Chapter 163: Returning to the Eastern Capital

A guild challenge concluded swiftly and cleanly. Peerless Gentleman, lying on the ground, did not leave the map immediately.

Instead, he said with a depressed tone:

"The Artifact Big Boss is truly formidable as expected. If we had known, we should have chosen Brother Heaven-Domination as our assault target. Zero to five, so frustrating."

"No matter who you chose to assault, the outcome would have been the same, hehe."

"Fine, losers have no right to speak."

After the members of the Peerless Guild left the challenge map, the arena match officially ended.

System Announcement: All participating members of the Peerless Guild have died. The challenge is over. The Wind and Cloud Guild wins.

"What the heck, it's over already? Did you guys even fight?"

In the guild channel, other guild members were also paying attention to the guild battle, but they couldn't see the match itself.

"Yeah, didn't it just start? How is it already over? Could it be that the Peerless Guild actually forfeited?"

"They didn't forfeit. Does it take any effort to beat them? One slash each, and it was over in a few seconds."

Wind and Cloud A-Slash shouted smugly.

"I bet Big Boss A-Slash couldn't even chop down a single person."

"Haha, I think so too."

"Exactly, Brother A-Slash got played like a fool and watched the whole show."

Wind and Cloud Qingqing chimed in, kicking them while they were down.

"Holy cow, what's going on? Is there a video?"

"The video has been uploaded to the guild forum. Go look for yourselves."

Everyone rushed to the guild forum to check out the video of the arena match.

"Aishiba, where on earth did the Peerless Guild get five leaping skill books?"

"Oh yeah, they pulled off that leaping stunt smoothly. Who knew leaping skills could be used like that."

"I learned something new. I need to figure out how to get a leaping skill book and learn it. I still have skill points left anyway."

"No matter how slick it was, it's useless against absolute suppression by the Artifact Brother."

"Yeah, the Peerless Guild made a flurry of moves fierce as tigers, yet they all lay flat within seconds."

While the guild members watched the match video, Zhang Shan and the other four were happily collecting their guild battle rewards.

The rewards for a five-person arena match had no contribution ranking distribution; they were divided equally among all participating members.

This was because a five-person match heavily tested teamwork among teammates.

Of course, their Wind and Cloud Guild achieved an overwhelming victory through sheer strength, requiring no teamwork at all. Zhang Shan could have won the challenge entirely by himself.

Still, the rules were the rules.

Equal distribution was fine too. Zhang Shan received one hundred thousand gold coins and over two thousand guild contributions.

It could be considered a pretty decent haul. From returning from Heavenly Gate Pass to finishing the arena battle, it hadn't even taken them a few minutes in total.

Earning one hundred thousand gold coins in such a short time was practically picking up money—it couldn't get any more satisfying.

Peerless Gentleman was truly a good guy.

Zhang Shan couldn't help but sigh with emotion, mentally issuing a "Good Guy Card" to Peerless Gentleman.

"It was too simple and boring. Let's head back to Heavenly Gate and grind mobs to level up."

After collecting the rewards, Wind and Cloud A-Slash spoke up.

"You guys go ahead. I want to go run a quest."

"What's the situation? Brother Six-Tubes, what quest item did you get this time? Don't tell me it's another artifact?"

Hearing that Zhang Shan was going to run a quest, the other four naturally linked it to artifacts.

After all, Zhang Shan's current artifact was obtained while running a quest previously.

"Not entirely sure. Mainly because there's no hint on the quest item about which NPC to find to trigger it. Whether I can actually pull it off, I honestly don't know."

Zhang Shan wasn't really certain indeed.

Although the Damaged Ring looked like an artifact quest item no matter how one examined it, it would all be for naught if he couldn't find the NPC to trigger the quest.

In that case, the Damaged Ring would simply remain a collectible item that could never trigger a quest.

As for quest rewards, there was no point in even talking about them.

"There are no hints for the triggering NPC, so how are you going to run the quest? You surely don't mean you're just going to wander around and trust to blind luck?"

"Yeah, I can only rely on luck. I plan to run through both the Eastern and Western Capitals entirely. If I really can't find anything, then forget it."

"My god, running through both the Eastern and Western Capitals? Have you considered how much time this will take? Don't you know how massive the Eastern and Western Capitals are?"

"There's no other choice. I have to try. What if it really turns out to be an artifact? Anyway, leveling is slow right now, so I'll spend a few days trying my luck first. If it doesn't work out, I'll just come back and continue grinding mobs."

"Fine, you're hardcore. The rest of us are racing against time to level up, yet you plan to spend days trusting to luck. The top-ranked big boss is truly mighty."

"Yeah, anyway, Artifact Brother has no leveling pressure. Even if a few more days pass, no one will be able to catch up to your level."

"Leveling fast really gives you the right to be willful."

"I'm heading out first. Brother A-Slash, remember to bring my buddy along to level up. He's a Taoist class and can't level up by himself."

"Rest assured, does a Daoist priest ever need to worry about nobody wanting him? I'm off."

Everyone teleported in different directions away from the guild estate, and the other four went back to Heavenly Gate Pass to grind mobs.

Zhang Shan went to the warehouse and took out the Damaged Ring and five divine materials.

Although repairing the strange pipe last time only required a single divine material, who knew if the requirements for repairing artifacts were the same every time? Since he had five divine materials anyway, he might as well bring them all.

Once again, he teleported to the Eastern Capital.

Zhang Shan sent a message to Boss Wu, telling him to tag along with others for a few days and wait until he finished this quest.

Coming to the Eastern Capital yet again, the teleportation cost one thousand gold coins, giving Zhang Shan a pang of heartache.

This was truly a thousand hard-earned dollars. It vanished the moment you took a single teleportation ride—not even taking an airplane in real life was this expensive.

The Eastern and Western Capitals in the game really didn't welcome players. No matter how wealthy a person was, they wouldn't just take a teleportation ride for no reason to play around here.

Looking at the gigantic city, Zhang Shan felt a massive headache. In a city this vast, with so many NPCs, where on earth was he supposed to find the NPC who could trigger the Damaged Ring quest in this boundless sea of people?

Although he had mentally prepared himself beforehand, once he arrived at the Eastern Capital, he still felt a bit panicked.

Forget it. Since he was already here, he might as well plan out a route and mark out the NPCs related to accessories first.

Zhang Shan figured that the Damaged Ring was obviously a ring, so looking for accessory-related NPCs to repair it should be the correct approach.

Mounting his Red Hare, Zhang Shan began running around one by one according to the marked locations.

Although the horse's speed was twice as fast as his own two short legs, the Eastern Capital was simply far too enormous.

He ran all the way until midnight, finally finishing the tour of a dozen or so accessory-type NPCs he had marked.

The result left him immensely disappointed. After running around for over four hours, he came away with nothing.

He hadn't seen a single NPC with a question mark floating above their head, unlike Master Lu from before.

He even tried to interact with certain NPCs, but those NPCs acted just like wooden figures.

No matter what he said, they completely ignored him.

In the New World, NPCs hardly ever communicated with players unless they held a quest item that triggered a mission.

Today's efforts were essentially wasted. He would just continue tomorrow; it seemed there were no shortcuts to take.

Tomorrow, he would honestly sweep the streets, going street by street with the Damaged Ring in hand.

As long as the NPC who could trigger the Damaged Ring quest was anywhere inside the Eastern Capital, he refused to believe he wouldn't be able to find them.