MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

That day, Li Yi returned home very late.

Xie Qin suggested that they drink a little, and in the end Li Yi kept drinking until both the mother and her daughter got a little tipsy.

Of course, since Li Yi was a gentleman, he only copped a few feels from Jiaojiao before he went home, humming a tune…

“The two of us don’t have anyone to rely on, so thank you very much for today.

“Lil Jiao may have a bad temper, but that child is still very kind.

“Lil Yi, are your parents outstation often? When will they come back?”

Li Yi lay on his bed as he recalled Xie Qin’s words, feeling extremely warm inside.

This incident had clearly deepened his relationship with Xie Qin and Jiaojiao even further.

The next day, Li Yi hunted down their landlord and paid twice the original amount to purchase their house.

He did not tell Xie Qin or Jiaojiao about any of this. The reason he did so was because while she was drunk, Xie Qin had mentioned that the rent was a little too high for her capabilities.

Li Yi clearly remembered that although Jiaojiao had always been playing Pantheon in the previous life, she never really earned anything in-game. She worked as a taekwondo instructor in real life, and she never accepted male students, so she only ever taught self-defense to women. Her monthly salary was slightly over a thousand bucks, and her mother did not earn a lot as a teacher either. The two of them relied only on each other, so once they deducted their daily expenses and the rent from their income, they did not much left in lieu of savings.

Li Yi logged into the game and went to the Underwater Remnants.

Although he no longer received any EXP when farming here, Jiaojiao could still level up here. As a Level 1 Black Paladin, she could obtain EXP wherever she went.

Li Yi asked Jiaojiao to go to the Guild’s Map and claim the 2.5x EXP buff. Meanwhile, he ran to the Underwater Remnants and used his friend summoning tool to drag Jiaojiao there directly.

He gave her the EXP Pearl via trade as well and had her keep it equipped. After that, he also gave her Ice Toad King’s Mount before he summoned his own Mermaid Princess and began to pull monsters.

Although the large difference in level meant that Jiaojiao received very little EXP, the EXP Pearl and the 2.5x EXP multiplier buff meant that she leveled up extremely quickly. After clearing the map once, she was already at Level 13.

It took less than ten minutes!

“Hot d*mn, this feels so f*cking good!” Jiaojiao leaped back and forth excitedly as she rode the Ice Toad King’s Mount.

As the level difference between Jiaojiao and the murloc monsters decreased, she received increasingly larger amounts of EXP. After five hours, Jiaojiao’s level reached a whopping Level 20!

By the end of the day, Jiaojiao was already at Level 20.

Having someone else to carry the player as they farm was one thing, and not having one was a different thing altogether. Back when the Pantheon servers first opened, grinding from Level 1 to Level 20 took a whole month. Now? With the 2.5x EXP buff and someone to carry her, all it took was one day!

Of course, while regular players everywhere were leveling up faster, only a select few could accomplish it as quickly as Li Yi did. After all, not everyone had a legendary mount like the Mermaid Princess.

“Perverted Wing, how did you get the Mermaid Princess mount? Could you get me one too?” Jiaojiao looked at the Mermaid Princess with a gaze of pure envy.

“I want to, but even I don’t know if I can get another.”

The Light and Darkness Instances’ group dungeons had been open for more than half a month now, but as things stood, no one had managed to clear them. Firstly, their equipment level was not high enough, and secondly, they were not synchronized enough. However, on the third day of Li Yi’s leveling spree with Jiaojiao, news arrived from the instances, saying that the two parties led by Big Boy and Amber Sword Heart respectively had successfully taken down the first boss in the party-level dungeon, Light Conference.

Meanwhile, the Iron Alliance was still working on gathering equipment. Li Yi had already made it very clear to the leaders of the Iron Alliance that they were not to enter the dungeon until their equipment level reached 120.

Light Conference was a 200-man instance dungeon. The first boss there was not hard to beat; they just needed to die a few more times, train a few more times, and have above average luck. However, the following three bosses became progressively harder. If their equipment level was not up to speed, and if the members did not have a certain level of coordination, it was perfectly normal to stay stuck at those three bosses for a year. In the previous life, even when King of Pantheon had been running for eight years, there were still many players who had never cleared Light Conference.

“Perverted Wing, I know you wanna help me level, but don’t hold back on guild matters just cuz of me. I don’t wanna be the kind of beauty that ruins dynasties.”

On the fourth day of Li Yi’s helping Jiaojiao to grind levels, Jiaojiao grew rather embarrassed.

“Eh, I guess you could say you’re a beauty, but ruining dynasties? Not even close.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Those country-wrecking beauties are all fair as snow, but you’re all dark.”

“Why are you calling dark!”

Jiaojiao roared, and her character instantly became colorless. Almost immediately after that, Li Yi’s house door was kicked open, and Jiaojiao flew inside, cucumber slices still sticking to her face. Baring her claws and fangs, she pounced at Li Yi, grabbing her neck and shaking it.

“Who’s dark? Who are you calling dark…?”

“I’m… going dark…” Li Yi’s eyes rolled into the back of his head.

Of course, there was naturally a reason why Li Yi did not do anything else but carry Jiaojiao and help her level up, all day, every day.

Right now, very few players managed to switch their classes to Black Paladin. There were only 110 in the entire Eastern Continent, and each of them had yet to show their true power due to their overly low level, without exception.

The strategy to defeat the second boss of the Light Conference Instance Dungeon was very complicated, but having a Black Paladin in the party made things much easier. That was also why Li Yi decided to bring Jiaojiao’s level up, so that she could keep up with the main group.

On the fifth day of his helping her to train, Jiaojiao finally reached Level 30.

Li Yi took out the Rune Greatsword (with the ???? attributes) and the Undead Hordes Skill Tome that he had obtained from the Dwelling of the Undead, and traded them both to Jiaojiao.

“Try and see if you can equip those.”

The Rune Greatsword had an attribute list full of question marks, and the Undead Hordes Skill Tome had a level requirement of Level 70.

The Rune Greatsword in Jiaojiao’s hand swayed slightly. “Whoosh!” There was an explosion of black smoke and even the ground beneath their feet seemed to jolt.

Just then, the rainbow-colored system notification appeared!

[A divine weapon has been born in the Eastern Continent…]

“This sword sure has some terrifying attributes.” Jiaojiao just stood there, holding the Rune Greatsword in a daze.

“Terrifying?”

Li Yi checked Jiaojiao’s equipment attributes and was similarly shocked.

[Lord of Disaster (Orange-colored, Legendary-level)]

[Equipment Level: Level 30 (Level increases automatically, and the attributes will be adjusted in tandem)]

[Equipment Class: For Black Paladins only (two-handed weapon)]

[870–2200 Damage]

[STR +300]

[END +300]

[ATK SPD 3.5 seconds]

[Defile (Special Effect): When the Lord of Disaster successfully hits a target, the target will be defiled by the power of darkness. Both its P-DEF and M-DEF will be reduced by 20%. Effect lasts for 20 seconds.]

[Special effect (level requirement not met)]

[Special effect (level requirement not met)]

[Special effect (level requirement not met)]

[Undying Body (special effect): Grants invincibility against all negative effects, including death… This status lasts for 15 seconds. Cooldown time: 5 minutes.]

[Special effect (level requirement not met)]

[Note: This is the Lord of Disaster’s weapon, so all the undead will bow before this sword…]

…

“D*mn, is this an orange-colored weapon?” Even Li Yi was feeling somewhat lost.

“What’s the matter? You wanna take it back?” Jiaojiao nervously tightened her grip on the Lord of Disaster.

That was when Li Yi understood…

Every class in King of Pantheon had quests that would award them an orange-colored weapon, except for the Black Paladin. In the previous life, countless players had demanded answers from the official site regarding this matter, but the official site always ignored them completely, and never even gave them a single word of explanation.

So it turned out that Black Paladins had an orange weapon as well, but unlike the other classes, the Black Paladins did not need to complete any quests to earn it. Instead, perhaps they had to steal it or earn it as a drop from the Lord of Disaster?

“Take it back, my *ss. Unlike orange-colored equipment, orange-colored weapons have their own bind function. From the moment you picked up the Lord of Disaster earlier, it’s already been bound to your soul.”

Jiaojiao was over the moon. “Bound? You mean it won’t drop even if I die? Hahahaha…”

“Stop laughing, idiot. Come to my place later and gimme a massage. That’s an orange-colored legendary weapon you got there, meaning you won’t get eliminated even when the God Region is unlocked. That’s something you can use until the day the servers close.”

“Sure, sure, anything for you.” Jiaojiao was still ecstatic over the Lord of Disaster, so she naturally agreed with anything Li Yi said.

“Lil Yi’zi, what do you think? Ain’t I strong now?”

“Strong, my *ss. Let’s go level up, and since your damage makes the mark now, fight alongside me!”

He had given Jiaojiao all the things he had saved up from the Dwelling of the Undead, so all Li Yi had left now was the Undead’s Necklace of Natural Disaster.

The Undead’s Necklace of Natural Disaster could b equipped by any class, but this necklace was strange in that he could not tell anything about its attributes or even its quality. The words on the necklace’s information page were all blacked out, so it did seem quite like a piece of mysterious equipment. Li Yi had been keeping the necklace on his person this whole time, but it was only when Brother Windcloud Nine led his armies and laid siege to Shattered Frost City that Li Yi finally discovered the secret of this necklace.

Just as before, Li Yi used the Mermaid Princess to pull the monsters. This time, however, they cleared the monsterlings at a much faster rate. Li Yi used Shoot at Random, Jiaojiao used Dark Strike, and within less than a minute, they managed to clear away the first wave of monsters. Her EXP gained a huge surge, and it seemed as though she was going to level up soon.

“You stay here and farm at your own pace. Imma go run the dungeon.”

Li Yi left Jiaojiao there to farm for herself while he headed to the Tidal Throne Instance Dungeon.

Since he had never obtained the Vile King’s purple-colored helmet, Li Yi had never stopped farming Tidal Throne. The moment it finished cooling down, he would immediately come here without fail. Come to think of it, he has been running this dungeon repeatedly for several months now.

He did not know if it was because he was just too unlucky, or if the drop rates are bad. It was probably both. Even after farming Tidal Throne for so long, the only decent thing he ever obtained was the Deep-red Seahorse. There was literally nothing else of value.

For now, most of the dungeons in King of Pantheon still had level requirements, rather than being freely open. That meant Jiaojiao could not enter, and that was also why Li Yi had her stay behind in the Underwater Remnants.

Li Yi was Level 71, armed with an orange now, and fully equipped with purple-colored equipment. Beating the Tidal Throne Instance Dungeon was already a walk in the park for him.

Perhaps he had a change in fortunes. When Li Yi defeated the second hiss, Prais, he obtained a Deep-red Seahorse as well as a Poison Ivy Trap Skill Tome.

The Skill Tome was extremely rare. As for the Deep-red Seahorse, Jiaojiao just happened to be in need of a mount.

Controlling the Big Murloc, Li Yi fought his way to the final stage. Just as he had returned to the dungeon entrance and began to fight the Vile King, Jiaojiao suddenly called out to him in the party channel.

“Perverted Wing, I’m being spawn camped…”