Chapter 124: The Procession of the Three Cities

These two skills are considered essential "god-tier" abilities for any loyal pet. There are only two ways to obtain them: refreshing the Mystery Shop or using skill-conversion books. Both methods rely heavily on luck and timing, which is why these skills have always commanded a high price.

Since there were some currently listed for sale, he decided to buy them immediately; better to pay a premium than to miss out.

As for "Intelligent" personality pets, this personality has always offered the best value for money. Although their skills are inexpensive, they can deal significant damage during combat. More importantly, the skills of an Intelligent pet are incredibly annoying to deal with; they include debuffs that reduce maximum health and movement speed, not to mention the toxic, fire, and wind damage-over-time effects.

After all, most players in this game focus on stacking crowd-control resistance; who bothers to stack elemental resistance? It’s only in the late game, once the "Painter" class is released, that people might bother with water resistance. As for the rest? It’s all left to fate.

By the time he finished preparing the dowry for his little sweetheart, members of their guild had started logging on one after another. To Zhou Jingchen’s surprise, the members of the other two guilds, "Poetic Imagery" and "Death-Seeking Squad," had also shown up in full force. A single group can hold a maximum of 150 people, and Zhou Jingchen watched helplessly as three full groups gathered in Jinling.

The most critical issue was that all three groups were packed to capacity. Zhou Jingchen had a sinking feeling; if he stuck to his original plan, the silver he had on hand wouldn't be enough to cover the cost of the parade red envelopes. However, there was no time to go out and farm more, so he had to lower the amount of each red envelope from 9,999 to 6,666, hoping that would suffice.

He told Yu Qian not to send any red envelopes herself, saying he would handle it, and then clicked on the Red Thread Matchmaker to begin the Jinling parade. The Jinling parade cost 1,314,520 silver. Once initiated, the bride and groom’s outfits automatically transformed into wedding attire—the "Red Phoenix Palace" set that Yu Qian had spotted in the shop earlier.

The groom rode a white horse at the front, followed by four NPCs carrying a sedan chair, with the bride inside. Sitting in the sedan, Yu Qian watched the 6,666-silver envelopes raining down every second. Her fingers itched, and she couldn't help but click on them with her mouse. Predictably, a system message appeared: "The bride cannot collect red envelopes."

She sighed, "That’s not money being thrown away; that’s my blood."

Zhou Jingchen couldn't help but laugh. Such a drama queen.

Because there were so many people, the red envelopes were snatched up the moment they hit the ground. Fortunately, Zhou Jingchen had bought an automatic red-envelope-dispensing tool from the shop; otherwise, if he had to throw them manually like those two idiots, Nuwa and Fuxi, his hand would have been crippled by the end of it.

As the procession reached the Jinling arena, Yu Qian started clamoring again, "Ahhhhh! Zhou Jingchen, I just realized I’ve never set up an arena fight! You tricked me into marrying you without ever participating in my 'marriage by martial arts competition'!"

"It’s fine. In a few days, we’ll get a divorce, you can set it up again, I’ll sign up, and I’ll wait for you to throw the embroidered ball to me."

"Okay! You’re the best, A-Chen. Love you, mwah! Sending you a heart!" As she said this, she made a heart shape with her hands in front of her chest.

The boy in front of her smiled even more tenderly, then lowered his head and coughed. Damn, she was truly adorable.

After circling Jinling, the first part of the parade concluded. Zhou Jingchen activated the "follow" command and flew with Yu Qian to Agra.

The Agra parade cost 5,201,314 silver. The groom and bride rode on an elephant, and the elephant was decorated with a sedan-like structure. Sitting atop it, swaying gently, one could see the exotic architecture through the curtains, full of foreign flair. Compared to the drabness of the Hangzhou parade, the retro feel of Jinling, and the grandiosity of Beijing, the Agra parade had always been the most popular. It was distinctive and didn't cost too much. If one was lucky enough to get a 90% off parade coupon, it was even cheaper.

For the Agra red envelopes, Zhou Jingchen increased the amount slightly to 8,888 each. Those following the procession snatched them up even faster than before.

When they reached Beijing, a parade cost 52,101,314 silver. Compared to Agra, the price had jumped tenfold. But in return, the parade was magnificent, and the Beijing NPCs were quite generous with their participation. As soon as the parade began, the NPCs all flocked over to watch, clapping and cheering, their festive well-wishes never ceasing.

"So, this is what the Beijing parade is like," Yu Qian remarked, looking at the scene on her screen.