"Yeah. Let’s put you through the Mounted Archery Training first!"

The altar for Mounted Archery Training sat on the opposite side of the altar for Duplicate Mount. Cape fluttering lightly behind her back and Ice Soul Feather hanging snugly in her hand, Beiming Xue walked onto the platform before shooting me a smile. "I’m ready, big bro. I’m going to become the first mounted archer in the entire server!"

I broke into a smile and responded, "Mn!"

After I tapped the Confirm button, the hexagram on the platform started spinning and bathing the girl’s body in light. 800k resources vanished in the blink of an eye, and Beiming learned the ability to shoot from a mount, and got a mount pet slot too. She was now truly the first mounted archer in the entire server, and the first member of our mounted archer legion!

Beiming Xue flipped down the altar and moved onto the Duplicate Mount altar next without needing anyone to tell her. I clicked Confirm, the Dark Knight Hero Udal pulled out his sword to start the process, and just like that, Beiming Xue obtained her very first mount and became the guild’s first Dragonlight Archer!

Thud!

Beiming Xue’s smile looked dazzling as she jumped off the altar and raised her Ice Soul Feather. A hexagram spun beneath her feet, and a Dragonlight Armored Horse appeared by her side in a whoosh. After she tossed her cape out of the way, she climbed onto the mount’s back and officially equipped the mount. The dim lighting of the territory hall, the combination of the elegant Windchaser set, the fiery cape fluttering behind her back, and her long, pale legs resting snugly on both sides of her warhorse made her look especially attractive.

"Do I look beautiful, big bro?" Beiming Xue asked me with a giggle.

"Yes, you do!" I praised her from the bottom of my heart.

Smile widening, she spurred her mount a couple of steps and chirped happily, "Oh oh, big bro said I’m pretty~"

Me: "..."

He Yi: "..."

……

"It’s time to select the archers who fit the criteria to become a mounted archer!"

I checked Sky City’s level ranking and noted that Shadow Chanel, Level 184, sat at tenth place. It so happened that the 100th player on the ranking—Level 181—was also from Snowy Cathaya. Not that it has any relevance. What I’m trying to say is, everyone down to the 21928th place was a Level 180 seventh-promotion player or above. The game had reached the middle stage, and grinding speed had slowed to a crawl. Considering how close everyone’s level was, it was no longer possible to determine one’s true strength based on the level ranking alone, not to mention that China was a place of crouching tigers and hidden dragons. It was worth noting that at least 10% of these twenty thousand or so players were from Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, so we still possessed the superior advantage in terms of quantity of first-rate players.

Beiming Xue immediately carried out my orders to choose those who were fit to become a mounted archer. Everyone who was a qualified archer was invited into the territory hall to receive their Mounted Archery Training. The exciting news spread like wildfire, and the number of players eager to become a mounted archer was numerous. However, Beiming Xue patiently received each and every one of them because it was her responsibility as the corps commander of our archer legion.

Li Chengfeng and Gui Guzi were also the commanders of our mounted players, so they did the same thing.

Chaos Moon was the head of human resources and logistics of the guild. She was the one who arranged our players to enter the territory hall and submit the Resource Bags in an orderly manner. Most of the Resource Bags were obtained from bosses, and the amount of resources they contained ranged from a couple thousand to tens of thousands. Each Resource Bag was worth a huge amount of guild contribution points and gold, so they weren’t losing out in the slightest.

Sword in hand, I stood next to the city lord’s throne—I wouldn’t dare sit on it while He Yi was around—and watched the total resource count of Dark Moon City jump up and down like a roller coaster. Of course, no matter how many Resource Bags we had, it wouldn’t be enough to cover the cost. We could only do our best. The advent of the WEL internationals also heralded the start of the next Nation War, so we needed to create our unrivaled cavalry and mounted archer troop as soon as possible. From this point onward, quality would be the ultimate deciding factor in a Nation War, not quantity. Take Gui Guzi for example. His Spear of the Knight God let his Famous General Skill to boost Attack and Defense by 225%, and the new Dragonscale Beast’s unique skill, Dragon Soul Protection, further increased that number by 50%. This meant that all the mounted players in Gui Guzi’s party would enjoy a whopping 275% Attack and Defense boost, once they all got the new mount. How terrifying would they be exactly? Let’s just say that the chances of a trash mob being able to do anything to them in the upcoming Nation Wars was next to nil.

It wasn’t long before each resource type shrank to 1 million or so.

Standing beside me, Chaos Moon complained with a pout, "What a scam. We’ve barely started and we’re running out of resources already…"

I asked, "Say, did you see Li Chengfeng?"

"I’m here…" Li Chengfeng returned from outside on his new mount.

Gui Guzi asked, "What were you doing?"

Producing many Resource Bags from his bag, Li Chengfeng declared, "What did you think I was doing? While you guys were catching up on sleep this morning—like seriously, wasn’t a whole night of drunken sleep enough? Lazy fuckers… I was thinking about guild and making the appropriate preparations! I had traveled to Vanished God City and Wind City, explored all eight markets and bought every Resource Bag there was! I had to spend a whopping 790k gold too! I feel like a labourer, man…"

I exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "Shit, our Divine General is both brave and wise! I can fight without worry knowing that you’re watching over the guild!"

Li Chengfeng laughed. "I’m just doing what I can do. What I can’t do, for example, is leading our guild when the next Nation War begins. I could never come up with the underhanded tactics necessary to best the Behemoths at Sunset Swamp, raid their supply, distract the enemy and more during the War of Dawn City."

Chaos Moon giggled. "That’s one of Lu Chen’s good traits, you know? He wouldn’t be so popular if he wasn’t such a bad boy!"

Li Chengfeng replied while submitting the Resource Bags, "Guess I need to learn how to be a badder boy then…"

I took a million gold from the guild warehouse and paid Li Chengfeng as a matter of course. Everyone here was doing their best for the guild, and we would never treat our people unfairly.

……

Thanks to Li Chengfeng’s timely support, we just barely pushed out another batch of mounted archers and mounts. All mounted archers needed a Dragonscale Beast of their own, or the Mounted Shooting skill might as well be useless. Moreover, our cavalry was already plenty strong already, but mounted archers would bring a whole new dimension to our ability to wage war. That was why we were focusing all our energy on pumping our mounted archers right now.

Just imagine a platoon of mounted archers riding some distance away from the enemy formation and firing deadly skills such as Skypiercer. The hail of arrows was sure to deal an insane amount of damage. If the enemy attempted to catch and destroy them, all they needed to do was show their butts and ride away into the sunset. Who could possibly catch up when the Dragonscale Beast alone boosted their movement speed by a whopping 180%? And even if they could, we could always intercept them with the Dragonlight Cavalry. It was practically an unbeatable combination!

"Alright, we can’t rely on Chengfeng to do all the hard work!"

I turned toward my generals and ordered, "Those who have already gotten a Dragonscale Beast, I want you to travel to every main city and lower-tier city you can reach and buy as many Resource Bags as you can. We desperately need these resources right now, so feel free to spend big as long as the price tag isn’t too obscene. Dark Moon City will foot the bill, so don’t worry about it."

Now was the time to spend all the gold our city had been collecting for so long.

Everyone nodded and left for their respective destinations.

I myself traveled to Sky City and explored the eastern and the western plaza. I even toured the auction houses. In total, I was able to buy a total of 37 Resource Bags containing 5000 resources of each type. After that, I traveled to Floating Ice City, Dawn City and Sangharama City to do the same thing. In the end, I brought back a total of 174 Resource Bags, or 1 million resources of each type in total, which sounded like a lot in theory but really equaled to just 10 Dragonscale Beasts. It was nowhere near enough to meet our demand.

After dinner, I continued to shop around until Snowy Cathaya arrived with the 24 million resources they promised. As promised, we duplicated ten Dragonscale Beasts and trained 10 of their archers into mounted archers. Among these candidates were Nangong Lexi and Clear Perfume as a matter of course. Now Snowy Cathaya had their own mounted archer troop as well, though it was only 10 men strong...

……

I worked until 9 pm at night before I returned to Dark Moon City. Striding back and forth inside the territory hall, I asked, "Chaos Moon, give me a tally of all the copied Dragonscale Beasts and Dragonlight Archers we created today."

Chaos Moon blinked once before reporting, "Got it. We duplicated a total of 495 Dragonscale Beasts and trained a total of 392 Dragonlight Archers. By the way, Mounted Archery Training can only be used 500 times per day, and we’re almost at the limit. Even if we have the resources, we can’t train more Dragonlight Archers until tomorrow…"

I nodded. "It’s fine. Archers aren’t our true core anyway. Ultimately, our best style is trampling over our enemies with an unstoppable cavalry!"

Chaos Moon burst into a laugh. "True. I prefer a more hands-on approach myself!"

It was at this moment I suddenly received a message from Zhang Chun, also known as Hot and Sour Noodles: "I heard that you’ve been buying Resource Bags, Lu Chen?"

"Yep. You heard about it already, uncle?"

"Haha, of course I did. Practically everyone in the three main cities has heard of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ sudden shopping spree. Speaking of which, I know you’re buying these Resource Bags to use that new Mounted Archery Training skill of yours, and I just so happen to have a great—and rare, so you’d better not miss it—solution for you!"

"Oh?!" My eyes lit up. "Tell me, uncle!"

"Come to Dawn City and travel to coordinates (28387, 12727) on Dragonbone Mountain Range. I will be waiting for you there with a foreigner friend of mine!"

"Mn!"

……

I teleported to Dawn City immediately and spurred the Armored Ice Qilin Horse to full speed. In less than twenty minutes, I had scaled the steep slopes of Dragonbone Mountain Range and arrived at a snowy region. It was there I saw Hot and Sour Noodles standing together with a player with blood-red ID.

The emblem floating above the unfamiliar player’s arm marked him as a member of the Chaotic 27. More specifically, he was "Red Ovenbird", a Level 182 Axe Fighter who hailed from Black Earth City. His equipment looked pretty impressive as well.

"You’re here, friend from distant lands!" Red Ovenbird greeted me immediately after I appeared. He looked to be about 30 years old, and he seemed like a gentle man.

I returned a nod before asking, "Friend from Black Earth City, I heard that you have a lot of Resource Bags?"

"Correct!"

Red Ovenbird nodded. "Black Earth City has great subterranean resources, and we often dig underground and kill mobs there for loot. Here, check this out!"

He spread his arms and revealed a small black box. A hologram describing the item floated above it—

Treasure Box of Refined Minerals: Contains 100000 units of Gold, Wood, Stone and Crystal. Use in territory to obtain a total of 400k resources.

……

"Holy shit…"

My eyes turned into saucers when I read the description.

Red Ovenbird smiled as he continued, "I know that your guild is one of, if not the best guild in China right now. I also know that you’re allies with several super guilds. That is why I would like to come to a deal with you."

"If one Treasure Box of Refined Minerals is all you have, then I don’t think I’m needed here…" I said.

Red Ovenbird laughed in amusement before replying, "I’ll be frank with you. I have over 1200 Treasure Boxes of Refined Minerals right now!"

"Holy fuck!" My saliva threatened to trickle down my lips. "I’m listening. What kind of deal are we talking about? How much gold do you want?"

Red Ovenbird replied, "A lot of territory cities need these treasure boxes right now, so I’m sure you understand how valuable they are. I would like to establish a friendly business relationship with you, so my offer is 1000 gold per box. It’s a fair price, isn’t it?"

I nodded in agreement. "It is fair!"

"I have an extra condition, however."

"Tell me."

Red Ovenbird narrowed his eyes before answering, "The Chaotic 27 had formed an alliance recently, and we’re hoping to attack Hero City in the near future. My only request for you is that your guild does not attack our city while we’re away."

I gave it some thought before nodding. "Alright. I promise that my guild will not attack the Chaotic 27 while you are at war with the Northern Alliance. That is all I can promise though."

"That is good enough. Now let us trade, my friend. Your 1000+ Treasure Boxes of Refined Minerals will be delivered right away!"

"Got it. Uncle, can you lend me 400k gold? I didn’t bring enough with me…"

"Shit!" Hot and Sour Noodles swore before inviting me to trade. "Here. Don’t forget to pay me back, boy…"