When the announcement for the first clear of Desolate Immortal Cave was announced by the system, the world chat channel exploded with texts.
[Graceful Fairy(World): Astonished.jpg Great gods! How did you complete the dungeon?! Asking the great gods for advice!]
[Radiant Sword(World): Yes, ah! Please share! We've been stuck in this dungeon quest for an hour already!]
Similar text flooded the world chat and not long after, a reply came from one of the team members who completed the dungeon.
[Severing Talon(World): A guide for clearing the dungeon has been posted in the game forum. Everyone can refer to the guide.]
[Graceful Fairy(World): Thanking the great gods for their benevolence! Bow.jpg]
[Radiant Sword(World): Thanking the great gods for their benevolence! Bow.jpg]
Soon, several more players copied and pasted the same gratitude message and before long, the world chat was silent once more. Until another world announcement disrupted the peace.
[System World Announcement: Congratulations to the player: Qinglong, Illusory Swan, Black Inferno Tiger, Lightning Lynx, Bai Lang and YangShen for achieving the first kill of the dungeon boss, Immortal Tao Renjing!]
[System World Announcement: Congratulations to the player: Qinglong, Illusory Swan, Black Inferno Tiger, Lightning Lynx, Bai Lang and YangShen for achieving the first perfect clear of Desolate Immortal Cave!]
[Furious Retribution(World): What the fuck?! Immortal Tao Renjing? Perfect clear?! What is this?!]
[System(World): Player 'Furious Retribution' has been muted for 3 hours from the world chat. Reason: Bad words]
Since there was someone who was muted by the system for cursing, the rest of the text sent by players didn't contain any curse words. But instead, they bypassed it with their colourful sentence.
[Pigs can Fly(World): What is this perfect clear? Asking the team of great gods to enlighten us!]
[I've walked past(World): I checked the forums, there was no information about perfect clear!]
More and more players were asking about the perfect clear, and the first team that first cleared the dungeon was soon forgotten.
[Laughing Rats(World): Hahahaha! Everyone, I've been refreshing the forums ever since the announcement was made! A forum moderator had pinned a thread about this particular topic! Go, go, go and read, ah!]
While everyone in the world chat was busy, Li Shenyang and his team were still in the dungeon. Since Li Shenyang had muted the world chat, he did not know how much of a ruckus he and his team had created. Of course, that didn't stop his teammates from telling him.
"Yang Shen! Hahaha! Perfect clear, ah!" Lightning Lynx happily cheered.
"Yang Shen, it was hard on you. For this boss's loot drop, you'll receive priority," Qinglong said.
"Yes, ah! If not for you, we might've failed this dungeon all together!" Illusory Swan's happiness can be sensed from his tone. "If we failed, I would've wasted that 300 spirit points as well as that revival pill I bought from the item mall."
"Since you've already bought the pill before, why didn't you just buy another one earlier and help Yang Shen?" Bai Lang asked.
"And suffer another one-hit-kill like you? Do I look like someone who likes to donate money to the game company?" Illusory Swan retorted.
"Alright, alright. I'm sure you guys have heard what the boss said earlier," Li Shenyang decided to stop the two from bickering. "Since I already have this sword, then one of you should get this sword that Immortal Tao left."
"Let the captain have it, ba!" Black Inferno Tiger said, and the rest agreed.
"Are you sure?" Qinglong asked Li Shenyang.
"En. If not, then I would feel bad," Li Shenyang replied.
"If you say so. Then I won't be polite," Qinglong said with a small chuckle as he went to take the sword from the ground. Unfortunately, he was unable to do so and a system prompt appeared on his screen.
[System: The item you're trying to pick up is soul bound to another player.]
"I can't pick it up. It says its already soul bound to another player," Qinglong informed the team.
"Huh? Are you sure, captain?" Lightning Lynx asked while going over to the sword and tried to pick it up.
[System: The item you're trying to pick up is soul bound to another player.]
"It's true, ah!" Lightning Lynx exclaimed with awe.
"Of course, it's true. I am not blind yet," Qinglong said. "Yang Shen, the boss said he left this sword to you. Maybe you're the only one who can pick the sword up."
"Eh? What if it's random? Let's let the other pick it up first," Li Shenyang said. "It's fine. I already received this sword from the spider boss before and this weapon has a good stats."
"Well, since Yang Shen didn't want it, let me try next!" Bai Lang went to the sword, only to inform his team of the same outcome. Illusory Swan and Black Inferno Tiger also tried it, but it was no use.
"We've all tried it. Yang Shen, you pick it up, ba! Since the boss gave it to you, then just accept it," Qinglong told Li Shenyang.
"… Okay. Then, I will take this sword," Li Shenyang finally relented and picked the sword up. When he did, half of the blade shattered upon picking up.
[System: Received Damaged Silverlight x1]
"Hurry and equip it so we can see!" Bai Lang said excitedly. From their point of view, they didn't get to see how half of the blade shattered upon being picked up.
"It's damaged. I don't know if I can equip it," Li Shenyang said as he went to his inventory and looked at the sword's information.
[Item: Damaged Silverlight (High Grade)]
[Description: This damaged sword once belongs to an Immortal Cultivator named Tao Renjing. It was once a sword that could split the sea, destroy the mountain and shake the heaven. Unfortunately, it is now damaged and in need of repair. Players can still equip this as a weapon]
[Item Stats]
[Weapon Level: 0]
[Weapon Experience: 0/1000]
[Base Damage: 58-83]
[Attack Speed: 1.5]
[Weight: 2.0]
[Durability: 195/195]
[Increases critical chance by 15%]
[Increases attack speed by 10%]
[Reduced range (-3)]
Li Shenyang blinked at his screen, his heart racing as he read the stats. For a while, he was motionless before he rubbed his eyes, thinking that he might be seeing things. When he looked at his screen again, he couldn't help but gasp out in surprise.
"Oh, heavens above!" Li Shenyang exclaimed. "What luck, ah! What did I do in my past life to receive this kind of luck?!" Li Shenyang asked out loud.
"Yang Shen, what's wrong? You surprised us, ah! Is the weapon good?" Bai Lang asked curiously.
[YangShen(Party): Damaged Silverlight (High Grade)]
Li Shenyang didn't bother explaining and simply linked the weapon into the chat for the others to check.
"Good weapon," came Qinglong's voice not long after.
"Good weapon? Captain, is that all that you can say?" Bai Lang asked. "It's a growing weapon, ah! But… why is it high grade? According to the information we got, only Divine Weapon is a growing type weapon… and it can only be obtained by crafting…"
"Maybe because it's damaged?" Illusory Swan tried to reason. "It did say in need of repair in the description."
"Yang Shen, see if you can repair the weapon," Qinglong said after hearing Illusory Swan's conjecture.
"Let me see…" Li Shenyang looked around and finally saw the repair icon. When he clicked on it, another window opened. In the window, it listed the items that are required for the repair. "To repair the weapon, I need several materials… and also, Silverlight's Blueprint."
"Silverlight's Blueprint? Maybe it's a rare drop in this dungeon. Hold on, the boss mentioned that once we left the sealed space, we'll find his remains. Let's go look for it first," Qinglong said and they voiced out their agreement.
They walked to the very end of the dungeon and saw Immortal Tao's remains. The skeleton was still sitting cross-legged as if still cultivating. His robes were ruined due to the passage of time. Qinglong went forward and inspected the remains. When he did, random common drops were given to the team members.
[System: Received Pebbles x2]
[System: Received Rags x5]
[System: Received Iron Scraps x3]
[System: Received Spirit Stones x7]
[System: Received Gold x19]
Li Shenyang stared at the system notification and can't help but become speechless with the amount of gold he received. "Say, how much gold did you guys receive?" he asked out of curiosity.
"23," came Qinglong's reply.
"91."
"87."
"184."
"392."
The next responses came from Black Inferno Tiger, Bai Lang, Illusory Swan and Lightning Lynx respectively. Hearing this, Li Shenyang can't help but curse the Goddess of RNG. 'It is only gold… you can farm them slowly…' Li Shenyang tried to comfort himself.
"Yang Shen," Qinglong called out to him.
"Hmm?"
"You're lucky," Qinglong said with a chuckle. After saying that, another notification appeared on Li Shenyang's chatbox.
[System: Team Captain, Qinglong, has given Silverlight's Blueprint to YangShen]
[System World Announcement: Congratulations to Player: YangShen for obtaining the Divine Blueprint: Silverlight]
"Fuck! The world chat exploded!" Illusory Swan said then not long after, he added: "Ah, so many players got muted! Serve them right!"
"That's right. Calling our family Yang Shen hacker. Hmph!" Bai Lang agreed. "Yang Shen, don't worry about the world chat, ba! They'll cool down afterwards."
Meanwhile, the talked about Li Shenyang was still staring at his chatbox. Since he had muted the world chat, his chatbox still shows the system notification of Qinglong giving him the blueprint.
"Qinglong, are you sure you're giving me this?" Li Shenyang asked.
"En. Don't want it?"
"I want, ah! But… why are you giving me this?"
"Because I want you."
Li Shenyang who heard this froze on his chair. He took off his headphone and then went to get his earpick. He cleaned it with alcohol then proceeded to clean his ear canal. After that, he returned to his chair and put his headphone back. The moment he did, he heard the team members admonishing Qinglong.
"Ah, captain! Why did you have to scare Yang Shen?! Look, he's not responding no matter how much we called him!" Bai Lang complained.
"Captain, can't you use other words? That could be misunderstood. Its good to be straight forward but…" Black Inferno Tiger's tone sounded helpless.
"Hehehehe… I want you, he said. What if Yang Shen thought that you want him 'that way' ah?! Of course, any straight man would be scared," Lightning Lynx said.
"I… didn't mean it that way. I only wanted him to join our team. It was fine in King's Arena, but this game requires six people in a team. We only have a year to prepare for the league," Qinglong's voice had sounded nervous to Li Shenyang.
"I'm sorry, Qinglong… can you repeat what you said before?" Li Shenyang finally spoke.
"Ah, yes. Yang Shen. I worded my sentence wrong earlier. What I meant is that I want you to join our team," Qinglong quickly told Li Shenyang.
"Oh, I'm glad that was just a misunderstanding in my part," Li Shenyang sighed in relief. "But what do you mean by joining your team?"
"Exactly what it means! Yang Shen, we're lacking one more player for our team. Qinglong think you're a good player so he wanted to take you in! How about it?"
"Well…" Li Shenyang hesitated, but when he remembered how Qinglong gave him the blueprint without any hesitation, he felt that it would be rude of him to reject it. 'But still… shouldn't I first find out what I'm getting myself into? What if these are a new type of scamming skills?' he couldn't help but worry.
"You don't have to agree now. You can think slowly and give out your answer," Qinglong said, trying to not pressure Li Shenyang. "I just hope that if other teams tried to poach you, you would give our team priority."
"En. Okay. Let me think about it," Li Shenyang said. "It would help if you can explain to me what I am getting myself into if I were to join your team."
"Then… add me in WChat," as Qinglong said this, Li Shenyang could hear a typing sound from the other side. Soon, a new message appeared on his chatbox.
[Qinglong(Party): Shaoqing17]
Seeing this, Li Shenyang took his phone on the table and opened his WChat app. He searched for Qinglong's ID and soon, saw the other's profile. The profile was put on private, but Li Shenyang could see the profile picture. It was an image of a black-armoured knight holding a sword, with a blazing red cloak on his back.
When Li Shenyang saw the profile picture of Qinglong, his eyes widened and his eyeballs almost popped out of his socket. "Qinglong… this… Are you the captain of Royal Blazer from King's Arena?" his voice was slightly shaking.
"Former team captain of Royal Blazer. Unfortunately, following the shut down of King's Arena, Royal Blazer also ceased to exist. Now, I'm planning to start fresh and create a new tea-" Qinglong didn't get to finish when Li Shenyang suddenly entered a fanboy mode.
"Daddy! I'm a big fan! Sign my poster please!"