Chapter 152: Retreat

The phantom coachman lashed his reins, and at his mournful cry, many of the monsters in the azure fog shifted their targets, charging directly toward him!

With a single thought from Chen Qi, the Fog Swordsman dissolved into wisps of cloud and mist, retracting into the fog sword pendant at his waist.

The little Shadow-Shadow Fox, startled by the coachman, scurried onto his shoulder.

He looked around. In almost an instant, every single monster in the fog had locked their eyes upon him.

His recent deception had drawn the full attention of the phantom carriage onto himself.

A number of players began to converse noisily.

"Does anyone know what just happened?!"

"Why did these monsters stop running? Were they scared of me?"

At this moment, the azure-blue mist gathered like clouds, and the gazes of all the players present converged here.

Fortunately, the instant the phantom coachman made his move for the "Sphere of Transformation," Chen Qi had already put a considerable distance between them.

Chen Qi picked up his longbow and retreated. These phantom-aspect monsters intended to surround him.

Just then, two high-level Flame Blade players knocked down the monsters in front of them and rushed over to this side.

Some players who had been watching from the sidelines had a rough idea of what had happened.

The two of them looked at the current situation, blanked for a moment, and instinctively roared:

"Protect the great archer!"

*Are they talking about me?* Chen Qi was momentarily stunned as he looked at the Bow of Lamplight in his hand. The others really seemed prepared to protect him.

Following the roars of the two players, other players also sprang into action.

"Hey! Is this the great archer player who was shooting arrows from upstairs just now?"

"Wait, you're telling me this archer player shot his arrows from upstairs and then drew the boss's entire aggro?"

"You don't understand, this is called a melee archer. He's not like you guys. Never mind all that, the enemy triggered a taunt, let's go!"

"I've heard of melee mages, but what in the world is a melee archer?"

Many players checked the health pool of the phantom carriage, preparing for the final siege!

In their eyes, although this phantom carriage was dangerous, compared to the calamitous entities in Neo-Capital that killed people on a whim, this carriage was nothing special.

Chen Qi looked at the phantom coachman.

Manipulating the monsters to charge at him was undoubtedly an act of self-destruction.

The phantom carriage had survived this long on a mere 600 health points entirely by relying on these foggy monsters.

And now, the opponent had only one objective: to use violent means to acquire the Prisoner Hunter's Heart!

However, given its current strength, that was completely impossible.

The two Level 14 Blade-aspect players also seized the opportunity to rush toward the phantom carriage, preparing to deal the final blow.

Many players held back some of their powerful skills until the end just to steal the killing blow.

Meanwhile, other players swarmed over, blocking the monsters charging toward him.

Chen Qi looked at the human wall in front of him. He really seemed to have been mistaken for a powerhouse archer.

Chen Qi smoothly loosed a few arrows. Most of these monsters were phantom-aspect, and under the shadow-slaying effect of the Bow of Lamplight, almost no ordinary mobs could withstand two of his shots.

Not gonna lie, having tanks absorb damage in the front while he dealt damage from the back was indeed a pretty good setup.

Under the players' offensive, although all these monsters came at him, very few could actually reach his side.

...

Shortly after.

As the two Flame Blade players unleashed their ultimate moves, slashing into the coachman's neck, the phantom coachman called the remaining monsters back.

Chen Qi pulled back his bowstring, using the Morning Star to scan for high-value monsters, shot them down, and then had the little Shadow-Shadow Fox slip through the shadows on the ground to covertly loot the equipment.

At the same time, his Morning Star revealed that aside from the phantom horse itself, the carriage held no other rare items.

The only valuable possession the coachman had held was already tricked into his hands just moments ago.

As for the phantom horse, it wasn't of much use to him and paled in comparison to the Traveler's Box.

[You and other players killed the Shadow Archer, gaining 23 experience...]

"Good teamwork."

Chen Qi rubbed his shoulder and put away the Bow of Lamplight.

A pair of brother and sister rubbed their heads and flushed as they said, "No, great one, you're the fierce one! As expected of a DPS player! We're gonna go race for the phantom horse first!"

As the mobs were cleared out, the majority of players surged toward the phantom carriage.

Chen Qi checked his interface.

He had just gained 420 experience. Because of experience penalties and shared experience, even though he landed the killing blow on the majority of his arrows, the experience gained wasn't substantial.

At this moment, the finale had arrived, and most players had blindly rushed toward the phantom coachman solely for the final boss drop: the phantom horse.

Chen Qi took the opportunity to use the Morning Star to scavenge the monster drops.

Because everyone was busy fighting over the boss's loot, many players simply didn't have the spare time to pick up the minion drops, swarming onward with the tide of people toward the coachman.

The combined value of these dropped materials was by no means lower than that phantom horse.

In the mist, Chen Qi and the little Shadow-Shadow Fox scooped up all these useful items.

The monster drops from this phantom carriage were predominantly phantom-aspect materials, adding quite a bit to his inventory.

...

"A decent harvest."

Chen Qi picked up the last Shadow-aspect stone dropped by a monster and fed it to the little Shadow-Shadow Fox tucked inside his clothes.

He checked his spiritual energy value; it was about time to leave.

His Morning Star told him there were no more good things left here.

Chen Qi looked up at the moon in the night sky, bade farewell to the players participating in this mission, and departed from the scene.

...

At night, on the streets.

Chen Qi bought a portion of stinky tofu from a roadside stall and looked at the densely packed friend requests.

Ultimately, the phantom horse fell into the hands of the Flame Blade Guild. Although others held grievances, there was nothing they could do and they settled for collecting the remaining battlefield drops instead.

Chen Qi rubbed his head. Limited by the spiritual energy consumption of the Morning Star, he must have left quite a few good things behind.

Right now, due to his stellar performance and explosive damage output in the phantom carriage instance, quite a few people were adding him as a friend.

In missions like this, adding friends was commonplace.

A player who had taunted the boss and dealt explosive damage naturally drew the attention of everyone present.

Even the guild leaders of two minor guilds, the Witches' Home and the Archers' Association, attempted to hire him as a remote coaching consultant for their guilds with an offer of one white sun-coin.

Chen Qi glanced over the friend requests and tucked his phone into his pocket.

He needed to study the use of the Prisoner Hunter's Heart.

With the Traveler's Box, it was equivalent to traveling with his home always by his side.

Chen Qi found a secluded, unfinished skeleton building, covered the Traveler's Box with a cloth, and tucked it into a corner.

Immediately after, he summoned a white dove to keep watch on the surroundings.

Through this method, he could achieve a monitored, mobile little home.

With a single thought, Chen Qi returned to his small room inside the Traveler's Box.

He placed the spoils of this trip into their corresponding storage chests.

This instance run had vastly increased his stockpile of phantom-aspect materials.

The pages of the Floating Book turned slowly, bringing a sense of tranquility to his mind.

"Hoo..."

After resting for a moment, Chen Qi picked up the briefcase he had just acquired and took out a black heart.

This Prisoner Hunter's Heart was smaller than a normal heart, resembling black iron, and completely devoid of warmth, feeling extremely cold to the touch.

It completely contradicted the description of a blazing-hot heart in the game.

Checking his interface:

[Prisoner Hunter's Heart (Purified):]

[Aspects: Phantom, Blade.]

[Description: Its creator fused a massive power of black calamity into it, forming an endless source of phantom energy. Ordinary people would feel infinite terror just by touching it.]

[However, this core has been purified, and its calamity power has been drastically weakened.]

[Function: It is inherently a massive source of energy, usable as the core for large-scale energy structures, as a sacrificial offering of calamity, or as fuel for casting destructive rituals.]

[Its primary purpose remains to serve as the heart of a monster!]

Chen Qi stroked the black-iron-like heart gently, feeling a continuous prickling sensation radiating from it.

Were there individuals proficient in purification within the Holy Calamity Association?

Chen Qi rested his chin in his hand. He had some understanding of prisoner hunters; purifying this heart should have been extraordinarily difficult.

Since this was a purified heart, he could extract its power without any complex manipulation.

Of course, using it merely as a spiritual energy potion would undoubtedly be a blatant waste.

A man-made monster heart might yield much greater utility.

Someone was able to purify the Prisoner Hunter's Heart and put it to use...

Chen Qi put the Prisoner Hunter's Heart away, opened the forum, and spent 50 silver sun-coins to buy a specialized container for holding pollutants.

Unlike ordinary items, the Prisoner Hunter's Heart was best stored in a secure location.

Next, Chen Qi turned his attention to his other trophy: [Feather Page of the Lamplight Bird].

This was a palm-sized feather upon which a ritual was recorded: [Form of the Lamp-Feather].

[Form of the Lamp-Feather]

[Aspect: Lamp]

[Description: We shall transform into feathers.]

[Introduction: An amplification-type ritual. Upon activation, enters a special state that drastically increases one's perception and reaction speed. In this state, the user can instantaneously render their body as light as a feather, executing split-second short-range movements that are difficult for the naked eye to capture.]

[Learning Requirements: Lamp-aspect, unequipped Agility 35, unequipped Inspiration 30.]

Chen Qi scanned the text.

It was a pretty decent amplification ritual!

Furthermore, the Circuit Robe could have two amplification rituals engraved onto it.

Chen Qi looked at the text; this ritual could potentially be engraved onto his Circuit Robe.

However, he wasn't very skilled at engraving at the moment.

Unequipped Agility of 35...

His unequipped Agility wasn't particularly high right now. His agility relied mainly on terrain and equipment advantages; within black fire and fog, his agility could receive a massive boost.

Even so, he had already consumed a few attribute points earlier just to learn Black-Fire Walking.

Chen Qi spent 5 attribute points to raise his unequipped Agility to 35, then opened the Neo-Sun game, preparing to let his game character begin learning the ritual.

As for himself, he planned to visit the Divine Guild's forum to buy some materials to craft a Black Box.

Right at that moment, a text prompt suddenly popped up in the Neo-Sun game.

[ You wake up on the herbalist's bed, and you hear a knock on the door outside. ]

[ You shake your head and immediately grow vigilant. Daybreak has not yet arrived, and logically speaking, most people should be resting. ]

[ You curiously stand up. ]

(End of this chapter)