Ten or so minutes later, I killed a bunch of Dark Prisoners and reached a three-way fork at the end of the corridor. After checking my direction for a bit, I picked the right path as it was the fastest path to meet up with Lin Yixin.

"Roar roar…"

Suddenly, the Phantom Wolf King lowered its head and growled menacingly at something directly ahead of me. Every hair around its neck was standing on its end. Clearly, my pet had sensed something.

I immediately assumed a cautious stance and slowly spurred my mount forward. Some time later, I started hearing the sounds of fighting and even catching glimpses of fiery light flashing from the darkness. It was obviously the visual effect of Barrier Break.

There’s a battle going on in front of me!

Once I had an inkling what was going on, I rushed forward with almost no hesitation. The enemy was in the open, and I was in the dark. When met with a Gordian knot, the best course of action was to slice it in half!

……

Driving away the darkness in front of me with the light of the Cyan Netherworld Sword, I soon discovered two magic knights battling one another to the death. The first player was a magic knight from Hero City. The other, also a magic knight, was from Candle Dragon. The latter was called "Tiger Leopard Knight", and his mount reflected his ID perfectly; an animal that looked like a fusion between a tiger and a leopard. Both combatants seemed to share the same level of strength.

The magic knight from Hero City had excess Attack and slightly inferior Defense, but he had a self-recovery skill that allowed him to gain the upper hand. Tiger Leopard Knight also had great Attack, but there were only so many Barrier Breaks he could tank with one health bar. As it was, he would die to the magic knight from Hero City for sure.

"Fuck!"

Tiger Leopard Knight backed off from his opponent and attempted to escape.

However, the older magic knight let out a scornful laugh and taunted him, "Is this the extent of the power of a Chinese general? Is the so-called number one guild in China, Candle Dragon, full of cowards like you?"

Tiger Leopard Knight abruptly stopped in his tracks and turned around to face his opponent once more. He gripped his spear tighter and swore angrily, "I’m not even afraid to die, and you think I’m afraid of you? Come at me, you motherfucker!"

A cold glint flashed across the Hero City magic knight’s eyes as he complied to the request and attacked Tiger Leopard Knight. A couple of slashes with his broadsword later, the latter’s HP dropped below 20%. Fights between magic knights were always long and drawn out, but Tiger Leopard’s War God Recovery and potions were currently on cooldown. Without the ability to recover himself, the chances of him turning this around was incredibly low. Still, he refused to retreat and bring shame to the honor of Candle Dragon and China.

"Die!"

The older magic knight pierced Tiger Leopard Knight’s shoulder with Barrier Break and dealt 18776 damage, deleting most of his remaining HP immediately.

Tiger Leopard Knight retaliated with a strike to the shoulder himself, but the Hero City magic knight still had over 40% HP. There was no way he could kill him in time!

"This is the end…" Tiger Leopard Knight let out a sigh of resignation and was about to close his eyes.

……

It was time for me to act, or another fearless Chinese general would die in the hands of the enemy. This Tiger Leopard Knight looked rather well-equipped and righteous, and although he belonged to an enemy guild, I couldn’t leave him for dead under these circumstances.

Swhoosh!

Four red divine weapons descended from the sky and immobilized the Hero City magic knight instantly. No matter how hard his mount struggled, it was unable to break free from its confines.

"Dammit, what the hell is this… an ambush?" The older knight finally noticed me as I and the Phantom Wolf King slowly stepped out of the darkness. Keeping the Cyan Netherworld Sword lowered, I smiled at Tiger Leopard Knight and said, "Well, what are you waiting for? Kill this Northern Alliance knight already."

"Huh?"

Tiger Leopard Knight exclaimed in shock, "It’s you, Lu Chen?"

"Less talking, more killing! God Binding Art doesn’t last forever!"

"Got it!"

Tiger Leopard Knight immediately turned on the offense and started hacking away at the older knight. A while later he succeeded, and to the surprise of us both, his opponent dropped a shiny battle armor upon death. It was obviously excellent.

Tiger Leopard Knight picked up the metal armor and passed it to me. He said, "1-star Outstanding Earth-grade metal armor. It may not be up to your standards, but the kill really belongs to you, so take it."

"It’s fine."

I gently pushed away the loot before replying, "I just used a skill. You were the one who fought him from the beginning and gave it your all, not me."

While saying this, I glanced at his shoulder and noticed that his title was "Thousand-man Corps Commander”. I wasn’t expecting him to be such an important person in Candle Dragon!

Seemingly noticing my intent, Tiger Leopard Knight grew alarmed and backed a few steps. "Candle Dragon and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls are enemy guilds, and I’m grateful that you helped me in spite of that. That being said, we are enemies, and I’m not about to start betraying my own guild. Come at me if you wish, Lu Chen. Just know that I won’t go down without a fight!"

I sucked in a deep breath before replying, "Hmph, there’s no point in killing you. For one, you’re not one of Candlelight Shadow’s trusted aides, and two, you and I don’t have a grudge against each other. Be on your way, Tiger Leopard Knight. I wish you luck on the eighth floor. By the way, Wind Fantasy and I have reserved this floor’s boss to ourselves, and I would advise you and the rest of your friends to stay away. I will not show mercy if you try to take it from us. You are not a bad person, and I don’t wish for you and I to become enemies."

Tiger Leopard Knight lowered his spear and nodded. "I know. Your virtue is well known, and your courage to face a million enemies alone during the War of Dawn City deserves the respect of all Chinese players. But no matter how much I respect you, I belong to Candle Dragon, and you are from Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. The next time we meet, we meet in battle."

I smiled. "That may be true, but today will not be the day we meet in battle. Now leave already, I’m a busy man."

"Hehe, fine…"

Tiger Leopard Knight spurred his mount and passed by my side. He gradually disappeared into the darkness.

……

I gritted my teeth a little. My coordinates were now exposed, so I couldn’t stay here for long. Tiger Leopard Knight wouldn’t pursue me, but the same couldn’t be said for everyone else. Thousands of people were teleported to random locations during the battle against the Heaven-opening Tiger, and I was sure that Lin Yixin and I weren’t the only ones here. There had to be at least a hundred players scattered across the eighth floor.

An idea suddenly crossed my mind as I stared at the dozen or so Dark Prisoners wandering about in front of me. After slipping underground using Earth Escape, I moved past the mobs and continued forward. This way, no one could find me even if they roughly knew where I was. These Level 192 dread-rank mobs were goddamned destroyers, and most parties wouldn’t be able to go through them unless they had someone with extraordinary recovery abilities or stats.

It was at this moment I heard Li Chengfeng swearing from the guild channel, "Fuck! Shit! I miscalculated and let Candlelight Shadow steal Heaven-opening Tiger’s equipment drops and Tiger Soul Essence!"

Xu Yang: "Yeah, fucking hell!"

Chaos Moon: "Vienna’s Sorrow is chasing down Candlelight Shadow right now. What do we do? Do we attack Candle Dragon or the Northern Alliance?"

He Yi: "Vienna. We need to consider the bigger picture!"

"Yeah, the guild leader is right. Vienna’s Sorrow first, Candle Dragon second. Remember to watch out for his Ice Stream Blade, everyone…"

"Mn!"

……

It looked like the fifth floor’s Soul Tiger Essence and I weren’t fated to be together. I wasn’t expecting Candlelight Shadow to be the one to take it, although in hindsight, that fucker had always been a thorn in my side. The fact that he overcame Li Chengfeng, Vienna, Farewell Song, Luo River God of the Capital and countless more super experts to snatch the Tiger Soul Essence proved how capable he was.

An hour passed by quickly, and the distance between Lin Yixin and I was steadily decreasing. Another Dark Prisoner died in my hands and dropped a pair of dark black legguards. When I picked them up and gave them a look, I was happy to see that they were part of the Dark Prison equipment set. With this, Lin Yixin was just chest armor away from completing her set and becoming the first player to wear a complete Earth-grade equipment set. I could only imagine how powerful she would become!

I saw Lin Yixin riding up to me at this exact moment. Contrary to her smile, the Ice Dragon Kris soaring above her head and growling at me just as hostilely as ever.

"Come on, it’s time to take out the boss!"

I tossed the legguards into Lin Yixin’s hands. Once she equipped them, her stats immediately jumped up a level again.

"Hmm…" her face was red with excitement. "This set is so powerful… if we can gather a full set, I’m sure we’ll have a much easier time killing the boss."

"Yeah, there are still plenty of mobs ahead of us. I’m sure we’ll gather a full set by the time we reach the boss."

"Okay…"

……

Now that we were together, we continued to push deeper into the heart of the eighth floor, stepping over countless Dark Prisoners that had died under our swords.

A Dark Prisoner Helmet dropped less than 20 minutes later, but the chest armor was still nowhere to be found. We could already see the tiger’s cage from where we were, and we should reach the boss in about 50 Dark Prisoners or so. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of growing excitement. Another Immortal Rank boss—a Level 192 one no less—another bag of experience and loot. With some good luck, it might even drop Immortal-grade equipment! The more I thought about it, the more excited I got. One of the reasons Vienna’s Sorrow became nearly untouchable was because he had an Immortal-grade spear to pair with his Divine General Skill, Ice Stream Blade. Otherwise, there was no way he could’ve fought his way in and out of our army like we didn’t even exist!

……

Another 15 minutes later, the last Dark Prisoner in the area collapsed in a groan and dropped two pieces of equipment, causing both our eyes to lit up. We couldn’t believe that the dread-rank mob would drop two items in one go!

One of them was a pair of wristguards, and the other, chest armor. They were both part of the Dark Prison set.

"Hahaha, our luck is off the charts today…" I couldn’t stop myself from grinning as I passed the chest armor to Lin Yixin. "Quickly, show me its overall stats after you’ve equipped it!"

"Mn."

Lin Yixin accepted the chest armor and equipped it. A "Ka" sound later, the exquisite armor appeared around her torso. The obsidian-like armor accentuated the curves and sexiness of a female player, and the contrast between its dark color and Lin Yixin’s milky white skin was especially appealing, not to mention that the woman before me was one of the most gorgeous women in the world. I felt like my eyeballs were sucked into an abyss of no return.

"Here, take a look at this…"

Lin Yixin waved a hand and brought up the complete Dark Prison equipment set’s stats screen—

2 pieces: Increases Attack by 35%, increases Defense by 40%, and attacks deal additional 10% darkness damage

3 pieces: Increases Attack by 25%, increases max HP by 10000

4 pieces: Increases Defense is increased by 50% and attacks deal additional 40% darkness damage

5 pieces: Increases max HP by 40000 and grants the user a passive skill. Dance of the Dark: 2% to trigger when attacked. When triggered, grants a buff that lets the use “Great Dark Slash” 10 times in quick succession..