"Heal everyone and go to the third floor as soon as possible! Eve, grab the loot, will you? Quickly! All our enemies are coming this way!"

"Mn."

He Yi strode over to the boss, grabbed the pile of loot and shared the details with everyone. Just like last time, there was nothing surprising about this loot. We gave two leather-armor Earth-grade items it had dropped to Beiming Xue and another archer, and the remaining three Spirit-grade items for others to distribute. This time, Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi and I were basically doing community service for the guild. We got nada from the boss besides its experience.

"Take the Dragonlight Cavalry to the third floor!"

While giving out the order, I picked up the Tiger Soul Essence and rode through the teleportation formation that appeared after the boss died myself. Everyone—Candlelight Shadow, Vienna’s Sorrow, Lin Yixin, Purple Marquis and more—immediately stopped fighting and rushed toward the teleportation formation as well. Nine Tigers Soul Suppressing Tower was an incredibly profitable map, and every mob or boss killed was a profit gained. No one knew what the third floor boss was yet, and everyone wanted to kill it for themselves. The faint blue portal flashed repeatedly as players kept being teleported to the third floor.

Vienna’s Sorrow growled as he stared at my back. "Brothers and sisters, finding the boss takes precedence when we get to the third floor! We must have it no matter what! Also, set up a bounty for Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sands’ coordinates! The Tiger Soul Essence always drops upon death, so he’s just holding it for us for now!"

His players nodded affirmatively before rushing into the teleportation formation.

……

Swhoosh!

My vision darkened as I appeared on the third floor of Nine Tigers Soul Suppressing Tower. When I brought up the map, I was disappointed to find myself located at the southwestmost corner of the floor. The only way to get to the boss was to kill everything that stood in my path, also known as grinding. The boss would be long dead by the time I reached it.

He Yi said inside the guild channel, "OMG, the boss is so far away! I’m at the northeastmost corner of the floor. Is there anyone close to me?"

Gui Guzi: "I see you, boss! Wait for me! There are three Bronze Armor Wolves behind you and a ton of Bronze Beasts to your right. Let’s kill them together!"

He Yi: "Okay…"

Li Chengfeng: "What the fuck, where the hell am I? If you’re going to teleport me so far away from the center, you may as well send me all the way back to Sky City!"

Chaos Moon: "Less talking, more acting. Ooh, I see three Dragonlight Cavalrymen right in front of me. Lucky! Guys, let’s party up and grind the mobs together!"

High Fighting Spirits: "Well you guys are all lucky as hell. I see three Hero Alliance players in front of me. I’ll meet up with you all after I’ve kicked their asses!"

"Take care!"

"Mn!"

……

A few seconds later, we heard a couple of bloodcurdling screams from the guild channel. It was High Fighting Spirits murdering all three Hero Alliance players with one Xiezhi Howl, but he also exposed his coordinates because of it. He needed to move immediately or risk being ganged up by other enemy players for revenge!

I checked the time after rearranging the supplies in my bag for a bit. It was already nighttime, and Nine Tigers Soul Suppressing Tower was a big map that could take 2 to 3 days to complete, so I decided to grind first and think about the next move later. I had basically given up on the third floor boss at this point because one, it was too far away, and two, the path leading toward the center was chock-full of Level 187 Bronze Armor Wolves and Bronze Beasts. The players could be fighting the fourth floor boss by the time I finally got there.

As for the Tiger Soul Essence, I was in no hurry to collect them all. Just like Vienna’s Sorrow had said himself, they were just holding the item for me until it was time. I had no intention of giving up even one Tiger Soul Essence to anyone!

……

I fought my way through the long corridor for about an hour or so. It was during this time I finally leveled up to 160 and returned to my previous height. The journey would’ve taken a lot longer if this map wasn’t as profitable as it was. Anyway, my next objective was to catch up to the highest-leveled players—Li Chengfeng, Candlelight Shadow and Luo River God of the Capital. As strong as I was, I was still at a disadvantage if I tried to duel them while being underleveled.

"Roar roar…"

Back to the present. A dozen or so Bronze Beasts and Bronze Armor Wolves were blocking the path ahead of me. I was just wondering how I should take out these mobs when a large group of imposing-looking people suddenly appeared behind me. They belonged to Flower Room, and there were about two hundred of them.

"Earth Escape!"

I canceled my mount and my pet and slowly sank into the ground. It could be dangerous to fight this many people alone no matter how strong I was, not to mention that divine energy was an incredibly precious resource. It had taken me a lot of effort to accumulate a total of 89 Divine Energy Points, and there were still more bosses and players to kill. I couldn’t possibly waste any of it here.

From the shadows of the corridor emerged a group of players, and the leader of the group was none other than the guild leader of Flower Room, Li Le. The warrior was riding a red warhorse, and he was accompanied by Spring Mud and 40 or so Cyan Wolf Cavalrymen. They were the elite troops of Flower Room, and their arrangement of mages, priests and archers was surprisingly scientific. Flower Room had been making mass recruitments at Sky City, and I supposed that some of these recruits had to have some skill. It would also explain why they had this many mages and priests. Still, Flower Room must be blessed by Lady Luck today. It was insane how many players they managed to gather even though the teleportation was supposed to be random.

I opened the map and found an answer to my puzzlement. There was a large corridor directly behind me, and many players were teleported to that location. Since Flower Room sent at least a thousand players through the portal at a time, it made sense that their parties were more concentrated than ours. Still, out of the 12 possible passages they could’ve chosen to travel from that location, they had to choose the one where I was. In a sense, we truly were "destined" for each other.

……

Li Le frowned when he saw the corpses of Bronze Armor Wolves and Bronze Beasts on the ground. "Fuck, these mobs had been killed by someone. Someone has already been to this place…"

"I don’t think so?" Spring Mud looked around the area. "I’m not seeing anyone, and considering how tightly packed the Bronze Armor Wolves and Bronze Beasts are, it’d take at least a 50-man party to challenge them. You know how strong the Bronze Armor Wolves are."

"You say that, but where is this 50-man party?" Li Le asked in puzzlement.

I immediately tossed a loaf of low-rank bread I had picked up earlier on the ground in front of me.

"Look, there's food over there," Spring Mud said with a smile. "They must’ve been taken out by the Bronze Beasts. In fact, I’m pretty sure they fought until they ran out of supplies completely because I don’t see any dropped potions anywhere."

Li Le grinned. "In that case, let us feast on the fruits of their labor and finish what they started. Everyone, spread out the formation and give me all the firepower you got. Priests, keep our Cyan Wolf Cavalry healed. Archers, don’t attack randomly and aggro only 3 mobs at a time. Any more than that and our brothers will die, understand?"

Spring Mud reported ambitiously, "Guild leader, we’ve gathered a full Cyanblade set. If we keep this up, we may be able to assemble 3 or 5 complete sets before the whole thing is over."

Li Le grinned again. "That’s wonderful news! Lin Yixin will be returning to the university for the final exam in a few days, so that’s my chance…"

Spring Mud asked, "Boss, are you still hung up on Lin Yixin? You know that she’s basically inseparable from Lu Chen, right?"

"So what? It’s not my style to give up on a woman I’ve set my sights on!"

Li Le clenched his fists and declared, "Since the first day Lin Yixin came to the university, I’ve vowed to myself that she can only be my woman and no one else’s! Even Lu Chen must wait until I’m done using her!"

Licking his lips vulgarly, he continued, "Did you know that Lin Yixin had never had a boyfriend during the first couple of years she entered the university? And thank goodness for that, for only a prideful girl like her is worthy of my attention! Hahaha! For Lin Yixin, I can declare war on any power! Send out the word that all solitary Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players are to be killed on sight! Once Lu Chen has his hands full trying to stop us, Candle Dragon, and Hero Alliance from weakening his guild or worse, keep himself alive, he won’t have any opportunity to get close to Lin Yixin. Wait for me, Fruit Knife Goddess. I’m coming for you once I reach the ninth floor of Nine Tigers Soul Suppressing Tower, hahahaha…"

The same vulgar smile crossed the lips of the rest of the Flower Room players.

I clenched my fists tightly and smiled myself. And my smile wasn’t of the good kind. Good job moron, you’ve just sealed your own doom. Just wait, every one of you is going to wish you were dead when I’m done with you!

……

Half a minute later, Flower Room started fighting the mobs. They only aggroed three mobs at a time, and they made sure that the Bronze Beasts’ attacks only hit the shields of their Cyan Wolf Cavalrymen. The priests and mages stood far enough that they weren’t caught by the attacks, and there was a Level 154 tactician wielding a red bone fan buffing everyone’s Defense by 89% with Iron Wall, greatly improving their survivability. Overall, Flower Room’s party formation was pretty good today.

I calculated in my mind how best to wipe out the 200-man party without spending any Divine Energy Points. I soon realized that I must let the mobs do the dirty work for me. There was no way in hell I was letting even one of these Flower Room players escape, not to mention that Flower Room had always stood on the opposite side, be it in the Nation Wars or the territory wars. I could save a guild like Gods of Destruction from the clutches of the Northern Alliance, but I would never spare even an ounce of my strength to save Flower Room. It was better for everyone if a useless and arrogant bastard like Li Le was dead.

I spotted about 20 Bronze Armor Wolves growling in the darkness some distance from me. They were my opportunity.

I sneaked my way to the mobs until there was only a 5-yard distance between us. I couldn’t go any further because it would break my Earth Escape. Behind me, Flower Room was fighting the three Bronze Beasts they aggroed, and from time to time I could hear the painful squeals of the Cyan Wolf Cavalrymen. It was understandable. The Bronze Beasts’ Attack was so high that even Dragonlight Cavalrymen were threatened by it, to say nothing of these pathetic Cyan Wolf Cavalrymen.

Swhoosh!

I abruptly emerged from the ground and used War Crush, dealing damage to the pack of 20 Bronze Armor Wolves and earning their aggro.

I then turned around, locked onto a Cyan Wolf Cavalryman and activated Thunderous Charge without hesitation!

Swhoosh!

I covered almost 30 yards of distance in an instant, and while the Cyan Wolf Cavalryman I targeted was staring at me in shock I dissolved into several rays of bloody light and slipped underground once more. Behind me, the chasing Bronze Armor Wolves instantly changed targets and attacked Flower Room.

……

"Fuck! We were ambushed! It’s that bastard Lu Chen!" Li Le’s face turned green as he shouted. He pointed at the ground where I was and shouted, "Archers, force him out with Spiraling Arrow Blades!"

I had moved as quickly as I could the moment I entered the ground, so by the time Li Le gave the order to hit me I was already at the back of Flower Room’s formation. No one noticed me when I emerged from the ground once more, so I seized the opportunity to summon the Armored Ice Qilin Horse, get on top of it and trap Flower Room in a pincer attack with the Bronze Armor Wolves. Burning Blade Slash sliced through a ton of players, and not even shielded mages were able to survive the skill. I had gained a lot of hidden stat bonuses ever since I ascended to become a Divine General, and even without using Great Earth Transformation it was enough to drive Flower Room crazy.