That’s right, the newcomer was none other than the right hand man of Cyan Earth City’s number one guild, the peak expert Breeze and Rain!

Hickey wasn’t the only one who was surprised by this. How the fuck did Breeze and Rain find this place? And fuck, he had brought several tens of thousands Beast King Cavalrymen with him, making my situation even worse than it already was!

……

"Let the hunt begin!"

A huge number of Beast King Cavalrymen entered the valley and surrounded us completely after Breeze and Rain gave the order. The Agility Warrior then looked at me and sneered with greater killing intent than ever before, "We meet again, Lu Chen. Do you really think we couldn’t find you if you hid yourself in Iron Skull Wilderness?"

I stared at him coldly without saying anything.

Breeze and Rain continued, "I know that your Ancient Divine Dragon is extremely high-level. It may even be the strongest mount in the game for a very, very long time. However, I’m sure you’re aware that the Ancient Divine Dragon isn’t invincible, not to mention that we’ve come up with a countermeasure ourselves!"

I spat on the ground. "Come at me then!"

It was at this moment Hickey looked back and forth between Breeze and Rain and me before asking, "Boy, are you an enemy of the India server?"

I looked at her. "What does the nature of my relationship with the Indian server mean to you?"

Hickey smiled. "It’s simple. Ever heard of the saying ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’? If you’re their enemy, I’ll fight alongside you and ensure that the Sacred Armament doesn’t fall in their hands. The Sacred Armament belongs to the people of Iron Skull Wilderness and no one else. While you don’t quite fit the bill, right now you are an unaffiliated player just like us, aren’t you?"

Her words made sense, so I nodded. "I suppose that you do have a point, but are you sure you won’t stab me in the back later?"

Hickey smiled. "Even if I do, I can promise you that it’ll happen after Breeze and Rain has been killed. You should know how strong Breeze and Rain is, we can’t afford to fight among ourselves until he’s dead."

I pursed my lips. "Of course I know. I’ve fought him multiple times during the WEL, you know?"

Hickey’s eyes widened. "Oh, now I remember. You’re the MVP and the champion of the WEL! I was wondering how you came by such a pretty gold emblem…"

The girl had a pair of bewitching eyes, so I avoided her gaze and focused on Breeze and Rain. "By the way, when are you going to launch your assault? You’re not one of those cartoon villains who spend ages talking the talk before walking the walk in battle, are you?"

Breeze and Rain gritted his teeth. "Just you wait!"

It was at this moment a huge flock of humongous birds suddenly appeared from the sky and landed on top of the branches of a huge tree. Each bird was carrying a player. They were none other than the Owl Cavalry I had heard of a while ago. At the forefront of the cavalry, a female warrior jumped down to the ground, trained her gaze on me and said, "We meet again, Lu Chen. You broke my heart, so I’m going to make you pay for it!"

"Flowing Cloud…" I muttered while staring at the goddess of India.

Flowing Cloud continued, "Nearly everyone in the India server condemned me for what you did, you bastard. This time, I’m going to kill you until you’re Level 0. If you think your Ancient Divine Dragon can fight 10000 Owl Riders on their own, then bring it on!"

I smiled. Right now I was carrying the Sacred Armament, so I couldn’t fly and engage her Owl Riders in glorious aerial combat even if I wanted to. For the next couple hours, my little dragon was nothing more but a four-limbed crawler!

……

I scanned the map with Dark Pupils and determined the India party’s fighting strength in no time. Roughly speaking, Breeze and Rain had brought almost 40k Beast King Cavalrymen with him. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that he had the power to sweep the entire map. I had fought the Beast King Cavalry before, so I knew that they weren’t too far behind the Dragonlight Cavalry. There was no way Hickey’s cavalry could deal with them.

Not only that, he was supported by Flowing Cloud and her 10000-strongOwl Cavalry. Flowing Cloud herself was a Divine General. The threat they posed couldn’t be understated!

On the other hand, the Iron Skull Wilderness natives and me didn’t even amount to ten thousand players. It was simply impossible for us to go up against the enemy’s elites, not like we had a choice in the matter.

……

Hickey’s ploy was simple but sound. Once we took out Breeze and Rain and Flowing Cloud together, she would kill me and claim the Sacred Armament for herself. This particular map was a dead-end valley, so I couldn’t fly away for as long as I still possessed the Sacred Armament. I was literally trapped here unless I found a way to break out of the encirclement.

That was for the future me to consider though. Right now, my first priority was to kill Breeze and Rain!

Chiang!

So I unsheathed the Purple Ying Sword and declared, "Come at me, Breeze and Rain! I know you want to kill me, and Iron Skull Wilderness is a lawless map! You can sweep the entire area again and again, and no one will be able to say a thing about it! But remember, as long as I’m still alive on this map, you’ll never be able to do as you please!"

Breeze and Rain also unsheathed his weapon. "We shall see about that!"

He then looked at Flowing Cloud and said, "Flowing Cloud, the time to shuffle the cards of power has come. I’m going to contact God of War right now and have our main force move over, clear out all its existing forces and grind here. Starting now, we’re going to make Iron Skull Wilderness our third domain besides Cyan Earth City and Elephant City! You understand what this means, don’t you?"

She pursed her lips and nodded. "Sure, whatever you say. I’ll mobilize the White Horse Cavalry then."

"Good!"

Hickey had something to say about their grand plan, however. She gave her sword a swing and said, "You think Iron Skull Wilderness is a place you can come and go as you please? You think that the millions and millions of unaffiliated players living here will let you? Pooh!"

Breeze and Rain smiled. "Don’t worry, I’ll show you how it’s done every step of the way! Everyone, attack! The operation ‘Sweep Iron Skull Wilderness’ begins now!"

With that, the battle kicked off earnestly!

……

I ran along the edges of the mountain ranges—circling around Hickey and Sacred Oath in the process—and summoned the Phantom Wolf King. Once I got close to a group of Beast King Cavalry, I thrust the first hit of my Burning Blade Slash into the crowd before swinging left and right for the second and third hit. The flaming sword auras tore through their armor and one-shot them instantly.

On the other side of the battlefield, Hickey once again proved herself to be a fearless woman. Charging right into a group of the Beast King Cavalry, she raised her sword and fired a sword aura that dealt incredible damage to her enemies. Behind her, her super elite cavalry let out a battle cry and slammed into the Beast King Cavalry as well.

Breeze and Rain gritted his teeth and attacked Sacred Oath’s players. An aura and a halo that marked him as a Divine General surrounded him as he cut down Sacred Oath’s players in droves. There was a clear gap of power between him and Sacred Oath, and from what I could see, his equipment gave him at least 8% lifesteal. There was no chance Hickey’s subordinates could kill him.

For a time, hooves rocked the valley like an earthquake, and blood wet the valley floor like a river.

……

Half an hour passed since the battle began. Hickey’s players kept dying, but Breeze and Rain kept getting reinforcements from outside. A while later, Hickey faced toward me and said, "Lu Chen, are you seriously all alone? Why is no one from China coming to help you?"

I shrugged. "The China server is literally one Elephant City and one Purple Grape City away from here, and both cities are our sworn enemies. Their hearts are with me, but their bodies, well…"

"OMG!"

Hickey said while attacking the enemies, "Change of plans. We’re going to punch a hole in the right wing for you to escape. It’s better than all of us being smothered to death here. These fucking tyrants, I’m not going to stop fighting them until every last one of them are dead!"

I nodded. "Tell your revived players to withdraw to the north where the main bulk of Iron Skull Wilderness’ players are. They can’t help even if they come to our rescue!"

"Got it. Let’s go! I’ll cover for you!"

"Okay!"

Hickey led the way and tore through the enemy while I followed closely behind her. For all her flaws, she was quite the principled woman. Not everyone could stake their lives just to prove a point or to save a stranger like me, even though she did try everything in her power to take me out half an hour earlier...

"Ancient Divine Dragon, Summon the Storm!"

I shouted while locking onto a group of Beast King Cavalry directly ahead of us. Lightning and ice immediately rained within the area of effect and elicited bloodcurdling screams from hundreds of Beast King Cavalry. The power of my dragon’s skill was based on my stats, so of course it dealt a ton of damage!

Every time I used Summon the Storm, it killed everything and everyone within its area of effect. It was no exception this time. By the time the skill came to an end, the enemies before us had all turned into corpses, potions, equipment and more. Of course, no one was bothering with the shiny loot right now, least of all me. After all, everything the enemy dropped combined wasn’t worth even a tenth of the value of the Fire God Helmet!

"Let’s go, little dragon!"

The Ancient Divine Dragon obeyed my command and broke out of the encirclement. Then, we moved full speed toward the north. Breeze and Rain glared at my back furiously while shouting, "What are you waiting for, Flowing Cloud? Get him!"

However, Flowing Cloud thought for a moment before suggesting, "No. There are high-level fiend-rank Corpse Eaters to the north, and my Owl Riders aren’t tanky enough to face them. You and the Beast King Cavalry should be the ones to chase after Lu Chen. Leave this place to me!"

"I see. Got it!"

……

Breeze and Rain nodded and chased after me with at least 10000 Beast King Cavalrymen while Hickey and Flowing Cloud clashed swords behind him. It didn’t look like a victor would be decided between the two girls quickly.

At full speed, the Ancient Divine Dragon was absolutely equipped to shake off the Beast King Cavalry. However, some terrain was incredibly difficult to traverse, and I had to circle around some mobs. As a result, I ultimately wasn’t able to shake off my pursuers.

Suddenly, a couple thousand players stepped into the clearing in front of me. The leader was none other than the dwarven warrior and the chief of Black Crow Tribe. When he saw the ten thousand Beast King Cavalrymen behind me, he turned as green as a frog and shivered like a leaf. "Shit! It’s Cyan Beast’s Beast King Cavalry! They’re here to rob us again! Run!"

The group immediately escaped into the forest like rabbits.

I almost couldn’t believe how cowardly these robbers were acting. Breeze and Rain must’ve "educated" them real often to elicit such a response from them.

"Pooh! Useless bastards…"

I spat at the Black Crow Tribe party from above my dragon.

It was at this moment a cacophony of hooves thundered from the forest beside me. It was a new troop of cavalrymen! They were unaffiliated players, but they were very brawny and above Level 180. Their equipment and mount were absolutely terrible, but that didn’t stop them from screaming a furious battle cry and swinging their war axes like mad. Their leader, a huge man with a red beard growled, "Activate Berserk and fuck them up, men!"

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh!

Columns of red light surrounded the poorly equipped cavalrymen, and their muscles swelled in a most unnatural manner. At the same time, their Attack, attack speed and movement speed became much greater than before. Who the hell are these people?!