NOVEL NEXT Chapter 54 - Saving Cao Zhi and Finding…The Goddess of the River of Luo?
Chapter 54: Chapter 54 – Saving Cao Zhi and Finding…The Goddess of the River of Luo?
Despite the high difficulty of the game, Ren Suo reached the year 222 and was not about to give up so easily.
Furthermore, in the current loaded save file, the first three generations of Ren leaders were all rare Defense-type characters!
Other than the uncontrollable factors in the game, Ren Suo thought that there was no other better strategy to successfully complete the game than having a strong Defense-focused character.
Even though Ren Suo could select the “Training” orders for the characters, he was not able to control the attribute each character would be trained in. Even if Ren Suo selected [Attack] for all the characters, there were still eight different possible attack types they could acquire. There were five melee types and three ranged types.
Melee types: Double Attack to enemies within the area of effect (Spear); Triple Attack to a single target (Sword); Four times Critical Attack to a single target (Axe); Single Attack to a single target, but vulnerability to attack decreases with each battle (Shield); and Single Attack to a single target, but two moves can be made each round (Warrior).
Ranged types: Attack a single target on the entire map (Flying Sword); Single Attack to all targets within an intermediate range of effect (Magic); and Attack any target from nearby to far away (Bow).
Out of the eight possible attack types, the more interesting ones were naturally the Shield type, Warrior type, and the Bow type.
This time, the characters Ren Suo had sent on the expedition to eliminate the Fire Demons at Yiling were Ren Ying, who possessed the Formidable Shield and Lightning Axe; Ren Wuxie, who possessed the Fiery Fist; and Ren Luoyang, who possessed the Silverwolf Witch Bow. As a team, there were all the three types—Shield, Warrior, and Bow.
A system prompt appeared: [During the expedition, Ren Luoyang saw a group of soldiers being chased by Typhoid Bronze Ghosts.]
In the year 222, traces of the plague which emerged in Jian’an years ago still remained. For many years, the “Plague of Typhoid Fever” killed over 20 million people. Of which, a seemingly small proportion of 0.1% of them became Typhoid Bronze Ghosts, which actually amounted to the birth of over 20 thousand revengeful, resentful, and blood-thirsty Ghost Demons!
No matter how Ren Suo tried to kill all of them, he could only eliminate a few thousands of them in the following few years. As such, it was no rare sight to encounter them along the way during the expedition. As long as the Ghost Demons did not intrude into the homes of the elves, and the elves did not report any matter to the Ren family of Practitioners, the player would not be able to find the lone Ghosts in the wild.
Without a doubt, the Ghost Demons would remain in the area where they had died in the initial stages. Ren Suo had relied on the Ren villagers previously to obtain “information” about where wars had broken out in the Central Plains, and about how many people were killed in the wars… Later on, after Ren Suo had read “The Three Kingdoms”. He found out where the wars took place and no longer needed to seek for such information.
The Ghost Demons in the “?” checkpoint they encountered along the way was nothing out of the ordinary, but with regard to the soldiers…
Ren Wuxie said, “Master, judging from their armor, they seem to be Wei soldiers. We should just let them be.”
Ren Luoyang said, “Wuxie, how could we just leave them be! Their leader is also a powerful Practitioner whose abilities are strong. It is highly possible that they would be able to escape safely. I think that we should make sure that they all perish instead.”
“…” Ren Suo had not imagined both of them to be against the Cao family. Nonetheless, only a few of the members in the Ren family sided with Cao Wei, and similarly only a few sided with Liu Bei. The majority of them were less informed citizens who were easily influenced and just rode with the tides. At that time, the name Cao Cao was nothing extraordinary amongst the citizens and after he died two years ago, his son Cao Pi had forced the last ruler of the Eastern Han dynasty to abdicate his position to him.
Naturally, the members of the Ren family, who had the blood of the Hans, did not favor Cao Cao.
Even though the abdicated ruler of the Eastern Han dynasty did not fully share the same lineage as the Hans, whom the Ren family pledged their allegiance to, he was nonetheless a great warrior who descended from Emperor Guangwu.
Regardless, Ren Suo did not hold any political stance in the game and even though the Ghost Demons had not appeared in large numbers, they were still ‘meat’ for him to keep. As such, Ren Suo selected the option [Proceed to eliminate the Ghost Demons].
Ren Woxing (Ren Ying) said, “My fellow Practitioners and I were predestined to kill demons the day we were born. Till death, we fight!”
In the battle scene, Ren Suo could only control the main character’s actions to battle.
At the beginning of the battle, [Fiery Fist] Ren Wuxie with an Attack of 34 points swiftly charged into the sea of Ghost Demons, killing a Typhoid Ghost with each of his punches, before he quickly retreated back again to avoid being surrounded by the Ghosts Demons!
The “Warrior” type was a broad term Ren Suo used to classify special abilities involving the fist, the palm, the leg or the foot. Those included abilities like the Fiery Knife Palm, the Great Ocean Swing Fist, and the Lightning Blitz Leg, although each of the abilities dealt varying amounts of damage to enemies. Furthermore, members of the Ren family who trained those special abilities could move twice in each round of the battle.
That meant that they could move twice and attack twice in each round, and depending on the abilities they had, their Movement points would increase by 0.1~0.3 for each Attack point they had. They would hence be able to move blazingly fast like the wind in the battle!
If only there were such Warrior-type members in the Ren family before the year 210, Ren Suo would have been sufficiently confident to send each of the Ren family members to different locations to kill more Demons.
Although Ren Suo was unable to fully control the actions of the other Ren family members (even in battle), he would be able to lead the other members if he sent the character acting as the head of the family out on the expedition together.
Thereafter, even if Ren Suo did not send the main character to battle, the game AI would still remember what Ren Suo had led the character type to do previously. For example, Ren Suo had led a Warrior-type character to employ the kiting tactic, where he kept a distance from the enemy but still remained within ranged attack distance. Afterwhich, whenever a Warrior-type character engaged in battle (even other unborn Warrior-type characters or those whom he had not led before) would also learn to employ such a tactic in future battles.
Nonetheless, that was not surprising to Ren Suo who had already completed the game [The Hitman]. He knew that the game characters were capable of “remembering the knowledge that was taught, taking down notes and even sharing with other students”.
In the meantime, [Silverwolf Witch Bow] Ren Luoyang had also taken out his inherited “Celestial Wolf Bow” which had been passed down from the ancestors.
The Celestial Wolf Bow was actually the bow used by one of the first generation Ren family Practitioners—Ren Tianlang (Celestial Wolf) utilized such weapon during his entire lifetime. When Ren Tianlang passed down his knowledge to the selected second-generation Ren family Practitioner, the latter would be able to perfectly inherit the weapon of the ancestor if he also wielded the bow. Furthermore, there would be additional inherited attribute points.
[Celestial Wolf Bow: Ranged attacks gain a 1.2 times multiplier boost.]
Changing to a far-ranged attack, Ren Luoyang was able to select any one target on the entire battlefield to attack with perfect precision!
If the Warrior type was the most versatile of all the melee types, then the Bow type would be the most well-rounded of all character types. The Bow-type characters were able to switch between close-ranged, mid-ranged, and far-ranged attacks at will. Of which, the far-ranged attacks would enable the character to attack any single target on the entire map with damage greater than all other types except the Sword-type!
Upon seeing the Ren family Practitioners helping them eliminate the Typhoid Bronze Ghosts, the Wei soldiers turned to escape towards their direction.
After one round, the two sides were now at a moderate distance from each other. Ren Luoyang switched to a mid-ranged attack and was able to attack three single targets at once!
If the distance between the two sides were closer, Ren Luoyang would be able to switch to the close-ranged attack and attack five times in one round!
At this moment, Ren Ying rushed to the front, lifted her shield and raised her enormous axe, then charged courageously into the sea of Ghost Demons! The Typhoid Bronze Ghosts immediately stopped chasing those who were escaping and turned to surround Ren Ying instead!
A middle-aged scholar who had been escaping exclaimed, “Quick, stop her! She’s going to die!”
Nonetheless, after one round, Ren Ying remained unscathed, and together with Ren Wuxie and Ren Luoyang, they killed dozens of powerful Typhoid Bronze Ghosts!
That was the strength and power of the Shield-type Practitioner!
Shield-type characters could only attack once in each round, but they had the strongest Defense amongst all the character types. If an enemy’s Attack was lower than their Defense, there was no way the enemy could hurt them!
When an ordinary Ren family Practitioner gets attacked, their remaining Defense points would be calculated by the formula [Defense – Attack], and when their remaining Defense points drops to 0, they would be knocked out.
On the other hand, when a Sword-type Ren family Practitioner gets attacked, as long as the opponent’s Attack is lower than his/her Defense, the damage dealt would still be 0!
The generations of patriarchs in the current save file were all Shield types. When Ren Suo allocated action points to [Defense] in the [Training] panel, it was more than likely that the patriarch character would train on Defense.
Combining that with other factors like being the direct descendant or having the same ability type as the ancestor, each generation of patriarchs was able to inherit 40%~50% of the previous patriarch’s attribute points.
In addition, when each generation of patriarchs trained, they would be able to acquire twice the attribute points due to the bonus given by the [Unlimited Energy] skill.
Altogether, Ren Ying now had a staggering 75 Defense points!
She was essentially undefeatable!
Furthermore, each generation of patriarchs honed their skill of [The Angry Roar Stance], which was simply a skill to mock and paralyze the enemy. The character’s Attack and Defense would be increased by 30% each, and the character would be able to deplete the Vengeance score of enemies within a five square distance.
The Typhoid Bronze Ghosts stood no chance against Ren Ying, who had a Defense of 97.5 points on the character chart.
Having spent a few minutes to eliminate the entire group of Demons, the middle-aged scholar whom they saved came forward to express his gratitude:
“I am Cao Zhi, the Prince of Juancheng, and I thank all of you for saving my life. Where do my saviors hail from? Sigh, the Central Plains has been plagued with diseases for a long time, and Demons continue to roam all about. I had never expected to run into them on such paved roads.”
You were just lucky, Ren Suo thought.
Indeed, although the Demons lurked everywhere in recent years, the Demons would have chosen to hide in the forests and mountains, and not risk their lives—had the regular army proceeded to chase them away. If the entire army worked together, it appeared that they would have been able to eliminate the Demons.
As such, safety would be restored as long as the various armies could chase the Demons away from the roads. On the other hand, the remaining minor problems like subduing the Demons who hid in the mountains and forests, and rescuing the civilians who did not live in the city could then be solved when the kingdoms were united.
Ren Suo realized that Cao Zhi was unlike any of the other generals and warlords like Lu Bu, Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Sun Ce, and Zhao Yun. He did not seem to be suspicious or provoked. He thought, how could I have forgotten…
In 222 AD, Cao Zhi was conferred the title Prince of Juancheng. On his way home, he penned a love poem to his lover, “Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River”….
Ren Woxing (Ren Ying) said, “We are the Ren family, I am Ren Woxing.”
Cao Zhi was taken aback. He asked, “Am I meeting the famous Ren family renowned for eliminating Demons?”
After an exchange of greetings, Ren Suo thought that Cao Zhi would repay them by rewarding them with treasures, and that would be the end of the segment. However, Cao Zhi said, “All of you are truly Demon killers who care for the world. All of you do not seek fame and even rejected my father’s offer to work for him. I am truly grateful but have nothing to offer, except…”
Following behind Cao Zhi were his personal troops who were the best in his army and had 19 Attack and 21 Defense (revealed by Ren Ying after scouting). The valiant General suddenly said, “Your Majesty, are you really…”
Cao Zhi said, “Even if I had been able to escape without the help from the Ren family Practitioners, all of you would have died in the wrath of the Demons instead. All of you are my treasured and precious troops, what else could compare to losing you all?”
Ren Suo was slightly surprised—not because he thought that Cao Zhi was good with words and easily appeased the troops, but because he was surprised what Cao Zhi was intending to give him.
Ren Suo scrutinized Cao Zhi’s avatar. Yes, he looked like a pretty middle-aged uncle.
On the other hand, the head of the Ren family, Ren Ying, was a young and beautiful girl who was just over ten years old. Could it be that the old Cao Zhi was using his figure to try his luck with the young Ren Ying?
Please do not do this to me, Ren Suo thought as he recalled the four or five members of the Ren family who had previously fallen into a love trap or secretly engaged in a prohibited act and thereafter committed suicide or fallen into depression with their training rates dropping below 1…
Even though he was still in control of the main character who was the head of the Ren family, Ren Suo was still slightly afraid of such undesirable consequences.
Ren Suo said, “This is a jade pendant that my father bestowed upon me and it is said to be a token of the gods. I am not sufficiently skilled and have only been able to see mere shadows of the goddess, in my dreams. I only remember the appearance of her as she tripped lightly like a startled swan…To repay the kindness of saving my life, and so as to not let this treasure go to waste, I hope you accept my token of appreciation.”
A series of prompts appeared: [You have received the ‘Jade Pendant of the Goddess of the Luo River’.]
[You have discovered the exact location of the Goddess of the Luo River!]
[You may now perform Spiritual Exchange with ‘Goddess: Mi Fei’!]
[There is a great difference between a Spiritual Exchange with an elf and a god/goddess! The talented child of Gods/Goddesses will have blessed unique talents. When you encounter difficulties, do not forget about these talented children.]