Thirteen of us—Lin Yixin, He Yi, Gui Guzi, Xu Yang, Purple Marquis, me and so on—formed a small circle around our priests and mages.

"Eve, drown them in fire with your Firelight Mouse!" I said to He Yi.

She nodded. "Mn!"

A moment later, the Firelight Mouse chirped and engulfed the Earth Lizards in a sea of flames. Although it was nowhere as powerful as Luo River God of the Capital’s AoE spells, it persisted on the battlefield for a short time and did continuous damage to any enemy that was caught in it.

This was incredibly important because the Earth Lizards kept hissing and trying to get to the Firelight Mouse, but they weren’t able to because their path was blocked by our frontliners. The Earth Lizards were neither a groundhog nor a pangolin, so all they could do was hiss and run around like headless chickens.

"Fuck, I can’t believe that worked…" Luo River God of the Capital looked stunned, but this was hardly the first time Lin Yixin, He Yi and I had employed this tactic. Back at Hundred Flowers Valley, we had used choke points repeatedly to defeat enemies we shouldn’t be able to defeat with our small numbers. Sometimes, it was stupid not to exploit a mob’s weakness or magnify your own advantage.

……

Meanwhile, a seemingly endless amount of Earth Lizards was still surging out of Skull Castle and devouring everything within sight.

The army of Floating Ice City was fighting a tough battle under the leadership of Princess Karinshan. On the other side, Queen Sophia and Shadow Dancer Xue Wei of the Blood Dance Legion were also doing their utmost to kill the Earth Lizards. So far, the Shadow Dance Elite Cavalry and Shining Archers were the standouts of the war.

At the eastern side of Skull Castle, the last 19 players of Floating Ice City were being surrounded by a skin-crawling amount of Earth Lizards. They were relying completely on their mages and their archers to thin out the sea of flesh around them little by little.

Bang bang bang!

A couple of Earth Lizards took a Hellish Rockfall from Murong Mingyue and died, but I frowned and said, "Sis, this is too slow. The second Big Bang will happen by the time we kill all of them."

He Yi asked, "What are you suggesting then?"

I thought for a moment before saying, "I think I’m going to attack them…"

Luo River God of the Capital said, "You can try…"

I nodded and fired a Thousand Mirage Slash right away. I’m not afraid!

Boom!

As I thought, my skill deleted huge chunks of HP from an entire group of lizards and even one-shot a couple thanks to the splash damage. However, that also caused the Earth Lizards to change their target to me and slap me with their claws. Every time they used War Stampede, I and everyone around me suffered huge damage! That mistake nearly cost Murong Mingyue’s life!

"Fuck!"

I hastily stopped everything I was doing, and Luo River God of the Capital recaptured the threat with a quick Snowstorm. We barely survived by the skin of our teeth!

Having dropped to half health due to my earlier blunder, Lin Yixin shot me a grudgeful look and said, "Are you trying to kill us?"

Not knowing how to reply, I looked at Xu Yang and said, "I’m going to head out, so take over my position. Otherwise, this really will take forever!"

"Got it!"

Xu Yang walked over and summoned a pet to take over my spot. Then, I locked onto a distant Earth Lizard and activated Charge!

Whoosh!

I stopped around 25 yards away from the formation, a safe enough range where a priest could heal me whenever they wanted to.

At the same time, Beauty Moon Dew spoke up with a smile. "I don’t have an AoE damage skill, and I’m pretty free right now. Should I focus on healing you, vice leader?"

I nodded and smiled back. "Sure. Thanks, Moon Dew!"

I started fighting. First, I swung the Purgatory Sword at an Earth Lizard and deleted over 7000 HP with Pardon and Desperate Gambit. The skill also dealt almost 2000 splash damage to all surrounding enemies. Too bad the splash damage only triggers once, or this would be a slaughter!

After that, I took out a Heaven-devouring Greedy Wolf Card and buffed myself, increasing my attack speed and maximizing my attack efficiency!

I still had a dozen or so Heaven-devouring Greedy Wolf Cards in my bag. When the sixth monster wave was over and everyone was busy sweeping the battlefield for loot, this card was my first loot priority. It wasn’t everyday you ran into the perfect grinding item that buffed your attack speed by 20%, so the more the better.

The faster my attack speed, the higher the chance to trigger Purgatory Slash. In less than a minute, I was able to fire Purgatory Slash twice and one-shot a ton of Earth Lizards. The feeling of gaining abundant experience and war points was exhilarating!

Swoosh!

A golden flash enveloped me, and I leveled up to 87. I was now two levels higher above even Candlelight Shadow!

Pop!

Not far away from me, I saw a dying Earth Lizard dropping a card and rushed to pick it up. Its effect was surprisingly good.

Earth Lizard Card: Increases user’s Defense by 12%, regenerates 3 HP per second. Duration: 30 minutes.

……

It was an item that increased one’s Defense and health regeneration speed. Unfortunately, the latter effect was absolutely inferior compared to my Regeneration of the Undead. I had 5080 HP, and my Rank 8 Regeneration of the Undead restored 0.8% health or 41 HP per second. It was one of the reasons why I wasn’t afraid to run into the monster horde alone.

Swhoosh!

A column of holy light enveloped my body at this moment. It was Moon Dew’s 5-second-CD big healing spell!

+2245!

Tsk tsk, her healing power turned out to be better than I thought. If we took away the Prayer Scepter, she was on par with Murong Mingyue. No wonder she was known as the number one public use priest of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!

Ah, the term "public use priest" was used to refer to priests who could fit into any party. Moon Dew was a gentle and kind-hearted girl, and our guildmates often asked for her help whenever they encountered a difficult boss or a quest. Murong Mingyue didn’t fall under this category because she was a vice leader and He Yi’s personal assistant. Besides that, she was currently Frost Cloud workshop’s private priest, so she usually didn’t involve herself with the guild’s party quests. Plus, it was weird and embarrassing for normal guild members to ask the vice leader herself to be their priest.

Right now, Murong Mingyue was playing the role of a damage dealer and doing very well at it. She kept eating Magic Consumables and unleashing Hellish Rockfalls on her enemies.

We also had Beauty Moonlight Stone, one of the better mages of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. Her magic attack was nothing to be scoffed at, and her Arctic Rain did considerable damage to all the Earth Lizards within a ten-yard circle!

Apparently Lin Yixin had had enough of me hoarding all the fun to myself, because when I turned around to check out our battle formation, I discovered that her Fire Blade had replaced her spot, and she herself was fighting alone at a different spot. Her Defense had increased massively ever since she obtained the Profound Ice Armor. Not only that, every time the Earth Lizards hit her, they would suffer a chilling debuff and lose a massive amount of attack speed and movement speed.

Boom!

A blade of ice wrapped in flames landed on a group of monsters and dealt massive amounts of damage. Knowing how high Lin Yixin’s Attack was, the skill was like a divine skill in her hands.

Even better, my Thousand Mirage Slash had a 15-second cooldown, but her Ice Flame Slash could be used every 10 seconds. Every time she used the skill, the Earth Lizards would scream in pain.

Thanks to Lin Yixin and I, the offensive power of our group was almost double of what we had earlier!

Gui Guzi was jealous. "Sigh, I should get an AoE damage skill myself."

Xu Yang laughed loudly before patting his shoulder. "Give it up, boy. You’re a tank, and you’ll always be one. I’ve never seen a magic knight who pumps 2 Strength and 3 Stamina every level and has high attack damage. You are a defensive type of player anyway. Just keep doing what you’re doing and stop dreaming about becoming the next Lu Chen or Beauty Wind Fantasy. You can’t possibly out-damage someone who drops all their skill points into Strength."

"Fuck, I swear I’ll become OP one day…" Gui Guzi still looked frustrated.

He Yi gave him a soft smile and said, "And you will become OP when you finally find an AoE damage skill. For now, focus on blocking the mobs and nothing else."

"Yes, boss, you’re the boss…"

He Yi was the leader of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, so Gui Guzi wasn’t going to disobey her as a matter of course. In fact, He Yi had more presence in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls than I did. The reason was very simple. I was just a general who knew how to lead on occasion, but she was the true ruler and soul of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls.

……

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh!

Level 88 elite mobs made for a fun game to say the least. They gave so much experience that nearly everyone in our party had leveled up at least once. Beauty Moonlight Stone and Beauty Moon Dew especially had leveled up twice in just an hour!

I couldn’t remember how many Thousand Mirage Slashes, Purgatory Slashes and basic attacks I’ve launched at the enemies. All I knew was that my experience was rising at a ridiculous rate.

Almost another 20 minutes later, the last group of Earth Lizards to the east side of Skull Castle was finally eliminated. This had been an incredibly difficult battle. Although no one had died thanks to our makeshift "choke point", we used up a lot of supplies and lost a ton of durability!

Beiming Xue checked her bag and commented, "Not good, I’m almost running out of arrows…"

Murong Mingyue looked at me. "Lu Chen, can you give me some Magic Consumables, please?"

I passed 10 stacks of high-level Magic Consumables to Murong Mingyue, 10 stacks to Luo River God of the Capital and 5 stacks each to Beauty Moon Dew and Beauty Moonlight Stone. As a result, I was almost completely out of Magic Consumables myself.

I stared at the mountain of Earth Lizard corpses around us. Countless equipment drops, magic stones and cards littered the floor.

"Let’s sweep the battlefield quickly!"

"Mn!"

I ran a circle around the area and added around forty to fifty high-level, top-tier items into my bag. I even found a Level 80 Silver-grade helmet called "Cyan Water Helmet" that added 11 Tactics and 3% Defense. It was the best loot I had found out of everything I picked up so far. I was one hundred percent sure that it would sell for almost ten thousand RMB on the market. Powerful equipment was always in demand, not to mention extraordinary items like this.

Behind us, a new group of players from Floating Ice City joined the battlefield. They were all middle to low tier players around Level 60 to Level 75. They didn’t show their faces earlier probably because they were scared of the mobs, but now... Were they trying to be the oriole or something?

I frowned. "We’re almost out of Health Potions and Magic Consumables. There’s a 99% chance we won’t be able to stop the last wave unless we find some supplies somewhere!"

“Supplies?"

Lin Yixin bumped me on the shoulder with a smile. "What are you talking about? Our supplies are right there!"

I followed her gaze and saw that she was looking at the new arrivals. Could it be...