I joined my players, but I used Myriad Swords Obliteration instead of Ultimate Strength Break because I didn’t have the latter. The damage I dealt still caused my Dragonlight Cavalrymen to go wide-eyed with shock, however. Out of all my AoE skills, Myriad Swords Obliteration’s damage was second only to Rise of the Guardian Dragon. Rise of the Guardian Dragon cost 1000 gold per use, so Myriad Swords Obliteration became my most used AoE skill instead. It was especially useful and good-looking when used on a massive group of mobs.

Gui Guzi asked while stabbing a mob with his Spear of the Knight God, "Hegemon Palace has twice as many players as us, Boss Broken Halberd. Should we kill them?"

I shook my head. "No, that would be a bad idea. Try looking at Hegemon Palace again. You may notice that they’re setting up Freezing Traps along the edges of their parties. They have at least 50 eighth-promotion assassins, and they’re all stealthing with Assassin’s Oath. Even my Dark Pupils could only detect less than 10 of them…"

Li Chengfeng fumed. "Wang Dongliang came fully prepared, I see. What the hell is he planning? This is more than what you would usually expect from him."

Lian Xin chuckled. "What else? He’s gunning for Strella."

"Seriously? He can’t be that stupid."

"That’s not necessarily true…"

I explained, "Let’s say that we brought Strella down to half health, and they were able to ambush us. With their numbers, it’s not impossible for them to bring down Strella. Plus, Strella looks like a physical boss. Assuming that its Intelligence isn’t too high, you can definitely wear it down with God Devil Break."

“What should we do then?"

"We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Right now, there’s no point planning anything since it’ll just be speculation. Also, we’re not the only guilds on this floor. If we carelessly attack Hegemon Palace, trust me when I say that countless guilds will jump on the opportunity to smear our reputation. This is especially true for that calculative bastard, Warsky. If he finds the opportunity to post a thread claiming that we were trying to monopolize Dragon God Cave, it’ll already be too late. If we win, we are the evil villain who monopolized everything to ourselves. If we lose, they’ll become the hero who eliminated the villain. It’s a lose-lose for us no matter what…"

Gui Guzi sighed. "Damn. What a devious world we live in!"

Chaos Moon chuckled. "This is just the tip of the iceberg, dumb-dumb. If you’re wise, you will strive to learn as much of the world as possible from Boss Broken Halberd and Li!"

Gui Guzi nodded. "Yes, I will…"

Meanwhile, Lin Yixin was looking at us like she couldn’t believe our gall. "Seriously? They bully you, and you just accept it? Gong… er, I mean Wang Xu, feel free to join Snowy Cathaya if the bullying becomes too much, okay? We’ll totally welcome you with open arms. We’ll make you the vice leader and even find you a cute girlfriend. For example, yeah, we’ll gift you Nangong Lexi if you join us…"

Nangong Lexi immediately punched her guild leader in the shoulder. "What the fuck, you’re a heartless woman, Yiyi!"

I echoed in agreement, "Yeah, yeah! How could you recruit my subordinate right in front of me, Yiyi? Are you slapping my face in public? Don’t you have any morals at all?"

Lin Yixin glared at me. "So what if I am? What are you gonna do about it?"

"I think I’m going to treat you to lunch tomorrow…"

"Good boy…"

The gang could only vomit blood at the exchange.

My tribulation wasn’t over, however. He Yi glared at me and said, "You’ve never treated me this well before."

I replied immediately, "Once Strella is dead, we’ll take tomorrow off and go shopping at Thai Hua in the morning. Then, we’ll join Yiyi for lunch. Is that okay?"

"Very good…" My beautiful guild leader smiled in satisfaction.

Not far away, Wang Dongliang’s eyeballs were just about to fall out of their sockets. He clenched his fists and swore in frustration, "Motherfucker! Just watch, I won’t swim in the shallow waters forever! I’m definitely going to rise to the sky one day!"

Profound Puff shot He Yi a glance before replying, "That From Water is the former vice president of GGS, He Yi right? You’ve tried everything to woo her to no avail, and now she belongs completely to Lu Chen. Do you still believe that money can conquer all women, Dongliang? After she left GGS, she founded a company called Raincube and stole nearly 37% of GGS’ businesses in the Asia region. It’s gotten to the point where the GGS headquarters are proposing to withdraw from Asia completely. What a woman…"

Wang Dongliang couldn’t stop his mouth from twitching. "The fuck, how do you know her so well?"

Profound Puff shrugged. "I read the financial newspapers everyday, you know. Unlike a certain someone who only reads Men’s Health and Playboy…"

"Fuck!"

……

We pushed through the dark halls of Dragon God Cave’s sixth floor slowly and methodically despite outnumbering the mobs. The Dragon Spirits packed quite the punch, and a crit from their Greater Fireball killed anyone who wasn’t a first-rate fighter. As a result, neither us nor Hegemon Palace were enjoying a good time. Hegemon Palace claimed that they wanted to preserve their strength, but they lost at least a hundred players in just an hour. Even we lost a dozen or so Dragonlight Cavalrymen because the Dragon Spirits’ Magic Attack was too high.

One and a half hours later, we explored nearly 45% of the ring-shaped map and started running into other guilds such as Candle Dragon, Warsky Alliance, Flower Room, Mad Dragon and more. It was clear that the entrance to the seventh floor was just around the corner. Finally…

"Hey look! What is that thing?!"

Gui Guzi abruptly pointed to the distance. A human warrior in black armor was chained to a rotten corner of the wall. The chains were connected to three gigantic iron balls to keep him from escaping.

Li Chengfeng smiled. "I smell a quest in the air!"

"Me too. Let’s head over and take a look, shall we?"

After we walked up to the NPC, Gui Guzi dropped to one knee and asked him, "What happened to you, bro?"

The name on his head stated "Soul Eater Figue”. When he raised his head and saw Gui Guzi, the murkiness in his eyes cleared away to reveal naked excitement. "A human… you’re a human! Oh my god! We’re saved!"

Gui Guzi asked again, "So, what happened to you?"

Figue replied, "I’m a human who has been imprisoned here for almost a hundred years. I was the vanguard captain of Sky City, and I had come to Dragon Domain with a thousand-man battalion to search for Giant Dragon Gems and forge Giant Magic Cannons. Unfortunately, we underestimated the cruelty of the dragon race. That devil, Dragon God Strella had devoured all of our brothers and sisters and imprisoned Prince Karinter in the darker depths of Dragon God Cave. Sigh, I wonder if he’s still alive. He would’ve become the king if he hadn’t been imprisoned in this god-forsaken place…"

Gui Guzi grimaced. "Karinter? I only know Princess Karinshan, the current regent of Sky City…"

"Karinshan?"

Figue’s eyes suddenly lit up. "Are you talking about Karinter’s older sister? This… this is a miracle! Has she come to Dragon Domain?"

Gui Guzi shook his head. "No[1]. Anyway, you said that Karinter was imprisoned by Strella? Can we save the prince if we kill it?"

Figue nodded. "Yes, everything will be freed once Strella is killed. However, that devil is too strong to beat! Even with your numbers, I highly doubt you’ll be able to kill him!"

I chose this moment to step forward and say, "That is none of your concern. All you have to say is yes, or no."

"Yes! Yes, you can save the prince if you kill Strella!"

Figue nodded before continuing, "Come, adventurers of the future generation. In the name of the old royalty, I ask you to travel to the depths of Dragon God Cave, destroy the four dragon-sealing pillars, and enter the Dragon Pit. Kill Strella and bring me its heart, and I will reward you with wealth and glory like the world has never seen!"

Ding~!

System Notice: You have received the quest [Soul Eater Figue’s Request]! (Current Quest Rank: SS)

Quest Description: Enter the Dragon Pit, destroy the dragon-sealing pillars, and kill Strella. Bring the heart of Strella to Soul Eater Figue for an extraordinarily handsome reward!

……

Dammit, it was a group quest that could be accepted by anyone who approached Soul Eater Figue. However, only one person could complete the quest because, well, Strella might be the Dragon God, but it still only had one heart. Any more than that, and he would be the Monster God instead.

"Alright, that’s that!"

Gui Guzi asked Figue, "We’re entering the seventh floor right now. Would you like to come with us?"

"Yes, I would!"

Figue nodded. "I want to see that devil be torn to shreds with my own eyes, but… as you may have noticed, I’m chained to this place. The chains are nigh unbreakable, and the iron balls are heavy. I have to use all my strength just to move a couple of steps…"

Gui Guzi said, "Oh, that’s simple. Hupp!"

He raised his Spear of the Knight God and brought it down on the chains. However, he only managed to leave a shallow mark on them...

Beside him, Chaos Moon laughed mercilessly and said, "Hahaha! Your spear is good for a cavalry charge, but there’s no way you can cut metal with it! What about you, Li Chengfeng? This is the perfect time to test out your Crimson Firmament Sword, right? Let’s see if you are man enough to cut this chain that is thick enough to shame all men…"

Li Chengfeng shivered violently. "I’ll give it a try, but seriously, can you not word it that way? This chain has a RADIUS of 5 centimeters! There’s no man in the world who has a girth like this!"

Chaos Moon shot me a meaningful smile for some reason.

I shivered even harder than Li Chengfeng before shooing her away, "Fuck off! What do you think I am, a sperm whale?"

A short distance away, Moonkiss said to Luo River God of the Capital, "You hear that, Sister Wang Luo? I think I understand why people say that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls are utterly shameless now…"

Wang Luo: "..."

……

Li Chengfeng took out his Crimson Firmament Sword—he couldn’t equip it yet, but he could ‘hold’ it and swing it with no stats applied—and struck the chain. Unfortunately, the outcome was the same as Gui Guzi’s.

"Dammit, it’s too thick…" Li Chengfeng groaned.

Finally, I stepped forward and said, "It’s fine. My turn!"

I brought the Chill of the Nine Provinces down in one lightning fast motion, and this time the chains actually split in half. Figue rose unsteadily to his feet before giving me a nod. "Thank you, brave youngster…"

I nodded back. "Let’s go! It’s time to kill Strella!"

1. T/N: Karinshan DID come to Dragon Domain, but maybe Gui Guzi missed her. The ASDS party did show up late