MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

“Territory Power— Mortal Bash!”

“How’s that? Aren’t I amazing?”

With her greatsword perched on her shoulder, Jiaojiao shook her dainty little head in delight.

“I’m going to smack that arse of yours later…”

Li Yi was lying on the ground, unsure what to make of the situation.

He did not think that Jiaojiao had learned Territory Power, and as such, had not bothered to dodge. Otherwise, he would have activated his own Territory Power in response to Jiaojiao’s Territory Power, which in turn, would halve his damage taken and prevent him from being one-shot.

“When did you learn to use Territory Power?”

“Just now. Hehe, I did not squander the scroll that you gave me.”

It turns out that back when Jiaojiao had read the contents of the Pantheon’s Relic Scroll, she had not fallen to her death. Instead, she had immediately logged out once she materialized at the entrance. For the past few days, Jiaojiao had been grinding her butt off in the Pantheon Ruins, and upon learning Territory Power, she enthusiastically called Li Yi over to test it out.

“Resurrect, quick! I want to try it out again.”

A moment later, Li Yi got back up, and again, Jiaojiao brought down her greatsword on Li Yi.

[−7675]

The overkill that she was anticipating did not appear, as the damage that popped out of Li Yi’s head did not even exceed ten thousand.

Jiaojiao was confused. “What’s this? How come you lost so little HP?”

“Since you’re activating Territory Power, I’ did the same as well. As such, it’s only natural for you to deal less damage to me now.”

Li Yi chuckled as he slapped a golden ‘Hunt Target’ onto Jiaojiao’s head.

The projection of a normal Hunt Target was red in color, and upon being marked, the target would not notice it. That was not the case for the golden Hunt Target that Li Yi used, however, as not only was it visible to Li Yi himself, it was plain as day to his target as well.

“What’s this? Is it your Territory Skill?”

Li Yi did not answer her question and instead retorted her with, “Which path are you taking for your Territory Skill?”

“An Instant Burst Skill, Mortal Bash. It consumes 6 Runes per use, and it allows me to amplify my damage by ten times. How about you? What’s your Territory Skill?”

Li Yi pulled back his Orange Quality Bow and fired an arrow at Jiaojiao.

“Meteor Arrow!”

“Immortal Body!”

Jiaojiao had already anticipated this and she immediately activated Immortal Body to withstand the blow.

“Thud!”

[−158654]

A scarlet damage number jumped out of Jiaojiao’s head. Her Immortal Body had been useless against Li Yi, as all it took was a single arrow to end her.

Jiaojiao collapsed onto the ground…

“Curse you Lil Yi’zi. Y-Y-Y-You… You cheater!”

Li Yi took out his Cardiac Pacemaker, placed it on top of Jiaojiao’s chest, and with a hiss and a powerful jolt of electricity, Jiaojiao leaped back up.

The more Li Yi used the Cardiac Pacemaker, the faster his Engineering Mastery progressed. Currently, Li Yi’s odds of success, whenever he used the Cardiac Pacemaker, was around eighty percent.

“What’s your Territory Skill? Is it an Instant Burst as well?”

Li Yi gave Jiaojiao a secretive smile and uttered something infuriating. “Try to guess…”

“Uwahwah, why did it end up this way? I was also activating my Territory Power, so how come I can only deal 6,000 or so damage, but you can deal over 150 thousand damage!? Why!? After all, my equipment is obviously better than yours, and my ATK stat is higher!”

“Try and guess!”

“I’m going to strangle you to death, grrrrr…”

Jiaojiao had a murderous look in her eyes as she extended her hand towards Li Yi’s neck.

All it took was a simple tap from Li Yi for the golden Hunt Target on top of Jiaojiao’s head to shatter with a ‘Bang’! Jiaojiao was now stuck in her strangling position, and she could not move a single muscle.

Alarmed, Jiaojiao cried out, “What happened? Wh-Why can I move my body?”

…

There was no sign of any upcoming updates. Furthermore, currently, the best equipment that the players were able to receive was still from the Light and Darkness Instances.

However, due to the announcement of Territory Power, the price of many exquisite special items plunged. Even special skills that originally cost a fortune were now easily obtainable by only spending a million Gold Coins.

[Once the era of Territory Power begins, the reign of Special Skills shall end!]

That was the title of the newest thread that the Fluttering Snow Alliance’s Bai Xiaoya posted.

Many players were scouring all over for Territory Power, and even the Gods of Wealth, Brother Windcloud Nine and Tyrant Sword King the Fifth were willing to offer up a jaw-dropping amount of Gold Coins as rewards for learning Territory Power.

However, the methods that Li Yi and Jiaojiao had used to lean Territory Power could not be used by others. The reason Li Yi had obtained his power was due to him receiving the Curse Queen’s Heritage, whereas Jiaojiao had obtained her power as a reward for winning the group stage of the Brawl King Tournament.

Brother Windcloud Nine had sought Li Yi’s help, and Li Yi told him the truth. It was not that he did not want to teach him, but rather, he was unable to teach him.

Following Jiaojiao’s success, Unending Unmatched was the second to return from the Pantheon Ruins and had gained a Territory Power of his own. However, he did not choose the path of Instant Burst, instead, he chose the same option he did in his past life, Absolute Defense.

Including Unending Unmatched, the number of Iron Alliance members who were able to use Territory Power now stood at three. This number delighted Li Yi greatly as out of the nine Territory Masters within the game, three of them were from his guild. Who would not be happy with this number?

Another two months went by in a blink of an eye, and during this period, King of Pantheon enjoyed a time of tranquility. The Light and Darkness Instances were still as hot as ever, and countless players went there to farm everyday…

The price of equipment constantly dropped, and as for the potions, the limited supply of Sacred Potions had resulted in a constant surge of its price. Today, the price was now at 18 Gold Coins per bottle.

When Autumn Love learned of this, she cried, but no tears came out. Thus, she could only sulk and suppress her rage. After all, her losses had been major, and after recuperating for a month, she gradually recovered.

Li Yi was still carrying out quests daily, and sometimes, he attempted dungeon quests as well.

Not only was Territory Power effective on players, but it also dealt the same amplified damage to monsters. Inflicting over a hundred thousand damage per arrow was no longer a dream for the players, and instead, it had become the players’ new reality.

Thus, the equipment that Li Yi was currently pursuing was focused on ‘High ATK’. He no longer gave a damn about attributes like special effects and special skills.

‘Only equipment with ‘High ATK’ can bring Territory Power to greater heights!’

However, since Li Yi was still limited by the Level 100 level cap, the only High ATK equipment that Li Yi could obtain were the Purple Quality Equipment from the Light and Darkness Instances.

‘Monarch Equipment Set… Emperor Equipment Set… Damn those developers, why haven’t they released them?’

There was still no news of a Level Cap increase, and this seemed extremely odd to Li Yi. After all, he clearly remembered Emperor’s Capital and the new level cap being released days after the Hell-level Soul King had been defeated in his past life. So, why was it that there was not a single shred of news after such a long time?

Though Li Yi’s self-control was nowhere near Snickersnee’s, it was decent in its own right. Using the period of Pantheon’s downtime, Li Yi had taken up over ten thousand quests both big and small and had left the majority of them unsubmitted. As for the quests that could not be retained, Li Yi had used them all to raise his Territory Power’s rank.

One day, Li Yi ventured to the Southern Continent to carry out a quest. While he was near the Flaming Dragon Lair, he encountered someone familiar.

‘Sister Windcloud Nine!’

When Li Yi spotted Sister Windcloud Nine, she was mounted on her Skeletal Warhorse and running for her life with her Tuhr Sacred Sword in tow. Behind her, three Southern Continent players were chasing relentlessly, and they threw out a string of expletives, making for a vulgar sight.

“Sister Nine you dumb*ss! You’d better stay put!”

“How brave of you to journey to our Southern Continent. Have you come to us savage men because Brother Nine can no longer satisfy you?”

“Hahaha! Hunt her down! Don’t let this dummy of a lady escape!”

Sister Windcloud Nine ran with all her might whereas the Tuhr Sacred Sword behind her constantly emitted a clanging ruckus. Were it not for the 30-yard range limit, it would have set off to dispose of the three scumbags long ago.

When Li Yi heard their shouts, he immediately flew into a fit of rage and landed somewhere in front of Sister Windcloud Nine.

“Thud! Thud! Thud!”

He fired an arrow at each dirtbag. Without even activating his Territory Power, the three Meteor Arrows were enough to bring them down.

Sister Windcloud Nine continued spurring onward for quite some distance before she realized what had happened.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou…”

The moment Sister Windcloud Nine spotted Li Yi, she hurriedly expressed her gratitude.

“My dear Sister Nine, all three of them are below Level 50. You could have easily defeated them without even using your Tuhr Sacred Sword, so why did you run from them?”

Sister Windcloud Nine was taken aback. She exclaimed, “You said that they were below Level 50?”

‘Damn, she really didn’t know.’

The three scumbags on the ground were still throwing expletives, and it made Sister Windcloud Nine turn red in embarrassment.

As such, Li Yi gave Sister Windcloud Nine a tip. “Just minimize their screens and you’ll no longer need to listen to their dog-like barks.”

“Okay…”

“So, what quest did you come here to do?”

“Woosh! Woosh!”

Just as Li Yi was chatting with Sister Windcloud Nine, the Tuhr Sacred Sword behind her unleashed two Blade Auras at Li Yi.

[−3563]

[−3211]

Two damage numbers popped up from Li Yi’s head. He glared at the silly-looking Sister Windcloud Nine, and his nose almost twisted off from the rage he felt.

Fortunately, he had sensed the Blade Auras coming and activated Territory Power. Otherwise, he would have been instantly killed.

“Stop! Stop! Stop!”

Sister Windcloud Nine frantically waved her hands at the Tuhr Sacred Sword.

As this was a regular occurrence whenever Li Yi entered dungeons with Sister Windcloud Nine, Li Yi had already gotten used to it.

Li Yi reminded her, “Change modes! Change modes!”

“Sorry, when you said that they were below Level 50 just now, I changed its settings to target everyone. I was using peace mode before this…”

After editing her settings, the Tuhr Sacred Sword finally stopped attacking.

Sister Windcloud Nine gave a quick glance to her left and right before whispering to Li Yi, “I’ve received a quest. A secret one at that, and it requires me to slay the Fire Dragon Sword!”

Li Yi pressed his fingers at his temples. “If you wanted to tell me a secret, you could just privately message me. What you’ve just done is to reveal your intentions to these guys.”

Sister Windcloud Nine blinked her naturally innocent eyes. “These guys? D-Didn’t I minimize their screens already?”

“You…” Li Yi was speechless.

The three scumbags released their souls, dissipating their corpses and silently left.

Li Yi asked, “Do you know where’s the Fire Dragon Sword is located?”

Sister Windcloud Nine pointed to the Flaming Dragon Lair behind her. “Inside the lair.”

“Need me to accompany you?”

“Sure thing!” Sister Windcloud Nine delightfully nodded her head. However, as if remembering something, her face suddenly flushed, and she energetically shook her head. “I think I’m fine on my own, thanks…”

An image surfaced in Sister Windcloud Nine’s mind. Inside the burning hot Flaming Dragon Lair, Li Yi had pushed her against the wall and was groping her with all his might…

“Noo… Don’t!” Sister Windcloud Nine suddenly cried out, and she consciously backed away while covering her breasts.

Li Yi was confused. “What’s up with you?”