Chapter 29: Ye Tanming Jian Pavilion Night Quest (II)

After 15 seconds, the first Blood Garment Sect guard really appeared randomly in the field and a sentence appeared on the top of the guard’s head: “This subordinate is late!” Then charged into the direction of the boss!

Liu Chuan immediately threw out his hook and pulled the guard directly to his side. The guard was impossible to kill and would even charge at the player who tried to pull him with a strong control skill. The damage was very low and even Tangmen, a crispy* profession only lost dozen points of blood after being attacked by him, and can almost be ignored.

* Can be killed easily

Another 15 seconds passed and the second guard appeared.

Wu Zewen adjusted his viewing angle with his right hand and pressed the shortcut key of the long whip with his left hand simultaneously. Only a swipe could be heard before the long whip emerged. The guard’s waist was entangled by the whip and he was decisively pulled to Five Poison’s side!

The Five Poison’s whip swayed firmly and pulled the person directly in front of him. Such an action was extremely handsome. There are also a lot of Long Whip School players in the Five Poisons Sect because the long-range control skill was very profound. Not only can it pull the opponent in front of the player, but it can also pull the opponent around and throw it into the distance. The whip retracts freely, and the control skills are very flexible!

Wu Zewen turned his head and saw that the Tangmen was wandering around the boss with the guard hooked, throwing hidden weapons while running. Wu Zewen, the fast learner, followed suit, running with the guard and whipped the boss a few times when he had the time.

15 seconds passed quickly and when the third guard appeared, Tangmen immediately pulled him with his hook.

The two of them cooperated tacitly and the guards were taken away one after another by the teamwork of the Tangmen and Five Poisons.

In comparison, the Shaolin had a harder time. He has to continuously decrease the boss’ damage and take the red potions. Shaolin without a nanny to add blood is like a poor baby without a mother. Fortunately, Li Xiang has adapted to this kind of rhythm and was highly focused. It wasn’t a problem to deal with his kind of boss who didn’t have many tricks.

Wudang has it the easiest, just stand and fight the boss.

Five Poisons and Tangmen encircled the battlefield to control the guards, throwing skills at the boss as they ran around.

Soon, the boss’ blood volume dropped to 80%...

When the sixth guard appeared, Wu Zewen was stunned.

The field of the yard is very large. At the moment, he is on the left side of the field but the guard appeared on the right and the distance of the whip is not enough! If he flies using his light step skill, then the guards would already be within the range of the boss and would be able to add blood! But if he doesn’t fly over and make a detour to go around the boss, then the guard that just refreshed would already be adding blood to the boss and by then, it would be too late!*

* Took liberties in translating the entire paragraph

Wu Zewen felt anxious. Suddenly, he saw Li Xiang jump using light step and pulled the boss back by five meters using the Shaolin’s Dragon Claw!

Obviously, he also noticed the position of the Five Poison’s on the left and the guard on the right were too far away from each other, so he decisively pulled the boss back and jumped a distance, making room for the Five Poison’s to fly directly in a straight line!

Wu Zewen no longer hesitated, dragged the guards behind him, flew over in a straight line and pulled the fourth guard with a whip, then turned around and continued to run in circles!

Afterwards, Li Xiang pulled the boss back to the center of the field.

When the ninth guard appeared, the unlucky situation repeated. It was Liu Chuan’s turn to pull the guard. He was on the bottom left of the field while the guard appeared on the top right, making the distance between them too far! Li Xiang pulled the boss another five meters to the side and once again made room for the Tangmen to fly over in a straight line without hitting the boss!

Liu Chuan naturally flew over immediately and took away the ninth guard. He couldn’t help but sigh from the bottom of his heart: Li Xiang, this guy is really making rapid progress!

In that situation, if there was no Shaolin, Liu Chuan would have to operate the Tangmen to bypass the boss as quickly as possible. Of course, with his level of operation, there would be no problem using a combination of skills to bypass the boss in a short period of time. There wouldn’t be a problem. However, Shaolin saved him a lot of effort after he pulled the boss away for a while, enabling Liu Chuan flew over a straight line which distance is naturally the shortest!

As a Shaolin, it’s not considered a skill to be able to pull the boss, it’s simply the most basic essence.

Being the first to detect the situation on the field so as to make the most accurate judgment, decisively changing the route at a critical moment, pulling the boss to another position and making space for teammates, this type of Shaolin was genuinely skillful, a master who reassures the entire team!

Liu Chuan asked Li Xiang to watch the game videos of the Seven Star Grass Team and learn how to observe the general situation from Xiao Sijing. Indeed, it was very useful. At that moment, Li Xiang’s overall performance was outstanding.

Oftentimes, even if the captain’s eyes watch six roads and his ears listens in all directions*, there will be places that he can’t take care of.

* Idiom for being observant and alert

At a critical moment, a truly outstanding player doesn’t need the captain to give the command and would be able to handle the situation calmly. People who wait for others to direct before they know what to do will never be able to become a real master!

Li Xiang has just started playing Shaolin recently and even if he knows that there is a big gap between his level and that of the Tangmen and Wudang in the team, he is also able to calmly respond at critical moments rather than waiting for the captain’s order. Liu Chuan was very satisfied.

His vision is really correct. This guy might be hot-blooded, impulsive and his way of speaking was sometimes offending and foolish, he is still quite reliable at critical moments!

……

Afterwards, the guards appeared in difficult positions several times but relying on the team’s positioning, they managed to get through a daunting experience without mishap.

The boss’s blood volume was slowly declining, and their rhythm was getting smoother and smoother. Soon, the boss’s blood hit 50%.

At this moment, a world-service announcement with golden characters suddenly appeared in the center of the screen--

“Congratulations to the [Foodie League] Guild: Spicy Lamb Skewers, Pickled Chicken Feet, Hot and Sour Shredded Potato, Braised Eggplant, Crystal Shrimp Dumplings, Black Sesame Glutinous Rice Balls, for breaking the record of the hero mode of [Ye Tan Ming Jian Pavilion] with a clearance score of 50,300 points!”

The world channel suddenly boiled!

Not only because the names of these players arouse one’s appetite—but the system score has finally been broken!

The special thing about Wulin is the “Floating Reward”. The reward given by the instance will greatly increase with the increase of the difficulty and additional items will be dropped as the instance’s clearance score increases. The instance reward of hero mode has the most reward but the hero mode is very difficult and it’s impossible to clear the instance without tacit cooperation and skills. Therefore, in the novice stage, most players will not touch the hero mode but will choose a relatively simply ordinary mode.

However, the meaning of the hero instance to a guild is completely different.

—Wulin Hero List.

Only the relevant records of the hero instance will be written on the list!

The list that everyone in the twelve regions can check. The list of the top ranks in the game and a symbol of honor!

The record of the hero instance includes two items--

[Top 3 records]: The first, second and third teams on the server to clear the instance obtains the first, second, and third clearance instance achievements respectively. Their names will be recorded in the Wulin Hero List, called “Top Three Teams”.

[Score record]: This is a casual competitive mode officially developed by Wulin. The total score of the instance clearance is calculated according to the process of the team playing the instance. The factors that affect the score include: number of people in the team, equipment configuration, DPS (Damage per second), HPS (Healing per second), instance clearance time, number of deaths in the instance, etc. The system will use a fixed formula to comprehensively calculate the score to conduct a thorough assessment of the overall strength of the team. The higher the instance clearance score and the higher the ranking, the more floating rewards the team will naturally get.

The performance record is also part of the top three on the list but unlike the “top three teams”, the performance record can be broken at any time.

For example, the Ye Tan Ming Jian Pavilion Quest’s minimum score set by the system is 50,000. As long as this score is exceeded, a world announcement will be made and the name of the record-breaking team will be on the list. Once the results of other teams exceed the previous team again, the hero list will naturally refresh and be replaced.

Because of the constant change, the competition for this record can be said to be very fierce!

The PvP players in the game are keen to team up to play in the arena and qualifying matches and are said to be passionate every single day. PvE players prefer to study various instance for self-entertainment and the gameplay is casual. PvP and PvE are two different player community.

In order to balance the two, the officials set up a instance competition mode. Various instances from level 30 to level 70 have been studied multiple times by players who like to play instance and the hero list is constantly being refreshed. Such a healthy competition, both officials and players are very happy to see it happen.

Liu Chuan and the others left for two hours due to a network failure*. The top three records of Ye Tan Ming Jian Pavilion have already been snatched away by the upgraded madmen. At this time, the 50,000 instance of the achievement record was finally broken.

* Remember that during Liu Chuan and Wu Zewen’s “wedding”, the internet café they were in experienced a sudden internet failure

Li Xiang saw the news and glanced at the instance scores of the four of them—they’ve been playing the instance for almost 40 minutes and the instance score was already in 10,000 but because the playing was too slow, the score was constantly getting deducted…

The record-breaking temas have more than 50,000 points but the gap between their scores isn’t as big as usual.

Li Xiang couldn’t help asking: “The Foodie League is very interesting. Their names are all delicious. What kind of guild is this?”

Taoist Qingfeng said: “This is a professional PvE guild. It’s actually a large group of friends. The president Spicy Lamb Skewers is a girl. They have many 70-level gold guilds in the old districts and would often organize their guild members to hold singing competitions on YY and hang around the voice call, gossiping all day long. It’s a well-known pure girl guild that doesn’t accept men.”

Li Xiang was surprised: “All girls? And they are all foodies?”

Taoist Qingfeng said: “Yes.”

Liu Chuan smiled and said: “There are quite a lot of the same kind of guilds in online games. They don’t participate in guild battles but entertain themselves, look at the scenery and play games. This sort of guild that stand aloof from worldly affairs are very rare indeed!”

Taoist Qingfeng said: “It’s a pity that there are many great guilds in this district and the results will soon be replaced.”

As soon as Taoist Qingfeng finished speaking, there was another world announcement--

“Congratulations to [Divine Fragrance*] Guild: Divine Fragrance Peerless, Divine Fragrance Bingbing, Divine Fragrance Cher, Divine Fragrance Elegance, Divine Fragrance Yaoyao, Divine Fragrance Exquisite, for breaking the record of the hero mode of [Ye Tan Ming Jian Pavilion] with the clearance score of 52,100 points!”

* Idiom for an outstanding beauty

Li Xiang sighed: “Taoist Master, you really have a crow’s mouth.”

Taoist Qingfeng: “……”

Li Xiang continued to be curious and conscientious: “What kind of guild is this Divine Fragrance?”

Taoist Qingfeng: “Divine Fragrance is a guild under the banner of the National Colors Team and their level is much higher than a casually built player guild.”

Li Xiang was surprised: “The National Colors Team? I haven’t heard of this team much…”

Taoist Qingfeng said: “The National Colors Team is also considered a top eight team but it ranks at the bottom of the top eight. They’re basically eliminated in the first round of the playoffs every year. The style of the team is relatively lowkey so their sense of existence is very weak.”

Li Xiang gave a thumbs up: “Taoist Master, you are Jianghu Bai Xiaosheng*. With you here, I don’t even need to search in Baidu.”

* Person who knows many things. He’s a character from Gu Long’s (who introduced martial arts novels into classic literature) novel. Bai Xiaosheng was a scholar of thousands of things and had knowledge from all corners of the world.

Taoist Qingfeng: “……”

Liu Chuang couldn’t help but say: “Master, are you a child? Why are there so many questions?”

Li Xiang scratched his head: “I’m curious!”

Liu Chuan smiled: “Are you very interested in these teams?”

Li Xiang nodded. “En! I haven’t been playing this game for a long time. The teams I know are only the strongest teams. Last season’s champion Chang’An, the runner up Seven Star Grass, the third place Bronze Sparrow, and the fourth place… I forgot.”

Taoist Qingfeng continued to be Bai Xiaosheng, saying: “The fourth to eight places are Prosperous Tang Dynasty, Falling Flowers, Fire Beacon, National Colors and Huaxia.”

Li Xiang sent a row of thumbs in admiration.

Liu Chuan smiled and said: “Stop talking and fight the boss first! The boss is going berserk!”

As soon as Liu Chuan stopped talking, the boss really went berserk in anger, but fortunately, he was immediately pulled back by Li Xiang.

Several people immediately focused and a round of intense output finally killed the number two boss.

Liu Chuan said: “Master, go touch the equipment.”

Li Xiang was lucky today so he ran over to touch the package without hesitation. This time, the drops consisted of a Tangmen bow and arrow and an enhancement suit which was also worn by Tangmen. The belt drop was for the Five Poisons and a necklace used by the Wudang.

Li Xiang wanted to burst into tears: “Why is there no equipment for me!”

The two bosses gave him a lot of face and they dropped a total of 3 weapons, 3 purple outfits and 1 necklace but there was nothing that Li Xiang could use. All of them belonged to his teammates! Is this considered as good luck or bad?

Liu Chuan sent a smiling expression: “The Master worked free of charge, what a pity.”

Taoist Qingfeng said calmly: “There’s always next time.”

Wu Zewen followed suit and comforted: “Don’t worry.”

Li Xiang: “……”

You might as well stop comforting!

After finishing the instance, Liu Chuan suddenly asked, “Taoist Master, what do you think of our team’s performance record?”

Li Xiang kindly reminded. “The final evaluation of our performance in the competition is 8,000 and the new record of Divine Fragrance is 52,000 points. The gap is so big!”

Liu Chuan smiled and said, “Our equipment are all blue and we stopped several times to command and teach. This is the first time we’ve played this instance. The evaluation of the instance depends on the equipment and output.”

Li Xiang thought about it carefully and those words seemed to be right.

The four of them indeed played more smoothly the longer they played together. They can cooperate so tacitly in one try and their results will definitely improve if they play a few more times.

And everyone is wearing blue equipment so obviously the output wasn’t enough. The quality of the purple equipment is one grade higher than that of the blue outfit. If they all changed to purple equipment, the efficiency is naturally improved as well. As the performance of the instance improves, the rewards will also increase accordingly.

Li Xiang couldn’t help but get excited: “Then let’s try break the record list too!”

Taoist Qingfeng said calmly. “If we’re only clearing the instance, there would be no problem with just the four of us but breaking the record is another story. We need to find two more outputs.”

Liu Chuan asked, “Does Taoist Qingfeng have any expert friends on his side?”

Taoist Qingfeng: “No. I came to play by myself.”

Liu Chuan was helpless. “It seems we can only rely on fate. Let’s try to find two more powerful outputs.”

Taoist Qingfeng asked, “Do you really want to make a record?”

Liu Chuan replied: “Of course! The experience points of making records is very high as well as the floating rewards. There’s a good chance you can get precious materials or five elements stones.”

Taoist Qingfeng thought for a while and said, “My online time isn’t very fixed. I usually don’t go online until after 8 o’clock in the evening and go offline at 2 o’clock in the morning. If I’m online, you can call me.”

Liu Chuan nodded. “No problem.”

The four of them took a break together. Liu Chuan asked the NPC, bought a few sets of red potions, and threw them to Li Xiang. Then, he said, “Keep fighting. For four more times.”

This time, the speed of playing was quite fast after the trial run-in and changing into the purple equipment they got. It took the four of them 25 minutes to finish everything. The final instance score rating was increased to 30,000 and the instance reward was several five elements stones.

Li Xiang said excitedly: “If there are 6 people, the output is definitely stronger, then the results will improve!”

Liu Chuan also knew the problem of their team. Even if the four of them cleared the instance without making any mistake, the record-breaking score was still too high. After all, the output of the four of them isn’t enough. The damage is too slow when killing monsters and the DPS statistics is obviously unqualified.

Just as he was thinking about where to find two powerful teammates, a private message suddenly popped up in the lower left corner of Liu Chuan’s screen.

Heartbroken Grass: “Brother! You are finally online!”

Liu Chuan sweated all of a sudden!

I almost forgot about this guild leader!

At that time, the marriage was disconnected and after coming back online, the people from Seven Star Grass Guild were gone. Liu Chuan also forgot to tell them. It’s safe to say that the people who came to send red envelopes to the wedding were all depressed.

Liu Chuan hurriedly sent a fist wrapping* expression. “Sorry, sorry, the internet café suddenly disconnected, and we all went offline.”

* A form of greeting with one clenched fist in the other hand stretching out from one's chest

Picture

Internet cafés can be disconnected……

Heartbroken Grass silently vomited blood. Pretending to be calm, he said, “Oh, so that’s what happened.”

Liu Chuan smiled and said, “Why is the guild leader looking for me?”

Heartbroken Grass said simply: “I won’t beat around the bush with you anymore. Brother, are you interested in joining our Seven Star Grass Guild?”