Chapter 130: The Dragon-Carrying Staff
After standing behind Murong Yan for a moment, Li Zhan spoke:
“How do you like the new outfit? Does it fit well?”
Startled, Murong Yan turned around to see Li Zhan and quickly replied, “Yes, I’m very satisfied. Thank you, Mayor.”
Li Zhan nodded, “You’re welcome. By the way, I heard you have the Craftsmanship skill. What are you best at?”
Murong Yan answered, “Besides handmade crafts, we can pretty much make anything purely by hand. Once we get the hang of it, we handle it with ease.”
Li Zhan looked puzzled, “You say ‘we’? Is there someone else who has the Craftsmanship skill?”
Realizing she had let something slip, Murong Yan hesitated before whispering, “Well… my sisters have been separated.”
Li Zhan saw the look in her eyes and understood there was some hidden pain she didn’t want to talk about. He decided not to press further.
At that moment, after a full day of leveling up, “Dancing Fish” came to Li Zhan, a mixture of exhaustion and excitement on his face. They chatted a bit before he logged off to eat, promising to keep working hard into the night.
Throughout the day, except for a quick bowl of instant noodles at noon, Dancing Fish stayed online non-stop, joining one leveling group after another. He had been part of six or seven influential player guilds—Iron Lords, Life-Ending Potions, Laughing Breezes, Rakshasas… all had brought him along. Now at level seven, his progress was indeed rapid.
The Missionary, looking like a sunburned leech with shiny eyes and a tired demeanor, came to Li Zhan to collect his wages.
Since the upgrade to private ownership, the Missionary had been receiving a salary of twenty copper coins daily from the town, on the condition that he was available whenever the town had tasks.
On idle days, the Missionary mostly ate and slept, sometimes wandering the outskirts of the town. Once, while at a spawn point southeast of town, he helped a player who was about to be killed by gray wolves by healing some health. Immediately, nearby players surrounded him, each offering one or two copper coins to hire him for healing.
With money to earn and skills to upgrade, the Missionary gladly accepted. Ever since, he changed his habit of lazing all day, getting up early to wait at spawn points for players to hire him. Players found leveling much more efficient with his healing, going from returning to town every ten minutes to resting only every two or three hours, handing their stalls over to villagers. This greatly accelerated leveling and attracted more players to the town.
Today, Li Zhan assigned the Missionary a task: to focus on healing the group that Dancing Fish was with. So the Missionary spent the entire day running back and forth across every spawn point within dozens of miles.
Paid and smiling, the Missionary happily went to the inn for his meal. Li Zhan chuckled at how energetic the Missionary suddenly looked and was about to leave when Murong Yan called out from behind:
“Mayor, you gave me two extra copper coins as wages.”
Li Zhan turned to see Murong Yan holding out two copper coins and looking at him.
He smiled and said, “Forget it. Two copper coins are just a small bonus. Just work hard from now on.”
Murong Yan shook her head with furrowed brows, “Mayor, please don’t be so kind to me. I’ll only bring you trouble.”
Li Zhan was surprised, “What do you mean by that?”
Murong Yan lowered her head. After a long pause, she looked up and said, “I can’t say. Just… Mayor, don’t be too nice to me. I’m an unlucky person.”
With that, she hurried away, running back to her room. After steadying herself, she realized she still clutched the two copper coins in her hand.
That same day, the clothing stock was sold out. The Ocean Girl later gathered funds and exchanged 300 gold to formally sign an Honorary Merchant contract with Li Zhan. She planned to ship another batch of clothing to make a hefty profit.
Li Zhan shook his head and explained the town’s current clothing strategy: to prepare for the upcoming competition with the Withered Leaf Tribe, all newly produced clothing would be stored in the warehouse and not sold externally for the next few days. Ocean Girl could sign the Honorary Merchant contract, but specific supply times would be decided once the NPC merchant Wan Huai returned to town.
Pouting in frustration, Ocean Girl muttered that she had come at an inconvenient time but had no choice. After signing the contract, she decided to stay in Yanhuang Town until Wan Huai’s return. Her tribe had friends to manage things for a couple of days, so it wouldn’t be an issue.
After breakfast, Dancing Fish logged back in and saw Li Zhan standing with Ocean Girl. Grinning slyly, he hid in the shadows and sent Li Zhan a message:
Dancing Fish: “Old Li, you’ve got plenty of energy. You even managed to snag two innocent little girls. Spill it—how many more are you hiding?”
The previous night, when Dancing Fish saw Ruo Yan, he joked with Li Zhan like a playful carrot on a stick. Li Zhan had to work hard to explain that he and Ruo Yan were just pure friends, but Dancing Fish wasn’t convinced. He shook his head, firmly believing there was something going on between them, which annoyed Li Zhan enough to stop arguing and let him think whatever he wanted.
Now, seeing Dancing Fish misunderstand him again, Li Zhan snapped back:
Li Zhan: “You’re crazy with lust or what? I’m not explaining myself to you. If you think there’s something, go ask her.”
Li Zhan threw the remark out casually, but Dancing Fish took it seriously, walking over to the two and chatting animatedly with Ocean Girl, getting close to her. Then he suggested they all level up together. Ocean Girl, like Dancing Fish, was around level ten and bored, so she agreed.
As Dancing Fish walked side by side with Ocean Girl toward the spawn point, he winked at Li Zhan, silently saying, “Just wait, I’ll dig up your secrets, heh heh.”
Li Zhan was annoyed and looked away but inwardly admired Dancing Fish. Observing Ocean Girl’s personality, Li Zhan knew it was hard for her to get along with the opposite sex. Yet Dancing Fish not only got along with her but also invited her to level up. His “natural charm” was clearly no joke.
But how would Ocean Girl respond to Dancing Fish’s obvious probing?
Li Zhan smiled to himself, sensing it would be quite entertaining.
About half an hour later, Li Zhan had just inspected the newly built canteen and was discussing plans for a clothing factory with Lvshidi Nianlai. Ocean Girl returned in a huff, with Dancing Fish trailing about fifty meters behind, looking sheepish.
The incident was this: when Dancing Fish asked Ocean Girl about her “special” relationship with Li Zhan, Ocean Girl slapped him sharply in front of a large group of leveling players, who were all stunned and began speculating about their relationship. After the commotion, Ocean Girl lost interest in leveling and stormed off. Dancing Fish, feeling embarrassed in front of everyone, had no choice but to follow her back.
Li Zhan, secretly pleased, avoided Ocean Girl’s gaze and winked at Dancing Fish. Only when Dancing Fish playfully punched the air in protest did Li Zhan grin knowingly.
Then Dancing Fish earnestly apologized to Ocean Girl, admitting his impure thoughts and offering a sincere apology. Though fiery, Ocean Girl was reasonable and eventually said she wouldn’t hold it against him. The storm passed.
With no mood to level, Ocean Girl wanted to visit Danyang. Dancing Fish seized the chance to be a good companion, offering to accompany her all the way.
Li Zhan remembered the town needed some dye vats and other supplies, so he asked Dancing Fish to take two villagers to buy those items. He also had Dancing Fish bring along the mysterious black staff obtained from the recent bandit raid for appraisal.
They joked and chatted on the way back from Danyang. To Li Zhan’s surprise, Dancing Fish handed him the staff and said:
“This heavy guy? It’s called the Dragon-Bearing Staff. The name sounds cool, but the stats are pretty lame.”
Dragon-Bearing Staff? Li Zhan found the name familiar. He frowned, examining the pitch-black staff, and suddenly a flash of insight struck him. He remembered a madman who had bumped into him earlier, still laughing and singing under the watch of Zhao Ming and four swordsmen:
“Dragon-Bearing Staff and Crow Spear combined break through infinity; Dragon-Bearing Staff and Crow Spear combined break through infinity… hahaha…”
Dragon-Bearing Staff, Crow Spear, Infinity.
Li Zhan silently repeated these seemingly unrelated names. After several times, he could only guess that the Dragon-Bearing Staff’s poor attributes were because it needed to be combined with something called the Crow Spear to unleash its true power. But what exactly was “Infinity”?
Li Zhan scrutinized the appraised Dragon-Bearing Staff once more. The dark shaft shimmered under the sunlight, and briefly, the image of a fierce cloud dragon coiled around it flickered before vanishing.
Dragon-Bearing Staff (Staff)
Attack: +10
Accuracy: +0
Durability: 100
Additional: Can be combined
Weight: 40
Requirements: Level 25, Strength 300, Advanced Spear Technique
Note:
Level 25, Strength 300 — At this stage, players can already equip longswords, which outperform the Dragon-Bearing Staff in attack, accuracy, and additional attributes, without demanding such high strength. So aside from durability, this staff’s stats are indeed quite poor.