Swhoosh!

When we entered the B4 floor—the Fire Dragon Domain—we were separated yet again. Chaos Moon and High Fighting Spirits were still in my hundred-man party, but Beiming Xue had opted to make her own almost hundred-man archer party instead of following me this time. It was so that we could both make full use of our Famous General Skills, Martial God and Bow God. I had no idea where she was currently.

We appeared in a hot, rocky region. At the distance, I saw a beautiful woman clad in elegant armor and gripping a dagger that looked like a milky crescent moon climbing onto the Frostscythe Warhorse and disappearing from our sights. Mn, Lin Yixin must be leaving to find Purple Marquis and the rest of Snowy Cathaya.

……

Beep!

He Yi sent me a message: "Are we going to compete against the other guilds for the boss of this floor? According to the latest intel, Candle Dragon is clearing out the mobs surrounding the boss. They’ll probably fight the boss in ten minutes’ time. However, Candle Dragon isn’t the only guild who discovered the boss. Hegemon Palace and Warsky Alliance had spotted it at the same time and are currently camping outside the boss's zone, waiting for an opportunity to present itself."

I thought for a moment before replying, "Let’s not. With Warsky Alliance and Hegemon Palace around we might not succeed, and let’s remember that our final goal is to upgrade our equipment and levels as quickly as we are able, not to gather all nine dragon scales!"

"Got it, we’ll leave for the Earth Dragon Domain as soon as we have all the teleportation scrolls we need!"

"That’s right, we grind the scrolls, teleport to the next floor and find the boss as soon as possible!"

"Okay~"

He Yi was clearly feeling very good today. The fact that even Candlelight Shadow was wary of our strength proved just how far Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had come.

……

I spotted a group of huge, fiery giants a long way in front of me. It was none other than the Level 155 shadow-rank mob, the Spitfire Balrog. The Spitfire Balrog was a giant, shadowy creature wreathed in a shield of flames. It could launch flame attacks at its enemy!

"Prepare for battle!"

I ran forward with Chaos Moon right by my side. After equipping the Bone Scythe set, her HP, Defense, and Attack weren’t far behind mine anymore. She wasn’t lacking in determination either because she was one of the most important players of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls.

I shortened the distance between myself and a Spitfire Balrog before executing Universe Break. The skill instantly removed almost 20k HP from its health pool. However, its Blazing Shield also burned me for almost 1000 HP, and Chaos Moon for almost 1500 HP. As a metal armor class, mage-type mobs were always a threat even with our advantage.

Luckily, our party had 17 priests including Moon Dew. It was almost impossible for Chaos Moon and me to die with her around.

"We only have one objective, and that is to grind B5 floor teleportation scrolls and leave for the Earth Dragon Domain immediately!" I said to everyone.

Chaos Moon nodded in agreement. "Yes, not clashing against Candle Dragon on this floor is a wise and tactical decision, hehe."

"But of course, did you forget who’s the one coming up with all these strategies?"

"Hmph. Be careful not to boast too much!"

……

With me, Chaos Moon and High Fighting Spirits as the focal point, our hundred-man party ravaged the Spitfire Balrogs at a rocky area. We only fought three mobs at a time, so we were never in danger of dying. Moreover, Martial God boosted everyone’s Attack by 140%, so even our mages and priests were able to kick ass from time to time, to say nothing of the three of us. The Spitfire Balrogs were almost no challenge at all.

Meanwhile, everyone was chatting inside the guild channel—

Xu Yang: "God damn, Candle Dragon just started the boss, and their numbers are huge! There are almost 3000 of them in Fire Dragon Domain, and they sent 2000 players to intercept Warsky Alliance, Hegemon Palace, and Gods of Destruction, and yet they still have 1000 players and Candlelight Shadow to send for the boss... hahaha, interesting! Apparently Candlelight Shadow marked Dominating Heaven Blade with Ghost God Prophecy not long ago, and the poor guy only has two minutes left to live now. The entire Gods of Destruction are charging Candle Dragon like mad, but I doubt they’ll be able to do anything…"

Li Chengfeng: "Phew. Now that you mention it, I’m surprised Candlelight Shadow didn’t wreck us with his Ghost God Prophecy when we fought him earlier…"

Chaos Moon: "You think he didn’t want to? I heard that Candlelight Shadow already used Ghost God Prophecy when he was on the B2 floor. His target was Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties, the guild leader of one of the Top 10 guilds of Vanished God City, Hunting Moon Dynasty. Apparently, Candlelight Shadow claimed that he would only use Ghost God Prophecy on guild leaders and vice leaders, meaning that the only reason you’re still alive is because you’re not worthy of the skill…"

Li Chengfeng: "I’m not worthy? Damn, that hurts…"

Gui Guzi: "Heh, I just received news that Luo River God of the Capital and Purple Lily had made an appearance. They might attack Candle Dragon and snatch the boss at any moment. This sure is a lively floor. I don’t know if Snowy Cathaya is planning to join them, but if they do, then this truly will be the meeting of heroes."

He Yi: "Oh? Beauty Luo is there too?"

Gui Guzi: "Yep. Luo River God of the Capital is such an amazing expert. Not only is her arena ranking ridiculously high, she is supported by a powerful and gorgeous assassin, Moonkiss. Tsk tsk, the legend of Purple Lily is practically writing itself in my head…"

I asked Gui Guzi: "You wanna hook up with Moonkiss, Little Gui? I can help you with that…"

Gui Guzi: "Please don’t. Even if I was interested in her, which I’m not, I would never ask for your help in this regard, boss. I’ve never seen a girl who’s immune to your charms, so to ask you to help me is the same as asking you to cuck me…"

"WTF dude, that is no way to speak to your boss…"

He Yi giggled. "He’s right, you don’t understand your boss at all, Gui Guzi. Knowing his personality, he wouldn’t take Moonkiss, but Moonkiss would totally take him…"

"WTF, you two…"

Beiming Xue joined in. "Big bro, did you know that Moonkiss actually sent me a message praising your looks and charms the day after we met her? I’m sure she’ll join Ancient Sword if you’re willing to become her boyfriend…"

Li Chengfeng, High Fighting Spirits, and everyone else immediately cheered. "Wah, this is practically a confession already! Vice leader, hesitation is unbecoming of a man, not to mention that Moonkiss is a top-tier assassin, a CGL ranker, and the second strongest assassin in China after Farewell Song! Our guild is lacking a great assassin right now, so please sacrifice yourself for the cause…"

I rolled my eyes at all of them. "Get lost! I would never do something so despicable! Also, you guys are the lackeys, so by right you’re the ones who should sacrifice yourselves for the cause!"

The generals clicked their tongues, and the players laughed. The harmonious atmosphere would’ve been perfect if it wasn’t built on the misery of their vice leader. These people lacked conscience, dammit. They didn’t respect their vice leader at all...

……

Pop!

I killed a Spitfire Balrog after it was done spitting fire. It dropped a 3-star Outstanding Dark Gold–grade wristguards that made the female mages in my party squeal in pleasant surprise. Moonlight Stone said, "As expected of Lu Chen, your drop rate is really insane…"

I asked, "Do you want these wristguards?"

"Nah, I already have Spirit-grade wristguards."

"Okay!"

I tossed the wristguards into the hands of a male mage. In a month or even half a month’s time, all the top experts would be clad in Purple Gold–grade equipment. For now though, it was still the era of Dark Gold–grade equipment, and anything above that, Purple Gold or Spirit–grade was a most pleasant surprise!

The composition of my party was extremely heterogeneous. There were warriors, mages, priests, tamers, bards, and so on. One of the best traits of Martial God was that it had no class restriction. I could create a scientific party with tanks, DPS, priests, bards and so on that was a lot more secure than, say, Gui Guzi’s rider party or Beiming Xue’s archer party. For example, if their parties were caught in a swarm of mobs, they would have to break through the encirclement with overwhelming firepower or die. The margin of error was much more narrow for them.

The latest news regarding the battle at the so-called Blaze Valley kept appearing in the guild channel. While we were grinding mobs in silence, the other guilds were having the battle of their life—

6:11 pm: Dominating Heaven Blade succumbed to Candlelight Shadow’s Ghost God Prophecy and died. His equipment was saved by Dominating Knight God.

6:17 pm: Hegemon Palace’s Little Piglet successfully broke through the left side of Candle Dragon’s defense and gave Candlelight Shadow’s party some trouble.

6:25 pm: Purple Lily joined the fight. Moonkiss assassinated two of Candle Dragon’s elite warriors and successfully baited two hundred-man parties to chase after her. They were ambushed by Luo River God of the Capital and routed completely just outside the boss's zone.

6:34 pm: Warsky Alliance launched an all-out assault. Lin Bing Dou Zhe was unstoppable until he was rewarded with a Ghost God Prophecy by Candlelight Shadow. Poor fellow.

6:44 pm: Lin Bing Dou Zhe died. Little Piglet also died after he was ambushed by three of Candle Dragon’s CGL Hall of Famers, Blue Sky Scar, Tempest Shadow and Transient Smoke and Clouds. Later, God’s Dance swept through Hegemon Palace and killed Pillar of the Nation and Shangguan Wan’er with a thousand-man party. As a result, the remnants of Hegemon Palace were forced to exit the Nine Lost Dragon Domains prematurely. The boss still had 34% HP at this time.

6:57 pm: Warsky Alliance’s CGL Hall of Famer, Laughing At The Heavens, was the next person to be marked with Ghost God Prophecy.

7:11 pm: The boss died, and the Fire Dragon Scale was stolen by a stealthed Farewell Song. Despite being surrounded by Tempest Shadow, Blue Sky Scar and more, Farewell Song successfully broke through the encirclement and escaped.

7:12 pm: Candlelight Shadow spat a mouthful of blood at his monitor, looked up to the sky and screamed on top of his lungs, "Fuck~ your~ mother~ Farewell~ Song…"

……

Our luck wasn’t too good this time. He Yi, Li Chengfeng, Beiming Xue, and Gui Guzi’s party all found a teleportation scroll before me. It took us almost half an hour of grinding before we finally got what we needed.

Earth Dragon Domain, here I come!

Swhoosh!

We appeared at grassy land. It was a hill region and the habitat of the ancient Earth Dragon.