Bill was formidable. To Purple Lily, he was practically an invincible boss.
Right then, a blinding white flash erupted right in front of Lixiang. He felt as though his body had been split in two, and his HP plummeted to the absolute minimum, yet he had not been instantly killed.
Standing before him was a masked figure wielding a short blue blade, radiating intense murderous intent from a pair of crimson eyes.
Chugging a red potion immediately and casting a Healing Art, Lixiang instantly wrote Bill off as a third-rate boss. What kind of boss were you if you couldn't even one-shot a cloth-wearing Priest? He failed to notice that his HP was currently sitting at a staggering 1,850, and more importantly, that Bill had only used a basic Assassination skill.
"Hah! Deadly Shot!"
Purple Lily had already made her move, loosing arrows one after another. Yet Bill moved with blinding speed, dodging so many shots that they barely chipped away three hundred points of his health.
Though the Level Thirty-five boss's exact health bar was invisible, it certainly wasn't high. Based on the two sub-leaders, Lixiang deduced that Bill's HP should be identical to a thief's.
"Both of you are going to die." Bill's voice echoed from all directions, and his afterimages were everywhere. Lixiang was forced to step back, while Purple Lily, the moment she moved, was directly knocked flying by a broken sword that suddenly materialized behind her. At the same time, blood spurted unstoppably from her arm.
Lixiang fought back desperately, stepping right up beside Purple Lily. Ignoring his own safety, the very second his Healing Art's cooldown refreshed, he cast it straight onto Purple Lily.
Jeering laughter and flashing silhouettes filled the air. Suddenly, Lixiang thrust his hand forward, unleashing a Holy Light Strike as he roared, "Hold him!"
"Pinning Shot!" Firing that single arrow, Purple Lily smiled bitterly and lowered her heavy bow; this was a skill she had forced out of herself, and now that the shot was away, she was equally immobilized.
Lixiang, Bill, and Purple Lily now stood forming a triangle.
"These little tricks of yours are useless. Today, both of you die!" Bill's dagger spun around, releasing a brilliant crimson glare. *Thud!* It flew straight toward Purple Lily's throat, while simultaneously a beam of white light landed upon her.
Lixiang said coldly, "You've missed your chance to strike."
A massive, blinding flash of white light erupted directly around Bill, as if he had been instantly swallowed up by the sudden radiance. From within came the clatter of clashing weapons and Bill's roar of furious frustration.
Lixiang finally let out a slight breath of relief, redirecting his Healing Art onto Fengyun Die, who had just appeared on the scene.
"You really predicted it right again! I'm genuinely curious, Heartless Parting—how on earth did you know that the key to dealing with Bill was actually Die?" Seeing Bill driven into a continuous retreat by Fengyun Die's successive attacks, Purple Lily's confidence surged instantly.
With one melee fighter, one ranged attacker, and Lixiang's heals, Bill roared in fury.
"As long as we can endure Bill's final strike, victory is ours. This quest isn't difficult; the hard part is mastering and controlling the various classes." Realizing that Bill was essentially just a speed-boosted thief, Lixiang felt his heart ease.
*Boom!* Fengyun Die slashed straight across Bill's throat with a Backstab.
"Ding! Quest completed: Slay fifty grassland thieves, slay five thief sub-leaders, and slay the thief leader Bill!"
The three of them burst out laughing, while Purple Lily and Fengyun Die slumped onto the ground as if every ounce of strength had been drained from their bodies.
Fengyun Die looked over at Lixiang. "Wangzhe and the others are all dead. I never would have thought that the three of us would be the ones to finish it."
Lixiang gathered up the three pieces of equipment dropped by Bill.
"This pair of straw sandals increases movement speed. They're for you, Fengyun Die."
"This cloth armor increases evasion. It's for you, Purple Lily."
"This belt is blue—it's actually blue—and it adds agility. Here you go, Fengyun Die."
"A skill book? Cutting is yours again."
"Hmm, this green ring adds strength. Let's give this to Purple Lily."
Looking over the loot, Lixiang was depressed to find that every single item was meant for thieves or tied to agility, leaving absolutely nothing that he, a Priest, could use.
Fengyun Die's jaw dropped as she looked at the piles of gear before her, never expecting that Heartless Parting wouldn't claim a single item for himself.
"This is a skill book, and this is a blue belt!" Fengyun Die felt her heart race. Truly advanced skills could never be learned from skill instructors, no matter how much money you had; they could only be obtained as drops in the wild or from special NPCs.
While the skill *Cutting* didn't boast high damage compared to other thief skills, it possessed two formidable traits: it could tear open a wound regardless of the target's defense, and it inflicted a bleeding status lasting from one to three seconds.
"This—" Die originally wanted to refuse, but seeing that neither Lixiang nor the other seemed to care and were genuinely splitting the loot fairly with her, she stowed it away directly and declared, "I don't have much money, twenty gold coins each."
That was the rule of partying: you couldn't shortchange others just because the drops happened to suit your class. Even though there were only three of them and no auction was necessary, what was owed had to be paid.
"You can forget about the gold for me. I didn't contribute all that much along the way, and besides, look—I'm already level twenty-two." Lixiang wore a thoroughly satisfied expression, entirely stripped of the cool calculation he'd shown in battle.
"Take it since she's giving it to you." Fengyun Die glared at Lixiang. "I honestly can't tell if you're terrible at this game or just putting on an act."
"Oh right, the results of the tracking you asked for came in. Are we going or not?" Fengyun Die asked.
As it turned out, when they first entered the village, Lixiang had assigned Purple Lily to secure the arrow tower while telling Fengyun Die to wait outside the village, keep an eye out for any messengers, and follow them. That way, even if the thieves didn't come to them, they could track down their hideout.
"Ding! Follow-up quest: The Identity of Bill. Deliver the evidence to the empire's Chief Mage!"
Lixiang smiled and said, "It's obvious these people under Bill are soldiers disguised as thieves. All we have to do is find the proof there, and our quest is complete."
Led by Fengyun Die, the group immediately sprinted toward a small hill.
"I never imagined a quest could be done like this; I was fully prepared to just head back," Fengyun Die said, shaking her head in disbelief. She also proactively added Lixiang as a friend—such a mysterious Priest truly piqued her curiosity.
"This is it."
A pitch-black cave opening sat upon the small hill, its depth unguessable. The moment Lixiang cast a Holy Light Strike, two thief sub-leaders charged straight out.
This time, the three of them cooperated with flawless synergy: Purple Lily immediately drew off one, while Die and Lixiang took the other.
Watching Die's fierce yet fluid movements, Lixiang felt a pang of intense envy. Why hadn't he chosen to be a thief in the first place? Judging by this thief's offensive output, she could probably go toe-to-toe with Wangzhe Zongheng in a one-on-one fight and win.
What he didn't realize was that Die and Purple Lily currently viewed Lixiang as a monster in his own right. Lixiang was definitely the first person in the game capable of triggering a brand-new follow-up quest entirely on his own, and the first to participate in such a life-or-death mission as a mere level-thirteen novice Priest.
Die was this powerful because she also possessed two formidable blue equipment pieces, directly rewarded to her for completing a level-ten quest.
As for Purple Lily, her real-life passion for archery gave her an innate, intuitive feel the moment her fingers touched a bow.
The two sub-leaders guarding the area didn't boast overwhelming attack power, but their HP pools were triple that of an ordinary thief. Moreover, though their gazes were vacant, their combat skills were on par with Bill's.
Whatever was guarded by two such sub-leaders had to be of paramount importance.
It took a full hour to take down the two guards, and they only dropped a single moldy loaf of bread.
"I'll head down and take a look first." Die flicked her wrist, her dagger spinning with nimble dexterity before settling into a reverse grip.
"I'll go down instead." Even though Lixiang was a Priest, he felt it ungentlemanly to let a girl descend into a place like this while he watched, so he stepped forward and went down.
He missed the expressions on the two girls behind him; he was simply startled by what lay before his eyes. While the entrance looked utterly pitch-black, after descending just past a bend, a dim, amber light appeared. Two oil lamps spluttered as they cast a reddish glow.
Inside, the space was piled high with crates upon crates of plundered goods.
"What's in here?" Purple Lily and Die hurried down right behind him. Seeing the stacks of crates, their eyes lit up, and both girls rushed over to open box after box, picking up items and examining them endlessly.
Unfortunately, wonderful as the items were, they couldn't be stored in their inventories nor carried away.
Lixiang, however, managed to find a gold bar. *Gold bar: Valuable item, can be exchanged for one thousand gold coins.*