Chapter 350 - A True Man

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Li Yi boarded the returning maglev. Before he left, he left Xu Man’s diary in its original position, and he tried his best to make it look like it had never been touched. If Xu Man had gotten suspicious, there was nothing he could do about it.

After several days of zero contact with the game, Li Yi had had enough. The first thing he did when he returned home was to put on the game controller.

After he went online, the mailbox flashed non-stop. He had turned off his phone for the past few days, and the many people that were looking for him were forced to leave messages in his mailbox instead.

Within the game, Li Yi surfed the official forum and gleaned all the information on the events that transpired within the past few days. There was no need to ask anyone else as he had already understood the gist of it through the official forum.

Three Major Guild Alliance and Iron Alliance had a 3 on 3 battle. To his delight, Iron Alliance had secured total victory!

Three Major Guild Alliance sent out Defiantly Tyrannical, Defiant Zephyr and Fallen Star to battle; whereas Iron Alliance sent out Confused Fox, Little Elf from the Magical Realm and Unending Unmatched to face them.

They had totally defeated them, and it was originally a two-round battle. However, Defiantly Tyrannical was unsatisfied with the outcome, and increased his wager by another 10,000,000 Gold Coins, demanding to face them in another round.

In the final round, Unending Unmatched had faced off against Fallen Star. Even with his full set of Blood Lord Equipment, Fallen Star still proved insignificant against Unending Unmatched. They had fought thrice and Fallen Star had died thrice.

[Merciless Unending Unmatched, the Traitor, the Trash...]

[Unending Unmatched, Dark Wing’s lackey]

[The Two-faced Unending Unmatched, do you really have no mercy for the Guild Master of Star Fire that nurtured you?]

Numerous headlines criticized Unending Unmatched within the official forum. They had called him a traitor and disparaged him as a lowly scum.

Li Yi did not expect that Unending Unmatched would fight against Yang Xingchen.

Based on Unending Unmatched’s personality, if not for Yang Xingchen’s constant pressure, there was no way that he would have taken the fight.

After a moment of contemplation, Li Yi sent a message to Shen Lang to understand further about the details.

‘Due to losing the duel, Three Major Guild Alliance have launched drastically fewer attacks over the past few days. However, the situation on the field has not changed much and Three Major Guild Alliance is still at the lead. Unless it is absolutely necessary, Iron Alliance will not fight if there is the option to do so.’

These were Li Yi’s orders!

The reason for giving these orders was solely for the sake of winning the Throne-claiming Battle. They would definitely fight against their opponents, but now was not the time!

The Throne-claiming Battle was different from sieges. If they did not preserve their strength now, then they would be unable to fight when the real battle had begun. Equipment, level, tactics, numbers and etcetera, they were all essential to the battle ahead. Li Yi wanted to fight too but now was not the appropriate time.

The reality of the Throne-claiming Battle was brutal and beyond imagination. Back in his previous life, the Eastern Continent’s Three Major Guild Alliance had fought at it alone. However, Defiantly Tyrannical had gone at it for nearly eight years and had yet to achieve his goals.

‘Go big or go home!’ This was Li Yi’s current mindset.

The progress of the Light and Dark Instances had not differed much. There were a few more guilds that had defeated the first boss of Light Conference. However, they were all annihilated when they faced the second boss, effectively halting their advance.

There were only seven more days before the Throne-claiming Battle and time was of the essence. After checking the latest news, Li Yi began to form the parties and he called for the ‘brains’ of Iron Alliance to come to Shattered Frost City.

He went on, requesting that each of the major guilds report the number of their elites.

Fire Ice had arrived as well, and she was responsible for recording their numbers.

They were swamped from morning to night, and it had taken a full day for them to finish tabulating the data as there were hundreds of guilds that reported in their number of elites.

Li Yi dismissed everyone except for Confused Fox and Flower Underpants. He then explained the battle strategy that he had concocted to them.

The inner-city battle, the outer-city battle, the stronghold battle, the resource battle, Li Yi had explained the layout of each battle thoroughly and left Flower Underpants and Confused Fox awestruck, with their jaws dropped so wide that they nearly fell off.

Li Yi, on the other hand, was unperturbed. “No need to guess, I’m one the legendary closed-beta players.”

Flower Underpants and Confused Fox glanced at one another. Their faces showed nearly no signs of surprise and had instead displayed a look that said, ‘We already knew about it’.

“The elites from the major guilds should avoid conflicts with the Three Major Guild Alliance if possible. Our numbers are significantly lesser than our opponents and it would be unwise to face them head-on for now. We’ll definitely lose in a drawn-out battle, so our best bet is to obliterate them in one go. As for the non-elites, they’re free to do as they please. If they want to fight, let them, since our opponents are doing the same as well.

“As you wish.” Flower Underpants and Confused Fox had no objections whatsoever. Since they had not participated in the Throne-claiming Battle before, they had nothing to add. In short, they simply nodded to whatever Li Yi said.

“Oh yeah, Guild Master Hua, I’ll need to borrow Shangguan Bailu for a few days.”

“Alright... Wait what?” Flower Underpants was startled and he immediately thought about the t*ttygrabber gate incident. His face darkened and he replied, “Umm, Bailu is quite busy recently.”

“Oh, forget about it then. I had intended for her and Mood to have a simulated battle.”

“Simulated battle?” Flower Underpants’ eyes sparkled and slapped his thighs, saying, “Alrighty then, I’ll ask someone to take over Bailu’s role and call her down right now.”

The easiest way to raise a commander’s aptitude was none other than a simulated battle between commanders. This was a rare opportunity and naturally, Flower Underpants was not going to let it slip by.

Li Yi had prepared three different sets of strategies for the sake of the Throne-claiming Battle. It was obvious that Li Yi had placed great importance on it.

After Flower Underpants and Confused Fox had left, Li Yi delegated the task of the tabulation of the elites to Fire Ice and he was finally able to be at ease.

Using the special skill granted to Castellans, Li Yi used Teleport to reach the Auction House. The Divine Essence Formula that he had put for sale had already been sold out.

The price of the potion, which held the ability to raise Light and Dark Stats, along with healing capabilities was constantly soaring and was currently going for 200 Gold Coins per bottle.

There was demand for it, but there was no supply!

Due to Li Yi being offline for a few days, the supply of the Divine Essence Formula had been cut off.

Li Yi immediately prepared another batch and put them up for auction, with an extravagant starting price of 1,000 Gold Coins...

There were currently many guilds that were tackling the Light and Dark Instances, and the players gradually realized that facing Light and Dark attribute monsters with the Divine Essence Formula had made it a lot easier. Without it, facing them would be tougher. Thus, the potion’s price was constantly going up.

‘First, I’ll give them a taste of it. Then, I’ll slowly increase the price. When they’ve finally understood its true value and have started to rely on it, I’ll hike the prices up by several times!’

‘There’s no need to worry about competition, as my Divine Essence Formula is one of a kind. I can sell it at any price I desire, hah!’

Li Yi bought a whole heap of Apothecary materials on a whim. After spending around 2,000,000 Gold Coins, he was finally satisfied and returned home to begin refining.

He was rushing his mastery to become a Grandmaster-level Apothecary Master!

TchTch—

Heaps and heaps of junk flowed out of Li Yi’s fingertips. If there were other Apothecary Masters present, they would call it a waste of resources.

Forceful refinement of potions higher than one’s current level only had a success rate of 1%. Out of ten tries, eight to nine of them were bound to fail. Li Yi’s current method of refinement was truly a waste of money.

However, it did not matter much to Li Yi as he was only 500 more mastery points away from advancing to an Apothecary Grandmaster. Up until now, he had not found any potion formulas that were suitable for his level.

‘After searching for so long, I still haven’t found anything. I’d rather forcefully advance instead of waiting for a suitable one to appear!’

It took nearly 1,000 Gold Coins worth of materials to raise his mastery by one point. It was indeed a shameful waste, but Li Yi was left without any other options.

“Crunch!”

Just as Li Yi was in the midst of refining, the door to his room was forcibly kicked open and was accompanied by a furious howl. He suddenly felt a sharp pain on his shoulder, and it was as if somebody was biting him...

Under the immense pain, Li Yi ripped off his goggles without even exiting the game. He turned his head around and was surprised at the sight.

The one that was chomping down on him was no random person, instead, it was a teary-eyed Jiaojiao...

Jiaojiao wept as she bit down on him, and sobbing sounds came from her mouth. Even though she had a small mouth, her ‘biting’ prowess was no joke, and it was so painful that Li Yi perspired in agony.

“What’s up with you? I don’t mind you biting on me, but why are you crying?”

“Wuu...wuu...wuu...”

Li Yi pretended to get frustrated, “If you don’t let go, I’ll r*pe you!”

“Wuu...wuuu...wuuuu...”

“Let’s discuss this in a civil manner. Stop biting, it hurts, it’s really mother*cking painful...”

Li Yi breathed in deeply and had finally got Jiaojiao’s mouth off of him.

He now was bleeding from his shoulder.

Jiaojiao shook her head and opened her mouth, only for her to wail, “Wehhhhh...”

“Why are you crying when you were the one who bit me? I’m supposed to be the one in pain right now. Fine, fine, stop crying. If you cry again, I’ll really r*pe you.”

Li Yi patted Jiaojiao’s shoulder as he tried to console her, only for her to cry even louder.

“Alright, alright, I won’t r*pe you. Let’s talk about it civilly, so chill, chill...”

Li Yi was at a loss. There were many ways to handle a stubborn woman, but he had zero clues on how to deal with a crying one.

“Stop crying, stop crying, I’ll ruffle your hair, so stop crying...”

Li Yi patted Jiaojiao’s head and she finally smiled. She no longer cried and had finally moved from the cry-baby phase to the little kid phase.

“You smile, you cry, and you bite. It’s only been a few days since we’ve last met, what’s up with your huge reaction? You didn’t get bitten by a dog, right?”

Jiaojiao shot him a ferocious glare, “You’re the one who got bitten!”

“Hmm, you could say so.” Li Yi expressed his agreement and nodded his head.

“You...you’re still p*ssing me off!”

Jiaojiao’s teeth glinted and she lunged at him once again.

“I’ll really get mad if you bite me again! I’m telling you that I’ll really r*pe you!”

With a motion as swift as a tiger, Li Yi pressed her onto the floor and sat on top of her. One of his hand was restraining hers and the other was loosening his belt...

“You... What do you think you’re doing!”

“I’m a man of my words. When I say I’ll do it, I really mean it!”

“How dare you! If you’re really going to do it then I’ll... then I’ll...”

“You’ll what?”

“I’ll cut off your little brother down there!” Jiaojiao’s eyes flashed with malicious intent.

“I’ll give it my all today, I don’t care whether you cut it off!” Li Yi threatened her.

“Don’t you dare!”

“Fine. I’ll reconsider, but first, tell me why you’re crying and biting me?’

After hearing Li Yi’s words, Jiaojiao pouted her small mouth, indicating that she was about to cry.

Jiaojiao choked as she said, “You left without telling me anything. I tried to call your number, but you had turned your phone off. What am I to you?”

“Oh...” Li Yi was in a daze.

Jiaojiao broke free from his grasp and suddenly hugged him. She flashed her teeth and viciously chomped down onto his shoulder.

The position of her mouth was the same as the last, and at the same spot as well.

‘How vicious...’

...