Chapter 204-1: Unlocking a New Chapter, the Envoy of the Vermilion Empire (1)

Lin Xun awoke again, it was already the next morning.

That sleep had been so deep it felt like he’d been dead, without even a dream.

“The side effects of mental exhaustion are pretty big. I slept a whole day and night.”

“From this perspective, the blue bar on the Mage Shell only takes twelve hours of rest to recover by itself, honestly, that’s not a long recovery time.”

He opened the cursed game’s login.

The knowledge-type equipment he’d listed on the Book of Trade was still holding strong, utterly unmoved by his price reductions.

Lin Xun couldn’t be bothered to adjust the prices again. Sooner or later, it would all sell off.

[You approach the Book of Salvation and speak to the Librarian.]

[The Librarian lifts his eyes and tells you that if you wish to obtain more Soul-Annihilation Bookmarks, you should hurry and raise your invasion authority.]

[Slaying his clone is not a good choice. Doing so will likely cost you an extremely valuable bonus chapter.]

[Of course, if you don’t care about bonus chapters, you need not heed his advice.]

[The Librarian’s clones number in the tens of thousands. Losing one is like shedding a hair, it will grow back quickly.]

By now, Lin Xun knew of quite a few bookmark types.

Just from the Librarian alone, there were three: Invasion Bookmarks, Guardian Bookmarks, and Revenge Bookmarks.

Others included Anchor Bookmarks, Relic Bookmarks, and Soul-Annihilation Bookmarks.

Whether there were more kinds, he still didn’t know.

As usual, he freeloaded three kinds of bookmarks from the Librarian, two of each.

Then he spent 1,100 Spirit Essence to restock twice more, netting two extra Invasion Bookmarks.

He now had eight Invasion Bookmarks on him.

“Maybe I should go open some Oath loot boxes?”

The library was a safe zone in the game. Here, Apostles could invade others, but could not be invaded themselves.

Unless he went into the Book of Arena to queue for public duels, but that wasn’t considered invasion.

The Lord of Cinders alias had already been exposed to Amos, so it was no longer suitable for public duels.

On the other hand, Oath Invasion still allowed him to secretly pick fights with random players without consequence.

The more Oath Invasion victories, the better the Oath reward loot boxes. With eight bookmarks, if luck was good, he could really score big.

Lin Xun thought briefly, then switched to hunt mode.

The eight bookmarks were quickly spent. Just as he’d expected, when he tried an Oath Invasion under the Oath of Omniscient True Knowledge, the cursed game showed no matching hostile Apostles.

So, all eight invasions were carried out under the Golden Blazing Sun Oath of the Blood Sun world.

This round of invasions was no different from bullying children. Lin Xun used the Corrupted Earth Giant Shell, none of the Apostles could withstand even a single strike from his club.

For a moment, he felt life was as lonely as snow, too high up to feel the warmth.

“Sigh… Invincibility is just…so lonely.”

Incidentally, all the Apostles he invaded were Second and Third Difficulty players, he hadn’t even met a Fourth Difficulty one.

Even though his invasion authority had increased, the loot dropped by these kids was really disappointing.

Lin Xun felt he might as well go invade BigDickBro. He’d probably get more out of that.

“I’ll come for you next time, let the leeks grow a bit first.”

[You step forward to touch the Book of Oaths. A powerful wandering soul resonates with the tome.]

[You are now able to use the Oath functions of the Book of Oaths.]

Lin Xun selected the Golden Blazing Sun Oath in the options.

[Oath: Your active Oath is Golden Blazing Sun. Current hostile Oath: Blood Sun Oath. Current allied Oath: White Moon Oath.]

[After winning Oath Invasions, you can consume victories to redeem unknown rewards. Current Oath victories: 8.]

[Would you like to claim your Oath reward?]

Lin Xun pressed ‘Yes’ without hesitation.

[You have claimed the Oath reward. Current Oath victories reset to zero.]

[You have obtained the Prayer Book of Blazing Sun (Rare+ grade equipment)!]

[Prayer Book of Blazing Sun (Rare+ grade weapon): A thick tome bound in pure gold, with a brilliant Golden Blazing Sun engraved upon its cover. The book still carries a faint, lingering fragrance, suggesting its previous owner was a certain parish saintess.]

[When using this weapon, your recovery-related skills will receive a slight boost in effectiveness.]

“Huh… Healer gear?”

Ever since he parted ways with the Choir Sister, Lin Xun hadn’t encountered any other healers.

Truly, when young, he hadn’t realized how wonderful nuns were, instead treating Blood Sun Cultists like precious treasure.

Who would have thought this time the Oath reward would be healer equipment?

“This is a good omen… Maybe the next chapter, I’ll finally get the healer Shell I’ve been hoping for.”

A Rare+ grade weapon was worth thirty to fifty thousand, but he didn’t sell the equipment he couldn’t use just yet.

Any seasoned gacha player believed in superstition.

Lin Xun firmly believed the Prayer Book of Blazing Sun would definitely bring him a healer Shell.

“It’s time to unlock the new chapter.”

He felt fully prepared to embark on a new journey.

Since he hadn’t achieved an SSS rating in the last chapter, this time he could only enter on a lower Nightmare Difficulty.

He stepped forward and clicked the Book of Salvation!

[Do you wish to unlock the next chapter and begin your next Salvation journey?]

[You may randomly enter a Fourth Difficulty chapter.]

[In view of your last chapter achieving a rating above D, you may randomly enter a Fifth Difficulty chapter.]

[In view of your last chapter achieving a rating above B, you may randomly enter a Fifth Difficulty chapter (Nightmare).]

[In view of your last chapter achieving an SS rating, you may randomly enter a Fifth Difficulty chapter (Hell).]

The cursed game popped up a list of options, and Lin Xun furrowed his brow.

Wasn’t it supposed to require a Triple S rating to enter a Hell chapter?

He noticed that all the threshold requirements on the list were one tier lower than last time.

For example, Nightmare Difficulty originally required at least an S rating to unlock deliberately.

Otherwise, you could only hope you were lucky enough to randomly get matched into Nightmare Difficulty.

But now, Nightmare Difficulty only required an A rating to enter.

“It’s probably because the World of Omniscience itself is a Hell chapter. Achieving a Double S rating there may actually be rated even higher than a Triple S in the Blood Sun World.”

Since there was a Hell Difficulty chapter available, Lin Xun didn’t consider the others at all.

Why settle for lesser rewards when you could get the best?

If you could get straight into Tsinghua or Peking University, you wouldn’t bother applying to some third-rate university. That was the confidence of a top student.

Besides, Lin Xun really wanted to know what kind of reward you’d get if you achieved a Triple S rating in a Hell Difficulty chapter.

[You have selected a Fifth Difficulty Chapter (Hell)!]