WTF! Did He Yi really just become a Famous General by killing a porcupine? What kind of karma is that…

I brought up the Famous General Ranking, and it looked like my eyes and ears weren’t deceiving me. China now had four Famous Generals, and He Yi’s new Famous General Skill was called “Royal Road”. When I clicked on it to check its effects, I was surprised by what I saw—

Royal Road: Intimidate your opponents with your eminence. Increase all party members’ stats by 15% and lower all enemies’ stats by 15%. Skill exclusive to player "From Water"!

……

Royal Road was a two-way skill that increased all allied stats by 15% and reduced all enemy stats by 15% at the same time. It had its advantages and its disadvantages compared to Lin Yixin’s Bombshell, but long story short, both skills were about the same. Moreover, both skills were inferior to my Martial God when it came to PvE!

Inside the party channel, the girls were exploding in joy—

Murong Mingyue: "Eve’s luck is seriously amazing these last couple days. Who would’ve thought that she would become a Famous General right after Who Will Rise?"

Beiming Xue laughed. "Yeah. This Royal Road is so powerful. I think it’s as good as Lin Yixin’s Bombshell in PvP!"

He Yi giggled. "Yes, I was just lucky. The rest of you should do your best as well. If you level up by killing a boss, your chances of becoming a Famous General should be much higher."

……

I congratulated He Yi briefly but didn’t dive into a conversation. I had some grinding to do.

It had been a while since the start of the World Famous General patch. By design, anyone who became a World Famous General was going to be extremely useful in all future battles. Moreover, Famous Generals could party twice the amount of players others could. For example, the biggest party a Level 100 fourth-promotion player could make was a 20-man party, but a Famous General at the same level could make a 40-man party and share their buff with everyone. This was incredibly useful, of course. Famous Generals were definitely going to play a major role in upcoming guild territory wars and Nation Wars!

A normal Level 120 fifth-promotion player could make a 100-man party while a Famous General could make a 200-man party. A normal Level 150 and sixth-promotion player could make a 200-man party while a Famous General could make a 400-man party. How epic would it be for a Famous General with 400 elite troops behind them to rampage in and out of an enemy formation, leaving countless corpses in their wake?

Not only that, I had a feeling that upcoming battles would be decided by the number of Famous Generals a guild or a nation had, not the number of top-tier players. The more Famous Generals a guild had, the deadlier their guild would become, so Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls should do our utmost to nurture our players into Famous Generals!

According to the system, the Top 15 highest-leveled players in a major city had a chance to become a Famous General when they leveled up. Of course, if someone on the Heavenly Ranking had already become a Famous General, then they would automatically be excluded from the selection pool. For example, Lin Yixin and I were already Famous Generals, but we were hogging the first and second spot of Sky City’s Heavenly Ranking. Therefore, the selection pool was shifted to 3–18 places of Sky City instead. And out of these fifteen players, Purple Marquis probably had the biggest chance of becoming a Famous General because he was the current highest-leveled player of the selection pool, and the current third place on Sky City’s Heavenly Ranking.

I did some quick thinking before messaging everyone in the guild channel. "Li Chengfeng, Beiming Xue, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon… as you already know, our guild leader has recently become a Famous General. Now it’s your turn. Once you hit 99% experience, I want you to stop grinding and find a boss—any boss—to kill. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls must have six Famous Generals at least in a month’s time!"

"Got it!"

Everyone replied excitedly before going back to the grind. Of course, I said that, but bosses weren’t actually easy to find. Low-rank bosses would be dead in the hands of low-level players already, but high-rank bosses were always going to be a hassle to kill. He Yi became a Famous General only because her luck was completely off the charts today.

Well, I should get back to my own task. I continued killing the Crystal Dragonfishes and looting the Dragonfish Meat in hopes of increasing my Cooking skill to Rank 10 today. After that, I should embark on a new journey.

……

I grinded until noon before I logged out and had lunch with the girls at a Hunan restaurant. After we returned to the workshop, it was grinding and even more grinding. Hard work was the key to success.

About 4 pm or so, a system announcement dinged across Crystal Coast again—

Ding~!

System Announcement: Player "Purple Marquis (Sky City)" has successfully defeated the Dark Gold Rank Boss, Cunning Fire Rabbit, and reached Level 110. They have met the criteria to become a Famous General, and they are the fifth Famous General of China! They have gained Luck +1, Tactics +2, and the exclusive Famous General Skill, "Insight"!

Insight: 30% chance to see through the opponent’s stratagem and neutralize it for 600 seconds. The maximum success rate of this skill is 70%. Success rate depends on the player’s Tactics.

……

God damn, I wasn’t expecting another Famous General to emerge on the same day. Also what is this grinding speed? He’s at the same level as Lin Yixin now! No wonder he is the strongest general of Snowy Cathaya!

Insight was an interesting skill. Upon activation, it had a 70% chance of seeing through the opponent’s stratagem and neutralizing it. It was basically the Heavenblessed version of Seven Harms Fist. [1] Insight was a pure debuff that didn’t benefit the skill user or his allies in any way, but it was still pretty amazing especially if Purple Marquis gained enough Tactics to hit the percentage cap. A skill that stopped its target from using a stratagem for 10 whole minutes was absolutely vicious!

The guild channel erupted into activity again as everyone expressed their astonishment. Who would’ve thought that Purple Marquis would become a Famous General on the same day as He Yi?

I did a rough calculation in my head. Purple Marquis currently had around 60 Tactics or so, so the success rate of Insight should be around 50%. It was still scary. Insight wasn’t a channeling skill, so he could theoretically seal off his enemy’s stratagem first and swap out the Famous General Skill for a high-rank Encourage, buffing himself for around 20% Attack. It was a huge advantage, no matter how you looked at it!

That being said, it wasn’t like I was the one who gained that Famous General Skill, so after my initial surprise I tossed the revelation to the back of my mind and went back to the grind again. Who knows, maybe all the Famous Generals of China would show up today. In fact, it felt like the requirements to become a Famous General had loosened a bit after the end of Who Will Rise. Otherwise, He Yi and Purple Marquis shouldn’t have been able to become Famous Generals this easily. Of course, this was a good thing. There was no telling if there was a cap on the number of Famous Generals—it could be a hundred, a thousand, or there could be no cap at all—but the faster our people became Famous Generals, the better.

At around 7 pm or so, the China servers well and truly exploded with shock as the system announced yet the birth of another Famous General—

Ding~!

System Announcement: Player "Beiming Xue (Sky City)" has successfully defeated the Dark Gold Rank Boss, Dark Shadow, and reached Level 109. They have also met the criteria to become a Famous General and become the sixth Famous General of China! They have gained Luck +1, Tactics +1, and the exclusive Famous General Skill, "Bow God"!

Bow God: Beseech the power of the ancient Bow God and increase ranged physical attack power by 50% and attack speed by 20% for all party members. Skill exclusive to player "Beiming Xue"!

……

My eyes widened into saucers. 50% ranged attack power and 20% attack speed were crazy enough, but that was just the base effect of the skill. If multiplied with Beiming Xue’s Tactics—she had almost 100 Tactics right now—that was almost 100% Attack and 40% attack speed… Is this real? Isn’t this completely broken?

I must admit that all three Famous General Skills in our guild were pretty powerful thus far. The power of Martial God needed not be said, Royal Road’s 15% debuff plus 15% buff was absolutely amazing, and Beiming Xue’s Bow God was… let’s just say that, despite being an archer exclusive skill, this Famous General Skill was still OP as hell!

Everyone was talking in the guild channel—

Xu Yang: "Is today a special day or something? Why are there so many Famous Generals in China all of a sudden?"

Legendary Brave: "I just sent a query to Eternal Moon Corporation, and they told me that they had increased the chance to become a Famous General 7 times the normal rate just for today, or more specifically, the day after Who Will Rise ended. They didn’t announce it because it’s considered a hidden reward. The rate is increased for every server in the world, and the increased rate will last until midnight. My suggestion to everyone is to stay awake and grind. Grind like your life depends on it!"

Gui Guzi: "Go go go…"

Chaos Moon: "Go go go go…"

I smiled and said, "Beiming Xue’s Bow God is really powerful. I guess it’s time we build a super archer squad around her. Does anyone have any good idea on how we should go about this?"

Legendary Brave: "Actually, I do. There’s a fourth-rate guild at Vanished God City with two extremely good archers in them. If you agree, I could recruit them at a moderate price."

Me: "Alright, I leave it to you!"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun: "I know a former colleague who quit his job and turned to gaming for a living, but he’s a member of Hunting Moon Dynasty right now. No worries though, I’ll message him right now and tell him to join us. If he turns me down I’ll murder him until he says yes…"

Me: "O… kay…"

He Yi: "Guys and girls, I’m officially renewing our corps arrangement. Please check the plan I just attached for details. The first corps is our future cavalry, so they’ll be made up of mostly magic knights and wanderers. It’ll be around 2000 strong and led by Gui Guzi. The second corps will be made up of warriors, assassins, and tamers, and they’ll be led by Lu Chen. The third corps will be made up of mages and priests, and they’ll be led by Murong Mingyue. Finally, our fourth corps will be made of archers, and they’ll be led by Beiming Xue. Does anyone have any objection to offer?"

"Our guild leader is wise!" Our guild members were also wise to follow her lead without question.

……

Inside the party channel, Murong Mingyue moaned resentfully, "I’m the only one left in the workshop who still isn’t a Famous General…"

"It’s fine, it’s only a matter of time. Fortune favors the pretty, so…" I said consolingly.

But Murong Mingyue’s resentment only grew. "Purple Marquis and Candlelight Shadow are ugly as hell, but they became Famous Generals already…"

Me: "..."

It wasn’t long before Li Chengfeng sent me the good news. As promised, he managed to persuade the two ace archers from that fourth-rate guild at Vanished God City to join our guild. One of them was Level 106, and the other, Level 107. Both their equipment and skills were pretty good, and in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls only a handful of archers were their equal. Beiming Xue was stronger than them, of course.

Our archer squad became much stronger than before after the addition of new blood. All Beiming Xue needed to do was make a 40-man party of pure archers and activate Bow God, there was no leveling map they couldn’t sweep like a plague. They didn’t even need a priest. No matter how tanky a mob was, there was no way they could withstand all the Volleys, Multi Arrows, and so on flying their way.

……

The grind continued around 8 pm or so. I had probably collected enough Dragonfish Meat to get my Cooking to Rank 10, and my weapon durability had dropped considerably. It was almost time to head back to the city.

I was just turning around when the system dinged again. Damn, the seventh Famous General of China had appeared—

Ding~!

System Announcement: Player "Little Piglet (Sky City)" has successfully defeated the Dark Gold Rank Boss, Silver-scale Wind Snake, and reached Level 108. They have met the criteria to become a Famous General, and they are the seventh Famous General of China! They have gained Luck +1, Tactics +1, and the exclusive Famous General Skill, "Vajra"!

Vajra: Increases allies’ Defense by 40%. Skill exclusive to player "Little Piglet"!

……

Vajra… was this the Golden Bell? Its skill effect, 40% Defense, was the direct opposite of my Martial God, 40% Attack. What a coincidence. Is this a sign that we are destined enemies?

I smiled. It doesn’t matter, does it? The next time we clash against Hegemon Palace, we will see who is better, his shield or my sword!

It was at this moment He Yi sent me a message. "Lu Chen, you should sleep early tonight. I’m taking you and Xu Yang to GGS Suzhou headquarters tomorrow and getting you a job."

"I’m sorry? Me? A job? In GGS?" I was completely caught off-guard by the news.

1. A skill in The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber