No one was surprised when I got back to the Frost Cloud workshop because I had already called He Yi beforehand. Also, all three of them were online and holding Silver City. There were less than 28 hours left on the clock before it became ours.

So, I went to my room and logged into the game immediately!

Swhoosh!

After I appeared in Dark Moon City, I unsheathed the Chill of the Nine Provinces, summoned the Ancient Divine Dragon, and stepped out of the castle. Right as I was about to take to the air though, a silver dragon abruptly overshadowed me. It was none other than Xinran’s Winged Silver Dragon!

"Master’s big brother!"

"Yes?"

"My master instructed me to stay here until you’ve returned. She wanted me to inform you that she has safely returned to the Violet Empire, and that you don’t need to worry about her."

I nodded. "I see. Thank you for the news. You may go now, Winged Silver Dragon!"

"Okay!"

……

The cunning and powerful Holy Giant Dragon vanished into the clouds after that. It acted like a clown most of the time, but that was only because Xinran had it firmly planted beneath her boots. The vile beast’s obedience was the proof of her strength and courage.

Beep!

Suddenly, I received a message from Li Chengfeng: "You finally came online, Lu Chen!"

"Yep. How is the battle for Silver City, Chengfeng?"

"Soul Battle Robes are still trying to contest Silver City, but without Song of Ice and Fire, God Bone and Ringwraith there is nothing the small fries can do. 90k+ players from our main guild are holding it right now, and the City Lord Token is in the guild leader’s hands. All should be well."

"Where is Silver City, by the way?" I asked another question.

Li Chengfeng let out a delighted chuckle. "It’s at Bloody Shield Domain, the map next to Vanished God City. I swear man, this location is the best of all the four Cities of Heaven! It’s surrounded by Level 250+ fiend-rank mobs, and there are a ton of small forest maps! This means that every player who wants to grind here will have to visit Silver City eventually. It is the perfect grinding zone supply spot, and the money’s going to flood in like crazy~~"

"That’s great. Send me the coordinates, will you? It’s late, but maybe I can still help out somehow!"

"Sure! The coordinates are Bloody Shield Domain (21877, 10929)!"

"Coming!"

……

I closed the chat and climbed onto my dragon’s back. On a related note, I had withdrawn my onager into my mount space as a matter of course. There was no need for me to assume my secret identity in an open contest like this.

After teleporting to Vanished God City, I soared into the sky and surprised a lot of Vanished God City. A lot of them recognized me immediately and exclaimed, "That’s Lu Chen! He’s finally joining the battle for the Cities of Heaven! There’s no chance anyone can take Silver City from Ancient Sword now!"

The Ancient Divine Dragon let out a rumbling growl as I set my target destination to the coordinates Li Chengfeng had provided me earlier. Then, I changed the flight mode to autopilot. Be it the humans, the elves or the succubi’s territories, all flying units in Vanished God City were either human War Eagle Riders or Griffon Riders. I could afford to relinquish control because none of these units would attack me.

Less than half an hour later, I reached the border of Bloody Shield Domain. It was very obvious where the line ended and began because the clouds themselves were unnaturally red. Bloody Shield Domain was currently under the control of the Purgatory Sovereign Coldblade the Infinite Storm, and he had forged a Purgatory legion to defend his domain. Assuming that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls successfully conquers the Silver City, we might have to fight against the despicable yet powerful boss very soon.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom though. The two evil bosses, Mingyu and Michael, both suffered massive injuries during the battle in Dragon God Cave. Although they had since escaped to god-knows-where, it was still a terrible blow to the forces of evil. Moreover, Sophie had parted ways with the Purgatory, Strella had been killed by yours truly, and Bloody Finger had submitted to Xinran. All in all, we were making good progress in uprooting all the evils in Heavenblessed.

Swhoosh!

I pressed my palm against the Ancient Divine Dragon’s head, and it descended until it was just gliding above the trees. The newly spawned Bloody Shield Domain was filled with all kinds of devils and undead creatures. There were even more players hunting down these high-level mobs. Since the appearance of the Silver City, this whole place had become a player grinding zone.

Eventually, I saw a silver sheen at the end of the horizon. That had to be the Silver City!

The Ancient Divine Dragon let out a mighty roar as it homed in on Silver City, causing countless players to look at me in shock. Some of them cried out, "Shit! If Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand himself is here, this means that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls will do everything in their power to conquer Silver City! Is there even a point to attacking the city and playing the cannon fodder anymore? We may as well focus on grinding the fiend-rank mobs on this map instead. Who knows, maybe we’ll drop an OP Immortal-grade ring, sell it for several hundred k, make the down payment for our house, buy a Changan Benben, get a girl and become fully accomplished in our lives!"

I couldn’t help but snicker when I heard the declaration. It was a ridiculously small and secular dream, but who dare say that it wasn’t a key to happiness? Some people saw too much, dreamed too much and gained almost as much, and yet they felt no happiness from their accomplishments at all.

……

Less than five minutes later, the Ancient Divine Dragon officially arrived at Silver City. The city was occupied by Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Bloody Mercenaries players, and the walls were crawling with Dragonlight Archers and Dragonlight Cavalrymen. Their sight alone instilled fear in our enemies. If you saw them, you knew Ancient Sword had arrived. Outside the walls, enemy players were assaulting the city in waves. Although the dominant advantage was in our hands, that didn’t mean that the enemy was willing to give up the fight. Heart of the Holy Mages was the dream buff every mage, tactician, bard and other magic-type or niche classes sought for. For starters, an increase of 25% in magic power scaling was nothing to scoff at. Let’s say that 100 Intelligence increased Magic Attack by 100. A player with Heart of the Holy Mages would gain 125 Magic Attack instead. That was an incredible amount of power, not to mention that Heart of the Holy Mages also increased max HP and Magic Shield durability by 50%.

Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had one peak-level mage like Lian Xin and a good number of first-rate mages like Yu Tong. Just two days ago, our former best mage Moonlight Stone had returned to us as well. Our mage party was stronger than ever before, and Heart of the Holy Mages would transform them into an unstoppable legion!

He Yi was currently inside the territory hall because she was the holder of the City Lord Token. It made sense for her to hide herself in the most secure place of the city and maintain a low profile. It also served to lower the enemy’s motivation further. If they wished to claim the City Lord Token, they must first breach the city. If they wished to breach the city, they must first defeat the Dragonlight Cavalry. But who among them could defeat them?

Pa!

I activated Fusion Armor while I was still in midair and landed safely on top of a rampart. Li Chengfeng, Chaos Moon, Gui Guzi and everyone else were just around the corner.

"You’re finally here, Lu Chen!" Chaos Moon greeted me with a smile.

I gave her a nod and said, "Yep. It looks like I’m not needed though…"

Li Chengfeng pointed at the ground below and said, "It looks scary from here, but these chuckleheads really aren’t trying. In fact, they couldn’t even penetrate our Dragonlight Archers’ suppression. Also, we nearly annihilated Soul Battle Robes’ entire army at the cost of 10000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen four hours ago. I dare say that the worst has already passed."

I arrived at the edge of the rampart and looked down. Some of the players on the ground noticed me and exclaimed in shock, "Ah, that guy’s wearing the WEL MVP emblem on his shoulder. He’s Lu Chen! We’ve lost our last chance to conquer Silver City…"

I cleared my throat a bit and smiled at them. "Silver City is the second greatest city of the Cities of Heaven, and only the strong may occupy it. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls has been spilling sweat and blood for our brethren for half a year, and we don’t believe we have disappointed our server in any way. In fact, we are conquering Silver City in hopes of increasing our server strength even more. We wish to use it against the powerful enemies that surround the Center!

“So, I ask you all to give me, Lu Chen, this face and abandon your assault, handsome and pretty friends. In return, I promise to open Silver City to everyone and lower the prices to a minimum. Thank you for listening! I hope you will make the right decision!"

It was a gradual thing, but the people did listen. It wasn’t long before more than half of the attackers had turned around and left.

Meanwhile, a flabbergasted Li Chengfeng said, "How the fuck? I never believed that something like this could happen in the modern day until now."

Chaos Moon’s mouth was agape as well. "OMG, we had to murder these people’s asses left and right to get them to leave, and you just talked more than half of them away from continuing…"

I was just as flabbergasted as they were, but for a completely different reason. "Didn’t you guys try to negotiate with them at all?"

Li Chengfeng shook his head. "Nah. This territory war gives contribution points too, so we shamelessly assaulted everyone with everything we got…"

Me: "..."

……

Beiming Xue put away her bow and smiled at me. "Big bro, it looks like we’re conquering Silver City for sure, so I’m going to log out and take a nap, okay? You’re here anyway, so…"

I walked up to her and gave her an assuring pat on the shoulder. "Of course. Feel free to sleep as much as you like. Remember to eat something before you go to bed though. It’s not good to sleep on an empty stomach."

"Okay!"

Beiming Xue then gave me a hug and giggled into my shoulder. "I miss you, big brother!"

"I know. See you later…" I rubbed her hair affectionately.

"Mn!"

Soon after, Beiming Xue entered the territory hall and logged out of the game.

……

"So, what do we do now?" Li Chengfeng asked.

I didn’t answer immediately. "How is the battle at Gold City?"

Gui Guzi answered, "Candle Dragon and Warsky Alliance are still in the lead despite having lost most of their legions. However, Candle Dragon was able to ambush and wipe out Warsky Alliance’s elite mage party at the cost of several subguilds. The City Lord Token is still in Warsky’s hands, but it’s only a matter of time before he loses it to someone. The Immortal Blade is just a weapon, no matter how OP it is. One man cannot possibly defeat Candle Dragon’s army and Candlelight Shadow’s keen mind."

I glanced at them both and asked another question, "Chengfeng, Little Gui, what level is your Blue Crystal Dragon and Dark Crystal Dragon? Can you ride them yet?"

"Actually, yeah. They’re at the required level to become mountable, Level 107."

"Good!"

Chaos Moon blinked before asking me, "What are you planning, Lu Chen?"

I gazed to the horizon before sucking in a deep breath. "Candlelight Shadow left Moonlight Stone to her humiliation and indirectly stomped on our pride for one Wind Listening Pavilion. They even declared war on us. In that case, it’s only right that we pay them back with a ‘gift’, don’t you agree? Rally half of our Dragonlight Cavalry and Dragonlight Archers right now. We’re going to march to Gold City and take down Candle Dragon’s core. Anyone can have the Gold City, but not Candlelight Shadow. The time to take revenge for Moonlight Stone and Tiger Leopard Knight is now. We will tell Candle Dragon with our blades that no one is allowed to humiliate a friend of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!"