Chapter 242 – Not Even an Inch
“Incomplete item….this is an incomplete item…” I held the sword as I looked into the sky, “What use is there for this incomplete sword? I cannot even equip it, what…what can I do with it?”
Li Leng gave a faint laugh, “Child, the spirit in the sword has already awakened. This sword has magical abilities and as long as you can find enough proficient blacksmiths to cast metals for you, then you’ll have for yourself a weapon fit for a god!”
By my side, Wan Er laughed as well, “That’s right, it’s still an incomplete sword but has stats like this. What would the completed item look like then?”
“Only, what are the requirements to cast metals for the sword?”
The elder Li Leng gently stroked his beard, “It’s quite simple, all you need to do is to find a blacksmith capable of fixing these kinds of items. However, because of the war that took place 100 years ago, most of the blacksmiths were transferred to the border of Ba Huang City’s lands. In a great disaster, many of the blacksmiths were wiped out. So as far as I know, no blacksmith in Ba Huang City is capable of fixing something on this level. So, this task you have set out for you is a long yet hard one…”
I was heartbroken, “What does a blacksmith need in order to have the power to do this?”
Li Leng stared at me, “You’d need a 10th ranked blacksmith with level 10 mining. You’d also need 100 Level 10 Qilin Iron Ore in order to have the metal to fix the sword. Any other type of metal would be unable to contain the power of the spirit within the sword!”
“Ah…”
I took two steps back with a cold and heavy heart. Where would I find a player with level 10 blacksmithing and mining?
Wan Er looked at my crestfallen face and laughed, walking up to pat my shoulder. She said, “Don’t worry, the current players are leveling up their production professions at a rapid pace. There are many people with the blacksmith profession; Fan Shu City has a 9th ranked alchemist for example. Blacksmithing has more people attracted to it than alchemy. Perhaps there’s someone with it already, we can always look slowly in the future…”
I nodded and gave Wan Er a bright smile, “Ah, that’s right. I’ll just set aside this sword for later, it’s not like it’ll run away from me…”
“That’s right, there’s no need to rush at all.”
“Hey Wan Er, are you going to get off?” I looked at the time, it was already 7 at night.
“Dong Cheng is still doing an S rank mission but she’ll be done soon. Shall we wait for her?”
“Alright…”
……
“Oh right…”
Right as Wan Er turned away to walk, she turned back towards me. As she approached, she smiled, “Have you checked your ranking on the CBN Battle network site yet? The rankings were updated an hour ago, and your new ranking is up…”
“Eh? Whats my ranking?”
“Take a look yourself…”
Wan Er waved her hand and immediately a light blue ranking list appeared in front of my eyes. Between the 31-35 ranking spots said–
31. Yue Qing Qian Lv 64 Class: Assassin
32. Immortality Codex Lv 63 Class: Healer
33. Simple Lv 64 Class: Mage
34. Xiao Yao Zi Zai Lv 64 Class: Night Watch of Dragon City
35. Death’s Contract Lv 63 Class: Knight
……
“Damn…” I was stupefied, it was definitely hard to believe the sight, “I’ve already entered the top 100? What a fast development, isn’t it true that…to enter CBN’s top 100 grandmasters one had to be an expert player?”
“Of course that’s the case…” The beautiful Miss smiled, “These are China’s top 100 players; you are definitely an expert. Combined with your fast rate of development, entering the top 10 wouldn’t be all that hard. At Firestone Valley, you essentially killed almost 30 players from [Vanguard] except for Simple and Jian Feng Han. Hehe, those players were within the top 500, the point you’ve made from the battle must have been tremendous. Of course, if you had been able to kill Jian Feng Han, you might have been able to be within the top 30, what a shame…”
Pouting, I said, “Even if I were to focus on trying to kill Jian Feng Han, I’d just be killed shortly afterwards. Jian Feng Han had many people by his side, I’m only a single person. If I had you, Dong Cheng, and Qing Qian by my side, then I’d be willing to try another time.”
“Alright, just wait for me to join [Zhan Long] then!”
“I will!”
……
With a golden light, Wan Er returned back to Fan Shu City from Ba Huang City. She was only considered as a traveler in Ba Huang City but once she and Dong Cheng joined [Zhan Long], then they would most likely change their main cities to Ba Huang City afterwards. After all, Ba Huang city’s badge [Let the Blood Spill over Ba Huang] gave a buff of a 3% increase in both attack and defense. In the later stages of the game, when base stats were higher, the practicality of Fan Shu City’s badge would clearly not be equal to [Let the Blood Spill over Ba Huang]. At times, a 3% increase in attack and defense would be extremely important.
As I watched Wan Er return to her city, I continued to stand on the streets of Ba Huang City. I glanced at the the sword in my inventory, the stats on the Emperor Qin’s Sword were quite strong, it was a crying shame that I couldn’t use it. Truly regretful!
Opening up my friends list, I sent a message to Li Mu, Qing Qian, Promised Love, Fox, and Wolf to have them help me find someone with level 10 blacksmithing. I didn’t know how effective this would be but it’d be best to find one as soon as possible. The sooner I had the Emperor Qin Sword, the better my chances would be when I fight against Jian Feng Han and his crew. Currently, in the process of [Zhan Long] rapidly spreading its name, it would definitely receive challenges from others. Within [Zhan Long] right now there’s quite a few experts like General Li Mu, General Wang Jian and the others to ward off Jian Feng Han’s threats to lower the tension. Even though Yue Qing Qian and and Yue Wei Liang both are pretty strong, they didn’t have Wan Er’s mind reading ability or her God Tier armor, nor were they as strong of an Assassin as she was. At the moment, it looked like I was the only one that could go toe to toe with Jian Feng Han. We both were coincidentally Guild Masters and a fight between two Guild Masters was the epitome of 2 guilds fighting against each other.
……
“Di!”
After some time, a message popped up from Yue Qing Qian, “Brother Xiao Yao!”
“Yes? Qing Qian, what happened?”
“I found a person with Lv 9 blacksmithing, did you want to meet up with him? This guy could possibly be the first Lv 10 blacksmith!”
“Sure, where are you at?”
“He’s currently at the mines, you should go yourself, eh….the exact coordinates are at Firestone Valley’s Arctic Fox Forest at the east side. (77643, 42664). I’ll be on my way there immediately, how about you?”
“Ah, Yeah I’ll be there….” I muttered for a second, then repeated, “Qing Qian, Arctic Fox Forest is currently under the control of [Vanguard], if we were to go over there, we’ll definitely be at a disadvantage if found. Be careful…”
Qing Qian laughed, “Don’t worry brother Xiao Yao, I spoke with Old K. He’s going to bring another 100 players to help protect us; 100 of [Zhan Long]’s elite members won’t be killed off that easily. Besides, if [Vanguard] takes action against us, then it’ll be an all out war. Well, we’ll be fighting against them sooner or later anyways! Should we get some allies to come too?”
I thought for a moment, “Let’s not worry about that for now, we shouldn’t be starting a fight with them first. It’s only 100 men, let’s see if Jian Feng Han will let [Zhan Long] cross. If he really starts a fight with us, then we’ll have a real reason to fight him!”
“Okay! Oh right…” Yue Qing Qian had a happy tune, “Yesterday night the guild rose to level 3 and there are now 972 people in [Zhan Long]. We’re now considered a top rank guild. If we really want to fight against [Vanguard], then we can bring around 700 of our expert players to help us fight!”
“Alright, we’ll set out then!”
“Okay…”
……
Exiting the city, I saw that Yue Qing Qian and the 100 people that Old K brought were waiting on the outskirts of the city. Most of them were heavy armor classes like Swordsmen and Berserkers; classes that focused on attack. As they watched me approach with my sword in hand, the group all nodded their heads, “Hello Guild Master!”
I nodded my head to return the greeting, “I’ll be making a personal trip, so to have you all accompany me, I’m a bit embarrassed!”
Thousand Suns Over Snowy Lands raised her staff and said, “Us members of [Zhan Long] will definitely try to find a way to expand the guild. We can’t let the people of [Vanguard] bully others without lifting a finger. Firestone Valley’s Arctic Fox Forest may be under the control of [Vanguard] but this time, we will be testing the waters. We’ll see if [Vanguard] dares to try and fight against [Zhan Long]!”
I couldn’t help but smile: “Thousand Suns saw through it, it really is like that. Let’s go!”
……
Our group majestically left Ba Huang City and went straight towards Firestone Valley. Any monster that was unfortunate enough to be on our path was immediately wiped out. I also let out my Flaming Tiger God and had him cast [Burstfire Raid], causing the entire group to be stunned at its power. Even Thousand Suns Over Snowy Lands had her small mouth drop wide open, “Wow, Guild Master’s pet…it’s incredibly strong. Haha, it’s even cute looking…”
Yue Qing Qian laughed, “Wei, the Flaming Tiger God grew even bigger, it looks so strong…”
I scratched the head of the tiger, “Of course it’s strong, if I didn’t have his help, then I wouldn’t had been able to kill so many people under Jian Feng Han’s watchful eyes…”
Thousand Suns Over Snowy Lands asked, “Guild Master, what tier is this Flaming Tiger God?”
I answered honestly, “Valkyrie Tier BOSS rank….”
“Eh…” Thousand Suns Over Snowy Lands went silent for a while before perking up her head again, “Guild Master, getting myself involved with you wasn’t a bad decision at all…”
I didn’t say anything.
……
After 10 minutes or so, we finally arrived at Firestone Valley with me at the front of the group with my Frost Rain Sword at the ready, “Everyone, be ready to enter the forest, we definitely don’t want to be the first one to strike against any other player. But if we get attacked by another group, then immediately counterattack!”
The Healers all began buffing the group one by one with [Encourage] and even Yue Qing Qian used her stealth mode. Old K carried his Haunted Twinblade Axe with a ferocious look as he walked by my side. Then the rest of the hundred players began their descent into the depths of Firestone Valley.
Arctic Fox Forest was enveloped in layers of dark clouds; it seemed that today, it would rain.
I checked the map coordinates, it seemed that the rumored Lv 9 Blacksmith should be ahead of us to the right. The distance was less than 1000 meters. After a few minutes we would be able to reach it.
Suddenly, a group of players walked out from behind the bushes, it was a group of players from [Vanguard] with their Vice Guild Master–Fushen Thousand Blades!
He raised his monk’s staff, and growled, “Halt, this place is under the control of [Vanguard], please turn back and walk a different way! The monsters here are for us to kill.”
I strode forward with my sword in hand until the distance between Fushen Thousand Blades and I wasn’t even a single meter. With a faint laugh, I refused to obey his instructions to stop and continued to walk forward. I brushed past him with my sword held up high, and yelled out, “People of [Zhan Long], walk with me! We’re merely passing by, if anyone dares to attack us, then kill him!”
Old K, Thousand Suns Over Snowy Lands, and the rest followed me one after another, in a state of mutual hostility!
Behind Fushen Thousand Blades, the group of [Vanguard]’s players stood dumbstruck, as if they never thought of the possibility that I wouldn’t answer and would simply walk across just like that. After that, I even made a threat, something totally beyond their imaginations. In other words, I hadn’t acted according to the way [Vanguard] had expected me to act.
……
“Vice Guild Master……” One of [Vanguard]’s Archers opened his mouth, looking at our [Zhan Long] group as we entered the forest, asking: “What…… what should we do?”
Fushen Thousand Blades hefted his staff and gritted his teeth: “I’ll ask Guild Master’s opinion first!”
“Okay……”