Many unexpected things had happened up until this point, but none was as impactful as this, for sure. Against all common sense, Lin Qian had evolved into a Quasi-Divine Rank boss when his HP dropped to 50%! It was probably because of the Dragonslaying Sword, but the cause hardly mattered at this point. What mattered was the fact that his new rank put him just below the likes of the Nine Purgatory Sovereigns. If Lin Qian was difficult before, now he was almost unstoppable!

"Roar roar!"

Lin Qian’s facial muscles twitched in a horrific manner as blood-red tentacles stretched out of the Dragonslaying Sword and sank into his sword arm. It almost looked like the sword was trying to devour his sword whole. The supposedly divine sword glowed black for a moment, and Lin Qian’s eyes suddenly shone with new viciousness and severity. Through his tattered cloak, an ugly face suddenly surfaced from his back like a cancerous tumor. Dark energy whipped chaotically around Lin Qian’s feet as he shuddered violently. Finally, the man looked disdainfully at everyone out of the corner of his eye before speaking in a surprisingly regal voice, "Do you really think you can kill me, foolish humans? I… am a god who has lived three lifetimes via reincarnation! My latest body may be weaker than my previous selves, but it is still enough to bury all of you here!"

Lin Qian raised the Dragonslaying Sword high above his head, his entire body bubbling with dark energy. Smiling savagely, he declared, "Dragon Domain feels the same as ever. Now come! Allow me, the new master of this domain to demonstrate what the divine power of Dragon Domain really is like!"

He abruptly thrust his sword forward and fired a black, dragon-shaped blast at a group of players, shouting, "Go, War Dragon Strike!"

Boom!

Lin Bing Dou Zhe and Hundred Battler were caught by the energy blast and lost over 1.5 million HP immediately. As for the 100 Warsky Alliance players behind them, the attack straight up one-shot all of them. The skill was so destructive that the rhombus-shaped shield formation October Rain had spent much effort to devise was torn apart just like that.

Not done yet, Lin Qian brought his sword down on Laughing At The Heavens, split his shield in half, and sent him flying across the air with a devastating punch. Another sword blast later, the CGL Hall of Famer and the dozen or so archers behind him were one-shot as well!

……

Thud thud thud...

An ashen-faced Warsky backed away from the boss while swearing, "What is this bullshit? How is the boss so powerful all of a sudden?!"

October Rain uttered through clenched teeth, "We failed, Warsky. We’re not strong enough to beat a Quasi-Divine Rank boss. We need to withdraw now, or we’re going to die before we even remove 10% of its HP!"

Warsky wasn’t an indecisive person. He quickly nodded and declared, "Spread out and withdraw into the forest, brothers and sisters! Don’t let the boss catch all of you together!"

The several hundred-strong party dispersed immediately. Warsky himself pulled October Rain up his mount before galloping away from the boss as quickly as he could manage. Behind him, Song of Ice and Fire, Song of Cloud and Water and the rest of Soul Battle Robes’ players were evacuating as well. As a Quasi-Divine Rank boss, Lin Qian was far beyond the ability of the current players to combat. If even a full-Stamina magic knight like Laughing At The Heavens was one-shot, then everyone else could only do worse than him.

Candle Dragon was halfway to the battlefield when Warsky Alliance mounted their retreat. Having seen everything that had happened up until this point, Candlelight Shadow narrowed his eyes and made a snap decision. "We’re cancelling the charge and retreating to the southeast corner instead, everyone! The boss has evolved, and it will be unwise to tackle it head-on! We’ll wait for a better opportunity!"

Meanwhile, Warsky had caught sight of Candlelight Shadow’s party as well. He shouted from afar, "What is the meaning of this, Candlelight Shadow? Were you planning to kick us in the butt?"

Candlelight Shadow smiled innocently. "Of course not. Do I look like that type of person? I was just going to watch from a distance until it looked like you were about to lose. I also heard that the Indians and Russians have been sighted at the northeast corner of the map, which is why I decided to come to the aid of another China guild!"

"Like hell I’d believe you!"

Warsky retorted but didn’t push the issue. It would’ve been a stupid move considering he had just lost a hundred players or so. If he pissed off Candlelight Shadow, and Candlelight Shadow decided to say ‘screw it’ and kill them all, there was a high chance their journey in Dragon Domain was going to end in tragedy. Of course, considering that Warsky had gotten the Immortal Blade, it would be a minor tragedy at worst.

As for why Candle Dragon didn’t bare their fangs and attack Warsky Alliance, it was because Candlelight Shadow heard that the girls and I were skulking somewhere in this part of the map. If Candle Dragon decided to attack Warsky Alliance here, they must take our firepower into consideration, and Candlelight Shadow knew that there was a high chance they would lose if things turned out that way. After all, Ancient Divine Skills were divine power that defied quantity-over-quality rule and allowed any side to overturn a numbers deficit, and I was more than happy to see Candle Dragon be wiped out.

……

While Warsky Alliance and Candle Dragon’s combined parties of almost a thousand were withdrawing into the forest, the transformed Lin Qian hunted down the stragglers who took too long to escape until everyone in front of the Dragon God Cave was dead. After that, both Candlelight Shadow and Warsky observed Lin Qian from a safe distance, neither attacking the boss nor leaving the area. The Dragonslaying Sword was too great a temptation, and none of them could resist its siren call.

Rustle rustle...

It was at this moment a series of rustling sounds came from the west side of the forest. A group of red names soon emerged into the clearing. They were all cavalrymen, and they were led by a beautiful woman clad in armor. She was none other than the famous goddess of Elephant City, Flowing Cloud. The players accompanying her were all top elites of Natural Flow, and I counted almost a thousand of them on the map screen.

I commented indifferently, "Flowing Cloud’s here!"

Lin Yixin shot me a look. "That’s one of your old acquaintances, right?"

"Hehe, I don’t know about that. What is an acquaintance before a Divine Armament like the Dragonslaying Sword?"

……

When Flowing Cloud caught sight of Lin Qian, she frowned a little and said, "What is going on here? I thought for sure that the Chinese would have taken out the boss by the time we arrived. How did a dozen or so CGL Hall of Famers fail to kill a single boss?"

Beside her, a vice leader nodded his head before explaining, "The latest report states that this Oathbreaker Lin Qian has transformed into a Quasi-Divine Rank boss. If that is true, it makes sense why the Chinese’s plans had ended in failure. What do we do now? Do we attack after Flames of War men have arrived?"

Flowing Cloud shook her head. "No. We will wait until an actual opportunity presents itself. All units, stay where you are but prepare to launch an assault at first notice!"

"Yes, guild leader!"

A few minutes later, another group of players appeared from a different direction. These players were riding white warhorses clad in metal armor and wool pelts. The players themselves were wearing battle armor on the outside and hide undershirts on the inside. They clearly hailed from an extremely cold region, and they were none other than the elites of Frostsword City, or more specifically, the elites of White Bird. Their guild leader, A Snowy Night Below 30 Degrees, was among them as well.

……

"Even Snowy Night has shown up…"

I curled my lips in dissatisfaction. "Lin Qian has caused such a commotion that practically every big guild who’s hunting in Dragon Domain are drawn to this place, dammit. What do we do now? Dragon God Cave is already crowded enough, and it’s only going to get even more crowded as time passes. It’s going to be nearly impossible to take the Dragonslaying Sword from all these wolves…"

He Yi gave my hand a squeeze and smiled reassuringly. "Calm down. An opportunity will show itself eventually. All we need to do is stay calm and wait for it to arrive!"

"Speaking of which, when will Li Chengfeng, Xu Yang, Gui Guzi and the others show up?"

"They’re still four or five hours away from Dragon Domain."

"I guess it’s all up to us then."

"Yeah!"

……

Very soon, another familiar figure emerged from the edge of the forest. The beautiful mage carrying a scepter was Stranger of Three Lifetimes. While stepping across the grassy clearing, she shot the distant boss a look and smirked a little. "Look at all these guilds waiting for a good time to screw the boss over. It looks like we must try something drastic to be able to get something out of this."

Beside her, a dignified-looking Eyes Like Water asked from atop her warhorse, "Don’t tell me you want us to engage the boss while Candle Dragon, Warsky Alliance, White Bird and Natural Flow are nearby? That’s just impossible."

Stranger of Three Lifetimes chuckled and gave herself a pump. "Nah, no need. I can do this myself!"

Eyes Like Water’s eyes widened. "What the hell are you talking about? You’re a mage! Just stay at the backline and shoot your spells from there!"

Stranger of Three Lifetimes remained undeterred. "Relax, I can do this. I don’t know if you know this, but my scepter-parrying skills are unrivaled in the world…"

Eyes Like Water cupped her forehead for a bit. "So what? One Ancient Divine Skill is all it takes to send you to the graveyard! Worse, if you drop your new Ancient Immortal-grade scepter, the one hundred lives we paid to get it would be all for naught…"

"Fine, you worrywart. Hmm? Where is Lu Chen? I thought he’s among the earliest to reach Dragon Domain. He couldn’t have missed this somehow, could he?"

Eyes Like Water tilted her head at her guild leader and smirked. "What’s wrong? It’s only been a few days, and you miss your lover already?"

Stranger of Three Lifetimes rolled her eyes at her vice leader. "Who are you calling his lover? It’s just that our chances of succeeding are much higher with him around. You know Candle Dragon and Warsky Alliance combined have a couple of SS Rank Ancient Divine Skill owners, and even an SSS Rank skill! Only he can keep them at bay…"

Eyes Like Water sing-songed. "Excuses, excuses!"

The guild leader threatened, "Say that again, and I’ll find someone to replace you!"

"The guild leader is wise! I’m leaving for sentry duty, okay byeee!"

"..."

……

Meanwhile, Lin Qian was thrusting the Dragonslaying Sword into the fresh bodies like he had gone completely bonkers. He even licked the blood on the blade as if it could sate some sort of thirst. After he returned to the top of the corpse hill, he looked at the Dragonslaying Sword and grinned maliciously, "Dragonslaying Sword, huh? I bet you never imagined that your weapon would be profaned like this, did you, my dear disciple?"

Hmm?"

Suddenly, Lin Qian looked up and let out a cry of surprise. "What is this power? Dragon and death energy? How is this possible?"

Swhoosh!

A streak of black light suddenly plummeted from the sky. It then slammed into Lin Qian like a meteor!

There was a loud bang, and both Lin Qian and the Dragonslaying Sword crashed into the ground and dug a hole that was nearly a hundred meters long. Standing on top of him and punching his face was an undead general covered in chains. "How dare you profane Lady Binglan’s sword, you animal! Die!"

The undead general punched Lin Qian’s face again with all his might after that yell.