We moved on. After we looted everything the boss had to offer, we pressed against the shut doors of the War God Academy and forcefully pushed them open. In a sense, it was only now that we were truly entering this instance.

Creak...

The iron door let out a long, ugly creak as it slowly opened. To our surprise, it was so bright inside the War God Academy that it looked almost like a summer afternoon. As I thought, this place was kept functioning through magic. Although it was clearly nighttime outside the academy, it was eternally afternoon on the inside.

……

The burning sun and the heat waves conjured memories of hawkers selling popsicles immediately. So hot!

The girls were also staring at the sunny interior of the War God Academy, fanning their faces and complaining, "It’s so hot! It’s like we fell into the mouth of a volcano…"

I curled my lips. "Eh, it’s not so hot that it’s turning us all into Quanqude roasted ducks, so whatever. Let’s continue…"

While Lin Yixin was giving her shirt hem a tug, her cape swayed upward and exposed her long, perfect legs under the sunlight. They dazzled like someone had painted a sheen of silver light over them. Her features were already out of the world, but the Seven Star Veluriyam Sword also made her look heroic and formidable as well. It was no wonder that Eternal Moon Corporation had sought her out repeatedly to be their game’s poster girl. It was an honor that no one else got to enjoy.

Lin Yixin was beautiful enough to bewitch countless young men with her looks alone, but she was also the Fruit Knife Goddess, an incredible player with unrivaled skill and ability to command. The perfect combination of beauty, brawn and brains was why she became a legend of Heavenblessed.

Lin Yixin looked back and forth between my eyes and her legs once before glaring at me. "How much longer are you going to stare at me? And right in front of Sister Eve no less. Do you want to die that much? Hmph!"

This was hardly the first time I had been caught staring, so I calmly moved my gaze away like nothing had happened at all.

He Yi chuckled. "I wouldn’t be angry over something like this. Yiyi is both pretty and sexy. Lu Chen is a straight male, so it makes perfect sense that he would stare at her from time to time. In fact, I would be worried if one day she failed to attract Lu Chen’s attention at all…"

"Heavens…"

Murong Mingyue stuck out her tongue. "Eve’s resolve has reached new heights, I see. By the way, seeing as the two of you are indulging Lu Chen like a baby, does that mean that you’ve finally decided to share a husband?"

"What on earth are you talking about!?" Lin Yixin and He Yi glared at Murong Mingyue even as they turned beet red at the same time. It was one thing if no one said anything about it, but to drag something like this out into the open? I wouldn’t be surprised if the girls were contemplating murder right now.

So I turned around and glared at all three of them. "Are we here to grind, or to chat the daylight away?"

"Grind…"

As the girls nodded and followed behind me, He Yi suddenly said smilingly, "After you were stripped of your in-game nationality and expelled from the China server, both Yiyi and I agreed that we wouldn’t make you worry about us anymore, at least not until you were finally able to come back to us. Isn’t that right, Yiyi?"

Lin Yixin nodded affirmatively.

I was touched on the inside, but like all guys I wasn’t able to help myself from acting stupid. "Ohh, that’s wonderful! Have you guys agreed who’s going to be the first wife and who’s going to be the concubine? If possible, let me know before we go through the weddings…"

Their gazes immediately turned murderous. "I can’t believe you actually asked that! Do you want to die that much?"

I immediately put a dozen or so meters between myself and the girls. One of them was the guild leader of Snowy Cathaya, and the other, the guild leader of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. I couldn’t possibly handle the wrath of either one of them, much less both at the same time.

……

I brought up the map screen and gave it a close look. War God Academy was extremely huge, and it was split into three parts in total. The first part was called the Martial Zone, also known as the part where we were at right now. Twelve training grounds were joined together to form one giant training ground, and countless martial artists were practicing their martial techniques on it. Since they were all undead right now, this meant that we could kill all of them.[1]

"Let’s start from the left side, shall we?" I asked the girls.

They all nodded and said, "You’re the one who’s going to be beaten up, so you get the right to pick your beater."

I could barely suppress a groan when I heard that.

The first training ground was already as huge as a soccer field. Some distance away, I could see students clad in metal armor waving around their iron swords and practicing their combat skills. There were three minibosses in total, and they were all combat trainers. They were probably harder to deal with than the gatekeeper, but I was happy to see them because minibosses gave a good amount of experience. Assuming that we managed to complete this instance, the girls should all be able to hit Level 210 and undergo their eighth class promotion.

A young student clad in fiery red armor was swinging his broadsword. The withered flesh on his face shuddered as he said in an unearthly voice, "I am the strongest rookie among the nobles. A low-level combat skill like this is nothing to me. Eat my Blaze Devour, Harvey!"

Roar!

A fireball flew out of his sword at the same time the latter smashed a hole in the ground. It looked like he was a student who cultivated both martial arts and magic. However, the student in front of him said while clapping and laughing loudly, "You call this Blaze Devour, Star? Oh, my stomach! I’ve never seen someone use Blaze Devour like they’re plowing the ground! Son of a noble my ass, you look more like the son of a farmer right now!"

"You bastard! I challenge you to a duel…"

Pling plang plong! We hadn’t even begun to fight yet, and the young—relatively speaking, since they had been dead for thousands of years at least—warriors of the empire had begun dueling among themselves and shooting all kinds of melodramatic skills left and right.

……

While hugging her Seven Star Veluriyam Sword, Lin Yixin leaned lazily against the bamboo fence behind her while staring at me. "Is this super eye-rolling drama scene that interesting to you, Little Cheat? How much longer are you going to wait before you aggro the mobs?"

He Yi was sitting on top of a stump and shaking her legs left and right. I would’ve been able to admire them swaying beneath the jade tinted cloak a bit longer if she wasn’t glaring at me as well and saying, "Yeah, are we grinding or what? We’ve even picked our choke point already. All that’s left to do is for you to aggro all the mobs so we clear them all out at once…"

My facial muscles twitched at the bold statement. "Girl, these are Level 255 fiend-rank mobs we’re talking about, and Level 255 minibosses in total. Are you that confident that I would be able to tank them all?"

"Sure you can! You have 20% lifesteal and Murong’s healing. There’s no way you’re going to die unless you blank out in the middle of the battle, and a party wipe is practically impossible!"

"Fine!"

The choke point we chose was a corner of the training ground. Beiming Xue and Murong Mingyue stood on the inside, while He Yi, Lin Yixin, the Ghost Chariot, the Ice Dragon Kris, the Phantom Wolf King and my apparition stood on the outside. As for me, I would be standing on the forefront and tanking 4 to 5 mobs’ attacks at the same time. It was pretty risky, but there was a good chance I would be able to handle even this level of pressure.

I spurred the Ancient Divine Dragon into action and flew over the students’ heads. They immediately broke out of their drama, grew unnaturally violent and chased behind me with their axes, swords, spears and other weapons unsheathed. Someone shouted, "How dare this dragon rider intrude into our academy without permission! Shire must’ve drank too much malt and fallen asleep on duty, that old bastard!"

Thud!

After I aggroed every mob there was to aggro on the training ground, I returned to the girls and landed in between He Yi and Lin Yixin. I turned around and looked. At least a thousand Level 255 fiend-rank mobs were running toward us.

"You girls ready?" I said smilingly.

"Of course we are. If anything, you’re the one who should get ready…" Lin Yixin replied.

I rolled my eyes. "You make it sound like I’m going to die for sure…"

I should’ve known better than to tempt fate, but 7 Barrier Breaks and 3 armor-breaking arrows hit me at the same time. The fuck? I didn’t know they had archers in their midst. I immediately dropped 400k+ HP in one go. No wonder Beauty Lin said what she said. This was seriously ridiculous…

The mobs’ attacks were relentless, and I was at the center of all the aggro. Three rounds would be all it took to kill me.

Swhoosh swhoosh!

Or that would’ve been the case, if Murong Mingyue wasn’t healing me constantly. Her HPS could only be described as insane—

+142992!

+301920!

+124389!

……

The best priest in Godkiller healed on average only 50k+ HP per cast, while even her weakest heal recovered at least 100k HP! It was practically a difference between an ant and a god! Now this is what you call a super priest!

I fired Burning Blade Slash into an entire group of students and dropped them all to low health thanks to the skill’s incredible power and the 65% splash effect. At the same time, I held my left index finger and middle finger together in front of my forehead to gather my energy—looking incredibly cool at the same time as a matter of course—and cry, "Myriad Swords Obliteration!"

Swhoosh!

The cyclone surrounding my person dissipated, and countless sword auras rained down from the sky and killed countless. The 20% lifesteal of my weapon healed me back to full instantly, but just as quickly, the mobs beat me back down to 75% or so. The back and forth wouldn’t stop until all the mobs were dead.

He Yi and Murong Mingyue’s mouths fell open when they saw my new skill. "Wow. Is this your eighth-promotion class skill?"

I nodded smilingly. "Yep. This one’s called Myriad Swords Obliteration. I have one more skill called Last Stand, and it greatly increases my Attack and lifesteal if my HP falls below 50%."

He Yi smiled. "That’s amazing!"

Obviously, the rest of the girls weren’t idle, and they used their equally gorgeous Ice Flame Slash, Purgatory of Ice and Magma, Skypiercer, Evil Spirit Volley and more. Besides that, every time He Yi had gathered enough Divine Energy Points, she would activate her Godslaying Blade—creating a super long energy spear blade—and deal AoE damage to everything even with just basic attacks, causing her DPS to skyrocket.

……

The students of War God Academy were clearly no match for us, and since us frontliners and our pets handled a miniboss each and kept them separate, none of us were in too big of a danger. Less than half an hour later, all the monsters were dead, and my experience was 14% higher than it was before. This instance was fucking amazing!

"Now I understand why Warsky, Song of Ice and Fire and the rest of their party suddenly skyrocketed in levels. It’s all thanks to the S3 instance…" Lin Yixin said.

I replied, "You girls—even sis—should be at Level 210, or at least almost there, after we take out the first boss."

"Mn."

Lin Yixin blinked once before smiling at me. "If we manage to clear this instance, you’ll return to Sky City together with us and turn in the quest, okay?"

"Okay!"

1. (Author’s Note: if you’re a Tang San fan, you’ll know that Tang San has a complex with school love, and he never fails to add one to his stories. I’m a Tang San fan too, but right now my characters are going to grind an academy. Sorry Tang San…)