MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks
chapter-714

Chapter 714: The Luo Lan Empire

“Smack! Smack! Smack!

“Smack! Smack! Smack!”

Li Yi weaved through the Demonic Forest. Over the past seven days, through both night and day, countless demons had died at his hands.

He had obtained 4 items from the Demonic Apex Equipment Set for Thieves, as well as a couple of other items from the other classes’ sets. In total, he had more than 13 pieces.

He had also gotten two items from the Demon Tribe Commander Equipment Set for Archers, namely the bracers and the helmet. Now that he had three items from the Demon Tribe Commander Equipment Set equipped, he could activate the set’s first hidden attribute.

[Demon Tribe Commander’s Hunter’s Helmet (Purple Quality, Holy +3)]

[Equipment requirements: Level 105]

[+1500 P-Def]

[+1500 M-Def]

[Special Effect: Recovers 5 MP every second.]

[Special Effect: Increases Crippling Shot’s levels by 3.]

[Special Effect: Increases the level cap for all Archer Skills by 2. Active. Requires the user to wear at least 3 Demon Tribe Commander Series of equipment in order to activate).]

[Special Effect: Increases the level cap for all Archer Skills by 3. (Inactive. Requires the user to wear at least 6 Demon Tribe Commander Series of equipment in order to activate).]

…

[Demon Tribe Commander’s Hunter’s Bracers (Purple Quality, Holy +2)]

[Equipment requirements: Level 105]

[+600 STR]

[+500 AGI]

[+300 END]

[Special Effect: Recovers 5 HP every second.]

[Special Effect: Increases Meteor Arrow Skill’s levels by 3.]

[Special Effect: Increases the level cap for all Archer Skills by 2. (Inactive. Requires the user to wear more than 3 Demon Tribe Commander Series of equipment in order to activate).]

[Special Effect: Increases the level cap for all Archer Skills by 3. (Inactive. Requires the user to wear more than 6 Demon Tribe Commander Series of equipment in order to activate).]

…

Aside from the Commander Series, Li Yi had also obtained several random pieces of Holy equipment that he could use. As a result, he gained quite a few more Holy attributes points, amounting to a total of 42 points.

It was a whopping twice his original tally. Those were the results of his ten days of training in the Demonic Forest.

At the same time, he reached Level 115, a whole 5 levels higher than Lonely Semi City. He continued to lead, head and shoulders ahead of the pack.

The more Holy points he accrued, the faster he could farm these demons. Now, it only took two to three minutes for Li Yi to kill a demon monsterling, and no more than fifteen minutes to finish off a purple-name boss.

He could use his Territory barrier to slow down his demons, so other than a handful of purple-name bosses that he could not beat, nothing else in the Demonic Forest could stand in his way.

Jiaojiao and the others were training at the Foreignland Entrance, and their efforts were starting to bear fruits as well. By now, every one of them had at least a set or two, and even those without a complete series had managed to cobble enough pieces for a suit of Holy Equipment.

“Lil Yi’zi, I have a pair of Demon Tribe Commander Trousers for Archers, you want ’em?”

“Sure do.”

“Then did you get anything from the Dark Paladin Set?”

“Nope.”

“Tch, then the trousers are off the table.”

Miss Jiao was throwing a tantrum again.

After farming at the Foreignland Entrance for over ten days, she had only obtained a pair of Demon Tribe Commander Trousers for Archers, so she wanted to trade them with Li Yi for Dark Paladin items. Unfortunately, the drop rate for Dark Paladin equipment was too low, so even Li Yi had yet to get his hands on one.

“I want Dark Paladin equipment! I want, I want, I want…”

Jiaojiao sent the Archer’s Commander Trousers to Li Yi, attached with a mail full of ‘I want’s.

Li Yi opened the mail and replied gently, “Baby, I’ll feed you milk tonight.”

“Get out!” Jiaojiao replied in an instant.

Aside from Jiaojiao, his other friends had managed to scrape a few items of their own. That was why the Iron Alliance’s Alliance Channel was now swarmed with equipment trade requests.

Although Li Yi was already wearing 4 Commander Series items, he was still missing 3 others. As a result, just like the other players, he spammed the Alliance and World Channels all day, dropping the occasional: Looking to trade XX Commander Set for Archer’s Commander Set, PM if interested.

No one could defeat the Seventh Demon King yet, and Li Yi chose to continue leveling in the Demonic Forest.

Every day, he would first complete Aragon’s daily quests, and then he would use the short time he had left in morph to increase his Reputation in the Demonic City of Karan.

Although the demons were a force of evil in the game, morphed players were considered part of their camp. With a little time, players could also increase their Reputation in the Demonic Camp to Worship.

It was not easy to complete Aragon’s daily quests without the indispensable support of the Divine Looking Glass, but with its help, these quests became extremely simple. In fact, Li Yi had yet to fail at a single one since he started.

His quest completion rate was a flat 100%.

Aragon’s Affinity with Li Yi increased every day, and it was now at Intimate. This showed in how he would now vaguely reveal the location where several monsters hid their treasure when he talked to Li Yi. All Li Yi had to do was follow the clues and he would definitely end up with something.

“During the Second God Wars, we demons were at the height of our power, and no living creatures in the Pantheon Continent could stand up to us. If the Seven Demon Gods had not let it go to their heads, if they had not stormed Mount Pantheon, the Pantheon Continent could look very different right now.”

That day, Li Yi had turned in his quest and was listening to Aragon’s demon history lecture again.

There were advantages to staying for these lessons. If Aragon narrated one and the player listened, their Affinity with him would definitely increase.

Today, however, Aragon’s history lesson was a little different than usual.

Aragon sighed slightly and asked Li Yi, “Do you know who were the strongest fighters from the human continent at the time?”

Li Yi shook his head. In order to improve his relationship with Aragon, he just had to feign ignorance.

“The Paladin, Cassius, Archbishop Funa, the Martial Artist Wind Thunder… and…”

Aragon sighed. Remembering the past made him melancholic, so he took a moment to recover before continuing, “During the Second God Wars, the three of them were known as the Three Human Heroes.”

“Ding!”

[You listened to his demon history lesson, so Aragon’s affinity with you has increased by 500 points!]

At first, Li Yi thought Aragon would stop here, but to his surprise, the demon did not stop speaking. Instead, he continued, “I heard that the Pantheon Continent has now been split into four, but do you know how the Pantheon Continent used to look like? Back then… the Pantheon Continent was a whole entity, formed by merely one empire where humans ruled over every other race…”

As he was lost in thought, Aragon’s murky eyes suddenly brightened. “It was the Luo Lan Empire!”

“Ding!”

[Congratulations, you have obtained the keyword, ‘Luo Lan Empire’.]

There was a cheerful jingle, to Li Yi’s pleasant surprise.

There were many keywords scattered around the Pantheon Continent, and after players obtained one, they could then look for NPCs who were interested in the keywords and trigger a new series of quests. Before obtaining the keyword, it did not matter even if a player said it to a relevant NPC– the NPC would not react in any meaningful way.

Obtaining the Luo Lan Empire keyword allowed one to begin a series of Hall of Fame Quests, and the reward at the end of it was enough to drive any player crazy: It was a Hall of Fame Equipment Set!

The Hall of Fame Equipment Set was equal in level to the Demon Equipment Set, both of which were only slightly weaker than an Ancient Equipment Set. It was not temporary, either, as both were extremely powerful equipment that could be used for as long as they wanted to after the introduction of the Pantheon Mystery expansion pack.

So Aragon could even provide the ‘Luo Lan Empire’ keyword once he reached Intimate? That was unbelievable…

Li Yi was over the moon. He remembered he had to get Aragon’s Affinity to Adoration before he could obtain that keyword in the past life.

After Aragon gave him the keyword, he promptly proceeded to ignore Li Yi completely and limped out of the door to continue on his daily routine, which involved leaving the city.

While his morph was still active, Li Yi ran to Karan City’s safehouse for players, the Uninhabited Straw Hut.

The unexpected prize of the Luo Lan Empire keyword meant that he gave up on his plan to grind here. Instead, he intended to return to the Invincible Continent.

As opposed to leveling, he placed more importance in the appearance of the Emperor’s Capital.

“Ding!”

“Big Bro, I obtained loads of Holy Equipment, where are you? Shall I get Dong Dong to send them to you?”

Just as Li Yi was about to return to his country, the Black-hearted Chick, Autumn Love, sent him a message. Just as he had been training in the Demonic Forest for over ten days, Autumn Love had been messaging him persistently for over ten days.

It did not matter if she needed anything from him or not– she still insisted on contacting him every day. Even Li Yi did not know what the Black-hearted Chick was up to.

“How many do you have?”

“Over 500.”

“Have Dong Dong wait for me at the Auction House. I’ll be there in a jiffy.”

“Oh, okay.”

After ten minutes, Li Yi appeared at the Auction House in the Invincible Continent’s Celestial City.

“512 pieces in total. Big Sis Autumn said you wouldn’t lie to me.”

This time, Big Head Dong Dong did not count each item, one by one. Instead, he just loaded up all the stock at once and traded them all to Li Yi at one go.

Now that he had gotten the equipment, Li Yi returned to the Guild Map and used the friend summoning tool to pull One Big Bun back from overseas.

“Get to work! Decompose it all!”

Li Yi took out all the equipment Dong Dong had sold him as well as the equipment he had reaped from the Demonic Forest, giving it all to One Big Bun to decompose.

“Boss, you’re cool AF.”

One Big Bun’s eyes brightened and his hands shone with red light as he began to destroy everything before his eyes…

After a whole hour hard at work, One Big Bun had destroyed every piece of equipment provided. They were pretty lucky in that they received more Holy Crystals than before, and there was even a small Critical Hit, so they gained 16 Holy Crystals in total at one go.

That totaled up to 68 Holy Crystals. What a haul!

One Big Bun rubbed his hands and looked at Li Yi pleadingly. “You got any more, boss?”

“Be patient, there might be more.”

Li Yi had One Big Bun stay on standby as he took out the Wrath of the Stars. He took a deep breath and imagined a pair of round, white peaks in his head, murmuring to himself: These are Big Tits Qian’s blessings. His hands shone with rainbow-colored light and put in the Holy Crystals…

Go big, or go home!

How could Holy +16 possibly be enough? Even the Hunter Goddess had said it was not enough, it was not nearly enough!

[You have failed to infuse your weapon with a new attribute. The Holy Crystal vanishes…]

[Your equipment has lost its Holy attribute…]

…

There was a depressing jingle, and the light surrounding the Wrath of the Stars dimmed away to nothing…

F*ck!

It had failed…

He just lost a Holy +16 weapon…

…