The next day, I slept until noon before I finally got out of the bed. After finishing lunch, I noted that there was still ten or so minutes before 12:30 pm—the login time Lin Yixin and I had agreed on—and checked the news on the forums first.

A familiar red headline was still hanging on the home page even though two days had passed since: "Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Snowy Cathaya, Blazing Hot Lips and The Monarch Descends launch a surprise attack on White Horse City, and the Little Heavenly King Lu Chen abandons it after occupation! The Northern Alliance no longer has a deterrent force in the domain of the Chaotic 27!"

Usually, the headline would’ve been switched out already, but I wasn’t going to complain about it. It raised our players’ morale and boosted our reputation even more. These days, we were like the sun hanging in the sky. In contrast to our position, Candle Dragon was slipping away from their former status as the hegemon with each passing day. Candlelight Shadow, God’s Dance and the others tried everything in their power to turn the tide, but things just weren’t looking good for them.

Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls possessed super-tier experts like Li Chengfeng, Beiming Xue, Lian Xin, Chaos Moon and so on, as well as a Rank 9 castle, Dark Moon City. It was nearly impossible for anyone to unseat us from our throne at Sky City anymore. Snowy Catahya was our strongest ally, and they were just as unshakeable as we were. At Vanished God City, Blazing Hot Lips, Baidicheng, Hunting Moon Dynasty and more were standing their own ground, and more importantly, they would never fall under Candlelight Shadow’s command because they all wanted to become a hegemon-level force themselves. This more or less described the power balance in the Chinese server.

During the latter stage of Spirit of Grief, most of the bigger guilds ran out of energy and were unable to maintain their dominance. This was especially true after a great number of experts decided to retire from the game. As a result, Candle Dragon became the strongest guild of China at the time. Time never stops, however. Not even a year had passed since the opening of the game, and we were at the Golden Age of Heavenblessed right now. Countless ambitious people were fighting to become the master of the continent, and Candle Dragon was no longer the sole powerful guild in the country. Today, Candlelight Shadow might still be able to rule like a king at Wind City, but even that bit of power was slipping away from his grasp due to opponents such as Purple Lily and Peach Garden. It looked like all was lost until Ye Yuse, a subguild member of Candle Dragon, suddenly became a Divine General and won back some momentum for her guild. Well, it didn’t matter. There were still many wars to be fought in the future!

Besides that, there were five smaller news regarding the recent activities of the greater guilds.

1) Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. Their key players have been missing as of late. Some suspect that Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand and From Water are grinding Bloody Shield Domain with their people.

2) Warsky Alliance. Warsky, October Rain, Lin Bing Dou Zhe and more have been spotted entering Frosty Night Hill and grinding the Dark Bears.

3) Candle Dragon. Candlelight Shadow and Blue Sky Scar led a party into Eternal Ice Snow Domain to explore its secrets. Candlelight Shadow gained 5 levels in 24 hours.

4) Gods of Destruction. Gods of Destruction formed a temporary alliance with Hegemon Palace and Mad Dragon to punch through Bloody Rose Fortress. Their goal was to attack a tier 2 main city of Japan. The operation ended in failure.

5) 27 guilds of the Northern Alliance joined forces to attack Fortress of the Iron Halberd. Princess Karinshan herself personally showed up to defend the fortress and annihilated them with the Black Cavalry. The defeat absolutely dominated the Northern Alliance’s forums for a time, and no one dared to set their sights on Fortress of the Iron Halberd any longer.

……

Long story short, nothing much had happened as of late. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Snowy Cathaya, Warsky Alliance, Candle Dragon and more were all grinding levels and developing their power. It was obvious that we were preparing ourselves for the future. Gods of Destruction, Hegemon Palace and Mad Dragon though were losing influence in Sky City every single day, so they had no choice but to attack a small city of Japan and earn some validation for themselves. Unfortunately for them, they underestimated their enemy way too much. Purple Grape City dispatched an army of one million and wiped the floor with them.

On another note, I was glad to learn that the players Gui Guzi and Li Chengfeng chose to take to Bloody Shield Domain were truly reliable. There was no mention of the Mingshe pets anywhere, no matter how hard I looked. Considering that this was a party of fifty thousand we were talking about, it was an incredible feat of secrecy to say the least. I could now declare that these fifty thousand players would become the core of our forces in all future Nation Wars, and we could trust them to conduct any secret operation without having to worry about leaks. In an era of communication like this where a single offline phone call was enough to destroy a strategy completely, loyalty was the most valuable trait one could find.

I loitered for a moment and went online. It was time to complete the final leg of our journey in Bloody Shield Domain.

……

Swhoosh!

My vision lit up as I appeared inside the tent. When I crawled out, I saw that Lian Xin was already online, and Murong Mingyue, Beiming Xue and Lin Yixin appeared soon after. Just like before, we made Lin Yixin the party leader so that we could use her Bombshell. After the Moonchaser Tiger let out a roar, it ran to the top of the hill and led us toward the edge of the Dharan City ruins.

The mountain fog in the morning should be cool and refreshing, but all we could smell was the thick scent of death. When I reached the top of the hill and looked down, I was surprised to find that Dharan City was miraculously well preserved. Its walls, altars, palace, barracks and other structures were more or less intact. That being said, they were also completely covered in some sort of green fern plant.

We also spotted a lot of complex-looking totems standing outside the city. They were so thick that it would take ten people to form a circle around them, and they were over 50 meters tall. They too were covered in fern. The presence of the plant was supposed to inject some life into the city, but all I sensed from it was death and absolute silence.

"Wow! So this is Dharan City!"

White cape flapping in the wind, Lin Yixin commented while standing next to me. Eyes filled with surprise and admiration, she continued, "It looks absolutely magnificent! What’s with this eerie silence though? It’s so quiet that all I feel from this ruins is anxiety. Ovia the Bloody Finger can’t be so arrogant that he didn’t station a single undead soldier in the city, right?"

"Sure he did. You just need to look in the right places."

I pointed with my lips and said, "See that blood-red forest about 3 kilometers away from the city? There are vultures and hyenas all over the place, and when those disgusting things are around, it can only mean that there are dead bodies to feast on nearby. A lot of them. Also, you can see that the branches and leaves are shaking unnaturally, so I’m sure there’s a Night Creature army stationed in that place. They most likely answer directly to Ovia the Bloody Finger."

Lian Xin asked, "Should we take them out then, big brother Lu Chen?"

"Hell no."

I laughed. "This is a Purgatory Sovereign’s army we’re talking about. I imagine that they number at least several million, the kind of number we might not be able to take out even if we mobilize our entire guild. If we could, then Ovia should die from shame and just surrender his position to me, hehe!"

Beiming Xue giggled. "What should we do then?"

I thought for a moment before answering, "Our quest leads us into the ruins, not the forest. Therefore, I believe we should just avoid the Night Creature armies altogether and sneak into the city. We win if we find Bloody Finger and take him out."

Murong Mingyue nodded in agreement. "Lu Chen is correct. There are only five of us and a countless horde of them, not to mention that we do not nearly have enough supplies or equipment durability to outlast those NPC mobs."

I said, "Alright, let’s go. There may be many scary things waiting for us inside the Dharan City ruins, so again, the plan is to sneak into the city and kill Bloody Finger before his subordinates realize it! Leave Princess Karinshan to deal with the undead army, our war belongs elsewhere."

"Mn."

We took off after the girls nodded in unison.

……

Riding atop the Armored Ice Qilin Horse, I slowly slid down the rotten slope while Lin Yixin and the girls followed me from behind. We didn’t dare to move too close to the forest, so we had to take a roundabout route.

After circling around two rotten graveyards, we suddenly saw movement ahead of us. Lin Yixin’s ears straightened as she stared at the front and said, "We have company. I see mobs at the same level or higher than the Ghost Chariots. Be careful, everyone."

"Mn."

I nodded. Thanks to Dark Pupils, I was able to scan the area in front of me thoroughly and spot 7 red dots near the edge of the forest. Gray Valley Forest encircled almost the entirety of Dharan City, so it was probably impossible to enter the city without going through it.

We sneaked out way forward until we saw five skeletal soldiers sitting around a cold bonfire. They were growling at each other as if they were speaking, but none of us could understand what they were talking about. I might be an Asura King, but that didn’t mean that I spent all my time interacting with the skeletons. There was no way I could understand the "native" language.

"I count five Level 210 dread-rank Dharan Ruins Undead Soldiers!" Lin Yixin cautiously moved to my side and asked me, "They’re all as powerful as the Ghost Chariots. How should we take them out?"

"Wait." I said while pointing at a certain location, "Look, there are two hidden scouts over there. I’m sure they’ll rush over if we attack their comrades."

At the direction I was pointing, less than 100 yards away from our position, there were two undead riders loitering about. They were definitely close enough to hear the foot soldiers’ cries and rush to their aid if we attacked them now.

Beiming Xue declared confidently, "Leave them to me. I’ll bury those two scouts with Well of the Abyss if they come closer. Hmph hmph!"

"Alright, let’s take them out as soon as possible! We’ll kill the five foot soldiers first!"

I abruptly burst out of my hiding spot and used Thousand Ice Slash!

Bang!

Ice flew everywhere, and all five undead soldiers were frozen where they sat. In fact, my domain even extinguished the bonfire they sat around!

Lin Yixin hurriedly followed up with an Ice Flame Slash while Lian Xin unleashed several Dimensional Storms and Ice Spiral Matrices. The latter even sent her, now Level 117, Ghost Chariot forward and ravaged the frozen Dharan City Ruins Undead Soldiers with Ghost Chariot Slash. Three more Spiraling Arrow Blades from Beiming Xue later, the five mobs were killed before they could even let out a scream!

"Tsk tsk, would you look at that DPS!" Murong Mingyue chuckled.

The two undead riders at the side reacted and attacked us, but that was exactly what we wanted them to do. Lin Yixin and I aggroed one mob each and dealt with them easily. At this point, Level 210 dread-rank mobs posed absolutely no threat to us, not to mention that we both had over 100 Ghost Chariot Cards in our bag. A 65% boost to attack power and 35% Defense ignore were nothing to scoff at!

……

The area was clear after we took out the enemy scout party. We passed through the short stretch of greenery and saw the walls of the Dharan City ruins.