The villagers showed no surprise at Lixiang's words, and all of their identities instantly changed to level thirty thieves.
Lixiang's expression shifted slightly. These thieves were only a few levels higher than King's Return and the others, yet the strength they displayed now was like adults beating children. Level thirty was definitely a watershed, and the experience required for level thirty was ten times that of level twenty-nine.
From the thieves, Lixiang could actually sense a fierce, intrepid aura—an unstoppable killing intent.
Clang! The skill unleashed by Peak Yingzheng was blocked directly by a thief who brought his greatsword horizontally across. A fierce gleam flashed in the thief's eyes, and in a blur, he appeared right in front of Peak Yingzheng. With a heavy slash of his greatsword and a flash of red light, Peak Yingzheng's arm, along with his armor, was cleanly sheared off halfway. Spinning his body, the thief kicked Peak Yingzheng flying.
"Holy Light Strike!"
"Healing Art!"
Lixiang preemptively interrupted the thief's attack, then immediately cast a recovery white light onto Peak Yingzheng.
He had assumed that even if these thieves were strong, King's Return and his companions could handle two each. But the moment the battle began, King's Return, Peak Yingzheng, and I Am Kind were all severely injured. In particular, the golden Soul-Splitting Spider just summoned by I Am Kind lasted only a single strike before two thieves hacked it into minced meat with a flurry of sword blows.
They were far too strong. Even an outsider like Lixiang, who knew nothing of combat, could tell that the thieves' positioning was extraordinary. "Into the village!" Lixiang shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Right, only inside the village is safe!" As a hunter, I Am Kind had decent speed, but instead of running, he rushed straight to Peak Yingzheng's side. Together, the two of them forced the thief back three steps, and they retreated into the village as a pair.
The most dangerous position right now belonged to King's Return. His attack power was the highest, so his opening strike had drawn the aggro of three thieves. At the same time, a bitter feeling welled up in his heart; these three thieves were definitely harder to defeat than any elite monsters he had ever fought. Even though he wore a piece of blue leather armor, it definitely wouldn't hold up against two consecutive coordinated attacks from three thieves.
Peak Yingzheng and I Am Kind retreated into the village in coordination, but Lixiang did not follow them.
At a time like this, Lixiang had actually calmed down, his eyes scanning his surroundings without pause.
"King's Return, on the count of three, unleash your strongest skill and head into the village. Don't look back."
One, two, three!
"Heroic Strike!" King's Return roared. Taking a heavy stride forward, a wave-like aura formed around his body as he gripped his greatsword with both hands and swung it heavily ahead.
-530! -440! The thief directly in front was forcefully driven back several steps by King's Return's powerful blow. Most notably, the foremost thief had half his neck sheared off, his mouth opening and closing as he struggled to speak.
The moment he finished his attack, King's Return yanked back his sword and sprinted toward the village.
The remaining thieves instantly clustered together and gave chase toward the village. At their speed, it would take them all of two seconds to catch up to King's Return.
"Healing Art!"
Lixiang made his move. A massive beam of white light erupted directly in the open space between the thieves and King's Return. That patch of ground had been completely empty, but when the Healing Art struck the earth, it burst like a firework, shooting a pillar of white light straight into the sky like a geyser.
The charging thieves paused instantly upon reaching the spot. After a moment of hesitation, they skirted around it from the side. By this time, Lixiang was already following the others into the village. Simultaneously, as he finished casting Healing Art, his Holy Light Strike flew off to the side, right into the path of a thief who was detouring around the obstacle.
Purple Lily stood atop the dilapidated arrow tower, waiting for Lixiang to enter the village. As she watched Lixiang's sequence of attacks and tactical judgment, a voice in her head instantly told her it was a coincidence—it had to be a pure coincidence.
To pull that off required an unimaginably precise level of judgment: predicting the exact reaction the thieves would make, while also calculating their movement speed and the duration of their pause. Even with a calculator, it would probably take minutes to figure out. Heartless Parting was just a rookie beginner; he was definitely just guessing.
The maximum effect of a single Holy Light Strike was merely to stall the trailing thieves for a brief, fleeting moment.
By the time Lixiang entered the village, those thieves had already closed the distance.
"Fire!" Lixiang suddenly shouted.
"Triple Shot!" A flurry of three arrows whistled down from the arrow tower. This was the most basic archer technique; when Lixiang had previously asked her if she could loose a volley of multiple arrows, she had mentioned this skill to him.
Despite firing three arrows in rapid succession, this skill couldn't even kill a Slime—it was practically useless. Purple Lily had only invested the bare minimum points into it, planning to use it later to lure monsters once she learned area-of-effect skills.
Yet the moment the three arrows flew, those thieves instinctively froze in wary unison, raising their longswords to guard their chests.
After entering the village, Purple Lily hurriedly jumped down from the arrow tower. Though the impact made her calves ache as if they had snapped, she clenched her teeth and refused to cry out.
The group occupied a small, dilapidated cottage. The courtyard walls had collapsed, the front door was gone, and the window was nothing more than a gaping hole.
"Hold this position, and we will definitely complete our quest," Lixiang said.
King's Return was the party leader, but the on-the-spot performance Lixiang had just demonstrated filled them all with absolute conviction.
With a building to shelter them, their advantages immediately manifested. I Am Kind continuously laid traps at the doorway, while Peak Yingzheng and King's Return guarded the front door and the window respectively. Lixiang took charge of recovery in the center, and Purple Lily provided support on both flanks.
The battle was remarkably easy. Purple Lily quietly sidled up to Lixiang and whispered, "How did you know that Healing Art could block the thieves' advance?"
Suddenly, Purple Lily's face flushed red. She had been standing too close to Lixiang, and when Lixiang turned his head to reply, their lips brushed against each other.
"You—" Purple Lily let out a soft gasp.
"S-Sorry!" Lixiang actually wanted to say that was his first kiss, but no matter how hard he tried, the words refused to come out.
Lixiang cleared his throat and said, "What I used to stall the thieves just now is known in magic terminology as an artifact illusion—using low-tier magic to disguise a stationary object in order to confuse the opponent."
"When we and our targets belong to opposing factions, no matter what skill I use, they subconsciously perceive it as an offensive move, generating a false impression in their minds. As far as I know, during the War of Gods and Demons, there was a junior mage who could not only use elementary magic to deceive opponents, but could even disguise elementary magic to mimic advanced magic, scaring enemies away. In his hands, an artifact illusion ceased to merely blur the line between fake and real; it made the fake real, and he could eventually even manifest the true destructive power of the disguised skill."
Lixiang still retained a remarkably solid grasp of these professional theories.
Purple Lily hadn't expected Lixiang to know so much, yet she couldn't understand why she had never seen these theories discussed on the forums.
At that moment, I Am Kind's triumphant laugh echoed over. "All ten thieves have been completely wiped out!"
A glimmer of hope finally appeared for the quest.
However, the expressions of King's Return, Peak Yingzheng, and Lixiang were graver than ever.
King's Return placed the map flat on the ground in the center of the room and said quietly, "Dealing with those ten thieves took everything we had. What about the next wave?"
"If they really do come in separate waves, maybe we actually stand a chance. I'm just afraid..." Peak Yingzheng gave a bitter laugh. Three pieces of his equipment were completely broken; these thieves were simply too overpowered.
Lixiang stared at the map and said flatly, "We can't hope they'll dance to our tune. To win, one must anticipate defeat first. Therefore, we have to move." He pressed his finger heavily onto a hill marked on the map—the territory of the level thirty-five Yellow-Striped Tigers. They had caught a distant glimpse of it on their way here; each of those tigers was the size of an adult ox. Lions of a comparable level that strayed too close were pinned to the ground with a single swipe and instantly torn to shreds by a pair of Yellow-Striped Tigers.
King's Return's eyes lit up, but they quickly dimmed. With a tone of regret, he said, "It's too late. Besides, for a team like ours to complete this quest is simply too difficult because our composition lacks a mage."
Peak Yingzheng nodded as well. "Defending this position might still give us a glimmer of hope, provided they don't all rush in together. Besides, with so many thieves showing up, reinforcements might arrive eventually."
I Am Kind offered a wry smile. As a hunter, his traps were useful here, but if they really ventured into the Yellow-Striped Tigers' territory, he doubted they would play much of a role at all.
"We must move. The first wave of ten thieves died right outside our door; the second wave will definitely figure out a countermeasure. Staying here is just waiting to die. Listen to me, let's head to the Yellow-Striped Tigers' territory. Having lost so many men, those thieves will definitely pursue us," Lixiang insisted.
The three of them fell silent for a moment before King's Return finally spoke. "It's no use. Yingzheng is right; we lack sufficient offensive power, and we'll die even faster in the wilderness. Here, we might hold out until hope arrives. Fengyun Die was sent out by you to look for reinforcements, wasn't she?" Seeing that Lixiang was about to speak, he smiled, waved his hand, and said, "No need to try and persuade us. Since we have to fight, we'll fight."
"I, Peak Yingzheng, want to see what this Bill is really like. I'm not leaving."
Both men were guild leaders with formidable analytical skills and gaming experience. What Lixiang said made sense, but they had their own logic as well. Even so, all three of them proactively added Lixiang to their friend lists.
"Heartless Parting, although your level is the lowest here, I believe you'll become a powerful Priest in the future. Feel free to whisper me if you need anything. I'll be establishing a guild called Glory in the future, and if you join us, I'll give you a regiment commander position," King's Return said, looking at Lixiang.
"Right, the doors of Peak will always be open for you too," Peak Yingzheng added.
Lixiang hadn't expected the two of them to value him this highly, and he smiled somewhat self-consciously.
Along the road, Lixiang's timing for healing spells had been flawlessly precise. Once or twice might be dismissed as luck, but doing it every single time demonstrated extraordinary operational skill. More importantly, Lixiang's on-the-spot judgment and tactical analysis later on had both men secretly praising him as a talent. Even though they didn't fully grasp Lixiang's ultimate intentions right now, it was worth cultivating a connection with him—just the fact that his very first learned skill was Healing Art made him worthy of their attention.
"What about you?" Lixiang turned his gaze toward Purple Lily. The moment he asked the question, his heart suddenly leapt into his throat, feeling as weightless as being on an airplane with neither earth nor sky in sight. The sensation was utterly bizarre, and Lixiang couldn't explain why.