“Wind Singer?”

“Mn.” Xinran nodded lightly. “I lost most of my memories and strength when I sealed myself away. Although I’m doing my best to regain my strength, there is no changing the fact that my memory is fragmented. Not even I know who I was in the Netherworld now.”

Xinran suddenly clutched her head and let out a groan of pain. Then, she looked up at me and apologized. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I used you to slip into the holy temple and kill Alves. I made you commit treason.”

I didn’t say anything because frankly, it was a pretty serious situation. From here on, NPCs from Floating Ice City would attack me on sight, meaning that I wouldn’t be able to enter the city anymore. In fact, depending on how widespread the bounty was, I might even be barred from all tier 1 cities I might find in the future. I wouldn’t be able to resupply inside a city, participate in auctions, and more!

Xinran immediately started crying when she saw that I was silent. “I know I did you wrong, but those damned attendants of the gods burned mother on a stake! Uuuu… mother couldn’t even see anymore, there’s no way she could withstand that kind of pain. If I was the one who sinned, then why was mother the one who got punished for it…”

Of course I could understand her anger, and with understanding came forgiveness. I gave her a hug and asked, “What are you going to do after this?”

Xinran sucked in a deep breath and took out a gemstone. It was none other than the gemstone on top of the archbishop’s scepter. “This is the Devil Suppressing Stone, a treasure of ancient times and the weapon of the gods a long time ago… Do you know of Princess Sophia of the Violet Empire, big brother?”

“Mn!”

Xinran looked at the horizon before continuing, “When I escaped from Hell, I swore never to return to that domain where only darkness exists. But as an undead, it is my natural duty to defend the pride of my race, so I would like to deliver this gemstone to Sophia and help her rebuild the Violet Empire. It would be a kingdom made up of neutral undead only; a true kingdom of the undead. It wouldn’t invade humans, but it would defend itself from all those who wish to trample on its right to live on in this world.”

I nodded. “Very well, let us head to the Blood Dance Legion’s encampment right now!”

"No!"

But Xinran grabbed my arm and blinked at the sky. "We need to wait just a bit longer. I could sense a powerful aura rushing toward us, and I’m too injured to fight against it."

"Mn."

I was just done talking when a dragon’s roar resounded throughout the sky. Suddenly, a huge red dragon emerged from the distance at a low altitude, a warrior in red armor and with a dragonspear atop. He was scanning every inch of the ground from his vantage point!

I gasped in shock before looking at Xinran. "Is… isn’t that the legendary Dragon Knight? But how can this be? I thought that the Dragon Domain was completely corrupted!"

That was what was written in the Heavenblessed chronicles at least. Xinran nodded before replying,

"That’s right. The Dragon Domain was destroyed before year 8125, and that incident marked the beginning of the Heavenblessed calendar. Almost ten thousand years had passed since that day. Since Dragon Speaker Binglan had sealed herself in ice in the vast, frigid mountains at the edge of the continent, no one was able to get close to her. Left without a leader, the Dragon Knights decided to spread out and entrench themselves in a human empire of their choice. It is incredibly expensive to raise a dragon, so naturally only the rich empires could afford to keep them around. From what I know, there are more than 10 Dragon Knights in Floating Ice City. Right now, I’m not strong enough to fight any of them."

I nodded understandingly before smiling at her. "I don’t think I’m a match for them either…"

Xinran burst into a giggle. "It’s fine, big brother. You may not be very powerful right now, but I’m sure you’ll surpass them in the future!"

"Mn!"

After that, I waited until the Dragon Knight was gone before I lent Xinran an arm and started moving again. The Blood Dance Legion wasn’t too far away from where we were, but it was still almost an hour journey. It was going to be an excruciating one, because I could already see Gods of Destruction players scouring the forest in search for me. Every team was at least fifty men strong, they clearly knew they needed vastly superior numbers to kill me.

I clenched my teeth and swore under my breath, "Fuck, what a bastard! I should’ve known that Dominating Heaven Blade would hit a man when he’s down!"

The guild wasn’t the biggest threat though. The real threat was the cavalry that just blazed past us outside of Frost Forest, the Black Cavalry Legion led by Commander Stark. They were about a hundred man strong, and they were all Level 85 elite bosses. Both of us would be in grave danger if we were to stumble onto them, so we absolutely had to avoid the open plains at all costs.

I highly doubted that Xinran could help me the way she was right now, not to mention that this was probably an escort quest. Right now, my job was to deliver Xinran safely to the Blood Dance Legion encampment.

I decided to stick with Blood Dance Legion since Floating Ice City had decided to ditch me. Both Princess Sophia and Shadow Dancer Xue Wei were incredibly powerful NPCs, and Blood Dance Legion might even have their own dark Dragon Knights, meaning that they might not necessarily be inferior to Floating Ice City. At any rate, if I didn’t find myself a new home as soon as possible, the only fate for me was death.

We ran through the forest while avoiding our pursuers. If Xinran wasn’t so grievously injured, we would’ve been able to make better time.

……

More than half an hour later, we finally reached the edge of Eternal Song Forest. I sucked in a deep breath. Finally, the Blood Dance Legion’s encampment was in sight.

Unfortunately, trouble chose this exact moment to hit us!

A group of Gods of Destruction players appeared at the distance, and the leader of the party was none other than my old enemy, Dominating Warrior God. Not only was he a skillful, well-armed and lustful player, he was the only person in the entire Floating Ice City who would try to woo the Fruit Knife Goddess. Every day, he would post a confession thread on the forums in hopes of melting the icy heart of Lin Yixin one day, not knowing that the girl was too busy fooling around with Sun Qingqing to even check the forums.

"Hahaha, talk about windfall!"

It was too late to hide since Dominating Warrior God already saw me. He laughed while pointing his sword at me. "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, I’m finally going to wet my blade with your blood! So, how does it feel to be wanted by the system itself? You think you’re great just because you managed to break out of Floating Ice City and escape, don’t you? Sure, that is an achievement few people will ever achieve, but you’re still going to die in my hands today!"

I sneered, pulled out the Purgatory Sword and walked toward them. If they want to fight, then a fight is what they’ll get.

Xinran stood behind me but didn’t move. It was possible that she was too weakened to help me even if she wanted to.

A vulgar-looking assassin walked up to Dominating Warrior God at this moment and said, "Brother, I heard that Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand and Wind Fantasy know each other in real life. They even have meals together all the time. Do you think he might have gotten one over on you?"

"What?!"

Dominating Warrior God pulled out his sword and shouted angrily at me, "How dare you touch my woman!"

I burst into a laugh. "Geez, can you be any more stupid than this? Anyway, if you wanna fight, then cut the bullshit and fight me already!"

"You are courting death!"

Dominating Warrior God shouted, "Bards, buff me now!"

Swhoosh swhoosh!

Divine Valor and Bloody Battle later, both his Attack and Defense were increased by 20%. Besides that, a high-level tactician also buffed him with Sprint, a general skill that buffed a player’s movement speed by 5%. It was very useful in PvP.

Wait a second. Is Dominating Warrior God planning to fight me alone?

Deeply amused, I pointed my sword at him and said, "Alright, come at me. Stop wasting my precious time!"

"Heh!"

Emboldened by the buffs, Dominating Warrior God raised his sword and activated Charge. Well, most high-level warriors had gotten the skill one way or another, and Dominating Warrior God was a core player of Gods of Destruction. I should’ve expected that he would have this skill by now.

I responded immediately with Earth Escape!

Swhoosh!

My timing was perfect. I dissolved into several wisps of bloody light and slipped into the ground just before Dominating Warrior God could hit me, resulting in a MISS. Charge rooted a player for 1 second upon reaching the destination and during this time I had already burst out of the earth and hit him with Ice Ray!

However, Dominating Warrior God abruptly curled in on himself and put his sword in front of him. Is this… Guard?

Clang!

Our two swords clashed and sent sparks all over the place. He actually successfully guarded my skill and reduced the damage taken to just 112. It looked like he was getting better and better!

"Haha, die!"

Dominating Warrior God launched a counterattack immediately. Seeing that his blade was wrapped in flames, it had to be the Blaze skill!

I can’t allow myself to take the full damage no matter what!

Afraid to take a risk, I raised the Purgatory Sword and used Guard myself!

Clang!

1!

Very good, it was such a successful Guard that the attack only dealt 1 damage to me!

Stunned but not fazed, Dominating Warrior God immediately followed up with a basic attack. I withdrew the stance and retaliated with a swing of my own, parrying the sword away. Both of us took a step backward after the clash of blades.

But I was faster than Dominating Warrior God, and I was able to launch an attack before he could!

Dominating Warrior God jumped backward and swung his sword in a half-arc. He actually managed to parry my counterattack as well!

Behind him, all 49 Gods of Destruction players were stunned by the sight in front of them. No one thought that our battle would be this fierce, or that neither side would lose less than 200 HP despite having exchanged a few blows. It was a level of skill beyond their imagination, level they wouldn’t believe until they saw it with their own eyes.

Of course, Dominating Warrior God wasn’t actually that skilled. I just couldn’t concentrate fully because I was worried about Xinran, and he was stronger than usual because of his buffs.

"Haha, is that all you got, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand? Again, again!"

Dominating Warrior God’s morale was sky-high as he thought he was able to fight on par with me.

I smiled. "You want to die?"

Swhoosh!

My sword glowed with the light of Pardon!

Wary, Dominating Warrior God hurriedly backed away and assumed a defensive stance again!

Hmph, Guard again?

I immediately followed up with Crushing Blow!

Unable to react in time, Dominating Warrior God could do nothing but suffer my counterattack in shock!

MISS!

5192!

……

The power of Pardon and Crushing Blow was no joke. One strike was all it took to end Dominating Warrior God’s life.