MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

After Snickersnee killed Drifting Snow with his hammer, Drifting Snow changed his arrogant ways and stayed subdued for a very long period of time. He no longer went to the Invincible Continent, and instead, he completed quests every day, just like Li Yi, trying his best to increase his Territory Level.

…

In the Soul Gate Instance Dungeon, the Iron Alliance and the Whole of Windcloud formed a party together to try and take down the King of Souls.

From the Iron Alliance, there were three Territory Masters, namely Queen Jiao, Unending Unmatched, and Li Yi. From the Whole of Windcloud, both Windcloud Brother Nine and Windcloud Sister Nine were both present.

Compared to when the dungeon first opened, the King of Souls was very easy to kill now. With Territory Masters in the fray, the boss battle’s difficulty dropped further.

Jiaojiao’s Territory Skill was Instant Burst, allowing her to use six runes at once and enhancing any of her class skills. Mortal Bash, for instance, could not heal her too much at first, as she could only absorb HP equivalent to 20% of the damage dealt. With Instant Burst, the amount of HP recovered by the Death Bask Skill shot straight up to 80% of the damage dealt.

Instant Burst could complement any skill, but it enhanced some skills more than others.

Unending Unmatched’s Territory Skill, Absolute Defense, reduced the damage he sustained by 60%. Together with his fixed damage reduction as a main tank and the further reduction from his equipment, he had finally a terrifying over 90% damage reduction.

He was the strongest meat shield with his Absolute Defense!

Having the two of them in the party drastically reduced the dungeon’s difficulty.

Now Li Yi was here too, and faced with three Territory Masters working together, even the powerful Hell-level King of Souls could not help but be defeated.

Each time Li Yi attacked, he dealt tens of millions in damage with a single arrow!

Each time Jiaojiao attacked, she dealt hundreds of thousands in damage with each stab of her sword. Although her damage numbers were nowhere near Li Yi’s, her advantage was that her sustained explosive power was stronger!

Unending Unmatched did not need to attack. He just stood in front of the King of Souls like an idiot, using Taunt every so often. His fixed damage reduction was at 88% now, and add that to his equipment’s extra defensive value, even the powerful King of Souls could barely shave off any of his health…

“Lil Bro Unmatched, you’re crazy strong…

“Lil Bro Unmatched, you’re bad*ss…

“Lil Bro Unmatched, you’re so cool…”

Brother Windcloud Nine had been the party’s absolute core, but now he praised Unending Unmatched in envy as he fought the boss. It had to be mentioned that he had a good nature to begin with, because if it was someone with a bit more ego, they would have pulled their hair out by now.

After all, not long ago, he was still the heart of the party. Everything revolved around him, and he could tank all the bosses the others could not. No matter where he went, he was irreplaceable.

What about now? Someone who had been beneath him and leapfrogged him into becoming the absolute core, and overnight, he had become nothing…

Such a vast psychological difference would deal a heavy blow to just about anyone.

Brother Windcloud Nine was no saint. Seeing how Unending Unmatched had surpassed him, it would be weird if he did not envy Unending Unmatched.

Jealousy aside, Brother Nine had never considered Unending Unmatched a target to resent. He just lit a new competitive fire in his chest, resolving to surpass Unending Unmatched again.

Sister Windcloud Nine hugged her staff, saying, “Darling, I’m sure that you’ll become even stronger than him in the future.”

Brother Windcloud Nine lay on the ground, looking at his silly little wife and heaved a long sigh…

Sister Windcloud Nine’s encouragement seemed okay at first glance, but she chose a rather unsuitable moment. She had said it suddenly while Brother Windcloud Nine was dead on the ground and feeling frustrated.

If anyone else had said it, Brother Windcloud Nine would have flown off the handle. He would rather have a straightforward jeer than such sarcasm.

However, he knew that his silly little wife did not mean anything like that at all. She was just voicing her sincere wish, but the timing, though… Sigh, he was used to it by now…

Unending Unmatched tanked the King of Souls, and his powerful Absolute Defense meant that he only needed one healer to heal him and he would survive without a problem. So what should the other healers do? They were out of a job, so they just chipped in with their damage, whatever little of it they could manage…

Soon enough, the battle progressed to the final stage, and they entered the Soul Gate.

The party members entered one after the other, in no particular order. Once the Soul Gate had reached a certain threshold, Li Yi went in and easily finished it off with one arrow.

Great Lord Moigne ran out again, and the animated cutscene started up once more, but Li Yi simply turned it off.

Players were only forced to watch the cutscene the first time they completed the dungeon. If they repeated it, they would obtain an additional option to skip these scenes.

After the cutscene, every party member gained a huge boost in their attributes, and the King of Souls died wailing.

“Go loot the corpse, Sister Nine.”

“Good idea, I approve.”

“Same here. Sister Nine’s just too lucky, it’d just be a waste to have anyone else loot the body.”

There was a cacophony of voices, and in the end Sister Windcloud Nine went to loot the corpse, her face red.

Sister Windcloud Nine’s luck when looting was very average, not great but definitely not bad. Everyone pushed her to loot, all because the way she looted corpses was… very pleasing to watch.

She pressed down softly with her little hand, caressing it back and forth. At the same time, she bit her lip tightly and closed her eyes slightly, looking terrified…

“Darling, darling, hahaha, something good came out.”

Sister Windcloud Nine laughed.

“Aye, we’re listening.”

Everyone else laughed too.

Sister Windcloud Nine actually was quite lucky this time. She received eight legendary Purple Quality weapons and a ton of rare Purple Quality materials.

When they auctioned off the earnings, Li Yi bid on the materials and bought them all with a mere 500 Gold Coins.

There were many other lifestyle class players in the party too, but aside from Li Yi, even the best of the rest was only at the Advanced level. They had no use for the materials the King of Souls dropped at all.

As usual, Brother Windcloud Nine did not take any of the equipment. The equipment the boss just dropped was not as good as the ones he currently had, so naturally, he was not interested in them at all.

After they auctioned off and distributed the equipment, Fire Ice summed up all the money they had collected and divided it evenly to all the members.

Li Yi then announced that the party was dismissed.

The party members began using their Dungeon Escape Scroll to leave the Soul Gate Instance Dungeon.

“Brother Nine, hold up.”

Li Yi called out to Brother Windcloud Nine.

“What is it, brother?”

Li Yi took out the Pantheon Ruins Teleportation Scroll and gave it to Brother Windcloud Nine.

After giving it a lot of thought, he came to the conclusion that Brother Windcloud Nine was the best person to have the scroll.

At first, he had considered giving it to Little Elf from the Magical Realm, Gongsun Chuqian, or even Fire Ice. However, Fire Ice was too straight-laced, and the other two had both learned powerful Territory Skills in the past life. Li Yi was worried that giving them the scroll now would affect their learning process.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized that Brother Windcloud Nine was the best option. The reason was quite simple: Of the Ten Great Main Tanks in the past life, he was the only one who never learned a Territory…

Brother Windcloud Nine took the scroll and said in shock, “This is a Pantheon Ruins Teleportation Scroll!”

To him, this gift was too precious to accept.

After all, in his eyes, how could something that could not even be obtained with a bounty of millions in Gold Coins not be precious?

“This… This…” Brother Windcloud Nine was actually at a loss for words, repeating “this” twice. That just showed what his mental state was like right then.

“This thing is much too precious. Brother, make an offer. I can’t take this for nothing.”

“If I wanted to sell it, why would I give it to you?”

Brother Windcloud Nine was stunned for a moment, but then he broke out laughing, and he nodded.

Sister Windcloud Nine was ecstatic, too, thanking Li Yi repeatedly.

Li Yi said with a laugh, “Stock up on potions and scrolls before you head to the Ruins.”

Brother Windcloud Nine nodded. “Yeah, don’t worry. I’d never…”

“Whoosh…”

Before Brother Windcloud Nine could finish the sentence, his body suddenly faded and he was gone in an instant…

Li Yi looked at the DPs on his friend list and saw that Brother Windcloud Nine’s DP was greyed out.

Did he log off? So suddenly?

“Waaah…”

Just as Li Yi was scratching his head, Sister Windcloud Nine suddenly burst into tears.

Li Yi’s mind was full of question marks. “What’s the matter? What just happened?”

“My husband… logged off, boohoohoo…”

“I know your husband logged off, but you don’t need to cry over it. It’s not like he’ll never log in again.”

After Li Yi comforted her, Sister Windcloud Nine stopped crying, but soon enough, the tears started flowing again. This time, however, she did not wail. She just sobbed pitifully.

“Sister Nine, why don’t you log off and have a look? I’m busy, so I gotta go now.”

The party had been dismissed, so the only ones left in the dungeon were him and Sister Windcloud Nine.

“D-Don’t go.”

“Huh?”

Sister Windcloud Nine looked slightly nervous. “St… S-S-Stay with me for a bit.”

“Alright.”

Li Yi sat on the floor.

Neither of them spoke, and the atmosphere was rather heavy. After half an hour of just sitting there in awkward silence, Brother Windcloud Nine’s figure reappeared.

“Darling…”

Sister Windcloud Nine ran over to Brother Windcloud Nine and hugged him.

Brother Windcloud Nine gave Li Yi a smile. “Something urgent came up, so sorry for the inconvenience, brother.”

Li Yi waved him off. “It’s nothing.”

He did not stay for long, however. Now that Brother Windcloud Nine was here, he used his Dungeon Escape Scroll to leave the dungeon.

To think she would erupt into tears like that whenever her husband logged off, as though death had done them part. That Sister Nine was quite the dramatic one.

Come to think of it, though, Brother Nine had logged off way too abruptly earlier, huh?

Li Yi was still musing about it as he rode Onyxia on his merry way.

He remembered how Windcloud Sister fell for Bai Xiaoya’s trick back then and ended up crawling all over the floor willingly. There was no way she did it for the equipment, because Sister Nine was quite similar to Brother Nine in that they would never sacrifice their dignity for a few pieces of armor.

No, no, why would Sister Windcloud Nine react as though they would never meet again as soon as Brother Windcloud Nine logged off? Could there be something else to this?

Li Yi tried to recall everything he knew about Brother Windcloud Nine from the past life.

Brother Windcloud Nine’s equipment was extremely strong, and of the 100 God Wars players, he was one of the extremely few who did not have Territory Power.

As for Windcloud Sister Nine…

Li Yi racked his brain, but he simply could not remember anything that stood out about her. It felt like she had been quiet and unassuming, and it seemed as though Li Yi simply never knew about such a person in his past life.

It was inexplicable…

“Ding! Ding!”

Just as Li Yi was rushing to his next destination, Sister Windcloud Nine sent him a voice message.

“My husband, sob sob, went offline again…”

…