The next day, very early in the morning.

We assembled the party after we got out of our beds. He Yi wasn’t with us because she had left again to attend a meeting in Beijing. Just like last time, she departed in the early morning and would be returning during the evening. We would be worried if she wasn’t accompanied by a beautiful director from Suzhou Raincube.

After we finished breakfast and prepared ourselves for a long grind by laying out fruits and drinks next to our beds, we went online. This was so that we could refresh ourselves on the spot when we logged out of the game. I didn’t really need it because I was like a camel among gamers, capable of gaming an entire day and night without water or food. The girls could hardly claim the same. They were made of softer stuff and should be cared for as such.

I also gave Lin Yixin a call—

"Good morning, Yiyi!"

"I’m eating breakfast right now, Little Cheat!" I could hear the sounds of cars from the other side of the phone call. I could already imagine her walking on the streets and eating a roujiamo as she spoke to me.

"Get moving! We’re all ready and waiting to activate the follow-up quest of Nine Tigers Soul Suppressing Tower!"

"I’ll reach my apartment in ten minutes. I’ll log in right after that!"

"Okay, see you in a bit! Muah!"

"..."

……

Swhoosh!

I logged into the game first. Beiming Xue and Murong Mingyue were already waiting for me.

"Where’s Lian Xin?" I asked.

"Sister Lian Xin is waiting inside the black room and performing a data transfer. The system confirmed that her immigration was a success, but she has to wait 5 minutes for the data transfer to complete. Let’s wait," Beiming Xue said.

"Sure, we’re in no particular hurry anyway. Lin Yixin also needs a couple of minutes before she can log into the game. Let’s just wait for all of them to get ready."

"Yeah!"

A while later, a magic formation flashed once, and a beautiful mage with a green ID stepped out of it. She was our Lian Xin of course.

Lian Xin gave us a smile as she said, "Finally. Now, add me into the main guild!"

"Mn."

I sent her the guild invite, and a second later I heard a beep—

Beep!

Guild Notice: Player "Lian Xin" LV-173 (Phantasm of Stars)” has joined the guild!

……

The guild channel immediately erupted into a flurry of activity and excitement—

Xu Yang: "Hahaha, Little Xing is finally home! A Level 173 mage? That’s amazing!"

Li Chengfeng: "Welcome home, Star Elder, Little Lian Xin! From now on, no one will dare say that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls doesn’t have powerful mages anymore, hahaha!"

Gui Guzi: "Do you want to form a party and challenge Candle Dragon’s God’s Dance right now? Those motherfuckers always boast that God’s Dance is China’s best mage, so this is the perfect opportunity to show them what China’s best mage really looks like! Hmph hmph, I can already imagine the look on that bitch’s face…"

Lian Xin let out a giggle. "Cool your jets, Gui Guzi~~"

Chaos Moon said, "Yeah, just ignore Little Gui, he can be an idiot sometimes, huhu. That being said, I’m pretty sure God’s Dance’s chance of beating Lian Xin is less than 20%. Even Stranger of Three Lifetimes and Luo River God of the Capital would fare better than God’s Dance, am I right Lu Chen?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Lian Xin has an 80% chance to beat God’s Dance, 70% chance to beat Stranger of Three Lifetimes, but only a 55% chance to beat Luo River God of the Capital. Your mage skills are better, but your mechanical skill needs a lot more refinement. Luo River God of the Capital wouldn’t have allowed Lin Yixin to get close to her as easily as you did during that duel."

Lian Xin agreed. "That’s true. I’ve beaten almost all the melee experts at Seven Star City, but I’ve never met one who’s as strong as Lin Yixin. She’s too decisive when she moves, so it’s hard to react before it’s too late. I’m sure I can become China’s true best mage if you keep practicing with me though, big brother Lu Chen!"

Li Chengfeng laughed. "Oh yes! Don’t forget to save all the matches where Lu Chen lost, Lian Xin. We all would like to watch Lu Chen having his ass handed to him by a mage, hahaha!"

The corner of my mouth twitched once. "Fuck…"

Lian Xin replied smilingly, "Sure! Speaking of which, I heard that you’re pretty skillful yourself, dragon warrior. You are among the top five best players in Sky City and a top player in the competitive arena, right? Let’s hang out in the competitive arena together after my practices, okay? Okay, it’s a promise!"

Li Chengfeng turned green immediately. "Can… can I say no?"

Xu Yang replied, "Sure, if you want to die that is…"

Gui Guzi laughed heartlessly. "Oh man, I can’t wait to see Li being ravaged by a mage! You’re not allowed to use Battle Soul Possession by the way, that’s cheating!"

Li Chengfeng complained. "Come on, I might not be able to beat her even if I use Battle Soul Possession, okay…"

Gui Guzi: "Well, at least you aren’t ignorant…"

Li Chengfeng retorted, "Screw you! I might lose, but at least I was good enough to be the loser of the fight, unlike a certain Undying Knight who’s so bad Lian Xin wouldn’t even want to duel against him! Kakakaka…"

Finally, Chaos Moon concluded, "Anyway, now that the four elders have finally reunited, we should work together to reclaim Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ former glory. With Xu Yang’s leadership, Mingyue’s charm, Lian Xin’s firepower, and Lu Chen’s wisdom and courage, there’s no reason to believe we can’t kick Candle Dragon’s ass, is there?"

I smiled. "The title is really just a title and a proof of our shared history. Now though, the future of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls belongs to everyone. Every man and woman here is a ray of hope for the guild, so I hope that all of you will grind hard for levels and equipment, becoming even stronger in the future. Also, the war of Baidicheng might’ve made us famous, but that is no reason to fall into complacency. I suspect that a super war on the same scale as the War of Dawn City will happen very soon—one month at the earliest, two months at the latest—so we all must prepare ourselves for that war!"

Everyone laughed and expressed their gratitude at my words.

Beside me, Lian Xin let out a chuckle and said, "Mn, big brother Lu Chen has definitely grown up a lot since Spirit of Grief. He’s getting better and better at manipulating all these people to his will…"

I let out a cough and said, "What do you mean manipulate? This is just basic respect and honesty, okay?"

"Fine, fine. So, when are we departing?"

"Wait just a bit longer…"

Speak of the devil. The magic formation Lian Xin came out from flashed again, and Lin Yixin stepped out with her sword in tow. Most of her body was covered in black armor, but the chest area was designed to have a low cut. Therefore, I could see the upper part of her awesome globes bouncing a little with every step she took. The amazing sight caused countless bystanders to hold their breaths unconsciously.

"She’s here…" Lian Xin immediately tensed up.

Lin Yixin also unsheathed her sword halfway before asking me, "Why is she here instead of Sister He Yi?"

I pushed her sword back into the sheath and said placatingly, "Eve can’t attend because she’s busy today. Lian Xin is a ranged DPS with a lot of powerful CC skills, so she definitely won’t drag the party down. Promise me you’ll work with her? Please?"

Lin Yixin glanced behind me for a moment before nodding. "Fine. I’ll try to avoid butting heads with her as much as I can."

"Wonderful. Let’s go then!"

"Oh right, how are we going to compensate Sister He Yi? She deserves it considering how amazing this quest should be,” Lin Yixin asked on her own.

"We already talked about that. Eve said to reserve Immortal-grade equipment for her if we find one. Are you okay with this, Yiyi?"

Lin Yixin smiled. "Of course. It shouldn’t be too hard to get Immortal-grade equipment to drop considering that this is a main quest."

"I thought so too. Alright, let’s go! To Land of Soul Suppression!"

"Yeah!"

……

After we repaired our equipment and restocked on our Health Potions and Magic Consumables, we moved to Land of Soul Suppression immediately.

Lin Yixin and I were the fastest members of the party, so it was up to me to act as the point and Lin Yixin and her ice dragon, Kris, to protect our three ranged players. Be it in PvP or PvE, ranged players always needed the protection of melee players.

It looked like the Land of Soul Suppression was no longer a restricted map like before. We saw at least thousands of Wind City, Sky City and Vanished God City players calling out for party members at the entrance to the Land of Soul Suppression. They needed a party because the strongest mobs inside the map were of the dread rank.

We formed a party and gave Lin Yixin the party leader position. Her Bombshell increased all stats by 80%, making it a useful stratagem, no matter the class.

We went straight for the Soul Suppressing Tower and passed through the trap formations with ease. We barely encountered any delays because most of the mobs on the first to seventh floor had been taken out by other players. Even now, countless people were camping at specific spots and killing the mobs almost immediately after they spawned. I thanked god that I wasn’t one of those unfortunate monsters.

We traveled all the way to the ninth floor without any troubles. With Lin Yixin and I as the tank, Beiming Xue as the physical ranged DPS and Lian Xin as the magic ranged DPS, there was nothing the Dark Prisoners could do to threaten us.

After we returned to the teleportation formation where the boss of the ninth floor had died, I took out the nine molding Tiger Soul Essences in my bag and activated them.

Ding~!

System Notice: The five-man party quest and follow-up quest of Nine Tigers Soul Suppressing Tower has been activated. Your party has acquired the main quest "The Betrayal of the Bloody Shield"! (Current Quest Rank: A Rank Divine Quest)

Description: Head to the west of Vanished God City and find a domain called the Bloody Shield Domain. Occupied by the undead, it is a place overflowing with wailing ghosts and vengeful spirits. While normally restricted by a barrier, the Tiger Soul Essences have opened a path into the domain. Head in, overcome the defenses of the undead and find the ruins of an empire where the nest of Ovia the Bloody Finger lies. Venture into the nest, kill the Purgatory Sovereign, and bring his head to Princess Karinshan of Sky City for an extraordinarily generous reward!

……

My eyes bulged as I shivered from head to toe. "What the flying fuck? It wants us to kill one of the Nine Sovereigns, Ovia the Bloody Finger? This isn’t a quest, it’s a fucking death sentence!"

Contrary to my reaction, Lin Yixin looked very excited and pumped up. "Ohh, a quest to kill a Purgatory Sovereign? This is going to be fun!"