"Assassins…"

The intelligent Lian Xin had noticed the disturbance on the ground as well. "Big brother Lu Chen, the assassins are 15 yards away at our 9 o’clock. They’re definitely not Farewell Song since he would never step on dry leaves. Do we take them out, or?"

I shook my head. "Leave them. Warsky isn’t that stupid; he knows he’ll be inviting retaliation if he attacks us."

"Mn."

……

Very soon, a dozen or so Qiu Beast Cavalrymen appeared from the right side. They were quickly followed by a band of mages, archers, tamers, priests and so on. There were exactly 50 of them, and they were all Warsky Alliance players. They were the reinforcements Warsky had summoned to his aid a short while earlier.

When a magic knight passed us by, he shot Lin Yixin and I a confused look before asking, "Did we invite Falling Dust and Fruit Knife to watch our boss fight, guild leader?"

Warsky uttered through gritted teeth, "Just ignore those bastards, help me tank the boss, and keep the stream of reinforcements coming! The boss has already lost 19% of its HP, so it shouldn’t be long before it goes down. Hmph, my 39 points of Luck should be enough to give us one or two Divine or Sacred Armaments!"

Lin Bing Dou Zhe chuckled. "Yep. Long live Sacred Armaments!"

Beside me, a seemingly tired Lin Yixin gathered her battle skirt and sat down on the ground. Her long, pale legs seemed to glow in the moonlight as she chuckled. "What was the saying again? Counting one's chickens before they are hatched?"

Warsky retorted, "Please keep your criticisms to yourself, spectator!"

Lin Yixin stuck out her tongue, but refrained from commenting further.

October Rain shot us a wary look as she suppressed the boss with an Archery skill. "Lu Chen, you won’t try to steal the boss from us, will you?"

I shrugged. "If you have everything under control, then I swear on my name that I won’t interfere no matter what. But if you don’t, then I’ll definitely lend you a hand, understand?"

I purposely emphasized the line "lend you a hand", and the intelligent woman got my meaning immediately. "Very well. Do what you want…"

……

After that, I sat down on the ground and kept only one eye on the Crimson Crystal Dragon. The boss still had 80% HP, and it would take at least another 20 minutes before it hit 50% HP and began the real show. Of course, the chances that nothing would happen during this time were minimal. Right now, the Dragon God Cave was the center stage of the day, and at least tens of thousands of experts had shown up from all across the world. Most of them would be fighting on the first and second floors, but the rest should have made it to the third and fourth floor. At the very least, Candle Dragon, Purple Lily, Gods of Destruction and more must be on their way already.

It was as I thought. Less than five minutes later, a brawny man carrying a blade stepped out of the darkness. He was none other than Dominating Heaven Blade, and he was followed by his usual cohort—Dominating Warrior God, Dominating Knight God and so on. Gods of Destruction had never lost sight of their dreams, and this was the perfect chance to ignite that spark. Dominating Heaven Blade was never going to let it slip past him without a fight.

Dominating Heaven Blade silently walked to a different corner and sat there. Then, he stared at Warsky Alliance until both Warsky and Farewell Song felt chills crawling across their backs.

Lin Bing Dou Zhe whispered, "God, these fuckers are so cheap! They’re even cheaper than I am!"

Laughing At The Heavens could only grimace in response.

……

More and more people gathered in the darkness.

Rustle rustle...

When the dust on the ground next to me stirred almost indiscernibly, I looked up and said, "You’ve come, Moonkiss?"

A sweet voice responded, "Yeah, I’m scouting ahead since Sister Wang Luo will be arriving in three minutes. It’s as crowded as a flea market though."

Me: "..."

Suddenly, Dominating Heaven Blade’s eyes sharpened. "Watch out, people! Candle Dragon has arrived!"

It was as he said. Less than a minute later, Candlelight Shadow showed up with a meter-long fire dragon lying on top of his shoulders. He was carrying Ye Yuse on his mount, and he was followed by Blue Sky Scar, Tempest Shadow, God’s Dance and the rest of Candle Dragon’s main force. They numbered at least a hundred players, which was already more than the number of Warsky Alliance players who were engaging the boss.

Warsky’s expression grew even uglier. He was hoping to finish the boss before everyone showed up, but that was obviously a pipe dream now. How difficult would it be to hold the reins of the boss with this many enemy forces nearby?

……

"What do we do, guild leader?" Lin Bing Dou Zhe asked in a quiet voice.

Warsky wasn’t an indecisive person, so he declared after a short moment, "Priests, focus all of your healing on me. The rest of you, withdraw to the back while I keep the boss busy!"

"What are you planning, guild leader?"

"Just do as I say!"

"Roger!"

After Lin Bing Dou Zhe, Laughing At The Heavens and everyone else had retreated, a 50% HP Warsky abruptly turned away from the boss and galloped at full speed. He produced a silver potion from his pockets while shouting, "Warsky Alliance dares not monopolize a boss that rightfully belongs to everyone, so feel free to take it from us! I promise I won’t stop you no matter what!"

Swhoosh!

As it turned out, the potion was a precious Invisibility Potion. The moment Warsky vanished from view, the Crimson Crystal Dragon lost its aggro on him and targeted the next closest player instead. This unfortunate bastard was Dominating Warrior God. A triple swipe later, his Dragon God Cave journey ended just like that!

Everyone was stunned by Warsky’s decisive sacrifice, but it was the most logical choice. Even if Warsky Alliance managed to reduce the Crimson Crystal Dragon to almost nothing, most of their players would’ve perished in battle. Forget killing the boss, they wouldn’t even be able to defend themselves when their enemies swarmed them from every direction. Warsky might even lose his Immortal Blade in the worst-case scenario. But now? Now they had as much chance as anyone to claim the boss experience, loot or both.

……

Like a boss, the Crimson Crystal Dragon unleashed a jet of draconic breath and one-shot many Gods of Destruction, Purple Lily, Candle Dragon and Snowy Cathaya players. Speaking of Snowy Cathaya, Purple Marquis had met up with us a while ago. He asked, "Do we fight, guild leader?"

Lin Yixin nodded affirmatively. "Yeah. May the best prize go to the greatest player!"

Candlelight Shadow was also giving out similar orders. "Go, Candle Dragon! No need to pay attention to the other guilds! Just focus on standing your ground and defeating the boss with your power!"

……

Maybe it was because almost everyone here was a Chinese player, but our decision at this moment was surprisingly unanimous. We had all decided to ignore the other guilds, kill the boss first, and snatch the loot later!

More and more players gathered on this section of the map. There were at least a thousand of us in total. Arrows, fireballs and wind blades were flying in every direction, and the players were given no choice but to struggle through the chaos.

An ant could kill an elephant if there were enough of them. It was the same with the Crimson Crystal Dragon. The boss was powerful, but there were so many of us that its HP dipped below 25% a lot faster than expected. However, the boss's response also grew a lot more intense, and it used its breath almost once every 10 seconds. It wasn’t long before the floor was covered in bodies, equipment and items. Heaven knows how many lives it would take to kill the Level 297 Ancient Immortal Rank boss.

Finally, a band of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players emerged from the darkness. They were none other than Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon, High Fighting Spirits and everyone else.

"The boss still has 25% HP. Do we go now, or?" Li Chengfeng shouted over the commotion.

I grabbed the reins of the Ancient Divine Dragon and declared, "Let’s go! Anyone who can transform should transform before getting into the fight! When the boss drops to 10% HP, use your Ancient Divine Skills together and instakill it! Oh, and make sure to change your attack mode so that you don’t accidentally hurt our allies…"

……

Warsky heard this, and he couldn’t resist gnashing his teeth together in anger. "Holy shit, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ tactic is just shameless! Everyone, go go go!"

Candlelight Shadow himself had activated Heavenly River Transformation and was ready to unleash his Pangu’s Axe at any moment.

Everyone was going all out at the critical moment.

Boom boom boom!

High Fighting Spirits was the first one to attack first and unleash his SS Rank Ancient Divine Skill, Xing Tian’s Defiance. It struck the Crimson Crystal Dragon on the head and "accidentally" killed 3 Candle Dragon players in the process.

"Motherfucker! You did it on purpose!"

Candlelight Shadow fumed, but there was nothing he could do about it. Instead, he ran behind the Crimson Crystal Dragon, activated his own Heavenly River Transformation, and acted as if he was going to use his Ancient Divine Skill.

I shuddered. "Retreat! Retreat! Candlelight Shadow’s going to use his SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skill!"

Our party was standing on one side of the dragon, and Candle Dragon the other. After Ye Yuse made High Fighting Spirits fall asleep, she said, "Candlelight, now!"

Li Chengfeng uttered angrily, "Lu Chen, let’s use our Ancient Divine Skills and take out Candlelight Shadow first!"

"Okay!"

As we transformed, I flipped the Chill of the Nine Provinces around and activated Cold of the Nine Provinces to freeze all enemies within 100 yards from me. However, Candle Dragon’s players seemed to have figured out my plan as they all activated their invincibility skills at once. I didn’t hesitate though. A golden sword erupted from my blade, and I fired the Xuanyuan Slash at them!

Li Chengfeng assumed a crouching position as blazing flames rose from his Dark Blade, and the image of the ancient divine sword, Crimson Firmament, appeared above him. He had unleashed his Crimson Firmament Slash at nearly the same time as me. In the opposite direction, a currently invincible Candlelight Shadow was also dropping his Pangu’s Axe through the Crimson Crystal Dragon and on top of our players. It was a duel of Ancient Divine Skills!

Boom boom boom!

The Dragon God Cave lit up like the sun, dust flew everywhere, and nearly the entire fifth floor was shaking from the tremors. The Pangu’s Axe had deleted a considerable amount of my HP—

1378272!

Li Chengfeng also lost around 1.5 million HP. Ancient Divine Skills ignored Defense, so the only way to reduce its damage would be to have items that reduced damage taken by some percentage. At least Candle Dragon suffered more damage than we did. My Xuanyuan Slash and Li Chengfeng’s Crimson Firmament Slash had instakilled God’s Dance, Blue Sky Scar, Tempest Shadow and Ye Yuse in one go. Candlelight Shadow himself was left with just 10% HP or so. That wasn’t important now though. The boss had dropped dead under our combined assault, and Candlelight Shadow was running toward the loot!

……

"The boss is dead!" Lin Yixin activated Gan Jiang and Mo Ye and fired an Ice Flame Slash at Candlelight Shadow. "And you can’t have the loot!"

Candlelight Shadow simply rolled below the sword aura before continuing his way toward the boss.

Five pieces of equipment fell from the sky as the boss collapsed. That was what everyone was aiming for.

Thud!

I jumped into the air and raised my sword. I was able to flick a crimson sword into my other hand and grab it.

At the same time, Lin Yixin, Li Chengfeng, Candlelight Shadow and Warsky intersected each other’s path and seized a piece of equipment each. Their looting speed could only be described as godlike!