The next day, I woke up at an early 8 am.

He Yi, Beiming Xue, Murong Mingyue, Moonlight Stone, and I had a very important quest to do today. It was of course to enter Dragonlight Canyon with the treasure map and find its hidden treasures. At the very least, I knew that our levels would be climbing like crazy since the requirement to enter the map was Level 150.

At the workshop, Murong Mingyue poked fun at me while eating her bread. "So, how did your mad chase for Beauty Lin go, Lu Chen?"

I replied while holding up my porridge bowl, "What did you expect? Yiyi left the country, and that’s it. I went to the airport, but I wasn’t able to see her."

Beiming Xue said, "That’s a shame. I’m sure Lin Yixin misses you a lot."

I gave her a smile. "I guess."

"It’s all my fault…" He Yi looked a bit glum. She stared at me apologetically and said, "Yiyi wouldn’t have had to stand in the rain for that long if it wasn’t for me…"

Murong Mingyue exclaimed in shock, "Are you okay? Why are you apologizing? Did you forget that Yiyi’s your love rival?"

He Yi pursed her lips for a bit before answering, "Personally, I don’t really think of her as a rival. We both share the misfortune of falling in love with the same dummy…"

I immediately said, "No personal attacks, please!"

He Yi chuckled. "Fine, fine, I won’t attack you anymore~"

I then changed the subject. "Anyway, there’s nothing to be worried about. Yiyi isn’t such a narrow-minded person. The quest we’re going to do today? You need a treasure map to get inside, and Yiyi’s the one who gave it to me."

"Wow…"

While the girls were expressing their surprise, Beiming Xue said, "Big bro, if I were sister Lin Yixin, I would’ve beaten you up for making me stand in the rain for a whole hour!"

Both Murong Mingyue and He Yi nodded in agreement immediately.

"For fuck’s sake, do you girls want to go to Dragonlight Canyon or not?" I rolled my eyes at them. "If yes, then shut up and finish up your food. If no, that’s fine too, I’ll just party up with Gui Guzi and Li Chengfeng instead! Who knows, the party may even be stronger as a result!"

"No, bring us with you…" Murong Mingyue pleaded in between giggles.

……

After breakfast was over, we returned to our respective rooms and began a new day inside the game. Every player in the entire world was rushing to hit Level 150 right now, and in Sky City, lone players who had completed their sixth promotion quests and entered the Earthfire Realm were almost everywhere. If we didn’t increase our levels as soon as possible, we would be outstripped by the others and turned into the mundane.

After logging into the game and repairing my equipment, I loaded 200 Rank 10 Saint Spirit Potions and almost 100 stacks of Rank 9 Saint Spirit Potion into my bag. Rank 9 Saint Spirit Potions were better for normal use because the Rank 10 version required the extremely rare ingredient, Divine Dayflower, and was thus impossible to mass produce. Unless I was PvPing or fighting a boss, it was better to stick with Rank 9 Saint Spirit Potions.

I also carried 10 Bloodknight Cards with me, the ones that buffed max HP by 40% and Defense by 15%. Finally, I grabbed some supplements that increase Stamina, Strength and so on by 450 points. The party didn’t have a high-level bard, so these supplements could be very useful later.

After I created the party, I added He Yi, Beiming Xue, Murong Mingyue, and Moonlight Stone as my party members. Then, I said in the party channel, "Alright! There’s no telling when we’ll come out after we enter Dragonlight Canyon, so make sure to bring your tents and fill every slot you have with potions and supplies! Don’t worry about them going to waste, because there’s no way in hell you won’t be using them in this map. I expect us to level up 3 times by the time we’re finished with the map!"

"Mn, mn!" The girls nodded repeatedly.

"Once you’re ready, head to the east gate of Dark Moon City and wait there. Dragonlight Canyon is about one and a half hours to the east of Dark Moon City."

"Got it, party leader!"

I immediately teleported to Dark Moon City and went to the east gate. A wave of loneliness assaulted me as I was standing in the wilderness, so I summoned the Armored Ice Qilin Horse and the Phantom Wolf King. I got up my mount while the little wolf darted energetically around the area, his nose sniffing constantly in search of danger.

Dark Moon City was growing stronger day by day, and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was very famous in China right now. Therefore, it was no surprise that our city had grown into a hub for leveling and resupply no less critical than a main city. Countless players were walking in and out of the city, and many of them were shooting me looks of astonishment because I hadn’t bothered to hide my ID. Both the name and the emblem that marked me as the vice leader of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls on my shoulder made me stand out like a sore thumb.

I spent a moment to thank the fact that no one had decided to come over and speak with me. I could handle partying up with strangers and grinding with them, but talking to one was an entirely different story.

The girls didn’t take long to show up.

He Yi was riding her Snow Domain Windchaser as usual. Although we had reached a point where her mount could no longer be considered a super-tier mount, He Yi didn’t want to change it because its appearance was extremely beautiful.

Beiming Xue was clad in dark leather armor and wielding the Dragonbone String. Her red-colored eyes looked incredibly attractive, and her attire clung tightly to her body. Her now fully formed breasts looked like they were struggling to escape their bindings, and her snow white legs swaying beneath the battle robes were dazzling to say the least.

Murong Mingyue’s beauty was a completely different kind compared to Beiming Xue. She wore a priest robe and wielded a scepter. Her robe had a deep neckline that revealed the amazing globes swaying slightly beneath the thin layer of fabric. The sky-blue cloak fluttering behind her back seemed to imply her status of a super priest.

Moonlight Stone was dressed like what you would expect from a high-level mage. Her weapon was the Dragonbone Scepter, a 2-star Outstanding Earth-grade weapon if I remembered correctly. The girl had grown a lot compared to her old self. She was a stubborn girl who never stopped grinding to become the chief mage of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and thanks to her hard work she was slowly but surely shortening the gap between herself and top-tier mages like God’s Dance and Luo River God of the Capital.

……

"Alright, everyone’s here. Eve, I’m giving you the party leader so you can use Royal Road. The 50% boost to all stats should make us all a bit tankier."

"Got it!"

He Yi activated her stratagem after I transferred the party leader position to her, and my max HP immediately increased by a whopping 50%. I then tossed a Bloodknight Card into the air and further increased my max HP by another 40%. To put it simply, my current HP was absolutely no joke.

Beiming Xue blinked curiously as she asked me, "How much HP do you have now, big bro?"

I shot her a glance and smiled. "135261."

"What?" Moonlight Stone’s mouth fell open. "That’s ridiculous! A warrior with 135k HP? You put Gui Guzi and Heaven’s Rain to shame!"

I chuckled. "Nah. If Little Gui had the Royal Road buff on him, his HP would be higher than mine. Oh right, what is your HP, Eve?"

He Yi glanced at me before answering, "It’s 104k, a bit lower than yours. Your Armored Ice Qilin Horse is just too good…"

"Mn, it’s still over 100k, so that’s great. Alright, it’s time to depart! We’re not going back to Sky City until our bags are full of treasures, everyone!"

"Let’s go!"

And so, we excitedly embarked on the journey to Dragonlight Canyon, a treasure hunt with no competitors, because we were the only ones with the treasure map. This meant that the mobs, the boss, the loot, everything was ours to claim. How amazing was that?

……

When we passed through the Cyan Tiger Forest, we took a moment to reminisce. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call the Cyan Battle Tiger one of the symbols of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and the reason we were undefeated in the war of cavalry. It was a milestone both literally and metaphorically.

We couldn’t be satisfied with just the Cyan Battle Tigers, however. They weren’t Level 150 mounts, so they couldn’t be considered top-tier, and even if they had been, it would only be a matter of time before they became outdated. To compete against the other guilds, we had to always strive to obtain better mounts that could be mass-farmed for everyone.

The fact that Warsky Alliance was ranked second in the CGL Guild Ranking proved that their ambition to replace Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls as the strongest guild of Sky City had never vanished. Warsky was a good person, but I had no doubt that he would show up and take Dark Moon City away from us the moment we became weak.

Every city was the foundation of a super guild. The reason we were able to recruit many high-level players was because we possessed some of the strongest players and the highest-ranked city in the entire world. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the prestige we currently enjoyed was all thanks to Dark Moon City.

……

On the way, the Phantom Wolf King and I acted as the point of the party and killed all the mobs who were blocking our way. If the Armored Ice Qilin Horse was swift and powerful, then the Phantom Wolf King was a bolt of lightning that tore apart everything in its path. It easily shredded the Level 160 Cyan Battle Tigers to pieces. Beiming Xue and Moonlight Stone were ranged attackers, so they helped to contribute some DPS. He Yi and Murong Mingyue didn’t need to do anything.

About one and a half hours later, we arrived at an empty, desolate region. There were high-level Night Creatures such as Graveyard Devil Mockers, Undead Knights, Corpse Eaters and so on all over the place. The Level 175 ancient Undead Knights especially were so powerful that even I had problems soloing them myself. It was no wonder that no other player had ventured into this place.

It wasn’t like they didn’t try. In fact, we saw a couple of 50-man parties attempting to kill a couple of stray Level 175 mobs outside the edge of the forest. However, a single charge from the Undead Knight had resulted in the death of a couple or archers and mages, and these people quickly wised up and retreated elsewhere. This map was just beyond their current capabilities right now.

Our party was unperturbed, of course. The average level of our party was above 150, and everyone was armed to the teeth in excellent equipment. These Level 175 ancient mobs just couldn’t pose a threat to us.

We soon arrived at the foot of a black mountain range. The entrance was shrouded by smoky darkness that blocked our entry.

I took out the treasure map and used it!

Swhoosh!

The map transformed into a ray of light and activated a magical formation in front of us. It was as if we had opened a door to another world.