Smiling cheekily, I asked the pretty little flower next to me after reading the quest description, "So, do you think I should accept or accept this quest, Yiyi?"

Lin Yixin slapped me on the arm and smiled back just as cheekily. "You’ll reject it so we can go to the zoo and watch bears later!"

Me: "...!!!"

I accepted the quest without hesitation and triggered a system ring—

System Notice: You have accepted the main quest [Searching For The Dragonslaying Sword]! (current quest rank: SSS)

Description: Head to the Dragon Domain, find the remains of the Dragonslaying Sword and bring it back to Shadow Dancer Xue Wei for an exceptionally generous reward. Be warned though, you should definitely write a will before setting off on this journey. Party size limit: 7.

……

After we both accepted the quest, I read the quest description and commented, "Did the quest just advise us to write our wills? Just how hard is this SSS Rank quest going to be?"

Lin Yixin replied seriously, "It didn’t give us a quest location, and it limited our party size to just 7. It’s going to be very, very, very hard for sure."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Anyway, who are we going to add to our 7-man party?"

Lin Yixin chuckled. "That’s simple. For starters, Sister Eve is obviously going to come with us. We need ranged DPS, so we need both Beiming Xue and Lian Xin. We also need a healer, and who better than Sister Mingyue? The last slot can be healer or ranged DPS. Your choice!"

I thought for a moment before answering, "In that case, let’s take Pure Love with us. A bard’s buffs are incredibly useful, and with Pure Love’s equipment she can boost all of the main tank’s stats by 70% at least. That’s incredibly important when killing a boss. Finally, we can give her any bard-exclusive item we get during the quest."

Lin Yixin smiled. "Sure! The main force of this party is the Frost Cloud workshop anyway. I’m just going to freeload off you all!"

I shot her a glance. "You might as well join our workshop then…"

"Please, I’m still the guild leader of Snowy Cathaya, you know. Both my guild and my club will scorn me if I do that…"

"Fine. Anyway, let’s rally the girls and stock up on supplies already. We’re departing in an hour, so best make sure that you have all the cards, items and everything else you need!"

"I know!"

……

We were just about to take our leave when Shadow Dancer Xue Wei added, "Before you go, I must warn you that there is a barrier blocking the sky of Dragon Domain. You will die if you attempt to fly through it, so make sure that you make your journey on foot. I would advise you to start your journey from Thunder Mountain Range and pass through Fire Dragon Canyon and Cyan Horse Highlands. Then, take a boat from Cyanscale Coast and travel to the east for about a day and a night. It will take you to the edge of Dragon Domain. From there, you will be able to enter the fabled ruins of Dragon Domain. I’ve never been there in person, so this is all the info I can share with you. Please be careful, and make it back to me alive, okay?"

I gave her a nod and a smile. "Don’t worry. We’ll be back before you know it!"

"Mn!"

With that said, Xue Wei wrapped herself in her cloak once more and made her way toward the city. She kept her head bowed just like a generic assassin would. As expected, the guards wouldn’t stop her as long as she kept her blood-red eyes hidden.

……

After we saw Xue Wei off, I sat back down on the square and started messaging the girls—

"What are you doing, Beiming?"

"Grinding the S2 instance with Sister He Yi. What’s wrong?"

"Finish it as soon as possible, replenish your supplies and meet me at the eastern square, okay? We’re going on an expedition to a super-far-away map, so don’t dilly-dally if you can!"

"Okay! We’ll be there in half an hour!"

"Good!"

Next, I put away my stall and unloaded all the equipment I hadn’t managed to sell to Air Force One. I then contacted Pure Love and informed her about our upcoming journey. Despite the short notice, Pure Love was absolutely ecstatic to be able to join the key players of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls on a quest.

I spent several thousand gold to purchase a bunch of food, herbs and so on and made 500 sets of Rank 10 Saint Spirit Potions on the spot. Then, I repaired all of my equipment. Speaking of equipment, the repair fees were as expensive as they were powerful. I was practically paying the price of a Jiangnan Alto every time I repaired them. Without sufficient wealth, there was no point for a player to get a Sacred Armament or a Divine Armament. They wouldn’t even be able to maintain it.

Besides that, I also took out 20 Fire War God Cards from the warehouse in case I needed them. In fact, I was pretty sure the party would need it when we fought the bosses of Dragon Domain. As of now, there were no cards in the world that boosted Attack, Defense, and HP by 80% as well.

After everything was ready, I loitered around Sky City because there was still some time until the girls were done with their business.

……

Maple leaves were falling on the streets. The beautiful priestesses of a monastery were sweeping the streets when a troop of elite riders abruptly dashed past them, scaring the daylights out of them. They exclaimed in panic and worry, "What’s going on? Why are the riders so panicked?"

I was confused as well, so I followed them to the main camp of the royal guards not far away from the monastery. Rows and rows of riders were already standing at the ready, and their leader was none other than my old acquaintance, Commander Stark of the Black Cavalry Legion. He was the right-hand man of Princess Karinshan just like Ziyan.

Chiang!

Some time later, Stark abruptly pulled out his sword and said loudly, "Three days ago, our camp at Griffin Forest of Yellow Stone Mountain Range was ambushed by Coldblade’s legion. As a result, over 4000 of our Griffin Riders were killed by those evil Bone Dragon Riders. That is why Princess Karinshan has ordered us to travel to Dragon Domain and seek out dormant eggs of giant dragons to breed as many Holy Dragon Knights for the empire as possible. The only ones who can fight against the sky riders of the Purgatory are dragon knights, so we must succeed in this expedition no matter what, understand? We will conquer the ruins of Dragon Domain and form a new contract with the slumbering giant dragons!"

Suddenly, the NPCs’ eyes turned solemn and respectful. It was because the ruler of Sky City herself, Princess Karinshan had stepped out of her tent. She was wielding the Guardian’s Blade and wearing her royal cloak.

"Is everyone here?" Karinshan asked Stark.

The commander replied, "Yes, Your Majesty. All 5000 of the most elite warriors of the Black Cavalry Legion are here. We are all willing to give up our lies to search for the ruins of Dragon Domain!"

Karinshan nodded slightly before ordering, "Stand by while I mobilize 100 great mages and 100 holy priests to go with you. This is going to be a most dangerous journey. It would not do for you to go without some enchanters."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

……

Meanwhile, I walked up to Karinshan to ask, "Are there really dormant dragon eggs in Dragon Domain, princess?"

When Karinshan turned and saw that it was me who spoke to her, she broke into a smile and replied, "That is correct. Our great magus has been detecting pulses of dragon life from Dragon Domain, and a new shoot has sprouted from the World Tree. This can only be a sign that life is returning to our continent, and that the ruins of Dragon Domain are finally about to awaken. Our war situation isn’t looking very good right now, so the human race must form a new contract with the dragons before we are both annihilated by the undead."

I nodded smilingly. "I see. I wish you luck on your journey then!"

I turned away and left after figuring out the situation. My quest and the NPCs’ quest were two separate things, and to journey together with Stark was just asking for trouble. Moreover, I was travelling to Dragon Domain not just to search for the Dragonslaying Sword, but to find a trove of giant dragon eggs for the guild as well. Only by creating a squad of dragon knights would we be able to dominate both the sky and the land and continue our reign on this continent.

……

Half an hour later, I returned to the meeting spot and waited.

I was standing at the stone bridge of the eastern gate with my arm crossed around my chest when Lin Yixin showed up. "I can’t wait to get a sword-type weapon with at least 10k Attack during this trip. It’s literally the one thing that’s dragging down my overall equipment rank right now…"

I laughed. "Sure! I have Chill of the Nine Provinces, so I don’t need anything else. Feel free to split any close-ranged weapons between you and Eve."

"Mn mn."

Right after she said that, He Yi, Murong Mingyue, Beiming Xue and Lian Xin appeared from behind her. Their eyes widened like saucers after I shared the quest with them. "Wow! An SSS Rank main quest?"

I grinned at them and said, "Yep! It’s either go big or go home, people!"

While I was saying this, Pure Love finally showed up and said, "Aiyo, I knew I would be the last one to arrive. Li Chengfeng wouldn’t let me go until I buffed him for his trip to the Sky Vortex. Sigh. Anyway, I won’t be able to apply my buffs for another 30 minutes, Lu Chen…"

I had no qualms with that, so I said, "No problem! Chengfeng does need the buff especially if he’s targeting an SSS Rank Divine Skill Scroll. There’s also less chance of him getting instakilled in the case he was teleported into a bad location. There aren’t many SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skills left in the Ruins of the Gods though. I wish him luck…"

He Yi said, "He’ll take care of himself. Anyway, let’s go already!"

"Yeah!"

……

I shared the route with the whole gang. This was going to be one of the longest adventures we’ve ever gone on because we had to traverse multiple maps just to make it to the ruins of Dragon Domain. The plan was to match our on-foot players with mounted players so that we could shorten our travel time as a whole. Beiming Xue would be carrying Lian Xin on her Dragonscale Beast. He Yi was the only person in our party with over 100 Intimacy with Pure Love, so the two of them would be riding together. Finally, Murong Mingyue would be riding on my Ancient Divine Dragon.

After I summoned my mount and sat on its back, I offered Murong Mingyue a hand and pulled her behind me. She let out a giggle and said, "Finally, I get to mount a dragon. Let’s go!"

I pretended I didn’t understand the sexual innuendo behind her words and spurred the Ancient Divine Dragon down the floating rocks that connected Sky City to the ground.[1] He Yi, Beiming Xue and Lin Yixin followed right behind me.

……

We traveled along Thunder Mountain Range as per advised by Shadow Dancer Xue Wei. We left our pets to take care of all the mobs we encountered along the way. Both the Ice Dragon Kris and the Phantom Wolf King were excellent at this.

A while later, we crossed over Thunder Mountain Range and entered another country’s domain. More specifically, we were now in Russia’s Frostsword City.

1. E/N: I completely forgot about it! Is it just me, or did the author completely forget that Sky City is literally suspended in the air? I feel like every siege of Sky City enemies were just “shooting at walls”, “breaching gates” and “getting close to the walls”...