My equipment was of pretty high quality, all things considered. I had a Gold-grade weapon, two Silver-grade, two Dark Steel–grade and three Steel-grade items. The number of people who shared my level of equipment in Floating Ice City could be counted on one hand, so I was confident that I had the strength to farm the mobs on the fifth floor of Ancient Thunder Temple.

The Thunder Knights’ iron-padded hoofs shook the man-made floor beneath us, but they weren’t really a big threat to me or Lin Yixin. In general, we had no reason to lose a 2v1!

The Thunder Knight was a Level 65 Night Creature, so its experience yield was already 25% higher than an average mob’s. Moreover, since their levels were much higher, the experience boost was just obscene. A little past 10 pm, Lin Yixin’s experience bar already reached 35%. She was so excited that she decided to grind till morning to reach Level 60 and get her third class promotion!

I stared at my own experience bar—Level 56, 57% full—and said, “I lost so many levels that day, but it looks like I’m finally returning to the Top 3~”

Crack!

Lin Yixin cut down a Thunder Knight in front of her with a beautiful combo before replying, “Do your best. You need to be stronger than this if you wish to gain a solid footing in Floating Ice City!”

I nodded. “Thank you, Beauty Yi.”

“Oh?”

Lin Yixin looked at me, her beautiful purple eyes tinged with a bit of confusion. “What are you thanking me for?”

“If you didn’t team up with me and come here, I wouldn’t have been able to level up this quickly…”

“Hehe, you’re welcome!” Lin Yixin waved her pale hand once before adding, “Don’t forget to treat me to supper later!”

“Yeah. It would be even better if the final boss dropped a Hero’s Token!”

“If that is the case, you will owe me an entire month of suppers…” Lin Yixin said.

Bewitched by her attractive smile, I lost control of myself and thoughtlessly blurted out, “No problem. I’ll even treat you to a lifetime of suppers if you want to!”

“Ah?!”

Lin Yixin gaped at me and panicked a little. Once she collected herself, she rolled her eyes and me and chided, “Cut the nonsense already, will you? We need to clear out all the mobs before 10:30 pm and defeat the boss later. Let’s become the first party to clear this Ancient Thunder Temple!”

“Yeah!”

……

Several minutes later, Gui Guzi’s name lit up in the friend list. They must have finished eating dinner already. He sent me a message that said “Boss, I saw Murong Mingyue and From Water at the eastern square of Floating Ice City!”

“Oh? What are they doing there?” I replied quickly.

A few seconds later, Gui Guzi responded, “They’re trying to recruit members and promote Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. It doesn’t look like they’re doing well though. I guess the guild isn’t too famous yet, and there is no real benefit in joining them because they have yet to officially establish a guild…”

“Oh. Got it…”

“Yeah. Anyway, I’m going back to the grind!”

“Sure!”

I ended the call and felt a bit of emotion welling inside of me. Neither Sister Mingyue nor He Yi had given up on our collective dreams after all. We might not be working together, but we were all working hard to realize that dream in our own way.

I asked Lin Yixin while killing the Thunder Knights, “Beauty Yi, how goes the recruitment for Snowy Cathaya?”

She smiled a little before replying, “Why do you want to know? Do you want to join my guild or something?”

“Nah, you are overthinking it!”

“...”

But Lin Yixin didn’t get angry at my rejection. She even smiled at me before replying, “Well, we’re currently at max capacity. It can’t be helped, a Rank 1 guild can only accomodate 200 members at most, so we’ll have to wait until the guild reaches Rank 2 before we can recruit more.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her reply. “This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, isn’t it? I’m sure that all the members you recruited are elites who can take on ten average players on their own, am I right?”

“Yo, someone’s gotten a bit smarter than he used to be, I see.” Lin Yixin cocked her head at me before asking, “So, when are Bloody Mercenaries establishing their guild?”

“For now, we have no such plans!”

“I see!” Lin Yixin looked a bit put down by my reply, but she quickly recovered and said, “Things should be done one step at a time, I guess. Snowy Cathaya may be the first official guild in Floating Ice City, but we lack the foundation Gods of Destruction started with, and most of our members don’t really know one another. It will take time to wear them in. Seriously though, the max member limit for a Rank 1 guild is so low! 200 isn’t enough at all!”

“Yeah.”

I nodded in agreement. It was true that the guild member limit in Heavenblessed was extremely limited. For a Rank 1 guild, the max limit was 200 members. For a Rank 2 guild, the max limit was 1000 members. A Rank 3 guild could have up to 2000 members, a Rank 4 guild could have up to 5000 members, and finally a Rank 5 guild could have up to 10000 people. There was no Rank 6. If a guild wished to participate in a big war, anything under Rank 5 was below the acceptable standards.

……

Crack!

Two fierce strikes later, the last Thunder Knight in the temple finally fell to our blades!

At the distance, a war general clad in dark cyan metal armor suddenly appeared at the center of the hall in a flash of darkness. He was kneeling on the ground on one knee and holding a broadsword that was crawling with lightning. His long, black hair hung messily at the edges of his helmet like weeds, and the man himself was as silent as death.

“It’s the boss!” Lin Yixin exclaimed in surprise.

I echoed her response with a nod. “Yeah, it looks like the final boss of the Ancient Thunder Temple has finally appeared! Yiyi, your level is higher than mine. Can you see its stats?”

Lin Yixin nodded and brought up the boss’s stats with a wave of her hand.

Thunder General Dio (Silver Rank Boss)

Level: 68

Attack: ???

Defense: ???

HP: ???

Skills: Thousand Mirage Slash, Icy Crystal Armor, Thunderous Hell

Introduction: Dio was the ultimate commander of the Violet Empire. After losing the battle against the Night Creatures, he was cruelly murdered and strung at the top of the Ancient Thunder Temple by his executioners. His undying spirit was eventually resurrected in an unholy manner, and he was transformed into a violent and murderous devil as a result.

……

The exact Attack and Defense eluded us even with Lin Yixin’s level, but the description of the boss was more than enough to make me gasp in shock. Judging from the fact that he was Level 68, it was entirely possible for his Attack to reach the realm of four digits. He could probably one-shot Lin Yixin and me with a basic attack, and that wasn’t even considering his three skills!

Still staring at the boss, Lin Yixin asked me in a soft voice, “So, should we teleport back or give it a try?”

A grin spread across my mouth. “Are you afraid, Beauty Yi?”

“Tch! Of course not!” Lin Yixin’s eyes turned serious. “Let’s do it then. Worse comes to worst, we die and lose a level!”

I nodded and replied just as seriously, “It’s not my style to run away when a boss appears in front of me. Kill or be killed! It’s the boss’s misfortune to have run into us, not the other way around!”

“Yeah!”

Her resolve rekindled, Lin Yixin gripped her Snow Shadow Sword and asked, “How should we go about this though?”

I observed the terrain for a moment before saying, “There’s no way we can fight it head-on, we would be lucky not to get one-shot immediately. Therefore, the only way for us to beat this boss is to use the terrain!”

“The terrain?” Eyes sparkling with intelligence, Lin Yixin giggled and replied, “You mean the lightning formation?”

“That’s right!” I nodded seriously. On the way to the fifth floor, we ran into a lightning formation that was unlike any other lightning zone we had braved through thus far. The lightning strikes were much more frequent and condensed, and we actually utilized this to our advantage by luring mobs into it along with my Dark Wasp. Since my pet was fast and had high HP, I didn’t have to worry about a random attack one-shotting it, though the same tactic would’ve failed miserably if the bait was a player.

“But who should be the one to draw aggro?”

Both Lin Yixin and I fell silent for a moment. It was because there was no way for the bait to survive this boss battle. The Level 68 boss was a lot stronger than we were, so much so that even a simple bump could potentially end our lives.

In the end, we arrived at a wise decision. Our pets would bait the boss to its death while we sat at the sidelines, mourning them and their gallant sacrifice.

Lin Yixin calculated the boss’s position in her head while saying, “My Fire Blade might be one-shot by the boss, so the Dark Wasp needs to hold its aggro once it dies. While the boss is distracted, we’ll lure it into the lightning formation and hasten the boss’s death as much as possible!”

“Okay!”

I nodded, and our pets flew toward the boss immediately. The Dark Wasp buzzed arrogantly, and the burning blade that was Lin Yixin’s Fire Blade slashed fearlessly across the boss’s torso!

Thud!

The Thunder General immediately awakened from its slumber and rose to its feet, roaring. “Ah! The light of daybreak is about to appear from the horizon. Damned traditionalists, I will soak the flag of the Night Creatures with your blood!”

No one expected lightning to shoot down from the sky all of a sudden. My Dark Wasp took two hits and died before it even managed to land an attack.

1509!

1473!

The Fire Blade fared even worse than the Dark Wasp. It was zapped into literal dust before a damage number even appeared above its head!

Stunned, Lin Yixin gritted her teeth and said, “OMG, this boss is cheating! Run, Lu Chen…”

I didn’t need her to tell me that; I was already on the run the second our plan went awry. Gripping its thunderous sword, the Thunder General chased after us and roared. “Tiny humans, your stench is disgusting and your blood is moist. Ah, I will feast on your flesh and blood until only the bones are left!”

Suddenly, Lin Yixin said with shocked eyes, “Lu Chen, we’re dead…”

“What? Why do you say that?”

“We forgot to memorize the pattern of the lightning strikes…”

“...”

It was too late for regrets at this point, and the Thunder General’s broadsword was literal seconds from electrocuting our asses. Lin Yixin and I threw all caution to the wind and charged straight into the 100x100 yard lightning formation. Countless lightning bolts rained around us, seemingly at random!

Crack!

I skidded to a stop before a bolt of lightning could hit me. I dodged the second and third lightning bolt too. That was my limit however, because eight bolts of lightning struck me squarely in the head while I was still in midair!

“Ah?”

A flash of white light later, the lightning formation claimed its first victim!

Swhoosh!

My soul reappeared inside a desolate graveyard. Three seconds later, Lin Yixin’s soul appeared next to me as well.

“So, what should we do, leader?” I asked.

“We try again!”

“Alright!”

The two of us floated all the way to the fifth floor and saw the Thunder General standing at the edge of the lightning formation. Unfortunately, the boss had enough sense to not follow us to our deaths.

“How should we kill him?” Lin Yixin asked with a smile. “If we don’t deal any damage to him, we won’t be rewarded with any experience.”

“I’ll do it!”

“Oh?”

I calmly floated toward the air and observed the lightning formation. A while later, a plan started taking form in my mind.