"So, the third floor is an EXP heaven…"

After the realization, I pointed at the dead Undead Purgatory Mage and said, "Alright, here’s the plan. We’re going to fight like normal until the mob’s HP drops to 35% or so. Once he starts summoning skeletal warriors, we’ll wait until he summons 12 before we kill him with ranged attacks. Note that the undead mage’s AI will be improving via machine learning and get closer and closer to player level—it will start dodging and retreating is what I mean—once he begins his summon, so Eve and Yiyi, I want you two to block his path and make sure he doesn’t run off. It’ll be dangerous if he aggroes two or three undead mages to us."

Lin Yixin and He Yi nodded in unison. "Understood. Are you sure you can survive 12 skeletal warriors though?"

"There’s nothing I cannot survive as long as sis’ breast milk doesn’t run out!"

Murong Mingyue: "..."

……

We moved on. The third floor of Bloodthirsty Castle was split into several big maps, and the passages were mostly accessible from all sides. After a quick discussion, we decided to follow the rightmost passage. Dark Mercenaries and Blood Alliance should be close to catching up to us, and I didn’t want to run into them another if at all possible. After all, the reason we came all the way here was to complete Frederick’s quest, not hunt down the Dark Mercenaries. There was nothing more boring than hunting down your foes. At the very least, I would like to be able to grind while killing them. That being said, it wasn’t the worst thing if they did catch up to us. After all, it meant that I would be able to test my Chains of Freedom on Amber Pupil and Now and Forever.

Pu pu pu…

My sword plunged through an undead mage’s cloth armor before crushing its non-existent innards with Burning Blade Slash. The moment its HP fell below 40%, it immediately started running away from me and summoning skeletal warriors to its aid. Instead of hunting it down like before, I aggroed them and hunkered down. Thanks to my two beautiful priests healing me non-stop, it wasn’t too difficult to survive until 12 skeletal warriors were summoned. While Lin Yixin and He Yi were blocking the undead mage’s path and killing it, I dropped an Ancient Seal right on top of its head!

Bang!

576266!

It was such a wonderful amount of damage. The power of a Divine General Skill was a combination of Tactics and Attack. My Attack was already among the greatest in all the servers, but I also had 2160 Tactics. This meant that the skill did almost as much damage as Rise of the Guardian Dragon, and it only cost 1 Divine Energy Point to cast. The Xuanyuan Slash was incredibly powerful, but it cost 20 Divine Energy Points to use, or 20 Ancient Seals. Damage-wise, 20 Ancient Seals obviously did more damage than 1 Xuanyuan Slash. Generally speaking, offensive Ancient Divine Skills should only be used when you were aiming to pierce an enemy’s invincibility and end their life. It absolutely wasn’t a skill to use during a protracted battle.

The EXP yield of thirteen Level 305 fiend-rank mobs flowed into our bodies at once. It was absolutely amazing to say the least!

Lian Xin suggested with a glazed look in her eyes, "You know, why don’t we delay our quest for a bit and grind all the mobs there are in this place? It will only take us another 2 hours at most to level up. If we kill every undead mage in this place, we may jump 4 or even 5 levels in total…"

I nodded. "Yes, let’s do that. We’ll try to grind all the mobs in the inner areas until Blood Alliance and Dark Mercenaries show up. Beiming, please keep your Clear As Flame activated at all times. I would rather lose some Magic Consumables than die to their ambush."

"Got it, big bro. You should be careful as well, okay?"

"Yeah!"

Beiming was referring to the fact that I only had 37% HP left even though I had Battle Astral Wind turned on, and Murong Mingyue and Moon Dew healing me at all times. Even now, I was waiting for their spells to pump me back to full health. During this one fight, I had lost my Battle Astral Wind and received over 5 million damage from the twelve Level 305 skeletal warriors. I would’ve died without Murong Mingyue and Moon Dew’s healing.

We continued grinding like this for 3 hours straight. As Lian Xin mentioned earlier, all the girls had jumped at least a level. I was only 3% away from hitting Level 235 as well. I was aiming to hit Level 250 as soon as possible. It represented the next stage of power and a whole new patch. To date, Eternal Moon Corporation hadn’t released any information regarding that patch, and the radio silence would probably continue until someone finally hit Level 250.

I checked my bag. It was filled with almost 300 pieces of equipment, all high-level equipment ranging from Earth to Heaven-grade and Level 210 to 230. A lot of them were top-tier items as well. They were mostly dropped from the mobs I fought since we had entered Bloodthirsty Castle; the Bloodthirsty Corpse Eaters, the Undead Podao Wielders, and of course the Undead Purgatory Mages. Truly, the mobs here were full of riches. If possible, I would like to grind here forever. Even if I sold them at Sky City for around 80% of their actual value, they were still worth over 500k RMB. That was 350k RMB of clean income even after deducting 150k of equipment repair fees, and all in a day’s work no less. As top-rung players, we had practically endless avenues to make our profit. One might even say that with enough strength, you could get all the riches and bitches you wanted...

Suddenly, I spotted a ton of red dots with Dark Pupils. Growing alert, I said, "Girls, stop. At least 200 people are moving in our direction, and they’re at most 300 yards away."

"Are they Dark Mercenaries?" Lin Yixin asked.

"I don’t know yet, but…"

I pointed at a dark place ahead of us. It was an abandoned smithy that was completely hidden in the dark.

"Let’s hide in that smithy and see what happens." I wet my lips before continuing in a serious tone, "The smithy is dark enough that their archers won’t be able to see us even with Clear As Flame. After all, we’re in the dark and they’re in the open. If these newcomers aren’t friendly, we’ll wait for an opportune time and kill them all."

"Okay!"

He Yi canceled her mount as we ran into the smithy. It was because the Snow Crystal Dragon was too big to fit into the small smithy.

After we were all inside, we looked outside through the broken windows.

A few minutes later, a ton of red names appeared within our view. As expected, they were Dark Mercenaries, and they were led by none other than Amber Pupil and Now and Forever. They were obviously here for us.

Amber Pupil gripped his fists after observing his surroundings. "Shit, the mobs here are all dead. Lu Chen’s party must have come through this passage. Let’s move faster and hit them from behind!"

Now and Forever nodded in agreement, but an American youngster with blond hair said, "Guild leader, we’ve been chasing after Lu Chen’s party since we grinded the mobs on the first floor. Are we here at Bloodthirsty Castle for the view or the grind? The road ahead looks like it’s clogged by undead mages anyway, so why don’t we clear them out instead of searching for an easier path? It’ll satisfy some of our brothers and sisters at least..."

Amber Pupil clenched his teeth, but he couldn’t afford to offend his Northern Alliance sponsor. In the end, he forced himself to nod and say, "Fine. Cavalrymen, step forward and enter into formation. Bards, refresh everyone’s buffs; priests, keep everyone healed. We’ll be splitting up into 20-man parties, and each party is to aggro only one Undead Purgatory Mage at a time. Also, archers, keep your Clear As Flame on at all times. Lu Chen has a stealth ability too, and you don’t want to get ambushed by him. Be on your guard. Let’s finish this grind as soon as possible."

"Yessir!"

……

I barely suppressed a chuckle when I saw the players of Dark Mercenaries splitting up into smaller parties. I said in the party channel, "Do you guys see that? They think they can grind the Undead Purgatory Mages with 20-man parties! Hah! This is going to be fun to watch. It’s practically suicide to tackle these undead mages without figuring out what their abilities are first!"

Lin Yixin giggled. "They don’t have your Dark Pupils, so it’s only natural that they underestimated the mobs. Plus, the elite players of Dark Mercenaries are made up of the elites of the Northern Alliance. Why wouldn’t Amber Pupil believe in their strength?"

I smiled. "Let’s see how good they really are then."

"Yeah."

……

After Dark Mercenaries had split up into 9 smaller parties, their archers began shooting the Undead Purgatory Mages with Shock Arrow before running back to their party. Then, the cavalrymen rushed forward to tank and damage the mob while the priests healed them with AoE skills. The mob’s Magic Attack was crazy, but both the tanks and the healers were good enough at their jobs to stay alive. This, I couldn’t discredit. They definitely knew what they were doing.

Amber Pupil smiled as he said, "Good, good. At this rate, we should be able to clear this passage in ten minutes tops."

Unfortunately, he didn’t even finish his sentence when the first Undead Purgatory Mage to hit 35% HP abruptly backed away and created a hexagram on the ground. Then, skeletal warriors wielding broken weapons suddenly popped out of the hexagram and charged the cavalrymen!

"What the fuck? What is this shit?!!"

No one had seen this coming. The 7 cavalrymen attacking the undead mage instantly fell into panic, and 3 of them died before they ever got to regret their decision.

"Watch out! The undead mages can summon skeletons at the same level!" Now and Forever shouted.

Unfortunately, it was already too late. All the undead mages had begun summoning their skeletal warriors, and it took only an instant for the number of casualties to propel past 50. We saw everything from the smithy we were hiding.

"Retreat! We need to retreat and reorganize!"

Amber Pupil turned away without hesitation. A while later, he and his low-health Dark Mercenaries players ran away with a trail of bodies in their wake.

……

"That was a great show…" Lian Xin clapped.

Lin Yixin said, "I’ve recorded everything. When we’re done grinding Bloodthirsty Castle, I’ll release it on the forums and show everyone just how ‘great’ Amber Pupil’s so-called elite players are…"

I chuckled. "Damn, how devious…"

However, He Yi gazed into the distance and said, "Amber Pupil will be back with Blood Alliance and more of his guild members in less than ten minutes. I’m sure they’ll have Blood Alliance stun the undead mages with Ambush when they’re at 35% HP and kill them before they ever recover."

I nodded. "Correct. That is why we must act during the next fight."

I then looked at my new ring and grinned from the bottom of my heart. "Just a bit longer, my precious. Just a bit longer…"

Moon Dew looked at me and shivered a little. "Thank heavens vice leader big bro isn’t our enemy…"