A couple more such ambush attempts later, I officially hit Level 197. I could almost understand why some robbers loved to commit robbery. This was way faster than any grinding I had ever done up until this point. Of course, the reward wasn't without its risks. Dying here meant dropping to Level 0 and losing most, if not all of one’s equipped items.

For now though, I was in a relatively safe spot. Thanks to Li Chengfeng, Heaven’s Rain and my brothers and sisters taking out Red Maple, Cyan Frost, Purple Thunder, Red Hot Vortex and more, there weren’t many players left in Purple Grape City who could truly threaten me. Until they returned, one might say that this was my time to grind as many levels and farm as much loot as possible!

……

Ding! A system announcement suddenly cut across the air. As it turned out, my arrogant counterattack had finally pissed off my international friends from Purple Grape City completely—

System Announcement: (Player "Apennine" Shout): My brothers and sisters, please listen to me. The Chinese player, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, destroyed our home, Purple Grape City and caused 40 million of us to become homeless. Don’t you think you should take up arms and teach him a lesson? Right now, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand is an unaffiliated player, and he could only hole up inside Final Duel Valley. If you wish to take revenge, then join us in Final Duel Valley right now! He must die no matter the cost! Also, please note that Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand has a powerful wolf pet, and both he and the pet can enter stealth. If you do decide to enter Final Duel Valley, please make sure you sweep the area with AoE skills! Don’t let that despicable bastard sneak up on you!

……

My lips curled as I looked up at the sky. Finally, the real fight was about to start.

I climbed up a nearby ridge and looked down from my position. I saw many Purple Grape City players searching for me in the valleys while wearing expressions that suggested that they wanted to swallow me alive. Too bad for them, I was extremely hungry, and one hell of a picky eater. My brain automatically filtered any party that was below Level 170 because they wouldn’t have the experience or the loot I needed. Ideally, my prey would be a hundred-man party or smaller that were all made up of Level 180+ seventh-promotion players. They were the type of prey I could kill with the Phantom Wolf King and the Purple Ying Sword, and rob a sizable chunk of experience both for myself and the Ancient Divine Dragon.

I found my target very soon. 500 meters directly to the south, there was a 150-man party where almost half of their players were above Level 180 and seventh-promotion. The party was mostly made up of mages, warriors and wanderers, and they barely had any magic knights and archers at all. There was no way this type of party could put me down.

"Let’s go, little wolf!"

I said to my pet with a smile, but all it had for me was a lolling tongue and silence. Obviously, my pet couldn’t spit human words, but I was all alone in Final Duel Valley, and it was the only one I could talk to right now. What else was I supposed to do, kidnap a Purple Grape City player to chat with? They would sue me for inhumanity.

Swhoosh!

Me, my horse and my wolf raced down the mountain range, circled around a couple of parties along the way and attacked the party I had chosen earlier. I was going to end this in a minute. Even if I couldn’t, I still would forcefully disengage from the enemy because I didn’t want to be surrounded by the enemy.

Traces of red energy coursed along the blade of the Purple Ying Sword as I burst out of the bush. A perceptive archer noticed this and cried out in warning, "Incoming from the forest on the right!"

Unfortunately, it was too late. The moment I reached the party, I immediately unleashed Thousand Ice Slash + War Crush + Burning Blade Slash combo at the thickest part of the group, one-shotting almost 50 players in an instant. Without pausing for even a second, I shifted horizontally and ran in an arc along the edge of the party. It turned out that the enemy players were battle-hardened veterans because the survivors reacted quickly and in coordinated fashion. The assassins entered stealth, the archers spread out into the trees, and the mages formed a defensive arc before firing their Galaxy Storms at me!

Boom boom boom!

I could dodge Touches of the Dragonkiss and Shock Arrows by manipulating my speed and direction, but not AoE skills with huge areas of effect such as Galaxy Storms, Spiraling Arrow Blades and Skypiercers, not perfectly at least. Despite the Dragon God Shield nullifying much of the damage I was receiving, I still lost 100k HP in just 6 seconds. As expected of Level 180+, seventh-promotion battle-hardened veterans!

Once 6 seconds had passed, I moved to the angle I spotted earlier and fired Thousand Ice Slash to my left, and Burning Blade Slash to my right, killing two small groups of players. At the same time, I charged toward the group directly in front of me and used War Crush, catching the dozen of magic knights who were throwing Trapping Nets at me by surprise and dropping them to just 25% HP. Finally, I made the Phantom Wolf King drop a series of Claws of the Storm, and the group of low-health magic knights dropped dead just like that. I had pulled off the maneuver in just one second, so there was no chance they could survive this even if they activated War God Recovery.

I was still eating Galaxy Storms from time to time, and my HP kept hovering around the 75% line. I wasn’t in danger though. While dodging the enemy’s attacks, I killed the archers one by one with accurately-placed Dragon Slaying Slashes, and mages and priests with Coiling Dragon Revolution.

The exchange went on for a minute or so. I was still alive, and a large majority of the party were killed. To say that the floor of potions and equipment pleased me would be an understatement. At this point, neither the assassins nor the archers dared to get close to me because they knew that being killed here would mean having to restart from zero. It was a penalty most people couldn’t accept at all.

I circled around the area and grabbed any equipment that was higher than Spirit-grade. It would be a waste to leave them be after all.

Finally, I bade the hiding players goodbye with a laugh and a wave of the Purple Ying Sword. "Alright, that’s it for now. Bye bye!"

I spurred my mount forward and swiftly vanished behind the morning mist once more. This weather was a godsend for me because it was practically a free smokescreen. It would’ve taken me considerably more effort to avoid the Purple Grape City players otherwise. There were a lot of them roaming the map after all.

……

While escaping, I opened the detailed map of Final Duel Valley and researched it carefully. I was actually able to learn a little something from it. As it turned out, the entire map was laid out in a bagua diagram, and I was able to identify the Life Door, the Death Door and other stuff. Whoever designed this map had definitely put a lot of effort into their research. The Death Door led to countless dead ends, and anyone who escaped here would quickly find themselves surrounded by unscalable cliffs with nowhere to run. Obviously, I was going to avoid that "door" at all costs.

As for the rest of the doors, well, it honestly didn’t matter to me. I was strong, and I had the ability to enter stealth. The chances of me being discovered were low unless the enemy literally took up every space there was on the map, which they couldn’t because Final Duel Valley was actually a fairly large map. And even if they could, it made zero sense for the Purple Grape City to send their entire server of players after me. Even a million players already felt like an overkill.

While China’s players suffered greatly during the War of Purple Grape City, the loser of the war, Japan, only suffered even more. This was especially true for the Japanese and Indian players who had fought Li Chengfeng’s suicide squad in Final Duel Valley. Their losses were at least 5 times bigger than our server’s. Naturally, they needed to use this downtime to nurture their strength back to fighting shape once more. Otherwise, they would be prey when the next Nation War arrived.

……

I fought until it was almost evening in real life. I was now Level 199 and the indisputable highest-leveled player in the entire China, no, the entire world. Speaking of which, Li Chengfeng was the previous holder of the title, sitting at Level 207 before he was ultimately killed by the enemy.

My boots rustled against the grass as I was approaching a corner of the forest. Suddenly, I spotted a couple of Purple Grape City players speaking softly to one another—

A dagger-wielding girl in red shirt said, "The entire God’s Domain has been in shambles ever since Red Maple dropped to Level 0. Not even Cyan Frost and Purple Thunder were able to steady their guild members’ hearts. Hmph, the blow we received from the Chinese is just too much. Right now, we don’t even have a city or a supply spot to resupply ourselves. We have to trek all the way to Elephant City and Cyan Earth City to get what we want. It’s just depressing…"

A brawny youngster wielding an axe said, "What can you do? Look at God’s Domain. Even they look as miserable as sin, while we’re just the 17th strongest guild on the Guild Ranking. There’s nothing we can do about this situation. I gotta admit feeling a bit of twisted pleasure when I learned that Red Maple was dropped to Level 0 though. That arrogant ass was usually so proud of himself that he couldn’t hear a single word from the likes of us. Let’s hope that this setback has dampened that arrogance a bit."

A middle-aged magic knight carrying a shield smiled. "That’s true. I heard that Legendary Brave killed Cyan Frost, Purple Thunder and seriously wounded Red Maple before he finally succumbed to his injuries. You just can’t help but be impressed…"

The red shirt girl said, "The strongest player in the China server is still Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand though. He was the champion of the WEL, and Red Maple’s chances of beating him 1 on 1 are lower than 40%. He’s also the one who killed Breeze and Rain at Soaring Flame Desert, and right now he’s challenging millions of players solo here at Final Duel Valley. He already has the looks, but now he’s proven that he has the balls too…"

The youngster grinned bitterly. "For fuck’s sake, third sis, we are at the pivotal point of our nation’s future right now, so can you please rein in your inner fangirl? Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand is our enemy no matter how handsome he is."

She laughed. "Of course I know about that. I’m just expressing my admiration. If we really do run into him, I will still do my best to kill him. I won’t let my personal feelings interfere with business, don’t worry."

"Good to know…" The middle-aged magic knight set down his shield beside him and sat down on a giant rock before continuing, "Let’s take a break. The mobs here are pretty high-level, and I’m tired after all that grinding. By the way, did you guys hear that God’s Domain is plotting something big again? Red Maple is currently grinding his level in the instances, and I heard that they’re planning to reconquer Swallow Ear Canton first to use it as a temporary supply spot. In 14 days, we’ll tackle the mobs in Purple Grape City and retake our home!"

The woman smiled. "Yeah. The Chinese spent so much energy to take out Purple Grape City, but they didn’t think that we could retake it easily just by killing some low-level mobs. Well, what can they do? They don’t have the strength to fight another Nation War even if they wanted to. In the end, we are the ones who get to say what goes within our borders."

"Hehe, yeah!"

……

I frowned. They were correct, of course. I might have abandoned Purple Grape City, but it was only a matter of time before they retook it.

I thought for a moment until I suddenly recalled a very important person. I got it! After I returned from lunch with Chaos Moon, I would solve the matter of Purple Grape City once and for all!