It was snowing at the section where Thunder Mountain Range was connected to the Frostsword City. In fact, the snow was as big as goose feathers. A long, long distance away at the heart of a canyon stood an icy castle with a sword statue in front of it that was several hundred meters tall. It formed a line together with the rest of the buildings. That was the legendary Frostsword City, a city that a king called the Frost King founded single-handedly a long time ago. Today, it was one of Russia’s main cities. The underground water of Frostsword City was absolutely frigid, and its weather was the complete opposite of what one might expect from a normal season. It snowed for 9 months and hailed for 3 months throughout the year.

The god awful weather was awful, but it also hardened the players of Frostsword City to an abnormal degree. It was why Elephant City had never tried to invade Frostsword City despite being neighbors with it.

……

Rustle rustle…

The Ancient Divine Dragon left deep claw marks on the snow as it traveled toward our destination on foot. Murong Mingyue sneezed behind me before pulling her clothes tighter around herself and slipping her arms around my waist. I could feel her warmth transmitting into my back through the Heaven-burning Armor—which was a good thing—but unfortunately it also prevented me from feeling her humongous size. Oh well, it wasn’t like I hadn’t felt it many times in real life. Murong Mingyue was a bold and open-minded girl. Between the members of the Frost Cloud workshop, practically anything that wasn’t sex was considered acceptable physical contact to Mingyue.

While He Yi was trotting forward, the cyan snake slithering up and down the mount suddenly jumped off and transformed into a beautiful warrioress in cyan metal armor. It was my gift to her back when I was roaming Iron Skull Wilderness. The Snake King Little Qing was a top-tier pet on par with the Phantom Wolf King be it in terms of attack power or rank. She would definitely be a great help to us in the future.

"Looks like your Little Qing has become an adult, Sister He Yi," Lin Yixin commented while tilting her head.

He Yi nodded. "Yes, she reached Level 184 while I was grinding an instance last night. Pets level up way faster than players after all."

Suddenly, Beiming Xue pointed to the distance and blinked. "Over there, big brother. I see a lot of players grinding in the canyon we need to pass through. They’re all Russians from Frostsword City. Are we going to stick to the route, or…?"

"There’s no or. It’s the only way here to travel to Dragon Domain."

I sheathed my weapon, tightened my cloak and squeezed Murong Mingyue’s hand once to stop her from distracting me with her caress. Then, I said, "It should be fine. We’re full allies with Frostsword City and Iron Horse City right now. There’s no reason for them to attack us."

The corners of Lin Yixin’s lips turned up a little. "And if they do attack us?"

I smiled back. "You already know the answer. We kill them in self-defense and run away, of course. I’m sure Snowy Night won’t take offense with it."

"Well, I hope that’ll be the case. Anyway, let’s go. I hope we can reach Dragon Domain before dinnertime."

"I don’t know about that. Even if we passed through the canyon relatively quickly, there is still an entire sea to cross. We may have to spend the whole day just making our way to Dragon Domain."

"Sigh, whatever…"

……

Our four mounts sped up to a gallop with me at the front, Beiming Xue at the middle, and He Yi and Lin Yixin at the back. It was worth nothing that 6 of us were Famous Generals and Ancient Divine Skill owners. We also had 1 SSS Rank and 2 SS Rank Ancient Divine Skills. It should be enough to intimidate any Frostsword City force into inaction.

It wasn’t long before we caught the notice of Frostword City’s players. Frostsword City was one of the most peaceful places on the continent. It had never suffered the ravages of war, and it was rarely visited by players from other servers. Naturally, many of them looked at us with surprise and curiosity—

"All 7 players in that party are incredibly high-level! I think they’re from Sky City!"

"Yes, they’re Sky City players, and their equipment looks incredible. And look! What is that warrior at the front riding? Is that some sort of dragon?"

"He’s wearing the WEL MVP emblem on his shoulders. Oh my god, he must be Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand! It has to be him!"

……

I did my best to keep the party moving at the fastest speed possible without interacting with the locals. That would only increase the likelihood of unnecessary conflict.

Unfortunately, conflict turned out to be unavoidable in the end. When a number of shallow footsteps suddenly appeared on the snow in front of me, I immediately tensed up and activated Dark Pupils. A small number of high-level assassins immediately entered my view.

I said inside the party channel, "Assassins on our 12, 10 and 3 o’clock! I don’t think they’re friendly!"

Beiming Xue raised her Xuanming Bow slightly and asked, "Should we kill them now, big brother?"

"Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. We’ll wait for them to make a move first!"

“Okay!"

Beiming Xue had higher movement speed than your standard cavalrymen. The moment she steered slightly to the right, the three assassins immediately charged toward her.

I hurriedly warned, "Watch out, these people are targeting Beiming Xue! Oh, now I get it. Everyone knows that you’re the owner of the Xuanming Bow, one of the Twelve Divine Armaments, and these people are planning to rob you of it! Damn, they aren’t giving us any face at all!"

Beiming Xue giggled. "Can I kill them now?"

"Sure!"

Beiming Xue abruptly reined in her mount and performed a sharp turn. While doing so, she drew her Xuanming Bow and fired a Skypiercer at the space in front of her!

"Watch out!"

All three assassins abruptly broke out of stealth and activated Death’s Dance and Haste. Then, they charged toward Beiming Xue as quickly as they could!

Thud thud thud!

Skypiercer landed, and two of the three assassins were one-shot by the skill. There was nothing they could’ve done. The Xuanming Bow had propelled her Attack to a whole new level.

The remaining assassin wore a green complexion, but he still sped toward Beiming Xue like the wind. A cold light rapidly approached the archer’s throat.

Lian Xin abruptly dismounted and raised her scepter. "I’ll deal with him, Beiming!"

But Beiming Xue said, "No, Little Xin. I’ll deal with him myself!"

As the Dragonscale Beast drifted across the snow, Beiming Xue abruptly lowered her bow so that the arrow was pointing directly at the assassin’s throat. Then, she executed an Explosive Arrow!

Bang!

Blood spilled everywhere, and the assassin dropped dead with his eyes widened in disbelief. Normally, assassins had a fair bit of advantage over archers in a sneak attack scenario, but his opponent was China’s best or second best archer. His fate was sealed from the very beginning.

……

"And, done!" Beiming Xue picked up the dagger dropped by the assassin, examined it and broke into a smile. "Oh! It’s a Level 200 Heaven-grade dagger! Not bad at all…"

I warned, "Don’t let your guard down just yet. These three assassins belong to a guild called Ice Peak, and according to the database they’re the second greatest guild in Frostsword City and Iron Horse City behind White Bird. I doubt this will be the last we’ll see of these people!"

"Yeah!"

My hunch was spot-on. We didn’t even travel more than 1 kilometer when a hundred or so players abruptly flooded out of the forest in front of us. They were all elite cavalrymen, and they all wore the emblem of Ice Peak on their shoulder. A Level 215 berserker stepped into the open and narrowed his eyes at us. He said, "Faraway friends from Sky City, you truly are friendly. You’ve killed three of our scouts the moment you crossed over our borders."

I pulled my little dragon to a stop, unsheathed my weapon, but kept it pointed to the ground. I smiled at him. "Hello, guild leader of Ice Peak, Icy Edge. Our quest takes us through Frostsword City, so please open the way for us. As for your three assassins, I’m sorry to say this, but they were the ones who attacked us first. We were just defending ourselves."

Icy Edge sneered. "A Snowy Night Below 30 Degrees may respect you, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, but I don’t. You think we won’t attack you just because you’re strong? You think you can get away scot free after killing my brothers?"

My eyes turned cold, and I swung my weapon in front of me. Cold flame crackled around the blade of the Chill of the Nine Provinces, and an entire area of the snow in front of me was shaved clean. "I repeat. We are just passing through the area for a quest, and we don’t plan to offend you. But if you must stand in our way, then I won’t mind killing every last one of you. You don’t think you can stop me with just a couple hundred players, do you?"

Icy Edge shuddered as if he just realized who he was talking to, and one of his vice leaders whispered a little something I couldn’t hear beside his ears. His expression changed back and forth, but in the end he cracked a small smile at me and said, "I suppose I should’ve expected this kind of attitude from the number one player of the China server. Very well, you may pass through Frostsword City, but you will not stay here longer than necessary. Frostsword City has never been friendly to visitors, and we don’t plan to update our policy anytime soon. Finally, I have a friendly warning to you. The Fire Dragon Canyon lies to the west of Frostsword City, and most people wouldn’t go there for various reasons. Don’t say I didn’t warn you if you happen to die in that map."

I smiled a smile that didn’t reach the eye. "Thank you for the warning!"

Then, I looked at the girls and said, "Let’s go!"

While the girls moved forward, I stayed at the rear just in case the enemy decided to try something. If I had to be honest though, Icy Edge and his goons weren’t a real threat to us. Icy Edge didn’t have an Ancient Divine Skill, and his subordinates weren’t even worth looking at. Assuming that there was a fight, their chances of beating us were less than 25%.

……

After we traveled for a distance, I looked back and saw that the players of Ice Peak were dispersing with disgruntled expressions on their faces. They didn’t dare to act on their emotions because they understood the consequences, however. If they fought us and lost, they would be losing more than just a single level. They were the second greatest guild of Frostsword City. If people learned that their hundred-man party plus the guild leader and the vice leaders were slaughtered by a 7-man party, the reputation loss they would suffer would be unimaginable.

We crossed out Frostsword City’s border and climbed over Thunder Mountain Range once more. The temperature change was so drastic that we might’ve suffered some form of illness if this was real life. Nearly every part of the canyon in front of us was spewing lava, and we could spot huge beasts making horrible roars from behind the thick smoke. We had arrived at our first destination, the Fire Dragon Canyon!

The girls’ faces were bright red from the reflection of the flames. Beiming Xue said with a smile on her face, "You wanted to build a dragon knight legion, right big brother? Wanna bet if there are fire dragons in this Fire Dragon Canyon?"