"What is this, a modern version of the brotherhood pact in Romance of the Three Kingdoms?" Lin Yixin laughed so hard that her breasts wouldn’t stop bouncing.

Li Chengfeng added, "Maybe? It doesn’t matter though, we all know that it’s really just a business relationship. Wang Dongliang is aware that Shanghai Shengyi may not have the capital strength to go toe-to-toe against Raincube, but he has Little Piglet, an excellent player who’s in the Top 10 of Sky City’s PvP ranking. Lu Chao’s family is even more wealthy and influential than Shanghai Shengyi, but the man himself and the experts he recruit are… Let’s just say that the so-called Gemini Stars of Mad Dragon, Iron Pardon and Inconstant, aren’t even good enough to get into the Top 50. That is why they chose to join forces with each other. They’re covering up each other’s flaws per se…"

I wiped away the rainwater on my face and said, "Well, Guo Jing and Yang Kang became sworn brothers too, and we all know what happened to them…"

Gui Guzi suggested, "Speaking of which, do you want to swear an oath of brotherhood, Boss Broken Halberd?"

I waved. "Nah. We’re already sworn brothers, aren’t we? We’ve already proven more than once that we’ll give it our all to save the other person in times of danger, so why do we need to waste our time on mere formalities? Still, this weird shit Hegemon Palace and Mad Dragon are pulling does make me feel like we are in the calm before the storm."

Lin Yixin held my hand and asked, "Do you foresee a great war between them and us?"

"It’s too soon to say… We’ll wait and see what happens next!"

"Mn!"

……

Another group of riders emerged from the east, and they were Purple Marquis and his players. He asked Lin Yixin, "Guild leader, Ancient Sword has engaged the players of Wallow Ear Canton—excuse me, I mean Swallow Ear Canton—at the foot of the mountain. Should we help them?"

"Sure! Go get ‘em…"

"Yes, guild leader!"

I asked, "Say, what level is your Crimson Crystal Dragon, Yiyi? Can you ride it soon?"

Lin Yixin answered, "No. It’s Level 79, and it’s only mountable at Level 100. This leveling speed is seriously slow… Anyway, I’m going back to the city now. Lexi, Shadow Chanel and the others are planning to grind the S3 instance, and I’m going to join them to grind the Crimson Crystal Dragon to Level 100. Then, we’ll sweep the S4 instance for better equipment…"

"Okay. See you later~"

Lin Yixin bade everyone goodbye before producing a return scroll and teleporting away. The Twelve Musicians also did the same thing. They weren’t as strong as the Dragonlight Cavalry, so there was a real chance they might die to the Japanese if they tried to fight them.

I summoned the Ancient Divine Dragon and activated Fusion Armor. Then, I carried Xinran in my arms, slipped underground using Earth Escape, and moved toward the battle that was happening at the valley.

……

The sound of battle cries reached us long before we actually arrived at the battlefield. Dragonlight Cavalry, Kui Dragon Cavalry and more high-level cavalrymen were all over the place. Beiming Xue was leading the Dragonlight Archers and having them fire into the low-level players of Swallow Ear Canton, and the outcome was one-sided to say the least. We could’ve won even without He Yi’s Royal Road or Gui Guzi’s Knight God.

Swhoosh swhoosh!

Two columns of light suddenly lit up the sky. They were caused by Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust’s S Rank Ancient Divine Skills, the Tiger Wing Slash and the Dog God Slash. Nearly everyone who got caught in the blast was one-shot. Even Li Chengfeng had given in to his bloodlust and fired Crimson Firmament Slash with his Crimson Refinement Sword, shaking the earth and mountains themselves. The SS Rank Ancient Divine Skill was the final blow necessary to shatter the Japanese’s final sliver of morale and make them rout. As a result, we suffered much less casualties than we would’ve otherwise.

On my arms, Xinran stared wide-eyed at the battlefield and asked me, "Do you love one-sided battles like this one, big brother?"

I frowned at the question before replying, "No one is born a killer, Xinran. It’s just that sometimes we must kill or be killed to prove or protect something."

"Will you stop fighting and keep Xinran company one day, big brother?"

"I will."

"Okay, big brother…"

Xinran hugged my neck and said, "That’s very good to know…"

Suddenly, Xinran lost her gentle look and glared at a certain spot in the sky. She uttered, "Stop hiding and come out, you two!"

Whoosh!

A dragon poked its head out of a bloody cloud. It was none other than the Winged Silver Dragon. Still looking as ugly and vulgar as ever, it said, "Oh, my cute master, how low have you fallen! The sight of you pains me like a million blades in my heart. Oh, my dear master, who was the cruel monster who—"

Xinran interrupted, "Cut the nonsense. Where were you when I was grievously injured? And where is Bloody Finger right now?"

The Winged Silver Dragon shuddered. "That brainless idiot you call Bloody Finger will be showing up very soon. As for me, I was recuperating, my dear master. I came immediately after I heard that you were okay. Can’t you see the tears in my eyes? I am forever your most loyal Little Silver…"

Xinran smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. "My most loyal Little Silver? I highly doubt that. I think it’s because you sensed that I have recovered to the point where I can threaten your life, right?"

"Oh, my cute master, that is definitely not the case…"

Bang!

Suddenly, a figure fell from the sky and drop-kicked the Winged Silver Dragon in the head as hard as he could. He was none other than Bloody Finger. He kept the Winged Silver Dragon’s head pressed to the ground while saying, "Master, the Winged Silver Dragon had tried to tempt me into working with him and betraying you during your weakest moment. It wanted to escape your contract and regain its freedom!"

Xinran asked coldly, "Is that true, Winged Silver Dragon?"

The dragon hurriedly hit his head against the ground repeatedly. "That is not true, my dear master! I would never do such a thing! This brainless idiot is trying to frame me!"

Xinran kept quiet for a couple of seconds before saying, "I will be accompanying big brother for a bit longer, so scram. I will summon both of you when I have need of your service again…"

"Yes, master!"

Bloody Finger grabbed the Winged Silver Dragon’s wings and disappeared into a spatial rift. Thank goodness the headless Bloody Finger was more loyal than that despicable Winged Silver Dragon, or Xinran might’ve been in grave danger!

……

A while later, the battle in the valley neared the end. Nearly 500k Swallow Ear Canton players were killed in action, and the rest had teleported back to their city. Bodies were strewn all over the place. All in all, we had dealt a blow to the Japanese while incurring minimal losses. After Gui Guzi gave me the notice, he and the Dragonlight Cavalry backed out of the battlefield and teleported away as well.

Still underground, Xinran and I moved until we were at the center of the battlefield. Now, all we needed to do was to wait for the players to revive!

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh...

As expected, after the Japanese players were sure that our players were gone, they came back to life looking disgruntled and unhappy. Obviously, no one liked suffering a defeat this bad. While they were doing so, I opened my palm and absorbed all of the power of rebirth with my Domain like a black hole. At the same time, I redirected it all into Xinran’s body. Her condition began improving at an incredible rate!

45%!

46%!

47%!

……

Xinran moaned a little as the progress bar kept ticking forward. Since I was holding her, I could feel her thighs shaking a little, and her legs growing back bit by bit. When the progress bar reached 50%, her legs were fully reformed. Her skin looked smooth, and her complexion looked healthy. They looked as good as new.

"Haha…"

Xinran laughed out loud when she saw this. She was so happy she couldn’t help but plant a kiss on my chin. "My legs are back! my legs are back, big brother!"

I nodded with an equally bright smile on my face. "Yeah. We’re not done yet, but you will return to full health very soon."

"Yeah. My legs have reformed, but I can’t move or feel them yet."

"That’s because some of Stella’s dark draconic energy is still inside your body."

Xinran nodded. "Honestly, Strella should never have been able to injure me so. I was weaker because I took some injuries while fighting a Blood Devil in God Domain, and Strella was further empowered by Lin Na, the Purgatory Ruler himself. That was the only reason he was able to inflict a near-irrecoverable injury…"

I was surprised. "Just how strong is Lin Na really…"

Xinran pursed her lips. "Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never truly fought against him before, but I do know that Sophie dueled him once and was defeated horribly in just three exchanges…"

Me: "..."

Seriously? Even the second-strongest Purgatory Sovereign in this game, Sophie, could only endure three exchanges against Lin Na? Oh well. I supposed we would have to wait until we were maxed out on levels to even have a chance against him...

I continued absorbing more power of rebirth until an hour passed by. In the end, the progress bar indicated Xinran was about 97% healed. Technically speaking, there were more than enough players in the canyon to heal Xinran to full. However, it wasn’t like the players of Swallow Ear Canton were going to revive one by one so I could absorb their power of rebirth. The valley was massive, and my Domain wasn’t nearly big enough to cover the entire area. At least 80% of all the power of rebirth in the valley had dissipated into nothing before I could absorb it.

……

Swhoosh!

After all was said and done, I returned to the ground surface and landed on a patch of grass near the mountain ridge. Xinran struggled a bit in my arms while saying, "I want to see if I can walk, big brother…"

"Okay."

I put her down, but kept a firm grip on one of her hands. Like a newborn who was learning to walk, she stood for a moment before tentatively taking her first step. She immediately stumbled and fell into my arms.

After I carefully sat her on the ground, I rubbed her legs gently and said, "A bit more, and you’ll be able to remove the dark draconic energy completely. You should be able to infuse your legs with true qi then…"

"Yeah, big brother. I’m more or less fine now."

Xinran smiled at me for a bit before hugging my arms suddenly. "But I don’t want to leave you yet, so can I pretend to be sick for a couple more days?"

I chuckled at her cute appearance and said, "Sure. Feel free to pretend to be sick all you want!"

"You’re so nice, big brother!"

"..."

……

I carried Xinran in my arms again before crushing a return scroll. The moment I teleported back to Sky City, a system announcement immediately entered my ears—

Ding~!

System Announcement (Player "Pillar of the Nation" Shout): All Sky City players, take note! For the longest time, Hegemon Palace and Mad Dragon have worked hard to protect our main cities, and today we’ve decided to merge both guilds and give it a new name, "Purgatory Mad Dragon"! I will be the guild leader, while Roaming Dragon and Coldmoon Rose will be its vice leaders. Little Piglet, Shangguan Wan’er, Iron Pardon, Inconstant and Profound Puff will be the corps commanders. Purgatory Mad Dragon guild welcomes all experts to join them, and we promise you that the benefits are substantial! The Top 1000 players in the Heavenly Ranking or the Top 10000 players in the champion arena may join the guild without any conditions attached to it, and they’ll be paid a monthly salary of 10000 RMB at least! The journey to your dreams begins here at Purgatory Mad Dragon! We have set up recruitment at every entrance of every main city, so feel free to join us now!