Chapter 133: Barren God Giant, Yan Yingmu’s Successor

There was a player in Herbal Hall who took on the Life Profession of a Mechanist. Early on, he received a one-time-use item called “Heavenly Craft Revelation Compendium,” which boosted his profession experience. This allowed his career level to rise rapidly, far ahead of others, and he became a key Life Profession player that the faction focused on nurturing.

This player did not disappoint the faction despite their heavy investment in materials and resources. He soon reached a level where he could successfully craft Fourth-Rank Mechanical Puppets.

It is worth mentioning that for most Life Professions, the manufacturing success rate was tied to the player’s Innate Attribute called Comprehension.

Although these Mechanical Puppets had rigid and monotonous attack patterns, making them useless against skilled players, they could be terrifyingly effective in large team operations. As long as there were enough of them and they were used with excellent teamwork, their power was immense.

Some time ago, this Mechanist player also obtained a blueprint that recorded the entry and exit routes of an Ancient Tomb. It indicated that inside were stored the Mechanism Art blueprints accumulated over the tomb owner’s lifetime, as well as twenty damaged Barren God Giants.

As Sixth-Rank Mechanical Puppets, even with the production blueprint, it was unrealistic to expect the ability to craft Barren God Giants immediately in the short term. Herbal Hall simply could not gather that many materials at such a critical moment. However, if it was just a matter of repairing the damaged Barren God Giants, the Level 4 Mechanist player from Herbal Hall had a very good chance of achieving that.

He had previously organized a group to explore that Ancient Tomb, but they failed several times in a row, suffering heavy losses. He had no choice but to report the matter and seek help from the faction’s higher-ups. Coincidentally, the Guild Creation Quest was approaching. If they could truly have twenty Sixth-Rank Barren God Giants join the team, it would significantly boost the entire group’s strength and increase the likelihood of Herbal Hall successfully establishing their guild.

After all, according to that Mechanist player, the Barren God Giants stood over twenty meters tall, and both their hands and feet possessed immense strength. The master who designed them had been very innovative, sacrificing almost all of the Barren God Giants’ attack capabilities. Apart from sheer brute force, their bodies were entirely covered with 156 pieces of detachable and replaceable armor plates. These plates were inscribed with Yuqing immortal techniques, granting them astonishing defensive power.

Therefore, with adequate preparation and a large supply of Barren God armor plates, if any piece got damaged during battle, it could be immediately replaced with a new one. This made the Barren God Giant equivalent to an indestructible super tank, capable of being extremely useful to Herbal Hall in many situations.

However, Herbal Hall currently had many similar tasks, and their core elite members were all concentrated in the Thirty-three Heavens Ancient Path, trying to advance to the second heaven, Tai Ming Yu Wan Tian. This was so their top fighters could improve their strength further before the Guild Creation Quest.

Unable to allocate suitable personnel, Blood Colored Poppy had no choice but to invite outsiders to help explore that Ancient Tomb.

“Inside the tomb, apart from all items related to Mechanism Art, everything else will be distributed among you. I won’t take a single thing. Additionally, upon successful completion of the operation, our hall will pay each of you five thousand taels of silver and one Fifth-Rank Flying Sword. Everyone will receive the same.”

Blood Colored Poppy explained the entire background and the reward conditions clearly and honestly to Ye Rong, then quietly waited for his decision.

“What a generous offer! Five thousand taels of silver plus one Fifth-Rank Flying Sword per person!”

Ye Rong knew, of course, that he wasn’t the only one invited for this Ancient Tomb exploration. There were several other powerful experts from outside Kunlun. Just the basic rewards alone added up to a huge sum.

To be honest, Ye Rong wasn’t in urgent need of a Fifth-Rank Flying Sword at the moment. No one could say for sure what other treasures might be in the Ancient Tomb—it might only contain Mechanism-related blueprints and Mechanical Puppets. However, the five thousand taels of silver truly tempted him.

Five thousand taels of silver equated to fifty taels of gold, which was a hundred times his current total wealth.

As the illustrious Chief of Tianshu Hall in Qingcheng and the top expert—the seemingly glamorous Yijian Kurong in the eyes of outsiders—his total cash on hand barely exceeded fifty taels of silver. Every time he needed to buy pills, he had to first sell off all his materials, accessories, and the like at the Hidden Sword Pool to afford them.

That was also why he had been so excited when he saw that Xuanhu Xiaoyao could start refining Second-Rank pills. From now on, his entire supply of pills depended on him.

This life of poverty and hardship was truly hard to endure. If he could get a large sum of silver all at once, Ye Rong would at least have his pill expenses covered for a long time. It really was tempting.

Moreover, after Ye Rong and Blood Colored Poppy parted ways in the Starter Village, they had no contact whatsoever. Judging from this task, it didn’t seem particularly dangerous. Inviting him to participate seemed more like sharing the benefits.

“Alright, since Brother Poppy thinks so highly of me, I naturally gladly join. However, I don’t need the Fifth-Rank Flying Sword; please convert it into silver according to the market price and pay me that instead.”

“Oh? Since Yijian you request it, of course, that can be arranged.”

Blood Colored Poppy was slightly surprised. Her gaze swept past the Sword Case on Ye Rong’s back and lingered for a moment.

So far, Fifth-Rank Flying Swords were still not mainstream in Far Shore. Only a few top experts could afford to equip them. In the trading cities, the selling price of Fifth-Rank Flying Swords was extremely high, and whenever one appeared, it attracted many buyers.

A Fifth-Rank Flying Sword with even slightly decent attributes could easily sell for nearly ten thousand RMB at present.

Yijian Kurong making such a choice could only mean that he wasn’t lacking in Fifth-Rank Flying Swords.

Blood Colored Poppy thought for a moment, then tapped her fingers lightly and said, “The value of a Fifth-Rank Flying Sword isn’t easy to measure in silver. I’ll take an average and count it as twenty-five thousand taels of silver for you. Is that acceptable?”

According to the price she offered, as long as Ye Rong’s trip to the Ancient Tomb was successful, he would receive a total reward of thirty thousand taels of silver upon return.

“Agreed.”

Ye Rong nodded, knowing that this price was already quite generous. At most, an ordinary Fifth-Rank Flying Sword would sell for around that much. One could easily guess that the Fifth-Rank Flying Sword Herbal Hall was willing to offer as a reward definitely wouldn’t be a top-tier item. It was most likely one of the lowest-ranked Fifth-Rank Flying Swords, with attributes surely worse than the Black Phoenix Sword.

Blood Colored Poppy offering such a price was indeed very fair. It seemed she truly remembered the favor he did for her back in the Starter Village by letting her go first in a quest.

“Thirty thousand taels of silver, agreed to without even blinking, and Blood Colored Poppy isn’t even the true leader of Herbal Hall. Just how substantial is the strength of these established factions? What kind of financial resources have they accumulated and control?”

Ye Rong inwardly marveled. Compared to these factions, he was like a small shrimp next to a great white shark—completely on different levels.

With their business settled and no disagreements between them, the atmosphere on the ship relaxed considerably, and they started chatting casually. The other friends Blood Colored Poppy had invited hadn’t arrived yet; Ye Rong was the earliest and quickest to come.

“There are six others joining us for the trip to the Ancient Tomb. I’ll introduce them to you one by one once they arrive.”

Blood Colored Poppy was concerned that other factions competing fiercely with Herbal Hall—who were also preparing for their Guild Creation Quest—might find out about this and cause unnecessary trouble. Therefore, most of the helpers she invited were from Heterodox Schools. They didn’t belong to any major sects nor were they members of any powerful Player Organizations, but their individual strength was quite remarkable.

Among them, one was from the South Sea Xuan Turtle Hall, proficient in the study of formations. He was a disciple of Yi Zhou, the hall master of Xuan Gui Dian, and it was said that he was highly regarded, having been bestowed with many Magic Treasures. He was considered one of the most famous players in the South Sea region.

Two were from the largest Heterodox School, Wutai. They were brothers who were always together, like shadows. The Magic Treasures they used were also complementary, suitable for joint attacks. In the Wutai Sect, there were Player Organizations starting to prepare for guild creation, but these two brothers didn’t belong to any faction; they just played the game on their own.

Of the other two, one was also from overseas, a disciple of an unnamed Rogue Cultivator. The other was a disciple from Huashan.

The last person had a very impressive background. When Blood Colored Poppy spoke of him, she was slightly reserved and specifically reminded Ye Rong not to offend him.

This person had exceptional Fortune Affinity and became a disciple under Yan Yingmu, the abbess of Miaozhen Temple on West Dongting Mountain in Taihu Lake. He was exceptionally strong. Although he wasn’t well-known in the game, it was because he had been quietly cultivating and leveling up in Taihu Lake, keeping a low profile.

In terms of true strength, he absolutely ranked within the top ten of the Heavenly Ranking. It was precisely because of his participation that Blood Colored Poppy had full confidence in the successful completion of this operation.

Blood Colored Poppy had only met him a few times during the Closed Beta and established a good rapport, which was why she could invite him to join.

Ye Rong was also inwardly shocked. Were disciples of such titanic figures starting to appear in the game now? He hadn’t expected one to be among the companions on this Ancient Tomb expedition. It was truly rare.

“By the way, when I sent you the Flying Sword Message earlier, it took a long time to receive it. How were you able to reply and arrive so quickly afterwards? I thought you might not make it for this quest, that there wouldn’t be enough time.”

Blood Colored Poppy asked curiously. She had almost thought Ye Rong had really gone to areas like the Northern Desert for a quest.

“Oh, I was in a special space at the time and didn’t receive any external messages. I only got it after I came out. Actually, I was right in Qingcheng and hadn’t gone far.”

Ye Rong pondered slightly. The Golden Cabinet Water Manor could be considered a special space, so saying that wasn’t wrong.

“Was it your Qingcheng’s Ancestral Hall? It’s like our Thirty-three Heavens Ancient Path; when inside, you can’t receive Flying Sword Messages from outside—they’re blocked by a mysterious force. I didn’t expect that you, Yijian, would have the chance to enter the Ancestral Hall so soon after becoming the Chief Disciple!”