Chapter 139

In the game world, I ran nearly a thousand kilometers in one go……

Not to mention three wealthy, well-connected guild presidents; even ordinary players who love exploring the game world rarely run like that!

Over a thousand kilometers!

In the real world, that's equivalent to crossing two provinces.

Even if game characters run a bit faster and don't get tired easily, a short rest lets them keep going.

But it's still incredibly exaggerated!

Shen Di's expression turned unnatural as he said, "Normal players move at about 30 km/h; even if we double our speed, that's only 60 km/h. 980 km would take 18 hours……"

Zhan Tian said speechlessly, "We barely scraped together a level advantage from the garrison defense battle; if we don't level for 18 straight hours, we'll fall behind immediately."

Xiao Feng said helplessly, "I can't help it; the Teleportation Array isn't usable, and Canglu City is the nearest place."

The game world is too vast; the distance between main cities often runs three to four thousand kilometers, making running naturally exhausting.

"We might as well rent a few mounts," suggested Zhu Long.

Some system barracks in the main city rent warhorses to players for transport; although the price is steep, they can all afford it.

"Hmm, I think it's fine," Shen Di and Zhan Tian both expressed agreement.

Xiao Feng shrugged, "Sure, you guys go rent; also get one for me. I'm on bad terms with the NPC army, so going there would easily start a fight."

"Alright, leave it to me," Zhan Tian said with a smile, patting his chest as a guarantee.

The three guild presidents teleported away to rent warhorses from the main city.

After over twenty minutes, the three returned to Canglu City's Teleportation Array.

Appearing alongside them were four tall, large horses.

Xiao Feng looked at the information and couldn't help but smile.

【General-level Warhorse (Mount)】

Level: 150

HP: 300000/300000

Physical Attack: 1400

Physical Defense: 440

Magic Defense: 280

Movement Speed: 2000 (movement speed unit is meters per minute)

Skill: 【Sprint】 increases movement speed by 100% for 30 seconds, consumes 10 stamina, cooldown 90 seconds

Stamina: 100/100

"Not bad, not bad; with this, we can get there in just over four hours."

Calculated, the horse's speed is 120 km/h; stamina can be replenished via 【Mount Feed】, and if we keep using the Sprint skill, it'll be even faster.

"No time to waste; let's set off."

Nobody wanted to waste more time; having secured transport, they immediately headed out of the city.

Xiao Feng led his own warhorse, walking beside the three guild presidents.

The other three horses followed obediently, very quiet.

But his horse was restless, constantly snorting and showing obvious struggling motions, clearly disliking him.

Obviously, Otto's curse, along with war-related warhorses, took effect.

"I really wish I could hatch the Thunder God Eagle's egg soon," Xiao Feng thought to himself.

Being given cold looks by the temple and the main city, he slowly grew accustomed to it.

But now even a horse is giving him the cold shoulder—this is really messing with his mentality!

With his violent temper, under normal circumstances he'd have already burned that horse to ashes.

However, for the sake of the main quest, he can only endure it for now.

After leaving the west gate of Canglu City, Xiao Feng and the others mounted their warhorses and galloped off into the distance.

Although the warhorse resisted Xiao Feng, once ridden it still obediently ran.

This is probably what they mean by "saying no with the mouth but being honest with the body."

Horseback riding requires no learning; in the game it's innate, so you don't worry about falling off or feeling jolts—it's rock solid, like riding a motorcycle.

The warhorse is very fast; before long it left the city limits and entered the monster zone.

"We'll be on the road for several hours; want to stop and instantly kill some small monsters for exp along the way?" Zhan Tian asked with a laugh.

Zhu Long shrugged, "Do whatever you want. Although I'm a knight class, I actually have few skills on horseback, and with a pure vitality build my attack is almost nil—I can't kill monsters."

Shen Di said, "I think it's fine; Xiao Feng and I are both mages, we can toss some instant-cast skills to clear small monsters for exp."

On horseback you can't cast channeled or guided skills; you can only use instant-cast skills, or certain special "mounted combat" skills of knight-type classes.

This won't affect the warhorse's running speed, and you can still gain exp; if you encounter enough monsters, your leveling speed will be so-so, not too bad.

The only downside is no time to stop and pick up monster drops; if you happen to get something good, you'll be moving too fast to snag it and will just have to leave it on the ground.

"Xiao Feng Jr. has several instant-cast skills that are area-of-effect; I think our leveling speed on this route might even be faster than usual!" Zhu Long said eagerly, looking at Xiao Feng beside him.

Xiao Feng heard the three's conversation and smiled faintly.

"Indeed, I have many instant-cast skills."

As his words fell, he directly unleashed a Gust Technique.

After equipping the new artifact hat, all chanting skills under one second become instant-cast; only Meteor Strike, Doomsday Calamity, Necrotic Torrent, and Summon Flame Lord—the four skills—cannot be used.

Gust Technique covered a 300-meter radius; all small monsters in the area instantly died, turning into experience for the four of them.

While the warhorse moves at high speed, the Gust Technique's sweeping range can still push forward quickly—each push advances several tens of meters, invisibly expanding the skill's coverage area.

"Holy cow, this skill……"

The Shen Di who had intended to use lightning magic to kill monsters was left speechless by Xiao Feng.

With this super-large-range clearing skill, he had no chance to act!

Experience points were rising, and the war horse was moving forward.

The mount's stamina decreased at a rate of 1 point per minute, and Xiao Feng and the others occasionally used a sprint to increase speed.

When stamina was about to run out, they stopped to feed the mount some provisions, rested a few minutes, and the war horse returned to peak condition.

Thereafter they continued the cycle, and Xiao Feng's magic continued to blast wildly along the way.

Under such rushing, the four people's experience bars were slowly climbing.

Xiao Feng previously, having died four times in a row at the hands of the Golden Holy Dragon, had 80% of his experience deducted, dropping to below -7,000,000.

Along this journey, it was slowly made up again.

30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes...

Xiao Feng and the others kept rushing, having already left the city and entered a high-level monster area rarely visited by people.

The monsters they saw along the way were no longer level 30-40 small fry, but level 103-140 wild monsters, capable of single-handedly defeating most players at this stage.

Unfortunately, upon encountering Xiao Feng, they could only be free kills, with no chance to fight back.

"I leveled up again!"

After running for four hours, Zhan Tian had already leveled up four levels.

Candle Dragon and Shen Di also leveled up three levels, reaching levels 66 and 65 respectively.

Xiao Feng remained at level 108, but his experience changed from -7,000,000 to positive 4,000,000.

"We're almost there, look over there!"

Shen Di gazed into the distance and saw, on a faraway plain, a ruined ancient city standing.

That city's scale was vast; on the horizon it appeared as a long undulating line, more than twice the size of Long Xue Cheng.

However, from afar it looked extremely weathered, as if scorched by countless fires, overall grey-dark and charred, with collapsed buildings and no signs of prosperity.