MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

Li Yi climbed up Blade Peak and explained his intention to Augustus.

“I’ve got a cup of dragon blood here. Have that person drink it, and it should restore his body.”

Augustus showed Li Yi a cup of steaming dragon blood, and the Red Dragon Queen kneeling at his feet immediately trembled.

A cup of dragon blood was priced at 5,000,000 Gold Coins!

Li Yi traded the 5,000,000 Gold Coins that he had prepared earlier on.

System Notification: [You have obtained a cup of dragon blood.]

Li Yi put the dragon blood away and asked, “Is there any still?”

“Roar…” The Red Dragon Queen angrily spurted a burst of flame at him. Fortunately, Augustus was standing on the side. With just a light tap of his hand, the flame was dispersed.

Augustus shook his head. “The little fellow’s misbehaving. She just threatened me to say that if I take her blood again, she’d fight me.”

‘Sure enough, there’s only one cup.’

Li Yi did not stay any longer. He rubbed the Return City Stone right away and headed back.

Back in Shattered Frost City, Li Yi opened the small map, pointed his finger at the location of the Castellan’s residence, and silently uttered the word, ‘teleport’.

“Whish…”

He was instantly in the Castellan’s residence.

The Castellan’s special skill, Patrolling, could be used arbitrarily as long as one was within the administrative region of Shattered Frost City. Its cooldown time was 1 minute.

Li Yi poured out a little dragon blood and had the Castellan’s wife feed it to Archiemonde.

“This… This is?”

“Let him drink it!” Li Yi did not want to answer her question.

Archiemonde drank the small amount of dragon blood, and there was an instant effect.

A red light flashed across his face and covered his entire body immediately. The HP figure above his head rose wildly, and it was faster than the stopwatch, causing the Castellan’s wife to shriek as she looked on.

Archiemonde groaned and sat up from the bed.

In just a few dozen seconds, his HP had recovered to 90,000,000, and the nasty disease that had plagued him had completely disappeared. He spread his hands and could not believe this was true.

“This… This… This…”

Just as Archiemonde was muttering non-stop, Li Yi received a system notification.

[You have treated the old Castellan, Archiemonde. This act of kindness has spread throughout Shattered Frost City, and your current approval rating has reached 95%.]

“Am I completely healed? How… How is this possible?” Archiemonde still could not believe it.

“Quickly, thank Lord Castellan.” The Castellan’s wife nudged Archiemonde.

“Thank you, Lord Castellan!” Archiemonde got up and went down on one knee.

This was the difference between NPCs and players. The role was immediately reversed. If it was a player, this would definitely be unbearable. For NPCs, there was no such concern though.

Li Yi took the Castellan’s seal and handed it to Archiemonde.

Do not misunderstand. He was not pretending to return the position of Castellan but was just letting Archiemonde keep the Castellan’s seal on his behalf.

The Castellan’ seal was a special item, and it was only effective in Shattered Frost City. This item could not be stored in the inventory but could only be carried-on. Once you died, it would be dropped. (When it was not the besieging period, apart from the Castellan, no one could pick it up. When the time was up, it would disappear from the ground and appear in the Castellan’s residence.)

If during the period of siege, Li Yi had the Castellan’s seal on him but was not defending the city, then when the other party reached the Castellan’s residence, the latter would only need to stay in the place for 10 minutes, and the Castellan’s seal would automatically disappear from Li Yi. At that time, he would automatically be abdicated.

Keeping the Castellan’s seal with him was pointless. The best way was to hand it over to a trusted NPC for safekeeping.

Archiemonde was an NPC who was most worthy of trust.

Archiemonde held the Castellan’s seal and pledged allegiance to Li Yi.

Li Yi checked Archiemonde’s loyalty value, and it made him smile.

[Chief-level Elite, Archiemonde, loyalty value: 100 points.]

[Chief-level Elite, Leghar, loyalty value: 30 points.]

The NPCs’ loyalty value was a maximum of 100 points. When it reached 100 points, this meant that unless the Castellan that the NPC served abdicated, this NPC would never betray the Castellan.

Even if he was abused, it would not matter; even if his wife was sent to another man, or he was demoted as a slave, he would not be disloyal. 100 points of loyalty value indicated the swearing of allegiance until death.

At the end of the day, Li Yi had successfully wooed a talent. As for Leghar, it was not difficult to raise the points. All it took was a little time.

Li Yi appointed Archiemonde as the Vice Castellan of Shattered Frost City and Leghar as the Guard Commander. Archiemonde’s loyalty value would not change, but when Leghar accepted the appointment, his loyalty value immediately rose by 10 points.

“Lord Castellan, there’s something I want to inform you about!”

Archiemonde’s combat value was definitely the strongest among all NPC Castellans in the Eastern Continent. This person was innately adventurous. There was once when he entered Black Wind Valley, he was attacked by a man in a black robe. It was only then he contracted a nasty disease and was confined to bed, becoming a good-for-nothing person.

“Although I don’t know what he did to me, the horror of that person is deeply imprinted in my mind. Lord Castellan, when you pass through Black Wind Valley, you must pay attention to that black-robed person.” Archiemonde recalled the past, and there was a painful look on his face.

“Thank you.”

Li Yi nodded.

The Castellan’s residence before him was now owned by Li Yi. The inventory of Shattered Frost City would only be opened under his command. As for other benefits, they were as plentiful as the hairs on an ox. For example, after he had completed the quests issued by the NPCs in Shattered Frost City, he would now acquire a bonus of 20% more EXP than the regular players.

In addition, he also got to learn four kinds of Castellan’s special skills, namely, Patrolling, Thousands of Men and Horses, Assemble, and Impregnable Fortress.

Patrolling was the most practical and could be used at any time. The other three special skills belonged to the category of war skill. They could not be used during normal days and was only permitted to be activated during a siege and when defending the city.

The special skill of Thousands of Men and Horses was Leghar’s unique skill, which was to summon an army of NPCs to assist in battle. However, it was different from the Thousands of Men and Horses used by the players. The NPC soldiers summoned by the players were of the same level as the players and only 100 men could be summoned at one time. Only one summoning was allowed in one battle.

Assemble could only be used during a siege for the defense of the city, and its effect was to gather the scattered NPC forces around the Castellan.

Impregnable Fortress was the Castellan’s special passive skill. It would reduce damage by 60% and was only effective when defending the city.

Due to the promotion, the authority acquired was greater. The funds in the vault of Shattered Frost City amounted to 41,000,000 Gold Coins, and as the Castellan, he could directly take out 10% of the funds as his own annual salary.

Of course, although the money could be drawn out any time, he was only allowed to withdraw once a year. If he were to make a withdrawal now, he could only take 4,100,000, which was a great loss.

The entire city currently had tax relief, but Li Yi issued a separate order to increase the tax revenue of Kelly the profiteer to 30%.

NPCs who could reinforce equipment were very rare, and Kelly was no exception. Among the NPCs who could reinforce equipment within a hundred miles from Shattered Frost City, there was only one here. How could her business be bad? It could be said that she alone accounted for one-third of the total income of the entire city.

Adjusting taxes was also a field to be mastered; too low, and it would not be advantageous; too high, and it would force the NPCs away. Kelly’s tax tolerance limit was neither too much nor too low. It was just nice at 30%.

After settling the tax revenue, Li Yi set out to create his own force.

Executive Officer (civil servant): Pretty Good Mood.

Soldier Captain: Tall and Mighty, Little Elf from the Magical Realm, Fire Ice, and Ye Yingbing.

The Castellan could directly appoint players to serve as subordinate officials.This was true to the saying that when a man achieved the Dao, his poultry and dogs will rise to Heaven as well ¹ . Applying this on the appointing and dismissing of official positions was quite appropriate.

However, there was a vast difference between players who were appointed and players who were promoted to the ranks through Official Position Points. The main contrast was stability. Players who were promoted through Official Position Points would not be affected regardless of who the Castellan was. Of course, if the Castellan specially targeted that person, then the latter would be very miserable as there would absolutely be no room of development and advancement for him or her. In a word, whoever became the Castellan first would be the boss.

The was only one civil servant under the Castellan, which was Executive Officer, who could also use a war skill called Galvanize. The effect of it was restoring the army’s HP by 50% while increasing the army’s damage by 50% for 30 seconds. The cooldown time was half an hour.

The duty of the appointed soldier captain was the same as when Li Yi was the soldier captain. The only difference was that they probably could not advance their official position by themselves.

There were eight positions for soldier captain, but after careful consideration, Li Yi decided to retain four NPC soldier captains. The reason was very simple. Even the most competent players could not be compared with the NPCs as players would go offline but not the NPCs. Even if they were killed, they would respawn after a short time.

There was still more than half a cup of dragon blood left in hand. This was an exceptionally rare item. Only when the likes of Archiemonde, this kind of important NPC of the Eastern Continent was sick, could it be bought from Augustus.

In fact, Archiemonde’s disease was exactly the same as Margaret the black boss in the black and white bosses. All of them were cursed by someone from the Cursing Sect. To lift the curse, there were at least dozens of methods that were feasible, but Li Yi chose the one that was most beneficial to him.

Not only could the Red Dragon Queen’s blood dispel all curses, but it was also one of the super rare materials for apothecary. However, Li Yi’s apothecary level had not reached Advanced Level yet, so he could not refine for now and could only stash it away first, reserving it for future refining into an extremely precious potion that could permanently increase Attribute Points.

Li Yi was busy for three whole days and did nothing else but settle all the Castellan’s distribution work.

The official page was still in chaos debating on Dark Wing’s prowess if it was well-deserved or veritable. The momentum was so strong that Li Yi could not help but shake his head and smile when he saw that.

‘Just go on doubting. One day, I’ll shut y’all up!’

Li Yi went on the road alone. His target location – Blade Frost Canyon in the Western Continent.

He had learned the Novice-Level Frost Arrow Crafting Tome, but he currently lacked two kinds of materials from the Western Continent. He could not get them from the Eastern Continent, so he could only go to the Western Continent to loot them himself.

Blade Frost Canyon was a Level 40 to 50 farming zone, and there was a 10-man dungeon there. With Li Yi’s current strength, even if he could not farm all of the monsters, soloing monsterlings was not an issue to him.

After the last war, there was a gradual increase in the number of players from the two continents guarding at the edge. Li Yi rode on Ice Toad King and leaped over the Abyssal Canyon Crevice. He was immediately discovered by dozens of Western Continent players, and they began chasing him.

“Whish-tch-bish-psh…”

Li Yi’s Powered-Up Arrow was released, and it went through the body of five Western Continent players, killing 4 people in one-shot and obtaining 4 points of Honor Value.

Li Yi used Camouflage to break away from the battle, ride on Crimson Tiger King, and sped off.

“F*ck me, it’s Dark Wing!”

“Pursue!”

Those Western Continent players who were still alive got up on their horses and chased after him…

…