I suddenly felt a couple of water droplets on my cheeks. Rain had begun to fall in Bonecrush Forest.

Hickey hugged her sword, closed her eyes and faced toward the sky, enjoying the soothing sensation of cold water wetting her cheeks. A while later, she looked toward me and asked, "What is your goal, Lu Chen? Are you trying to bring all the tribes in Iron Skull Wilderness together so we can resist Elephant City and Cyan Earth City?"

I smiled and nodded affirmatively, and Hickey smiled back.

"That’s fine at all, but I must warn you that some of them are not worth your trouble, ever. Take Black Crow Tribe for example, their entire guild is made up of thieves, gangsters, criminals, swindlers and pimps. As a whole group, their total prison sentence is over ten thousand years…"

"I’m well aware. I’ll stay away from Black Crow Tribe as much as possible."

"Heh, good."

……

Beside me, Warscar planted his axe head-on the ground before asking, "We’re pretty strong now, aren’t we, guild leader? Should we head to the northmost entrance of Iron Skull Wilderness now and block the Indians from coming in?"

For a time, I couldn’t help but stare at him in astonishment.

Hickey burst into a giggle before saying, "You truly are a simple oaf, Warscar. Why would we need to do that when we’re the ones who have the home field advantage? We know Iron Skull Wilderness better than any foreigner. There’s absolutely no need for us to move all the way to the north entrance and block Cyan Earth City, not to mention that Breeze and Rain is far trickier than you think."

I nodded in agreement. "According to forum rumors, a large-scale 10000-player battle happened between Cyan Earth City and Purple Grape City last night. The entire east side of the continent is bubbling with restlessness right now, and the cityless Japanese are plotting to vent their anger somewhere."

Hickey blinked once before replying smilingly, "I know you’re the Little Heavenly King of China, boss. I spent the whole night brushing up on my knowledge of the China server yesterday, and you have my full sympathy regarding your exile. However, you’re the one who destroyed Purple Grape City, and because of that the Japanese are attacking the Indians. It’s very possible that Breeze and Rain, God of War and Flowing Cloud will target you specifically and vent their frustrations on you, you know that right?"

I grinned. "So what? I’ll deal with it as it comes. Iron Skull Wilderness’ monster level is ridiculously high, and its map size is almost 4 to 7 times bigger than Purple Grape City’s. Even if Cyan Beast and Natural Flow enter Iron Skull Wilderness in full force, we can just avoid them until we find the right strategy to defeat them. It’s not a problem."

Hickey shrugged and returned her sword into her scabbard. The western girl then crossed her arms and smiled like a load was taken off her shoulders, "That’s good. It looks like I can rest a bit easier with the so-called unrivaled warrior of China on our side."

Warscar asked, "Do you have a plan to share with us, guild leader?"

I shook my head. "Of course not. I don’t even know when Breeze and Rain is returning. When he does though, we’ll make sure to bury him here. We’ll teach the India server that Iron Skull Wilderness is neither underpowered nor masterless."

"Mn mn! I like the sound of that!"

Hickey nodded smilingly. "By the way, boss. Are you in China right now?"

I nodded back. "Yes. What’s wrong?"

Hickey shot me a meaningful smile. "Oh, I was just thinking that I should visit China when I’m free. I heard that Guilin’s scenery is famous throughout the world, and the pictures I saw on the internet certainly live up to its reputation. If you happen to be free at the time, would you be interested to accompany me to Guilin and be my tour guide?"

I shrugged. "I haven’t been to Guilin myself, so we’ll see when the time comes. What about you, Warscar? Are you interested in touring China with us?"

Warscar smiled like he was onto something. "Nah, maybe some other time. For starters, I have no interest in becoming you and Hickey’s third wheel. Two, I may be dumb and one-track-minded, but I’m not that dumb that I couldn’t recognize the signs when I see them. Am I right, Hickey?"

The former guild leader immediately started punching Warscar. "Pooh! Like hell you do!"

I grinned. "Come on, have some manners, people!"

Hickey giggled. "I’m currently using a Chinese translator to converse with you, but I promise I’ll learn as much Chinese as I can before my visit. I don’t want to meet you in person only to find that we are completely unable to communicate with each other."

"Don’t worry, my boss speaks excellent English. She can be our translator if necessary…" I replied while thinking about He Yi. The so-called genius girl of GGS might not be the vice president of GGS anymore, but her skills had only improved since. From my point of view, her mastery of the spoken language of English was practically native. She had done business with countless foreigners.

Hickey’s eyes widened. "Your boss? Oh, you’re talking about the guild leader of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, From Water, right? I recognize her! She’s an incredibly beautiful eastern woman~~"

Warscar interjected, "The boss of our boss? So she’s like the empress dowager, huh…"

I laughed. "Alright, we’ve wasted enough time. Let’s see… Warscar, you’ll continue grinding with Godkiller. Hickey, we’re going to grind the S2 instance, so I want you to choose two priests and one archer to join our party. The goal is to get you a full set of S2-exclusive equipment. Once you’re done, we’ll do the same for Warscar."

Hickey’s eyes widened with pleasant surprise. "Really? We’re actually going to challenge the S2 instance? Also, did I hear you right when you said to bring two priests instead of a priest and a mage?"

I gave the Purple Ying Sword a wave before declaring confidently, "Of course! Why would we need a mage when I’m all the DPS the party needs? I want two priests because I’ll be tanking and dishing out the majority of the damage, and an archer to keep the boss CC’ with Freezing Arrows and Shock Arrows. Trust me, the S2 boss is going to go down like nothing!"

"Mn mn!"

"One more thing, Hickey."

"Yes?"

"I want you to transfer 5000 priests from Sacred Oath to Godkiller. Warscar’s subordinates are all fighters, so they literally have zero support. There’s no way the guild will be able to grind or PvP normally without priests."

"Got it. I’ll get it done in ten minutes. After that, we proceed to the S2 instance!"

"Okay."

……

While waiting, I checked the forums and noted that the S1 instance had already been beaten by the five-supergirl party: Lian Xin, Beiming Xue, He Yi, Murong Mingyue and Chaos Moon. They were currently challenging the S2 instance, and so far, I heard that they were doing okay. Candlelight Shadow had also beaten the S1 instance and gathered a full set of S1 equipment for Blue Sky Scar, greatly improving the latter’s strength. The set was called the Checkmate set.

In other news, Warsky Alliance and Soul Battle Robes had become such close allies that the only friendly thing they hadn’t done was to merge their guilds together. Warsky, Farewell Song, Song of Ice and Fire, God Bone and Ringwraith had also formed a five-superman party and beaten the S1 instance, and were currently challenging the S2 instance. The top players in the entire world were challenging the S2 instance right now, so, in a sense, Hickey and I were finally catching up to the mainstream.

One final thing I noticed was that Snowy Cathaya’s players hadn’t made much of a splash at all. Purple Marquis, Clear Perfume and the key players of Snowy Cathaya tried to challenge the S1 instance, but because Lin Yixin wasn’t around they ultimately weren’t able to beat the final boss. It made me very puzzled.

What on earth was Beauty Lin doing in the past two days? Oh well. I’ll give her a call when I log out later.

……

Ten minutes later, a smiling Hickey returned with a couple of players behind her. "All done, boss. I’ve also gotten the two priests and one archer you requested…"

"Mn." I looked at my soon-to-be party members. The priests were both male and Level 194, and they were some of the best priests within Sacred Oath. The Level 195 archer was a European girl with golden hair and blue eyes. She wielded a short bow, and she was the best archer in the guild. It was a shame I didn’t have access to Dark Moon City right now, or I could elevate her to a mounted archer and make her so much stronger than she currently was.

"Alright, let’s go!"

I rode at the forefront of the party while saying, "The S1 and S2 instances give Heaven-grade equipment sets, but the S3 one rewards the Immortal-grade Level 200 Martial God set. Therefore, we have to clear the S2 instance before challenging S3, but we don’t need to clear the S1 instance before challenging S2. You could say that we’re exploiting a loophole."

The archer asked, "Boss, has anyone gathered a full set of the S3 Martial God set yet?"

"Nope. No one in the world has even beaten the S2 instance yet."

"Oh, I see…"

……

That being said, I was sure that someone would beat the S2 instance in three days at most. There were countless super experts in the entire world, and its difficulty was so-so at best. The super parties in China needed not be mentioned. God of War and Breeze and Rain were absent for the past two days, and I was certain that they were currently grinding the instances. Vienna’s Sorrow must be doing the same thing in the northern Hero City as well. Everyone was doing their utmost to strengthen themselves before the next war began. The entire Heavenblessed continent stank of the stench of war right now, and one could happen the second the rest period was over. It would be terrible to be caught unawares.

The S2 instance was called the Tomb of the Death Gods. It was the final resting place of a generation of Death Gods. When I opened the world map and searched for the location, I discovered that it was actually pretty close to Zephyr Valley. So, I simply dismounted and walked my way over to the dungeon entrance. Hickey and the others also did the same thing.

Half an hour later, we arrived at the edge of the valley. The wind in this area howled like a ghastly wail. It was Zephyr Valley’s "special" trait, so to speak.

The two male priests asked Hickey, "What should we do?"

Hickey answered, "Keep the MT healed."

"Who’s the MT?"

"Our boss…"

"Okay…"

……

A subdued wail of some sort actually entered our ears as we parted a thick bush of leaves and branches and moved closer to the entrance. We saw what seemed like a temple entrance directly ahead of us with rotten wooden boards and weathered rock floors. Totems with pythons etched onto its poles aligned both sides of the entrance, and the end point was a pitch black cave that looked like the maw of some horrible ghost.

Hickey unsheathed her sword and declared with a smile. "Ready, everyone? Let’s try and beat the S2 instance on the first try!"

"Okay!"

……

I mounted the Ancient Divine Dragon and summoned the Phantom Wolf King. Then, I used a precious Fire War God Card and buffed my Attack by 70%, attack speed by 35%, and max HP by 80%. I didn’t feel too sorry for using the card because it was meant exactly for situations like these. Also, for the sake of everyone’s morale, I was going to do my best and beat this instance in one try!