Chapter 1464: Jailbreaking
Swhoosh!
The grass rustled for an instant, and the centermost Swordguard was stunned by my Thunderous Charge before he knew it. Next, I bent down and pressed my left palm against the ground, filling it with golden divine energy. Countless draconic-shaped energy burst out of the earth and dealt over 700k damage per hit to all of the Swordguards. At the same time, Myriad Swords Obliteration rained from the sky and skewered their bodies for even more damage.
The Swordguards roared in fury as a matter of course. The closest mob rushed me while swearing, "Dammit, it’s a human invader! A human has invaded the Samsara Realm! Take him out, or the wrath of the Lord Sovereign will smite us all!"
While moving backward, I raised the Xuanyuan Sword and fired my Burning Blade Slash so that it would engulf all of the Swordguards. The skill was already incredibly powerful, not to mention that I had an 80% splash effect as well. A dozen or so mobs died instantly, transformed into experience and filled up my experience bar. The mobs of the Purgatory were very high-level, so the experience bonus I got from killing them was massive as well. Grinding here was absolutely a time saver!
While my AoE skills were in cooldown, the 5 surviving Swordguards finally closed the distance, activated their Sword Mastery skill to improve their sword-type weapon damage by 50%, and swung their swords three times in a row. It was the skill "Fiery Triple Strike"!
Pu pu pu…
The attacks rocked my Cyan Dragon Shield and tingled my arm. It was like an enhanced version of Barrier Break. The powerful Swordguards were definitely a threat I couldn’t treat lightly—
76,045!
77,303!
75,366!
……
That being said, they weren’t so deadly that I had to go all out. The Cloak of Divine Fervor mitigated 50% of my damage received, so the deadly threat was reduced to a mild one at best. Smiling, I stabbed a Swordguard in the chest with Universe Break + basic attack combo and instantly healed myself back to full. Basically, these deity-rank mobs could never be strong enough to threaten me, and even if they did, I still had the Xuanyuan Art, Tenacity of the Dead and Dragon Bloodboil to instantly restore a total of 110% HP to myself!
Crack!
The Xuanyuan Sword cut through the final Swordguard’s sword and his neck, ending his servitude of the undeath. The 25-man squad was destroyed in less than three minutes, and I was still at max HP. The Asura God’s Divine Deterrence was just too powerful. It reduced all of my opponents’ stats by 40%, effectively making the level advantage they had over me non-existent. Assuming that we were all on equal footing, I was confident that my stats and equipment were unrivaled in the entire world!
I bent down and picked up the cards dropped by the Swordguards. There were 7 in total, and their stats were great—
Swordguard Card: Increases user's Attack by 140%, and max HP by 40% for 180 minutes. Level Requirement: 235.
……
This was probably the highest Attack boost I had ever seen from a card. I didn’t dare to use it even though it was clearly a grinding card, however. It was because I deemed that a mere 40% boost to HP was insufficient to survive in the Purgatory. There was no telling what I might encounter next on this plane, and the buffer zone between a happy life and a severe death penalty was called “HP bar”. Therefore, HP cards were the safest and the only play here.
I returned the Xuanyuan Sword to its sheath and slowly walked forward along the forest’s edge. There were more Swordguards at the distance, and we were within line of sight of each other. However, they were ultimately just mobs, and their AI wasn’t high enough to attack me on sight. It gave me some room to plan my retaliation.
There were many wooden stakes along the road, and they were all strewn with corpses. Sometimes it was a corpse that was staked through the butthole and the mouth. Sometimes it was a corpse suspended in the air by iron chains. I walked up to one of them and read the text that was engraved to the wood: Viscount Goode the Raven. Executed by hanging for killing the inn manager and a family living in his town.
The long-withered corpse invoked a deep sense of revulsion in me, but I couldn’t deny that it felt like justice was served in this case.
I moved on. Occasionally, I would battle a group of Swordguards and massively increase my experience.
……
"This is it, pigs! This is your final destination! May the sun dry your flesh, and the cold wind freeze the blood in your veins! The short freedom you enjoyed in the Human Realms is nevermore!"
The speech was followed by a savage laugh that put a frown to my face. I stayed behind cover and crept my way toward it. When I rounded a tree, what I saw stunned me beyond words.
There was a stone-made jail among the trees. Five prisoners were trapped inside of it, and placed right in front of the entrance was a giant pot of soup and white skeletons. I could even smell the faint aroma of flesh from it. 10 Swordguards were standing in line beside the boiling pot, and a general in golden armor was stirring its dirty contents with his spear while laughing. "Woops, I think I overcooked your companions’ flesh a little! Does anyone of you want to taste his soup?"
One of the prisoners, a brawny man said coldly, "The day I walk out of this prison is the day I tear you into a million tiny pieces."
"Keep dreaming, you fool! This prison is made using superior Purgatory Metal, and not even the Lord Sovereign himself is capable of destroying it. You lot will be trapped in there for eternity, hahahaha!"
……
I slowly pulled out the Xuanyuan Sword. There were five prisoners in this prison, and one of them might know where Xinran was, or at least where the entrance to the next floor was. This meant that there was only one course of action to take.
The 10 Swordguards weren’t a huge threat, but the general was a Level 322 Ancient Immortal Rank boss called "Ash General”. Who would’ve thought that a random, insignificant captain in the Purgatory would be an Ancient Immortal Rank boss? Had this boss spawned at Dragonbone Mountain Range, the likes of Purgatory Mad Dragon and Flower Room would murder their own firstborn to get it!
After a short moment, I decided that I would kill the Swordguards first while tanking the Ash General’s attacks with the Cyan Dragon Shield. Once the small fries were dead, I would be able to focus all of my energy on the boss. Alright, let’s go!
Swhoosh!
I rushed into the open and used God Binding Art!
It was a resounding success! The Ash General was immobilized for 15 seconds straight!
A smile cross my features as I stabbed the boss and injected him with Purple Frost Concentration. Then, I turned my blade toward the 10 Swordguards and hit both the boss and them with Burning Blade Slash. Once they had gotten within range, I immediately followed up the attack with a devastating War Crush + Myriad Swords Obliteration combo. So far, things were going even smoother than I imagined, so I positioned my apparition at a safe distance and made it unleash Myriad Swords Obliteration from time to time. Although it only had 75% of my Attack, it was still extremely powerful. Roughly speaking, its Attack was equal to Gui Guzi’s…
The 10 Swordguards dropped dead in just the blink of an eye, making the already simple fight even simpler. 11 minutes of mindless, brute-force action later, the Ash General let out a groan and erupted into a pile of loot!
"Haha! Good kill, boy!" the prisoners cheered.
I ignored them and focused on picking up the boss's loot. My luck was just average this time. The boss only dropped one basic Immortal-grade equipment and two middle-level Immortal-grade equipment, but it also dropped a Perfect Divine Crystal and a couple of red cards. I was all smiles when I saw the cards’ stats. They were exactly what I needed right now—
Ash General Card: Increases user's Attack by 135%, max HP by 150%, and base Defense by 500. Duration: 240 minutes. Level Requirement: 250.
……
The Attack boost was considerable, but what really caught my eye was the 150% boost to max HP. The boss had dropped 9 cards in total, and each card would last for 4 hours. For 36 hours, my survivability would be greatly increased. Without hesitation, I replaced the card I was currently using with the Ash General Card. My max HP immediately skyrocketed from 4.4 million to 5.6 million. With my current HP and Defense, I should be able to deal with 95% of the situations I might encounter in the Purgatory.
"Hey boy! Free us, and you’ll be the benefactor of Jack-O’-Lantern Mercenaries!"
It was at this moment the brawny man shouted from inside the prison.
I walked closer to the prison and shot all five of them a glance. "Jack-O’-Lantern Mercenaries? I’ve never heard of you people before. Were you a mercenary group on the continent?"
The brawny man laughed. "There’s a good reason you haven’t heard of us. We were a mercenary group that dominated the continent 500 years ago, until we were ambushed by Vanished God City’s troops in a decisive battle. As a result, all 400 of our members were killed in action, and we were given quite the ‘exquisite’ treatment in the Purgatory. As you can see, we aren’t qualified to reincarnate even though we’ve been dead for 500 years. It is because we are the famous Jack-O’-Lantern Mercenaries!"
I did a quick check on the database. Jack-O’-Lantern Mercenaries were a mercenary group that once dominated the continent. They were also a monstrous group who committed practically every sin there was to commit in the entire world. Pillage, murder, rape; their crimes were so numerous that it would be difficult to fit them all in a single book…
"Famous? You mean infamous, right?"
The brawny man shivered. "Does that mean you’re not letting us out, boy?"
"No, no. I will," I said. I didn’t have the luxury of choice right now. I didn’t have the time to find the path to the next floor on my own, and they were my only source of information right now.
An NPC with a pointed mouth and thin face sneered, "You’re wasting your time, boss. This prison is forged using Purgatory Metal, and not even a divine expert can break it by force. This boy looks like a human adventurer, so how can he possibly free us?"
The brawny man startled as if he just realized this. He asked me, "Can you do it, young man?"
……
I let out a chuckle and unsheathed the Xuanyuan Sword. A holy energy coursed along its blade as I said, "Move back!"
"Sure…" the five men hurriedly retreated as much as they could.
I swung my sword once, and the so-called unbreakable bars were sliced in half by my sword!
……
"Well done, boy!"
The brawny man was the first to run out of the prison. He clapped my shoulder once and let out a hearty laugh. "I knew I wasn’t mistaken about you! My name is Palen. Where did you get your sword, and are you interested in joining the Jack-O’-Lantern Mercenaries? Now that we’re free, we’re going to fight against Lin Na, turn the Purgatory upside down, and call ourselves kings. Are you interested?"
I shot him another glance before answering, "Nah. I just want to know how to make it to the third floor, the Reincarnation Realm. Can you tell me?"
Palen shuddered and exclaimed in astonishment, "What? You’re heading to the Reincarnation Realm?"
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