Seeing the private message sent by Mu Qingxue, countless question marks popped up above Chen Xiaoyan’s head.
‘What is this girl overthinking now?’
“It’s not because of that, and I don’t blame you, nor do I have any intention to. Don’t overthink things in the future,” Chen Xiaoyan turned to look at Mu Qingxue beside her, feeling somewhat helpless.
‘Why is everyone so prone to overthinking?’
“Sis Xiaoyan, what’s wrong?” Chong Chong, hearing her words, asked in confusion.
Chen Xiaoyan shook her head: “It’s nothing. Qingxue is overthinking something, I’m just telling her not to.”
“Oh.” Chong Chong glanced at the two of them and didn’t pay it any mind.
“Mmm…” Mu Qingxue nodded and softly acknowledged.
Then, as if she had thought of something, she pondered for a moment before speaking: “I’ve decided to give ‘I Am the Master of My Fate, Not Heaven’ double his salary.”
Hearing this, Chen Xiaoyan gave a helpless smile but didn’t stop her. It was clear Mu Qingxue was afraid she might have objections and wanted to compensate in some way. “It’s up to you. Actually, I dislike that guy too. A shameless narcissist who immediately asked if you were captivated by his handsomeness. Ugh.”
Seeing Chen Xiaoyan’s exaggerated gagging and sticking out her tongue, Mu Qingxue couldn’t help but let a smile curl at the corner of her mouth.
“He’s that narcissistic?”
“Absolutely. If you don’t believe me, ask Chong Chong.”
“Ah? What do you need to ask me?” Chong Chong, hearing them mention her, quickly inquired.
“Dead Fat Otaku!”
“Perverted guy?”
“He has that many nicknames?” Mu Qingxue looked surprised.
“More than that! He’s also called ‘Narcissist,’ plus the ‘Chuunibyou’ Sis Xiaoyan mentioned. He’s decent-looking but just too much of a clown. I don’t know how Sis Xiaoyan even knows him.”
“Ah, this… He’s a good friend of mine in real life. Don’t judge him by his unserious side, he’s actually a pretty good guy.”
“Oh?” Mu Qingxue fell into thought again.
“Stop chatting, finish the run and log off to eat!” Hong Chen reminded them, sounding a bit impatient.
“Got it, Captain, right away!” Chen Xiaoyan turned back and made an ‘OK’ gesture, then said to the two, “Alright, let’s not talk about him anymore. Let’s run the dungeon. Two more times and I should hit level thirty.”
“Okay.” Mu Qingxue nodded.
“Sis Xiaoyan, I want to grind to thirty tomorrow too!”
“You?” Chen Xiaoyan glanced at Chong Chong and opened her friend list.
‘Good grief, only level twenty-eight.’
‘Probably needs about nineteen runs.’
‘Great, looks like another busy day tomorrow.’
—
An hour later, after Chen Xiaoyan’s party ran the Abyss Dungeon three times in a row, the experience bar for level twenty-nine finally budged.
[Congratulations, your level has increased!]
Character: Chen Xiaoyan
Level: 30
Health: 7000
Cultivation Realm: Outworld Realm (Increases percentage damage against lower cultivation realms)
Next Level: 31
Title: First Disciple of Heavenly Fragrance
Fragrance Intent: 1350
Spiritual Energy: 2160
Spirit Enlightenment: (Requires 5000 Spiritual Energy)
Cultivation Arts: Xiangyi Art (First Layer), Yueying Step
Skills: Chunfeng Yin, Tianxiang: Rain Bath Radiance, Tianxiang: Returning Wind Umbrella, Tianxiang: Umbrella Dance Heal, Tianxiang: Carefree Umbrella [Not Learned]
Equipment: Tianxiang Sect Starter Gear, Chunfeng Umbrella, An Ordinary Silk Ribbon, White Jade Hairpin, Turtle Spirit Ring, Goddess’s Protection.
‘Level thirty!’
Chen Xiaoyan excitedly learned Carefree Umbrella immediately.
Carefree Umbrella, also known as Purification Umbrella, could supposedly clear all abnormal status effects. Whether it could clear all of them would require testing.
Most importantly, it also had group healing—no, it should be called area-of-effect group healing.
With her current Spiritual Energy, she could restore 2,600 Health per second, lasting for eight seconds, perfectly filling her skill cooldown gaps.
Chen Xiaoyan took a deep breath. If there weren’t other players around, she really wanted to throw her head back and roar at the sky.
‘So happy!’
Hong Chen Ru Meng, holding her spear, stood there grinning foolishly. ‘Heh heh heh… being healed by four healers… heh heh… taken care of by four healers…’
She had never felt this way before. She had never been taken care of like this.
“What’s wrong with her?” Chen Xiaoyan asked Yi Lian You Meng.
“Like this?” The latter shook her head. “I don’t know. She came out like this.”
“This…” Chen Xiaoyan looked Hong Chen Ru Meng up and down but didn’t find anything wrong.
‘Then why is she suddenly giggling like an idiot?’
“Hey, Miss Ru Meng!” Chen Xiaoyan walked over and patted her shoulder.
Hong Chen Ru Meng snapped back to reality, looking at her blankly. “What’s wrong, Captain?”
“Are you okay? What’s with the silly grin?”
“Nothing, just… being healed by four healers feels incredibly awesome,” Hong Chen Ru Meng replied, rubbing the back of her head.
“That’s it?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
Chen Xiaoyan rolled her eyes, speechless.
Just then, Mu Qingxue walked over. “Yan Bao, what’s your sixth skill at level thirty? Private message me.”
“Okay.”
Chen Xiaoyan sent her the description of Carefree Umbrella.
Mu Qingxue looked at it for a while, her eyes growing increasingly shocked.
The outrageous skill effects made countless words rise in her heart, but in the end, they all condensed into just two:
‘Damn awesome.’
“Yan Bao, how are other Tianxiang players supposed to survive with you around?”
Chen Xiaoyan raised a smug corner of her mouth and pressed her hand down. “Keep it low-key, low-key.”
“Sigh, it’s fine. We’re already used to it,” Yi Lian You Meng sighed, spreading her hands.
“Xianyun agrees,” Xianyun chimed in.
“What’s going on? Did the Captain’s healing output increase again?” Hong Chen Ru Meng, hearing their conversation, was utterly shocked.
“Pretty much.”
“Holy cow, it was already变态 (insanely good), and now it’s gone up another level. Captain, be honest, is the Xianjie developed by your family?”
Chen Xiaoyan smiled and shook her head, then clapped her hands loudly. “Alright, enough joking. Log off for today. We’ll continue running dungeons tomorrow. Chong Chong needs to reach level thirty.”
“Sure, I need to level up too,” Hong Chen Ru Meng nodded.
“Yan Bao, I won’t be coming tomorrow. Some regular members from the guild were killed while out on commissions today, and members guarding Monster Village were also ambushed.”
Chen Xiaoyan was taken aback. “Wushuang Lou did it?”
“Yes.” Mu Qingxue nodded.
Chen Xiaoyan sneered disdainfully. “So疯狂 (ruthless), even killing regular members. It seems Wushuang Lou is desperate and going all out this time, like a cornered dog. So, how do you plan to handle it?”
Mu Qingxue sighed helplessly. “What else can we do? They won’t declare open war, holed up in their Zongmen. We can only ‘give them a taste of their own medicine.'”
Planting spies in other guilds was an open secret among almost all guilds.
The publicly available member roster held no real secrets.
If members weren’t familiar with each other and didn’t fight, it was fine. But if the roster wasn’t public, members would definitely be confused when fights broke out.
Moreover, doing so wasn’t good for member cohesion.
Therefore, guilds generally didn’t implement hidden member rosters, with the exception of Lunhui Hall.
This mysterious entity—no guild’s spy had ever successfully infiltrated it.
“Then temporarily tell the guild members not to take commissions. If they must, it’s best to form a team, so they can watch out for each other. Even if attacked, they can hold out until support arrives.”
“That’s what I was thinking too. And you, be careful yourself from now on.”
Mu Qingxue’s warning didn’t concern Chen Xiaoyan much.
Unless Wushuang Lou sent more than ten people to surround her, and their damage output exceeded a certain threshold, they might have a slight chance. Otherwise, success was impossible.
If it were before, maybe.
But now, with Carefree Umbrella available, plus numerous protective magic artifacts like the White Jade Hairpin and Turtle Spirit Ring… the only path for them was to brute-force damage beyond her healing limit. Nothing else would work.