Blackwater Bog was a bog located in the thick forests of Sky City. Its defining mob was crocodiles. According to the official database, Blackwater Bog had a boss called Ghost-eyed Crocodile, and there was a 25% chance that it would spawn as a Level 1 mob.

The Ghost-eyed Crocodile had pretty good BN value and growth, and it was slightly better than even my Dark Wasp. Naturally, everyone wanted a piece of the pie, and they fought hard to take control of the map. Everyone was aware that a pet was critical in increasing one’s power, and Candlelight Shadow himself had, despite losing, dared to 1v2 me and Lin Yixin because he had an insanely powerful Heaven-devouring Tiger. It further emphasized the importance of a high-tier pet.

……

While I was running toward Blackwater Bog, it was absolute chaos inside the party channel—

Gui Guzi: "Xu Yang got surrounded, I need someone to charge the right wing with me and rescue Xu Yang! Fuck, there’s too many of them!"

Du Thirteen: "They’re all here, even those three traitors are here!"

Xu Yang: "Pooh! That idiot Spring Mud thinks he can kill me? No dice!"

Gui Guzi: "How can you even say that when your goddamn corpse is lying on the goddamn ground? Anyway, resurrect yourself quickly and come back to us! It doesn’t look like Flower Room will stop unless they destroy everyone!"

Pure Love: "Is Vice Leader Broken Halberd coming to help us?"

I replied immediately, "I’ll be there in 20 minutes! Hold on, everyone!"

Pure Love: "Awesome! Beiming Xue, Leader From Water and Vice Leader Mingyue should come as well! We’ll be much more confident if we know that all four of you are coming to help us!"

"Yeah!"

My heart sank a little when I heard that even Xu Yang had died at least once. It wasn’t actually easy to kill the big man because at least half of his equipment were of the Dark Gold grade, meaning that the enemy’s firepower wasn’t to be underestimated. These days, even Flower Room was no longer the noobish guild they once were!

I paused for a second after seeing a couple of orange dots on my mini map. Then, I ran toward the edge of Sky Forest where an empty clearing was. They were none other than He Yi, Murong Mingyue and Beiming Xue.

"Lu Chen!"

"Let’s go!"

"Mn!"

The three of them immediately started running toward Blackwater Bog when they saw me. Barring any complications, we should arrive at our destination in fifteen minutes at most. Blackwater Bog wasn’t too far away from Sky City, and the conflict would only worsen as more and more players joined the battle. This was going to be a big one.

While we were running, I asked, "What exactly happened, boss? How did our men suddenly clash against Flower Room?"

He Yi replied, "Do you still remember Life of Luxury? He’s one of Li Le’s friends."

"Yeah, I remember him. What about him?"

"Life of Luxury had a girlfriend called Xue Lu who was a barmaid at Qianbaidu Bar. Not long ago, when Du Thirteen took Xu Yang, Gui Guzi and Wolf Fang out for a drink at that bar, she caught his eye and one thing led to another…"

"What happened afterward?"

I kind of figured out what was going on the moment she mentioned a girl. I was well aware of Thirteen’s vices; he was the kind of guy who would rather fail miserably than let a pretty face pass him by. He was used to it, I was used to it. Back when we were still in university, he once snatched a handsome basketballer’s girlfriend in the Chinese class. As a result, I beat the shit out of the guy—and got the shit kicked out of me too—to defend Thirteen.

The corner of He Yi’s lips turned up. "Afterward? That’s simple… Du Thirteen and Xue Lu went to a hotel, but Life of Luxury saw them and confronted them in their room. Du Thirteen had to kick his ass real hard before he and Xue Lu managed to escape."

My heart sank. "Motherfucker! Was Thirteen hurt?"

He Yi looked at me in surprise. "Shouldn’t you be more concerned that Du Thirteen was probably in the wrong here?"

I gripped my sword tightly before declaring, "I don’t care what Thirteen did, but he’s my brother! I ain’t letting anyone who hurts my brother get away scot-free!"

"Hehe…"

He Yi smiled. "Well, Du Thirteen wasn’t hurt, but Life of Luxury was furious. He brought this up to Li Le, and surprisingly Li Le was even more furious than he was. Apparently, that Xue Lu shared a strange relationship with Li Le as well. Anyway, long story short, that is why they attacked us at Blackwater Bog this afternoon. Almost all two thousand players of Flower Room were there, while ours numbered less than four hundred…"

Beiming Xue asked innocently, "A strange relationship? What do you mean?"

He Yi smiled but didn’t answer. In the end, it was Murong Mingyue who replied, "What she meant was that they had an affair with each other…"

Beiming Xue turned red in the cheeks. "OMG, this is so crazy. What kind of person is this Xue Lu?"

"Who knows?"

He Yi said calmly as we ran across the forest, "Personally, I don’t think Li Le and Life of Luxury had acted out of passion—like the likes of them would care this much about one girl. Li Le is just using this as an excuse to taunt Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and score their first victory in Sky City!"

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Li Le is a pretty ambitious man. To rise to power in Sky City, they must first make themselves known. The best way to improve their reputation is to challenge a reputable guild and win. Right now, Snowy Cathaya, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Warsky Alliance are the most famous guilds in Sky City, and it doesn’t take much thinking to know why they chose us…"

Beiming Xue looked back at us and smiled. "Yeah, they must’ve been plotting to use us as a stepping stone. In that case, we’ll turn their plan right back at them and tell the world that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is famous and powerful!"

"Yeah!"

I smiled and brought up the world map. After marking Blackwater Bog, I suggested, "Look, Gui Guzi had marked out the battlefield for us. It looks like our 500-man party had been split in half. One of them is trapped at the eastern side of Blackwater Bog, and the other half at the west. We’re closer to ones in the west, so let’s head there first and kick Li Le’s ass. What do you all think?"

"No problem!"

The girls smiled. It had been a long time since we participated in a big PK battle like this, and everyone was getting excited.

……

Swhoosh swhoosh...

A group of surprised owls took to the sky, and Beiming Xue suddenly came to a halt in front of us. She lowered her voice and said, "We’re here. There’s a group of players at the perimeter hunting down anyone who tries to reinforce our men…"

"Oh?"

The temperature in my eyes dropped as I ran up to her. Hiding behind the trees and leaves, I saw a party of 50 players or so standing guard at an empty clearing. They were made up of 10 archers, 10 mages, and a random assortment of melee fighters. It was a party with extremely high firepower, and it was definitely powerful enough to threaten us had Beiming Xue failed to discover them beforehand!

Rustle rustle...

Not far away, we saw two allied warriors rushing out of the forest and swinging their blades at the enemy, "For the honor of Ancient Sword, attack!"

Thud thud thud!

The poor bastards were turned into porcupines before they even managed to activate their Charge!

"For fuck’s sake…"

I cursed under my breath. Why had they acted so impulsively? Where was the tactical part of their mind? That looked more like an assisted suicide than an attack!

Behind me, He Yi looked beautiful under the moonlight even though she was gritting her teeth in anger. She said in a low tone, "Lu Chen, use Earth Escape and find an angle to kill their archers and mages with Thousand Mirage Slash. After that, I want you to absorb as much damage as you can. I’ll charge and act as the second distraction. Mingyue, you’re on healing duty. Beiming Xue, use Evil Spirit Volley on their unshielded mages. Does everyone understand their orders?"

"Yes!"

I nodded, pleasantly surprised by how logical and sound He Yi’s tactic was, and how far she had come since the first time she played Heavenblessed. She was absolutely right in using me as the bait and Beiming Xue as the damage dealer. It was the only way we could’ve won this fight.

Anyway, it was time for action. Earth Escape!

Swhoosh!

I dissolved into bloody rays of light and entered the ground. As I approached the enemy formation slowly, I looked up and saw them watching their surroundings cautiously. Among them, I spotted an axe-wielding Level 83 barbarian warrior with three bars on his arm. It was the mark of a ten-man party leader, and if I wasn’t mistaken he was also the team leader of this 50-man team.

The barbarian warrior sat on top of our two dead warriors and chuckled. "I guess this is all there is to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. They are absolutely powerless without numbers on their side!"

Beside him, an assassin appeared out of stealth and smiled. "What can the small fries at Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls possibly do with you here, boss?"

The barbarian warrior chuckled back before replying, "That’s true. Honestly, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is so-so at best. It’s true they have Lu Chen, but that’s all they have. Overall speaking, Warsky Alliance is many times stronger than they are, and of course they are. After all, Warsky Alliance has three CGL Hall of Famers while Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls only has one."

The assassin’s smile turned vulgar. "Actually, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls does beat Warsky Alliance completely on one point!"

"Oh? What is it?"

"The quality of their girls, of course!" The assassin licked his lips before continuing, "If From Water is a beautiful fairy, then that Murong Mingyue is a sexy succubus. Even that Dark Archer Beiming Xue is a sight to behold. Tsk tsk, say all you want, but the beauties of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls are without a doubt the best in the entire world…"

The barbarian warrior laughed. "You always forget yourself when we speak of women. You’d better not forget our leader’s orders though, our job is to secure this route and let not a single fly pass through this place. Today is the day we annihilate all of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ reinforcement and teach them a harsh lesson about war!"

"By the way, I heard that our guild leader was furious because a woman he used to date had her heart captured by Bloody Mercenaries’ leader, Amazing Expert? Is that true?"

The barbarian warrior raised his battle axe in mock anger. "Heh, you know too much!"

"Hahaha! Man, wars often begin atop a woman’s breasts!" the assassin mused.

……

I was positively fuming at the end of their conversation. How dare they speak of Frost Cloud workshop’s women like that! There’s no way these two are living through tonight!

After finding the perfect angle, I immediately unleashed my AoE skill!