The wind in Zephyr Valley was cold and strong, making the night even scarier than it already was. The good news was that the azure-colored magic lamp on the Ancient Divine Dragon’s map gave me at least 100 yards of natural vision, and Dark Pupils further increased my effective vision range to 200 yards. There should be no danger that could creep up on me.

Speaking of danger, I noticed many pairs of red eyes staring at me from the shadows of the trees.

On the minimap, I saw about a hundred red dots blocking the way leading to the heart of Zephyr Valley.

Swhoosh!

A skeleton archer with red-colored bones let loose an arrow that hit my shield hard, dealing over 25k damage. It immediately notified me that this archer had way more Attack than the Cyanscale Corpse Eaters.

That wasn’t all. The mobs apparently had very good AI, because the rest of the mobs knew to follow the first archer’s lead and loose their arrows at me in unison. The text above their heads stated—

Bloodbone Archer (Fiend)

Level: 245

……

They dealt almost the same amount of damage as the Venomous Scorpions, so their Attack had to be similar.

The only way to deal with these archers was to kill them one by one, so I immediately moved closer to one and hit it with Burning Blade Slash + Universe Break combo. The combo easily deleted over half of its HP and gave me 200k+ HP back. It was enough for me to endure their attacks until I killed them all.

I also ordered the Phantom Wolf King to attack the other wing of the enemy group. It swiped at a Bloodbone Archer’s chest and tore it apart.

Less than five minutes later, the dozens of Bloodbone Archers died and dropped some equipment that I couldn’t care to pick up. After that, I immediately moved toward the necropolis. I didn’t try to grind the archers because they weren’t tightly packed into one big group, and aggroing them en masse was just asking to be killed. Also, my first priority was to take out Great Undead Magus Juve and tame the Zephyr Ironbone Warhorses that I still knew nothing about.

It wasn’t long before I ran into my first graveyard. It looked absolutely terrifying under the moonlight, and some Rotten Corpses had climbed up out of their graves to catch a breath and screech horribly.

Strangely though, there weren’t many mobs on the main path at all.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, alarm bells rang in my head. There was a dead Rotten Corpse beside the path and a 8-Quality Big Magic Stone. Someone had obviously killed the mob and left the shitty item there.

There’s someone else here besides me?!

……

Suddenly, a ton of red dots appeared on the minimap. They were players, not mobs!

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Unnatural shadows shuffled along the hills on both sides of the path. Countless players burst out of their natural cover, drew their bows and aimed at me. Some couldn’t even keep their impulse in check and fired without waiting for their commander to give a command, executing a Spiraling Arrow Blade + Mountain Stagger Arrow combo. There was no time to dodge, so I raised the Dragon God Shield to block the shots.

Mountain Stagger Arrow normally deleted a ton of mount tenacity, but these people were so weak that one round of attack only deleted 4% tenacity or so. It was pathetic.

"Who are you people? Show yourselves!"

I shouted while slapping down three Ancient Seals on the hills to my left. A cacophony of screams cut through the air as a dozen or so players died to the Divine General Skill instantly. Not done yet, I launched Coiling Dragon Revolution to the hills to my right and killed yet another group of players. Although it was nighttime, they were as obvious as a beacon before my Dark Pupils. Thanks to the minimap, I could pinpoint their coordinates to a tee before attacking. They most likely weren’t expecting this.

……

Rustle rustle...

Five assassins tried to sneak their way over across the grass, but I saw them clearly and killed three in three basic attacks. The apparition took care of the fourth assassin, and the Phantom Wolf King took care of the fifth. I gave them no chance to get close to me at all.

On the hills, someone shouted—

"Goddammit, this brat is incredibly powerful! Dispatch the cavalry! It is the only way to kill him! This Zephyr Valley is ours!"

……

Hooves began thundering against the ground, but I wasn’t worried. I had gone through enough battles to know from the sound alone that the cavalry size was less than 200. That was nowhere near enough numbers to pose a threat at all.

As expected, a column of shadows emerged from the darkness and galloped toward me. It was a mixed cavalry of horses, boars, greedy wolves and more. Their levels were between 175 and 190—not too high or too low—and their average equipment quality was passable. There was a lot of monster variety in Iron Skull Wilderness, so it wasn’t exactly surprising. One more thing to note was that none of these players had a nation emblem on their shoulder. It was as the rumors said. These people were unaffiliated players, and there was no way to tell where they hailed from in real life.

Speaking of which, these people had blue eyes and curly golden hair, meaning that there was zero chance that any of them could be Chinese. This meant that there was absolutely nothing stopping me from murdering my robbers, and so I would.

"Go!"

I ordered the Ancient Divine Dragon forward as a 50-yard-long sword beam abruptly burst out of my Purple Ying Sword. I fired Burning Blade Slash into the cavalrymen and ordered the Ancient Divine Dragon to cast Summon the Storm at the center of the group!

The enemies screamed like sissies as lightning and ice tore through the group like air. Of all the things they might imagine me to be, an owner of super huge and powerful AoE skills was not among them. To be fair though, I myself wasn’t expecting such an OP character skill to exist before the Ancient Divine Dragon became an adult. I wasn’t going to complain about my good fortune, of course. This skill was my sword to carve a foothold in Iron Skull Wilderness, a place of true chaos. The only law in this place was strength, and the person with the bigger fist was king!

The cavalry withdrew mid-charge because they were incapable of withstanding my assault at all. The archers and mages on the hills of both sides of the path kept shooting at me, but the amount of damage they dealt was negligible, and I could one-shot all of them with Ancient Seal, Dragon Slaying Slash or Coiling Dragon Revolution. I was absolutely stronger than all of them.

……

It wasn’t long before the ground was covered in corpses. Countless people had gone to the nearby graveyard to revive.

Finally, someone shouted from the crowd, "Hey, dragon rider! Let’s call a ceasefire and talk things out!"

I smiled at the direction of the voice and said, "What’s there to talk about? Also, show yourself!"

An armored, axe-wielding dwarf who looked to be around 50 years old stepped into the open. His eyes glinted with cunning as he said to me, "I am the chief of Black Crow Tribe. Is it okay if I ask you where you hail from, warrior? I’m pretty sure you don’t belong to any tribe in Iron Skull Wilderness. I’ve never heard of a man with a dragon and a ferocious wolf king around here. Who are you?"

I replied indifferently, "I come from China."

"Oh?!"

The Black Crow tribal chief glanced at my shoulder and smiled. "You do wear the emblem of Sky City on your shoulder. But why is your nation emblem missing?"

I shot him a look before replying, "Don’t ask what you shouldn’t ask. I have a question myself. Which country do you belong to, and why did you set up an ambush here?"

The dwarf replied, "We don’t hail from one specific country. More specifically, we are a group of people from 19 different countries, and we became unaffiliated because we were abandoned by our own nations, stripped of our identities. That was why we formed the Black Crow Tribe to kill all those who have wronged us. Are you interested in joining us, warrior?"

I laughed. "Kill all those who have wronged you? That’s funny, because I’m pretty sure I’ve never raised a hand against you or your kind. In fact, you’re the ones who attacked me first the moment I entered this area. You would’ve killed me if I wasn’t as strong as I was, wouldn’t you?"

The dwarf smiled placatingly. "It was all just a misunderstanding…"

Suddenly, he looked at my Purple Ying Sword with unbridled greed. "If I may ask, is that the number one weapon the Weapon Ranking that you’re holding, the legendary Ancient Divine Armament, the Purple Ying Sword?!"

I smiled. "Yes, it is. So what?"

"Nothing. I just want to say that, if you choose to join our Black Crow Tribe, I guarantee that you’ll become one of our strongest warriors. Black Crow Tribe doesn’t obey any rules, and here in Iron Skull Wilderness we are its king. If you kill someone and get their equipment, you get to keep it to yourself. You don’t even need to pay any taxes. Also…"

He licked his lips lustfully before wrapping an arm around a western girl next to him and caressed her thigh. "You get to enjoy any woman in the tribe, online or offline!"

……

I smiled. I could see a dozen or so stealthed red dots moving toward me on the minimap, nineteen Level 190+ assassins to be exact. Should I thank this Black Crow Tribe for not underestimating me?

So far, it looked like the rumors on the forums were true. The players of Iron Skull Wilderness had no sense of honor whatsoever, and they were willing to resort to any method for profit and desire. This dwarven chief in front of me was the perfect example of this type of human being, sending his high-level assassins to assassinate me while pretending to negotiate with me. Too bad for him, he didn’t pay attention to the situation at the Center. Otherwise, he would’ve heard of my name for sure. He also had no idea that I had a skill called Dark Pupils that allowed me to see through any stealth effect!

……

"So? Have you made up your mind, Chinese warrior?"

The dwarven chief spread his arms. "Join our Black Crow Tribe. With your strength, you will definitely become our king and the ruler of Iron Skull Wilderness!"

I smiled. "I’ve made up my mind!"

"Oh? And what’s your choice?" He looked excited.

I dashed toward him before he could react, grabbed him by the collar and pulled him into the air. Then, I replied, "I’ve decided that I will become the ruler of Iron Skull Wilderness, but I won’t be needing the cooperation of a lowly worm like you!"

Pu!

I put my sword through his chest and used Burning Blade Slash. The guy was one-shot just like that!

The Ancient Divine Dragon raised its head and roared as if it was cheering for me. Meanwhile, I had already turned around, fired a dozen or so basic attacks and killed all the assassins who had been trying to creep up on me. They never knew how I was able to identify their positions so accurately until they died.

……

"That brat killed the chief! Kill him!" someone shouted from the crowd.

And thus began the complete fallout between Black Crow Tribe and myself...