I didn’t rush to make a decision. I took a long time to weigh the pros and cons of Bloodlust joining us.

Bloodlust was a guild with over 200k players. One might say that more than half of the casual players of Iron Skull Wilderness were gathered in Bloodlust. Therefore, if my goal was to bring most of the unaffiliated players in Iron Skull Wilderness together, reorganizing Bloodlust was more or a less a must-do. Moreover, I had witnessed their battle at Frost Stained Forest. Their strength was uneven, and their ability to command a positional warfare was even worse than Gui Guzi’s, but they absolutely had courage in spades. At the very least, they were better than bullies like Black Crow Tribe.

Moreover, we were going to march into Dirge Canyon in 15 hours, and Godkiller’s numbers didn’t exceed 100k. Frankly, I had strong doubts that we would be able to meet Flowing Cloud’s expectation considering our current strength.

I might not be an actual famous war general of China like Han Xin, but I at least understood the saying "the more, the better”. The bigger my army, the higher my chance to defeat the enemy.

And so, I made up my mind.

……

I stepped out into the open and raised my arm. Godkiller’s players were the first ones to quiet down first, followed by the players of Bloodlust.

Bloodthirsty Demon looked at me and asked, "Can you share your opinion with us, guild leader Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand? I agree with my subordinate that sending our elites into your main guild and turning our main guild into your subguild is going too far. It has been more than half a year since Bloodlust was founded, and everything we achieved together is fought by our own sweat and blood. If possible, no one wants to become the vassal of a bigger force."

I nodded. "I understand what you’re saying. If I may, I have a suggestion for you."

"Please speak!"

Bloodthirsty Demon had always been an arrogant man, but it seemed that that negative trait of his was utterly crushed by the terrible defeat he suffered at Frost Stained Canyon. I almost couldn’t believe how polite he was acting to me right now. It was reality though. There were few things that opened one’s eyes better than a horrible defeat.

I planted my sword on the ground to assume a more comfortable posture before starting, "It’s simple. We won’t ask Bloodlust to disband and join Godkiller. Instead, we will ask you to form an alliance with us and become our satellite guild. Bloodlust will retain full autonomy and integrity, but I request that you obey my command when a great war is on the horizon. As for your subguilds, they will join Godkiller’s subguilds. Finally, I would like it if you added the prefix ‘Godkiller’ in front of your guild name so that it’s clear that you are our satellite guild. Of course, you may keep your guild emblem. We aren’t subsuming you after all. So, what do you say?"

A smart person would notice that I was still asking Bloodlust to become our subguild. I just dressed my words with sincerity and avoided unpleasant terms like "reorganization”. Sometimes, pretty words were all it took to make something unacceptable acceptable...

Bloodthirsty Demon pondered about the offer for half a minute before discussing it with his subguilds’ leaders. Finally, he nodded to me and said, "Very well, we will do as you say, guild leader. From now on, Bloodlust’s main guild will become Godkiller’s satellite guild. We will obey your command and wisdom in all forms of large-scale warfare!"

Warscar grinned. "Awesome! Now that we’re one big family, there’s no need to snatch hammers from each other anymore!"

Bloodthirsty Demon smiled as well. "Yes. From now on, we are brothers and sisters with common enemies and dreams. We may be unaffiliated players, but we will shine bright and strong in these troubled times nonetheless!"

I sent Bloodthirsty Demon an alliance invitation, and just like that, Bloodlust became our ally. After adding the prefix "Godkiller" to their guild name, Bloodlust officially became our strongest subguild, with a couple of minor differences. One, Bloodthirsty Demon still had full power over the internal affairs of his own guild, and two, he possessed his own authority. That was fine. We could take this one step at a time.

……

It was at this moment a Zephyr Cavalryman wielding a spear galloped over while shouting, "Bad news, guild leader! Beast Soul has appeared from the north again, and this time they brought around 20k+ players with them! They claimed that they’re going to flatten Bonecrush Forest and destroy Godkiller! What do we do?"

Hickey smiled. "Their timing couldn’t be any better…"

My own smile was a mirror of hers. I said to Bloodthirsty Demon, "Demon, a stepping stone has just appeared at our doorstep. Show me the power of Bloodlust!"

Bloodthirsty Demon nodded affirmatively. "Got it!"

I spurred the Ancient Divine Dragon into the air and looked to the north. I quickly spotted Beast Trainer, the guild leader of Beast Soul, among the huge army he brought. The guy had come to raid our NPC camp probably because he thought that we were weakened after the battle at Dragonsnake Devil’s Den.

After I slowly descended back to the ground, I pointed to the east and ordered, "Hickey, take 5000 Zephyr Cavalrymen with you and hit the enemy’s wing from the east. Warscar, take everyone else with you and surround the enemy from the west. Both of you will attack only after I give you the green light. Bloodthirsty Demon, you and Bloodlust’s main force will hit the enemy head-on. There’s no need to set up a defense line or anything, just bumrush those idiots until they die. We’re going to settle this in ten minutes, people!"

Bloodthirsty Demon had probably never experienced something called planning before a great battle. He pulled out his broadsword and declared with a fierce smile, "We will do as you say, guild leader!"

……

I didn’t participate in this battle because I wanted to gauge the power of the new Godkiller. I perched the Ancient Divine Dragon on a giant tree tall enough to oversee the entire battlefield.

There were dust clouds everywhere at the horizon. Most of Beast Soul’s players were cavalrymen, and I spotted several thousand Beast King Cavalrymen among them. It became obvious that Cyan Beast was the real reason they came to attack us again.

The moment both sides entered the battlefield, I immediately ordered, "Now is the time! Attack!"

The ground shook like an earthquake as Bloodthirsty Demon waved his weapon and charged with his riders fearlessly toward the enemy. Not only that, Hickey and Warscar’s 5000-strong Zephyr Cavalry parties also burst out of the forests on the two sides of the clearing and caught Beast Soul in a pincer attack. Beast Soul’s morale dropped like a rock even before impact was made.

The noises of cavalry slamming into cavalry, and blades tearing into armor resounded throughout the battlefield. The cavalry engaged one another faster than the ranged parties could follow.

The battle was almost completely one-sided. Fighting at the forefront, Bloodthirsty Demon and the elites of Bloodlust single-handedly stopped the enemy’s charge. To the flanks, Hickey and Warscar shattered Beast Soul’s defense like nothing and carved their way to the heart of their formation like a pair of unstoppable blades. Beast Trainer exclaimed amid green-faced shock, "What… what the hell is going on? Since when is Bloodlust Godkiller’s subguild?"

Obviously, Bloodthirsty Demon had no time to answer him. He was fully absorbed in his bloody task.

Less than ten minutes later, Beast Soul broke under pressure and routed as expected. Most of them weren’t able to outrun Godkiller’s pursuit.

……

It was done. I checked the time one last time before sending Bloodthirsty Demon, Hickey and Warscar each a message informing them that I was logging off and telling them to have fun. I also reminded them that they must come online 15 hours later for the revenge operation against Cyan Beast.

Natural Flow might be an enemy in the future, but for now we were joining hands in the name of mutual profit and fighting against our common enemy, Cyan Beast. Iron Skull Wilderness had always thought of Cyan Beast as their number one enemy, and practically everyone had had enough of Beast King Cavalry’s reign of terror.

……

I logged out of the game and took off my helmet. It had been a very fulfilling day of blood and slaughter. After I was ready, I immediately knocked on Lin Yixin and Chaos Moon’s doors and invited them for dinner. They had been waiting for me for quite some time. We went to a western restaurant downstairs and enjoyed a steak.

After we were done eating, we relaxed on the restaurant’s sofas and chatted idly about everything.

Lin Yixin was sitting next to me and holding my hand. Chaos Moon was sitting on the opposite side of the table. Right now, Chaos Moon was covering her forehead with one hand and complaining, "Guys, I’m a single woman. Can you have a heart and not act so lovey-dovey in front of me?"

Lin Yixin giggled. "You can find a man yourself if you’re that lonely. Gui Guzi, Yamete and Xu Yang are all good people…"

"Unfortunately, they don’t meet my standards…" Chaos Moon shrugged.

Lin Yixin immediately wrapped both her arms around me, "This one’s mine! Don’t even think about taking him from me!"

Chaos Moon: "..."

Another bout of idle conversation later, Chaos Moon asked, "So, what did you achieve today, Lu Chen? I heard that Iron Skull Wilderness is torn by war right now. You truly are the god of war and chaos. Wherever you go, war follows…"

I took a sip from my drink before replying, "The usual. I’m currently making my way to Thunder Mountain Range. With luck, I should be able to make my way home very soon. Oh right, can you come to Iron Skull Wilderness when you log on tomorrow morning? I need to give you some stuff. Make sure you clear out at least 300 inventory slots."

"Ohh, what’s this about?"

"You’ll know when I trade you the stuff. Make sure you depart early. Even with the Dragonscale Beast’s movement speed, it’ll still take you 2.5 hours to reach Iron Skull Wilderness. I’ll be waiting for you at the northwest zone of the map."

"Okay."

Beside me, Lin Yixin asked me, "My party cleared S2 today, so I would like to visit Iron Skull Wilderness. Is that okay?"

"Do whatever you want…"

"Okay. I’ll travel together with Chaos Moon then."

"Yeah, that’s a good idea. You’ll be able to take care of each other in case something happens. Don’t engage anyone in battle though. I don’t think anyone can catch up to you two as long as you keep traveling at full speed anyway."

"Okay…"

……

I returned to my room and hit the bed. I blacked out practically the second my head landed on the pillow.

It was very early in the morning when I woke up. There were still 4 hours until the agreed time of departure, so I decided that I might as well use this time to receive Chaos Moon and Lin Yixin. I wanted Chaos Moon to take the 300 stacks, or 30000 Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse Sealing Crystals, in my bag back to Dark Moon City so that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls could have their own Zephyr Cavalry. I had been searching for a way to make up for the rarity that was the Dragonlight Cavalry, and the Zephyr Ironbone Warhorse was the perfect solution to that problem. Our high-end players were far, far stronger than Godkiller’s players be it in terms of equipment, levels or skills, so they could all become heavy cavalry, the type of cavalrymen with both high Attack and Defense and was pivotal in any warfare.

Swhoosh!

After I ate breakfast, I logged into the game and appeared in Bonecrush Forest. After I repaired my equipment and stocked up on some potions, I summoned the Ancient Divine Dragon and traveled to the zone where we had agreed to meet.

However, there were still 3 hours before Chaos Moon and Lin Yixin would arrive, so I summoned my apparition and the Phantom Wolf King and grinded the mobs there. I cleared out every mob within a kilometer radius to welcome the two beauties.