The next day, it was almost 10 am before I finally woke up. Maybe it was because I had been pushing myself too hard recently. I ate brunch after I got up and went back online.

I teleported into the inn. Sky City was as bustling as ever.

Beep!

Xu Yang sent me a message: “Finally! Lu Chen, come to the guild territory as soon as you can. I’ve handpicked thirty high-level magic knights and wanderers yesterday, and they’re currently grinding at the foot of Dragonbone Mountain Range. If you’re coming, then I’ll call them back right now!”

“Got it, I’m coming over right away!”

I went to the warehouse first and stocked up on Health Potions and Magic Consumables for future grinding. Right now, my first priority was to increase Dark Moon City’s rank as quickly as possible, and my second priority was to increase my own level. I was the only CGL Hall of Famer in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and as the guild representative, countless people looked up to me. The second I fell behind in levels, the morale of the guild would surely suffer a huge blow.

Therefore, I had to maintain my level lead no matter what, at least until Li Chengfeng, Beiming Xue, Gui Guzi, and the others entered the CGL Hall of Fame!

……

I initiated the teleport to Dark Moon City. A "swhoosh" later, I had appeared in my new undead castle. Not far away, a large group of Dark Knights were moving out of their caves and gathering as if they were waiting for me to give them an order.

"You’re here!"

Xu Yang ran up to me, and soon after a bunch of Ancient Sword Dreaming Soul players walked out of the teleportation formation in succession. They were all Level 105 and above, and many of them were familiar faces. These brothers and sisters had accompanied me and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls through many wars, so I knew they were both strong and loyal. They wouldn’t leave the guild even if we couldn’t afford to pay them for their services—which we could—and those who thought otherwise had left for another master a long time ago.

A smiling Xu Yang moved closer to me and lowered his voice. "It took me an entire night to select these thirty people, so don’t worry about them not being able to pull their weight. Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun would’ve been among them, but since he has his own Dark Gold Rank mount, I left him out. High Fighting Spirits, Legendary Brave, and other fighters are too low-level to equip a mount, so I left them out as well."

"Mn, well done. Grant them the guild hall clearance and tell them to enter the guild hall."

"Okay!"

I entered the guild hall first and waited. A while later, Xu Yang led the thirty riders into the hall. Everyone looked happy and excited, and some of them asked me directly with big grins, "What’s the occasion, Vice Leader Lu Chen?"

I immediately took out a Sealing Stone from my bag and brought out the Fireblade Warhorse’s stats. The eyes of all thirty riders turned as wide as saucers as they stared at the rows of amazing numbers and exclaimed, "Fuck, is this a Silver Rank mount? It’s so powerful…"

At the current stage, any rider who possessed a Dark Steel Rank mount already felt like they were on top of the world, but this Silver Rank mount was even stronger than those mounts. Only a handful of people had truly witnessed the might of high-level mounts like the Snow Domain Windchaser or the Frostscythe Warhorse, so their excitement made perfect sense.

I withdrew the Sealing Stone and smiled. "Yesterday, I spent the whole day grinding at Fireblade Valley and obtained a total of 30 Fireblade Warhorses. I’m planning to create a super cavalry regiment with a standardized mount for Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and the reason I chose you all to join it is because you are strong, and because the guild trusts you. From now on, you are all core members of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and your success or failure will directly affect the guild’s fate. Therefore, please make sure to do your best once you receive these Sealing Stones!"

Astonishment growing, some of the players had to bite their lips to hold in their emotion. Some even clenched their fists and declared powerfully, "Thank you, Vice Leader Lu Chen. We promise to do everything in our power to repay your trust and protect Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! Don’t worry, for as long as we remain, no one shall bring harm to the guild!"

I smiled gladly. "Okay. For the rise of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and for our dreams to conquer the world!"

"Hehe…"

Xu Yang let out an honest chuckle and joined in. "Everyone, please stand in a line to receive your Sealing Stones from Lu Chen one by one. Don’t forget he worked through the night to get them for you. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that they’re literally drenched with his blood, sweat and tears…"

I rolled my eyes at him. "That is definitely an exaggeration…"

"Hahaha!" Everyone laughed heartily at our exchange.

All thirty Sealing Stones were given out in the blink of an eye, and after we went out of the guild hall they summoned their Fireblade Warhorses and formed an orderly row. They pulled out their swords and nodded to me respectfully. "What should we do now, vice leader?"

I sent Gui Guzi a message: "How are things at Fireblade Valley?"

Gui Guzi replied, "Not very well, unfortunately. We cleared out the whole map, but we only managed to tame 10 Fireblade Warhorses."

"Bring yourself and your men to the guild territory."

"Got it!"

A few minutes later, Gui Guzi and 10 riders mounted on Fireblade Warhorses appeared in the guild territory. It so happened that we had exactly 40 Fireblade Warhorse riders in total.

I couldn’t help but smile as I stared at the row of riders. "Right now this is probably the one and only cavalry troop in all the servers, huh?"

Xu Yang nodded with a smile. "That’s right, especially since we have Gui Guzi and his Famous General Skill, Knight God. Even if it isn’t the only one, it is undoubtedly the strongest cavalry troop in all the servers right now!"

Gui Guzi rode up to me on his Armored Swordback Dragon and asked, "Do you want to say something, boss?"

"Yeah!"

With my sword unsheathed, I walked to the front and declared, "Everyone, you should already know how much Gui Guzi and I grinded to make this cavalry force a reality. From today onward, you are and will always be the pillar of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, so work hard and grind levels as much as you can! Our throne of tomorrow will begin with your hooves and blades today!"

The excited riders raised their swords into the air and declared in unison, "We won’t let you down, vice leader!"

"Good!"

I nodded approvingly before facing toward Gui Guzi. "I leave these 40 Fireblade Riders in your hands to grind levels, kill bosses or whatever. Lead them well, for they will surely be the absolute pillar of our forces in all future warfares!"

A smiling Gui Guzi nodded just as excitedly as the others. "Don’t worry, boss! I don’t dare to say that I’m the best at most things, but I guarantee that there’s almost no one who could grind levels faster than me in the entire server! With these Fireblade Warhorses and my Knight God, there is no leveling map below Level 140 that we can’t sweep!"

"Very good. Now go!"

"Yeah!"

Gui Guzi left with the Fireblade Cavalry. When they were gone, Xu Yang rubbed his eyes and said, "I haven’t slept a wink the whole night, so I’m going to go take a nap. See you later, Lu Chen!"

"Yeah, see you!"

……

After seeing Gui Guzi and Xu Yang off, it was finally time to perform my duties as the lord of Dark Moon City. I noticed that the territory still had a lot of resources in the reserve, so I upgraded the Nest of Corruption, the Nest of Graves and the Blood Pond Cemetery. All basic buildings must be upgraded to Rank 2 first before the castle could be upgraded to Rank 3, and starting at Rank 3 the NPCs would start selling return scrolls, Dark Moon City return scrolls to be exact. They were slightly more expensive than the fee to use the teleportation formation but it was alright, because this bit of convenience was another primary source of income for our territory!

I opened the world map and noticed that a couple of dots had appeared around the territory. I then ordered the Dark Knight Udal to plunder the places with a bunch of Skeletal Spearmen and Zombies. I myself led 40 Dark Knights to a red dot on a hill not far away from the guild territory. It was where the boss was.

These types of bosses didn’t drop equipment, but they were so powerful that they dissuaded most players from killing them. Moreover, to kill a resource boss in Dark Moon City’s territory was to risk offending Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, so most people wouldn’t do such a thing. This boss had probably just spawned a while ago too, or it would’ve been taken out by He Yi and Murong Mingyue already.

……

As we approached the small hill, we discovered that the entire place was jam-packed with Level 126 shadow-rank Cyan Wolves. Moreover, there was a Level 135 Purple Gold Rank boss at the center of the wolf horde, Slair the Cyan Wolf King. The boss was clearly a cut above its underlings because it was bipedal and wielded a battle axe. Clad in rough armor, it stared at me with a savage expression and saliva dripping off its sharp teeth. It looked like it couldn’t wait to swallow me whole.

I was a lawful and kind-hearted youngster, so I charged into the horde and attacked the Cyan Wolf King right away. A second later, I was surrounded by Cyan Wolves from every direction. The Level 127 shadow-rank mob could barely break my Defense and dealt only a couple hundred damage per hit, so I just ignored them completely.

"Damned brat, how dare you intrude upon the territory of the wolves!"

The Cyan Wolf King’s battle axe glowed a cyan color before hitting me squarely on the armor. The huge impact surprised me a bit, but the actual damage was so-so at best. If the boss's skill only hit me for 3763 damage, then its basic attack was even less of a problem. Worst case scenario, I drink a couple of Health Potions and waste a tiny bit of money. It was nothing.

My boots glowed as I executed War Crush. Then, I swung my sword all around me, deleting HP and regaining HP at the same time. The 14% lifesteal of the Heaven-stealing Sword was so awesome that I was able to facetank the boss and the mobs completely on my own. I only needed to use a Rank 9 Health Potion every 60 seconds or so!

I only attacked the Cyan Wolf King, but my sword’s splash damage dealt huge damage to all surrounding mobs. Every time I fell below 60% HP, one War Crush was all it took to bring me back to full health. It was awesome.

……

After a while, the Cyan Wolf King let out a miserable howl and collapsed to the ground, yielding two treasure chests. It seems there’s also a Resource Bag, very good, what a good harvest!