“Did… Didn’t you die?” Lu Buyi stammered as he stared at me in shock.

The Apparition Ring on my finger blinked with a ghastly light as I chuckled softly. “That was only a clone that I created with a skill. It has 75% of my stats but it can’t use any defensive skills. If not, do you think that this group of losers would be able to kill me so easily?”

Lu Buyi’s enraged expression swiftly became one of shock and joy.

Roaming Dragon’s expression turned extremely ugly as he stared at me from the distance. “A clone skill? What the hell! Iron Pardon was actually done in by this asshole’s clone?”

Coldmoon Rose stared at me with a cold look in her eyes as she raised her longbow in the air. She said, “Lu Chen is getting harder and harder to deal with. What should we… do now?”

Inconstant’s eyes also turned cold as he said, “We don’t really have much of a choice left. I’ll go and fight him with a few of our comrades. If I could kill Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand once, I can do it again!”

Inconstant walked forward and waved his spear in the air, yelling, “Lu Chen, prepare to die! Don’t think that you’ll be able to protect this guild just because you’re here!”

……

I ignored Inconstant as I turned to look at Lu Buyi and the few surviving players of Waste and Burn. I summoned out the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf to help them kill the boss before I turned to Lu Buyi and said in a dry voice, “Li Buyi, you knew that the strength of your forces were far inferior to Mad Dragon’s, so why did you choose to fight to the death?”

Lu Buyi: “....”

I continued, “You’re a tactician. Your true value lies in using your stratagems to buff a party. Yet you chose to use magic and physical attacks to PvP. If a support class player chooses to play like that, they will often get the short end of the stick. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that before?”

Lu Buyi balled his hands into fists as he jerked his head up to look me straight in the eyes. He continued staring into my eyes and he deliberately emphasized every single word that proceeded from his mouth, “Yes, that’s true. Tacticians are a support class, but I believe that I can play this class the way I want to. Many high-level tacticians have told me the same things that you just did, but I kept telling myself that I wouldn’t let anyone dictate what I could or could not do. The ones who have already failed will always tell you that you will fail as well! But I believe that a person should chase their dreams boldly. I will master this class with my own style and become the number one tactician in China!”

I couldn’t help but laugh as I nodded my head. “Well said! There’s going to be a huge battle in Windmill Forest today, are you willing to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with me? I’ll charge ahead while you use your Dragon Vein Art to pick off their snipers. You have one mission. Don’t let them land too many Shock Arrows on me! How does that sound?”

Lu Buyi nodded his head vigorously before he said excitedly, “Being able to battle shoulder-to-shoulder with Little Heavenly King Lu Chen is my honor!”

I added Lu Buyi into my party after his passion-filled words. After that, I activated my Martial God skill to raise our attack power by 190%. This would greatly boost the damage of his Dragon Vein Art and Vein Splitting Fan skills!

Lu Buyi turned pale as he stared at my stratagem with wide-eyed shock. “What the hell! This attack buff is ridiculous!”

I chuckled before I said, “There’s no need to be shocked. There will come a day when your stratagems far exceed mine. I mean, if you can’t even beat me, then you can forget about ever becoming the number one tactician in China!”

“Okay!”

……

After I finished encouraging Lu Buyi, I brandished my sword and stalked across the battlefield like a prowling tiger. I pointed it straight at Inconstant as I growled, “You, surnamed In![1] What did you say just now? You said that you were going to fight me for three hundred rounds, right? Bring it on! Do you think I’m afraid of you?”

The muscles on Inconstant spasmed violently as he yelled back at me, “My… my surname isn’t In, dammit! Fuck your grandfather, Lu Chen!”

After he spat out those words, Inconstant took his longspear and charged toward me with several hundred Mad Dragon fighters. I too began to run forward. There wasn’t a single hint of fear on my face, despite the horde of players bearing down on me.

Lu Buyi’s courage soared once he saw me dashing fearlessly across the battlefield. He waved his steel fan boldly in the air as he roared with laughter. “Lu Chen! It was only today that I found out that you are a true hero!”

I chuckled as well. No shit, I mean, I am risking life and limb to uphold justice here. Of course I’m a true hero, dammit!

However, I was just a dumb and clumsy one at best, as He Yi and Murong Mingyue kept reminding me on many occasions.

“Let’s go!”

I activated Ghost Deity Armor as I broke out into a dead sprint. Just before I collided with the first enemy player, I quickly raised my sword in the air and slashed downward, launching Thousand Ice Slash into the most packed group of players. At least fifty people were caught in that attack, and 70% of them were frozen, pinned to the ground. I waved my left hand at them, causing an Ice Cyclon Domain to form around. As icicles violently stabbed into the players caught in the area, the Mad Dragon players began dying one after another. They didn’t even get a chance to be healed by their healers in the back.

While that was happening, Inconstant and his squad finally got within striking distance. Countless blades erupted with energy as they smashed or stabbed into my body. The Crimson Rock Dragon Armor shuddered violently as it was struck from every direction, and a string of damage numbers began popping up above my head.

2245!

1029!

428!

521!

98!

……

Only Inconstant posed any real threat to me. The rest of them were just small fry. In fact, a few of their magic knights could only deal double-digit damage to me. I couldn’t help but chuckle every time they tickled me with one of their attacks.

However, I couldn’t get cocky, because even an elephant could be brought down by a horde of ants. If I wasn’t careful, this endless rain of attacks would bring me to my knees. Besides, Coldmoon Rose’s attacks were still as deadly as ever.

I violently slashed at a group of players in front of me with Burning Blade Slash!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Inconstant leaped forward to tank my attack! He braced himself behind his shield, using his Holy Shield skill to absorb those three burning blades of sword energy. Sparks flew in the air as they exploded against his shield, three damage numbers flying above his head.

4101!

7992!

11020!

Inconstant’s eyes widened in shock and pain as he stared at those damage numbers. His Holy Shield X raised his Defense by an absurd amount, to the point where most attacks could barely scratch him, but my flurry skill had dealt him more than 20000 damage! This was about half of his total HP.

I wasn’t able to kill Inconstant, but Burning Blade Slash was an AoE attack, and the fiery explosions had torn the fighters around him to pieces.

Bang!

I felt something smash into my chest and it made me lose 4000 HP. Shit, it was Coldmoon Rose again. This woman was really irritating!

It was at that exact moment that I heard a dragon roar out from behind me. The image of a cyan dragon swept past me as Lu Buyi thrust out his fan and used his Dragon Vein Art again. The dragon made of cyan energy crashed into Coldmoon Rose and very nearly one-shot her!

“Hurry up and heal me…” Coldmoon Rose gasped as all the color drained from her face.

The priests around her immediately started to heal her, but Lu Buyi refused to let up. His relentless attacks kept her HP at about 25%.

That was the last straw! It was time to end this irritating farce. I suddenly stomped down on the ground with my Stormy Waves War Boots, activating War Crush to wipe out the enemies around me. I raised the Cyan Netherworld Sword high above my head, hurling it out. The 6-star Outstanding Heaven-grade weapon transformed into a whirling buzzsaw, the spinning sword drew a beautiful arc in the air as it slashed through multiple Mad Dragon players. The sword’s final target was precisely Coldmoon Rose. She could only widen her eyes in shock when she realized that the beautiful blade was spinning toward her. It struck her right between her breasts, the deadly blade spinning through her torso with a sickening squelch. After that, it whirled back into my grasp, the blade and handle of the sword slick with blood. Tsk, tsk, that was fun!

A huge damage number popped up above Coldmoon Rose’s head.

17894!

She glared at me with those wide eyes as she stumbled to the ground in the daze. Coldmoon Rose had left the stage!

And she wasn’t the only one who had died. More than a few of the Roaming Dragon’s retinue had been killed together with her and even Roaming Dragon himself had been hurt by my attack. If magic knights weren’t so tanky, he would’ve ended up dying to my merciless blade as well.

Inconstant flew into a fit of rage and he thrust his spear straight at my chest. However, I easily avoided his attack by slipping to the side. Then, I crouched and jumped toward the magic knight. I thrust my right knee toward him as I soared through the air. The sharp point of my greaves smashed into Inconstant’s jaw, sending him stumbling backwards. When I landed, I immediately launched a flurry of blows at him. My final blow depleted the tenacity of his warhorse and he fell right off it. His head was spinning due to my strike to the jaw and his hard fall, so he attempted to bring his shield up and use his Holy Shield skill again. A pity that he forgot I had a skill that could utterly crush his guard.

Wooosh!

An Eight Trigrams formation appeared underneath my feet as a flaming spiral of indigo energy started swirling violently around the Cyan Netherworld Sword. It shot out like a striking viper, the fiery spiral of energy bored a hole through the magic knight’s shield and impaled him!

“Die!”

The spiral of energy exploded inside his chest and a huge damage number flew up above his head. A gigantic hole appeared in the magic knight’s chest as he slumped to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

……

“Hahaha, that was a beautiful kill!” Lu Buyi said with a loud laugh.

I turned around and walked away. “Buyi, what the hell are you laughing for? Let’s go. The boss is already dead. It’s time for us to leave…”

“Okay…”

Lu Buyi immediately realized how serious the situation was. Even though we had killed many of Mad Dragon’s experts, they still had many players left. Furthermore, I only had 27% of my HP left. I wouldn’t be able to keep on fighting if I didn’t get any support from a healer. We really only had one choice right now, which was to retreat!

With the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf’s help, the players of Waste and Burn had managed to take down the boss, but only ten of them remained. Lu Buyi flew over and kept all of the boss drops in his inventory. After that, he yelled, “Comrades, we’re retreating together with Falling Dust!”

After having helped them face down the strong Mad Dragon guild, I had become the spiritual leader of this bunch from Waste and Burn. In truth, I was also their only hope.

……

As we hastily retreated, I formed a rearguard with Lu Buyi to fend off any pursuers. Roaming Dragon gritted his teeth in rage, but he was powerless to stop us from fleeing into the woods.

“Fuck their mothers! Those cowards! Don’t they dare to face us in the field of battle?” Roaming Dragon hissed through clenched teeth as he sat astride his horse.

A Mad Dragon player whispered to him from the side, “Guild leader, they’ve already taken out a significant chunk of our forces. We can’t continue losing men like this. Lu Chen’s Defense and HP are also way too OP. There’s no way we can bombard him with long-range attacks if he hides in the forest, and we don’t have enough firepower left either. There’s no way that we can kill him right now. If we continue to pursue them, I’m afraid that all one thousand of us will end up dying as a result.”

“Yeah, let’s retreat for now. We’ll regroup at those dragon bones over there. Let’s guard those Agave plants. I heard that Lu Chen only came to Windmill Forest because he wanted to gather them. Hmph, we need to spoil his plans!”

“Okay!”

……

“Please wait a moment, Brother Lu Chen!”

Lu Buyi hurriedly stopped me from leaving. He pointed ahead of me and said, “Our guild leader has revived himself and he’s not too far away from where we are right now. I’ll bring you over to meet him. How does that sound?”

“Okay!” I nodded my head. This place was way too far from Cyan Tiger Forest and Gui Guzi and the rest were still busy catching Cyan Tigers too, so I had no intention of asking them to come over to flatten Mad Dragon. I had no choice but to cooperate with the players of Waste and Burn. At the very least, I had to make sure that all of the healers could revive. If I didn’t, I would only be able to take on two hundred Mad Dragon players at most. After all, sustain would always be melee classes’ weakness.

What’s more, I really wanted to recruit Lu Buyi, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to break some bread with Waste and Burn guild’s leader.

1. Inconstant’s name in Chinese is 翻云覆雨. Lu Chen basically took the first word in his name and made it into his family name. This is the naming convention for Chinese names. Lu Chen’s surname is actually Lu. It’s also considered very impolite to mess around with someone’s last name in Chinese culture.