Warsky couldn’t help but laugh when he heard October Rain’s comment. “Did you fall in love with Lu Chen or something, Little Rain? You’ve been talking about him a lot these couple of days…”

October Rain replied while pulling out a Plume Feather Arrow from her quiver, “Maybe. He is an incredibly talented gamer and a handsome man in real life. He’s also the first player to finish his fourth promotion quest and the second player to pick up a Famous General Skill, Martial God. You saw that video just now, didn’t you? Farewell Song, Little Piglet, and Shangguan Wan’er tried to gang up on Lu Chen at the same time, but he was able to win decisively through clever trickery and unstoppable offense. I don’t think even Candlelight Shadow shares his level of skill and intelligence. How could I not be tempted by such an amazing person?”

Stumped for words, Warsky smiled awkwardly. “Fuck, I wasn’t expecting such a serious answer. Man, I’m such a failure of a guild leader. Anyway, please don’t fall for him, Little Rain. If even you were gone, then there would really be no one I could turn to anymore!”

October Rain nocked the arrow and smiled back. “Relax, guild leader. We’ll never betray Warsky Alliance unless you give up on us first. No matter how handsome and skillful Lu Chen is, I’m not such a shallow woman that I would betray my oath for my desires. Mn, I’ve made up my mind. As Lu Chen’s diehard fan, my first gift to him is a porcupine suit made out of my arrows…”

Warsky: “...”

Me: “...”

October Rain was an unpredictable woman. She might speak like a frivolous person at times, but she was really a principled and logical person. Women like her were some of, if not the most difficult kind of woman to deal with. It was truly unfortunate that she was an enemy of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. Of course, every power in Sky City was fighting to become the king of the hill, and it was always just a matter of time before we ran into a powerful and intelligent woman like her. I should be thankful that the other powerful and intelligent woman I knew, the Fruit Knife Goddess, wasn’t my enemy as well, or my pains would be twice as big.

……

Warsky asked, “Is Farewell Song back yet?”

October Rain snorted. “He Yi tried to have his corpse camped, but Farewell Song was able to take down three archers before escaping. He should be back very soon.”

Warsky chuckled. “Hehe, Farewell Song has always been a stubborn and unyielding man. I’m sure he’s not feeling too good after that terrible loss. Do you have a plan to make him feel better?”

October Rain smiled. “That’s simple. All you and Laughing At The Heavens need to do is to take him to a bar and drink the gloom away. If the girls at the nightclub feel like chatting with you three then even better. I’m sure Farewell Song’s mood will turn a hundred and eight degrees around after the night is done.”

Warsky’s smile turned awkward again. “Er… I think the drinking idea is fine, but probably not the girl part. I’m an honest man, and this stuff just isn’t my thing… So, I guess we’ll be drinking tonight. Do you want come with us? Now that I think about it, it’s been a long while since we went out together. All of us would like to catch up with you…”

October Rain shook her head with a giggle. “Forget it, every time I meet up with you guys in real life, I feel like I’m the mother of three ugly ducklings. Plus, Lu Chen doesn’t live in Xuchang, so there’s no chance of an encounter even if I went to the bar with y’all. What could I even do there? Watch the three of you attempting to chat up a beautiful girl? I might as well stay at home and watch Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf…”

Warsky complained. “Fuck, not again…”

It was at this moment a shadow came through the cave entrance before becoming visible. It was none other than Farewell Song. The stern-faced assassin said in a low tone, “I’m sorry, boss. I lost!”

Warsky nodded. “It’s fine, victory or defeat is commonplace in military operations. There’s always a next time, am I right?”

October Rain giggled. “Exactly. Didn’t Lu Chen lose horrifically to Candlelight Shadow during the late stage of Spirit of Grief? Even rivers can grow old and ‘die’. Endurance is all that matters in winning or losing.”

Suddenly, Laughing At The Heavens interrupted, “Beauty Rain, are you sure you’re not talking about sex? Because I don’t see endurance having anything to do with winning or losing in a game.”

October Rain glared at him immediately. “Shut up! Do you want to die?”

Laughing At The Heavens hurriedly covered his mouth and backed a few steps away from October Rain. Then, he left to deal with a Fire Giant.

Farewell Song smiled. “You’re right. The reason I lost earlier was because I was too aggressive. My desire for victory made me too rash, and I underestimated Lu Chen because it was a three versus one. It’s fine, it’s only a level. I can get it back with just a bit of grinding.”

“Mn, good!”

October Rain said, “Anyway, you came back at a good time, Farewell Song. I have a mission for you!”

“Oh? What is it?”

October Rain glanced at her surroundings first before speaking. “Are you sure there are no hidden assassins around here?”

“Nope!” Farewell Song shook his head. “I made sure to check when I came over. I can confirm that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls have no high-level assassins. Don’t worry, Warsky Alliance holds the absolute advantage when it comes to assassin power!”

“Good.” October Rain smiled. “Earlier, we lost the big battle against Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls because of three factors. One, Lu Chen’s Martial God is too powerful. Two, their newest recruit, Legendary Brave, is ridiculously powerful. Three, all their best players such as Beiming Xue, From Water, High Fighting Spirits, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, Chaos Moon, and others are pretty amazing, so their victory was well-deserved. According to reliable intel, I learned that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls have blocked the entrance and are waiting for an opportunity to siege us. We do not have enough players right now, so the only way we can turn the tides back to our favor is to catch them by surprise!”

“Oh?” Warsky looked excited. “And how are we going to do that? Tell us already! You already have a plan in mind, don’t you?”

October Rain nodded. “Mn. I’ve checked the map carefully, and I learned that Burning Cave is split into two different halls; the left hall and the right hall. Right now our men are dealing with the Fire Giants at the right hall, so here’s my plan: Farewell Song will stand by and await orders at the left hall. Once the main force of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls enters the cave, Farewell Song will aggro a hundred or so Fire Giants and lead them to the backline of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. At the same time, we’ll attack them from the front. With this pincer attack, we should be able to turn things around and defeat Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls decisively. They’re nothing without their best players, Lu Chen and Legendary Brave.”

Warsky couldn’t stop himself from laughing. “That’s a great plan! I can even conquer the world as long as October Rain is with me!”

But October Rain rolled her eyes at him before muttering, “Like hell you can. The most I can do is help you take a city or two. If you really want to conquer the world, you should set your sights on Wind Fantasy…”

Warsky said seriously, “Not even going to bother. That’s way too difficult!”

“Hmph hmph! Now get ready to carry out the plan!”

Farewell Song nodded with a smile. “Okay, I’m heading to the left hall now. Tell me when it’s time, and I’ll deliver the ‘gift’ safely to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ hands!”

“Mn, be careful!”

“No worries!”

There was a quiet noise, and Farewell Song instantly vanished into nothing. He had entered stealth once more.

I was nearly ten levels ahead of Farewell Song, but I still couldn’t see him despite being at close range. His improved stealth skill is truly terrifying!

……

I quietly made my way out of the cave before rising back to the surface.

“What’s the situation inside?” He Yi asked anxiously.

I briefly told her everything I saw and heard, including the plan October Rain had come up to defeat us.

He Yi frowned slightly. “This is a bit troublesome.”

Xu Yang said bravely, “No it’s not, we’re strong enough to ignore their tactic and force our way in! It’s simple! Just give us the order, boss!”

High Fighting Spirits and Wolf Fang also echoed in agreement, “Yeah, let’s just go in and kill them all!”

I shook my head. “No can do. It’s never good to underestimate our enemy, and remember that we can’t afford to lose here. If things go badly for us, and we lose our entire main army, then that Spirit Rank boss is as good as Warsky Alliance’s. Our failure will result in a super player being born in Warsky Alliance.”

Legendary Brave also chimed in. “The vice leader is right, we should think calmly and rationally even though we hold the upper hand. Otherwise, our position may be reversed in the blink of an eye!”

Murong Mingyue asked, “But what should we do? We need to think of a way!”

He Yi smiled. “That’s simple. Farewell Song wants to lure the mobs to us, right? In that case, all we need to do is lure the mobs first and lead them right back to Warsky Alliance. However, the team we send in will have to face Farewell Song in direct combat. Any volunteers?”

I pursed my lips but didn’t say anything.

Gui Guzi raised his hand. “I’ll go!”

Du Thirteen immediately said, “Little Gui, your death was so tragic…”

Gui Guzi: “Fuck you, Brother B…”

It was at this moment Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun ran up to us and reported, “Bad news! Dominating Heaven Blade just appeared behind us with over 2000 Gods of Destruction players! They’re five minutes away at most! What should we do?”

He Yi also looked at me after hearing the surprising news.

I pondered for a moment before deciding, “I guess we have no choice but to let Gods of Destruction do our dirty work for us. Everyone, we will withdraw from the entrance now and head to the west side of the desert! We’ll grind there for 20 minutes while we wait for Gods of Destruction to enter the cave! We’ll let them trigger Warsky Alliance’s mines for us!”

“Okay!” He Yi smiled. “Let’s do it!”

And so, we left the entrance of Burning Cave and moved to the other side of the mountain range. Gods of Destruction wouldn’t be able to spot us from where they were due to the obstacles.

……

Our army of 5000 immediately spread out and got to work after we moved to the west side of Fire Desert. However, He Yi, Murong Mingyue, Beiming Xue, and I were uninterested in fighting our own comrades for experience. The Heavenblessed Continent was huge, and high-level mobs were everywhere. There were always other opportunities to grind levels.

In the end, we decided to climb up a short hill, lie down behind some cactuses and observe the situation at Burning Cave.

At the entrance of Burning Cave, a high-spirited Dominating Heaven Blade pointed his battle axe at the cave and laughed heartily. “Hehe, Warsky Alliance is clearing out the mobs for us in there. I’m guessing that they’ll find the boss in an hour or two, and the boss fight will last another two or three hours. Let’s head in now and give them a pleasant surprise!”

Dominating Knight God asked, “But boss, didn’t we have a non-aggression pact with them?”

Dominating Heaven Blade sneered, “As if a verbal agreement is worth anything these days. If our positions were reversed, do you think Warsky Alliance would let us kill the boss without interference?”

“No, they would not!”

“Exactly. Attack!”