“Sigh, that guy…”

I wordlessly led He Yi through the eastern gate and toward the edge of the forest. As expected, a group of players including Freezing Point were right there. This fucker had teleported to Dark Moon City while everyone was too busy to pay attention to him and came here with several hundred Waste and Burn players.

Lu Buyi was staring at Freezing Point icily. Behind him, Xu Yang, Li Chengfeng, and dozens of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players were ready to take action if necessary. Although they were outnumbered by the enemy, Xu Yang and Li Chengfeng were both one-man armies today. They could take care of Freezing Point with ease if they wanted to.

……

“What are you doing?” I might be guildless right now, but that doesn’t change the fact that I am a member of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls,” Lu Buyi said indifferently.

A distressed expression appeared on Freezing Point’s features. “Buyi, it’s been a while since Waste and Burn was established, and everyone in the guild is as thick as thieves. How did it come to this?”

Lu Buyi smiled. “It came to this because I was too blind to recognize the truth.”

“You!” Freezing Point’s eyes widened in anger. “Is that your roundabout way to criticize me? Damn you, did you forget how we gave everything to help you? Did you forget how we party-wiped twice to kill that bear boss at Moonlight Forest and helped you complete your secret class promotion quest?”

Freezing Point then pointed at Lu Buyi’s nose and yelled agitatedly. “You’re the betrayer here, not me! Dammit, who do you think grinded the equipment you’re wearing? Who do you think powerleveled you to your current level? If it wasn’t for us, you would never have come under the notice of Lu Chen, the seventh-placed CGL Hall of Famer! You are nothing without us!”

Lu Buyi calmly pulled out his cloth-armor boots and discarded it on the ground. Then, he said in a loud voice, “In that case, I’ll return everything I owe you!”

Lu Buyi then took off his alchemist robe, his wristguards, legguards, cap, everything. At the end, he was only wearing the beginner’s robe and wielding the overpowered Burning Fan. His back was tall and straight as he looked at Freezing Point. “I’ve given back everything to you. If you want to, I’ll even let you kill me until I’m below Level 100. I am the man who will become the greatest tactician of China, and I will never accept the charity of a scoundrel like you. Even if I have to restart from zero, I am confident that I will become the best tactician of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls because I have two things you lack: faith and conviction!”

Caught completely off-guard by Lu Buyi’s declaration, Freezing Point blankly stared at the alchemist robe on the ground and wondered if he should pick it up. He struggled with indecision for a long time before he said, “You really are ruthless. Fuck, today’s the day I saw through the human heart!”

Lu Buyi chuckled. “You think you saw through the human heart? How could you see anything with a heart as ugly and dirty as yours?”

The comment caused Freezing Point to explode. “Oh really? Then I’ll show you just how ruthless I can be! Don’t think I wouldn’t dare to kill you all the way down to Level 0! Lu Chen is a guild leader who doesn’t know how to respect his subguild, and you, his lackey, are no better!”

Freezing Point gripped his blade tighter and acted to take a step toward Lu Buyi. The tactician only had a weapon equipped, so there was no chance he could survive a round of attack from Freezing Point even if he turned on the Purple Dragon stratagem.

……

“Stop!”

It was at this moment Li Chengfeng spoke up, “Have some shame, Freezing Point! Do you think Xu Yang and I are decorations? Lu Buyi is our brother since the day he joined Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and anyone who attacks our brother in front of us is slapping our faces! You should know that there’s nothing I hate more than people face-slapping me!”

He Yi and I arrived even before Li Chengfeng could finish his sentence. Our beautiful guild leader blocked in front of Lu Buyi, held her sword in front of her and examined the players of Waste and Burn coldly. “Who dares harm the best tactician of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls? Just try me!”

Although He Yi hadn’t logged in for a couple of days and dropped out of Sky City’s Heavenly Ranking as a result, she was still the guild leader of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and a famous person who stayed on top for a very long time. If her appearance made the players of Waste and Burn turn as gray as ash, then it was even worse when I appeared beside her.

Lu Buyi stared at us dumbly. “Guild leader, vice leader, I…”

I turned around and smiled at him. “It’s okay, you were absolutely right. A man is born into this world to live with a clear conscience. Even without their equipment, no one can stop you from progressing to the top.”

I kicked Lu Buyi’s equipment toward Waste and Burn after saying that, and their players picked them up gingerly. There was no reason for them to turn down perfectly good equipment, but in my eyes, these items were mundane at best. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ warehouse was filled with Outstanding Dark Gold–grade, Purple Gold–grade and even Spirit-grade equipment. I’m sure I could gather a full set of tactician equipment for Lu Buyi that was at least as good as the one Waste and Burn had given him.

After that, I grinned and said, “Alright, Lu Buyi has paid back what he owed, and now it’s your turn to do so, traitors of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! How dare you waste our trust in you!”

I pointed my sword at them and ordered, “Buyi, you can stay where you are. Everyone else, kill them all! Don’t leave a single person alive!”

Li Chengfeng and Xu Yang immediately ran forward and unleashed Reverse Scale Slash and Mountain Stagger Slash. Their attack power was so strong that Waste and Burn’s formation was disrupted instantly despite the fact that they were several hundred strong. When He Yi joined the battle as well and summoned a Hurricane with her Whirlwind, Freezing Point looked as though he might faint from terror!

The battle was over in just ten minutes. A wide-eyed Freezing Point was nailed to a small pine tree by Xu Yang. The moment he died, pain flashed across Lu Buyi’s features almost too fast for me to catch. I was glad. This proved that Lu Buyi was a person with a heart. I would’ve been worried if he was absolutely ruthless toward Freezing Point.

……

“Alright, job’s done. Buyi, it’s time to join the main guild!” I sent Lu Buyi a guild invite. He was a member of the eighth subguild until they betrayed us. Now, most of them were unaffiliated, including Lu Buyi.

A ding notified that the invite was successful. Lu Buyi nodded at me and said directly, “I promise I’ll live up to everyone’s expectations, Lu Chen.”

I nodded with a smile. “Mn, we all believe in you. Come on, let’s head back to Dark Moon City and get you a new set of equipment!”

“Okay!”

We turned back under the escort of a group of Cyan Tiger Cavalry. The clean-up battle in Dark Moon City was nearing its end, and almost everyone from the three guilds had been killed. There were still small pockets of people putting up a last hurrah, but they clearly were no match for Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Snowy Cathaya and The Monarch Descends combined.

I looked around for a bit after arriving at the guild warehouse. Cloth armor, high Defense, high Tactics, and high HP. Put all these requirements together and the pool of applicable equipment became drastically smaller. Thankfully, we got so much loot out of this war that I was able to filter out three Spirit-grade and four Purple Gold–grade pieces of equipment that fit Lu Buyi. He put them all on, a smart and cultured tactician in cyan robes was born just like that. The attire complemented him well because he was born with an intelligent-looking face.

“These items are amazing, hehe…” Lu Buyi chuckled as he examined his own stats. “I have almost 400 Tactics, so my stratagems are amplified by 400%. With this, Purple Dragon can boost everyone’s stats by 75%!”

He Yi’s eyes lit up. “Beauty Lin’s Bombshell has a hard cap of 80%. Did you see anything like this for Purple Dragon, Lu Buyi?”

“For now, I don’t see any mention of a hard cap.”

“Oh, that’s awesome!”

I smiled as well. Lu Buyi’s stratagem might actually be able to surpass Lin Yixin’s one day. Lin Yixin’s Bombshell was heralded as the strongest Famous General Skill of Heavenblessed, so it wouldn’t be wrong to call Lu Buyi the strongest tactician of China once his Purple Dragon surpasses her Bombshell.

……

It was at this moment a panicking Level 132 magic knight galloped past me. Behind him, High Fighting Spirits was giving chase and shouting, “Stop running, you shameless fucker! Are you a man or what!?”

The magic knight didn’t listen to him, forcing High Fighting Spirits to pant like a dog as he gave chase.

Crack!

Suddenly, a red flash appeared and stunned the magic knight in his tracks. Then, a beautiful figure appeared out of nowhere and hit the guy’s neck three times in a row with a dagger. It was the skill Blade Vortex, and it was one of Farewell Song’s most familiar moves.

Thud thud thud!

8042!

7899!

8125!

Three hits later, the assassin girl followed up with an Eviscerate that almost emptied all of the magic knight’s health. Behind him, High Fighting Spirits finally caught up and ended his misery with an axe to the neck. Then, he praised the girl with a hearty laugh, “Aiyo, where did you come from, little missy? That is some impressive assassin moves you got there!”

The girl was none other than Cute Little Naughty, the girl I was planning to recruit until a war declaration suddenly smacked me in the face. I was surprised to find that she had shown up herself.

High Fighting Spirits was a lolicon, so he absolutely adored Cute Little Naughty’s appearance, although granted anyone could fall for a girl with a cute face and a cute body like her. Rubbing his arms and salivating unconsciously, High Fighting Spirits asked, “Where did you come from, little girl?”

Cute Little Naughty slowly turned her back on High Fighting Spirits before looking at me. “Big brother Broken Halberd, did you forget our promise already?”

In that moment, High Fighting Spirits felt like killing himself.

I answered, “Of course not. But do you want to join the main guild, or do you want to build a subguild of your own?”

“I want to become a guild leader!” Cute Little Naughty puffed up her adolescent chest and smiled confidently. “I’m going to build an assassin guild that only accepts assassins!”