Show Me the Money

Chapter 416 – Crow Like a Rooster and Snatch Like a Dog

In terms of strength, the Lord of Abyss was quite a long way from the death swordsman. However, it was amazingly ironic how he relied solely on a codex and its hymn of life to grind it out with Windless.

A hurtling spear from the Lord of Abyss finally brought anger to Windless’s face. His sword swung out a dazzling gleam to parry the spear, and at the same time, he kicked the mount under the Lord of Abyss, sending it flying.

The Lord of Abyss laughed aloud and spurred his mount back into the fight. Although covered in blood, he fought harder as the battle progressed, driving Windless to retreat.

“The Mystery Codex of Life! Damn thing!” Everyone below could see why the Lord of Abyss had the upper hand. With the Mystery Codex of Life, he was practically immortal. As long as his body wasn’t destroyed altogether, it would recover quickly.

“Is there any way to suppress him?” Marshal Ferotiger muttered to himself.

Fatty had an idea. He said, “I have a way.”

“You?” Marshal Ferotiger was startled but he immediately understood. “The Great Curse of Ice?”

Fatty nodded slightly. He had just quickly calculated that the energy in the Elemental Mystery Realm was enough for one cast of Great Curse of Ice. Only that it was still a question whether the Great Curse of Ice could freeze a powerful expert like the Lord of Abyss.

“Alright, I’ll inform Master Windless so that he’ll create the conditions for you.” Marshal Ferotiger decided.

Upon receiving the words from Marshal Ferotiger, Windless glanced and responded with an almost imperceptible nod. Marshal Ferotiger and others were reassured to see this. Prior to this, they had been afraid that Windless would refuse for the sake of face.

A thunderous rumble resounded as a sword light suddenly rose from the ground and lit up the whole Abyss Space. Just as expected, after the Lord of Abyss was cut in half, the two body parts twisted eerily.

“Kakaka.” Bizarre laughter emanated from the Lord of Abyss’ two halves and a green glow shone around them. Countless tiny spirits surrounded the Lord of Abyss in a prostrating posture, their faces devout and their hands forming a strange gesture. With feverish smiles on their faces, the spirits once again sang their paean.

“Great Curse of Ice!” Fatty growled, and over the green spirits, countless ice spirits appeared, each corresponding to a green one. The green spirits began to show fear as they were frozen by the ice spirits in less than ten minutes.

Worse was the Lord of Abyss who was covered in ice spirits of all sizes. Expressionless and frosty, they flocked onto the Lord of Abyss as if he was a delicious cake and firmly pinned the two body halves in two places.

“Ahhh!” The Lord of Abyss cried out in fear and struggled desperately with a ball of black light drifting over his body.

All of a sudden, the entire Abyss Space quaked. Countless whiffs of black miasma emerged from all directions and rushed into the Lord of Abyss’ body. With their help, the Lord of Abyss recovered some of his energy. He managed to knock away the ice spirits and the two body halves started reaching for each other.

“Humph!” Snorting, Windless slashed out. In the dazzling sword light, the Lord of Abyss screamed as the horizontal slash turned his two halves into four.

Fatty quickly shook out the Elemental Sword Diagram. The Lord of Abyss was swept into it in a flash. The sword formation slowly rotated, cutting off the Lord of Abyss from the outside world, which immediately interrupted the streams of black miasma. The ice spirits again rushed to his body.

“Bas..tard…” The Lord of Abyss trembled nonstop as the four pieces cut by Windless were parted, never once close to being united.

Looking at the little energy left in the Elemental Mystery Realm, Fatty’s heart burned with anger. A wave of his hand sent countless light swords raining down and blood from the Lord of Abyss’ body splashed in all directions.

As one sword fell after another, the resistance of the Lord of Abyss gradually weakened, until there was eventually no sound and instead, four ice sculptures in the air.

Smiling coldly, Fatty didn’t retract the Elemental Sword Diagram right away but pounced at one of the ice blocks with Steal.

Ding.

System Notification: Steal has failed. Suffer rigidity for 3 seconds.

Ding.

System Notification: Steal has failed. Suffer rigidity for 3 seconds.

Ding.

System Notification: Steal has succeeded. Obtained Demonic Dragon Spear.

Ding.

System Notification: Steal has failed. Suffer rigidity for 3 seconds.

Ding.

……

Ding.

System Notification: Steal has succeeded. Obtained Mystery Codex of Life.

He stole over a hundred times in a row, failed 80 or 90, and finally got what he wanted. Laughing in delight, Fatty stowed all the stolen items and took out the Elemental Skill Book.

The Mystery Codex of Life, also known as the Wood Mystery Codex, was similar to the other codices, except that the cover was green with the illustration of countless thriving plants on it. Holding it in his hands, Fatty felt a comfortable shock running through him as a thick, surging breath of life pervaded his whole body.

“This is indeed good stuff.”

Not wasting any time, he pressed the codex on the Elemental Skill Book. A bright green light rose into the air as Wood Mystery Codex quickly dispersed into a series of emerald lights flying around the Elemental Skill Book and slowly faded away.

A strange sight happened upon the Elemental Skill Book. A bean-sized seed appeared there, and then, in front of Fatty’s eyes, the seed sprouted, grew, and finally turned into a big tree that blotted out the sunlight. Under this tree, various birds and animals perched or ran and roared joyfully.

Bang. The tree exploded into little green sparks that disappeared into the Elemental Skill Book. The dim rotating ball in the Elemental Mystery Realm suddenly brightened again and spun rapidly.

A mystery codex was equivalent to a Divine artifact. After devouring the Wood Mystery Codex, the energy in the Elemental Mystery Realm increased by a great deal, at least improving the miserable state of energy shortage Fatty was in.

Fatty gently opened the Elemental Skill Book. On one of the pages, wood spells, or life spells, were recorded one by one, including A Paean to Life that the Lord of Abyss had just used, as well as useful ones to deal with opponents like Growing Weeds. There were spells from low to high rank, plus a few forbidden spells, covering virtually all of the magic of the earth attribute.

Ding.

System Notification: Congratulations, you have collected all four mystery codices and successfully advanced to Celestial, +100 to all four stats. Since you are the first player to be promoted to Celestial, you are rewarded the title of “Daytime Celestial Ascension1.” Obtained the Celestial skill “Crow Like a Rooster and Snatch Like a Dog”.

A golden light penetrated through the Elemental Sword Formation and fell on Fatty. He felt a burst of comfort and saw his stats rise greatly.

“I actually ranked up to Celestial?” The surprise filled him with joy. Fatty hurriedly opened the skill bar to check the so-called Celestial skill.

Crow Like a Rooster and Snatch Like a Dog: transform into a chosen object the rank of which is no more than 1 higher than the user’s and possess a skill of the object. Will not be dispelled when attacked. During the duration of this skill, the success rate of Steal increases by 10%, and failure won’t be punished. The other party won’t be alerted whether Steal succeeds or not.

Duration: 600 seconds. Cooldown: 24 hours.

Fatty gasped. He gazed at this skill for a long time before slowly closing the skill panel.

Transform at will? Have a designated skill of that object? No penalty for failure? Whether successful or not, the system won’t alert the other party?

Resisting the urge to laugh out loud, Fatty turned to the Lord of Abyss’ ice blocks. “Lord of Abyss, thank you very much. Not only did you give me the Wood Mystery Codex, but you also promoted me to Celestial and helped me gain such an amazingly formidable skill. As a thank you, I will definitely put you at the gate of the city lord manor so that everyone who passes by will remember your contribution.”

Folding the Elemental Sword Diagram, Fatty reappeared in high spirits in the eyes of all. Reassured by the sight of the four ice blocks floating behind, Windless nodded.

Marshal Ferotiger came over and asked, “Where is the Mystery Codex of Life?”

Fatty shook his head, his face discontent. “Didn’t find it. I don’t know where this fellow is hiding it, but I searched for a long time and only got this damn thing.”

Fatty tossed the Demonic Dragon Spear to the ground and looked at Marshal Ferotiger. “In order to deal with him, I exhausted the energy I’ve accumulated all my life. You have to compensate me.”

Marshal Ferotiger was caught between anger and amusement. “Got your cake and complain about it now? If you didn’t find it, you wouldn’t even have left the diagram. Without the Mystery Codex of Life, how did you advance to Celestial?”

Fatty was shocked. “You can see this?”

Liu Lan said, “It’s all broadcasted. You are really something, aren’t you? Owning Sky City, then Abyss City, and now you even ranked up to Celestial too, leaving us far enough behind not to be able to catch up anymore.”

“That’s right. Otherwise, how am I the city lord and you are not?” Fatty was a little proud.

Liu Lan rolled her eyes. “You keep being smug.”

Fatty laughed, then called out, “Come, guys, come and get rich!”

Once the four ice blocks of the Lord of Abyss were thrown into the square, the players who had been eyeing them hungrily for a while immediately pounced. All kinds of skills rained down, some rogues even gathered near to perform Steal but all failed without exception. Even on the occasion that Steal proc’d, they still got the notification that nothing had been stolen.

“You think about it carefully, you already have Sky City. If you take the position of Abyss City Lord, you will be the target of public envy,” Marshal Ferotiger warned Fatty.

Fatty nodded. While he wanted to occupy two main cities at the same time, this obviously wouldn’t be justified this time. He had won Sky City by himself so others couldn’t help it even if they were jealous. However, he had come to Abyss City with so many people. He might have made the most contributions, but he couldn’t eat the whole cake alone.

Calling the important people in for a discussion that lasted for half a day, the group finally decided that the Central Dynasty would take charge of Abyss City, and each player would receive 0.5% of the city’s future income.

“I wonder where the other four main cities are.” After being allocating their respective profits, the players all set their eyes on the four neutral main cities that hadn’t yet appeared.

“Right, I forgot to tell you one thing,” Marshal Ferotiger said to Fatty. “Grand Marshal of All Troops wants you to make a trip to the Imperial Capital.”

1. 白日飞升: also an idiom to refer to early career success.↩