Translator/Editor: Mr Voltaire
Editor: TheNo1Fan
[TLN: Just to make things a bit clearer in this chapter, I’ve bolded the numbers when it’s Ling Chen taking damage]
The Warring Palace Skeleton was sitting at the same place that Ling Chen had seen it. Back then, Ling Chen only saw it after he was very close to it. However, now that there was no Eerie Castle blocking the light, Ling Chen could see the gigantic skeleton from over a hundred metres away. Ling Chen took a deep breath, spurred on his Cloud Stepping Mare, and yelled, “Charge!!!”
The first time he had come here, he had been very cautious and tentative. This time, he charged at full speed!
If Xi Ling was here, it would only take her three ‘Red Lasers’ to destroy it. However, Xi Ling could not even come out, much less battle. Despite this, it would still be no problem for Ling Chen to kill it.
As he charged, the distance between them shrank. In just a few seconds, he had entered the boundary of the Eerie Castle. He remembered that back then, the Warring Palace Skeleton had only woken up because they had attacked the semi-spirit girl. That meant that as long as Ling Chen didn’t attack the Warring Palace Skeleton, it would not take the initiative to attack him first. As such, he approached without any caution.
“Soul Sacrifice!!”
“Battle Soul Possession!!”
Ling Chen had no way to resist the semi-spirit girl’s ability to lock his skills, so he activated his two strongest skills before coming close. When he was about 10 metres away from the Warring Palace Skeleton, he jumped off the Cloud Stepping Mare, and simultaneously called it back. He released a Ling Tian Burst with his left hand, and a Four Corners Star Formation with his right hand towards the Warring Palace Skeleton. From the beginning, he began to use his strongest attacks. If he didn’t use them now, he might not have a chance later on when the semi-spirit girl began to use her skills. Moreover, against this LV20 Celestial boss, having 1 HP or max HP was the same- one hit from the Warring Palace Skeleton was enough to immediately kill him.
“Ahhh!!!”
31046、-29568！
Bang!! Bam!!
-31,046, -29,568！
A purple damage figure and a blue damage figure appeared above the enormous skeleton. The purple damage figure signified a critical hit and pierce, whereas the blue signified a pierce… these two attacks had not been affected by the Warring Palace Skeleton’s Defence at all! Having the Cancer Orb, all of Ling Chen’s attacks in future would either be blue or purple, and never be simply red or yellow. His attacks would always at least have pierce, and occasionally have critical hits.
Rumble…
Having taken two attacks, the dormant Warring Palace Skeleton was awoken, and the ground trembled as it stood up. The gigantic skeletal sword also appeared in its hand. At the same time, a deep voice sounded out.
“Who, has once again disturbed my sleep…”
“Shut the hell up.”
The first time he had heard this voice, it had made him feel quite apprehensive. This giant skeleton’s voice released an oppressive and dominating force. However, the skeleton just seemed like a massive idiot to him now. Standing up took a whole three seconds, and shouting out took another five seconds. In this period of time, Ling Chen attacked it again and again.
-7,766，-7,761
-7,729，-15,501
-7,750，-15,542
Under the effects of Soul Sacrifice, Ling Chen’s attack power was simply monstrous. Before, with the Battle Soul Possession, his two attacks had cleared off more than 60,000 of the warring Palace Skeleton’s HP. Now, after three rounds of double Ling Tian Bursts, the Warring Palace Skeleton’s 250,000 HP had fallen to less than half, and a faint grey light arose from its body.
At this moment, Ling Chen stopped attacking, and quickly retreated to 30 metres away. When he looked back at the Warring Palace Skeleton, it had already entered its battle mode. On its right hand, Ling Chen saw the semi-spirit girl with her jet black eyes and black dress.
The girl was still holding her extremely old rabbit doll. Ling Chen’s opponent wasn’t just the Warring Palace Skeleton, but also this girl as well, who was his biggest obstacle to defeating the gigantic skeleton.
The Warring Palace Skeleton’s key strengths were in its Attack Power and Defence. Its Defence was especially high, to the point that it made people want to despair. With Ling Chen’s base Attack Power, without Soul Sacrifice or the Cancer Orb, he definitely would not be able to break through it. However, its Movement Speed was incredibly low, and every time after it attacked it would pause for quite a few seconds before it attacked again. It also didn’t have a very big variety of attacks- apart from its ultimate skill that it could only use once per day, its only other skill that could cause damage was the Earth Splitting Slash.
Without its massive Defence, to Ling Chen, this Celestial boss was not much of a challenge anymore. The only things stopping him from easily killing it was its Baleful Shield and the semi-spirit girl.
Having its HP reduced to 50%, the Warring Palace Skeleton’s Baleful Shield, which reflected 10% of physical damage automatically activated. Ling Chen, in his condition with Soul Sacrifice activated, definitely couldn’t afford to attack it, otherwise the reflection of his own damage would instantly kill him. He once again called out the Cloud Stepping Mare, and quickly retreated. Behind him, the Warring Palace Skeleton also began to move, and just one step closed in the distance between them by one third.
“Even… if … I … die… I … will … not … let … you … hurt … the … one … I … am … protecting …”
Although it had gone down to Celestial grade, the Warring Palace Skeleton’s voice was still ear splitting. While Ling Chen calculated his timing, he looked back at the Warring Palace Skeleton. The giant skeleton’s undying will came from its desire to protect something… was the thing it was protecting the bodiless semi-spirit girl?
Finally, the Soul Sacrifice’s effects ended. Ling Chen immediately restored his HP with a potion, then turned around and charged at the Warring Palace Skeleton.
“Today you… will definitely die!!”
Because of Xi Ling, this was the first time he had harboured such hatred towards a monster. As he entered the Warring Palace Skeleton’s attacking range, the Warring Palace Skeleton stopped walking, and raised its gigantic sword, then swung it down at Ling Chen.
Boom!!!
The ground had been split, and dust floated everywhere. It was evident that if this attack had hit him, Ling Chen would undoubtedly be dead. However… its actions had been too obvious. Back when it had been Heaven’s End grade, Ling Chen was able to predict where it would hit, but could not escape its terrifying AOE in time. However, the radius of the Celestial grade Warring Palace Skeleton’s Earth Splitting Slash had been significantly reduced. While on the Cloud Stepping Mare, Ling Chen’s maximum Movement Speed was 206, which made it incredibly easy to dodge!
Within the earthshattering sounds, Ling Chen easily escaped from the Warring Palace Skeleton’s AOE, and rushed to its feet, simultaneously sending out two Ling Tian Bursts.
-1940，-3878
-194，-388.
Two Ling Tian Bursts took away about 5,000 of the Warring Palace Skeleton’s HP, but his own HP had also fallen by about half. At the same time, two rays of black light silently appeared and wrapped around his body.
“Ding… you have been restricted by the “Darkness Lock”, your Attack Speed, Jumping Ability and Evasion have been lowered by 30% for 30 seconds, no effect on your Hit Rate or Movement Speed.”
“Ding… you have been restricted by the “Underworld Lock”, you cannot use any active skills for 30 seconds.”
Ling Chen raised his head. Hovering twenty metres above the ground, the girl in black’s two hands were glowing with a dark light.
The Jadeite Jade proved its worth, as the Darkness Lock did not reduce his Movement Speed. As for the reduction to his Attack Speed, Evasion and Jumping Ability, he didn’t mind too much. Not being able to use skills temporarily also was not a big deal. Before the Warring Palace Skeleton could attack again, he used his normal attacks to hit it.
-924，-930.
-92，-93.
After attacking four times and suffering the recoil four times, Ling Chen’s HP had dropped to a dangerous state. He temporarily stopped attacking, and prepared to use a potion to recover his lost HP. Suddenly, his sense of danger alerted him of something above him. By the time he looked up, a Darkness Spike was only half a metre away from him. Before, the first time he had been attacked by this Darkness Spike, his Movement Speed had been reduced. Moreover, it was so unexpected that he did not have time to defend himself. However, this time, he definitely would not be hit so easily by it.
Without much thought, Ling Chen twisted his body and quickly dismounted from the Cloud Stepping Mare, narrowly avoiding the Darkness Spike descending from above. The Darkness Spike instead landed on the Cloud Stepping Mare, nearly instantly killing it. Ling Chen landed on the ground, and slightly frowned. After quickly pondering for half a second, he recalled the Cloud Stepping Mare. To him, the Darkness Spike was an incredibly fearsome skill- because it was completely silent, and undetectable through any senses other than sight, Ling Chen was only able to detect it through his danger sense which had been developed after many life-and-death battles. After receiving so much damage from the Baleful Shield, he knew that if he was hit by the Darkness Spike, he would definitely die. As such, he unhesitatingly abandoned his mount… although sitting on his mount increased his Movement Speed, but it also reduced his own agility. Even without the Cloud Stepping Mare, he could effectively avoid the Warring Palace Skeleton’s attacks.
The best method for avoiding the Darkness Spike was to quickly dodge once the spike had been shot out. Because the Darkness Spike flew at a set trajectory, as opposed to being locked onto its target, it would be easy to dodge it once it had begun moving.
As such, after Ling Chen recovered his HP, he took a deep breath, and used his fastest speed to run towards the Warring Palace Skeleton’s body.