Chapter 412: 412, [Am I sure It’s not just the Boss?]
 

Northern West State, Tianbo Ridge.

This is a famous scenic spot not far from Frost Feather City, a fascinating place.

The unique landscape of this mountain range resembles a pair of bull horns when viewed from a distance.

Cultivators who fly between these horns at high speed would hear echoes like waves, thus the name Tianbo Ridge is derived.

At this moment, two paper cranes are flirting around the sky above Tianbo Ridge.

“Huh? Why is there no sound?” Xiao Long Bao, donned in a yellow gown, wondered perplexedly, “It must be because I didn’t fly fast enough, I’ll try again!”

With that, she maneuvered the paper crane, made a flip in midair, and took off towards the sky above the bullhorn-like Tianbo Ridge.

“Childish,” Lu Xiaoyu snapped.

Then, she too urged her paper crane to fly full speed ahead and grinned a tiny bit upon hearing the “pop” sound, evidently pleased with herself.

The pair spent their idle moments joyously flying around on their paper cranes.

Owning a paper crane carried status; the item was a product of the Demon Sect’s backyard.

Those with a paper crane might not have personal relationships with the people in the Demon Sect’s backyard, but it certainly indicated some deep ties.

So, in fact, it was a very honorable and pretentious matter to own a paper crane.

Only after a few days of personal experience did the two girls understood this fact.

The gift from Lu Xun had elevated their status within Heavenly Dust!

Xiao Long Bao remarked repeatedly with awe, “The Purple Palace is really amazing.”

Meanwhile, Lu Xiaoyu acted nonchalant as usual, saying, “Well…it’s alright.”

Seeing Lu Xiaoyu deep in thought, Xiao Long Bao maneuvered her crane next to hers, reaching out her slender fingers for a sudden attack, aiming to grab her with a climbing move. Finally, she shouted triumphantly, “Touch and Go!”

Bursting with embarrassment, Lu Xiaoyu commanded her paper crane to chase after and attack Xiao Long Bao.

The two girls played a game of cat and mouse in the sky for a while until Xiao Long Bao abruptly stopped.

The pursuing Lu Xiaoyu was about to strike when she immediately paused, seeing that they had encountered someone.

A man, also mounted on a paper crane and clothed in a black robe.

A longsword floated beside the man, exuding a terrifying pressure.

Lu Xun had tracked their whereabouts using the spiritual mark he planted on the paper crane and found his way here.

He was here to find his Lucky Koi.

He looked at the two girls with a smile on his face and said kindly, “Oh, look who ran into each other again.”

His performance was on point with a definite Oscar-worthy delivery.

Whether it’s expressions, tones or micro-expressions, everything was executed perfectly.

Despite bearing the face of an idol, he was an actor of solid strength.

“Ah! Elder Lu!” Xiao Long Bao seemed quite happy, and her tone appeared to rise slightly.

Lu Xiaoyu, standing next to her, took a sneak peek at Lu Xun and greeted him with an intentionally controlled tone.

Lu Xun looked at them, smiled and said, “We are quite fated, aren’t we?”

“Hee hee, yes we are.” Xiao Long Bao chimed in.

Lu Xun nodded, his demeanor was kindly like a senior citizen’s, and he asked, “Did you come here for something?”

“Ah! No, not at all. We just came to enjoy the view and have some fun, sightseeing.” Xiao Long Bao immediately responded.

They genuinely felt awkward telling the truth; they couldn’t just say they had specifically travelled all this way to listen to the mountain range’s echoes, could they?

In fact, Lu Xun had already guessed what they were doing from his spiritual mark. Instead of spoiling the fun, he suggested, “Well, I was planning to find a secluded place to meditate, would you be willing to protect me for the night? I would give you some compensation, just like last time.”

“Ha? What a good deal…” Xiao Long Bao’s voice trailed off into a whisper, then immediately changed her tone and said, “Since Elder Lu trusts us so much, we sisters are naturally willing!”

Lu Xiaoyu, standing beside her, quietly tapped her, seemingly dissatisfied with Xiao Long Bao’s decision on her behalf.

However, under Lu Xun’s slightly questioning gaze, she quickly nodded obediently.

Soon, a task notification popped up in front of both of them.

“[Ding! You have triggered the ‘Protective Law’ task, do you accept it?]”

In the rewards column of the task, it stated that 150,000 experience points and a chance to win a mystery item reward.

“Wow! The task rewards are so generous! It’s no wonder the World Protagonist is so magnanimous, I’m in love with him!” Xiao Long Bao exclaimed in her heart.

Lu Xiaoyu, on the other hand, didn’t have such extensive thoughts. She was merely content with interacting with Lu Xun. She didn’t feel any resistance and instead, felt quite pleased!

The truth was, Lu Xun’s meditation didn’t actually need anyone to protect him.

With ‘The Sword Qi is Near’, he wouldn’t face any problems.

But Xiao Long Bao and Lu Xiaoyu didn’t think too much into the presence of ‘The Sword Qi is Near’.

Because among current players, it was generally believed that ‘The Sword Qi is Near’ was Purple Palace’s sword.

As a Natural Sword Embryo, why did Purple Palace always appear without a sword before?

Wasn’t it because this sword was too powerful?!

Regardless of the sword’s strength, after all, it’s only a magical weapon.

No one ever considered that this sword was actually quite adept at moving on its own, it didn’t need to be wielded by anyone.

Just like the times when Senior Yan Li was in strict seclusion, it could still move about and play on its own.

Moreover, this mission was too tempting. Who cares if there is a trap? Only a fool would refuse it!

Seeing that they had accepted the mission, Lu Xun said, “Then follow me.”

He flew ahead while explaining, “This place is Tianbo Ridge, it’s not a remote area. Instead, every time a cultivator flies over, it creates a noise, which can be quite noisy.”

He knew that they were aware of this, he was simply teasing them.

“Ah, I see,” Xiao Long Bao feigned ignorance.

Then, they saw Lu Xun flying at an extreme speed without making any noise.

The two women were stunned. When they flew over, there was immediately a sound.

Lu Xun patiently explained, “If you can learn how to control wind and airflow, you won’t make any noise here.”

“Wow! He seems to know and understand everything!” Xiao Long Bao thought to herself.

Lu Xiaoyu kept a calm face, but she couldn’t help but think the same.

Lu Xun flew with the two women for a while, then found a secluded place. He planned to extract some random special attribute points there and also exchange his Swordsmanship Aptitude.

Xiao Long Bao and Lu Xiaoyu guarded outside with grave expressions, displaying excellent gaming attitudes – unlike some nonsensical players who were just merely going through the motions.

After sitting down cross-legged, Lu Xun opened the character panel and began the extraction process.

The familiar spinning wheel appeared. After a round of spinning, a notification popped up.

Lu Xun checked his gains, yet still didn’t have Swordsmanship Aptitude.

He had long gotten used to it.

If one day he was lucky enough to draw it, he might even think that there must be something wrong with the game!

The five special attribute points were “Detection +1”, “Stick Aptitude +1”, “Hidden Weapon Aptitude +1”, “Charm +1”, “Spiritual Power +1”.

“Huh, there’s no Gun Aptitude this time. The all-around achievement is only half done,” Lu Xun pondered.

He had grown accustomed to seeing Stick Aptitude and Gun Aptitude together, even though he didn’t have much use for them at the moment.

“This Hidden Weapon Aptitude is rare, but it’s somewhat of a dud,” Lu Xun thought.

Not many people play with hidden weapons, even fewer than playing with talismans.

Because hidden weapons are difficult to use, and… very expensive!

Many hidden weapons are single-use or have usage limitations, somewhat similar to talisman arts.

Moreover, because it’s not a mainstream system, it is hard to learn skills, farming opportunities for skills are rare, and related equipment is scarce on the market.

But of course, if one could really master it, hidden weapon paths could be as powerful as the ways of talismans.

“Detection has added another point, quite practical. It increases my authority, and sometimes it can overturn the situation based on detected information,” Lu Xun thought. This wasn’t a garbage attribute, but quite a useful thing.

And the biggest gains were, of course, Charm and Spiritual Power!

He had already experienced the benefits of Charm. Unexpectedly, he drew another point and directly reached Charm 5!

Combine that with Charisma 10 and using this ability was simply too wonderful!

Whenever he used this ability, people were astonished by his charm. They couldn’t close their mouths or stand straight.

“Oh~ where will I ever put all this irresistible charm?” Lu Xun was very satisfied.

You all may call me the Face Emperor instead of Purple Palace or White Emperor, okay?

As for Spiritual Power +1, it completely exceeded his expectation.

He had a total of Spiritual Power 6.

This led to an extremely powerful divine sense, much higher than people of the same realm.

Now, he had ample spiritual power, a health bar that was both long and thick, an extremely wide divine sense perception range, and first-class divine sense control. He could achieve good results through sheer power.

If he didn’t have divine sense as a foundation, he wouldn’t be able to control the abundance of Sword Qi stored in the sword sheath. If he can’t control it accurately, all this Sword Qi flying all over the place might indiscriminately hurt both foes and friends. Who knows if it would wound his own people?

Lu Xun estimated that with his recently increased character level and an additional point of Spiritual Power, the number of Sword Qi he could now control at a time was close to a whopping 3000!

Maybe one day, he could really achieve a rain of swords with just a thought!

That would surely be a spectacular scene.

After glancing at his current character panel, Lu Xun secretly nodded in approval, feeling quite macho.

— I’m too powerful!

“Is this even a non-player character’s panel? It feels more like I’m going the Boss route!”

Unfortunately, with the ongoing foreign invasion and his high position, the things he had to consider were completely different from normal players, so he didn’t bask in his achievements for long.

The road ahead was long.

“Little Yu is undoubtedly my lucky koi, even managing to draw Spiritual Power,” Lu Xun chuckled.

Once a special attribute hits 5 points, the probability of drawing it again is very small, and it becomes extremely difficult to increase.

Today was another day full of gains!

After doing all this, Lu Xun rubbed his hands, and his face showed rare anticipation.

Next, he was going to exchange for Swordsmanship Aptitude in the Mall!

…