Massive battles were happening all over Soaring Flame Desert over one tiny territory. Already, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Snowy Cathaya, Warsky Alliance, Candle Dragon and more Chinese guilds had entered this short but critical war against the Indians and the Koreans, and when time ticked to around 3 hours before the end of the territory war, the main guilds of the Northern Alliance finally showed up!

……

The first group to appear was the elites of Hero City. Their leader was none other than the alliance leader of the Northern Alliance, Vienna’s Sorrow!

It had been a long time since I saw the man. He was Level 212, and he bore a completely different set of equipment than the one I saw him in previously. The weapon he held in his hand glowed a dark cyan color, and I had a feeling that it was an Ancient Immortal-grade weapon. Considering his character skills and technique, he must be terrifyingly strong right now.

"Vienna’s Sorrow is here!"

On the edge of the battlefield, Hegemon Palace’s Little Piglet narrowed his eyes before shouting, "Brothers and sisters, follow me to kick Vienna’s Sorrow’s ass! This is our chance to pay him back for everything he has done to us!"

After he had buffed himself with Great Conqueror and gotten an affirmative nod from his guild leader, Pillar of the Nation, he charged forward with his elites and shouted, "Kill! Kill so that we can climb up the Guild Ranking and enter the CGL Hall of Fame!"

Warsky, Song of Ice and Fire, Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi and more barely resisted snorting when they heard his battle cry. Everyone knows that Little Piglet possessed the soul of a businessman, and his battle cry was a perfect example of that. In fact, many Chinese guilds were participating in this war not because they wished to defend their homes, but because they wished to earn guild glory points. The guild ranking evaluation committee kept a close eye on every large-scale battle and rated each guild’s performance accordingly. Killing a powerful enemy player would certainly improve a guild’s status.

Speaking of which, the VR department’s Tang Feng had officially intervened in the CGL committee’s business. A couple of days ago, he announced that he would reorganize the CGL committee and flush out the rotten apples. He also made a formal apology to all the players who had withdrawn from the CGL Hall of Fame, and hoped to add both old and new players back to the CGL Hall of Fame. What this meant was that a golden opportunity had presented itself. Anyone who performed outstandingly during this lull might be able to become a CGL Hall of Famer themselves.

……

Sneering, Vienna’s Sorrow spurred his mount toward Little Piglet before raising his left arm abruptly, shouting, "Come out, Blackwing!"

"Roar!"

A black cyclone circled around Vienna’s arm, and a hexagram appeared above his head. The next moment, an adult black dragon with a sinister-looking head and a neck covered in scales emerged from the center of the hexagram. It looked like a creature from hell. After grabbing the edges of the magic formation with its talons and forcing itself through, the black dragon extended its meaty wings and let out a mighty roar. Its wings had many tiny holes in them, but it didn’t seem to impact its ability to fly.

Vienna’s Sorrow abandoned his original mount and climbed up his dragon’s back. At the same time, an energy beam about 20 yards long extended from his weapon almost like a lightsaber. It was of course his Divine General Skill, Ice Stream Blade!

Almost everyone looked stunned by this. Who would’ve thought that Vienna’s Sorrow, the king of the northern region, would become the first true dragon knight of the game? With a giant dragon’s super stats and Ice Stream Blade’s ranged firepower, who in the north could possibly unseat him from his throne?

Although I was the first player to ride a dragon, I was known to the Northern Alliance as a "dragon runner", not a "dragon knight." The reason for this was because the Ancient Divine Dragon wasn’t a western-style dragon and so didn’t quite fit the traditional description of a dragon knight, even though I looked cooler, in my opinion.

……

Cackling, Vienna’s Sorrow swung his weapon and split the ground beneath his feet. A gigantic, icy tear appeared in the middle of a Hegemon Palace party and killed a line of magic knights instantly. It was just a basic attack, but every player that was caught in it took at least 200k damage. Those who were unfortunate enough to eat a critical hit died instantly!

"Ceh!"

Little Piglet roared. Despite being empowered by Great Earth Transformation and crossing his blade in front of himself, Vienna’s Sorrow was still able to deal 170k+ damage to him. Suddenly, the Chinese tank crouched on top of his mount’s back, launched himself upward like a cannonball and pulled off an exquisite maneuver that stunned even me. Grabbing onto the black dragon’s talon with his left hand and thrusting his sword upward with his right, he was able to draw blood and elicit a cry of pain from the mount. Still holding a tight grip on his weapon, he somehow managed to push himself toward the black dragon’s tail and hold on with both arms.

"Holy shit, the balls on this guy!"

Li Chengfeng praised while clenching his fists. Little Piglet was a genius expert who had joined Heavenblessed at the same time as Li Chengfeng, and right now, the Cold Wind Swordsman[1] was declaring to the world with his actions that Hegemon Palace’s name wouldn’t be buried in history.

……

Vienna’s Sorrow saw through Little Piglet’s plot and smiled. He immediately took control over his mount while shouting, "Fly, Blackwing! Drop this fool like the sack of potatoes he is!"

Blackwing immediately roared in response, flapped its wings and flew upward. Pinned down by the inertia, Little Piglet could only hang onto the black dragon’s tail without being able to attack.

At the same time, Vienna’s Sorrow turned around and hit Little Piglet directly with Ultimate Strength Break. It actually critted and dealt an incredible amount of damage—

260000!

It was yet another stunning sight. Little Piglet and Vienna’s Sorrow were both super-tier experts, but the Strength gap between the two actually exceeded 3000. Only the heavens and Vienna’s Sorrow himself would know exactly how much of a stat boost his Blackwing gave him, but it couldn’t be too far behind even my Ancient Divine Dragon.

……

Little Piglet groaned as blood dripped profusely down his arm. Still holding onto the black dragon’s scales with a death grip, he crawled little by little until he was 5 yards away from Vienna’s Sorrow—his attack range while Great Conqueror was active—and attacked. Although he was able to land hit after hit on Vienna’s armor, there was little chance he would be able to kill the latter first before the latter killed him. The dragon buffed Vienna’s HP and Defense to incredible levels after all.

"Little Piglet’s going to die…" He Yi commented.

I gave my Ancient Divine Dragon a rub before shooting her a smile. "I’m going to help him!"

"Mn!"

Both He Yi and Beiming Xue nodded at the same time.

Dust flew everywhere as the Ancient Divine Dragon took off and soared toward the sky. In just a couple of seconds, the distance between me and Vienna’s Sorrow had shortened to speaking distance.

Little Piglet looked up in surprise. "You came for me, Lu Chen?!"

Vienna’s Sorrow cackled. "I have waited for this day for too long, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand! I care about settling my score with you far more than I care about the territory beneath our feet! Now come! As for you, fall down already! You are disrupting our sacred duel!"

Bang!

While saying that, he kicked Little Piglet in the head hard enough to dislodge the latter from his dragon. The man’s character was like the wind, and so was his class, but he was still going to die a windy death falling from this height if I didn’t save him right now.

"Little dragon!"

I hurriedly made the Ancient Divine Dragon fly downward and catch the falling Little Piglet with its jaws.

However, Vienna’s Sorrow’s roar hit me like an explosion, "You care about others when you can’t even take care of yourself, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand? Don’t mind if I do!"

Blackwing let out a roar, and the next moment I felt a tearing pain cutting through my back and lost 170k+ HP. This was the most damage anyone had dealt to me with a basic attack since I rode the Ancient Divine Dragon!

Little Piglet downed a health potion and yelled through gritted teeth, "I’ll be fine, Lu Chen! Just drop me! Focus on killing Vienna!"

"Got it!"

Right after the Ancient Divine Dragon slackened its jaw, I grabbed it by its reddish whiskers and pulled, forcing it to fly along an S-shaped path. The poor thing was yelping in pain, but there was no time for gentleness right now. On the ground, countless players had stopped fighting to watch the great aerial battle taking place above their heads.

The Ancient Divine Dragon possessed exceptional turn rate, so I was able to stop my descent first, arrive at Blackwing’s right wing and execute a devastating midair Burning Blade Slash!

Vienna’s Sorrow saw what I was attempting and tried to parry my skill. He managed to block the first two hits, but the third one landed perfectly and dealt an incredible amount of damage—

210202!

"Impressive!" Vienna bellowed while retaliating with Berserk Triple Slash. It was an extraordinarily powerful triple-hit flurry skill and Vienna’s strongest killer move.

I raised my arm without hesitation and summoned a gust of wind around me. I would stop his strongest attack with my strongest defense—Battle Astral Wind!

Bang bang bang!

MISS!

MISS!

MISS!

The misses rising above my head caused Vienna’s Sorrow mouth to widen into an O-shape. "How… how is this possible?"

Not bothering to reply, I followed up with Universe Break!

271828!

Despite the incredible attack I dealt, his HP only dropped to 60% or so. This goddamned black dragon sure added a ton of HP.

Vienna’s Sorrow was a true expert, so his shock only lasted half a second or so. Upon recovering his senses, his blade suddenly glowed with the color of the deep sea. When we passed by each other, he abruptly thrust his weapon at my chest and growled out, "Penetration of the Deep!"

Pu!

A chill entered my chest, and my HP dropped by 300k+. Worse, my strongest defensive skill, Battle Astral Wind lost 40% durability in an instant, dropping to 32%. Goddammit, Vienna’s Penetration of the Deep was practically the perfect counter to my Battle Astral Wind!

That being said, I was aiming for the same opening as he did. While he was executing Penetration of the Deep, I also opened my palm and slapped God Binding Art point-blank against his chest!

MISS!

Unfortunately for me, the bastard got super lucky, and the skill didn’t take effect. Vienna’s Sorrow’s complexion was green though. He knew full well what would’ve happened if I had managed to immobilize him.

Blackwing abruptly came to a stop and unleashed a fiery breath directly against me and the Ancient Divine Dragon. One more Barrier Break from Vienna’s Sorrow later, Battle Astral Wind finally lost all of its durability and dispelled on its own. However, I was able to retaliate with a flurry skill that would’ve deleted Vienna’s last sliver of HP had he not shouted—

"Black Wing Protection!"

A pair of black wings appeared around him all of a sudden and blocked my attack. It was a protection skill!

After taking a fiery spit to the face, the Ancient Divine Dragon finally lost control of its animalistic instinct and grabbed onto the black dragon’s head with both claws. Then it opened its jaws and tore chunks of scales and flesh right off the black dragon’s neck. Of course, Blackwing returned the favor with equal ferocity, and the fight quickly devolved into a melee between a Holy Giant Dragon and an Ancient Dragon.

1. Some of you may remember, but Lu Chen noticed both of them at the same time in the first search of Sky City’s Heavenly Ranking, and wanted to recruit both of them into his guild