Creak!

The door—no, doors—opened. Lian Xin and Murong Mingyue both walked out of their rooms at the same time. It was obvious from their sleepy faces that they had been logged into the game for too long.

I looked up and shot them a smile. "Looks like the two national treasure beauties have finally deigned to grace us with their presence…"

Murong Mingyue glanced at me and commented, "How about you try that again after you put Eve’s bra strap back on her shoulder?"

I shuddered from head to toe and looked at Eve’s shoulder with an ashen face. It was just as she said. He Yi’s pink-colored, C.Gilson-brand bra strap was still hanging beside her arm and painting the perfect picture of the aftermath of a passionate scene. How did we miss that?

"Fuck!"

I swore inside my head and pulled it back on He Yi’s shoulder. The woman herself let me do my thing and even managed to school her expression into a mask of perfect calm, but her bright red complexion still betrayed her true emotions completely. She was probably contemplating if she could get away with tossing Murong Mingyue off the balcony right now.

"Ahem…"

I tried my best to remain calm as I started, "Sis, we—"

Murong Mingyue, the calmest of all of us as per usual, sat down on the opposite sofa and said, "You don’t need to explain your life to anyone!"

Me: "..."

Deciding to ignore that, I looked at Lian Xin and pulled her hand to sit next to me. "Little Xin, I heard you talking about some S Rank Ancient Divine Skill just now? What kind of skill is it?"

Lian Xin held up a bun and took a bite before answering, "My skill is called ‘Sigh of the Heroine’. It lowers the physical attack power of all enemy players within a certain range. It’s kinda useful against cavalry charges, but it’s still somewhat situational to be honest. Sister Mingyue’s skill is called ‘Seduction’. It lowers the movement speed of all enemy players within a certain range. In summary, both of our Ancient Divine Skills are support-type skills…"

I hummed for a moment. "It’s… not bad, to be honest. In a Nation War, you’re both going to be behind shields most of the time anyway. Sigh of the Heroine will lower the enemy’s damage, and Seduction will lower their movement speed. Together with the Dragonlight Cavalry, you can render any enemy cavalry impotent…"

Murong Mingyue giggled. "Whatever, all I care about is that Seduction is a good escape skill. If anyone dares to chase me, I’ll lower their movement speed by 50% with Seduction and smash their face in with Rockfall!"

Me: "..."

"Anyway, let’s eat breakfast now and catch some sleep already…"

"Yep!"

……

It was an eternal fact that beauties needed their beauty sleep. He Yi, Lian Xin, Murong Mingyue and even Lin Yixin had all decided that they weren’t crawling out of bed until the next morning.

While they were sleeping their heads off, I logged into the game and formed a part with Li Chengfeng, Moon Dew, Gui Guzi and Hickey. Then, we grinded the S1 to S3 instances all in one day. I let Li Chengfeng take all the last hits on the bosses because he needed the levels. Gui Guzi’s Shennong Tastes Grass proved to be invaluable as it turned him into a super priest, if only for one spell. My Xuanyuan Art "Life" skill also helped to keep everyone healthy where Moon Dew’s healing and Gui Guzi’s Ancient Divine Skill couldn’t. Long story short, we were able to clear the instances relatively easily.

Thanks to our efforts, Li Chengfeng flew all the way to Level 207 in just one day. Another day like this, and he could probably enter the Sky Vortex and fight for the Ancient Divine Skills. On a semi-related note, we gave all the S3 equipment we grinded in the instance to Hickey because she was the official guild leader of Protective Umbrella right now. As the leader of several hundred thousand players, the owner of a territory at Black Coast and the satellite city of Dark Moon City, she absolutely could use the equipment to strengthen herself and solidify her authority.

The third day passed by just as smoothly. Li Chengfeng officially hit Level 210, but he didn’t hurry into the Sky Vortex just as he had said he wouldn’t. He wanted to wait until the main guild had 100 eighth-promotion priests first. Only with sufficient healing would he be able to truly tank an SSS Rank guardian boss and defeat it.

……

During the evening, while I was sitting at the balcony and enjoying the reddish sunset and warm breeze of spring.

"Lu Chen…"

He Yi abruptly turned toward me and pointed at her computer screen. "The… the second SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skill has appeared…"

"Oh? Who is it?" I asked while turning toward her. I had always known that it was only a matter of time.

"Vienna’s Sorrow!"

"What skill is that?"

"It took him three days and nights of non-stop fighting, but he ultimately managed to beat the God of War Ares and obtained the Ancient Divine Skill, ‘Smile of Ares the God of War’. It increases all allies’ critical hit rate within 1000 yards by 70% for 60 seconds, and it has a cooldown of 120 seconds…"

"Holy shit!"

I jumped to my feet and muttered in disbelief, "70% crit rate? That’s crazy. That’s like at least 2 out of every 3 hits being crits…"

"Mn. This SSS Rank skill is absolutely domineering. One smile from Vienna, and everyone within 1000 yards of him will transform into critical hit monsters. His men will be nigh unstoppable…"

"Looks like we’ll have to amend our war strategy to killing Vienna’s Sorrow first in the future…"

"Mn."

He Yi replied with a blink. Straightening her skirt and rising to her feet, she walked up to me and asked with a smile. "Tomorrow’s the day we launch our assault to retake Wind City. Any comments?"

I smiled. "I don’t know. I guess this is a good opportunity to test out the true might of the Chill of the Nine Provinces? Discounting that one fight where I saved you, I’ve only used it against monsters so far…"

"Yeah. I'd like to test out the power of Chengying and Hanguang as well."

……

When nighttime arrived, I logged into the game and traveled to Dragonbone Mountain Range, the stretch that connects to Thunder Mountain Range to be exact. Snow as big as goose feathers were raining from the sky, and the temperature was absolutely frigid.

Pa!

After the Ancient Divine Dragon descended on a mountaintop, I leaped down from its back and turned it into dark gold–colored scaly armor. Not only did the Fusion Armor not take away anything from my stats, it also granted me greater mobility.

Six energy vortices circulated across both sides of the blade of my new weapon, Chill of the Nine Provinces as I strode toward my destination. Mountains, rivers, livestocks and other pictures spun continuously thanks to the divine energy circulating throughout the blade. Anyone could see that it was an extraordinary weapon.

Beneath a cliff perched at the top of the mountain range, there was a rare shelter where a bonfire had been lit, and a dozen or so players were taking warmth from it. Some of them were Chinese, and some of them were from other cities. The one commonality they shared was that everyone was a guild leader.

"Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand has arrived!"

A player with a dragon-shaped main city emblem on his arm rose to his meet and shot me a friendly smile. He extended a hand while greeting me, "Hello, Little Heavenly King of the China server! I am Bread and Water, the guild leader of the Joint Sky guild and a member of the southeast border city, Proud Dragon City!"

Surprised, I shook his hand and replied, "Proud Dragon City… that’s the main city of Pakistan, isn’t it? Your main city hasn’t made many big movements since the start of the game, so I thought you were going to sit this Nation War out too. I guess I was wrong…"

Bread and Water was a youngster around 30 years old. He gave me a good-nature laugh before saying, "Sorry, sorry. We’ve had no energy to participate in any outside war since we’ve been too busy bashing our own faces in. Civil wars, I know. The reason we came here today was because Mr. Hot and Sour Noodles himself had sent us an invitation."

I nodded. "Welcome to the Center!"

Beside the bonfire, Hot and Sour Noodles rose to his feet and pointed at me with a smile. "Everyone, this here is the Little Heavenly King of the China server and the vice leader of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Falling Dust. You already know this, but he is one of the central pillars that holds up our server. The other pillar, the Martial God Candlelight Shadow, was going to attend this meeting as well, but he’s still battling inside the Ruins of the Gods. Discounting him, everyone who’s supposed to arrive has arrived, so we can start the meeting now."

Hot and Sour Noodles began introducing everyone one by one. "First, allow me to introduce everyone, Lu Chen. As you are aware, there are three main cities at the border of the eastern region, or the top of Purple Grape City and Elephant City. They also border Iron Skull Wilderness. Bread and Water has already introduced himself, so I won’t repeat what he said. This man is Blaze, the guild leader of the number one guild of Greedy Wolf City, Turkey; and that one’s Badax, the guild leader of the number one guild of Earth Tiger City, Spain."

I nodded to each and every person politely. These three tier 1 southern main cities had never participated in the conquest of the Center, but they all came here today thanks to Hot and Sour Noodles. I didn’t know how much saliva he had wasted to persuade these bigshots to show up for this meeting today, but he did, and that was impressive in its own right.

There was another person in the meeting that I recognized. I walked up to him and greeted him with a friendly smile, "We meet again, Who Will Fight Me!"

The guild leader of the number one guild of Brazil, Vanguard, laughed and shook my hand heartily. He said, "I knew you would get an SSS Rank scroll from the Ruins of the Gods, brother! And if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have been able to get my Alexander the Great’s Battle Axe."

I replied with good manners. "You’re welcome!"

All the people around him were guild leaders of Chaotic 27’s biggest guilds. They must have traveled together. The last familiar face I spotted among the group was a female player. She was none other than the representative of Frostsword City and Iron Horse City, A Snowy Night Below 30 Degrees. It looked like Russia was finally going to show off their true power.

……

We all sat back down around the bonfire. Snowy Night was in the middle of barbecuing an antelope when she offered, "You guys hungry? Would you like to eat while we have this meeting?"

Hot and Sour Noodles shook his head with a polite smile. "Thank you, but maybe another time, Miss Snowy Night. Now, let’s talk about the next Nation War."

Snowy Night started, "It’s quite simple, really. Frostsword City and Iron Horse City will keep Elephant City’s attention fully on the west. We promise you they won’t have the energy to look anywhere else. Earth Tiger City, Proud Dragon City and Greedy Wolf City will push north, sweep Japan’s Swallow Ear Canton, and surround Cyan Earth City, pinning them in place. After that, the China server will retake Wind City with the help of the Chaotic 27."

I pondered for a moment before replying, "It is as Snowy Night says, a simple matter. All the Chaotic 27 needs to do in this war is to hold Seven Star City. The three main cities of the USA server combined still amount to less than 30 million players, not to mention that some of those troops are stationed at Wind City right now. There’s no way they can conquer Seven Star City unless you let them. That being said, better safe than sorry. We’ll send at least 10 million players to reinforce your city after we occupy Wind City."

Who Will Fight Me clenched his fists. "I’m not worried about this part of the war. I’m worried about England, Germany and Korea marching out in full force…"

"Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that they’re too scared to make a move," I declared confidently.

Snowy Night immediately looked at me. "We are all allies here. Unless secrecy is of the utmost importance, I hope you’ll tell us what your plan is."

I smiled. "It’s simple. We’ll station a couple million troops at Fortress of the Iron Halberd at Dawn City. If Chariot City, Hot Sand City, Burning City and so on dispatch their main forces to help the USA server, we’ll immediately have them attack their hinterlands. Unless they want to lose their own main cities, they definitely won’t send more than some small reinforcements. We’ll exploit this weakness, split up the Northern Alliance and crush them one by one."

Who Will Fight Me guffawed. "We could keep three cities worth of troops pinned without wasting a single life? What a wonderful strategy! I always knew Chinese people were cunning bastards…"

I wasn’t quite sure what to say at this remark...