MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks

“Who were you talking to just now?”

“No one.”

“No one? I clearly saw you speaking with a red-haired wizard in red robes just now. How is that no one?”

“There really wasn’t anyone here. Maybe you’re imagining things.”

While Jiaojiao spoke, she made sure to fan her little hands before Li Yi’s eyes. It was so infuriating that Li Yi almost lost his breath.

Jiaojiao refused to answer him. No matter how Li Yi asked, Jiaojiao would immediately answer that there was no one there. Li Yi was so angry that he almost snuck into Jiaojiao’s room to spank her butt. However, since Fire Ice was there as well, he dismissed the thought.

Filled with suspicion, Li Yi Teleported away from Blade Peak and continued to kill the phoenix.

The moment Li Yi Teleported to the designated location, he was assaulted by an intense heatwave. Li Yi spun his head around and found Flaming Phoenix’s corpse.

After dispelling Soul Bind’s special effects, Li Yi let loose a furious barrage of attacks onto Flaming Phoenix.

“Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!”

Star Arrows streaked across the field, along with Carulla’s Arrow. Flaming Phoenix’s HP dropped to zero, and a moment later, it resurrected.

Li Yi activated God Mode, unleashed a bunch of Elimination Arrows, and instantly nuked down Flaming Phoenix.

HOWLL—

The embers on Flaming Phoenix’s body ignited once more, and once again, it had brazenly resurrected.

After engulfing the battlefield with Flame Shower Spell, Li Yi toppled onto the ground…

…

While Li Yi was repeatedly killing Flaming Phoenix, King of Pantheons had made some adjustments to the Instance Dungeons.

The adjustments they made were pretty major, shocking even Li Yi, as the changes were directly related to Glory Dungeon…

The adjustments made were final, which is to say that after these adjustments were made, there would be no more changes to Glory.

‘Compared to my previous life, the rate of adjustments being implemented has increased…’

‘Is it because I’ve successfully led my party to defeat Spider King?’

Dying in Glory was no longer a possibility. Once a player is killed, they would be forcefully sent out of the dungeon. However, they could re-enter it and continue to fight. The only limitation left regarding the death system was that players still could not use any resurrection spells.

Additionally, both Spider King’s HP and the range of its spider silk attack had been reduced. Also, the time needed to remove the screws, along with the rate of damage dealt when standing atop Spider King’s body had been lowered.

Besides that, the attack range of the raymen had also been reduced. The rayman boss’s skill ‘Illuminate’ had also been decreased by 30 seconds…

Overall, Glory had been redesigned from top to bottom. Even the bosses that players had yet to face had been adjusted.

Players were stunned by the news. No one could figure out the reason for the readjustment. Some hypothesized that it was to prevent any incidents from happening, now that the identity of the closed beta players has been disclosed. Others theorized that Glory’s difficulty was too high, and the readjustment was done to close the gap between the pros and the noobs.

Naturally, Pantheon’s official forum would never tell the truth, thus, no one would know whether their theories were correct or not.

After Glory’s readjustment, Pantheon’s official forum announced some exciting news. Remember back when Pantheon’s official forum would gift additional rewards to players who got the first kill for Pinnacle of the Fire’s final boss, Ivrit to encourage the players? They were doing the same thing for the Light and Dark Instances as well. Although no party had yet to make it to the final boss, the additional rewards had already been announced.

[The first player to enter Soul Gate would be rewarded with 10,000,000 Gold Coins!]

[The first player to encounter the Soul King will be rewarded with 10,000,0000 Gold Coins!]

[The first party to defeat the Soul King will be rewarded with Epic-level soul mounts!]

[The first party to defeat the Soul King in Hell-level difficulty will be rewarded with Epic-level flying soul mounts!]

…

The rewards were amazing!

The Light and Dark Instances info sheet had listed down 5 Party-level Instance Dungeons. Currently, players had progressed up to the third dungeon, the Epic-level Large-sized Dungeon, Glory. Though players still had a long journey ahead to reach the final boss, the Soul King’s residence, which was the Soul Gate dungeon, the announcement of the first kill’s rewards would definitely bolster the players’ fighting spirit.

Also, there were only three days before Glory is reopened!

Once the Readjustment announcement was made, players started to flood the chat channels. Stragglers were looking for parties, parties were looking for guilds to join, and guilds were requesting alliances. As they say, many hands make light work, one’s skill was no longer taken into consideration, as players were only looking for numbers.

Even Li Yi had joined the fray. Compared to the other major guilds, the Iron Alliance’s numbers were not very high. Since Glory had multiple areas that were painfully difficult to clear, Li Yi needed more members. Having more members would give them an advantage, and without them, they were going to have an insanely hard time pushing forward.

Multiple forces were operating in secret. Some guilds had even buried the hatchet with their lifelong enemies and agreed to form a party together.

Once again, Li Yi attempted to kill Flaming Phoenix for the entire day. Despite his efforts, the dumb bird still refused to die. Though some of the blame could be pinned on Li Yi’s skill (he had yet to overcome his limit of 9 kills), the major reason was still luck.

Basically, Li Yi’s luck was working against him.

While Li Yi was fighting the Flaming Phoenix, multiple major guilds and parties had contacted him. Li Yi had an open-to-all policy, and regardless of the players’ associations or grudges, he accepted all of them.

He did not have a choice. After all, Glory had reached its final adjustment, and its difficulty had been drastically reduced. It was no longer a competition of skill, but manpower. As long as they had the advantage in numbers, they would be able to make it through, but without it, it was virtually impossible. Many did not understand this fact, but Li Yi did. After all, his experience with the game was several times greater than the closed beta players.

“I accept everyone! I don’t care who you are! It doesn’t matter if you’re enemies or friends, as long you want to join, I’ll accept you!” Li Yi sent out his message in the chat.

Due to Li Yi’s invitation, Iron Alliance’s numbers rapidly swelled…

Naturally, there were exceptions, like the Huashan Sect. They cared little about joining the Iron Alliance. Instead, Scumbag Wang had sent over an invitation letter to Li Yi, requesting that he join the Huashan Guild.

“Scumbag Wang of the Huashan Guild and Dark Wing of the Iron Alliance. Together, we will soar to unbelievable heights!”

Scumbag Wang’s invitation was quite simple. However, after reading it carefully and contemplating for a long time, Li Yi did not reply.

There was no way he could reply to the message, as Scumbag Wang would take it as a sign of agreement no matter what Li Yi said.

The Flame Shower Spell continued to rain down from the sky, and once again, Li Yi had collapsed onto the ground.

This time, Li Yi did not immediately resurrect. Instead, he waited until Flaming Phoenix’s temporary stat boosts had disappeared, stood up, used the friend summoning tool, and brought people over.

Fighting the phoenix by himself was too disheartening, and he was beginning to lose his mind.

Li Yi brought over five Ice Wizards and told them to stand at a distance. He only needed them to make Frost Arrows for him.

Since Frost Arrows had a slight movement speed reduction effect and was the direct counter to Flaming Phoenix’s attribute, having five Ice Wizards to help him fire Frost Arrows would make the fight much easier.

The curtain was raised on the battle, the five Ice Wizards started making the Frost Arrows and fired them at Flaming Phoenix. Meanwhile, Li Yi had activated God Mode and with a series of ‘thuds’, he shot arrow after arrow, striking down Flaming Phoenix in no time.

“Gaoo—”

Flaming Phoenix let out a tragic cry and slumped onto the ground. Following that, the flames on its body vanished…

‘Is it dead?’

‘It died immediately without resurrecting even once?’

Li Yi stared dumbfounded at the corpse of Flaming Phoenix. It was too good to be true. After all, he had killed it many times over the past few days, but it never stayed down. To think that it died immediately after he brought reinforcements…

“Guild Master, is there anything else?” The five Ice Wizards thought that Li Yi still had further instructions.

“Nothing else, thanks for the help. All of you can return now.”

“You’re welcome! Tell us if you need anything else!”

The five Ice Wizards gripped their Return City Stone and returned to the city.

While walking towards Flaming Phoenix’s corpse, Li Yi gently tapped his Orange Quality Bow and called out, “Goddess! Goddess!”

The Orange Quality Bow sparkled, and the Hunter Goddess’ Divine Soul popped out from the Orange Quality Bow.

Under the nurture of the Orange Quality Bow, Hunter Goddess’ Divine Soul was starting to look more stable. Li Yi remembered how she looked when they first met. She was a pale apparition, but now, she was starting to solidify. It was a vast improvement.

“Young one, what do you need?”

“I’ve killed a Flaming Phoenix. Can you absorb its Divine Soul?” Li Yi pointed towards the corpse of Flaming Phoenix.

“Flaming Phoenix!”

Hunter Goddess’ eyes shot open, and she extended her hand towards Flaming Phoenix’s corpse. “Tch…Tch…Tch…”

Flaming Phoenix’s corpse began to disintegrate and was transformed into flames as it entered the Orange Quality Bow…

“The Flaming Phoenix is the Ruler of God’s favorite divine pet. It has a near-immortal body, but still, it has a flaw. Do you know what that flaw is?”

“Flaw?”

“Flaming Phoenix does not have a soul. The so-called ‘soul’ is actually its body. Once it dies, it would be the same as disappearing from this world.”

Li Yi was shocked.

‘The Orange Quality Bow needs to absorb Divine Souls in order to break its seals. However, Flaming Phoenix does not have a soul. Doesn’t that mean that the seals will never be broken?’

“Fret not, young one, Flaming Phoenix’s corpse is made out of the purest form of Inextinguishable Tinder. Though it lacks a Divine Soul, once I take in the Inextinguishable Tinder, Wrath of the Stars will receive an upgrade.”

“What are you waiting for then? Get to it!”

Hunter Goddess shook her head silently. Li Yi suddenly had a bad feeling. He suspected that the goddess was about to say something infuriating again…

“At my current strength, absorbing the Inextinguishable Tinder would prove difficult. You’ll need to bring some extremely cold items, such as Frost Dews or Ice Crystals…”

‘As expected, she’s making matters difficult again…’

Li Yi was silent for quite some time.

Without exception, all of the materials that Hunter Goddess had requested were Grade 10 materials. The price was not a problem to Li Yi, however, most auctions did not sell them.

Instead, he would have to farm them himself…

“Can’t you take it in slowly?”

Hunter Goddess nodded seriously. “Of course I can. However, the process will take at least a thousand years.”

‘Go f*ck yourself! Why would you even tell me that if it takes a thousand years…’

Li Yi considered strangling the Goddess to death.

When all was said and done, Flaming Phoenix’s corpse was still absorbed into his Orange Quality Bow, and although Grade 10 materials were not easy to farm, it was not impossible. All he had to do was to take his time.

Li Yi checked his Orange Quality Bow’s attributes and was immediately filled with joy.

There was no change in stats, however, the durability issue that bugged Li Yi for so long was finally gone. Its durability was now unlimited! Now, he no longer needed to worry about its durability and could shoot arrows freely.

Li Yi was still jumping with joy when the infuriating Goddess spoke again, which darkened his mood.

“I’m going to extract a portion of the bow’s strength to contain the Inextinguishable Tinder. So, you’d best limit your usage of Wrath of the Stars to under half an hour. Otherwise, Inextinguishable Tinder explodes, and both of us will have a problem on our hands.”

“F*ck!”