Nameless fury scorched my head in an instant. I immediately locked onto Life of Luxury and activated Charge!

Whoosh!

The mage was caught completely off-guard, but he wasn’t stunned because he had his Magic Shield up. It didn’t matter though. One lightning-fast basic attack was all it took to shred it into pieces as Life of Luxury stared at me in shock.

“Die!”

I raised the Purgatory Sword and engulfed Life of Luxury and all the Flower Room players behind him in Thousand Mirage Slash. Screams appeared from all around me, and Life of Luxury was of course no exception. Only one magic knight had survived the skill with a sliver of health, and was retreating at top speed.

Luckily for me, Life of Luxury dropped Du Thirteen’s armor after he died, so I picked it up and sent a message: “Don’t worry, Thirteen! I just got your armor back from Life of Luxury!”

“That’s my brother! I’m coming back right now!” Du Thirteen replied quickly.

……

On the other side, Beiming Xue, He Yi and Murong Mingyue had joined up with Gui Guzi. Beiming Xue kicked off her assault with a powerful Evil Spirit Volley that had Spring Mud, Moon Shadow and Night Sorrow reeling in pain. Her level was way higher than theirs’, and her Milky Way Bow was so powerful that not even a warrior like Spring Mud could withstand her damage output.

He Yi’s pet also came out to play. The Firelight Mouse was pretty high-level now, and its powerful fire spells made life hell for the Flower Room players caught in them.

Murong Mingyue chose to join in on the offensive instead of healing Gui Guzi, firing Hellish Rockfalls straight into the enemy’s backline. A ton of archers and unshielded mages were one-shot as a result. How embarrassing for them to be one-shot by a priest, even if said priest was Murong Mingyue with the Prayer Scepter!

That being said, He Yi was right when she said that Flower Room had come out in full force. A small half of the entire Blackwater Bog map was littered with Flower Room players, and I counted at least 2000 of them!

At the backline, Li Le raised his sword and shouted, “Charge! There are only a few hundred of them! We aren’t so weak that we can’t even eliminate a party that small!”

He also added, “Listen up, people! I’ll reward anyone who kills Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand 100k gold. Gui Guzi, Beiming Xue, From Water and Murong Mingyue are worth 50k, and Chaos Moon, Hot Sun, Moonlight Stone, Moon Dew, Du Thirteen, Yamete and Alexander are 5k per kill! I will give you the reward immediately and promise to not go back on my word!”

“Fuck…” I let out an involuntary chuckle before commenting, “Here comes Li Le’s bounty tactic. I didn’t know I was worth 100k gold until now. He really is rich, isn’t he?”

He Yi burst into a giggle. “Alright, enough. Kill the enemies and plug the hole in our formation already!”

It was at this moment two people revived close to us. It was Xu Yang and Chaos Moon.

Xu Yang swore angrily the moment he came back to life. “Motherfucker! Why am I worth only 5000 gold? That bastard looks down on me…”

Murong Mingyue teased him. “Is he wrong though? If he offered to pay 50k gold for every kill on you, I bet he’d go bankrupt before the afternoon is over…”

Xu Yang immediately slumped. “Murong, would it kill you to give me some face?”

Chaos Moon immediately returned to the frontline after she revived. “Beauty Pure Love, gimme Death Match and Divine Valor as soon as possible!”

But Pure Love said embarrassedly, “I’m sorry, but I’ve given all my buffs to Vice Leader Broken Halberd. Go find some other bards to help you…”

“OMG…”

Chaos Moon looked unhappy. The amount of stats a bard could apply was determined by level and Magic Attack just like Tactics. Since Pure Moon had a high level, powerful spells and good equipment, her buffs were at least 50% more effective than buffs of a normal bard, even if it wasn’t explicitly stated on the screen. No wonder Chaos Moon was unwilling to seek out another bard.

Xu Yang raised his sword and shouted, “Kill them all, brothers!”

He Yi shot me a glance and said, “How do you think we should turn the situation around?”

I replied, “We gather all our men and annihilate Flower Room here at Blackwater Bog. Then, we camp their bodies for 24 hours straight. We’ll show the world what the price of provoking Ancient Sword is!”

“Got it!”

He Yi nodded with a smile before facing Xu Yang. “Xu Yang, tell everyone who’s online in the guild to come over. If anyone rejects your summon, just kick them out of the guild. I want them to form 100-man parties and gather five hundred meters to the east of Blackwater Bog! You too, Du Thirteen! Tell everyone in Bloody Mercenaries to form 100-man parties and gather to the west of Blackwater Bog! Once you’re both ready, I want you to surround the map from these two directions! And don’t forget to watch the graveyards!”

“Got it!”

Du Thirteen was just reviving and accepting his armor from me. He said, “I’ve already summoned all 1874 of our players who are online. They’ll be ready and in position in ten minutes tops!”

Xu Yang also said, “Mn, all 1901 of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players who are online are coming as well. No one is absent!”

I asked, “Xu Yang, wasn’t Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls a Rank 3 guild since a while ago? When are you growing to Rank 4? Rank 3 guilds can only accommodate 2000 players, but Rank 4 guilds can accommodate 5000 players!”

Xu Yang smiled. “We’re almost there. I’ll call for a guild EXP grinding session tonight, and we should be able to become a Rank 4 guild then!”

“Mn, this is something we can’t skip on. Let’s try and make Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls the first guild to reach Rank 5 in Sky City. Ten thousand players. Now that is something worth bragging about!”

“Hahaha, true!”

While we were chatting, Du Thirteen was charging the enemy and cutting down their fighters one by one. Du Thirteen’s equipment was pretty good these days, and thanks to efforts of Xu Yang, Beauty Moonlight Stone, Beauty Moon Dew, Beauty Pure Love and other elite players, everyone who was a management-level player in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had at least 3 high-level Dark Gold–grade items to their name. After all, it would be shameful if they were one-shot the second they stepped out of the door.

“Someone kill that motherfucking Amazing Expert already!”

Li Le pointed his sword at Du Thirteen and shouted savagely, “Did you grow tired of life, you little fucker? The right to touch my former lovers is a right reserved for my brothers and no one else! I swear you’ll wish you were dead by the time I’m done with you! Kill him and annihilate Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!”

Du Thirteen shouted right back furiously, “Fuck you! A trash like you don’t deserve Lulu at all! She must’ve been blind when she dated you back then!”

I was caught off-guard. Did Thirteen… actually fall for that Xue Lu?

Du Thirteen had never defended a woman in his life, not even his own girlfriend. It was because girls were like clothes to him, and his brothers, his arms and legs. That was why he would get into a brawl when with me, but never provoke another person over a woman. However, something has changed for Thirteen. More specifically, this Xue Lu had changed him. I never thought I would see the day he would get angry over a woman.

“Heh…”

A smile spread across my face as I rushed to Du Thirteen’s right. I struck the ground with my bloody sword and sent waves of thunder rippling across the ground, killing all the Flower Room players within its range. The War Crush instantly saved Du Thirteen from his predicament.

“The fuck are you smiling about, Lu Chen…” Du Thirteen shot me a glance.

I couldn’t stop myself. “Thirteen, did you fall in love with Xue Lu?”

Du Thirteen looked at his sword and hesitated. I even spotted a bit of redness in his cheeks.

I glared at him. “For fuck’s sake, don’t go red on me, it’s disgusting!”

“Fuck you too, man…”

Du Thirteen mock-glared at me before answering, “Yes, I like her, but as you know, she’s that kind of girl…”

I cut him off before he could say anything else. “Save your buts. If you like her, you like her, it’s that simple. Love doesn’t need a reason.”

“Yeah!”

Du Thirteen gave me a long look before saying, “Thanks for the support, brother. I don’t have any doubts anymore!”

“Heh!” I raised my sword horizontally and stared at the enemies in front of us. “Let’s talk again after this is over. Seriously, the entire guild got dragged into this mess because you fell in love with one girl. Even Chaos Moon and Xu Yang got killed in action. You can afford to lose levels, but they can’t, so you’d better remember to treat them to a meal after this!”

“Yeah, I promise!”

The enemy fighters tried to swarm us, and in response I raised my sword to the air and fired a Thousand Mirage Slash, the fan-shaped sword instantly deleting an entire group of players. I then pointed my sword at Li Le and laughed. “Come at us yourself if you dare, Li Le!”

Naturally, Li Le lacked the balls, equipment, level and even skill to fight me. All he did was barking out another order, “Close-range players, avoid engaging Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand! Long-range players, focus fire on him and kill him now!”

Flower Room’s fighters stopped charging, opting to stand in front of their mages and archers and protect them. At the same time, countless Devil Piercing Arrows and Ice Dragon Howls started raining from the sky. Goddamn, what a shameless man! Shame on you for using such a cowardly tactic, Li Le!

“Focus your healing on Lu Chen, priests!” He Yi ordered. My HP fluctuated erratically as my enemies tried to kill me, and my allied priests tried to keep me alive. Thankfully, my Defense was way better than Gui Guzi’s, so the chance that I might get one-shot by the enemy was much lower. Gui Guzi’s problem was that his Magic Resist was too low, so a couple Ice Dragon Howls were all it took to make him squeal.

The moment 15 seconds were up, I locked onto a magic knight and activated Charge without hesitation!

Whoosh!

The second I arrived in front of my target, I immediately raised my sword and dished out Thousand Mirage Slash! At the same time, I stomped the ground and used War Crush! I looked like a war god as bloody light and thunderous energy surrounded me. The moment my boots hit the ground, lightning immediately spread out and destroyed my enemies!

Rumble rumble!

The combination of Thousand Mirage Slash and War Crush was as devastating as it was loud. War Crush popped the enemy fighters’ morale and courage like a balloon, and Thousand Mirage Slash annihilated the backliners before they could do anything. I was the only one standing in the enemy frontline, no one else around by the time my skills had unleashed their full effects. The fight was still not over though. A few seconds later, I pointed my sword in Li Le’s direction and shouted, “Prepare to die, Li Le!”