My Misfortune Crushed Instances-Chapter 271: Dragon Thunder Shard

Zhu Liu never thought he would have to flee in panic on the battlefield, but he had no choice. The enemy's numbers were too great, and most of his Demon Beasts had been killed or injured. The rest either surrendered or fled into the deep mountains.

He couldn't do much; he dodged skills while choosing a random direction to escape. He hadn't gone far when he noticed he was heading towards the Kaiping Path; a glimmer of hope flickered in his heart.

"They're too busy intercepting toward Da Ze and will never expect me not to head that way. If I take this path straight to the frontline, I'll be under the protection of my clan's great sovereign, and they won't be able to pursue."

Then he heard the thunderous sound of a battle cry ahead.

Three thousand armored soldiers approached slowly from the direction of Kaiping Path.

Zhu Liu's face froze; he didn't have time to determine how many were ordinary people and how many were Cultivators. He quickly changed direction, heading toward Heroic Ridge.

"I heard there are only a small number of Liangting's troops faking an attack at Heroic Ridge. If I break through there, I can still reach the frontline forces."

He flashed into a white light, bolting ahead, but hadn't fully launched when he abruptly halted as a sense of danger naturally emerged.

.....

Sun Bing was a master assassin. After scouting that almost no defenders were behind Heroic Ridge, he led nearly a thousand troops toward Cyan Cloud Plateau, thinking if he could sneak attack from behind, he might gain more experience.

He rushed as fast as he could, and when he reached the foot of Cyan Cloud Plateau, he saw the enemy's camp engulfed in flames.

"They actually succeeded!"

He and the leading general were overjoyed and quickly thought to strike.

Suddenly, Sun Bing sensed an unusual aura, then saw a beam of white light approaching from afar, with Ning Huchen, Zhao, Qian, and Li hot on its heels, along with Li Ruinan and Jiumei.

"Is it a boss?"

He didn't have time to think; since it was coming his way, he thought to himself, to hell with it, I'll lend a hand and kill the enemy first.

Shadow Walk.

Heart of Fury.

Poisoned Blade.

After launching a triple attack, he hid in the shadows until the white light was nearby, and then he suddenly attacked from the shadows with a slash!

Slash!

Zhu Liu sensed danger too late; he hadn't anticipated a crafty old foe lurking in the shadows. In an instant, he felt a chill at his chest.

"Roar!!"

He unleashed a thunderous force, sending Sun Bing flying with a punch, but he had no time to continue his escape.

Li Rui flashed out from behind, sweeping him down with a dragon's dive.

Before anyone else could approach, he rushed up, landing two crisp, decisive strikes, severing Zhu Liu's tendons and limbs. Then he grabbed the nape of his neck and coldly asked, "The Thunder Skill you used is Dragon Thunder, right?"

Zhu Liu said nothing, glaring at him fiercely.

"Do the other eleven also have this Divine Power? Does the Barbarian Emperor still wield Thunder Skill nowadays?"

"Where are the others? Speak honestly, and I might spare your life."

Zhu Liu suddenly smiled, then an unparalleled threat emerged. Li Rui's eyebrows shot up sharply.

Boom!!!

A violent white light exploded at the spot. In a blink, only a smooth spherical crater remained where Zhu Liu and Li Rui had stood, with no living thing inside.

"Li Rui!"

Nan Jiumei felt his heart skip a beat. He didn't know what had happened just now, but that burst of light was so strong that if he were to face it, he might have been killed instantly.

Just as he was feeling heavy-hearted, thinking Li Rui was dead, a voice came to his ear.

"Damn it, self-destructing without a word."

Li Rui cursed, yet his body was unscathed, as if nothing had happened.

Luckily, the cooldown for reverting was only an hour. The last use was during the flag capture, and it had already reset.

Nan Jiumei blinked, unsure what exactly happened; he slapped himself twice.

Was it just an illusion?

Li Rui didn't say anything else because he was looking at the rewards he had just obtained.

[Heart of Thunder (Monkey).]

[Quality: Legendary.]

[Description: A heart filled with white thunder, though the power within seems incomplete.]

[Effect: Water has no constant shape, immune to all control effects, duration 30 minutes. Uses 1/1. Retain the main body after use.]

"It's an item?"

Long-duration control immunity, just barely reaching the threshold of legendary items, but still perhaps a bit lacking. However, it existed as a piece of Dragon Thunder, otherwise, it might just be Epic Level.

"Monkey?"

He thought of Zhu Liu, who had been exuberant moments before but was now physically obliterated, realizing that guy did seem a bit like a monkey.

Zhu? Perhaps a descendant of Zhu Yan.

Twelve Thunder Generals in total; could there be Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit....? 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

As Li Rui pondered, various tasks began to change.

[Long-term exploration mission updated: Water has no constant shape: Collect the hearts of the twelve Thunder Generals (1/12).]

The initial three side quests also concluded.

The three bosses provided nearly two million experience, leveling up twice, jumping straight to the late stage of level 44, nearing level 45, and the main mission hadn't concluded yet.

He couldn't help but ask, "Brother Nan, what's your main mission?"

"Burn the granaries; the more we burn, the more rewards," Nan Jiumei replied.

Li Rui glanced at his task panel and noticed the completion of the feigned attack mission had somehow reached 100%, possibly when he and Zhao Jia charged straight into from Cyan Cloud Plateau.

Ning Huchen approached again and clasped his fists towards Li Rui, "Brother Li, we owe it to you this time."

"It's nothing, nothing, the Grand General is quite generous."

Indeed quite generous, and once the main mission settled, it might mean another 5-level rise.

Ning Huchen went a step further, hesitantly saying, "I wonder if Brother Li is interested in joining the court as an official. With your skills, getting appointed as a general would be easy, surely better than wandering the martial world?"

Li Rui hastily and politely declined the straightforward invitation of the tiger general and, after much effort, sent him away, only to have several Secret Realm agents surround him, showering him and Nan Jiumei with compliments, essentially a roundabout way of thanking them.

They initially thought Nan Jiumei was the sole pillar in this Secret Realm, oblivious to the hidden one, seemingly even mightier.

Zhao Jia asked, "Brother Xiaoli, you're joining the Secret Realm Battlefield, right?"

"Of course."

"So powerful, everyone's at level 40; how is there such a big difference?"

"When you come to Lanhai Province, let us know. We must show our hospitality."

With a group surrounding Li Rui, Nan Jiumei, feeling left out, was cast aside.

At the start of the Secret Realm, you weren't like this.....

Regardless, the Demon King and Thunder Generals here no longer posed a threat, and they even occupied Cyan Cloud Plateau. Soon after, everyone's main missions concluded.

As expected, Li Rui leveled up by five, and Nan Jiumei leveled up by four. Both cleared all the side paths and the three bosses at the endpoint. The only distinction was that the unlucky ones encountered more random events and quite a few more.

And Nan Jiumei noticed this too.

"I damn knew there was some jinx in this Secret Realm, turns out it's you! You gained an extra level—nearly 2 million experience!"

He suddenly realized, "Could it be, you level up so quickly because you encounter many random events?!"

Li Rui nodded, "Exactly."

Nan Jiumei furrowed his brows, thinking deeply, and finally concluded, "It must be that the administrator holds a grudge; you gave him a beating, and you've been unlucky ever since."

Li Rui thought to himself: No, I guess it has little to do with him.