Wind Veil was almost identical to an Assassin's Stealth, the signature skill of the class, which made its user invisible to others.
Whether in PVE or PVP, Stealth was immensely powerful. Just imagine: the enemy was out in the open while you remained hidden, putting the initiative entirely in your hands. Whether to fight was up to you alone. You could do whatever you pleased.
If the enemy had numbers and good gear... fine! You could walk away, and they couldn't stop you. If they had fewer people and lousy gear... well, sorry, but if you didn't kill them until they abandoned everything and logged off in despair, you might as well never have played an Assassin.
Stealth truly was a god-tier skill, giving Assassins a distinct identity. Like Mages, Assassins excelled at both control and counter-control, and Stealth was the skill that gave their enemies the biggest headache.
What Ye Fengxing hadn't expected was that Mages in Chronicles of the Sky actually had Wind Stealth, a perfect counterpart to an Assassin's Stealth! Wasn't that like giving a tiger wings? Amazing! Absolutely amazing!
Watching Ye Fengxing's expression, Aston suddenly spoke again. "Young man, you seem quite interested in these two spells. Very well. If you perform outstandingly in my trial, I will formally teach you their true essence."
Only then did Ye Fengxing notice the icons for Blink and Wind Veil. They were merely "temporary" skills, taught to players by an NPC for the sake of a quest. Once the quest was complete, the NPC would generally make the player's character "forget" them.
"All right, I understand." Ye Fengxing instantly felt fired up. For those two god-tier skills, he had to give it everything he had!
Following the quest instructions, Ye Fengxing found his way to a cave entrance. But after jumping down into it, he discovered it was a "dead end"... The cave made a show of branching into three passages, but whichever one he followed eventually connected to the other two. There were plenty of mechanisms and traps along the way, too. What a damn scam.
Ye Fengxing casually dispatched a few mobs, but his suspicions only grew. Martinst was a level 90 Necromancer, after all-an absolute monster. Why would he put such cheap traps in his hideout? And the mobs here were far too pathetic, all trash barely above level ten... No! Something was fishy!
Ye Fengxing returned to the entrance and began carefully examining his surroundings. The mountainside was steep, its lower and middle sections densely covered in broad stretches of hundred-leaf vines. From a distance, it was a lush sea of green, quite pleasing to the eye.
Ye Fengxing checked the quest prompt again. The coordinates on the map clearly marked the quest location-yes, this was the place.
That's strange... Rubbing his chin, he thought for a moment and came up with a theory. Cloudsoar's map is a two-dimensional display, after all. It can't show elevation. Maybe the marked location is right, and I just jumped to the wrong conclusion?
At that thought, Ye Fengxing immediately bent down, lifted the hem of his robe, and tucked it into his belt. He backed up a few steps, then suddenly accelerated into a run, scrambling up the mountainside in a few quick strides.
The mountainside was steep, but that only applied from halfway up to the summit. By comparison, the slope at its base wasn't particularly sharp, and climbing it posed no difficulty for someone with his physical skill. If he hadn't been playing a Mage, with insufficient strength and agility, even a sheer, ninety-degree cliff would have been no problem.
Before he had climbed very high, Ye Fengxing suddenly felt empty space behind his hand, as though there was nothing behind the Vines he was gripping...
You little bastard, so this is where you're hiding!
Gripping two vines with both hands, Ye Fengxing tightened his abs and immediately hoisted himself into a hanging position. Like Spider-Man, he clung to the dense curtain of vines, swaying in the wind. The maneuver looked anything but easy.
Hooking his feet around several vines, Ye Fengxing pulled a wide gap in the "vine wall," then slipped through it.
The cave was extremely well hidden, its entrance concealed behind a luxuriant clump of hundred-leaf vines. Without a careful search, this damned place would have been almost impossible to find.
Ye Fengxing slowly explored the uneven path inside the cave. It was deep within the mountain, after all, and its entrance was covered, leaving it with almost no light. The interior was pitch-black; he couldn't even see his hand before his face. If danger arose, a player would have difficulty reacting in time.
Ye Fengxing's perception was exceptional, so even going without his eyes wouldn't have mattered much, let alone dealing with a little darkness. Still, to be safe, he activated Wind Veil and remained concealed. That way, even if there were mobs ahead, it wouldn't be a big deal. He couldn't see them, but they couldn't see him either.
Assassins could often accomplish things in PVE that other classes couldn't, all thanks to the god-tier skill Stealth. In the vast majority of situations, mobs couldn't see invisible targets, allowing Assassins to pass safely through groups of enemies. (PVE, Player VS Environment, referred to players challenging NPC monsters and bosses controlled by the game's programming.)
Of course, Stealth didn't make you absolutely invisible to your enemies. Once you came within a certain distance, they could detect concealed targets. That "certain distance" wasn't fixed. Higher-level units, for instance, could easily spot lower-level invisible units, and bosses had much wider detection ranges than ordinary mobs. Any rookie Assassin who dared to approach a boss recklessly while relying on Stealth was bound to die horribly.
Ye Fengxing was a PVE veteran, so he knew that much. Though he had never played an Assassin before, how did the saying go? You didn't have to eat pork to know what a pig looked like.
After walking for around ten minutes, he finally spotted a faintly glowing point of light ahead. Ye Fengxing felt his way toward it. Before long, his view suddenly opened up, revealing an enormous cavern that left him stunned.
"Fuck me, that's way too underhanded..." He couldn't help feeling relieved that he hadn't lost his patience along the way and had insisted on creeping forward under Wind Stealth. Otherwise, he would probably have been a corpse by now...
Looking closely, he saw two level 55 Ghostly Sentinels stationed on either side of him-and that was only because his keen senses had made him stop early. Otherwise, at his level, neither Wind Stealth nor Stealth would have helped. They were a full forty-five levels above him!
Damn it... wouldn't anyone else who came here get screwed to death? Ye Fengxing silently cursed the designer's twisted mind...
Both Ghostly Sentinels were also in Stealth. Each consisted of a hundred or so battered bones and a disgusting cloud of blackish-green gas, with two dark bone blades held in their hands. They looked as though they had been Assassins in life.
Ye Fengxing assessed the distances between himself and the two sentinels. If I go straight down the middle, those two bastards probably won't spot me. The problem is... there's no path down the middle!
Directly ahead of the little entrance was empty space. Looking down, he saw a sheer rock wall, sandwiched between enormous rocky slopes on either side.
Players who wanted to descend could only go left or right-the problem was that two level 55 bastards in Stealth were waiting for them to deliver themselves right to their doorstep. Anyone without senses as sharp as Ye Fengxing's would definitely have picked one of the two routes, and then...
"That's vicious." With a sigh, he leaped down. Just before landing, he suddenly used Blink, stopping precisely on a small ledge on the left-hand slope.
Blink had many marvelous hidden effects... For instance, when a player fell from a great height, properly timing Blink to make contact with a solid surface within its range would allow them to stop there and avoid falling damage.
The reason Ye Fengxing dared to jump from such a height was that he knew what Blink could do.
Well, he had gotten bored on the way here and tested the skill a few times. The results proved that Blink in Chronicles of the Sky worked just like it did in Light of Freedom. In that case, what was there to fear?
Using Blink while under Wind Stealth didn't cancel the concealment effect, so Ye Fengxing was still invisible. That also saved his life-the place was crawling with level 55 and even level 60 mobs, each with a stark white skull beside its name to indicate the level disparity. The sight was enough to make his scalp crawl.
"Is there something wrong with this quest...?" Ye Fengxing brought up the quest description and read it again, utterly puzzled. By rights, this class quest was designed for players barely above level ten. Why was it so difficult? Not only was the location hard to find, but the mobs were ridiculously strong. How was anyone supposed to complete it?
After reading the quest description over and over, he still couldn't find a reasonable explanation. With no other choice, he could only steel himself and continue... He was already inside, anyway. Giving up halfway wasn't Ye Fengxing's style.
Taking tiny, cautious steps, he began making his way toward the other side of the cavern. There were plenty of mobs, but fortunately, the cavern was spacious enough that they were relatively spread out. As long as he moved carefully, he wasn't too likely to be detected.
Before long, Ye Fengxing had surveyed the general layout of the entire cavern. How to put it... there was nothing but mobs, without a single thing related to the quest. Moreover, the major boss named "Traitor Martinst" wasn't here either. The situation was a real headache.
Deep within the cavern stood an enormous stone platform piled with stark white bones. A cloud of putrid green gas shrouded it, creating a terrifying sight.
Ye Fengxing approached for a closer look. The bones hadn't been piled haphazardly but arranged into a strange pattern, one that looked rather artistic. Perhaps it was some kind of magic circle. At its very center stood a bone chair about twice a person's height, black all over and emitting faint traces of a strange, eerie sheen. One glance was enough to tell that it was no ordinary object.
Just as Ye Fengxing was about to move closer, a hoarse murmur came from nearby, sounding like two roughly shaved wooden sticks rubbing together. "Hmm... I think I smell flesh and blood..."
Without another word, he turned and used Blink, then sprinted toward the stone platform.
Damn it! Being low-level sucks. I was so far away, and I still nearly got spotted. If I'd reacted just a little slower and died here, I could forget about getting out...
Only when the level 62 Ghostly Guard stopped muttering to itself did Ye Fengxing halt. He had now reached the rear of the stone platform, where he was facing the back of the bone chair.
Suddenly, a brilliant orange glow spilled out from beneath the bone chair, vanishing in a flash...
"What was that?!" Ye Fengxing instantly narrowed his eyes.
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