"Ugh…"

Pure Love dropped her scepter as she let out a muffled groan and dissolved into a ray of white light. I could see the resentment in her eyes before she died. She must’ve been surprised to find that her 500k+ HP still wasn’t enough to survive one full skill rotation from a first-rate assassin.

The assassin who killed Pure Love immediately bent down to pick up the dropped scepter. He knew that an item dropped by a member of our party could only be fantastic.

Lin Yixin wouldn’t allow that to happen, however. She exploded toward the assassin, slashed upward and knocked his hands away from the scepter before he could touch it. Then, she launched a mighty kick straight at the man’s groin before any of them could use a skill. Cold sweat poured out of my neck when I saw her tactical kick, not to mention that her boots were wreathed in flames. Since when did she learn the almighty descendant-ending kick?

However, the assassin surprised all of us with a series of impressive movements. First, he activated Haste to dodge Lian Xin’s spells. Then, he brought down the pommel of his dagger with both hands to block Lin Yixin’s kick, and to send himself falling into the black pit right behind him.

I rushed to the edge and scanned the man. I discovered that he was the guild leader of Blood Alliance himself, the Level 218 Coldblood Assassin, Assassin’s Creed. After he vanished using a packet of fluorescent powder, the tree vines immediately began swinging unnaturally. I heard a soft landing noise from the sixth floor, and that was the last I heard or saw anything from him.

……

"Shit!"

My sword hand trembled slightly with anger as I stared at the infinite darkness. "I cannot believe we let that motherfucker escape after killing one of our members!"

Inside the party channel, Pure Love said, "Guild leader, Lu Chen, Beauty Lin, everyone… I’ve revived outside Dragon God Cave, and I won’t be able to enter it again. I’ll be grinding with Xu Yang and the rest who died earlier. Stay strong, you all!"

He Yi consoled her. "Pure Love, your scepter is with me right now. I’ll give it back to you after we’re done, okay?"

"Okay! Thanks!"

Pure Love tried to maintain a cheerful tone, but we all could hear that she wasn’t feeling very well right now. Heck, I was feeling pretty down myself because my stats were much weaker without her buffs. I wasn’t so sure about our chances against the boss of the fifth floor now...

After that, Beiming Xue dished out a couple more Skypiercer + Spiraling Arrow Blade combos and successfully caught out another two Blood Alliance assassins. They stood no chance after Lian Xin contributed her DPS. In the end, a total of 7 bodies plus their potions and equipment lay on the ground all around us.

I sucked in a deep breath before starting, "If we weren’t sure before, we now know for certain that Blood Alliance is targeting us. Our mistake was clearing out the first floor and the second floor too thoroughly. As a result, their assassins were able to slip to the deeper areas of Dragon God Cave without any resistance. The only question left now is who is their employer."

Lin Yixin said, "I added Assassin’s Creed as a temporary friend, but he said that it’s an absolute rule in his industry to keep the identity of his employers a secret, and that he would rather die than reveal the truth."

Beiming Xue blinked before saying, "We’ll just have to be extra careful, big bro. Also, I believe we should focus most of our efforts on protecting Sister Mingyue. I believe he will target her first, and it’ll be when we are fighting a boss…"

I nodded in agreement. "Yes, it will be extremely bad if we are ambushed while fighting the boss. Worse, we still don’t know where the boss of the fifth floor is. Sigh, it’s annoying how imbalanced the assassin’s eighth-promotion skill is. I can’t believe it can elude my Dark Pupils as well. This map also has no supply station or room for large-scale cavalry battles, which makes it a heaven for assassins…"

Lin Yixin said, "And let’s not forget that assassins can set Traps too. I guess the spring season of the Assassin class has finally arrived, hmph…"

"Maybe. Well, let us continue. The Dragonspeech Mages give pretty good experience, and oh, we should fake some dangerous situations and hopefully lure out as many Blood Alliance assassins as possible. Those fuckers aren’t here to grind mobs anyway; there’s no chance they can beat any of these Level 290+ fiend-rank mobs unless they can chain-stun them until they die."

"Yeah."

……

Since our 7-man party had decreased to just six, we changed up our formation a little. Lin Yixin and He Yi stood guard around Murong Mingyue, Lian Xin, and Beiming Xue in case anyone tried to attack them. The special condition of this map—the fact that it could only be entered once every 24 hours—meant that these eighth-promotion assassins posed a nightmarish threat to all low-health classes. In fact, us heavy-armor players weren’t immune to them as well. From what I heard, Stranger of Three Lifetimes’ party had been ambushed by a total of 47 eighth-promotion assassins, and Eyes Like Water in particular had been chain-stunned by 9 assassins in total. She never even got to lift a finger before she died. If even a top-tier player like her could be chain-stunned to death, then most other players could only do worse.

Another hour passed by. We cleared out almost all the Dragonspeech Mages that existed on the right side of Dragon God Cave Fifth Floor, and dumped all the Dragonspeech Mage Cards we gathered on Lian Xin. We moved slowly because we didn’t want to miss the floor boss. Any Ancient Immortal Rank boss above Level 290 had a good chance to drop a Sacred Armament, and we would be foolish to skip it without a good reason.

We hadn’t been walking for long when the sounds of battle suddenly reached us. I could glimpse the occasional flash of skills as well. Someone was fighting behind a row of huge dragon-shaped pillars.

I whispered while carrying the Chill of the Nine Provinces, "There are players ahead, but they may not be friendly. Watch your backs while I scout ahead!"

He Yi nodded. "Be careful as well!"

"Mn!"

I hid my equipment luster and made my way forward as quietly as I could. While I was walking past the row of pillars, I discovered that a wall nearby had a hole in it. There were vines hanging from the hole, and footprints and climb marks on the surface of the wall. Clearly, someone had used it to descend from the fourth to the fifth floor.

I continued forward until the battling party was in sight. There were about 30 of them, and they were fighting against two Dragonspeech Mages. The mobs were incredibly deadly, and the magic knights tanking them came close to dying far too many times to count. Luckily, they brought quite the number of priests with them, so they just barely out-healed the damage they received. I checked their shoulders. They were members of Warsky Alliance.

Swhoosh swhoosh...

One of the tanks was carrying a long indigo blade. Immortal energy surrounded it, and it kept healing its user. The tank was none other than Warsky, and his fellow sufferers were Laughing At The Heavens and Lin Bing Dou Zhe.

……

"Who the fuck designed these mages? That thing just dealt over 700k damage to me with a Fireball!"

Warsky hacked away at a Dragonspeech Mage’s Magic Shield while asking, "Have you confirmed that Soul Battle Robes are hanging around the third floor, Little Rain?"

October Rain nodded while shooting her arrows. "Yep. Song of Cloud and Water, Song of Ice and Fire, Ringwraith and the rest of the gang are currently grinding Snot Dragons for experience. Apparently, the Snot Dragons have a low chance to drop a mount egg. It is a low-rank dragon despite its appearance, so…"

Warsky let out a hum. "I sent a message to Song of Cloud and Water earlier, but she wouldn’t tell me why she isn't meeting up with us. What is going on here?"

October Rain smirked. "I thought this might happen eventually. Ice and Fire, God Bone and Ringwraith are all ambitious people, and they were never going to submit to us. Looks like Soul Battle Robes has finally resolved to become an independent guild…"

Warsky clenched his fists together. "What? We gave them equipment, mounts and even a guild territory. Are you telling me all this investment is for nothing?"

October Rain curled her lips. "There’s always a chance that an investment may turn into a loss, and Soul Battle Robes players have fought a lot of battles for us. Whatever they owed us has more or less been repaid. Anyway, Warsky Alliance and Soul Battle Robes will be going our separate ways starting now, and if you’re wise, you won’t bother Song of Cloud and Water again. This may sound heartless, but you were never more than a distant cousin to her. In the end, the man she wanted the most was Lu Chen!"

"It’s always Lu Chen, isn’t it?" Warsky grimaced a little.

October Rain giggled. "What can you do? His equipment is better, his skill is better, his character is okay, and he even has better looks than you. Plus, Song of Cloud and Water has wanted to recruit Lu Chen from the beginning. If that bastard hadn't rejected her again and again, Soul Battle Robes would’ve been assimilated into Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls long ago…"

Warsky: "..."

……

Suddenly, a man appeared seemingly out of thin air. It was Farewell Song standing atop a rock and looking like he was suspended on the wall. He said in a cool voice, "I took out 4 Blood Alliance assassins, Warsky, but there are probably more skulking around the Dragon God Cave. Just keep an eye out for danger at all times. Also, our chance has finally arrived!"

Warsky’s eyes lit up. "Speak to me, Farewell Song!"

Farewell Song pointed a thumb behind him before saying, "The boss is just 30 meters behind me, and I can say with certainty that not even Lu Chen’s party has gotten to it yet. Also, I’ve scouted third and fourth floors. Candlelight Shadow’s party is still on the third floor, and it’ll take them at least another hour of grinding before they reach the fifth floor. Therefore, the fifth floor boss should be ours if we beat it within an hour. Of course, that is assuming that Lu Chen and Lin Yixin don't show up and steal it from us."

Warsky declared immediately, "Kill these two Dragonspeech Mages as soon as possible, people! When we fight the boss later, cavalrymen, push forward and bash their faces in! Mages and archers, coordinate your CCs and make sure it’s up at all times! I will be the MT, so focus your healing on me, priests. As Farewell Song says, this is our chance. With luck, we may get a Divine or Sacred Armament out of this!"

After they killed the two Dragonspeech Mages, they vanished under the cover of darkness in high spirits.