Updated: 2014-02-20
"Phew—I'm exhausted!" Yang Qi plopped down onto the ground. She wasn't physically tired, but mentally. If they couldn't eliminate all the putrid corpses before the Ghost God effect wore off, they would be in danger. So, she and Lin Zheng fought fiercely, as if their lives depended on it. The result was that while they cleared out the putrid corpses, their spirits were utterly drained! However, when she looked at Lin Zheng, she couldn't help but roll her eyes. Was this guy a monster? He still looked so energetic!
After resting for a while, Lin Zheng looked at everyone and shook his head, saying, "It's no good, we can't continue this quest!"
"Yeah!" Yang Qi nodded in agreement, "If it were just ordinary monsters, we might have had a chance, but I didn't expect them to be Elite-type here. Their attacks are too high, and their skill damage is completely unbearable! This is only the first type of monster, and it's already forced us to use all our trump cards. We'll have even less chance with the ones after this!"
"Then, it's decided, let's head back!" Lin Zheng said with a hint of helplessness. He had come to do the quest full of vigor, but now he had to sneak back with his tail between his legs, which was truly frustrating! Everyone cleaned up the battlefield, picked up everything they could, and then prepared to return to the city to diligently level up. Unexpectedly, suddenly, Youxi's right hand emitted a dazzling blue light. Under everyone's surprised gazes, the blue light transformed into the valiant female swordswoman they had seen before. As soon as the female swordswoman appeared, she excitedly said, "I can feel it, Linglong is right ahead. She's still waiting for me at our home, that silly girl!"
"We can't get through!" Youxi calmly told the female swordswoman, "The monsters blocking the way are too powerful!"
"It's those damn things again!" The female swordswoman looked at the putrid corpses on the ground, and a hateful fury erupted in her eyes. "It was you damned things who separated Linglong and me back then. Now that you're dead, do you still want to stop Linglong and me from meeting?!" As she spoke, she looked towards the valley again, her eyes full of rage transforming into deep longing. "Linglong, silly girl, big sister is back! Big sister is coming to see you now!" Turning her head, the female swordswoman earnestly said to everyone, "I need your help. Will you help me?"
"We really want to help you, but these monsters suppress us too much!" Lin Zheng said, shaking his head.
"That's not a problem!" The female swordswoman hastily said, "My power can protect you from suppression for a short time!" With that, the female swordswoman drew her sword and swung it, a blue light scattering over the few people. They immediately heard a prompt:
"You have received Longxue's blessing. For 60 minutes, you will not be affected by monster tier suppression!"
Upon hearing the prompt, everyone's eyes immediately lit up! What was the biggest danger when facing second-tier monsters? Attack? Skills? Neither. It was the deadly tier suppression! Double damage, no one could withstand that! Now that tier suppression was temporarily lifted, what did they have to fear?!
"Can we go now?" The female swordswoman Longxue looked at Lin Zheng and the others nervously. Lin Zheng smiled slightly and nodded firmly. Seeing this, Longxue instantly smiled excitedly.
With Longxue's blessing, the plan to return naturally fell through. After a brief rest, everyone continued deeper into the valley. After a bend, the group arrived at a slightly flat and wide valley. However, the monsters that appeared before their eyes made their pupils contract! Cavalry! In front of them was a large group of cavalry!
Lin Zheng checked the information on these cavalry:
Cursed Knight: Level 54 (Elite-type), Physical Attack 1650-2150, Physical Defense 950, Magic Defense 600, Health 35000, Skill—Thunder Strike Lv1. Noble knights from a thousand years ago, the immense resentment from being killed by a curse transformed them into undead knights. Unlike ordinary undead knights, they possess powerful curse energy, thus having high resistance to magic and not receiving additional magic damage.
Their attack was lower than the putrid corpses, but their defense and health were significantly strengthened. Although their magic defense was lower, there was no additional damage bonus. These knights looked incredibly formidable no matter how you looked at them! If Lin Zheng and the others were to fight them, with several powerful skills still on cooldown, it would probably take them over an hour to clear out these blocking knights. However, fortunately, this battle had the powerful swordswoman soul, Longxue, joining in!
Longxue belonged to an NPC, and her damage to the Cursed Knights was terrifying! Her soul-form longsword cleaved onto the Cursed Knights, instantly killing them!
Lin Zheng now understood that this 'Millennium's Affection' quest required them to fight their way to the bottom of the valley with Longxue's assistance. Otherwise, players alone wouldn't be able to complete the quest under tier suppression. If it truly relied only on players, the quest's difficulty would definitely surpass Epic, which was clearly impossible! The game does not allow for impossible quests, so Longxue's appearance was part of the quest's progression. The prerequisite was probably to eliminate the first wave of attacking Blazing Putrid Corpses, which could be considered a way to add a bit of difficulty to the quest!
Longxue was now the main damage dealer, while Lin Zheng and the others became her bodyguards. After all, although Longxue was fierce in killing monsters, getting hit by them was also deadly. If Longxue died, the quest would undoubtedly fail! So, Lin Zheng's task was to protect Longxue from being attacked. This task was truly not easy. Longxue charged desperately into a large group of monsters, forcing Lin Zheng and Yang Qi to follow and help her block attacks repeatedly. This situation was even more tiring than fighting by themselves, making Yang Qi glare in frustration! She wished she could rush up and scold Longxue, asking, "Damn it, do you even know how to farm monsters?!" The truth was, she actually did go up and ask, but Longxue was utterly bewildered, gave her a blank stare, and continued to charge into the monster horde. Yang Qi could only follow silently and fight!
With Longxue, the instant-kill NPC, a large group of Cursed Knights was wiped out in less than ten minutes. The cost was that Lin Zheng and the others ate a large amount of boiled chicken, gaining no experience at all. On the ground, besides the Cursed Knights' corpses, there wasn't a single coin. If it weren't for the quest and the consideration that they might not be able to defeat them, Yang Qi would have really wanted to fight Longxue to the death! Lin Zheng, however, saw it very clearly. This quest had always been a bit mysterious. A quest taken at level 30-something actually required them to complete it in a second-tier Elite monster map, which was too incredible! So, the current situation seemed reasonable. Lin Zheng even suspected that Longxue wouldn't die even if they didn't help, and their real task was probably just to wander around the entire Blood-Colored Valley with Longxue! However, a guess was just a guess, and Lin Zheng didn't dare to ignore it. If Longxue were to be killed, it would be a huge problem!