Chapter 70: Night Visit to the Prince’s Mansion to Slay the Demon

Taking advantage of her status as a veteran player, Yu Qian became the first to reach level 69. At this point, most others were still lingering between levels 50 and 60, even those who had participated in the beta test. After reaching level 69, one must complete a breakthrough quest to continue leveling, but for newcomers to the server, the breakthrough quest was particularly challenging.

Yu Qian was in no rush to attempt the breakthrough quest. She knew that none of them had decent equipment yet; there was simply no way to beat it.

In the game "Phantom Beauty," equipment was divided into eight tiers: white, yellow, green, blue, red, purple, ghost, and divine. White gear was the worst, yellow came next, and aside from the starting gear in the beginner village, nobody wore them. Green gear was mostly set pieces; in the absence of better options, many wore those. Blue gear was worn too, but only if the attributes were good. Red and purple gear was rare—people preferred to use them for extracting Frost Essence, though if their attributes were excellent, red and purple could be used as main gear. Ghost gear was universally sought after for its solid base stats. Divine gear only became available much later in the game, requiring special items and blueprints to craft.

The server had just launched, so divine gear was out of the question—perhaps two or three years down the line. Ghost gear could only be obtained by either defeating a boss or trading for it, and that was still a distant prospect; with luck, someone might have it for sale tonight. Red and purple gear existed, but was scarce—everyone desperately needed their own, so no one would sell. Therefore, most people currently wore a mix of blue and green gear, and even running a dungeon felt perilous, with death lurking around every corner.

Yu Qian felt a headache coming on. In her previous life, she always managed to establish her character solidly at level 69 on the first day of a new server, but now, with the server freshly opened and almost everyone being new players still figuring out the game, there were no tricks like stacking luck for ghost drops, turning clocks to unlock books, or setting up stalls and shops.

Most importantly, there was no silver.

That meant Yu Qian was holding onto her real money with nowhere to spend it.

She habitually tried to buy silver in the Treasure Pavilion, but the YiNet Treasure Pavilion didn’t support "Phantom Beauty." She wanted to buy silver offline, but no one was willing to part with theirs.

Without silver, she couldn’t:

First, quickly level up her skills; second, buy any of the good gear currently dropping; third, open books, strengthen gear, or unlock slots—none of it was possible.

Her cultivation was stuck at 16.7, with experience to spare but no money. All the silver from her team had been used to found their guild, leaving only a few silver notes for skill upgrades.

With a resigned twitch of her lips, Yu Qian applied for team leader and took the position from Zhou Jingchen.

She planned to take the team through main and story quests.

If memory served, those quests gave plenty of silver and silver notes, and a few even rewarded small pieces of equipment. The gear wasn’t anything special, but at this stage, it was more than enough.

She couldn’t defeat bosses alone, but with a full team, chugging potions, they could slowly wear down any boss.

The team’s main and story quests had all stalled at level 20. At this level, the main and story quests coincided, both titled "Night Raid on the Prince’s Mansion to Slay Demons."

This quest told of three little demons who had disguised themselves as servants and infiltrated the Jinling Prince’s mansion. Players had to enter the mansion on a moonlit night, find the three little demons, and defeat them to complete the quest.

The most annoying part was that the gatekeeper demanded a bribe of ten thousand silver to enter. Without the bribe, entry was impossible, and without entry, they couldn’t meet the Prince of Jinling or accept the quest.

Thankfully, Yu Qian had completed the prerequisite early on; otherwise, she wouldn’t get to see the Prince at all. After all, she only had 736 silver and zero silver notes on her.

She clicked on the Prince of Jinling and chose to enter the mansion’s back garden.

Outside the instance, it was still daytime, but inside, night had fallen.