'Baili… Changcheng!' Lin Jie's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly felt like he was in a trance.
When the Elemental Sword Artist removed his mask, it revealed that familiar yet detestable face from his previous life. Finally, Lin Jie was convinced that this person was Baili Changcheng!
In the last seven years of Lin Jie's previous life, his closest brother, his strongest comrade, his best friend with whom he shared the same mindset was also the man who had backstabbed him at the last minute, pushing him into the abyss that was beyond redemption.
That person had made Lin Jie feel the warmest kind of brotherhood.
Once, Lin Jie had fallen and joined the Dark Shrine to get a super rare Augmenting Crystal, killing players without constraint and being condemned by the public. He had been reduced to a street rat, hated by everyone. At that time, the only one that had lent a helping hand was Baili Changcheng.
When Lin Jie had been fighting to become the leader of the City of Light, but was troubled by not having enough funding and was about to give up, he had been the one that had gathered and given him gold coins without hesitation.
Lin Jie and Baili Changcheng, one was the Battle Emperor while the other was the Sword Emperor.
In The New Age of his previous life, they had set countless legendaries, gotten rid of national boundaries, gone on battlefields, won championships… If not at the last moment that Baili Changcheng's Coldless Winter had pierced through his chest, even if he died, he would not have believed that his brother would betray him.
"Uh, what are you staring at me for?" Baili Changcheng was stared at by Lin Jie. He could not help but shudder and tease Lin Jie by saying, "Seeing how ferocious you are, you must be straight, right? I'm feeling a little nervous."
Using such a tone gave Lin Jie a sense of familiarity. He wore a slight smile on his face, but somehow it disappeared. He said calmly, "No need to add as friends."
He really did not know what attitude to use when facing this person. Before Lin Jie's rebirth, he would mince this treacherous bast*rd and feed him to the dog if he could! However now, when this former old brother sat in front of him with a totally different face, Lin Jie did not have this kind of feeling anymore, not even the slightest.
Lin Jie only hoped that his family could be safe and sound, and live a comfortable life - that was all. He believed that with his rebirth advantage, becoming a millionaire or even billionaire was not a problem. However, his family's safety was the most important compared to everything else.
As for Baili Changcheng… After rebirth, Lin Jie even thought of not having any interactions with him in this life! Just becoming strangers like this. However, this former brother had appeared in front of him again!
In the past seven years of his previous life, seven years of battle, even if one's heart was made of steel, a print would have been left in each other's heart. The scenes of battling in Warriors Arena, suddenly, came back to him inadvertently. Lin Jie and Baili Changcheng back to back, one with Broken Blade, the other with Coldless Winter, were fighting against a large number of people!
However, at that last day, Baili Changcheng had used his Coldless Winter, this piece of equipment that both of them had put in a year's effort to forge, to pierce into his heart…
Baili Changcheng scratched his head awkwardly, asking innocently, "Brother, after you saw my name, your expression was kind of not right… I remember you!"
Lin Jie was shocked. 'Remember me?'
'Was he also reborn?'
"You are Qi Dawei's relative, right? He was fired from our company last week, it can't be helped…" Baili Changcheng said meekly. He thought that Lin Jie was the son of one of the staff that was fired and recognized him.
Lin Jie's pupils constricted. When Baili Changcheng saw his expression at that time, he had guessed it was due to the staff that was fired. 'Doesn't this prove that his real name is also Baili Changcheng?'
"No, I am not Qi Dawei's relative."
"Then, Mao Guomao's relative?"
Lin Jie pursed his lips. "No."
"Zhou Min?"
"Shang Yu?"
"Wang Youxiao?"
Baili Changcheng said a total of tens of names and Lin Jie finally could not stand it. "How many people did your company fire?"
Baili Changcheng said embarrassedly, "Quite a lot, being an energy company, firing people is normal. In this industry, once unable to keep up with the pace, you will be fired."
Lin Jie frowned. 'Energy company?'
In his previous life, Lin Jie had been to Baili Changcheng's house as a guest. He remembered that it had already been three months before the War of the Gods had been held. It had also been from that time on, that Lin Jie had gotten to know how rich Baili Changcheng's house really was.
However, at that time, The New Age's influence had been incomparable, a sign that it could become one with all industries. Lin Jie had only been marveled at the formidable wealth of Baili Changcheng's family, but he had not known that his family was originally an energy company.
Subsequently, with Lin Jie guiding the talk consciously, Baili Changcheng revealed a lot of matters about his energy company. He went to his family's company for an internship, but due to unfixed working hours - frankly speaking, it was just playing games - he was arranged to be a manager by his relative. Baili Changcheng's memory was very good, so he could remember that many names.
'This guy, compared to the first time we met in my previous life, is even more negligent of guarding against harm from others.' Lin Jie frowned.
It was three months later when they had met in his previous life. At that time, Baili Changcheng had fallen into someone else's trap, and his corpse had been guarded, wanting to kill him till he returned to his beginning stats, but he had been saved by Lin Jie. Baili Changcheng had told Lin Jie what had happened three days before and after he had been attacked, without any vigilance against others.
Thinking till here, a flash of inspiration struck Lin Jie.
It was a month after he had visited Baili Changcheng's house that his sister and his mother had gotten into a car accident! 'Is it possible… That this was related to Baili Changcheng?'
In this life, his family was Lin Jie's heart! After rebirth, the tragic scene of his family being sent to the hospital still replayed in Lin Jie's head, making him unable to sleep every time. He must find out all the possible reasons.
Even if that car accident had just occurred by chance, although it had been judged to be an accident by the traffic police, he also had to clear all things related to cars close to his parents three months before and after the car accident. This was to guarantee that his family was 100% safe.
If that was really the case, would Baili Changcheng have some kind of relations to this matter? If he was not related, then at the last minute, why would Baili Changcheng have betrayed him?
Lin Jie took a deep breath. If his guess was correct… His family meeting with a mishap was related to Baili Changcheng! At least, related to Baili Changcheng's family!
Then, the person in front of him now was the most important link to him understanding the truth! In the past, there was King Goujian of Yue 1 that slept on brushwood and taste gall 2 , now it seemed like he also needed to follow the example of the ancients? Only by getting closer to Baili Changcheng, could he have the chance to find out the truth! Truth be told, since rebirth, Lin Jie had become more stubborn. That puzzle from his past life kept haunting him like nightmares lingering.
"That's weird, are they not all? Let me continue thinking…" Baili Changcheng seemed to be recalling the memories of people that were fired even longer ago but was interrupted by Lin Jie.
"I was just joking, come, let's add each other as friends. Prepare to split the loot!" Lin Jie smiled as he said, taking the initiative of sending Baili Changcheng a friend request.
Baili Changcheng grinned widely, and both of their friends' columns flickered.
Lin Jie looked at Baili Changcheng and said in his heart secretly, 'Baili Changcheng, we were brothers for seven years in my previous life, in this life, how would it be?'
"Alright, come, split the loot! Split the loot!" Baili Changcheng shouted as he could not hold himself back. He just poured out all the spoils completely, and it piled up on the ground.
Dark Gold Treasure Chests, even throughout The New Age, were super rare existences. The Dark Gold Treasure Chest at the tip of Fire Mountain Peak, strictly speaking, was the same as the Gradeless Treasure Chest in the Spirited Lake of the Undead. The only difference was it was plated with a layer of gold only.
It was a Mission Treasure Chest!
If in true sense it really was a Gradeless Treasure Chest, not to mention if it was within a dragon nest or phoenix cave, it would at least have over two Bosses guarding it.
"This is my mission item, I'll take it first." Baili Changcheng grinned and shook the shard that looked like a shoe before stuffing it into his backpack. He then took out a huge handful of coins, adding up to around one gold coin. "You 70%, I 30%, here are your 70 silver coins."
Lin Jie took the huge handful of silver coins and laughed. He probed, "Baili, where did you raise your level? Reaching level 10 so quickly?"
Baili Changcheng scratched his head. "I am a fallen human. I could accept my family's unique mission. I am counted as those with better luck, the family I was born into had a slave that was a Barbarian. After I helped him, I received a practical skill, so leveling up was quite fast."
As he was saying, he revealed his skill layout in front of Lin Jie.
Vein Expansion: Passive Skill. After you enter battle mode, 1 point of Attack Power or Strength would be randomly increased every second, stacked to a maximum of 20 times.
Indeed, in the early game where players' damages were generally low, such a skill increased damage output by a few times.
"In total, one piece of equipment, two potion recipes, one Augmenting Gem, one enchantment scroll, and some special items." Baili Changcheng gave the piece of equipment to Lin Jie. "Yours."
[Flame Walker Pauldron] (Gold)
Can be used by Warriors.
Requires: Level 10
Defense: 23-45
Health Points: +100
Endurance: +12
Defense Level: +2
Enhanced Parry: +3
Additional effect: The units that attack you will have chances of being burnt by flames, dealing 10 points of damage.
The best quality defensive heavy armor! High defense, high health points, and it even increased defense levels. The so-called defense levels meant the percentage of attributes, changing according to different levels; the calculation formula was quite complicated.
Simply speaking, for a level 1 Bandit receiving equipment with Critical Hit level +10 meant that his critical strike chance would be infinitely close to 100%. To a level 20 Bandit, this 10 points of Critical Hit levels could only provide around 4% of critical strike chance.
Flame Walker Pauldron was similar to ox horns, covering both shoulders. It seemed to be extremely thick and heavy, while a heat wave loomed.
One of the potion recipes was for the mid-level Element Havoc Potion. It could cause the effects of element type skills to fluctuate. Mid-level Element Havoc Potion's fluctuation range was 80% to 120%. The cost was not high, so it could unleash very good effects in the hands of players with good luck.
The other was a mid-level Mana Restoration Potion Recipe, commonly known as mid-level mana potion! All potions had a cooldown time, and thus Mages often faced awkward situations when their mana was insufficient, but potions' restoration amount was not enough. Higher levels of mana potions' value were demonstrated fully.
"These two recipes, I want them," Lin Jie said in a deep voice.
In a Potioneer's hands, the potion recipes represented great value!
"Take them if you want them. If I need potions in the future, I'm going to find you, hahaha." Baili Changcheng stored the Augmenting Gem into his backpack and stared. "What? If you eat meat, I also want to drink the soup."
Lin Jie shrugged his shoulders, the remaining items' value was not high, so he just gave all of them to Baili Changcheng.
"Where are you going next?"
"Me? I plan to go to City of Barbarians for a mission. This mission rewards a pair of pretty good war boots." Baili Changcheng gestured the war boots shard in his hand.
[Thor's Elemental War Boots Shard]
Lin Jie took a look and nodded his head in clear understanding. Thor's Elemental War Boots was the strongest war boots an Elemental Sword Artist could obtain at level 10. For an ice attribute Elemental Sword Artist, it could even increase the movement speed on "Ice Path," largely increasing his agility.
"Then, I'll be leaving first." Lin Jie stood up, deciding to bid farewell.
Baili Changcheng nodded his head and said, "Okay, oh right, later when we are at City of Light, I'll treat you alcohol!"
"Alright." Lin Jie turned and left.
Everything was as though a dream.
Lin Jie recalled the speculation in his mind and the more he thought about it, the more he felt it was possible.
'Is it possible that Baili Changcheng was the real murderer behind the scene?' No. Although in his previous life Baili Changcheng had betrayed him at the last moment, with his character, he could not have done such a lunatic thing.
'There must be other reasons!' Lin Jie's eyes lit up and said, "City of Barbarians?"
Lin Jie went to the Teleporter station and picked a target, '"Teleport to City of Barbarians!"
He wanted to see, in this life's Baili Changcheng, exactly what type of person he was! Perhaps, he had already cooperated with his old enemy, Baili Xuanyuan long ago.
Lin Jie kept recalling this thought, trying to think of Baili Changcheng being as bad as possible, blackening his name. Only this way could he give up on their brotherhood.
In Guild of Light, many races did not meet the doctrine of the guild, so they were rejected by the guild and were now staying at the borderlines.
Barbarians were one of them. This race had the strongest Barbarian Warriors in The New Age. Those Barbarians who naturally had superhuman strength unleashed the way of Warriors thoroughly! Thus, Barbarians had the formidable title of "Battlefield Meat Grinder" all along!
With such strong combat capabilities, Guild of Light started to frequently conscript and send soldiers into battlefields with Barbarians where flames of war and smoke filled the air. After the Barbarians lost almost two-thirds of their military power, they chose to retreat into seclusion, establishing the City of Barbarians. From then on, Barbarian Warriors became a legend on the battlefield, never again appearing in front of people.
The City of Barbarians was built with granite, as though stony yurts. Grey-haired and husky-figured Barbarians were still walking around, talking in their tribal language—they were the same even when facing outsiders, they used such a method to tell others that they did not welcome them.
The City of Barbarians was a place that only players above level 20 could survive. The surrounding monsters' levels were very high. Thus, that resulted in this place temporarily not having any players—to be exact, no other players except Lin Jie and Baili Changcheng!
Due to Baili Changcheng's unique mission, he seemed to be able to talk to and accept missions from Barbarians.
Lin Jie found traces of Baili Changcheng at the gate of the largest building in the center. Half an hour later, he then just nicely walked out, his steps extremely slow and heavy.
On his feet was a pair of shoes that was extremely heavy! It looked like the mouth of dinosaurs, as bone teeth were branded between his calf. That outlook actually was—Heritage War Boots!
Barbarians' chieftain Sorg, corresponded to Achilles in Greek Mythology who had his heel as his only weakness! Therefore, Barbarians had the strongest war boots in The New Age!
Barbarians' strength was powerful, and their load was even three times larger than normal players. That caused their equipment and weapons' weight to be intentionally increased to achieve their aim in increasing attributes. Heritage War Boots was not a piece of equipment that Warriors, who increased Wisdom such as Elemental Sword Artist, could handle and use with ease!
'It seems like he is about to go do something?' Lin Jie thought and took out his Hermit Helmet, placing his Broken Blade behind his back and the Shield of Courage on top of it, perfectly covering Broken Blade. As long as one's load was enough, they could equip all the equipment on their body. Of course, their attributes would not be in effect, unless one's hands had enough space.
With Withered Leaf Sword in his left hand and Fire Longsword on his right, the Lone Wolf Helmet hid Lin Jie's doubtful and cold eyes.
Baili Changcheng walked out of City of Barbarians step by step. Outside the City of Barbarians was the famous Taklamashi Desert 3 . The wind mixed with sand blew now and then. If the wind-force was enough, one could even see the countless bones hidden underneath the sand!
One's success relied on thousands of deaths!
Baili Changcheng stood still at a spot and took out a whistle from his backpack.
"Hwee—"
"Hwee—"
A dull, strange sound reverberated throughout the desert.
Boom!
The ground suddenly collapsed, a swirl appeared, and countless grains of sand and piles of mud spiraled and sank down. Then, a bone creature as big as a house appeared from it!
It was a Skeleton Kodo! One of the strongest undead!
References from a real desert, Taklamakan Desert, the changed word (kan) means dry and (shi) means wet in Chinese. The literal meaning of the Chinese idiom, which means to undergo self-imposed hardships and work with a strong will to succeed. Its origin was from when the King Goujian did such things to remind himself of not forgetting his hatred and revenge towards the State of Wu after he was defeated and humiliated. Finally, he successfully defeated the State of Wu and destroyed it. The King that ruled the state of Yue in the late Spring and Autumn period.