Chapter 1364: Marching To Frostbone Ridge
Chapter 1364: Marching To Frostbone Ridge
The next morning, I woke up to a small headache probably because of all the alcohol I had drunk the preceding night. I felt something human-sized in my arms and looked down to find… a bolster. I couldn’t deny feeling a pang of disappointment then.
By the time I got up and ate breakfast, Zhou Xiaomeng had already left with her manager. He Yi had spoken to her about the move to World Media and negotiated the details of the contract. Assuming that everything went well—and it should—Zhou Xiaomeng would be working for Raincube, and she would no longer have to worry about Wang Dongliang anymore.
After that, we drove back to Suzhou and ate lunch outside. Then, we returned to the workshop and logged back into the game.
……
Swhoosh!
The first thing I did after appearing in Dark Moon City was repair all my equipment at the smithy. As I walked toward the warehouse next, I saw a troop of Dragonlight Cavalrymen exiting the city at high speed. Ever since we had upgraded the city with the Vassal Token, the Dragonscale Beast had become much faster, tankier and more powerful than before. High-mobility cavalrymen had always been perfect for ambushes, interceptions and reinforcements, and now the Dragonlight Cavalry was the indisputable king of cavalries. At this stage, our rivals would need to assemble a pure dragon cavalry to have a real chance at surpassing them.
I restocked my potions but made sure to separate the Rank 10 Saint Spirit Potions I normally used and the 5 sets of Rank 13 Dragonheart Orchid Agents Lin Yixin had given me. At this stage of the game, the stock of Dragonheart Orchid Agents was incredibly limited. There were only 3 people besides Lin Yixin who even possessed the skill to create a Rank 13 potion, and the materials required to make them were worth a fortune, so much so that 99.9% of the playerbase could only stare at the potion impotently. That was why I should save them for PvP and boss fights only.
Next, I summoned Cute Little Naughty and gave her the Level 220 Heaven-grade Moonshadow Walker set. It wasn’t something she could wear until the end of the game, but it was enough for now. I dumped the rest of the Moonshadow Walker sets—we had collected a dozen or so in total—to the guild warehouse and set the exchange price to 700k guild contribution points. Why such a specific number? It was because the Top 7 or 8 assassins in our main guild and subguilds all had around 700k guild contribution points in total. If I wasn’t going to sell the equipment sets for cash, I might as well give it to my own assassins and strengthen them. It was the same thing with the Lantern Girl set. The number of our mages with Heart of the Holy Mages was growing every day, and the set was a great fit for our first-rate mages. On that note, I also saved a set for Moonlight Stone because she wouldn’t have the necessary guild contribution points to exchange for it as a "new" member of the guild.
Rustle rustle...
We heard footsteps behind us, and Cute Little Naughty turned around with a smile. "Lu Buyi has arrived, vice leader big bro!"
"Yeah!"
I turned around to face Lu Buyi. The guy was looking more and more like an ancient scholar every day. I shot him a smile and asked, "What is your weapon’s grade, Buyi?"
Lu Buyi answered, "Immortal. Why are you asking, boss?"
I took out the fan I got from our latest venture and gave it a wave. A crimson dragon’s soul immediately circled around the fiery fan and let out a soft cry. Lu Buyi shivered and exclaimed in surprise, "Holy shit! This fan looks absolutely amazing…"
"But of course!" My smile widened. "This fan is a Lower Divine Armament, a weapon comparable to a Sacred Armament, or a Cambrian-grade Divine Armament. How can it not be amazing?"
Lu Buyi replied without hesitation, "I will not accept it. A man who hasn’t labored shouldn’t be paid, much less something as valuable as a Lower Divine Armament…"
I extended the Hidden Dragon Fan toward him anyway and said, "You don’t have to worry about that. I will be deducting 1 million guild contribution points from your pockets, and I expect you to work hard for the benefit of the guild. More importantly, this Hidden Dragon Fan has a passive that increases the cap of all your stratagems by 50%, which means that your Purple Dragon can now increase all stats by 150%. This weapon is meant for you, man. Is there any army in the world who can defeat your party of 2000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen after this?"
A thought entered my mind after I said this, "Speaking of which, we should pair you with a female cavalryman until your Intimacy reaches the required level. This way, she can carry you wherever you need to go when we’re marching for battle…"
However, Cute Little Naughty said, "Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. There’s already a female cavalryman in our main guild’s 1st legion who’s veeeeeeeery intimate with our Lu Buyi. They may even be boyfriend and girlfriend already…"
"Little Naughty! W-we’re not like that!" Lu Buyi cried in embarrassment. "You know I always obey the guild rules to the letter, and one of the rules states that a corps commander can not fool around with a member of the guild!"
I smiled reassuringly at him. "That rule exists, yes, but it’s only to stop those people who may be tempted to abuse their authority. If the two of you really like each other, who are we to stop you? Anyway, the reason I brought this up is to ensure that you have constant mobility. Since you already have someone, then all is well. Now take it, and don’t you play coy with me! You know I would’ve charged through the roof if you were anyone else!"
Lu Buyi nodded and accepted the fan. Then, he transferred 500k RMB to my account and said, "I know this fan is worth at least 3 million RMB, but I don’t have that much money, so…"
Lu Buyi could be incredibly stubborn when his principles were involved, and it was true that our guild didn’t have the habit of giving acquaintances gifts that went far beyond what was acceptable. So, I accepted the payment without hesitation and said, "Very well. At least now I can justify myself to the party members who were grinding with me, haha~"
Lu Buyi laughed as well. "Thank you. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving to pick up some new skills."
"See you around!"
……
Suddenly, 7 high-level cavalrymen came through the entrance of the territory hall in a hurry. The first two players weren’t riding a mount, but that was because they were dragon riders. They were none other than Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon, Xu Yang, Heaven’s Rain, Diamond Dust and Chaos Moon, and they were all wearing serious looks on their faces.
"Lu Chen!"
Li Chengfeng asked me the second he reached me, "Did you know what happened to Purgatory Mad Dragon?"
"What’s wrong?" I asked.
Gui Guzi replied in an urgent tone, "Come on, Boss Broken Halberd! We just want to know what the hell is going on with Purgatory Mad Dragon! We came to you because Boss Eve wouldn’t say a word about it!"
"No seriously, tell me what happened first. Why are you guys acting like it’s the end of the world or something?" I repeated.
Xu Yang answered, "Earlier this morning, Little Piglet left Purgatory Mad Dragon and even relinquished his own nationality! It makes no sense at all! Something must have happened in Purgatory Mad Dragon for him to do something this drastic!"
I fell silent for a moment before replying, "Alright, I understand now. I’m not going to tell you what really happened because a person was hurt. The less people who know the details, the better. The summary version is this: Wang Dongliang and Lu Chao betrayed Little Piglet, and it is such a terrible betrayal that there is nothing Little Piglet can do in retaliation that wouldn’t be fair or just. My plan is for our guild to stay out of this business as much as possible."
"But…"
Li Chengfeng pointed his sword to the northwest direction. "Little Piglet is currently being hunted by Purgatory Mad Dragon at Frostbone Ridge, Vanished God City map that leads to the outer lands. He may be able to make it out on his own, or maybe he won’t. Candle Dragon, Warsky Alliance, Blazing Hot Lips, Purple Lily and more have also sent their elite players to Frostbone Ridge, although it looks like they just want to recruit him to their guild. Are you absolutely sure we should stay here and do nothing?"
"Those fuckers!"
I clenched my fists. "Purgatory Mad Dragon is hunting down Little Piglet? Just how shameless can you get!?"
Li Chengfeng nodded. "Yes. Earlier this morning, Roaming Dragon announced a 1-million-per-kill bounty on Little Piglet. The reason he gave was that Little Piglet has betrayed his oath and become a traitor of the guild. Since Little Piglet is completely isolated, many guilds think that this is the perfect opportunity to recruit him into their fold…"
I unsheathed my Chill of the Nine Provinces and summoned the Ancient Divine Dragon. "Chengfeng, Little Gui, take 5000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen with you and teleport to Vanished God City now. Now is the time to exploit our mount’s new speed and reach Frostbone Ridge as soon as possible!"
"Understood!"
"Lu Buyi, you’re coming with us too. Gui Guzi will be buffing 3000 players with Knight God, and you’ll be buffing the remaining 2000 with Purple Dragon!"
"Yessir!"
……
We rushed to the teleportation formation and teleported to Vanished God City directly!
Swhoosh!
My vision brightened as the Dragonlight Cavalry and I appeared on the streets of Vanished God City. It was then that I saw a 27-year-old spear-wielding magic knightress pulling Lu Buyi up her mount. She was mature-looking, incredibly attractive, and possessed an hourglass body that many women would kill to have. I had no idea that this was an older woman-younger-man relationship (Lu Buyi was 24 years old)! That being said, it didn’t look like she was treating Lu Buyi badly, so whatever. I commented with a smile on my face, "Buyi’s tastes are pretty good…"
Lu Buyi looked incredibly embarrassed. The magic knightress replied with a giggle, "Oh, he knows!"
Me: "..."
Xu Yang brandished his blade and yelled, "Mount up and form your parties!"
Lu Buyi added me to his party, and a moment later, all my stats were boosted by 150%. Words couldn’t describe how pleasing it was to view my latest stat screen. A 150% boost to my Strength, Stamina, Agility and Intelligence attributes was bonkers to say the least, and I was certain that only a handful of mages in the whole world could threaten me with their God Devil Breaks right now. In fact, if I could learn God Devil Break, I would be the one murdering their asses instead...
"Our destination is Frostbone Ridge!"
I pointed to the northwest before continuing, "The mission is… Actually, I don’t know what we’re going to do when we get there yet. Let’s just say that we’re going to see what happens and decide our course of action later. That okay with everyone? Good. Let’s go!"
We took off amid a chorus of hearty laughter. Li Chengfeng and Gui Guzi led from the sky, and it wasn’t long before He Yi showed up on her Snowy Crystal Dragon as well. Although Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had only mobilized 5000 players, it was enough to make the players of Vanished God City quake in their boots. After all, we were the only guild in the entire world with 3 high-level dragon knights right now.
……
A cold wind blew as we neared the north side of Vanished God City domain. The forest was filled with grinding players, so our players had to do a bit of weaving here and there. Our three dragon knights even slowed down so that they didn’t shake their own army off. Even so, we reached Frostbone Ridge in just 15 minutes. The map was a canyon passage with many bodies strewn across the mountain ranges to give it the appearance of an ancient battlefield. I counted at least 100000 players within the canyon.
All of these players had shown up for Little Piglet. In a way, it was a testament of his power.