“Damn…”

My eyes widened in slight shock. I never imagined that the Level 120 fighter classes would be able to learn such a good skill. As an Undead Swordsman, my class was absolutely a subclass of Warrior. However, it was too bad that my class trainer was Rinser, a holy magus. Because of that, I wasn’t given an opportunity to learn Barrier Break. Fortunately for me, combining Desperate Gambit and Perceive Weakness gave me Universe Break. so I guess you could say that I got a lucky break.

Universe Break had nearly the same effects as Barrier Break, but it was superior in every category. It did more damage, ignored more of an opponent’s defenses, and even used the power of the universe to lower my opponent’s attack by 10%! It was highly effective in both PvP and killing bosses!

I took off my Soul Suppressing Cloak without the slightest bit of hesitation. It was the only piece of Earth-grade equipment I was wearing and it added 145 Strength, so it was definitely enough to push Lin Yixin’s Strength to 1400 points.

“Here, wear it and learn the skill before returning it to me…” I said with a faint smile.

“Mmm!”

Lin Yixin quickly wore the cloak. But after that, she was starstruck by the increase in her stats and she smiled at me sweetly. “Little Cheat, can I please keep it…”

“You dare…”

“Fine, fine. I’ll be done soon...”

Brilliant light soon engulfed Lin Yixin’s body. It was clear that she had successfully learned the Barrier Break skill. Now that she had this skill, Lin Yixin’s ability to penetrate her target’s Defense was extremely high. It didn’t matter if she went up against high-Defense players in heavy armor like Gui Guzi or I, she would still have no problem cutting through our Defense like a hot knife through butter.

After Lin Yixin returned the Soul Suppressing Cloak to me, she smiled sweetly and said, “Thanks! I think that there was no one else besides you who could help me learn Barrier Break…”

I laughed. “Haha, it’s fine. You managed to learn it. The server’s going to close soon, so you should get some rest. We’ve been killing monsters for so many hours, you must be tired out of your mind.”

“Mn.”

Lin Yixin nodded her head as she stared at me with those beautiful eyes that sparkled like amethysts. She seemed to want to say something else to me.

“What? What’s up?”

“Uh… Can you thank Sister He Yi for me? She died to save my life. Also… are you free in the afternoon tomorrow? I… I’ll treat all of you to a meal?”

“Tomorrow afternoon?” I licked my lips before replying, “Let’s do it on another day. We’re busy tomorrow, and we won’t even be in Suzhou…”

“Oh? Where are you going?”

“I’m taking a trip home to visit my dad. He Yi, Mingyue, and Beiming Xue want to enjoy the scenic countryside as well, so the entire Frost Cloud Workshop’s going along with me.”

“Ohh…” Lin Yixin pursed her lips and her eyes danced with an emotion I couldn’t quite understand. After that, she let out a soft laugh and said, “Oh forget it, let’s do this on another day. Well, since that’s the case, I’ll accompany my mother tomorrow.”

“Okay, let’s have a meal when I come back.”

“Okay! Have fun on your trip!”

We bade each other goodbye. Just after we turned to walk away, the server shutdown timer appeared in our HUD. After experiencing a series of fierce battles, Sky City had been reduced to a bunch of ruins and the city itself was strewn with corpses, so the server needed to refresh Sky City and transfer the authority of Sky City to Karinshan. All of these things needed time to patch in.

The entire Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls guild chat broke out into an uproar.

Li Chengfeng: “Fucking hell, I was this close to completing my fifth class promotion quest. Ah, this system really didn’t give me any face this time…”

Beiming Xue: “I also nearly completed my promotion quest. Boohoo…”

He Yi: “I barely even got started. I just received an A Rank quest, and it’ll take me at least three hours to kill all of these monsters.”

Xu Yang: “I didn’t even hit Level 120 because I died early. Please stop tormenting me…”

Everyone broke out into laughter at that. We logged out together as the system slowly ticked down to zero.

……

After I took off my helmet, I sucked in a deep breath of cool midnight air. I had been online for more than ten hours, so my body had about reached its limits. Moreover, my stomach was growling incessantly and I was feeling extremely dehydrated. This actually felt a bit unpleasant.

My body actually swayed a little as I stood up so I quickly grabbed the bottle of mineral water on my table and chugged it down. As water coursed down my parched throat, I felt strength returning to my body.

As I thought of everything that had happened during the Coldblade War, I couldn’t help but laugh. Tsk tsk, it could definitely be said that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Snowy Cathaya, and The Monarch Descends had reaped the most benefits during this event since we’d managed to hold on until the very end. When Coldblade, one of the Nine Great Sovereigns of Hell, finally made an appearance, we were the only players who dared to take him on. We had definitely made a mark on the history of Heavenblessed with our actions.

……

“Lu Chen, have you gone offline?”

He Yi held a laptop in her hand as she walked out of her room and sat next to me. When she opened up the laptop and loaded up the Heavenblessed website, she laughed. “Look, look! The name of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is on the frontpage of China’s Heavenblessed website…”

I turned to look at her screen and I was shocked to see a broad horizontal advertisement banner running across the face of the Heavenblessed website. On the right of the banner was a menacing-looking Coldblade and on the left was several players. The person that stood at the very head of those players was my avatar. My Soul Suppressing Cloak was fluttering in the air behind me and the way that tattered, blood-colored cloak danced in the air looked way too cool! At my side stood Lin Yixin, He Yi, Li Chengfeng, and a few other top-tier players who had participated in the war. The way the artist had depicted the banner made it seem as if the group of us were staring straight at Coldblade. When I shifted to the next page of the banner, I saw several large words that had been beautifully drawn.

“The Coldblade War Comes To A Perfect Close!”

As the banner shifted to the next page, a row of smaller words gave a brief recap of what had happened during the event.

“The royal authority of Sky City has been transferred to a new ruler! The contingent of players covered themselves in glory as guilds such as Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Snowy Cathaya, The Monarch Descends, and Warsky Alliance plunged into bloody battle with the Purgatory Legion. They achieved victory in the end and successfully defended a main city of the China region! They even managed to push one of the Sovereigns of Hell back where he came from! A feat that shook the heavens themselves!”

I couldn’t help but chuckle when I read the advertisement. “Not bad. It’s like the official website is helping our guild advertise for free. After this Coldblade War, the fame of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls will grow even greater.”

“Yeah!” He Yi let out a sweet, tinkling laugh. “Everyone tried their hardest and we even managed to last all the way to the last wave. And we still had a few hundred players left at the end of the event. Heehee, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was the undeniable anchor during this event and the voices that have been doubting our strength should grow silent now.”

I nodded my head and smiled. “That’s right.”

He Yi pushed the laptop out in front of her and yawned. She smiled at me. “Ahhh, I’m so tired. Where’s Mingyue and Beiming Xue? Are they taking a bath together?”

“Yup, that’s right. Did you already take yours?”

“Heehee, I took the chance to bathe after I died just now..."

I laughed when I heard that. As I reached out to touch the laptop, my face ended up brushing against He Yi’s beautiful shoulder.

“Eve, shall we go back to my hometown tomorrow?”

“Mmm! That sounds great!”

He Yi looked at the time before she laughed and said, “If we sleep till eleven tomorrow, that should be more than enough rest for us. We’ll have brunch and then buy some gifts before we head off.”

“Sounds like a plan!”

……

Not long after, the bathroom door opened, and... (The next ten thousand words that follow have been redacted)

I disentangled Beiming Xue’s arms from my waist as I gently pulled her arm from behind and spun her onto the sofa. I need to stop her from behaving like this! I am a proper man after all. These things always leave me feeling very awkward.

Murong Mingyue smiled. “Ai, this workshop is getting more and more harmonious, huh…”

He Yi also smiled mischievously. “That’s right. It seems like Little Mingxue has fallen for Lu Chen…”

Beiming Xue’s face grew so red that her blush even reached her ears. She protested, “That’s not true. This is the love a little sister has for her big brother. It’s not what you think it is…”

He Yi and Murong Mingyue simply smiled in response to that. Beiming Xue immediately lost all of her confidence. She changed topics while avoiding their gazes, “Let’s eat. I’m really hungry…”

“Yeah!”

Everyone felt excited when the topic of food was brought up! He Yi took out a lot of pizza while Murong Mingyue carried out the Sichuan dishes on plates.

My heart sang with joy when I saw the small mountain of food. I quickly went to grab a few beers from the fridge before I picked up my chopsticks and started my attack. I merrily drank my beer as I wolfed down the slice of pizza I was holding in my left hand while grabbing pieces of Sichuan poached fish with the chopsticks in my right. For some odd reason, these two dishes went really with each other and only a harmonious workshop like ours could come up with such a combination.

The girls had low combative power when it came to the field of eating. All of them started waving the white flag not long after we started eating. Beiming Xue even patted her stomach as she complained, “I’m so full! My stomach is stuffed to the brim…”

I reached out a hand to test her theory. I gave her stomach a few pats, but it was as flat as an airport runway. “Your stomach’s so flat, how can you even say that you’re full?”

We kept eating until the wee hours of the morning. All the girls were exhausted so they retired to their rooms to sleep. I decided to shower before I slept, but I lost consciousness the moment my head hit my pillow.