19th among weapons. Despite being labeled as a Silver Tier equip, the high level required to equip it made it superior than many Gold Tier equips. My own sword was 7th on the weapon ranking, and everything higher than it were Gold Tier weapons.

I had no idea how much Liu Yin spent on this Firewood Sword, but that hardly mattered. I’m going to sell it as soon as I can!

I looked at the clock, and noticed that it was already 11 at night. Neither Wan Er nor Cheng Yue mentioned logging off though, so I assumed they were still busy in game. They always delay their midnight meal; They should be better at keeping track of time!

My stomach growled. I took a look at my level. After clearing all of those Cat Spirits, I was only 26% away from Lv 47! I decided to hit 47 before logging off.

I spent another hour clearing the rest of the Cat Spirits. It was not enough to level up though and a glance at my experience bar showed that I still had 5% to go; leveling quickly was nearly impossible for higher leveled players.

……

Even though my inventory was already filled with loot, I continued to look around the Abyss for any Green Qilin Grass that I might have missed. Unfortunately, there was none. Eventually, I found myself returning to the lifelike statue of the Green Qilin beast. It seemed like today’s adventure stopped here.

Growl…

Something was wrong. The distant growl seemed to come from thousands of miles away, yet its source was definitely nearby. I frowned in confusion. Listening carefully, I determined that it was coming from somewhere in front of me. It couldn’t be. Was the statue growling?

No, that’s impossible!

I reached out and gently touched the ancient statue. It glowed faintly under my left hand. How? This feeling…it was moist. Almost as if the Green Qilin was alive and was breathing into my palm. Whoa! This can’t be happening!

Bang! A sharp pain exploded on my nose. Small rocks showered over me as the statue came to life. I looked up and panicked when I saw the statue’s head had begun to crack and peel apart.

This can’t be right… How can the rock be peeling apart? Impossible!

Bang!

Another rock fell on my head.

Damn, it really is peeling apart!

The entire Abyss trembled. I attempted to brace myself against the statue only for it to crumble before I could grab a hold of it. As the rumbling grew louder, a growl emerged from inside the statue!

Damn, there really is a beast under the rock!

It was not really a statue— well it was, but it was a living statue!

Ding!

System Notification: You have released the seal on the 【Green Qilin】!

……

Rustle…

I quickly retreated about two hundred meters and unsheathed my sword, bracing for an incoming attack. The boss slowly began to emerge from the rock that surrounded it. I should have realized that there would be a boss in a large region like the Green Qilin Valley and Green Qilin Abyss.

It’s all over… There’s no way I can beat it.

I was going to lose a level.

The Abyss continued to tremble. The floor beneath me groaned, welcoming the arrival of its sacred master!

The rock continued to crumble off of the beast, piling up at its feet. The boss emerged, towering over me. It really was one of those mythical Green Qilins! I could see its glowing red eyes staring at me beneath its helmet. Its body was covered in green armor, and a dark horn protruded from its head. This was not the beautiful beast shown in folklore. In < >, this was a demon that took lives, one that shouldn’t be respected.

Growl…

It let out a beastly roar, blasting my face with a fierce wind in a display of its fearsome power. Taking a step forward, it slowly honed in on my position. Damn it! I was the only living thing it could target within the Abyss.

My Jade City Sword trembled in my hands. To say that I wasn’t scared would be a lie. I could use my City Teleport Scroll right now if I wanted to, but my stubbornness prevented me from acting!

As the Green Qilin drew closer, I was able to read a bit of its stats——

【Green Qilin】(Purple Tier Boss)

Level: 55

Attack: ???

Defense: ???

Health: ???

Skills: ???

Description: Green Qilin - a mythical beast. It is said that the Green Qilin was the product of an violent natural disaster and has survived from ancient times. Afraid of it causing further damage, the gods of old sealed it away in the hopes of it never reawakening. With its revival, warfare and disaster follows in its wake. The myths foretell that whoever kills the Green Qilin will be blessed by the gods. He will be bestowed with the legendary item which the Green Qilin protects.

……

I drooled at the mention of this legendary equipment, but looking back at the vicious eyes of the Green Qilin, returning to the city seemed like an extremely good option at the moment. Should I make a run for it, or should I stand my ground?

My grip tightened on my sword. F*ck it, it’s not like I haven’t died many times before. In fact, I’ve died quite a few times in my lower levels.

The Green Qilin was a Purple Tier, Lv 55 boss monster. That was a whole 9 levels above me, an insurmountable gap! The pressure was incomparable to my earlier battle with the General of Everlasting Wind. The situation was completely different; back then, I had a whole party of Healers focused on healing me. I could only rely on my healing now.

A quick survey of the area in search of a more advantageous position revealed nothing. Damn it, I had to at least try something. If I die, well, at least I will still have plenty of Green Qilin Grass in my inventory, enough to make a minimum of 30 Green Qilin Pills.

……

“Hou hou…”

The Green Qilin growled a warning, a sign that it was fully aggro-ed to me. It suddenly broke into a charge, its four paws stamping forcefully onto the ground. Its speed was incredible, even faster than when I had [Haste] active.

Let’s get the first hit at least!

With that thought, my Jade City Sword began to glow blue and a [Fierce Ice Blade] went straight towards the Green Qilin!

“Peng!”

598!

Damn, what a high defense…

With the speed reducing effect of the [Fierce Ice Blade], the Green Qilin held up its front paw and slapped down at me. A searing pain went through my chest as a 907 damage number popped up. Did my ribs break? Looking down, I saw that my armor had a gaping tear. Crap, the boss has some kind of an armor break skill! Once the durability of it goes below 1%, the Dawn Breastplate’s defense would disappear. At that point, it’d be a one hit KO for me!

“Shua!”

+750!

Waving my hand to give myself a [Heal], I ordered Baby Bobo to go attack the boss. Holding my sword, I quickly ran to the Green Qilin’s side and a white glow appeared beneath my feet - [Strength of a Thousand Men]!

After 5 continuous attacks, the health of the Green Qilin fell by 1200+ points. It wasn’t bad but the Green Qilin turned around and bit my arm, dealing 800+ damage. At this pace, my healing wouldn’t keep up! Dammit, what should I do, am I doomed?

Right when I was hesitating about what to do, the Green Qilin rose its paw and swept it towards me!

“Peng!”

My body flew backwards like a kite without its string and landed heavily on the side of the cave. I lost another 700+ health, and my health started touching rock bottom. But after flying out 10 or so meters, I gained myself a precious few seconds. Standing up, I used a [Heal] and then a health potion to recover 1150 health. This should be enough for another few hits!

Slowly backing off, I activated my [Binding Chains]!

“Peng!”

The chains were successful and locked the boss for 2.1 seconds. Great!

With the chains and some running, my [Heal] came back up and I immediately used it, restoring me to almost full health. But as soon as I finished, the Green Qilin rushed in front of me and raised it front paw. Its vicious eyes seemed to taunt me - Bug, go die!

……

“Peng!”

1884!

A critical strike, and I found myself flying painfully through the air again. Crap, the attack on this boss was too much for me!