Almost two hours of hard work later, I gathered all the Mad Leopard Fur I needed and even found 28 Mad Leopard Cards. I shouldn’t run out of Mad Leopard Cards for quite a while.

Pop!

The last Mad Leopard I killed even dropped a pair of shiny war boots that added 18% Defense and 11% Attack. It was a fairly good piece of equipment, so I planned to hand it to Hickey later. As the former number one warrioress of the Netherlands, Hickey’s reputation and wisdom were among the best in Godkiller. Not only did she know strategy, she was the guild’s logistics officer as well. Godkiller didn’t have a guild warehouse, so Hickey’s bag was our warehouse. Everything we found, we gave it to her for distribution.

……

Beep!

I received a message from Hickey exactly when I was thinking of her. "Boss, we need you as soon as possible. Someone is trying to chase us out of the Black Cavalry camp. I’m so angry!"

Me: "Will do. Who are these people? Are they from Purple Grape City?"

"No, they’re Korean!"

"What?!"

I was shocked. This place was the intersection point between Purple Grape City and Cyan Earth City, so I had expected to be harassed by the Japanese and Indians. But why did the Koreans purposely come all the way here?

I leaped up the Ancient Divine Dragon’s back, grabbed the vines to steady myself and ordered it to fly into the air. At max speed, it only took us less than five minutes to arrive at the Black Cavalry camp. I then jumped down from the sky and landed outside the camp entrance. Just as Hickey reported, a group of red-name Korean players had surrounded my Godkiller players.

There were about 1000 of them, and the emblem of Throne of the Wild adorned their shoulders. A chill crept into my heart. Throne of the Wild was the strongest guild of the Korean server, and Candlelight Shadow’s junior sister, Tear Stain, a ridiculously skilled warrioress, was their guild leader. What was her guild doing here?

The leader of the Korean party was a mounted warrior with a vice leader emblem on his arm. His ID was "Emperor Wang", and he was a Level 210 cavalryman. What surprised me the most was that his class was listed as Master Swordsman, which meant that he was an eighth-promotion player. I almost couldn’t believe that the Koreans had hit the warrior’s eighth promotion class before us!

……

"What’s going on?"

I parted the crowd and stepped toward Emperor Wang and the Koreans. I plunged my sword into the ground before asking, "Why have you come all the way to the border of the China server, friends from Burning City?"

Emperor Wang narrowed his eyes at me before sneering. "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand? So you’re the legendary Little Heavenly King of the Center? You look more normal than I expected…"

Hickey immediately gripped the hilt of her sword. "Shut your smelly trap. Who the hell do you think you are?!"

Emperor Wang waved his sword imperiously, "I’m just the vice leader of Throne of the Wild, and I came here today to tell you that rich resources in the north side of Purple Grape City are ours. Our main army will be arriving in three days, so either you leave before then, or we’ll make you!"

A trace of pity and a sinister smile flashed across his features. "It’s a pity, but you homeless people will have to stay homeless…"

Me: "..."

Warscar erupted, "Pooh! So what if you’re Throne of the Wild? You’re still a small guild in a small main city! Even your city is just the lackey of the USA server! Who the fuck gave you the right to spit in our faces?"

Emperor Wang raised his sword. "Can’t handle the truth? Should we 1v1 then? If anyone here beats me, I’ll take my men and leave right away."

Whoosh!

My sword glowed brighter as I declared smilingly, "How nice of you. Once I’ve sent you back to Burning City, you’ll learn that wherever I tread, there’s no place for the likes of you!"

However, a Level 203 assassin from Godkiller stopped me and said, "You are better than this man, guild leader. I’ll do it!"

He was the best assassin in Godkiller. While he was inferior to Moonkiss and Farewell Song, he was pretty skilled and he had his own unique style.

"Mn, be careful."

"I know!"

The assassin crossed his daggers in front of himself and smiled at Emperor Wang. "Here I come!"

He slowly vanished into thin air after saying that.

An unnatural calmness came over Emperor Wang as he stayed where he was and waved his sword a bit. Then, he ordered in a quiet voice, "All units, spread out!"

I was surprised. No matter how quietly his people moved, they would have to make some noise and affect his ability to hear a stealthed assassin making his way toward him. Just how arrogant was this guy? Could he really discern our assassin’s position through sight alone?

Pu!

There was a red flash, and both Emperor Wang and his mount were stunned where they were. Our assassin immediately attacked his armor with Blade Vortex before following up with a near perfect Poisoned Weapon Kill at the end of the stun duration. After the enemy was stunned again, he gathered his energy, slid to Emperor Wang’s right flank and used Coldblood Flurry.

Crack!

122377!

Emperor Wang only had 27% HP now. One misstep from him would be all it took for our assassin to delete him from existence.

The Throne of the Wild players behind Emperor Wang looked shocked, but the man himself looked completely unperturbed. It was because he knew that an assassin could no longer threaten him after they used both their CC skills. He was confident that 27% HP was all he needed to kill his opponent.

He turned around and slashed horizontally!

Chiang!

The assassin parried the attack but was sent stumbling to the back. Emperor Wang pressed forward and raised his sword. "Die!"

Boom!

A dark cyan sword aura erupted from his sword, and I estimated that it had an area of effect of 10 yards or so. It pressed down on the assassin like a mountain while Emperor Wang shouted, "Ultimate Strength Break!"

313680!

The assassin stood frozen for a moment before collapsing heavily to the ground. What ridiculous damage! The guy had been one-shot without being able to resist at all!

Everyone in Godkiller fell into dumb shock, while those in Throne of the Wild erupted into cheers. The Ultimate Strength Break had been short but devastating.

……

Hickey stared at the dead assassin’s body while saying to me, "I found it. Emperor Wang is the highest-leveled player in Burning City. More accurately, both him and Tear Stain share the same spot as they are both Level 210 and eighth-promotion."

I nodded. "Ultimate Strength Break is the warrior class’s common skill. It's similar to Barrier Break in that it pierces shields, but its attack calculation is completely different from the basic attack calculation. It deals fixed damage that is equal to 40 times the difference of martial strength between the user and its target. Since Emperor Wang had dealt 313680 damage to our assassin, this means that his martial strength is at least 7842 points higher than our assassin’s. His equipment must be pretty impressive…"

Hickey replied with a smile, "So what? Martial difference is basically Strength difference. While Ultimate Strength Break is absolutely deadly against low-Strength classes like priests, mages and archers, it is at best a situational skill against another warrior. Let me fight him, boss. I’ll show him."

I smiled. "Alright. If even you can’t beat him, then I’ll fight him myself. I’m curious to know how good this so-called highest-leveled player of Korea is anyway…"

"Mn."

Suddenly, a sweet girl’s voice came from behind me, "I heard that Emperor Wang is Tear Stain’s disciple and that all his skills and techniques are learned from her. Since Tear Stain was Candlelight Shadow’s disciple, this means that Emperor Wang is Candlelight Shadow’s grand disciple, heehee…"

I turned around and saw a smiling Lin Yixin walking toward me. The equipment around her feet and thighs had been changed to the S2 equipment.

He Yi, Beiming Xue, Lian Xin and Murong Mingyue had also come back. They had obviously finished the S2 instance.

"You girls cleared the S2 instance already?" I asked.

Lin Yixin nodded. "Yeah. I wasn’t expecting to find some Koreans picking a quarrel at our doorsteps right after we came out though. Who are you sending to fight that guy? I can do it if there’s no one else…"

I smiled. "It’s fine, Hickey wants to take on the guy herself."

"Oh?"

Lin Yixin tilted her head at Hickey before smiling. "You must have sparred with her a couple of times after you guys came together, right? Now I’m curious to know if your disciple can best Candlelight Shadow’s grand disciple?"

"I have never sparred with Hickey or taught her anything, actually. She’s been a technician-style expert from the beginning, so she didn’t need my guidance at all…"

"Heehee!"

Hickey shot me a smile before walking toward Emperor Wang, "Come, Emperor Wang! I’ll fight you!"

The man let out a cold snort. "Come then!"

……

The two experts circled around each other for a moment. Hickey’s advantages were her Divine General status and S2 set. Emperor Wang’s advantages were the 6 levels he had over Hickey and his eighth-promotion skills. The Warrior class got two common skills during their eighth promotion, and considering how powerful Ultimate Strength Break was, I bet that the other one would be just as deadly!

Thud!

Some time later, Hickey abruptly dashed toward Emperor Wang like lightning. She had abandoned her mount to increase her turn rate, which was a critical attribute in a fight like this. Admired by her decisiveness, Emperor Wang shouted “Not bad!” before abandoning his own mount and charging toward Hickey. Both combatants moved in an unpredictable manner before crossing each other’s path and firing their skills at the same time!

Hickey flicked her sword lightly at Emperor Wang’s arm and executed an exquisite Barrier Break + Triple Slash combo, dealing an incredible amount of damage—

110229!

32882!

32118!

29030!

……

However, Emperor Wang’s Defense was so high that only her Barrier Break could delete a significant chunk of HP.

"Heh!"

Emperor Wang let out a mad laugh as his blade glowed with the same dark cyan light as before. He struck Hickey’s chest with Ultimate Strength Break again!

44080!

Unfortunately for him, Ultimate Strength Break failed to break even 6 digits because Hickey’s Strength wasn’t too far behind his. Emperor Wang wasn’t done yet, however. He abruptly turned around, growled, and surrounded himself in a ring of light. It was the second eighth-promotion skill of the Warrior class, Blitzkrieg!

Blitzkrieg was a skill that increased the hard limit on a warrior’s skill combo execution from 2 to 3. What this meant was that Emperor Wang could now use three melee skills in a row before he had to wait 6 seconds! For a warrior, three melee skills were almost always enough to deal a fatal amount of damage to another player at the same level. This combo potential was the true power of an eighth-promotion warrior!

Emperor Wang shouted triumphantly as he executed Barrier Break + Triple Slash + Heavy Slash combo at nearly the same time. There was no time for Hickey to dodge at all!

Bang bang bang...

The warrioress was sent rolling unceremoniously across the grass as her HP dropped to the red zone. Thankfully, she was able to retaliate in time with Great Earth Dragon’s Blade that dropped Emperor Wang to the red as well. At this point, neither expert had a skill that could restore or regenerate them to full health immediately.

"Kaka, this is fun!"

Emperor Wang wiped away the blood trickling down his lips before attempting to charge Hickey again. If nothing else, the guy was a fearless bastard. He didn’t have Great Earth Transformation because he wasn’t a Divine General, but that didn’t stop him from bulldozing into Hickey and actually going even against her.

……

It was at this moment a woman’s voice came from the forest behind Throne of the Wild. "Enough, Emperor Wang…"