MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks
chapter-361

Chapter 361: King’s Soul (Part 1)

Spirit Formation!

This was the hardest segment in the Throne-claiming War. Only guilds that could traverse the Spirit Formation had a chance of claiming the throne.

Every time a spirit knight was destroyed, another would automatically take its place. There was only one way to vanquish them completely.

The players had to kill all 500 spirit knights within 10 seconds!

The spirit knights were immune to both physical and magic attacks, so other than a few special skills that could deal damage to them, regular attacks were practically useless.

Li Yi was confident that he could take down 2 spirit knights in 10 seconds, and Fire Ice could kill one as well, but what about the others? Not every Light Priest was as high-leveled as Fire Ice and could use Holy Word. Besides, the chances of Holy Word failing were much higher than its chances of success.

Li Yi took his own sweet time sieving through the millions until he finally chose 351 Light Priests who could use Holy Word. Everyone else did not qualify.

352 Light Priests stood together, their white clothes drifting in the wind and their staffs glowing brightly. Each of them selected a spirit knight, ready to cast Holy Word as soon as Li Yi gave the order.

Li Yi was quite happy with the figure, then he ran back to the square and drove the purple tank back.

The spirit knights’ could deal damage to the tank, but the tank’s cannons could not hurt the spirit knights at all. That did not matter, however, because Li Yi only drove the tank in order to avoid taking the damage. He never intended to use the tank to attack the spirit knights.

A channeling countdown appeared above the heads of all the players nearby, a signal that Li Yi was inviting them to board the tank.

The boarding channeling time was 15 seconds, and in the meantime, taking any damage would instantly intercept the action they were trying to perform.

Once the purple tank was fully loaded with 160 passengers, Li Yi drove the tank toward the Imperial Palace…

“Holy Word!”

251 Light Priests sang the incantation for Holy Word at the same time, and more than 100 spirit knights died immediately.

“Charge!”

The remaining spirit knights pointed with their spears and began charging.

Even as the spirit knight army was charging, there was a constant flow of new spirit knights joining their ranks from within the Imperial Palace Hall.

The purple tank rushed toward the Imperial Palace Hall. The spirit knights’ Charge pierced through everything, which naturally included the purple tank. The tank kept losing health and it began to slow down as well.

Until all the 500 spirit knights were destroyed, there would be a magic barrier at the end of the Imperial Palace Hall’s corridor that prevented passage. It was also impervious to any attacks.

Under usual circumstances, the only way to meet the Former King’s Soul would be to kill off the 500 spirit knights first. In order to accomplish that, however, they had to make prior preparations, selecting at least a thousand Priests who could use Holy Word. Only then would they be able to finish off the spirit knights.

That method was just too tiring. Besides, Li Yi knew another way.

He could use the tank to break through the barrier at the back and force his way through!

It would not work every time as well. It was only when the tank was moving at a high enough SPD that he had a very low chance of success!

Even the gold tank could accomplish this, so naturally, his chances were higher with the purple tank. This was also why Li Yi did not select his Light Priests beforehand.

“Bang!”

The purple tank rammed into the magic barrier and immediately rebounded off of it. A damage figure of [−30000] appeared above the tank!

Li Yi took several steps back and then continued to charge!

“Bang!”

The purple tank was knocked back again, but Li Yi did not give up. Instead, he took a few more steps back and then rushed forth again.

The purple tank successfully broke through the magic barrier and reached the Imperial Palace Hall safely, complete with 160 passengers.

The tank had gotten in, but the magic barrier was still there. That was the advantage of breaking in with the tank.

The tank could hold off both the Arrow Towers and the spirit knights for a while. That was the only way to ensure that they could face the Former King’s Soul safely.

Of course, none of these was the most significant point. There was only one truly important reason!

The sparkling gold crown was placed at the very center of the hall. That was the symbol of the monarchy, and only the king had the right to wear it.

The Former King’s Soul hovered in the air above the crown, motionless.

The former king’s background story had once mentioned that the previous leader of the entire continent, the former king, did not have any heirs, and neither did he wish to hand over the throne to anyone else. Therefore, he came up with a plan and gathered several thousand Great Wizards. They cast a spell that locked his soul in the Imperial Palace Hall, so that he could stay king forever.

The people of the continent did not know about this and assumed that the king had always been alive. Although this king had been reigning for several millennia, nobody ever suspected a thing… or rather, nobody dared to suspect a thing…

Anyone who dared to raise any suspicions died!

The former king was not a tyrant. He was simply too attached to the throne and was unwilling to give it to anyone else, even in death. The so-called Throne-claiming was actually purifying the Former King’s Soul and claiming the right to rule the continent.

After the purple tank was repaired, the Little Drunk Cat Guild’s members crashed it out of the Hall.

Outside the Hall, the worn tanks were strewn all over the place, having all fallen to the spears of the spirit knights.

Even if they knew to use the tanks to break down the door, it was another matter altogether if they could withstand the spirit knights’ onslaught and reach the Hall’s corridor.

Li Yi’s strategy was to have the Light Priests use Holy Word and reduce the pressure on the tank, while the purple tank transported the players into the Hall.

Li Yi and the other players who were among the first batch to reach the Imperial Palace Hall did not wait idly. Instead, they immediately launched attacks at the Former King’s Soul.

The King’s Soul hovered in mid-air motionlessly, the HP above his head denoted as ???.

Li Yi used the Divine Looking Glass to reveal the King’s Soul’s total HP. It had fifty million in total…

159 players attacked in unison. Li Yi’s ATK was the highest, and he could take nearly 1,000HP at once. The others paled in comparison, with the stronger ones breaking a hundred and the weakest ones not even achieving the imposed limit of 1HP.

Even when it was being surrounded and attacked by 159 players at once, the King’s Soul still hovered in mid-air motionlessly…

That was right. Before the 500 spirit knights were completely destroyed, the King’s Soul would not attack. It would just stay there and take hits like a punching bag.

No one knew if this was truly a bug, because each continent only experienced this segment once. As soon as the Throne-claiming was successful, the King’s Soul would never appear again.

Therefore… who cared if this was a bug? Nobody, probably.

With a mere 500,000HP left, the purple tank ran out of the Imperial Palace, underwent some repairs, and then continued to transport more people into the Hall.

The Light Priests’ Holy Word could be used again as soon as the cooldown counter was done. They were very important as well, as their job was to thin the spirit knights’ ranks so that the purple tank could successfully enter the Imperial Palace Hall.

In order to learn Holy Word, the player’s character had to be Level 60 or above. However, this skill was not particularly important for the Light Priests who were purely healers. The reason for this was quite simple; pure healer classes did not have any ATK at all. Be it when running dungeons or when PK-ing in the wild, the Light Priests did not have many opportunities to use Holy Word. Add that to fact that Holy Word had a long cooldown period and consumed a considerable amount of mana with a low rate of success, it was not extremely practical to waste one’s precious Skill Points on it.

The purple tank attacked 9 times and successfully broke through the magical barrier, sending another 159 players into the Imperial Palace Hall.

The King’s Soul did not attack, so they could hit it however they liked, as though it was a punching bag. The melee classes went up to slash it, whereas the ranged classes used their killer moves. The Priests buffed the others and tossed their Light Balls without even healing anyone anymore.

The purple tank transported more players into the Hall, and the King’s Soul lost HP at an even faster rate. Fifty million HP may seem intimidating, but if it never retaliated, what difference would it make even if it had 10 times more HP than that?

It was quite simply a matter of time and was not difficult in the slightest.

Just like the Chief Executive, the King’s Soul gained more DEF as its HP decreased. Gradually, many players began to falter in their damage dealing.

They could not even take 1HP from it!

“Those who can’t take damage, get onto the tank and get out of here!”

If their ATK was not high enough, they would not help by staying here. He might as well have them go outside.

“Stop dealing damage and get out of the city with the tanks! Seize Resurrection Point No. 1!”

Li Yi issued new orders.

He did not need these many people in the Imperial Palace Hall. The King’s Soul was a piece of cake, but the true threat was the Three Major Guild Alliance. He had to settle that side first in order to ensure the success of their Throne-claiming attempt.

Outside the Celestial Capital, Brother Windcloud Nine had made the decision to give up on Resurrection Point No. 1 and was leading all his forces to gather at Resurrection Point No. 2.

The Iron Alliance soon seized Resurrection Point No. 2. Temporarily abandoning the Resurrection Point in the Celestial Capital’s Crown Square, the Iron Alliance’s members rushed into the Imperial Palace and died there, resurrecting at Resurrection Point No. 1.

The King’s Soul was losing HP more slowly now, and more players chose to leave the Imperial Palace Hall, making their way to Resurrection Point No. 1 instead to kill other players.

The Throne-claiming War would last for three days and three days (equivalent to one day in real life). The success of the Throne-claiming War could not be decided until the very last second of the battle.

In the previous life, Defiantly Tyrannical successfully killed the King’s Soul no fewer than 50 times. He even had the crown perched on his head, but at the very last moment, someone else still got in his way and threw a wrench into his plans.

Alliances, Secret Alliances, battles both out in the open and hidden in the shadows… Defiant Tyrannical had tried it all, but unfortunately, he was simply not fated to take the throne, never succeeding even once over eight whole years.

Half an hour later, there were only two people left in the Imperial Palace Hall, Li Yi and Little Elf from the Magical Realm.

More than three hundred people were outside in Crown Square, including Fire Ice and Chen Yang, as well as the main tanks Golden Gun Cannot Fall and Set Fire When There’s Wind.

They followed Li Yi’s orders and stood guard around the Resurrection Point. As soon as Li Yi gave the order, they were to immediately reclaim the Resurrection Point.

“Rong Rong, you don’t have to fight anymore. Sit down and rest, leave the rest to me.”

The King’s Soul only had slightly over 1,000,000HP left, and Little Elf from the Magical Realm’s attacks were not dealing any more damage. Even Li Yi had to use Eliminate and his equipment’s guard break special effect to deal any real damage.

Li Yi shot one arrow after another. Even though he was the only one fighting, he was still progressing at a decent pace.

“Don’t call me Rong Rong, call me Big Sis!” corrected Little Elf from the Magical Realm, dissatisfied.

Li Yi laughed inwardly but did not reply. He walked a few steps forward, increasing the rate of his attacks.

“Has Momo been a good girl recently?”

Little Elf from the Magical Realm arched her eyebrow. “Momo has always been a good girl.”

“Did she ask you to buy her any more Grass Mud Horse toys?”

Little Elf from the Magical Realm rolled her eyes and did not respond.

Momo’s favorite toy was the Grass Mud Horse and this fondness of hers never went away. It was a source of great exasperation for Little Elf from the Magical Realm…

“Pfft! Pfft!

Ten minutes later, when Li Yi brought the King’s Soul down to less than 10,000HP, he stopped attacking.

“Why d’you stop?”

“I can’t kill it, or else the magic barrier will vanish, and the spirit knights outside will disappear as well.”

Li Yi walked up to Little Elf from the Magical Realm and pinched her fair and delicate chin.

“Rong Rong, did you miss me lately?”

“Call me…”

Before Little Elf from the Magical Realm could even say Big Sis, Li Yi kissed her, using her tongue to force the words back…

…