Boom! Boom! Boom!

As I used War Crush, the bloody light emitted by the skill dyed the area around me in waves of red. The Star Rhinos in the radius of this attack were battered by the energy waves assaulting them, their health dropping rapidly as they let out low bellows. The 30% splash effect of the Heaven-stealing Sword was too incredible! It had become my greatest weapon in clearing out mobs!

Furthermore, I was gaining the most experience points as well. As we continued to mow down one Star Rhino after the other, at least 80% of the monsters we had killed had died by my hand. The other 10% were taken down by Beiming Xue, while Moonlight Stone and the other long-range attackers of my squad had each taken down a few themselves. I was more often than not taking 50% of the experience points given by these Star Rhinos, and this dramatically filled my EXP bar. In less than half an hour, more than four hundred Star Rhinos had fallen to my Heaven-stealing Sword, and I was sitting at 97%. I was now just 3% away from hitting Level 133 and killing a few more groups of Star Rhinos should do the trick! This way of grinding is the best!

Pop!

As the last Star Rhino stumbled to the ground, a pair of azure war boots dropped on the ground. I picked them up, and just as I had expected, they were the fabled Split Galaxy War Boots. This armor set was really strong. Besides greatly increasing HP and Defense of its wearer, wearing a full set of five pieces would also give its wearer 25% splash damage on all of their attacks. This was ridiculous because current magic knight players had plenty of health and Defense, but it was their attack power that was sorely lacking. This 25% splash damage bonus would undoubtedly cause their DPS to undergo a monumental change. It would allow them to become solo grinders, ones that could sweep a map clear of monsters.

……

Beiming Xue slung her longbow across her shoulder and turned to speak to the rest of the squad, "Everyone, let big bro pick up all the Split Galaxy set pieces first. We’ll go pick up items after he’s done. Is that okay? We’ll also let big bro take care of all the Split Galaxy."

Everyone nodded their heads in unison. After all, I was the vice leader and I also had a ridiculous amount of defensive stats, so I really was the best choice to take care of these items.

I stepped across the bodies of these Star Rhinos and started to pick up all the Split Galaxy set pieces in the area. I was filled with ecstasy as I slowly counted the number of lucky set drops. There were 12 of them, for a total of 14 thus far. After sorting them, it turned out we had gathered two full sets already! Awesome!

I put all the items in my inventory before surveying the area. I spied a large herd of Star Rhinos in the distance just waiting to be killed. Even though it had looked like a small valley from a distance, this place had actually turned out to be a huge basin. Li Chengfeng and High Fighting Spirit were slowly moving further and further away as they continued to kill mobs, but their activity in the guild channel told me that they were still safe.

Once I had finished picking up all the Split Galaxy set pieces, I stood to the side and let the rest of my squad take their pick of the items that littered the ground. As Level 160 shadow-rank mobs that were nearly thirty levels higher than us, item drops were very frequent and they had dropped quite a few pieces of equipment as well. In fact, this first wave alone had dropped so much equipment that everyone in my party had been able to pick up more than ten each. Of course, they weren’t necessarily going to wear everything they had picked up. It was more likely that they were going to sell these items back in Sky City and make a killing!

……

Once everyone had finished picking up the spoils of war, I dashed off once again. After wandering a corner of the valley for nearly five minutes, I returned once more with a huge cloud of dust at my back. I had brought even more Star Rhinos back this time, and there were at least a thousand of them bellowing after me. When Beiming Xue, Moonlight Stone, and Moon Dew saw the huge horde of monsters behind me, they laughed so hard that they clutched their sides. Their faces were flushed red with excitement and their pretty blushes drove the men in the party to distraction.

Thunk!

Once I had confirmed that I was at the choke point, I spun on my heel and swept the Heaven-stealing Sword down fiercely. Three crescents of blazing sword energy flew out my sword and smashed into the Star Rhinos charging toward me.

I had to say that all of the new skills that I had learned had become my greatest tools for mobbing. I basically cycled through Burning Blade Slash, Thousand Ice Slash, War Crush, and Icy Cyclone Domain. Especially the last item on the list, since I started using the magic domain skill more and more often recently. It not only covered a large area, but it also dealt a huge amount of continuous damage to any mob caught in the area. This had greatly increased my total damage output and it was the main reason why my DPS made for 85% of the party’s total damage.

Not once did I need to use Universe Break while I was killing these Star Rhinos either. Since I was killing a large amount of mobs at one go, I could completely disregard single-target skills. They were better used during PvP or boss fights. I wasn’t the same as Xu Yang and Chaos Moon, I didn’t need to rely on my break ability to earn a living.

As I continued my joyful killing spree, chaos suddenly broke out in the guild channel.

High Fighting Spirits suddenly exclaimed, "Fuck! Shit has hit the fan!"

Xu Yang immediately replied, "Fighting Spirits, what happened?"

High Fighting Spirits: "We got ambushed by that son of a bitch Farewell Song! He ambushed us together with a big group of assassins! There were at least thirty of them too! All of the mages and priests in our party died as soon as the battle started!"

He Yi hurriedly exclaimed, "Fighting Spirits, don’t do anything rash! How many people do you have left still?"

High Fighting Spirits hissed back a reply through clenched teeth, "I have just over a dozen melee fighters left! Fuck it, I’m gonna lead the rest of our comrades into battle! I don’t believe that I can’t get rid of a bunch of assassins with what’s left of my squad!"

I quickly yelled, "Fighting Spirits, I need you to calm down and listen to guild leader’s instructions! You are to retreat immediately. None of the people in your party are a match for Farewell Song, and that includes you! You don’t realize just how terrifying his mechanical skill is. He can stunlock you to death with his bare hands before you can even hit him. Retreat now! Li Chengfeng, your party is to link up with the survivors of High Fighting Spirit’s party. I’m currently tied down in this location!"

Li Chengfeng shouted, "Okay, I have his coordinates. High Fighting Spirits, I need you to lead your squad south. I will be able to link up with you within three minutes. Fucking hell, let me get a taste of that bastard Farewell Song!"

Xu Yang growled, "Shit! The Warsky Alliance is really shameless. To think that they’d do something as low as ambush us. That Warsky really does have super thick skin. He apologized to us before but here he goes again! The moment they entered the B9 floor, they started to plan an ambush against our guild! How fucking nice of him!"

Murong Mingyue laughed. "Xu Yang, don’t let your rage scramble your brains. Everyone calm down and think about it. How many players are allowed to enter the Star Dragon Domain? Eight hundred. Our Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls took three hundred of those eight hundred spots right off the bat, so Warsky definitely recognizes that we are his greatest threat in this map. Truth be told, we are far more dangerous than Candlelight Shadow and his hundred men."

She took a deep breath before continuing, "In any case, Farewell Song is an assassin and these Star Rhinos are so strong that there’s no way that the assassins under Farewell Song will be able to fight them. I bet Farewell Song himself might barely even be able to fight one. If they don’t go around assassinating people, what use do they have in this map? What’s more, assassins have always done these sort of sneaky, underhanded things, right?"

He Yi agreed by saying, "Mingyue is exactly right. Just five minutes ago, the premier assassin of Purple Lily, Moonkiss, assassinated one of the main players from Warsky Alliance. The entire Star Dragon Domain is a very chaotic and dangerous place right now, and everyone needs to protect themselves. All of us should slowly move toward the center of the map. Once we link up with each other, no one will be able to shake us."

I replied, "Yeah, I got it. The rest of you can start linking up first, I’m still busy clearing mobs."

He Yi giggled. "Do your best! I saw the levels of Moon Dew and Moonlight Stone jump up."

……

"Lu Chen, what do we do now?" Moonlight Stone asked.

I slashed at the Star Rhinos in front of me as I yelled, "Let’s just stick to what we’re doing! A few assassins won’t be able to threaten us for now. Let’s continue grinding, because levels and equipment are the true foundation of a player’s power. The levels of these mobs are so high, so even if Farewell Song comes here, he won’t be able to get past my Icy Cyclone Domains. Don’t worry, we’re safe here and Li Chengfeng has gone to rescue High Fighting Spirits. Farewell Song won’t be able to do anything to them as long as our dragon warrior is there.”

"Okay!"

A small interlude later, we continued to grind mobs. I had lured over a thousand Star Rhinos this time, so even though we were clearing them at a very fast pace, it would take us at least an hour to clear all of them.

We received another piece of news in the guild channel about ten minutes later.

High Fighting Spirits exclaimed once more: "Fucking hell, that punk Farewell Song is really fierce. He actually managed to kill a dozen of us even though we were suppressing him with cover fire. Is this punk even human?"

Xu Yang hurriedly asked, "What’s the situation on your end right now?"

Li Chengfeng replied in a heavy voice, "Our heads are still above the water. Even though Farewell Song managed to kill a dozen of our people in an ambush, we killed nineteen of the thirty-seven assassins he had brought with him, so I don’t think he’ll dare to peek his head out anymore."

High Fighting Spirits laughed as he said, "Our Li is made of some stern stuff! He’s the only one in our group who can handle Farewell Song…"

He Yi said, "I want all of you to proceed with utmost caution. Let’s all link up as soon as possible! Gui Guzi has already brought his people there to grind."

Li Chengfeng replied, "Okay, we’ll head over right now. Good thing we only met Farewell Song just now. If we had met Candle Dragon, they’d probably have wiped us out by now."

He Yi replied, "That’s true!"

……

Everyone knew how important it was to have a peak expert on your side during these PvP battles in the wild. If Li Chengfeng hadn’t been there, Farewell Song’s assassin squad would definitely have been able to wipe out High Fighting Spirits and his men. Even though High Fighting Spirits could also be called a first-class expert, he was still quite a distance from someone like Farewell Song, a godlike expert ranked eleventh in the CGL Hall of Fame.

Even though Li Chengfeng hadn’t entered the CGL Hall of Fame either, his mechanical skill was just a little inferior to Farewell Song’s own. This coupled with the inherent advantage provided by his class meant that Li Chengfeng was completely capable of facing off against Farewell Song as a peer and not prey. However, the moment Li Chengfeng and High Fighting Spirits met Candlelight Shadow, they would be toast. After all, the title of Martial God wasn’t an empty boast. His skill at open-world PvP had been honed to perfection by countless battles.

As time slowly crawled by, I finally reached Level 133. After we had finished clearing all of those Star Rhinos, we had swept this corner of the basin clear of any mobs and I had also reached Level 134! It had only taken slightly over an hour too! Leveling in the Nine Lost Dragon Domains was really fantastic!

When I looked at China’s Heavenly Ranking, I realized that the others weren’t slacking off, and were also grinding the rhinos like mad. This was especially true for Luo River God of the Capital and God’s Dance. Man, these mages really leveled up at a ridiculous speed.

NameLevelClassLuo River God of the Capital

137MageGod’s Dance

136MageBroken Halberd Sinks Into Sand

134Undead SwordsmanCandlelight Shadow

133WarriorWind Fantasy

133Light WandererStranger of Three Lifetimes

133MageBeiming Xue

132Dark ArcherLegendary Brave

131Dragon WarriorPurple Marquis

131WarriorCome See The Snow Tonight

131Magic Knight

……

The two grand mages, Luo River God of the Capital and God’s Dance, easily took the top two spots while I barely clung on to the third place. Candlelight Shadow, Lin Yixin, and Stranger of Three Lifetimes were ranked fourth to sixth respectively, but it seemed as if their positions could flip at any moment. It was really hard to get onto China’s Heavenly Ranking, and even players like He Yi and Gui Guzi couldn’t get in.

Yeah, I still need to work hard. Candlelight Shadow and his men are hot on my tail and Candle Dragon is still a huge power in China. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls still have a long way to go before we can launch our counterattack,

It was at this moment that I heard a "beep" sound. Lin Yixin had sent me a message: "Come to the coordinates (1289, 9830). We’ve found the boss. It’s called ‘Star Dragon’ and it’s a Level 160 Heaven Rank boss. There’s no way that Snowy Cathaya can kill it on our own, so you guys should come over as well. Let’s kill it together!"