"Why is Candle Dragon here?"

I asked while wrapping my arm around Lin Yixin’s thin waist like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Lin Yixin shot me a glance but didn’t comment on my action. "How would I know? Maybe Candle Dragon was already advancing into Bloody Shield Domain en masse while we were eating lunch? Look, the elite players of Candle Dragon are all here. I bet Candlelight Shadow is here as well…"

"You are correct. Look up…" He Yi whispered from beside me.

A flaming shadow descended from the sky. It was a fire dragon, and its rider was none other than Candlelight Shadow himself. After the fire dragon landed on the ground, it crouched in a submissive posture so that Candlelight Shadow could leap down to the ground safely. He looked at his generals and said, "Blue Sky, Tempest, split our party into fifteen smaller groups. I want every party to have a logical number of bards, priests, mages and cavalrymen. The goal is to do this without any casualties at all. I can now confirm that the spawn rate of Level 1 Lantern Girls is about 5%, and at the adult stage they can learn Flame Blast and God Devil Break. Both skills are god-tier skills in positional warfare, so we cannot let this god-given opportunity slip through our grasp!"

Blue Sky Scar nodded. "Understood. I will arrange the parties right away!"

Spotting a slight look of dejection on Tempest Shadow and Transient Smoke and Clouds’ faces, Candlelight Shadow smiled and clapped a hand on the archer’s shoulder before saying, "You shouldn’t be dejected by the fact that we’ve lost our spot on the Guild Ranking, Smoke and Clouds. In fact, you should be relieved by it. Now that the burden of number one is no longer on our shoulders, we can finally set our sights on our opponents and surpass them just like Ancient Sword had. There is no such thing as eternal dominance. As long as we never give up, it is only a matter of time before Candle Dragon returns to the apex!"

Transient Smoke and Clouds nodded. "You are right, Candlelight. And I’m glad that you are just as Yuse says."

"Oh?"

Candlelight Shadow shot Ye Yuse a smile. "And what did Yuse say about me?"

Ye Yuse blushed in embarrassment and pretended not to notice his attention.[1]

Transient Smoke and Clouds chuckled. "Well, Yuse said that you’ve become more mature, humble and graceful ever since the defeat at Gold City. She said that the you now truly have the strength to take us back to the peak. No matter how strong Lu Chen, Warsky and Wind Fantasy are, we will always have the chance to beat them, for Candle Dragon’s sole purpose of existence was to do battle against powerful opponents. It is because they are strong that we have the chance to become stronger."

Candlelight Shadow let out a hearty laugh. "Yuse is right! It is because of Ancient Sword, Warsky Alliance and Snowy Cathaya that we were truly able to unearth our hidden potential! In that sense, we should thank Lu Chen for the defeat he dealt us! The stronger he is, the stronger I will become as well!"

God’s Dance chortled. "I’m glad. It’s been a while, but it looks Candle Dragon is finally going to flourish. Speaking of which, I’ve reorganized the first subguild into a tamer-only guild, Candlelight Shadow. We’ve gathered over 70k high-level tamers except the best of the best such as Chance Meeting. Our tamer legion should be strong enough to challenge the world now."

Candlelight Shadow nodded. "Very well, keep trying to recruit as many high-level tamers into our guild as possible, and continue accumulating Luck as we did before. Every little thing counts right now, so don’t save money on my account. Buy them no matter how much they cost. Next, I’ve rallied about 210k players and ordered them to make their way over from the gap between the lightning formation in the southeast direction. Please head over and receive them, Tempest Shadow. Once our elite players are all here, we’re going to lock down the entire Magic Lamp Canyon and forbid anyone who isn’t us from entry. We’re going to make the Lantern Girls our exclusive unit, so be prepared to hold this map for a very long time!"

Tempest Shadow nodded. "Understood!"

……

Still lying inside the bush, I commented, "We killed all the Level 1 Lantern Girls we encountered earlier because they’re only Earth Rank, but… tsk tsk. As expected of Candlelight Shadow. His eye for potential is unlike most others…"

Beiming Xue looked confused. "I don’t understand, big bro."

Lin Yixin’s eyes glinted with intelligence. "Candle Dragon is currently in control of the Dark Steel City, so with enough luck, they can equip all their tamers with the Life of the Tamer buff. Any tamer can summon 2 pets to fight for them, but Life of the Tamer increases that slot count by 1, all their pets’ stats by 30%, and their level by 10. Now, let us assume that these tamers all carry 3 Lantern Girl each. How many people do you think can survive their Fire Blasts and God Devil Breaks?"

Beiming Xue’s mouth fell open. "That does sound incredibly OP…"

I smiled. "It looks like Candlelight Shadow really has grown up since his defeat at the Gold City. Not only had he found a way to combine a useless class and a useless City of Heaven perfectly, he may be able to snowball Candle Dragon’s strength enough to control Dark Steel City for another month, and then another as well. With the tamer + Lantern Girl + Life of the Tamer combination, he may just be able to control Dark Steel City permanently and create an undefeatable advantage for Candle Dragon. From now on, we’ll really have to watch out for him."

He Yi said, "Candle Dragon’s party is huge, and both Candlelight Shadow and Ye Yuse are present. With our numbers, we’ll be lucky to avoid a party-wipe and corpse-camp, much less do any real damage to them. What is your decision?"

I thought for a moment before replying, "Let’s ride out dragons and circle around their main force. Our goal is to seek out the treasures of Bloodthirsty Castle, and it’s not like we need to stop Candlelight Shadow from making his comeback in Magic Lamp Canyon. Ancient Sword needs a powerful enemy to constantly keep us on our toes, and the China server needs a powerful Candle Dragon to be its shield and spear!"

Lian Xin giggled. "Well said, big brother. This is what I like about you. You never push others by force to fulfill your goals like Warsky…"

Lin Yixin teased, "Nah, he’s just way too soft-hearted…"

I shrugged. "It’s ultimately a game and not the real life. No one here is our eternal enemy, and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ destiny is to protect the China server, not to slay all powerful opponents within our borders. Silver City and Gold City are too important to let go, but we don’t necessarily need Dark Steel City or Magic Lamp Canyon. In that case, why stop Candlelight Shadow from having it? Plus, we actually need him to grow stronger so that Candle Dragon can pose a threat to Warsky Alliance. Warsky has been on the rise recently, and now he has the Gold Cavalry to bolster the frontlines and Farewell Song’s Ghost Lake Mirror to assassinate people without ever showing himself. They are a threat we cannot afford to ignore!"

Lin Yixin summoned the Crimson Crystal Dragon. "Anyway, let’s stop dilly-dallying and fly to our destination already."

"Yeah!"

I canceled Fusion Armor and pulled Beiming Xue and Moon Dew on top of the Ancient Divine Dragon once more. Soon, all seven of us were flying over Candle Dragon’s heads and drawing their attention—

"Fuck! That’s the Ancient Divine Dragon! It’s Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand!"

"That fiery red Gem Dragon is the Fruit Knife Goddess’s mount, the Crimson Crystal Dragon! Well, the top guilds are all exploring Bloody Shield Domain, so her presence isn’t exactly surprising…"

"The one riding the Snow Crystal Dragon must be From Water. That’s three of the executive players of Ancient Sword and Snowy Cathaya in one place. Our place to be exact. What do we do?"

"Can we shoot them down with Skypiercers?"

"Are you serious? They are at least a couple hundred meters in the sky! We should ask the guild leader to fly after them and hunt them down…"

"You’re the one who isn’t serious! What if the guild leader is killed by Lu Chen and the Fruit Knife Goddess instead?"

"You dare! The guild leader would never lose! Candle Dragon is invincible! Candle Dragon is OP!"

"Candle Dragon is invincible!"

"Candle Dragon is OP!"

……

The sheer insanity of their dialogue nearly caused us to fall off our dragons. Truly, every guild had their own weirdos. At least they were as weird as they were hardworking.

We didn’t fly too far. Once we were out of their defense perimeter, we descended to the ground and continued on foot once more. The land in front of us was mostly barren except the masses of wilted vines and old trees. The sky was covered in thick flocks of black crows. There were also skeletons or half-rotted bodies hanging atop some stone pillars. Their armor had disintegrated to the point where they were falling apart. If I had to guess, they were human soldiers from Vanished God City who had been punished by the power of darkness.

A row of corpse-eating crows perched on top of a tree branch suddenly swooped down on the half-rotted corpses and ate its flesh. Then, they started circling the sky above us like vultures.

I sucked in a deep breath. Thank goodness we had landed as soon as we did, or I would survive with Battle Astral Wind, but probably not He Yi or Lin Yixin. None of us were eager to emulate the Buddha’s example of feeding the birds with our own flesh.

"Watch out! Someone’s behind us!" Beiming Xue suddenly cried out in warning. Her perception most certainly exceeded mine.

It wasn’t long before hundreds of people burst out of the rotted forest behind us. The leader was none other than Hundred Battler. He had been a general of Warsky Alliance until he jumped ship to Candle Dragon to become their corps commander instead.

Hundred Battler pointed his sword at us and said sharply, "Spread out and prepare to charge, brothers! We may not be able to kill Lu Chen, but we must take out Wind Fantasy and From Water at the very least! Remember that they’re the ones who kept us from taking Gold City! This won’t settle the score, but it will at least ease the pain a little!"

"Are you serious?"

I turned around with a snort. "You don’t seriously think you and your bunch of rotten potatoes are enough to defeat us, do you? Wait. Are you still angry because I beat your sorry ass—which you totally deserved by the way—offline? Are you a child or what?"

"What?"

A couple of Candle Dragon players turned toward Hundred Battler at the same time. "Corps commander, did Lu Chen really beat you up offline before?"

Hundred Battler’s face instantly became overcome with anger. "Kill!"

……

I smirked and unsheathed the Chill of the Nine Provinces. "Let’s end this quickly, ladies. Ancient Divine Skills, go!"

I locked onto an empty space in front of me and Thunderous Charged my way to it. Then, I activated Heavenly River Transformation and landed a picture-perfect Xuanyuan Slash on top of the hostile party. The skill and splash damage killed dozens and wounded many more. The Qiu Beast Cavalrymen who were lucky enough to survive the skill turned around and retreated without hesitation.

I wasn’t going to let them escape though. I spun my blade in my grip so that the Death side would be facing toward the sky. Die!

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh...

This time, most of the players lost 50% of their HP and dissolved into white light. While I was wreaking havoc, Lin Yixin and He Yi had already activated their own Ancient Divine Skills and were unleashing their Storm Slash, Ice Flame Slash and more into the remnants. Beiming Xue and Lian Xin were unleashing their skills in full force as well. Less than a minute later, every person in the Candle Dragon party including Hundred Battler himself was a corpse on the ground.

……

After the massacre was over, I turned around and declared, "Let’s get away from here before they revive!"

1. T/N: I smell a conspiracy. Ye Yuse is close to both Li Chengfeng and Fang Zhuo, two sworn enemies. This isn’t going to end well for her.