When I opened the public channel and started shouting, what was really frustrating was that the ones who claimed they’d arrive immediately turned out to be the same few Barbarian Mountain disciples I’d seen that day. I really didn’t mess with his sister! This big brother sure takes things seriously. But it’s fine that they came—black cat or white cat, as long as it catches mice, it’s a good cat.

My mind was full of schemes, but that azure flood dragon seemed to sense something, constantly arching its body upward. I calculated that if Blaze Fan's big brother was in Chengdu, he should be arriving soon. I deliberately announced my coordinates on the public channel, threw in a few verbal provocations, and then, without hesitation, flung both Black Dog Nails straight into the azure flood dragon’s body.

“Roar!” A massive bellow, like a bull’s, rumbled up from underground. According to the flood dragon’s habits, when it’s lurking underground, it’s almost in a state of slumber. If I just patted it a few times, it might not even notice, but if I started nailing things into it, and it still didn’t react, then it’d have to be numb to the core.

I activated my Sword Escape Technique, and my body floated lightly, darting more than ten meters away in an instant. By the time the flood dragon’s roar broke through the ground, I’d already run more than half a li, and up ahead I could see a group of forty or fifty players charging toward me.

“That bastard! Don’t you run!”

“Why would I run? I’m here to turn myself in!” Blaze Fan's big brother must be a careless guy most of the time. Luckily, a few sharp-eyed teammates managed to hold him back before he could rush at me. But… what a pity! Haha! Hahaha! It’s already too late! The flood dragon burst out of the ground, and seeing a bunch of people ready for battle, of course it attacked indiscriminately.

This flood dragon wasn’t a true dragon after all. While it looked mighty churning up waves in the water, on land it was little more than a giant python. It stirred up a muddy current across the ground, but halfway through, the water ran low, and it started roaring again. The earth’s spring seemed to boil over, gushing water everywhere, and in moments, the woods around us were already flooding.

Luckily, I ran fast, pushing my Sword Escape Technique to the limit. In the blink of an eye, I’d already passed through Blaze Fan and his big brother's group. Who had time to bother with me now? The Barbarian Mountain disciples were all frantically unleashing their magic treasures, and some of the higher-level ones had already started using the sinister spells of the Barbarian Mountain Green Robe Patriarch’s lineage to attack the flood dragon.

Though this thing was terrifying, the experience points and loot it dropped were bound to be amazing. Blaze Fan's big brother and his friends had been teaming up since the closed beta, with plenty of experience fighting monsters together, and they immediately formed up to battle the flood dragon in a fierce, evenly matched fight.

I ran all the way to a perfectly safe vantage point and started spamming the public channel: “Azure flood dragon rampaging outside Chengdu, Barbarian Mountain disciples turning over a new leaf…” I came up with some sensational, eye-catching headlines, and even summoned the system’s recording sprite to send out videos like crazy.

Chapter Twelve: The Black Dog’s Savage Bite

When the Shushan group hunts monsters, experience points are distributed according to the damage dealt. Of course, the first person to attack gets a little extra—not much, just twenty percent. The one who lands the killing blow gets the real prize: forty percent of the experience. As for loot, it’s finders keepers.

I wasn’t greedy; twenty percent experience was enough to level me up twice. As for the Black Dog Nails’ ongoing damage, I’d take whatever I could get. When these nails hit an enemy, they deal continuous damage and also drain mana over time. Watching my own mana tick down bit by bit, I started regretting not buying some mana-restoring pills.

Azure flood dragon, beast type, status: unformed, level forty-eight, skilled at water attacks, defense 1800, HP 2900, mana 1000, strength 1000…

“Damn! Looks like my lucky brother-in-law isn’t going to make it! I’d better find some help fast.”

Challenging a monster more than double the players’ level—how could just a few dozen people handle that? I shouted at the top of my lungs in the public channel: “Level forty-eight boss, rumored to drop a tier-seven divine weapon, the Azure Flood Dragon Sword! Barbarian Mountain people have already whittled the flood dragon down to half health—if you’re late, you’ll miss out!”

If Blaze Fan's big brother and his crew weren’t so busy, they’d have roasted me alive by now. As it was, they were the ones almost wiped out, not the flood dragon. But with me fanning the flames, players from inside and outside the city swarmed over, and soon two or three more teams of twenty or thirty joined the fight. People are funny that way—even knowing the danger, as long as enough others are doing it, no one’s afraid.

In less than half an hour, Blaze Fan's big brother and his group were all dead, and no one knew how the flood dragon had even gotten out. The ever-increasing horde of players was starting to go a little crazy. Shouts of “Snatch the XP! Grab the loot!” rang out, and to them, I was the odd one out, just sitting on the sidelines watching the show.

“Ahem! You guys better step it up! If this monster flood dragon doesn’t die, my experience points will go down the drain. You only get the XP if you land the killing blow, you know!”